Arcane Explosion takes 1.5 sec to cast and has no cool down. With 5 points into Improved Arcane Explosion you can reduce the cast time by 1.5 sec thus making the spell instant.

Rank1 of the spell does 50-60 dmg and Rank 2, which I currently have, does 90-100 dmg. With this spell now being instant the damage adds up quick.

So you can go in and and AE like 5 times in a row (or until your mana is out)? Thats pretty cool. I'll have to work toward getting that. If i start now, i can have it at level 37 (takes 15 (or 20?) points to get 5/5, i think). Shoud still be useful then. I was also planning on getting the 'chance to clearcast', so this isnt too many more points. I can still get all the top tier fire talents.

Hmm, I never looked at it in a xp gain point of view. I may have to use 1G to unlearn my talents and get that. :)

AE until their all dead. ;)

By that time I had burned 3/4 of my mana but the nice thing with Mages, you can conjure your own food and water. :)

I started using AE more when playing yesterday. It already has a pretty fast cast time so you can do a bunch in a row. its pretty nice, made it easy to take out camps of 4 gnolls.

Last night the wife and i joined some guild members for a run thought gnomeregan. bad idea. The guildies were hoping for 9 to 10 people but ended up with 6. 4 of use were between level 23 and 25 so we could basically do nothing. The level 41 hunter with level 41 pet and level 33 warrior werent enough to take on everything so we died a short way into the instance. After ghost running back the group got split because the bad gnomes respawned too quickly. So we had to stone out of there and give up. I think i'll wait 12 to 15 more levels before i try it again. I might try to do a loot run through the deadmines tonight.

Another question:

When you have Need Before Greed set up for party looting/rolling does is mean that warriors can get cloth armor as well as mail, but mages can only get cloth; so a mage has to compete with a warrior eventhough the warrior will never use the cloth armor since it always sucks compared to mail? If so, i hope this is changed so the classes' "need" is only the best armor they can use.

Yep, this is the way it is. It isn't a problem if you are in a group of decent people. Most of the time, people will only roll on what they will actually use.

It would be hard to have a set thing to where they only let you roll on the highest class of armor you can wear. For example, my Paladin is actually using Mail bracers, due to the fact they have some really good stats, and they were better than my old Plate ones. Also, lots of Druids wear cloth peices, as do Shamans wear leather sometimes(after 40).

also, if you're an enchanter, getting stuff is important even if it's something you can't use. (i'm not an enchanter, but i understand why they'd like to roll on some items). personally, i really dislike need before greed. it's better to go w/ a group you know and who are good about sharing and/or rolling on items that they'd like to have for whatever reason.

--
here's a video of some 60's on Crushridge server that you guys might enjoy:
http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=GenneralDrakkish

Walked to Booty Bay from Darkshire last night. Exciting/risky trip for a level 24. Most of the monsters i couldnt even hit (they showed up as level ??).
I think i pissed off a group of guys. My wife and i were walking around killing gnolls in redridge when i saw this one gnoll who paw we needed for a quest (Fangore). So i attacked him and then got attacked by about 3 or 4 other gnolls. This party of guys had been hanging out and ended up killing most of the gnolls but my wife and i were the only ones able to get fangore's paw. They yelled at us and told us to get out of there. So i guess they must have been waiting around for Fangore to respawn. I didnt do it on purpose, but i've had that happen many times to me and know its annoying. Almost as annoying as attacking a camp with a chest only to have some one run up and open the chest while you're killing the camp of guys.
Ran through Deadmines again. It was a lot easier for me this time. the group was levels 23-26 with a level 15 paladin we just brought a long. he couldnt do much but heal and rez, but it played it well and didnt draw too much unwanted aggro.

For a real challenge, run from Booty Bay to the Badlands. I did this over the weekend (I actually started at Grom'Gol and made a long detour at the Swamp of Sorrows). Took a wrong turn in the Burning Steppes, got killed in a terrible place, couldn't res without getting killed over and over again. Tried ressing at the graveyard, as soon as I did that I was instantly aggroed by nearby ?? mobs.

For the trip to booty bay we had a hunter with us so he could use his pet for interference while we ran away. I got killed in Redridge in the middle of a orc camp. O decided to talk to spirit and not ghost walk back to my body. Ended up cost like 10 silver and the rez sickness is the worst. I misread and thought it only made you 75% efficient, but really it removed 75%, making you only 25%. Attacks that usually drew 100 damage were only getting me 25 and a 75% armor hit to a mage, ment my armor was like 100. Is there anyway to get ride of rez sickness except waiting around?

Mages: what weapon do you seem to use the most, staffs or swords/daggers? I like haveing a sword so i can use an orb in my other hand but my current staff (westfall militia staff) is just too good with around +5 spirit and +11 intellect and a 20 dps. I realize the DPS doesnt really matter since i never go in for melee, but are there any swords that give close to the bonuses of staves?

You'll be using the Staff of Westfall for a long, long time. Nothing really compares to it for a while, especially for mages. Once you get to level 36-40, you can start going to the Scarlet Monastery instance, which has a lot of good loot. Arcanist Doan is a boss mob in that instance who has a chance to drop the Hypnotic Blade, which is a 28dps dagger that gives +8 intellect and +3 spirit. But he also has a chance to drop the Illusionary Rod, which is a 35dps staff that gives +7 stamina, +15 intellect, and +10 spirit. You'll probably want to use that instead, unless you have a really good off-hand item. For most of the game, staves are almost always better than using a 1h + off-hand if all you're going for is stat bonuses. At really high levels (55+), some of the 1h and off-hand items get good enough that you might want to use those instead.

--Mirya, lvl 56 human warlock, Windrunner realm

For Horde, casters should try to get the <a href="http://www.thottbot.com/?i=2803" target="_blank">Crescent Staff</a> as soon as you can get a group to take you through the Wailing Caverns.

I carried that Crescent Staff for quite a long time. Only replaced it fairly recently.

Cool, so I have about 12-16 levels before i have to worry about looking for a new weapon. I spend so much on spells i never have any left over money. Also tailoring + enchanting are not the best profession combo for money making.
I kicked around the wetlands a little while yesterday. So there is a boat there that will take me to the elfland (darkshore) and orc land. My wife has half a paladin quest finished. The last two items are found in Blackrock Fathoms and Shadow Fang keep. Anyone here do the mid-20s paladin mission to get the Kor gem and some dudes hammer (along with some ore and wood)? I guess we will try to sneak through the two instances to find these parts.

I'm presently level 32 and I've been using this staff since level 18:

Emberstone Staff

Not as much Spirit as the Westfall staff but it has more Intellect and +5 to Stamina. DPS is pretty close too. Got it while doing the Deadmines quests to kill VanCleef.

I'm getting irritated by the lack of quality daggers in the 20-30 range. If any non-dagger user on Feathermoon runs across a nice Blue dagger, let's see if we can work something out. In particular, if you run across a Stonevault Shiv <strike>or Toxic Revenger</strike> (EDIT: NM... Toxic Revenger is bind on pick up), I would be very appreciative. At the very least, if you run across it and plan to sell it, please post a heads up here or e-mail me.

IIRC, there's a a nice dagger in that range in Wailing Caverns.

I did that quest with my pally a few weeks ago. For the Kor Gem, you have to speak a guy first in Auberdine and get the quest for the gem itself. Once you get the quest, head down to Blackfathoms Deep and kill the Blackfathoms Tide Priestesses or Oracles. You do not have to enter the instance portal to get the gem. I did this one solo but you may wanna have one other with you to help.

For the hammer, you have to travel to Shadowfang Keep and enter the instance. Once inside you will fight until you reach someone who will unlock the main door for you. Once inside head for the stable and you will find the hammer in there. I believe the guys range from level 18-20 elite in there.

If you are a rogue you can solo and stealth to the guy that drops the Toxic Revenger, an named elemental called Viscious Fallout drops it. A tough fight solo and you have to get in a good spot so you don't get any adds. I think it took me about 5 tries to finally get the drop.

Thanks for the info, phuxbox. Maybe we'll try to go and get the naga today and the hammer later in the week. level 20 elites are not a problem as long as they're just one or two at a time.

I'm a rogue... I'm just not much of one. :D I'm only level 29 right now, so that would probably have to hold off for a few more levels.

Thanks for the tip... I may try to sneak in there early just to get a good look at him.

For those who care or are curious, here's a link of the gear my main character has. It is outdated a couple levels so I'll will update the profile when I get home this evening.

I guess there was an update (downloaded content) put out today. My wife called and said the update messed up her BottomBar addon. I wonder whats addressed in the update.