So, it's Sunday afternoon and my guildie friends aren't online, so I'm doing some solo questing in Tanaris, near Steamwheedle Port, frostbolting Pirates and taking thier Allakhazam was busy or this item does not exist. Click to search again. ',VAUTO,HAUTO,FULLHTML);" onmouseout="return nd();">Pirate's Hats that I need for a quest that's in my book.
There's other Horde people there, and probably a few Alliance toons as well (I can't tell anymore, Horde-side Blood Elves and Pallies in general just confuse me in telling the sides apart without paying strict attention).
There's a group of three Hordies, all PvP flagged, playing together. A 45 Mage, 47 Hunter and a 45+ Rogue, I believe.
I stay away from what they're killing so we don't have competition issues, and then I get a whisper:
"y r u not mass killing?"
I didn't respond.
Mainly, because I'm a Frost Mage Noob and hadn't even attempted much AOE grinding except in dungeon situations where the mobs are already occupied by the tank. And of course, being a level 45 'noob' I didn't want to invite abuse from the fellow mage who obviously had a better handle on this than I did (and I watched him, he did).
In my standard introverted way of handling things, I hearthed out and spent a wee bit of time doing research on YouTube for some Frost Mage AOE grinding videos. At some point I looked up a list of recommended AOE grinding areas (I'll link it here later) and adjusted my training path according to it.
My first couple of attempts were before I researched the grinding guide. I started over in Swamp of Sorrows, gathering up the Murlocs that live on the shore of the ocean, far to the east side of the zone. I didn't do very well starting out, so I thought I'd move to slightly lower-level murlocs. I headed to Tarren Mills and went south of Southshore and started to try to AOE grind there, only to discover that those Murlocs have ranged attacks (lightning or knife throwing) and AOE grinding wasn't going to work there at all.
It was at this point that I looked up two things: First, the spec of the Mage who had sent me the whisper, and second, the AOE grinding guide online. I re-spec'd to match this other guy since he was also 100% Frost spec'd, and then used the online guide to lead me to Duskwallow Marsh. There, I practiced gathering up the (35-38) Raptors that are Northeast of Brackenwall Village, and AOEing them down. Because I am also still working on skilling up skinning, beasts were my prime choice over humanoids, and I've now moved to Ferelas where I've been gathering up the 41-42 Wolves and Bears.
The General AOE Grinding Strategy
The generalized process of this strategy goes like this:
Find a place with melee mobs that are close together and can be gathered up.
Activate Ice Barrier shielding
Mount up
Run around and aggro a bunch of mobs
Dismount and blow a Cone of Cold at the train of mobs coming after you
Frost Nova them in place, and run far away from them
Cast Blizzard on the group of them, with the center of the Blizzard being just in front of the group
Turn around and Blink further away from the oncoming mob of mobs
Turn back towards them and Blizzard the group again, making sure the Blizzard center is in front of the group so they get hit for a long time
Run up to the group and Cone of Cold them and Arcane Blast them until they're all dead.
Loot, Profit, Drink Water, Repeat
On occasion, I'd also use my Ice Block for handling emergencies or handling when my Frost Nova was still cooling down. Having watched how the Ice Block was used in those Grinding videos helped a lot - I watched the timer count down and was ready to run and Frost Nova and drink a potion as soon as the Ice Block melted and free'd me.
I died a few times in this practice, for sure, but clothy repairs don't cost much so I wasn't all that worried, even about taking the ressurection sickness when I didn't feel like running back to the grinding area.
I'll do a little more practice tonight, but probably won't get much practice again until later in the week when my Real Life social commitments thin out. Maybe by this weekend I can be back in Steamwheedle Port practicing my AOE grinding techniques on level 44-45 mobs, and not looking like the one-at-a-time-Frost-Mage-Noob that I was initially.
Final Thought, Regarding Skinning Profession and Being A Frost Mage
I must say, after all of this, I'm glad I selected my Mage to be my Skinner. This AOE grinding stuff is great for skinning advancement and farming skins in general. Being a miner or a herbalist wouldn't have been as great of a choice for this toon, but I really didn't think about it until just yesterday.