Now we return you to your regularly scheduled guide:

The WoW Mage: Contents

Introduction

Mages are a tricky class in which to gauge performance, particularly in leveling speed.  Put a mage with the best gear possible in the hands of an amateur and you have one of the worst levelers in the game.  On the flip-side, with an experienced player behind the class it becomes a pretty efficient leveling machine.

A large amount of the blame for this can be placed on the relatively complicated talent trees. Unlike many other classes where the choice for each tier is quite obvious in general, mages have quite a few talents that *sound* good and *look* good but are most definitely not good. Some are better for PvP, which is great, unless you don't like PvP. Ditto for groups.

Some skills in "kiting" and manipulating multiple mobs are also necessary, especially with Fire. Sheep are your friends, at least until you kill them

So, that’s why this guide is here to help. In addition to overcoming the hump of what talent build and general progression to follow, I’ll also be covering what statistics you want to aim for to truly maximize efficient damage output.

Buffs and Nerfs: With the 4.0 patch Mages received a lot of love and were doing crazy damage. Natrually a hotfix changed that. Raiders are concerned about spell usage and mana-efficiency. This week's answers will be different from next week's answers to the "What's best?" questions, so the builds here don't reflect the current "what's hot, what's not" buff or nerf and will reflect basic builds to work with.

Also, keep in mind that Mists of Pandaria will change everything in regards to talents and mana usage.

Quick Mage Leveling Guide

This is the short version of this guide. There is more detail below this section.

Race: It doesn't matter much. If you really want to be efficient for the end-game PvP or PvE then...

• Alliance PvE: Draenei (for the Hit)
• Alliance PvP: Human (escape) or Gnome (mana pool & escape)
• Horde PvE: Orc (Blood Fury) or Troll (Berserking)
• Horde PvP: Orc, Troll, or Undead (for the escape.)

Spec: All specs level just fine. The builds linked to also include glyphs.

• Frost if you're on a PvP server.
• Fire or Arcane: Whichever suits your game.
• If you need to blast to 85 as fast as possible then check out our favorite leveling guide.

Stats and Gear:

• Stamina at low levels
• After that, Int above all else
• No Spirit, no Agility, no Strength.
• If you find direct damage gear (eg: +fire damage for fire mage) then use it.
• At higher levels
  • Hit is always good
  • Fire likes Crit, a lot.
  • All mages like Haste.
• Resilence only if you PvP.

Gems & Enchants:

Keep in mind that you'll level out of your gear quickly, so only get expensive gems if you're rich.

• Int gems only (Brilliant gems)
• Cheap enchants: Stam, Int, Spellpower.
• Heirloom gear can take any enchant that can be applied to an iLevel 1 item.

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Go to => Top - Quick Guide - Race - Fire - Frost - Arcane - Stats - Other - Level Faster

Race choice for the Leveling Mage

Wtih the arrival of the Cataclysm expansion the various classes are open to more races then ever before. However, the Tauren are left out of this one. Maybe in WoW 5.

Really, the best choice for race is to pick the one that fits your game. If you want to get every last bit of efficiency then some choices have advantages as mages. Orcs and Trolls are probably best for raiding, with Draenei being next. For PvP Orc (Enrage & Stun resist) or Human (escape ) though Gnomes & Undead have their uses. Skill counts for more than race, though.

Alliance

For the Alliance, the Draenei may be best for Raiding (with their +1% to hit chance,) while Humans and Gnomes are best for PvP

• Human:
  • Better for PvP, with their Escape ability.
  • 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 is nice if you ever want to gain rep and not so much if you don't care.
  • Spirit is now useless for mages, and so is the Human's increased Spirit.
  • One upon a time Human had enhanced steath detection. This is gone.
    
    
• Gnome:
  • As Humans, better for PvP due to their Escape Artist skill and small size.
  • Previously Gnomes had increased Int, now they have an increased mana pool, which is certainly of interest to any caster.
  • Engineering skill doesn't help casting, but that skill can make some nice gadgets which will help.
    
    
• Draenei:
  • A minor heal is always handy for a class that has no heals.
  • Draenei get a self-only + 1% to hit chance with spells. Not so useful for leveling, but nice for PvP and nicer for raids, where every little bit helps
    
    
• Night Elf (Cataclysm)
  • Their Shadowmeld ability has its uses while leveling or PvPing and can dropp aggro in instances and raids. Popping out of hiding to blast away has definite PvP value.
  • Being a bit harder to hit is also occasionally nice while leveling or in PvP. Again, not much use in raiding.
  • Faster movement while stealthed is great for your fellow Rogues, but you don't do stealth.
    
    
• Dwarf (Cataclysm)
  • Stone form is nice in PvP and of occasional use elsewhere.
    
    
• Worgen (Cataclysm)
  • Can periodically move quickly, which is a generally nice ability.
  • Crit chance increased, which has general use.

Horde

For PvE? Troll or Orc
For PvP? Troll or Orc for offense, or Undead for "Will of the Forsaken."

• Undead:
  • Will of the Forsaken is a nice PvP ability, but much more situational 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:
  • Berserking increases your casting speed for a few seconds, which is always nice.
  • Beast Slaying is a nice little bonus for leveling, but pretty useless elsewhere.
  • Voodoo shuffle is a help in PvP, but situational elsewhere.
    
    
• Blood Elf:
  • An increase to Enchanting skill is of no direct use, but 'chanters get some self-only 'chants which are nice.
  • Arcane Torrent is of little use, since it doesn't return much mana and the opponent has to be close to you for the silence to work and casters will rarely be that close (though DKs might be...)
    
    
• Orc (Cataclysm)
  • Blood Fury adds to spell power as well as attack power
  • No useful mage specific abilities, though the increased resistance to stun does have some general use.
    
    
• Goblin (Cataclysm)
  • Increased Haste is generally useful.
  • Your spells are far more damaging than the rocket launcher.
  • Rocket leap might be a useful escape ability, like an extra Blink.
  • An increase to Alchemy skill and increased results from healing potions has its uses.
    
    
• Tauren (nope)
  • Bovine discrimination? Racism? General Tauren policy? No mages here. Giant, war-stomping, furry Tauren things can't be mages at this time.

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Talents and Cataclysm Mage leveling builds

At level 10 you get to pick your first talent. When you do you are locked into your choice of specialization. Until you spend 31 talent points (at level 69) you will be fire or frost or arcane. After you have spent those 31 points you are free to branch out into other areas. Note that you don't actually have to buy the top tier talent to branch out, you just need to spend the 31 points.

Mastery is a trainable skill that you have access to upon achieving level 80. Gear will come with Mastery Rating, which will increase the Mastery effect much like Crit Rating does now.

You no longer learn several levels of spell. You buy the spell once and it scales as you level.

Which spec?

• Fire and Arcane do a lot of damage, but have few survival or control abilities. Not recommended for PvP unless you have mad skillz.
• Frost is definitely the best PvP build, with decent damage, plus good control and survivability. If you're on a PvP server then consider Frost as a first choice for leveling, otherwise fire or arcane.

Our Generic recommendation for the new mage? Go Frost, for the survival skills, though Fire or Arcane will level just fine and often destroy the opponent before it gets to you.

Fire Leveling Spec - For when you just have to burn things.

Burn baby, burn. Pure flaming damage, scorched earch, and all that. Fire has periodic effects, is intended for multiple targets, and has movement buffs. Run and burn, baby! More than most any other spec, of any class, fire mages are intended to cast damage on the move.

Your Fire Spec abilities are:

• You get Pyroblast upon picking the fire spec, and
• Fire Specialization increases the damage of your fire spells by 25%, and
• Mastery: Flashburn increases the damage from all your periodic effects by a fair amount.

(click to view this build)

Click here to get to 85, fast

Go to => Top - Quick Guide - Race - Fire - Frost - Arcane - Stats - Other - Level Faster

Frost Leveling Spec for Cataclysm

Freeze your enemies and shatter them. Plenty of survival here as well as controlling the opposition, via slows and freezes. Less damage than fire, but a lot more control. This is why a lot of people recommend Frost for leveling.

Your special abilities for going Frost are:

• Summon Water Elemental - You get this as soon as you pick Frost
• Frost Specialization - You'll pick this up immediately and it gives you +25% to Frost damage
• Mastery: Frostburn: trainable at level 80, all your spells deal increased damage to frozen targets. Additional Mastery Rating increases this damage.

When you have spent 31 talent points you will be able to branch out into the other trees, until then you're locked into the Frost tree.

Frost Leveling Build

(click to view this build)

Click here to get to 85, fast

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Arcane Leveling spec

• Arcane Barrage - Your base ability, which launches bolts at the opposition
• Arcane Specialization - Increases damage of Arcane spells by 25%
• Mastery: Mana Adept: Increases spell damage by the amount of mana you have not spent. The more mana unspent, the more damage. Mastery Rating increases this percentage of extra damage.

Arcane leveling build for Cataclysm

Click here to get to 85, fast

Go to => Top - Quick Guide - Race - Fire - Frost - Arcane - Stats - Other - Level Faster

Gear, stats, etc.

The most important statistics for any levelng mage are intellect and stamina. These two stats improve two things that no mage is ever satisfied with: health and mana.  Thankfully, it's easy to find cloth pieces that contain at least one, and often both, of these stats in ample levels.

• Primary Stats
• Your Int now determines your Spellpower, and influences your Crit Rating, not just your mana pool. Int is, by far, you most important stat, for any flavor of mage (and any caster.)
• Stamina - you need enough to stay alive.
• Strength? For what? To hold up a heavy staff? Skip it.
• Same for Agility. Agility does add to dodge and armor, but not enough to be worth looking for.
• Spirit, with 4.0, has pretty much zero use.
  
  
• Secondary Stats - Do not sacrifice Int to get any of these stats and don't worry about them much while leveling, though some hit might be nice, especially if you do dungeons.
• Hit rating is pretty important for all mages, especially in PvE, but it only really starts appearing on your gear at the high end.
• Spellpower doesn't appear much on gear until the high end, and even then it's pretty much only on trinkets and some enchants. Nice when you can get it.
  • Some gear has Fire/Frost/Arcane damage as a stat. This is good stuff.
• Crit rating - Crit is very important for fire mages since so many talents depend on it and it's less important, though still nice, for the other Mage specs.
• Haste - Another stat appearing mostly at the high end of the level range. Good for all mages.

Reforging

Find a piece of gear that look great, but has those icky points in the wrong rating? Reforge it. Reforging lets you take 40% from rating A and change it to rating B. Basically you won't be able reforge before 80 and you shouldn't worry about it until you get into end-game PvP and Instances/raids.

Buffs

You have Arcane Int as a nice Int buff and you can get scrolls and foods to buff your Stamina. Stam scrolls are generally dirt cheap these days, so buy a bunch or talk to your friendly, neighborhood Inscription expert.

The better buffed you are the faster your leveling will go. Keep your Armor and Int spells up along with any other buffs appropriate to the situation (such as Fire Ward.)

Foods of certain types buff your Stamina at low levels and other stats at higher levels. Get cooking or keep an eye on the Auction House for interesting foods. Check WoWhead.com for current recipes appropriate to your level. Also, prices and availablility on the AH vary wildly, so keep that in mind when shopping.

Scrolls add to your Stam or Int and are generally very cheap to buy, but with 4.0 they are now considered "battle elixers" and won't stack with other battle elixers or potions.

Potions can add to various stats as well as recover health and/or mana. Consider Herbalism and Alchemy to keep yourself in Pots as you level.

Quest Rewards - Every now and then a quest reward will provide a buff or buffing item. An example is the troll in the cage in Camp Taurajo, who will give you a buff in echange for blood shards. In Tranquillen (Ghost Lands) one of the quest givers will give you potions Vs undead in return for undead parts.

Gems and Enchants

You won't see socketed gear very often, at all, until 60+. If you have the gold to buy gems then stick to Int gems, otherwise skip them.

Some enchants are handy, but they can be very expensive. How much gold do you have? At lower levels I look for really cheap enchants. Buying the expensive ones is pointless when you will be out of that gear soon.

If you are PvPing in competitive BGs then some enchants, especially Stamina, might be desireable.

Go to => Top - Quick Guide - Race - Fire - Frost - Arcane - Stats - Other - Level Faster

Leveling Tips

The general routine is this: Keep the opposition at maximum range wherever possible and blast away. Use Frost Nova when the mob gets too close, blink, get some range and blast away. You will probably want to have a wand handy for those rare times when you are low on mana, and use the wand when the mob is running away from you or your partner is tanking it. Something to show you the way helps, too.

Food - Keep well stocked. Regular foods are great if you need to recover a lot of HP. Beverages keep your mana up. Your Create Water & Create Food are free, use them. You can usually find beverages that will recover more mana than the spell in certain level ranges, so grab those when appropriate, but again... the spell is free. :)

First Aid - An essential skill, too bad there isn't a "first aid for Mana." Keep it maxed.

Crafting- skip the crafting professions unless you have a ton of cash. If you want to go for it, and you don't need to gather stuff to sell, then there are a couple of good combiniations:

• Herbalism and Alchemy - You'll be able to create lots of very useful potions with the stuff that you gather, this keeps your costs way down.
• Skinning and Mining (or Herbalism) -is a great money making combo. Builds Stam and Crit rating, too.
• Tailoring and Enchanting - Enchanting is very expensive to level. You can use it here, though, to disenchant many of the surplus items that you make with tailoring. The mats created will sell for more than the items. Or save the mats and use them for the enchants. By the way, some clothing items sell for nice prices.

Wands - these aren't quite as useful as with other caster classes, since they mobs will usually be running towards you, rather than away from you (fear spells,) but if your tank is holding aggro and you're low on mana, then wands are great even if you won't be using them very often.

Besides, they usually come with useful stats.

Gear - Stam, stam, and more stam. With some Int if it comes with the Stam. Get the biggest bags you can afford. Carry plenty of food and bandaids and beverages.

Once your survival isn't an issue start stacking as much Int as you can.

Bank alt- make a bank alt so you can mail your stuff and get back to leveling. Yes, you can 'port to the city, but 'porting back to your leveling area isn't quite so easy.

Develop eyes in the back of your head, especially on PvP servers. It's not that you can't do damage up close, it's that you can't take it. See what's coming before it surpirses you and Learn to love the Frost Nova and Blink combo, especially when sneaky things are about.

Mage 1-85 leveling Guide Once you have the right build for your Mage consider a full blown Mage Leveling Guide for the most effective (fastest) leveling. Why? With thousands of quests and a million mobs to grind the trip to 85 can take a while. A long while. An in-game leveling guide will almost automate the whole 1-85 path for your mage. Start from any level and use Dugi's to blast to the finish. Heck, you can even grab a few levels in the dungeons and battleground PvP. Dugi's guide will figure out your new level and the best spot to continue your questing. It'll even clear out your obsolete quests. Pick your starting point and the guide will show you where to go and what to do. It automatically updates and advances as you complete tasks and quests, sets a waypoint arrow automatically (always showing you 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 stop mid-play to browse some website. Note: Dugi's is fully Cataclysm 4.3 ready now, so grab your copy and beat all your friends to 85. Learn more here.