Levelling Alts

Having leveled my mage up to 74 already I know that I had very little rested XP last night, so I decided to level my hunter alt on Aggramar-US. I tried out some new addons to help me gather herbs to level inscription. I installed GatherMate, Routes, and GatherMate_Data. After playing around with the interface a bit on routes I was able to get a route setup for gathering herbs in the barrens, and I started running around collecting herbs. I tried enabling TomTom but it didn't seem to follow the route that I had setup so I abandoned it and just used the route on the minimap to navigate, which worked fine for me. I happened to level up (and burn all my rested xp) from clearing the mobs around the herb nodes. I managed to level my inscription from around 50 to 80, and got my herbalism to 96 after I finally realized it had been sitting at 75 for some time. I do love the GatherMate + Routes addons, and the ability to pick the specific herb types that you want to collect. It is much more productive than just running around the map and collecting the herbs that pop up on your map, although only maybe 50% of the nodes shown from GatherMate_Data actually had an herb at that location, and I came across 2 or 3 herb nodes that were not on the map.
I really want to look at the bigger picture here as well, it's clear to me that efficiency drives my efforts to level alts. I like to use rested xp as much as possible and having multiple characters that I can level at any time waiting with full rested xp bars. I originally created my alts after getting my mage to 70 during the BC era, in an effort to more fully understand the other classes to improve myself as a player. I now realize that having a level 20 or 30 alt only gives a small taste of the experience of playing a 70. Consider all the mage abilities that you don't yet have at level 30:
Mage Armor (and the improved mage armor at level 71)
Arcane Brilliance
Arcane Blast
Molten Armor
Ice Lance
Invisibility
Ritual of Refreshment
Spell Steal
Firefrost Bolt
Mirror Image
Portals
I realize there is a lot missing from my experience of other classes, and new surprises awaiting me as I continue to level my alts. So why do you level your alts? What drives you to create alts? Is it to improve your knowledge of other classes like me, or do you have other reasons?

Adding Item Links to your WoW Blog

If anyone out there is looking for a way to post item links in your blog. Here is the resource you need http://www.wowhead.com/?powered. This works with blogger.com and pretty much any blog where you can modify the html directly.

Levelling 70-74 and UI

I have now gotten my frost mage Eldren on Ursin-US up to level 74, and started replacing some of my gear with the nifty new rewards from Northrend. Before heading to Northrend, I was only lacking epic gear in three slots: neck, back, and wrists. Since heading to Northrend and hitting my first 4 levels, I have picked up a lot of new gear, most of which immediately got disenchanted to feed my enchanting profession, however I have replaced a few items with new gear for leveling. I am still hanging onto some older gear right now for instances, and I'll replace that as I find new gear with spell hit. Follow the links to the items to get quest info.
My neck piece: Brooch of Heightened Potential which I replaced with the Giant Turtle Collar
New cloak: Embroidered Cape of Mysteries which I have now replaced with Crackling Cloak
New wrists: Shattrath Wraps upgraded to Wraps of the San'layn
I also ashamedly have swapped out my beloved (and heard earned) Frozen Shadoweave Shoulders for the Shoulders of the Northern Lights although it's not really an upgrade just more stamina and intellect and less spell damage.
My Old Trinkets:
Terokkar Tablet of Vim
Vengeance of the Illidari
Direbrew Hops
The Lightning Capacitor
Some New Trinkets:
Warsong's Wrath
Horn of the Herald
Serrah's Star - I love this trinket since it basically triggers on it's own, however it seems to have a 45 second cooldown, so don't expect to stack the crit.
My old wand:
Nether Core's Control Rod
New wand:
Branch of Everlasting Flame

Overall I am noticing a lot of new haste gear, which I love. It's great for for mages, however most of the items that I have come across so far are falling short in spell damage compared to what I've got, and I'm left with a choice to go for spell haste or spell damage. Given what I know so far about spell haste it beats spell damage hands down.

UI
Some of the UI mods that I am using right now are:
GarbageFu: Although it is currently outdated
I have found a replacement called sellfish, that I have yet to try, but looks good.
QuestHelper: which is mentioned on almost every WoW blog, so I just had to put it here, and it really is an awesome mod
TomTom: which will put a big arrow on the screen pointing to the coordinates that you set, and it also happens to tie in to QuestHelper to point you in the direction you are headed for your current quest objective
LightHeaded: which pulls up posts from wowhead.com in the quest log for your quests (I use this for when QuestHelper has no info)
Auc-Advanced: does many auction-related tasks for you. What I like about it is the ability to query the prices for current auctions, and automatically post auctions to match/beat current prices.
Also of note, but not an AddOn in itself is WowMatrix. This program managed updates for your addons, and pulls down the latest versions for your addons. They are constantly updating their database of addons and adding new ones, so check it out.

Frost Tree Talents Reviewed

I'm back from some serious fun on the live realms with the new talent tree, and I have to admit that I love it! Here is my current talent build: Deep Frost [0/0/61]

I just want to review the pros and cons of this build and the changes to the talent tree in particular. First off I'll start with my favoritest talents:
Brain Freeze: I absolutely love this new talent. I now have a new macro for using it even:
#showtooltip fireball
/stopcasting
/cast fireball
I came up with this macro after cursing for not using my free fireball when I was half-way through casting my next frostbolt. I also have to admit I was not that excited about a free fireball since as a frost mage my fireballs kind of suck for damage, but after the patch they are much improved. The first thing I noticed about my gear was that my lovely Frozen Shadoweave Set no longer granted +Frost and +Shadow damage, but was converted to raw Spell Power. This is both good and bad. It's good because now the damage applies to all my spells (including my free fireballs). It's bad because my frost damage from the set which was +179 is now only +147, a net loss of 32 points, or about 18% of the damage from the set. Also note that the if you happen to get a Fireball proc when you have Fingers of Frost up, you do get the +50% crit chance benefit from Shatter.
Second let me spend a moment on Fingers of Frost. I just want to say I love this talent. I spam frostbolt more than a water elemental, and the amount of times that I see this proc is a lot, and resulting crits come very often. Added bonus if you have improved blizzard (to add a Chill effect to your blizzard spell) you get Fingers of Frost to proc off of each hit from your blizzard, and since there is no cool down on Fingers of Frost, it procs a lot if you are hitting a lot of mobs.
Shattered Barrier it's not just for PvP! It's another frost nova on a 60-second cool-down timer. Comes in really handy if you are solo'ing an elite mob, or say running through a bunch of mobs.
Which brings me to Deep Freeze. This is beautiful beautiful thing. I can't count the number of time that I have smacked down rogues, warriors, warlocks, etc. with a Deep Freeze, and then seen them get burned down in battlegrounds. This works like a charm, and I no longer suffer (as badly) from rogue paranoia in PvP, although mages are still nowhere near to dominating in PvP. This at least makes a frost mage spec a little more competitive in PvP, but there is still a long way to go.
Edit:I really had some fun last night on US-Ursin owning a 70 Alliance priest named Pucktin at least 5 times in a row (vs my 73 Mage). It all started when she decided to attack me while I was in the middle of Reclaiming the Quarry. I initially ran when she attacked after running a good 50 yards and noticing that I was still above half health I decided to turn and fight. I initially cast Fire Blast followed by Polymorph, then popped my Cold Snap to end my cooldowns, followed by Summon Water Elemental, Ice Barrier, then I let hell fly. First used the ranged Freeze spell on my Water Elemental to root her, then simultaneously started with my Frostbolt while my water elemental was throwing Waterbolt at her. By the time she recovered, I ran in and hit Frost Nova, then hit Deep Freeze, and finished her off with a few more Frostbolt's, Ice Lance, Cone of Cold, and Fire Blast. I camped her after the initial kill, and she made another attempt to kill me, so I killer her again except without the polymorph, and then proceeded to kill her 2 or 3 more times before she finally stopped attacking me and decided to try and run away. When she finally tried to run, I followed and burned her down again with Fire Blast, and finally left her alone after that. So Pucktin if you read this, thanks for the fun last night, and don't take it personally :)
Improved Water Elemental is better IMO for the extended duration of the water elemental and not so much for the mana regen that it grants. My Spellsurge enchant seems like it restores more mana than my Improved Water Elemental, but the numbers just don't add up to support that. I can't complain about the extended duration of my big blue friend when it comes to raw damage. The mana regen issue will of course change at level 80 since my raw mana pool will be larger, and the percentage of my mana pool will end up being larger.
Frost Warding doesn't quite live up to my expectations as an outstanding talent. I just don't think that the effect really procs enough to be of much use. I have seen it proc a total of one time out of the many many times that I cast the spell hoping for some mana regain.
Cold as Ice is another great talent. I'm really enjoying the shortened cooldown on the many spells that this talent provides.
Edit:
As of patch 3.0.3 this has been nerfed and no longer reduces the cooldown on deep freeze :( It's still an excellent talent, but I will miss the shorter cooldown on my stun.

Frost Mage Raid Talent Spec

I am looking through the new talents for frost, and just wanted to go through a run-down of useful talents for a frost mage for PvE and specifically for raids.
First of all here is the talent spec that I ended up with:
Deep Frost (0/0/54)+17
I will just touch on some highlights here and there. Some of the choices are obvious. In general, all the damage boosting talents are good talents for a raid build.

Frostbite - I didn't pick up frostbite for the simple fact that raid bosses are immune to the freeze effect that this talent adds to your spells. It's still a very useful PvE talent, especially for a leveling build.
Improved Frostbolt - A must for any frost build. Frostbolt is the bread and butter of any frost mage.
Ice Floes - This is a great rank 1 talent for cross spec builds, as well as very useful for a frost build. For raiding, I take this mainly for the 20% faster cool-down on Icy Veins. You must love the Icy Veins.
Ice Shards - Essential to any frost build.
Frost Ward - I have never taken this talent, and honestly I don't see it as essential for a raid build. The benefits to Ice Armor are marginal (25% increase to armor and resistance). However the mana battery effect from using Frost Ward/Fire Ward may make this worth it to you. 15% chance that your Frost Ward or Fire Ward will negate a warded damage spell entirely AND replenish mana equal to the damage prevented. Could be useful in some boss fights that throw frost or fire spells.
Elemental Precision - We all know about spell hit caps and raid bosses. Spell hit good, and this talent give you a 3% buff to your spell hit. If you don't know about spell hit, good luck with raiding.
Permafrost - Also a good talent for PvE, but not essential to a raid build since your chill effects won't be doing you any good vs raid bosses. Not bad for leveling since it gives you 3 seconds longer on your chill and an additional 10% movement speed debuff.
Piercing Ice - Essential frost talent. Flat 6% damage buff to all frost damage spells.
Icy Veins - I just don't see how you can go wrong with this talent. 20% faster spell casting, and immunity to spell pushback from damage for 20 seconds. That's 20% more damage for 20 seconds! Also useful for evocation and blizzard when you're getting pounded on.
Improved Blizzard - I really love this talent. Who doesn't enjoy seeing a whole mess of mobs being rooted by your blizzard spell? This is essential to an AoE grinding PvE build, however it is of little use in raid situations.
Arctic Reach - Essential to any frost build. 20% extra range will allow you to stay outside the magic 30 yard distance that many effects from bosses have. Gives you extra distance for PvE that allows you to squeeze out that extra frostbolt to kill that mob before it closes on you.
Frost Channeling - 10% off sale! Everything must go! It's a 10% off mana cost for all frost spells, essential for lasting out those long raid encounters. Also reduces threat by 10% keeping you low on the threat meter.
Shatter - This is a major change to raid builds. This talent used to be useless against a raid boss because of their immunity to freeze effects, but it now has become useful. There is now a fabulous combo that allows you to use shatter on raid bosses. Check out Fingers of Frost below for details.
Cold Snap - Another great talent for any frost build. For raids, it's utility comes from ending the cooldown on Icy Veins, Water Elemental. Also good in a pinch to end cooldowns on Ice Block and Ice Barrier.
Improved Cone of Cold - Huge 35% damage increase for cone of cold for 3 talent points. Not a bad talent, but it's real use lies in PvP, not PvE. Pretty useless for raid situations.
Frozen Core - This has been expanded to include all spells and not just frost and fire damage. Useful in situations where you might be called upon to mage tank. This would not be a bad place to put those extra talent points for raiding, however there are more useful PvE talents. Not bad for PvP either, and much of the frost tree in general works out very well for PvP.
Cold as Ice - I'm very excited about this talent. 20% reduction on cool-down of Cold Snap, Ice Barrier, Deep Freeze, and Water Elemental. All except for Deep Freeze are useful for raiding, Ice Barrier maybe somewhat less important than the others. What is essential is the Water Elemental. With Improved Water Elemental you get 60 seconds of Water Elemental, with a 3 minute cooldown, meaning 25% of the time you have your Water Elemental. With the 20% reduction from Cold as Ice the cooldown is reduced to 2 minutes 24 seconds. This means you have your Water Elemental 41.66% of the time. This is a drastic increase, and it doesn't even include using Cold Snap to end the cool down. This adds up to a nice boost to DPS from the Water Elemental.
Winter's Chill - Here is another essential talent for raids. This debuff now applies a 10% increase for spells to crit against the target FOR YOUR WHOLE RAID. How cool is that? This is part of the changes to raid buffs/debuffs that Blizzard is rolling out with the new content. I'm excited to see how this plays out for frost mages.
Shattered Barrier - This is an awesome talent for PvP, however freeze effects are practically useless in raid encounters, so I wouldn't recommend it. I see some use for PvE, but I'll have to try it out to really get a feel for it's use. I see Blink as an essential combo with this talent.
Ice Barrier - I don't see where this isn't useful. Squishy mages are always getting beaten upon by something, and an extra 3300 health is always useful in those situations. Helps ease the burden on healing in raids, and essential for situations where your healer is otherwise unavailable.
Arctic Winds - Another great talent. I consider this more for the 5% extra frost damage for raids, but the 5% miss chance is great as well. Make me very happy that I took this talent when I see Miss come across my screen when that big nasty is trying to smash me with his sword.
Empowered Frostbolt - This is a must for any PvE build. 10% bonus to your spell power and 4% bonus to crit for frostbolt.
Fingers of Frost - You remember about Shatter being useful again? Here's the reason why. Chill has a 15% chance to grant Fingers of Frost. Fingers of Frost? It means you get to treat your next two spells cast as if your target were frozen. That means you get that nice +50% crit chance on your next two spells. Frostbolt crits FTW!
Brain Freeze - Here's another new cool talent. 15% proc from any frost damage spell gives you a free instant cast fireball? That's right a fireball. It's like an extra Fire Blast, only it's free. Now go set something on fire, like a rogue :)
Water Elemental - Your old frosty friend from TBC is back again. Always useful to have an extra frostbolt spamming pet at your side, and the ranged frost nova is useful as well, especially when throwing around AoE's. Did I mention that Blizzard now can score critical hits?
Improved Water Elemental - This is a really cool direction for the water elemental. Not only does it extend the duration by 33% (15 seconds), but it also regens 7.2% of your RAID's mana over 60 seconds. Added utility for a frost mage. I'm excited to see how this plays out for frost mages in raiding.
Chilled to the Bone - Another 5% damage boost to frostbolt as well as ice lance, and the new firefrost bolt. Also adds another 10% movement penalty to chilled targets. Not an very exciting talent, but the damage bonus gets the job done.
Deep Freeze - I'm excited about this talent, but sorry to say it is useless for raids. Not only does the target have to be frozen (which we have to rely on Fingers of Frost for on a boss), it stuns that target, which is also useless against a raid boss. For PvP this looks like a great talent. Go get your revenge on those rogues!

It's up to you where you go from there with the remaining points. Spend them in the frost tree to round our your build for PvP or PvE, or cross over into the Fire or Arcane trees to pick up some more goodies for raiding. Personally I might jump over to arcane to pick up Arcane Concentration and Focus Magic. But you do what works best for you.

So just to summarize some of the highlights of this build:
-Damage bonus to frostbolt: 6% damage:Piercing Ice + 5% damage:Arctic Winds + 5% damage:Chilled to the Bone + 10% of spell power:Empowered Frostbolt + Brain Freeze proc for a free Fireball
-Crit chance with frostbole: 10%:Winter's Chill + 4%:Empowered Frostbolt (+50% when frozen or affected by Fingers of Frost)
-Water Elemental: Much improved uptime: 60 seconds vs 45 seconds. Shorter cool down: 144 seconds vs 180 seconds. Returns 7.2% of Raid's mana over 60 seconds.