Border Collie Artillery, at your sevice, sir!

Gather round fellow noobs, let's get chummy. Yes indeedy, I'm just starting out in WoW: I'm acquiring WoW knowledge, I don't *have* it yet. Got the books piled around me and sitting down to figure it out. Highlighting, cross-referencing, researching footnotes...that's me...deep in the midst of some serious edjumacation. And the question at hand? I woke up undead and was given the job title: Mage.

(Why thank you, does this job come with a dental plan? Because my jaw seems to be loosely attached. Hehehehe...ahem...okay onto the meat of the matter.)

No one handed me a job description. What is a Mage? What am I suppose to do? Oh sure, I can shoot bolts of purty magic at monsters but what does that mean when I'm in a 5-man group taking on an instance?

In a fight, Mages are suppose to be a "primary ranged magic damage dealer" (1). *Ranged* as in we are so NOT up in the face of the monster. We have the tender delicate skin and a dislike for heavy, clunky armor. Give us a robe, if you please. However, we are ready to fight. Delicate skin and sporting cloth, we still throw ourselves into battle....from a distance. We could be sending massive amounts of damge, or directed elemental bolts, or raining down an AOE on the nasties. But we should be doing this behind the hurly burly rough and tough.

Long range pew, pew, pew FTW.

You want a metaphor? Your mage is the border collie artillery. Like that border collie, we can control a mob. We nip at their heels. We make that mob stay where we want them to stay. So that the infantry can rip into them. Sheesh mageesh, we can even TURN the mob into sheep. Uber border collie! Creating their own sheep to crowd control.

And we aren't just about crowd control, we are artillery(2). This border collie comes equipped with projectiles. This border collie IS a weapon. Point us at a mob and let us shoot. We support the tank, our blood and guts infantry, by lobbing down destruction on the nasties.

Mage, border collie artillery, reporting for duty, sir!!

(Have I even mentioned the snacks and portals? Mage's rock)