# Why is my lvl 64 mage still getting defeated in low level instances? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 22, 2009, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-lvl-64-mage-still-getting-defeated-in-low-level-instances/493935 "2009-04-22T02:35:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Redwing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dfb087/32.png) [@Redwing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Redwing)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-lvl-64-mage-still-getting-defeated-in-low-level-instances/493935/41 "2009-05-01T16:27:45Z")
Paladin, prot spec solos very well. They don’t do it quickly, mind you, but if they can survive 12 minutes, they can survive forever. With a pocket healer, you’re no longer soloing, and any class that can take a couple of hits will be able to complete most old content. I wouldn’t want to try healing a mage through MC, mind you, but it certainly could be done. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2009, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-lvl-64-mage-still-getting-defeated-in-low-level-instances/493935/42 "2009-05-02T19:55:03Z")
> [@Redwing](#): > > No, really, your gear makes a gigantic difference. Try leveling with greens more than 5 levels old in BC or Northrend, and compare that with leveling with level appropriate quest rewards, and compare that with fully twinked gear for that level. > > What really brought this home to me was bringing my geared lock to 80 was quick and easy, while leveling my pally through Northrend was much slower. Gear is only important once you’re at max level, though. Here’s the thing, an experienced player can burn through levels 1-60 in under 30 hours of playing time with ease. Then 60-70 in about 24 hours, then 70-80 in about 72 hours. All through nothing but the gear you acquire as you level up. Can you streamline parts of it with gear? Sure, especially if you go through the effort to really get overpowered gear at very low levels (like low level green items with level 60 enchants, the Bind on Account heirloom items and et cetera) but leveling is still very, very fast if you know what you’re doing. There’s also going to be variations from class to class, with the way the game is made a Hunter specced Beast Mastery can do just about anything until 80 with virtually no gear at all–that’s how powerful the pet is against the weak mobs you encounter while leveling. Anyway, the reason gear only matters at max level is because before you’re getting _max level_ gear not a single piece of gear you get has much utility in the time frame of the next few days, unless you’re a very, very slow leveler. Some exceptions to this would be if you’re one of those people that is only getting a character up to x level to participate in lower-tier battlegrounds or something similar. Quest greens in Northrend are better than blues out of Outland dungeons–and since dungeons have a relatively variable loot dropping mechanism you might run a dungeon 5-6 times in a row in Outland trying to get that blue item you want, when you’d be getting way more XP just questing and then in Northrend you’ll have a much better item a few quests into the continent. > [@](#): > > Because he wants to? There’s nothing wrong with wanting to solo instances, and doing so will teach you how to get things from your class that other people can’t. The best tanks I know all solo level 60 raids, and level 70 heroics, and most pet classes can do at least some of those solo as well. Well here’s the thing, he obviously isn’t enjoying soloing these instances or he wouldn’t be posting here. Most tanks I know that are soloing level 60 raids are soloing Molten Core because they never got a Thunderfury back before Burning Crusade and now the two bosses you need to kill for the bindings are soloable. After MC most of the other level 60 raid content is not soloable because of the mechanics of the fights. You can’t solo BWL because the first boss requires one person to use the mind control orb on Razorgore, and all the adds that spawn will attack the mind controller and break channel if you’re trying to do it solo. The first boss in AQ40 has a mind control and when a raid boss MCs you and no one else is in combat with the boss it generally resets the encounter. These are people soloing the easiest level 60 raid for a legendary item, it’s not really doing much to improve their level 80 tanking as the skill sets are very different. Most people that are soloing level 70 heroics are doing it for the rare mount/pets for achievements, and while a challenging feat it doesn’t really have much application at 80. As a tank the most important things you bring to the table is your survivability (which you learn to maximize by personal experience and reading forums that go deeper into the theory), threat gen (which you won’t learn soloing since no one is trying to out threat you) and reaction time (you won’t get better at taunting things off cloth wearers soloing since you’re by yourself.) But no, there is nothing **wrong** with wanting to solo lower level instances, or wanting to sit in Dalaran staring at the wall for 8 hours a night. It is indeed his money and his time. However from the tone of his post I got the impression he’s wanting to level up and the best way to do that is to stop running low level instances by yourself and start doing quests. Blizzard has redesigned the leveling curve multiple times, they’ve boosted XP received from quests and this all means that the indisputably fastest way to go 1-80 is through pure questing. > [@](#): > > As I said earlier, I don’t know mages, personally. I know that they are one of the most difficult classes to solo with, having little self healing, a pet only with a certain spec, and, IIRC, on a longish cooldown, and are cloth wearers with the lowest stamina gear (my imp still ends up with more HP than a couple of our mages, when both are fully raid buffed). Mages are great soloers if specced properly. Ideally you want to be Frost specced as you level because it allows you to control mobs better. Frost mages while leveling excel at say, pulling 6-7 of the mobs you need for a quest and AoEing them all down at once. The only real crappy thing about Mages is they don’t have very many tools to get mana back, you get Evocation on a cooldown and other than that you drink a lot. Druids, Rogues, Hunters, Warlocks, and Shadowpriests are probably the easiest classes to level to 80 because they have virtually no downtime. Warlocks/Hunters have the advantage that they can solo some of the toughest quest elites in the game with proper playing. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2009, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-lvl-64-mage-still-getting-defeated-in-low-level-instances/493935/43 "2009-05-02T19:59:59Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > There is one other option, one that can be successful: > > Get a “pocket healer”. My priest used to heal for an arcane mage, and we used to 2 man Scholo just for shits and grins. > > As for the easiest classes to solo an instance with, I have to pretty much go with this list: > > druiid > hunter > shaman > warlock > rogue > > They have ways to either abosrb the beating or simply outlast it or stealth past it. They have ways to heal through it either through mend, heal, or draining. They have an “oh shit” button for when things go wrong. The two easiest are probably druid and hunter. Depends on what type of instance. For any sort of old-world raid content or level 70 heroic the incoming damage, even at level 80, is so high you need some way to take the hits. The toughest level 60 stuff I regularly hear about people soloing are some of the tougher ZG bosses like Bloodlord, and _all_ of Molten Core. Generally it is Prot Warriors, Prot Paladins, Feral Druids, or Death Knights that can pull that sort of stuff off. Other classes can solo in MC and ZG but pretty much only tank classes can handle the toughest MC bosses solo, certain bosses in there present unique challenges to other classes. For example Gehennas puts a -75% healing debuff on you that you can only remove if you can remove curses. So that means all the tank classes aside from Druid are out of luck. However if you have the gear you can just straight up tank him down to 0 health and not have to worry about healing yourself. Alternatively you can stock up on Purification Potions. There’s a video going around of a Prot Paladin who solod every single boss in MC, and I’d wager a Feral Druid could do the same, not sure if any other classes could. On my priest I often run MC with a warrior wearing some of the best level 80 tanking gear in the game and there are still bosses he couldn’t solo because of their damage output. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2009, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-lvl-64-mage-still-getting-defeated-in-low-level-instances/493935/44 "2009-05-03T18:55:20Z")
> [@winterhawk11](#): > > Anyway, see what you think. And if you do take Brain Freeze, be sure to train yourself to look for the icon that indicates you get a free Fireball, or get an addon like PowerAuras to pop something up on your screen to show you. No addon needed. ESC. Interface. Combat text. Enable floating text. Reactive spells/abilities. TADAAAAAAAAAAAH! ---
**Author:** ![Quintas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@Quintas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quintas)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-lvl-64-mage-still-getting-defeated-in-low-level-instances/493935/45 "2009-05-04T02:44:50Z")
Ok. I finally decided to start questing in Outland. I don’t know why i’ve been avoiding it. Now i’m having fun again. You can really rack up gold and XP in Outland. cool. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-lvl-64-mage-still-getting-defeated-in-low-level-instances/493935/46 "2009-05-04T16:11:05Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > Depends on what type of instance. … On my priest I often run MC with a warrior wearing some of the best level 80 tanking gear in the game and there are still bosses he couldn’t solo because of their damage output. You’re right, it depends on the instance AND the nature of the fights. Still, it’s sure fun to try. > [@](#): > > Ok. I finally decided to start questing in Outland. I don’t know why i’ve been avoiding it. > > Now i’m having fun again. You can really rack up gold and XP in Outland. cool. Cool beans. You should have no problems. Just watch out for the nasty piggies (felboars), they are aggressive. Also, beware the felreaver. As big as he is, he will somehow still sneak up on you if you aren’t paying attention. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-lvl-64-mage-still-getting-defeated-in-low-level-instances/493935.md?page=2)