But please, be sure not to confuse the mage's Fire Blast in World of Warcraft with the mage hero power in Hearthstone. This Fire Blast couldn't be used on oneself. Aige could only use that Hearthstone hero power if he someday defeated an Archmage, such as Jaina, in a formal duel and unlocked the Hearthstone mage class!
Just like Fireball, which a World of Warcraft mage started with at level 1, its power slowly increased with class level and proficiency. It was a spell that could grow, one a mage could keep learning and using for life-a mage's best companion!
Hearthstone had Fireball too. In the mage's class deck, it cost 4 mana and dealt 6 damage to any target... A card hated by the classes, one that could almost be called game-breaking!
Compare it with a Druid's Starfire, and everyone could understand why so many people said Fireball broke the balance. Starfire cost 6 mana and dealt 5 damage to a target. Although it also had the effect of drawing an extra card, providing card draw, one was 5 damage for 6 mana and the other was 6 damage for 4 mana. The difference was quite obvious.
What needed to be said here was that card effects couldn't be compared solely one card at a time, because that was very inappropriate. Every class had its own characteristics, so a comparison had to take all the classes' cards together. Picking out one card and examining it over and over often led to a paradox... It was fine to discuss it for fun, but taking it too seriously was a problem!
In fact, Hearthstone's mage class was strong in spells, while the Druid was strong in balance, possessing both spells and high-quality class-exclusive minions. On the ladder, Druids actually performed better than mages...
Of course, in the arena, if I picked mage, I'd take as many Fireballs as I was offered. That thing would never clog up my hand. Six damage for 4 mana was a bargain however you looked at it, and it never cost you card advantage. Forget the cult of five Fireballs; I'd take ten... if they showed up, that was? (Mage was the only class I had a chance of getting twelve wins with in the arena, hehe!)
Frost Armor was an instant-cast defensive spell Aige could use from level 1. It provided some extra armor, and if an opponent attacked Aige, the attacker's speed was reduced by 30% for up to five seconds. He had rarely used it before, because enemies had never had a chance to get close. Now the spider that had suddenly dropped from the sky had scared him, so he hurriedly cast Frost Armor to be safe... Although he might not need it this time either, mages were weak in melee, after all. Better to take precautions first; it was an instant-cast spell anyway!
At his command, the two Wisps closed in, one from the left and one from the right. Aige's Fire Blast had clearly hurt the spider badly. It screeched, ignoring the two Wisps as it focused entirely on attacking the prey that had dared to hurt it. (You could think of it as an aggro system, but this was a real world, not a game, after all. Although some game-like mechanics existed, overall, it was definitely not a standard aggro system.)
Aige hurriedly ran back a few steps, then cast a Frostbolt, draining some of the spider's health and slowing it down...
Seeing that the spider still had plenty of life left, he gave it some quick thought. He still had to scout the mine afterward, and the Kobolds there were definitely no pushovers either. Relying on just two Wisps while also trying every way he could to keep them alive would probably be difficult. He might as well...
"Summon Goldshire Footman!"
A huge card that only Aige could see descended from the sky and quickly broke apart. A fully armed Goldshire Footman soon took over the fight!
This was a neutral basic card that cost 1 mana, with 1-star attack and 2-star health. It came with Taunt, which could provoke enemies into attacking the Goldshire Footman first! (The Taunt mechanic has been adjusted slightly. In the real world, of course, no one could be forced to attack a particular target. The earlier explanation of Taunt was too rigid, so, at a reader's suggestion, minions with Taunt can now actively unleash a group taunt. Whether it works depends on the opponent's intelligence!)
This was an MT! It was just a little on the scrawny side, with too little health to be powerful! In Hearthstone, this card wasn't very good, and few decks included it. In fact, there were many excellent 1-mana minions. Most importantly, there was the Argent Squire, a neutral common card whose outstanding staying power, thanks to its built-in Divine Shield, made other ordinary 1-mana minions pale in comparison!
Still, it was pretty good for Aige to use right now... But there was no need to deliberately save it; he could just use it as an ordinary minion!
The newly summoned Goldshire Footman immediately displayed the qualities expected of a soldier. As soon as he appeared, he taunted the forest spider and swiftly raised his shield, sparing himself the tragedy of taking a mouthful of spider venom in the face!
Besides attacking with its legs and mouthparts, this kind of forest spider also attacked by spitting venom... The thick glob hit the shield with a sizzling, corrosive sound, making Aige shudder. If that had hit him in the face, wouldn't he have been disfigured?
With the Goldshire Footman joining in, this little episode soon came to an end! Surrounded and beaten by Aige, the Goldshire Footman, and the two Wisps, the forest spider quickly kicked the bucket. Aige went over and looted its corpse, finding that it had dropped a roll of spider silk. This was a material tailors might need. Certain special cloth armor recipes required this spider silk to increase the armor's flexibility. If taken to the auction house, it should attract the attention of some tailors who made equipment specifically for combatants... He'd keep it!
Aige stroked his chin in thought for a moment, then drew a knife and cut all the dead forest spider's legs off...
It wasn't that he had a habit of mutilating corpses. Rather, he seemed to remember seeing a notice somewhere in the inn about a cook buying these things. In World of Warcraft, anyone who had trained cooking would surely be familiar with these little spider legs. Aige had learned cooking too, so if no one would pay for them, he could use them himself!
Eager to improve his strength, he didn't have much energy to devote to improving these secondary professions, such as cooking and fishing. Of course, the god-tier profession of first aid was an exception. He had just used a lowest-grade linen bandage to dress the Goldshire Footman's wounds!
After being startled by that damned spider, Aige became more cautious for the rest of the journey. Not only did he have to remember to watch those wild bears and wolves, he also had to pay attention to what was above his head! Only now did he realize that, for ordinary people, this place really was practically a forbidden zone, wasn't it?
The most common sights along the way were exposed copper deposits! For the miserly Aige, this was undoubtedly painful... He could see them but couldn't mine them!
As for primary professions, after learning the general situation from his wife Milly, he had already taken up enchanting. Now he had only one profession slot left, so naturally he had to pick the one that suited him best. He definitely wouldn't choose a gathering profession. Although he had loved searching everywhere for ore to mine and sell when he played a rogue, the underlying reason ore sold for so much was that large numbers of players had high blacksmithing levels and bought it all at high prices to train their skill.
On the Azeroth Continent, whether there were so many high-level blacksmiths was definitely open to question. Without the support of auction-house bidding and large numbers of player blacksmiths influencing supply and demand, Aige was highly skeptical that raw ore could still fetch high prices!
That said, right now the great sir wished he could shoulder a pickaxe and stuff every copper deposit he could see into his backpack... Anyone who had played a miner should understand the feeling, right? Seeing ore and being unable to mine it-how was anyone supposed to live like this?
Likewise, plenty of wild herbs grew in Elwynn Forest. Aige was all too familiar with these things, having gathered no small number of herbs before. For a time, he had even spent every day shuttling between the auction house and Winterspring, timing his runs as a "flower thief" while also profiteering by reselling Black Lotus! For the same reasons as before, he could only cover his face in anguish and walk past... All right, he'd get used to it eventually, the great sir thought!
He had now learned all the secondary professions. As for the godly skill of first aid, he trained it as high as he could. His proficiency was already at Journeyman First Aid, with 80 proficiency, allowing him to make wool bandages from wool cloth. While training the skill earlier, he had also stockpiled many rolls of linen bandages and heavy linen bandages. However, his level was still low, so he couldn't get wool cloth drops from hostile creatures-that is, from killing monsters. As a result, he couldn't train the skill any further once it reached 80. That was his current limit... He was only level 7, after all!
He had learned cooking but hadn't had time to practice it. He had obtained the flint, pots, bowls, and other things he needed from Milly's Grape Estate, but had only practiced occasionally and gained 10 proficiency; as for fishing, never mind that. He had learned the skill, but still hadn't found anywhere to buy a fishing rod...
His primary profession, enchanting, currently had a pitiful 3 proficiency. Earlier, to propose to Milly, he had reluctantly disenchanted a green mail leggings item. In this war-torn world, combat equipment was always easy to sell.
If anyone learned that a spendthrift had disenchanted a green-quality item, someone would surely come knocking to denounce him. Aige knew the situation too. If he had sold those green mail leggings, he could certainly have gotten some money for them, but his wife was more important. After disenchanting them, he obtained one unit of enchanting materials. (From now on, this book will use units of enchanting materials in place of all the complicated dusts, essences, shards, and other things used in enchanting. Those things are too complicated and hard to remember. You only need to know how many units there are; that makes it a little more accessible.) He then carefully selected a silver ring with a distinctive design and no stats, and enchanted it with +1 spirit!
That seemingly ordinary silver ring, whether in symbolic meaning or practical value, meant far more to Milly than any expensive diamond ring...