Returning to WoW after 1yr+ (Need help fixing my Mage)

[Kimberly]

Like the title says, it's been a year+ since I have played WoW. I know a lot has changed and I need to catch up and learn it. So I'd really like some help doing so, getting updated equipment, getting the best damage dealing build I can, etc. Below's a link to my Armory to show you what I have right now. When offering help, keep in mind I don't know any of the new stuff, I don't remember most of the old stuff. So be descriptive, give coordinates if necessary, etc. It's going to take me forever to relearn all this I think, it's been toooo long.

All help is appreciated!

(Edit: Well I can't post links until I post more... so on the Armory look up Clea, and I'm the one on Feathermoon.)

[Thalazyrican]

1st off welcome back.
2ndly on the mage forums there is a Mage PVE FAQ that swizzle has been so kind to grace us with. its 100% up to date and very very accurate. give it a good read through and you should find all your answers.

you are gonna wannaa go arcane while undergeared for sure tho. spec is in FAQ, gemming is in FAQ rotation is in FAQ. its all there. just read up

[oldmage]

Agree with thalazyrican, read, read, read and when you finish, read more , go arcane till you get high end gear and then switch to fire when you reach the numbers, run daily H, weakly, Toravon 10 and 25 for frost emblems, when your gear gets better raid with your guild or pug's and keep reading.

[Kimberly]

I have noooo idea what Daily H, Weekly Toravon 10/25 are... or even what frost emblems are for. Man I have a lot of reading to do. And I think my Guild's pretty dead since my Roomie runs it and he switched to Horde a while back. I always had really bad luck with PUGs and trying to find a raiding group that treated new people decent. Which is why I wound up leaving WoW in the first place. I hope PUGs are better now =(

[Anobix]

Emblems of frost are the highest level of emblem available (used to buy Tier10 and ilvl 264 gear), followed by Triumph -> conquest -> valor -> heroism

Daily H = Daily Heroic Dungeon (using the LFG Tool) allows you to get 2 frost emblems at the completion of the dungeon (all following dungeons after that give more triumph emblems)

Weekly raid involves killing a single boss in an instance with a raid (10 or 25) to get 5 emblems of frost and 5 of triumph, it is 'random' and can be completed once a week.

Toravon is another guy inside of Vault of Archavon (the Wintergrasp raid) and he drops Tier 10, while the others drop from Tier9-Tier7.

[Kimberly]

Thanks Anobix! That jogged my memory a bit about the daily stuff for redeemable items. I forget what they were called last I left off the game. I don't think it was Frost anything at the time. I'm level 70 so I hope I can actually get groups for this stuff since the new max is quite a bit higher than I am right now.

[Roguespider13]

Since you're starting at level 70, you won't be able to do the weekly and Frost Emblems are out of the question until you reach 80. Your first random of the day will only give you 2 Triumph Emblems. Start off in either Borean Tundra (via SW harbor) or Howling Fjord (via Wetlands). Use the LFG tool (should be the 'i' key) and queue up right away. While you're waiting to get into a dungeon start doing the quests around you. Your random group will probably end up in either Utgarde Keep (UK) or Nexus. There are some quests in Fjord that will send you into UK, and some in Borean for Nexus (most of them are in the Coldarra area of Borean). You can get some extra XP as well as some blues from these quests.

Get the AtlasLoot addon. This will help you find which dungeons and which bosses drop the loot you're interested in (you can look into the options to turn on the filter for your class). Most of leveling to 80 is gonna be a grind with dungeons and questing. With areas using phasing it probably won't be boring for you.

As far as spec goes, I leveled using Frost so I can't speak to how good Arcane is for leveling, though once you look to start raiding go Arcane. I also noticed you have tailoring as your main prof, make sure to level it as you make your way towards 80. You should see a bit of cloth drop (especially if you get can get "Northrend Cloth Scavenging" that allows you to get extra cloth). As soon as you can train for Scantified Spellthread (405), put this on your pants. They only cost a single vendor thread and are a nice boost that you'll continue to use at 80. When you max out your tailoring (hopefully you can do it by 80), keep an eye on epic patterns on the AH. You'll usually see some of the Ulduar/ToC patterns up for sale (Bejeweled Wizard's Bracers and Merlin's Robe) and these are great items you can make for yourself until you get into the newest raids.

At 80, you can do regular 80 dungeons and heroics. Your first daily heroic will give you 2 Frost emblems upon completion (each additional one give Triumph instead) and all heroic bosses drop 1 Triumph emblem). Run plenty of heroics and both regular and heroic Trial of the Champion and the ICC 5 mans (when available through LFG). Buy your Tier 9 gear from the vendors at the Argent Tournament as you get enough Triumph's (cost is 45 or 60, depending). From there you should be good for raiding.

Any other questions?