Confessions of a former stun lock mage!

[drgrimmy]

Tired of relying on the unreliable panic of slag and clyde to finish of a rogue in 1v1 fights? Have you felt that the psuedo stun lock consisting of fire followed by panic is not as effective as it was early in season 4? I know I was. I don't know if it is the damage nerf at the end of season 4 in pvp not allowing you to kill a rogue fast enough or the decreased effectiveness of stun and panic, perhaps due to an increased dodge of rogues. Maybe your average rogue has just adapted to the formerly effective mage build of fire, light, shield and life with slag. All I know is that it does not work as well as it did back in season 4.

Due to frustrations in pvp I decided to throw caution to the wind, abandon all stuns and go with a somewhat unconventional build. Now that I have got my kills and am taking a hiatus from pvp I wanted to share my build to help you mages out there to think ouside the box when it comes to your builds. I found this to be very effective in 1v1 situations with both rogues and mages (not warriors) and I must mention that this was with a non full mythic mage often against full mythic rogues (including the new daggers) and even arcane and mythic mages. I think it was partly the unconventional nature of the build that let it be successful against most rogues and mages as they did not know what hit them.

So here is the basics:
Curse with all upgrades
Shield with all upgrades except the push back
Light with the 15% damage and 250% damage on crit upgrades
Frost with the DOT and increased duration of freeze/DOT upgrades
5/5 int
5/5 str
5/5 dex
5/5 dam
Optional: 3/5 damage and life with the mana upgrade (recommended)
A pet that boosts health/dam reduction with good stat boosts on arcane but infrequent stuns (I liked hammerjaw, orion, ribbit, ripmaw, even shiloh)

So how does it work? Charge shield, release and run towards your enemy while charging curse. Release curse when close. Hit pet arcane (most important with pets with dam and crit boosts such as ribbit or hammer). Then spam uncharged light and frost interspersed with normal attacks. Don't kite or run away and certainly don't stun or panic your enemy. Let them attack you at will to let curse do its job. If they use a skill with dot, even better (mages who drop a clock will die very quickly if you stand in the bubble of the clock). Most unwary opponents will die quickly before your shield even runs out. Thats it. Simple but very effective, killing all but the most skilled rogues. Even if they dont attack you while cursed you are pummeling them with light and frost and may even kill them before the curse is over. The slow of frost is also great for keeping them from their health packs.

If you do decide to use a pet with panic, save the arcane until after the curse runs out and then panic them to finish them off. Alternatively, if it looks like they are on the ropes and running for their health packs, panic them to finish them off.

How does life fit in if you decide to get this fifth skill? Between 1v1 fights switch out frost for life and heal yourself. Then switch back to frost before your enemy comes back. Also, if you find that the game is turning into more of a 5v5 rumble switch to curse, light, shield and life to become more of a curse/support mage for the large rumbles.

I just wanted to share as I found this to be very successful in pvp keeping an almost 2:1 k:d even without full mythic. I just wanted to encourage the little blue guys out there to think outside the box a little in terms of their build. It is sometimes the most unexpected builds that are the most successful. This is part of the reason why crazy mages such as psychopathic have been so respected in pvp because they think outside the box and kill their opponents with unexpected techniques. Have fun and keep experimenting!