Don't Hate the Mage!

Image from http://www.manaobscura.com/

Hello there! Gazimoff here looking after Ang's blog while she is away!

Let's be honest, us Mages have a bit of a bad reputation amongst the healing kind. We're known for being aggro-hungry DPS monkeys that have trouble with anything more complex than our two-button spam. We're incredibly squishy, yet utterly reckless. We've been known to reduce the most tranquil person to bouts of fists-on-keyboard rage.

It's time to put that behind us. In the spirit of mutual understanding, let's move on and work out how we can help eachother against our common enemies, the Paladins.

So what do we have to offer our Druidic allies?

1. Strudel. We know that those fights can be long and tiresome, but make friends with a Mage and you'll never go hungry again. A Mage that you know well will even make you food when you're just out questing.
2. Portals. Need to get around in a hurry? Ask a friendly Mage to lend a hand and open a portal. Bonus points if you arrive with your own portal runestone for him to use.
3. Remove Curse. Yes, we know you're fed up of removing nasty curses from people, especially when the fights are difficult enough to heal anyway. Ask your Mage friends to lend a hand with getting rid of them so that you can focus on keeping people alive.
4. Would you like fights like Deathbringer Saurfang, Patchwerk and Dreamwalker to be that little bit easier? Just ask your Mage for Amplify Magic and watch your heals get a significant boost! Don't get too used to it though - it's being removed in Cataclysm.

And for our Moonkin chums, we have even more to offer!

1. Arcane Empowerment. How does 3% extra damage sound? Arcane Mages can buff the entire raid with their mere presence alone! Yes it's available from some Hunters and Paladins as well, but ours is better!
2. Focus Magic. You like to crit big and crit often. So do we. Prove yourself as a big critter and you can earn Focus Magic from a friendly Mage. Don't be surprised if it doesn't happen with two or more Mages in the group though - we look after our own first!
3. Improved Scorch & Winter's Chill. Got no destruction Warlocks in your group? Don't worry, both Fire and Frost Mages can offer you a 5% increase to crit against whatever they're casting at. Watch your critrate soar thanks to a few handy spells.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "Wow, Mages can offer us all this? I never knew! But how can I get to be friends with a Mage in the first place and get all this great stuff?" Well that, my Druids, is the easy part. What we ask for in return is so very little.

Combat Ressing. If we're dead, we're usually alt-tabbed. We might be looking at lolcats or funny videos on Youtube. We might be ordering pizza or something. Whatever it is, if you're going to give us a combat res please let us know first so we can be ready for it! That way, we don't tab back in after the wipe with the resurrection option in front of us.

1. Innervate. Please, please, once in a while throw us an innervate. If it's a really long fight, if our mana bar is so low we're running on fumes then please think of us.Wanding is *incredibly* boring.
2. The Bad Stuff. Mages like to stand still because our best spells have casting times, so we'll only move when we have to. Most of the time, we'll move out of the *really* bad stuff, but if there's only something that's slightly bad then we'll probably leave it. If we're giving you problems though then don't suffer in silence - let us know!

What do you think? Does this sound like a plan? Could we strike a deal and bury the hatchet here? Just think of the possibilities, the bosses we could defeat, the Paladins we could crush!

And maybe, just maybe, one day we could duo a Warlock.