Challenge Mode Tips: Mage Edition

[arizonapriest93]

Hello fellow mages, first off I don't personal challenge mode experience myself (I'm actually looking for it). But I figured I would make a thread that will benefit myself, and other mages looking for a solid grouping of tips for mages in Challenge Modes. Also a good place for mages to discuss challenge modes in one area. I will try to keep this updated with consolidated tips gathered from posts here.

Frost is the best spec according to experienced mages
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#myLD|koq is a solid build, NT changes to Frost Bomb on large packs (like the first pull in monastery). Greater Invis allows one to forgo invis pots as Ginvis is able to be used, allowing more use of DPS pots. There are situations where rune of power is stronger.

Glyphs are typically Icy Viens Ice Lance and Cone of Cold, however these change often.
Reforge to optimize for the challenge modes, raid optimization isn't fully optimal for challenge modes. (Preference between having better offensive stats for trash but maybe missing a bit on bosses, but hitting harder on trash. Bosses are standard raid level of 93, so 15% hit or trash which typically level 91)

Also keep in mind that set bonuses and sha-touched gems are disabled in challenge modes.
Links:
A general guide with video links for general guides to each dungeon itself
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6863526914

Credit(People who posted valuable info in the thread which I edited in): Citrique Davey Niai
To start I figured I would just ask in general, what are the most obvious tips and perhaps important for a mage looking to start off in challenge modes?

[LocNess]

Have polymorph on a good keybind. Frozen Orb is an amazing trash CD. Don't underestimate Blink on bosses as it helps maneuverability and DPS overall.

[Rashi]

Yeah, I´d like to know aswell, glyphs, Talent choice? Any tricks in each instance.

[arizonapriest93]

From what I've seen Frost is the prime spec, but that still leaves a lot of questions in terms of talents and glyph choice.

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#myMl|uow

Is an a guess as to what I think would be suitable. I picked Imp CS so you can keep dpsing but get interrupts off, which helps control large packs of mobs, eases mobility on a stray caster. I took water elemental just so its one less thing to manage. Ring of Frost for the mass CC it offers, but I could see Ice Ward and Frost jaw being useful but RoF being the most. Incanters Ward for reduced healing needed (although minor its something) but also the obvious less maintenance it requires. G Invis so Invis is up more, it can be used to negate mechanics and/or to run ahead quickly perhaps through a pack and land some CC, or to remove undesired effects. Frost bomb because it is viewed as the best against bigger packs of mobs, and works well with frost's shattering capabilities (pet nova timing)

Just my 2cents though, I have no experience so a correction would be nice.

[citrique]

As a mage who's done ~30 full gold CM sales and was 9/9 gold months ago, I can say this at least:

You will never use polymorph except two places: Four-pack of trash in Palace in the hallway after the elevator, and sheeping one battle-mender in the trash packs surrounding the third boss in Siege. The spell is utterly useless otherwise as you just AOE everything.

You will also never, EVER play arcane so learn to play frost.

[niai]

We had a mage and didn't use poly in those two places :P In siege we nuked the trash with the bombs the boss spawns and we killed the trash pack in the elevator in MSP. That being said, I personally believe (and from the time it took us) MSP is one of the - if not the- hardest challenge mode.

Edit: I wouldn't really use CS glyph, on Trash Packs you have so many FoF proccs that you are barely casting anyway and bosses can easily be interrupted by the tank and a melee.

[Davey]

Hey guys, I have done 9/9 on gold fairly recently.

You should be frost for golds as it has the best balance of AoE, single target and mobility.

For talents I went with PoM, Ice Barrier, Ring of Frost, Greater Invisibility, Nether Tempest and Invocation.
PoM and RoF are pretty much mandatory. Many pulls will require you to RoF to reduce damage/lazy interupt.
I didn't find enough places to really use Temporal Shield, so I just used Ice Barrier between pulls or whenever there was nothing to hit.
Greater Invisibility is a great survival cooldown if something goes tits up. It is also faster for trash skipping (more on that in a bit)
Nether Tempest seems to give me more BF procs than the other bombs. The only places I changed this was to take Frost Bomb on LARGE AoE packs (like the first in shado-pan)
Invocation because it's Invocation! Rune of Power was better on a couple of instances (can't remember which) where you get to stand still for good periods of time.

For glyphs I mostly ran with Ice Lance, Icy Veins and Cone of Cold. These did change a lot depending on which instance we were doing.

Some things to note:

You will never need Invisibility Potions, you have (Greater) Invisibility, so use it! This will allow you to use more DPS potions where other classes have to save them.
Use Alter Time to extend buffs such as cooldowns/potions and some enemy debuffs (resin on siege).
If you are serious about getting golds you should optimise your gear, don't just jump in with your raid reforges. You may even want to get new pieces that give you better stats. When I went in with raid gear I had more mastery than haste!
You will rarely use Polymorph. Maybe on Gekkan and Gate (Just before second boss)

That's all I can think of for now. PM me if you want to ask anything else. I'll try to keep an eye on the thread, but I don't post much :P


Edit: My sig it out of date. http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...Davey/advanced if you want to check my mage. (killed my frost spec ATM for killing Alysrazor)

[Ninjamerc]

Some of you is talking about gearing/reforging properly, though not mentioning what this gearing/reforging is about. Can anyone make a few comments on this topic?

Just started doing Challenge Modes with my guild, got 1 gold and 1 silver first night, expecting to get all within a few weeks!

Thanks in advance

[Davey]

Some of you is talking about gearing/reforging properly, though not mentioning what this gearing/reforging is about. Can anyone make a few comments on this topic?

Some of the harder ones can be REALLY tight on time so you will need to optimise. The hit cap in heroic dungeons is lower than a raid boss, so you can take points out of hit and push more haste. Also keep in mind that set bonuses and sha-touched gems are disabled in challenge modes.

[Aquamonkey]

Some of the harder ones can be REALLY tight on time so you will need to optimise. The hit cap in heroic dungeons is lower than a raid boss, so you can take points out of hit and push more haste. Also keep in mind that set bonuses and sha-touched gems are disabled in challenge modes.

Aren't challenge mode bosses +3 lvls, just like raid bosses?

[Davey]

Aren't challenge mode bosses +3 lvls, just like raid bosses?

Hah, so they are! I thought they were 92!
Although, only 3-5 targets are 93 (the bosses). So as you have to kill 20-40 other targets that are mostly 91, hit is far less important than a raid encounter where 99% of your targets are 93/skull.

Apologies for the mess up there! I was told to lower my hit when i started out which I thought was due to boss levels.