• 1.0 - The Mage
  • Tradeskills
  • 3.1 patch notes
• 1.5 - Races
• 2.0 - Mage Abilities and leveling
• 3.0 - Leveling notes and stats
• 4.0 - PvP
• 5.0 - Raiding
• 6.0 - 1-80 Mage Leveling Guide

1.0 - The Mage

Mages are the arbiters of the Arcane, Fire, and Frost.  They are wielders of mystical energies beyond all natural comprehension, and sheep-happy PvP maniacs if my battlegrounds experiences count for anything, but above all, mages are clean and simple fun.

This guide is simply intended to provide a general overview of the Mage. For a more in-depth and highly detailed resource check out the Killer Guides' Mage Guide, here.

Rolling a mage and bringing it to maximum level is tough work, but the end result is a character of extreme versatility so far as damage dealing goes and one that I found to be more fun than practically any other character I’ve created.

Mages are by no means overpowered though, rather I would say that if anything they’re much underpowered, however whether or not this is the case, they still present a potent enemy in all styles of gameplay.

We are based around the philosophy of burst-damage, annihilation of opposition before they can react, or at least reach you, and beyond that initial burst you’ll find our DPS and utility decrease dramatically on all fronts.

In PvP the fight is decided almost entirely upon whether you either A: Kill the opponent in the first 5-8 seconds, or B: Bring him down low enough that your teammates can finish him as you run out of mana, either one is a decidedly risky venture because you never really know quite how durable your enemy is before it’s too late.

The un-expected resist to one of your main damage spells can leave you completely defeated or even worse is having frost nova broken, blink bugging out and teleporting you forward about a quarter of an inch, and all manner of other troubles you’ll face with one simple mistake.

Mages are cloth wearers, much like Warlocks and Priests, however unlike both these classes we do not possess the adequate survivability to make up for our lack of armor, no healing and no massive health pools.  Instead we rely entirely on ‘not getting hit.’

This crosses over into PvE woes as well, with the increasing frequency of AoE boss fights dictating that we either risk dying a minute into the fight or gimp our damage/mana pool for the extra life required. Neither choice is a good one, and to make yourself useful you’ll need to possess enough skill to make your positive qualities shine above all the disadvantages present, not an easy task at all.

Tradeskills

So far as tradeskills go, it’s a fairly obvious choice as to what you’ll be picking up if you want to maximize your gear levels the instant you hit 80, and that would be tailoring.  Tailoring gives us not only consistent and useful upgrades from 1-60, but increasingly rewarding and instance level gear upgrades once you venture into Outland and Northrend.

Multiple sets of cloth armor are greater than even Karazhan gear and more accessible even for a brand new 60, 70. or 80. All it takes is a high, if not maxed out, tailoring skill by the time you reach the appropriate level.  Since tailoring doesn’t possess any specific synergies tradeskill wise, you can always grab mining or some other gathering profession to aid funding your primary crafting abilities. Enchanting will let you disenchant tailored items that you don't want to try and sell or otherwise dispose of. You can then use or sell the Enchanting mats.

Keep in mind that all the crafting skills are very expensive to level up. If you're going to work on the expensive tailoring or brutally expensive Enchanting then you will need to have a pretty solid gold stash. If you don't have that, then you may have to skip them, but drop Enchanting first.

Other useful skills:

• Alchemy will keep you in mana and healing potions, as well as all sorts of other potions, elixers, etc.
• Inscription has several "off-hand" items that are very nice, as well as high-end shoulder inscriptions.
• Jewelcrafting has some nice, self-only, gems.
• First Aid is essential, keep it maxed at all times.
• Cooking is very useful with all the healing and buffing foods it provides.
• Herbalism is a nice cash creating skill and also fuels Inscription and Alchemy. It will also give you a small heal ability.
• Mining and skinning are good skills to have for gold creation.

3.1 Patch Notes:

Mana regeneration, from Spirit, got a big nerf, but regen talents go buffed, so it's a wash.

With the changes to Molten Armor you may find that Spirit is actually useful.

1.5 - What Race Should You Be?

Human: Better for PvP, with the Stealth Detection and Escape abilities. Diplomacy is nice if you are going to be gaining faction at any point, and since so much past level 60 is a faction grind... this can be useful.

Gnome: As Humans, better for PvP due to their Escape Artist skill and small size. Otherwise the Int bonus is nice at any time, since it adds to your mana pool.

Draenei: What? You think they look weird? A minor heal is always handy for a class that has no heals. Also, Draenei get Inpiring Presence which adds a 1% to hit chance with spells. Not so useful for leveling, but nice for PvP and nicer for raids, especially since it affects the whole party.

Undead: Will of the Forsaken is a nice PvP ability, but not so much outside of PvP. Cannibalize is useful every now and then, especially if you need to heal while in combat. Underwater Breathing is useful for some quests, especially in Northrend.

Troll: While certainly capable of being a decent mage their racials aren't much use. Berserking is a small speed increase, which gains speed (up to 30% increase) as your health goes down, but low health is the last place a mage wants to be. Beast Slaying is a nice little bonus for leveling, but pretty useless elsewhere. Voodoo shuffle is a help in PvP, but less useful elsewhere.

Blood Elf: Arcane Torrent is very useful when opposing casters get too close. This ability also provides a small mana return, so has some use at all times. Maybe 2nd choice to Undead as a Horde mage.

2.0 - Mage Abilities

Mage ability trees are divided into three primary elements, Arcane, Fire, and Frost, each possessing far more than simple visual difference.  Starting with Arcane, you’ll find it to be the primary ‘utility’ tree for mage PvE or PvP, having quite a few mana regeneration and conservation talents combined with improvement of our more useful spells, such as blink or counterspell.

Arcane is also seen by some as a raiding tree, largely due to the high mana constraints placed on raiding mages (from 5-10 minute long fights) as opposed to PvP, where high burst is favored over consistency.

Fire is the burst tree, boasting massive amounts of damage including more than a few incapacitation abilities/augmentation.  This comes from talents such as impact (chance to stun on fireball impact,) and Dragon’s Breath, a frontal cone disorientation spell.

Frost represents a combination of Fire and Arcane, less burst damage than fire but generally more than arcane, especially with shatter and a couple more increased critical damage talents.  Additionally it has some of the mana regeneration of arcane, not completely as effective, but still enough to make it worthwhile.

Generally PvP or PvE builds will pick up frost or fire as a primary tree and build up Arcane as a supporting cast style of talent picking, however some mages have been known to favor arcane as a primary or even all points into the single tree.

Arcane

As said above, Arcane is largely a utility tree, however when maxed out the arcane abilities also extend to massive burst damage what with Presence of Mind, Arcane Power, and a variety of other mixed damage increasers/mana regeneration abilities.

Arcane also happens to be my personal favorite spell tree, but I’ll have to warn you that aside from specific raiding or PvP situations, it doesn’t provide nearly as much splashy effects and noticeable increasers aside from when your cooldowns are ready.

All in all arcane can be seen as the tree that emphasizes your already present abilities such as Arcane Blast and other spells as opposed to granting you a whole new slew of special effects like dragons breath or water elemental.

Arcane Mage Leveling

Arcane is a spec simply not designed for leveling, at least not as a primary tree of development while leveling.  Most all of arcanes benefits are revealed and utilized to their maximum potential much later on, somewhere around the time you pick up arcane blast and really start to gain some massive damage via arcane power/presence of mind.

Due to this you’ll find yourself the classic example of inefficient burst damage and forced to drink every other kill, leading you to a very long and exasperating trip to level 50 or so before things finally begin to pick up.

I seriously won’t recommend arcane for anything other than supporting talents such as Arcane Concentration and Arcane Focus perhaps.

For more, see our Arcane Mage page.

Fire

Fire is the burst damage tree, massive damages, pyroblasts, etc.  If you’re looking for anything from a
good leveling build to raiding or PvP, fire is one of the easier choices.  Most styles of play can be compensated for by picking up the generally viable talents in this tree, it’s all a matter of how you use them.

By properly gearing yourself you can fit literally almost any situation as fire, it presents the range and damage efficiency required for raiding, the burst potential desperately needed in PvP, and with some good spell rotation becomes an extremely efficient grinding machine.

Many raiding and gladiator mages choose a mixture of primary fire and secondary arcane. It definitely works, and with a few perks, such as blazing speed, it becomes all that much more useful.

Fire Mage Leveling

Going fire as your primary talent line-up while leveling is probably the best idea for those new to the mage class, it’s simple, easily learned, and configured for any setup, and eliminates quite a bit of the problems you can run into when trying the alternative leveling strategies inherent in the other talent builds.

Impact and flame throwing are some early on great talents that give you a very high chance of stunning the target before they reach your soft and squishy mage-self, this indirectly enhances survivability and reduces the chance of requiring food per pull.

All the basics of blasting away and dropping multiple mobs a pull before they even reach you are enhanced at each talent.  Improved scorch gives you a great low-cost high-damage returns spell for finishing off low health mobs as well.

Our Fire Mage guide has more.

Frost

Frost presents an interesting alternative to Fire and Arcane, boasting a combination of both damage potential and mana efficiency with the added bonus of massively increased survivability via Ice Barrier, Ice Block, and improved root abilities via frost nova.

Frost is probably the best starting PvP build for an experimenting Mage due to how much more forgiving it can be.  By possessing more than a few tools to increase your life-span you’ll find yourself in the possession of far more opportunities to, at the very least, live through a given fight, if not defeat the opponent outright.

Frost is also an equally effective leveling build comparative to fire, instead of killing monsters before they react, you kill them via a small amount of kiting if necessary augmented by the frost spell's snare effects.

Frost Mage Leveling

Leveling as frost will be likely similar speeds to fire, if not slightly faster, depending on your degree of skill concerning frost's primary calling card, snares and roots.  Frost mages are all about mobility, survivability, and in many cases AoE grinding as opposed to fire's strictly "one at a time" kill scheme.

Frost deals maximum damage when the target is frozen, big secret right there, so obviously the more the target is frozen, the more critical you throw out, the higher damage dealt overall, etc.  This would be why you grab all the talents related to freezing opponents, as well as shatter and a few others, to make you a monster of massive critical strikes, rivaling fire burst damage when you hit lucky streaks.

Due to your increased survivability via ice barrier and so on, you can easily handle multiple pulls of two-three mobs and through proper usage of abilities take them all down quite a bit faster than a fire build as well.  Again, this is all about how well you control your mage, many players I’ve seen run fire from 1-50 before changing to frost for the remainder of the leveling.

Finally AoE grinding is best done as a mixture of frost and arcane, blizzard is the ultimate AoE spell simply due to its slowing effect, allowing you to kite mobs almost indefinitely with proper planning and execution.

Also see our Frost Mage guide.

3.0 - Leveling and stats

As I mentioned near the start of the guide, mages are great fun at level 80, it’s getting there that’s really quite painful.  Not to say it’s slow, but the combination of being fragile with having to drink every other fight is wearing. Especially on the PvP server with that rogue tracking you. Sit to drink only to find yourself being subject to a stealth attack that wipes out most of your health before you can stand.

Still, you have a lot of things going for you, portals to major cities, food and water summoning, and you can continue killing for an indefinite period of time due to the major lack of gear dependency.

I found myself many times completing quests with every last piece of gear broken without  having a noticeable slowdown in killing speed, it’s just that easy for mages as unlike every other class they are almost completely self-supporting.

• Get a nice wand and keep it up to date.
• Look for Int, some Stam, and Spell Power and Crit rating on your gear.
• Make sure you have the biggest bags you can afford.
• Keep an eye out for Rogues. ;) By the way, if you attack the Rogue (while he's leveling or something) and you don't kill him I don't recommend sitting to eat/drink unless you're in a safe place, because he is tracking you. Many mages have made that mistake.

The Stats:

• Intellect adds directly to your mana pool and adds a small bonus to crit with your spells. You can never have a mana pool that's too big, especially if you're Arcane.
• Stamina is more important for PvP than raiding or leveling, but you need enough to survive in any given situation.
• Spirit is pretty useless, at least until you get Molten Armor.
• Agility is nearly useless for a mage. To get a worthwhile amount of Dodge from Agility you would have to cripple your casting stats.
• Strength - useless for a mage.
• Spell Power - you can never have enough.
• Crit rating - as with Spell Power you can never have enough.
• Hit Rating - Very important for raiding, less for PvP and leveling. If raiding you will want to get into the 15-17% range (17% is a 446 Hit rating,) otherwise 5% is probably just fine. Remember that Draenei get a free 1%.

This section is only an overview of Mage leveling, check out our Mage Leveling Guide for more information.

4.0 - PvP (Level 80 builds)

57/3/11 Arcane Mage PvP Build

20/0/51 Arena PvP Frost Mage Build

But, there are exceptions to the rule – for Frost Mages especially you will find that there is a great deal more survivability in your spec because of the power of spells like Ice Block and Frost Nova. You can usually withstand almost double the damage as you your counterparts – of course your burst damage potential is greatly diminished but for those who would rather be more deliberate and strategic in battle this is the route to go.

Unlike practice and trial and error, a good Mage PvP Guide works with the expertise of past players to provide a complete outlook on the various methods you will use to effectively defeat any opponent in the game, even those such as the Warlock who are seemingly built to kill Mages.

The truth is that while a Mage can be highly effective in PvP, they are among the hardest classes to master. There is less room for error and much more room for mistake and while you can work kinks out, having a Mage PvP guide to give you good starting points is almost vital to being effective in this situation.

Learn how your mage can start dominating the battlefield and achieve over 2200 honor rating in as little as 38 days, right here.

5.0 - Raiding

Just a listing of gear for newer level 70 & 80 mages looking to begin karazhan and other such content, not all encompassing, just my personal choices and what I picked up along the way if possible. Many pieces are crafted, tailoring is your friend.

A well geared mage can dish out a lot of damage, enough that, if you aren't careful, the mob will leave the tank to come and kill you. Then it will kill the rest of the party. Guess who gets to eat the insults after the party wipes? Consider getting a threat meter addon, which will help to avoid this situation. More raiding addons can be found here.

Level 70 pre-kara gear. See below for level 80 gear.

Helm:

Spellstrike Hood - Crafted
Battlecast Hood - Crafted
Evoker's Helmet of Second Sight - Crafted

Neck:

Manasurge Pendant - 25 Heroic Badges
Charlotte's Ivy - World Drop BoE
Brooch of Heightened Potential -Drop(Shadow Laybrinth)

Back:

Shawl of Shifting Probabilities - 25 Heroic Badges
Baba's Cloak of Arcanistry - Drop(Mechanar)
Sethekk Oracle Cloak - Drop(Sethekk Halls)

Shoulders:

Frozen Shadoweave Shoulders - Crafted
Mantle of Three Terrors - Drop(Black Morass)
Spaulders of the Torn-heart - Quest Reward

Chest:

Spellfire Robe - Crafted
Incanter's Robe - Drop(Botanica)
Robe of the Crimson Order - BoE World Drop

Wrist:

Bands of Rarefied Magic - Drop(Heroic Shattered Halls)
Bands of Nethekurse - Drop(Shattered Halls)
Shattrath Wraps - Quest Reward

Hands:

Spellfire Gloves - Crafted
Incanter's Gloves - Drop(Steamvault)
Gloves of the High Magus - Quest Reward

Belt:

Spellfire Belt - Crafted
Girdle of Ruination - Crafted
Mage-Fury Girdle - Drop(Heroic Slave Pens)
Sash of Serpentra - Drop(Steamvault)

Legs:

Spellstrike Pants - Crafted
Battlecast Pants - Crafted
Mana-Etched Pantaloons - Drop(Heroic Underbog)
Incanter's Trousers - Drop(Sethekk Halls)

Boots:

Frozen Shadoweave Boots - Crafted
Boots of Blasphemy - Drop(Heroic Slave Pens)
Silent Slippers of Meditation - Drop(Shadow Laybrinth)

Rings:

Ring of Cryptic Dreams - 25 Heroic Badges
Cobalt Band of Tyrigosa - Drop(Heroic Mana Tombs)
Seer's Signet - Scryers Exalted
Ashyen's Gift - Cenarion Expedition Exalted
Band of the Guardian - Quest Reward
Seal of the Exorcist - 50 Spirit Shards

Trinkets:

Shiffar's Nexus-Horn - Drop(Arcatraz)
Arcanist's Stone - Drop(Heroic Old Hillsbrad)
Oculus of the Hidden Eye - Drop(Auchenai Crypts)

Weapons:

Eternium Runed Blade - Crafted
Blade of the Archmage - Reputation Reward(Honor Hold Exalted)
Mana Wrath - Drop(Mechanar)
Greatsword of Horrid Dreams - Drop(Shadow Laybrinth)

Off-hand:

Lamp of Peaceful Radiance - Drop(Arcatraz)
Manual of the Nethermancer - Drop(Mechanar)
Hortus' Seal of Brilliance - Drop(Shattered Halls)

Two-Handed:

Terokk's Shadowstaff - Drop(Heroic Sethekk Halls)
Bloodfire Greatstaff - Drop(Black Morass)
Warpstaff of Arcanum - Drop(Botanica)
Ameer's Impulse Taser - Quest Reward

Ranged Weapon:

The Black Stalk - Drop(Heroic Underbog)
Nexus Torch - Drop(Shattered Halls)
Nethekurse's Rod of Torment - Quest Reward
Wand of the Netherwing - Drop(Shadow Laybrinth)

Level 80 Gear, before raiding:

HEAD
[Titan-forged Hood of Dominance] - 40 Wintergrasp Marks of Honor
[Hat of Wintry Doom] - crafted

NECK
[Titanium Spellshock Necklace] From Jewelcrafting
[Choker of Betrayal], customizable neck with red socket
[Necklace of Taldaram] - Old Kingdom - Taldaram
[Emeline's Locket] from quests in Icecrown
[Encircling Burnished Gold Chains] 25 emblems


SHOULDER
[Dark Runic Mantle] BoE drop from Halls of Stone

BACK
[Ancient Dragon Spirit Cape] From The Occulus
[Polished Protodrake Cloak] from the Post-partum Aggression Quest
[Shroud of Dedicated Research] with Kirin Tor Honoured
[Deathchill Cloak] (requires Loremaster of Northrend to craft)
[Dark Soldier Cape] requires Knights of the Ebon Blade - Honored


CHEST
[Ebonweave Robe] From Tailoring
[Spellweave Robe] From Tailoring (if you don't need the Hit)
[Heroes' Frostfire Robe] From 80 Badge of Heroism
[Water-Drenched Robe] - The Violet Hold (Heroic)
[Egg Sac Robes] - Drops at Hadronox (Azjol-Nerub)

WRIST
[Azure Cloth Bindings] From Heroic Violet Hold (Cyanigosa)
[Black Duskweave Wristwraps] (crafted) - paired with the leggings if you don't have better gives a good 2pc bonus


HANDS

ilvl 200 Tailor crafted = [Ebonweave Gloves]
ilvl 200 Tailor crafted = [Spellweave Gloves]
ilvl 200 Heroic Nexus (Keristrasza) = [Gloves of Glistening Runes]
[Heroes' Frostfire Gloves] From 60 Bagdes of Heroism


BELT
[Plush Sash of Guzbah] 40 Badge of Heroism
[Sash of the Wizened Wyrm] with Wyrmrest Accord Honoured, nice chunk of +hit as well.
[Girdle of Bane] - UP - Ymiron
[Flowing Sash of Order] from heroic Halls of Lightning



LEGS
[Woven Bracae Leggings] From Heroic Halls Of Lightning (Loken)
[Sorrowgrave's Breeches] drops from the first boss in heroic Utgarde Pinnacle
[Black Duskweave Leggings] (crafted) and pair nicely with wrist for a 2pc bonus

FEET
[Sandals of Crimson Fury] From Wrymrest rep (Exalted)
[Cleric's Linen Shoes] From Heroic Nexus


RING
[Ring of Northern Tears] from JC
[Titanium Spellshock Ring] from JC
[Band of Guile] - Strat - Chest
[Annhylde's Ring] - UK - Ingvar
[Signet of Hopeful Light] - Argent Crusade - Exalted
[Ring of Temerity] from a quest starting in Coldarra Transitus Shield completed in normal Occulus and obtainable as soon as level 77
[Signet of the Kirin Tor] Available at the Daerlan Jewlelry vendor (8500g down to 6800 depending on rep)



TRINKET
[Figurine - Twilight Serpent] From JC
[Mark of the War Prisoner] From Heroic Violet Hold
[Forge Ember] gives quite a bit of crit. It also seems to procs on doing stuff like bandaging and cooking.
[Sundial of the Exiled] - Badges (40)
[Cannoneer's Fuselighter] - The Last Line Of Defense - Quest - World of Warcraft


WEAPON
[Flameheart Spell Scalpel] with Kirin Tor Revered - given that mages start at Friendly with them, pretty fast to get.

OFF-HAND
[Ward of the Violet Citadel] - Emblem of Heroism (25)
[Telestra's Journal] - The Nexus (Heroic)
[Temple Crystal Fragment] - Drak'Tharon Keep (Heroic)
[Bonecaster's Endgame]from a quest in Icecrown, "Banshee's Revenge"
[Seal of Valgarde] - Utgarde Pinnacle (Normal)
[Tome of Salramm] - The Culling of Stratholme (Normal)

WAND
[Ancient Measuring Rod] Loken, Halls of Lightning
[Wand of the San'layn] - Utgarde Keep (Heroic) (ranked above [Rod of the Fallen Monarch] in Rawr)
[Rod of the Fallen Monarch] Anub'arak, Heroic Azjol-Nerub
[Wand of Blinding Light] - quest reward from The Cleansing Of Jintha'kalar in Dragonblight

6.0 1-80 Mage Leveling Guide

Once you have the right build for your Mage consider a full blown 1-80 Mage leveling guide for the most effective (fastest) leveling. Why? With thousands of quests and a million mobs to grind the trip to 80 can take awhile. A long while. An in-game leveling guide, like Zygor's Guide, automates the whole 1-80 path for your mage, or start from any level and use Zygor's to blast to the finish.

Pick your starting point and the guide will show you where to go, what to do, and keep track of your objectives (such as Kill X of...). It automatically updates and advances as you complete tasks and quests, sets a waypoint arrow automatically (always showing youi where to go next,) and includes all the important quest info. You will probably never need to look at your quest log again, much less browse Thottbot. Grab your copy here and get leveled fast, or read the review first.