Of all my characters, my Gnome Mage, Metrognomic, has had the hardest time. Time and again he has fallen prey to a foul fiend’s deadly swipe, been pack attacked or run out of life and mana just when he needed it most.

He is forever being challenged to a duel by brutish dwarves or overbearing elves and left in the lurch when a group achieves its goal and each activate their hearthstone for a quick getaway.

Life for any mage can be short, no matter what your race; human, gnome, forsaken or troll. My human mage has faired better than Metrognomic but is still hopeless in a face to face confrontation.

So, where do we begin.

What is a Mage?

A mage sits in a candle lit, darkened room, learning spells and magic, plotting the overthrow of the enemy. Strong in Mana, he is weak in strength and unable to burden any more than cloth armour. He can create his own food and drink, he can kill from a distance and retreat at a moment, but up against it close to, he is in trouble, wielding a walking stick against sword, claw or talon.

Let us just say that if your role model is Conan, a mage is not for you. To be a mage requires guile, subtle scheming and opportunism; it requires the ability to think and fight at the same time, in fact, if you think about it female players are ideally suited to the role. It also requires knowing when to cut and run at a moment’s notice, else another long walk could be in prospect.

In an open area, with some big mates wielding even bigger sharp flamberges, being a mage is where it is at. Zap! Fizzzzz! Slaughter! Grab the loot.

A Mage has one BIG failing. And I mean BIG, ‘Up close and personal’ just doesn’t work. ‘Up close and personal’ means an early exit to the graveyard and yet another aggravating long walk back to your body. You are never going to match any other non mage creature or character of the same or lower level in hand to hand combat unless you have critically damaged them first.

How To Stay Alive Long Enough to Reach Level Twenty

So, here we go, a Mage’s Guide To Survival.

Twenty  No – No’s and Yes - Yes’s for a Gnomic/ Human Mage

1. Target your enemy and watch your longest range spell icon until it turns from a red number to white, fire immediately and keep firing. Remember you cannot move and fire at the same time. I keep the longest range spell in the furthest left hand box with my mouse forever poised over it. Fractions of a second can mean getting in another shot before the enemy gets close.
2. Should your first strike be deflected, remember the old maxim ‘run, run, run away and live to fight another day’ is preferable to ‘a long walk to my body for the tenth time today’. Creatures that inhabit an area will often not pursue you far. If they do, at least you’ll be a bit closer to the nearest graveyard.
3. Don’t bother targeting anything at a higher level than yourself until you’ve got some armour and a decent staff. You are going to die. Very quickly and frequently until you learn not to be so stupid.
4. Never venture deep into a mission area. If you are zapping eight mangy wolves, stick to the edge of the area and get them to come to you.  
5. Be very careful with pack attack creatures, stay on the edge of an area and try to pick off lone enemies. Pack attack enemies are where if one attacks you, the others join in, such as Kobolds and Deflias Brotherhood. Wild boar do not pack attack. Note that a wandering bear is likely to join in a fight if it spots you in trouble.
6. Keep a weather eye out for groups of players taking out an area. For example, the Gol Bolar Quarry can be deadly for a lone Gnome mage (you become trapped against one of the walls) but tagging behind slaughtering bands of warriors is a good way to pick off your enemies safely. Mages are good opportunists as they can hit enemies missed by others from a distance, then dash in and loot the body.
7. Complete all the missions in your immediate area before venturing a-field, a low level mage is very prone to getting jumped by a marauding snow leopard or hungry bear.
8. Stick to the roads wherever possible, you are less likely to get waylaid, even if the distance traveled is longer.
9. Upgrade armour and spells as soon as you can and always cast frost armour on yourself. If you find a piece of armour, upgrade in the field, not when you get back to an Inn.
10. Arrange your ability bar icons in a sensible manner to ensure fast clickability of your best spells, this will make a huge difference to your ability to survive. All my fighting spells are in a logical order on row one and then food and drink are on row two.
11. Always use armour that upgrades your important abilities even when it has a lower armour rating. Add leather armour kit as soon as you can (+8 to four pieces of armour.) An upgraded ability is worth a slight loss of potential armour points. You will never match most other classes in the armour stakes and will be typically be only 30% to 50% in armour points compared to those of a similar leveled warrior. Coupled with your rather weedy weapon skills, it typifies why you won’t last long close up and in your face.
12. When you have critically wounded an enemy, use your staff to finish it off to gain melee experience.
13. Make sure you have some apples and as soon as you can afford it, milk, to restore health and mana as fast as possible.
14. Learn a skill as soon as you can. I chose skinning and leather working as there are a lot of skinnable corpses out there and armour is easy to sell. You can also create the leather armour upgrade that is worth 32 points to your armour befence. However, herbs and potions are also a good idea.
15. Always check the color of your quests and try to complete the green ones. Yellow and orange quests are going to find you very dead and often somewhere a long way from a cemetery. My warrior has far more success on hard missions than Metrognomic ever does.
16. Join a group whenever you can when on a ‘pack’ mission. The Quest to collect Miners Gear in Ironforge is a good example of a group mission. Make sure you have a couple of fighters, stand back and just keep firing; let them do the close quarter slaughter and then dash in to do your share of looting.
17. Never abandon a group halfway through a quest. A group I was in were deep in a mine when the 17th Level Female Night Elf with us completed her quest and departed on the spot. We were all killed, time and again until we managed to complete the quest and reach the entrance. I’m still looking for her.
18. Seek out the Gryphon Trainer in Ironforge/ Stormwind as soon as you can. Take the Deeprun Tram to/ from Stormwind and seek out the Gryphon Trainer there. As soon as you get to Thelsemar in Lake Modan, seek out the Gryphon Trainer. Then you are up and running for getting from A to B to C without getting butchered. Gryphon travel is fun and fast.
19. Never forget you are far more vulnerable to a close quarter death than other Classes some levels lower than you, so don’t mix it just because a lower level warrior nearby is beating up all and sundry.
20. Use your Talent points (from Level ten) immediately and wisely.

Leveling and Questing

The ultimate aim of WoW is to reach Level 70 and beyond. At Level 5, that is a long way off. So here is some advice on the subject.

WoW allows you to rest when not in the game or in an Inn or assorted cities. When you are rested and out there slaughtering, though quest points earned are still the same, monsters killed points double up. So, you say, I just do a bit better. Nope, I tell you, it is a godsend.

Say you kill thirty creatures as part of a quest. If you are ‘tired’ (where your XP line is purple), if each creature is worth 85 points, you gain 2550 points killing them.
If you are rested (a blue XP line), it is worth 5100!! A difference of a level or more in some cases!
Also, it means you can undertake lower level quests for far more points, as the points you gain from killing monsters often far outweighs the quest points. This means you can make points and Levels easier by taking lesser risks as you are earning far more points per quest. (Get it?) If you didn’t, re-read the above paragraph.

So? You say. I can’t just play for an hour, then wait a day or so.

True, so when you start, create maybe seven different characters and rotate them. Start each one, get to Level 2 and then leave them in a place of safety and start the next character.

If you have a whole series of quests to kill creatures by the score, particularly in the same area, such as Frostmane Hold in Dun Morogh, rest for as long as you can, up to seven days; in the meantime play other characters. Then go back and give your character a long, long play and be amazed at how fast you progress. If you are going well, you can advance two levels at amazing speed.

As for questing: Well, different races and different classes have different quests and different leanings on quests. There are a range of quests

1. Slaughtering quests. Go out and kill all and sundry for some money, honor and prizes.
2. Progressive quests. This is where you are undertaking a series of linked quests that are linked and get harder. They may involve killing monsters until you meet the boss monster and kill it, or delivering a series of messages.
3. Delivery and training. Various quests involve the rather bloodless delivery of messages/ food/ drink etc. There are also quests bidden by your class trainer that may be bloodless, or bloodthirsty. As far as I can see there is no middle road!
4. Escort quests. Escort a NPC (non-playing character) from one place to another, keeping him or her safe.
   Hint:  Stay close and ready to be ambushed.
5. Odd quests. There a number of rather strange quests out there that are either very easy, very hard and rather bizarre. Be careful.

Make it easy on yourself and your feet, try to gather a few quests in one area before going there. If you make your home an Inn in the middle of an area you can go out to another part of the land, complete a few quests and then use your hearthstone to return home and save on the leather and bunions. The Jasperlode mines in Goldshire (Elwynn forest) is a good example of where you can complete three quests in one go.

However, if you are going to do this, keep an eye on your armour degradation, mage's really need all the armour they can get.

Quests to Love or to Avoid.

Some quests are far easier than others, some far harder. The relative difficulty of a quest to your level is shown in your quest log.The description of the quest has a color.

Even then, there is a lot of seeming randomness, one quest in yellow may be long but achievable, another; short and deadly.

Mage Training: You will get a Class Quest, that enhances your mage skill and status. These are very hard work.

The Gnome Mage quest to Gnomeregan, for example, is a recipe to get killed/ slaughtered/ butcher/ de-lifed time and time again. The higher level quest, to a tavern in Stormwind, is even worse. You cast a spell and wake up in the graveyard.
Tread carefully, but the rewards are worth it!

 Note:  The Guide to the World of Warcraft is well worth buying, apart from lots of advice it has some rather useful maps.

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