WM Tactics

Hey everyone, welcome to the best PvP guild in DR, if you played a War Mage 10 years ago that is. The appeal of the War Mage guild has always been the variety of means to inflict damage on your opponent at your disposal. Impressive damage dealing spells, potent buffs, and several spells that interact with one another in unique ways create a plethora of strategies against your opponents. You will very rarely completely run out of options against your opponent with proper knowledge of your abilities as a War Mage.

While the WM skillset is not the most appealing to most aspiring PvPers the circle requirements once past the initial stages allow for great flexibility and a War Mage often does not have to leave combat to advance far in the guild. This goes a long way to closing the gap on some of the other guilds better suited for the stealthy heavy means of PvP prevalent in DR today. Sheer skill, stat and wit can overcome any opponent.

I plan on posting a few of my own logs in these folders to better illustrate the different tricks i've picked up along the years against a variety of opponents. Until then, I will cover a few basics.

Skill Setup

First you must be built for battle. Take advantage of the blessing that is weapon secondary. Train many, but do it efficiently. If you find yourself taking too much time keeping multiple weapons moving then re-evaluate your training strategy. At a minimum i would recommend 4 weapons (not including parry and MO) that you should maintain near each other. I would also recommend that two of those be ranged weapons, a thrown and an aimed ranged. I cannot emphasize this enough, don't be lazy with it, there are some great disablers that you can use to your advantage while training - Static Discharge, Anthers Call, or Frostbite all work great.

Do not neglect your TM. While a ranged weapon will be your best friend in battle, and a way to easily dispose of an opponent, especially ones with impressive magic barriers such as Moon Mages, Necromancers and Barbarians, the old faithful is your TM skill.

Perception and Shield, these are your two best defenses, weather you chose to be a tank war mage with heavy plated armor or a stealthy wannabee you should always dedicate training time to these two skills. Shield should be locked at all times while in combat and work your perception every chance you get.

The rest holds true as it would for any other guild, train as many skills as you can efficiently and reap the TDP awards. The way you spend those TDPs will ofcourse depend on what race you chose to play, and that in itself may go a long way to define what type of War Mage you will be and which skills and stats you'll choose to maximize in order to make you the most potent fighting machine possible.

Spell Choice

I'm going to assume that most people reading this are at a mid level range let's say 60-120 and have the ability to choose most spells in our spellbook.

As i stated earlier there are many ways to win as a War Mage, but the goto moves usually involve a few choice spells.

Buffs

Always buff yourself, out of habit or some sort of disorder i am constantly buffing myself. Four easy spells should never leave you, ES/SW/SUF/YS and if pick you up MAF it's not a bad idea to throw it up as well. AEG is a good idea if you use a bigger shield. Before each fight, throw up Tailwind. Rising Mists will also help you defend against ranged, but will also hinder your ranged attacks and make your opponent hide better so its use is limited to certain situations.

AC - this spell is a must to have up when fighting any primary magic guild. It is a held mana spell and there is quite a bit of strategy that goes along with it's use. Odds are you will have to cast something sooner or later, and timing of this can mean the difference in the fight.


Damage Dealing Spells

Lightning Bolt should be a macro on your keyboard, prepared at a level you're comfortable with. Always target it before casting and put plenty of juice into it.

Dragons Breath, keep it on you just in case, but don't let this be your first move. You'll find that it's largely ineffective against most good PvPers who have kept up their shield skill.

Aether Lash is a very effective TM spell and despite not being DFA you'll find that it can be very good at cutting through your opponents and is the most accurate and highest damage dealing spell in our spellbook. If you find yourself missing with Lightning Bolt (complete miss not the grazing kind) try out the ALA, you may be surprised when your opponent fails to block it.

Ice Patch, once the bread and butter of every War Mage and now mostly forgotten by the general DR populace but yet still an effective spell that can serve multiple purposes. This spell is targeted now, so again don't cast it before targeting and pump plenty of mana into it. Even if you fail to deal damage with it you can knock down your opponent and catch them off guard and follow up with a ranged attack. The RT on the cast is minimal and this can be a deadly combo.

Disablers

The War Mage disablers leave a lot to be desired for, however the same holds for War Mages as it does to other magic primary guilds and that is to always disable your target before attempting a damage dealing attack.

Anther's Call - a newish spell, and probably our best disabler. It immobilizes the target for a short period of time, and an immobilized target is much less likely to dodge or block or attack then a stunned or even a knocked over one. Practice this spell on critters and your friends, figure out the sweet spot of mana because the more mana the more RT on the cast you will get, with the max being 4 or 5 seconds. You want to be in the 2-3 range while still getting a 15 second immobilization on your target. Be ready to shoot and prep a damage dealing attack immediately after casting this.

Static Discharge - this is truly a fantastic disabler, but comes at the cost of needing to be at melee with your target to pull it off. It also deals nerve damage to the opponent, and even if you are not able to hit them with your weapon or TM after the first successful hit with SD, a subsequent may work once their nerves are fried. Combine it with ANC if you can.

Tingle - Sadly, a reliable disabler, particularly to those mages who choose to train the mental stats over physical ones. You can always count on 10 seconds of downtime for your target with this one, and some confusion if they're holding a weapon.

Frostbite - Don't be afraid to use it, once upon a time it was considered poor form to use AOE spells in spars but we're left with little choice when facing opponents who will not come out of hiding. It's effects are not quite as potent as they were in the past but it can still buy you some time against opponents who like to hide and shoot or those pesky sheared Moon Mages.

Thunderclap - Again a reliable spell for those mages with high mental stats, and a good way to get you time to prepare and target another spell or disabler.

Shockwave - Very useful spell to have and know how to use, you can't stack the RT with it for too long so don't try to abuse it. It's great against stealthers and barbarians. More on that in other lessons.


The Fight

I've covered a lot already, and your strategy will largely depend on the guild and skill of your opponent. Know your opponent, ask your friends about them if you don't know who they are. Being well prepared for who you are fighting may save you a lot of silly mistakes during the fight.

Buff yourself to the teeth, pick up an SOP or SOD spell scroll, use CV runes, CJ's or whatever else you need to to win. CJ's ofcourse are not allowed in tournaments and are even considered bad form in friendly spars, however if fighting for your life pull out all the stops.

Be quick, use your macros. I'm not a big fan of scripting your PvP, it takes a lot of the fun out it but macro's can save you some silly mistakes in typing in the heat of the battle.

Try to anticipate your opponents next move. You'll find that a lot of characters you'll face are one dimensional. Don't try to be one dimensional yourself. If you find that a spell is not working, don't be stubborn and keep trying it. Try something different as quickly as you can, most spars don't last longer then a minute and you don't have the luxury of trying to figure out why your LB isn't connecting.

Full Aim/Full Target - unless you're some sort of beast War Mage, in which case you probably don't need to read this in the first place you'll want to get the full aim or full target whenever possible. It makes a world of difference, and don't get fancy with the chest shots unless you know you can connect.

Be patient, spars can test your nerves and sometimes it's best to wait for your opponent to make a mistake, but don't be afraid to make the first move yourself. If you see your opponent, and your spell is ready, give it a shot. It may cost you the victory but it will prove to be more entertaining that sitting in hiding for 5 minutes.

That's all i got for now, i'll be happy to meet with you in the game or answer some questions here. Remember to have fun and practice makes perfect.