Updated for Mists of Pandaria. See our M of P for Mages post for general info on talents, glyphs, abilities, etc.
Mage PvP Specs
- Arcane PvP: Lots of damage, very squishy.
- Fire PvP: Lots of damage, better mobility, crit dependent. Massive damage when the crits line up. Still squishy.
- Frost PvP: Lots of survivability and CC, less sustained damage, but still quite nice. Still the spec of choice for Mists of Pandaria PvP.
All mages in PvP will use the same basic stat priority:
Regardless of spec:
- 6% hit for PvP (15% for raids)
- Gem for PvP Power and Resilience, use hybrid gems for socket matching.
Once you have your Hit:
- Fire should respec everything into Crit.
- Arcane and Frost should do the same for Haste.
Gems for PvP Mages
Gems with secondary stats have twice the value of gems with primary stats, so your Haste gems are 320 points and your Int gems are 160. This gives more reason to match socket bonuses. For most cases you will want to use these:
- Red socket: Mysterious Imperial Amethyst (Purple: Int and PvP Power)
- Yellow: Vivid Wild Jade (Green: Resilience and PvP Power)
- Blue: Stormy River’s Heart (Blue: PvP Power) or either of the above gems.
Your Mage bonus adds to any Int gem bonuses, making them worth 5% more Int. That bonus does not add to other stats.
| Gems and more gems | ||
|---|---|---|
| Meta |  |
Burning Primal Diamond: +216 Int & 3% Increased Crit Effect |
| Red |  |
Brilliant Serpent’s Eye: 320 Int, self-only Jewelcrafting gem Brilliant Primordial Ruby: 160 Int |
| Yellow |  |
Mystic Sun’s Radiance: 320 Resilience Quick Sun’s Radiance: +320 Haste Fractured Sun’s Radiance: +320 Mastery Smooth Sun’s Radiance: +320 Crit |
| Blue |  |
Stormy River’s Heart: +320 PvP power |
| Orange |  |
Willful Vermilion Onyx: +80 Int & +160 Resilience Potent Vermilion Onyx: +80 Int & +160 Crit Reckless Vermilion Onyx: 80 Int, 160 Haste Artful Vermilion Onyx: +80 Int & +160 Mastery |
| Green |  |
Vivid Wild Jade: +160 Res, +160 PvP Power |
| Purple |  |
Mysterious Imperial Amethyst: +80 Int, +160 PvP Power Veiled Imperial Amethyst: 80 Int and 160 Hit |
| Prismatic |  |
Brilliant Primordial Ruby: 160 Int |
| Cogwheel |  |
Tinker’s gears require an engie helm, such as this. Quick Tinker’s Gear: 600 Haste Smooth Tinker’s Gear: 600 Crit Fractured Tinker’s Gear: 600 Mastery |
Mage Enchants for PvP
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Helm enchants are gone in Mists of Pandaria, shoulder enchants all come from the Inscription profession.
The only Resilience enchant in the Chest piece, there are no PvP Power enchants. This means your enchanting will be mostly the same for PvP and PvE.
| Mage Enchantments | |
|---|---|
| Weapon | Enchant Weapon – Jade Spirit: Sometimes increases Int by 1650 Enchant Weapon – Windsong: Sometimes increase Crit, Haste, or Mastery by 1,500 for 12 seconds. Jade Spirit is much better, this one is much less expensive. |
| Shoulders | Secret Crane Wing Inscription: 520 Int and 100 Crit rating, Requires Inscription 550. Greater Crane Wing Inscription: +200 Int and 100 Crit |
| Cloak | Enchant Cloak – Superior Intellect: +180 Int Lightweave Embroidery – attacks can give 2k Int for 15 sec, requires tailoring |
| Chest | Enchant Chest – Super Resilience: +200 Resilience |
| Bracers | Enchant Bracer – Super Intellect: +170 Int Fur Lining increases Int by 500, requires leatherworking. Socket Bracer – Pop in a gem, requires Blacksmithing 400 |
| Gloves | Enchant Gloves – Greater Haste: +170-Haste Socket Gloves – Pop in a gem, requires Blacksmithing 400 |
| Belt | Livingsteel Belt Buckle: Gem slot for a nice Int gem |
| Leggings | Greater Cerulean Spellthread: +285 Int and +165 Crit |
| Boots | Enchant Boots – Greater Precison: +175 Hit rating Enchant Boots – Pandaren’s Step: +140 Mastery, slight run speed increase. Enchant Boots – Greater Haste: +170 Haste |
| Rings | Enchant Ring – Greater Intellect: +160 Int, Requires Enchanting 550 |
Notes on Abilities
Shatter is now available to all mages. Freeze your opponent before nuking and get a massively increased crit chance.
Tier 1 Talents:
- Presence of mind: Great when you need an instant cast of a spell with a long cast time.
- Scorch: Better for Fire, cast while moving to fish for Pyro crits.
- Ice Floes: Lets you cast your next two cast time spells while running, such as Frostbolt or Pyro/Arcane blast. Add it to a macro
Tier 2 Talents
- Temporal Shield – Nice when being pressured, if you can survive for 4 seconds.
- Blazing speed – This would be great if it was automatically activated.
- Ice Barrier – Stops about 50k damage at 90, which is nice.
Tier 3 Talents
- Ring of Frost – nice for blocking pathways or freezing groups.
- Ice Ward – We’re not healers and aren’t usually in charge of protecting allies, so this isn’t so hot.
- Frostjaw – Silence, root, and Freeze all in one. Get a proc (such as Pyro,) freeze him and burn him. Very useful.
Tier 4 Talents
- Greater Invisibility – Fade away, remove two DoTs, and escape.This has definite use.
- Cauterize – Nice if a healer is keeping an eye on you or you remember to ice block right away.
- Coldsnap – nice for emergency heal and/or refreshing cooldowns for more Shatters. 3 min cooldown, though.
Tier 5 Talents
- Nether Tempest – This is the pick if you mainly fight single targets.
- Living Bomb – Nice for fighting small to medium groups, such as often happens in the BGs.
- Frost Bomb – This would be sweet if it was instant like the other two.
Tier 6 Talents
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