Contents

The Mage

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

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 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,’ either by constant movement, blinking, invisibility, crowd control, and massive burst damage.

This potentially crosses over into PvE woes as well, with the frequency of AoE boss fights, in Wrath of the Lich King, dictating that we be a little more careful in case the tank loses a few mobs to our superior damage. To make yourself useful you’ll need to possess enough skill to make your positive qualities shine above being a simple damage machine.

This guide is simply intended to provide a general overview of the Mage class. For a more in-depth and highly detailed resource on everything Mage related, from leveling to PvP to Raiding to earning gold, check out the Killer Guides' Mage guide.

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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 85, 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, Northrend, and beyond.

Multiple sets of cloth armor are greater than instance gear and more accessible even for a brand new 60, 70. or 85. 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, especially in Cataclysm. 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.

Another option is to spend some time farming appropriate materials.

Other useful skills:

• Alchemy will keep you in mana and healing potions, as well as all sorts of other potions, elixers, etc. You get more effect from consuming your own potions. The top buffing potions that you make will provide an addition 80 Int.
• Inscription has several "off-hand" items that are very nice, as well as high-end shoulder inscriptions.
• Jewelcrafting has some nice, self-only, gems. These provide 67 Int and you can load three of them.
• 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.

Professions for Min/Maxers

If you're getting a prof for the buffs then skip the gathering profs completely. Blacksmithing gives you a net +100 Int (use two +50 Int gems) as opposed to the others which are all about +80 Int equivalent.

Engineering - There is a major change in how engineering enchants work: The use effects do not overwrite the usual enchant anymore.

• Synapse Springs: 480 Int for 10 sec on a 1 min cooldown
• Nitro Boosts have their crit bonus removed and are applied to your belt.
• Lightweight Bio-Optic Killshades with special engineering sockets. You can choose from different cogwheels, each granting 208 of a different (yellow-gem) combat stat.

Tailoring

• Lightweave Embroidery, rank 2: 580 SP for 15 sec, 35% proc chance, 1 min internal cooldown. Of course, you will also be able to make your own gear sets.

Jewelcrafting

• 3x 67 Int Gem results in +81 Int over the next best gems.

Blacksmithing

• The two additional sockets (Socket Bracer and Socket Gloves) result in 80 Int (+100 with the patch 4.3 epic gems.)

Alchemy

• Mixology adds 80 Int to your Flask of the Draconic Mind and doubles the duration. It also increases the effect that you get from using your other potions.

Enchanting

• 2x Enchant Ring - Intellect for another 80 Int.

Inscription

• Felfire Inscription adds 80 Int over Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone, which also saves you some reputation farming

Leatherworking

• Draconic Embossment - Intellect: Provides 130 Int instead of 65 Crit or 65 Haste. *

Herbalism - Lifeblood: 480 Haste for 20 sec on a 2 min cooldown

Skinning - Master of Anatomy = 80 Crit.

Mining - Toughness will only help tank mages.

What Race Should You Be?

Wtih Cataclysm, the only race that cannot be mages is the Tauren.

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 & stealth detect,) 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:
  • Good for PvP, with the Escape ability. Stealth detection has been eliminated in 4.0.
  • 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.
    
    
• 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. In instances and raids it will drop the aggro youi picked up until you unmeld. Hopefully the tank has picked the mob(s) up by then. (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. It also reduced damage by 10%, which is of some benefit in those "Oh Rats!" situations.
    
    
• Worgen (Cataclysm)
  • Can periodically move quickly, which is a generally nice ability.
  • Crit chance increased, which is nice, especially for Fire.

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 is a small speed increase, which increases casting speed by 20% for a few seconds.
  • 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 is 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.

Mage Abilities

With 4.0 there is no more hybridization worthy of the name. At level 10 you will pick one of the three specializations and you will be locked into that spec until you have spent 31 points, after which you can pick talents from the other specs. There are 41 talent points to be had at level 85, 36 at 80, which means that your most hybridized build will be something like 31/10/0.

Also, each spec (for any class) has some abilities unique to that class, once such being Mastery, which is trainable at level 80. See below for more details on these 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. With 4.0 fire seems to be the "burn everything in sight" and "run and gun" mage spec.

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. The survivability and crowd contral aspect of Front make it a favorite PvP, and leveling, tree. With the release of WoW 4.0 Frost is/was laying waste in PvP. Who knows when that will change.

New Spells

• Portal: Tol Barad, level 85, Creates a portal, teleporting level 85+ group members that use it to Tol Barad. Cost: 18% of base mana, 10 yd range, 10 sec cast, 1 min cooldown, Reagents: Rune of Portals
• Teleport: Tol Barad level 85 Teleports the caster to Tol Barad. 8% of base mana, 10 sec cast, Reagents: Rune of Teleportation
• Time Warp - Level 85 - Warp the flow of time, increasing melee, ranged, and spell casting speed by 30% for all party and raid members. Lasts 40 sec. Allies receiving this effect will become unstuck in time, and be unable to benefit from Bloodlust, Heroism, or Time Warp again for 10 min. 26% of base mana, Instant cast, 5 min cooldown
• Ring of Frost, level 83 - Summons a Ring of Frost, taking 3 sec to coalesce. Enemies entering the fully-formed ring will become frozen for 10 sec. Lasts 12 sec. 10 yd radius. 7% of base mana, 30 yd range, Channeled, 3 min cooldown
• Flame Orb - Level 81 - Launches a Flame Orb forward from the Mage's position, dealing 228.01 Fire damage every second to the closest enemy target for 15 secs. 6% of base mana, 40 yd range, Channeled, 1 min cooldown

Mastery is trainable at level 80.

Specializations

Arcane Spec

Arcane used to be something of 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.

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.

The Arcane Spec abilities are:

• Arcane Barrage - Launches bolts of arcane energy at the enemy target, causing Arcane damage. 12% of base mana, 40 yd range, Instant cast, 5 sec cooldown
• Arcane Specialization, Passive - Increases the damage of your Arcane spells by 25%.
• Mastery: Mana Adept - Increases all spell damage done by up to 12%, based on the amount of mana the Mage has unspent. Each point of Mastery increases damage done by up to an additional 1.5%. Instant

Arcane Mage Leveling

Arcane is a spec that was simply not designed for leveling, prior to 4.0. With 4.0 it's a lot less painful than it used to be and Arcane is a viable and fun leveling spec with big numbers and cool stuff. Arcane mages to very well in instances.

For more about Arcane, see our Arcane Mage page. If you're leveling your mage then see our Mage leveling guide or our recommended 1-85 leveling guide, here.

Fire Spec

Fire is the burst damage tree, massive damages, pyroblasts, etc.  If you’re looking for anything from a
good leveling build to raiding, then 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.

Fire is viable in PvP, but it takes some effort and Frost is a better choice.

The FIre Spec abilities are:

• Pyroblast - Hurls an immense fiery boulder that causes good damaged. It was buffed in 4.3
• Fire Specialization, Passive - Increases the damage of your Fire spells by 25%.
• Mastery: Flashburn - Increases the damage done by all your periodic fire damage. Each point of Mastery increases periodic damage done by an additional %.
  

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 downtime.

Our Fire Mage guide has more and if you're leveling your mage then see our Mage leveling guide or our recommended 1-85 leveling guide, here.

Frost Spec

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 can get to you, you kill them via a small amount of kiting if necessary augmented by the frost spell's snare effects.

Frost's special abilities are:

• Frost Specialization - Passive - Increases the damage of your Frost spells by 25%.
• Summon Water Elemental - Summon a Water Elemental to fight for the caster.
• Mastery: Frostburn - All your spells deal increased damage against Frozen targets. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional%.

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.

Also see our Frost Mage guide and if you're leveling your mage then see our Mage leveling guide or our recommended 1-85 leveling guide, here.

Leveling and stats

As I mentioned near the start of the guide, mages are great fun at level 85, it’s getting there that can sometimes be painful.  It's the combination of being a bit squishy and having too many mobs in melee range. 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. (There's a reason that you see so many mages jumping about, spamming Frost Nova and Arcane Blast. )

Mana is thankfully no longer a real issue, which is a big help.

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.

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. With 4.0 your Int also directly adds to your spellpower and Int is now the #1 stat for all mages.
• Stamina is more important for PvP than raiding or leveling, but you need enough to survive in any given situation.
• Spirit is useless with 4.0
• Agility is useless for a mage.
• Strength is useless for a mage.
• Spell Power - you can never have enough, but it now only appears on some gear.
• Crit rating - as with Spell Power you can never have enough, especially for Fire.
• Hit Rating - Very important for raiding, less for PvP and leveling. If raiding you will want to get into the 15-17% range, otherwise 5% is just fine. Remember that Draenei get a free 1%.
  • 17% is a 446 Hit rating at level 80
  • at level 85, 1742 rating is required.
  • The hit cap for raid bosses is 17%, or 1742 rating points
• Direct Damage - some gear has +X fire/frost/arcane damage. While you will give up Stamina or Int, it is a nice add to your basic damage type.
• Resilience - reduces the damage caused by other players, but it no longer reduces their crit chance against you. Res. has zero value ouitside of PvP.

Enchantments

• Head:
  • Arcanum of Hyjal - +60 Int, 35 crit, BoA, Guardians of Hyjal - Revered
  • Arcanum of Blissful Mending - 26 Int, 20 Spirit, Revered w/Wyrmrest Accord
  • Glyph of Power
• Shoulders:
  • Felfire Inscription - 130 Int, 25 Haste, self-only, Inscription 500
  • Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone - 50 Int, 25 Haste, Therazane Exalted
  • Greater Inscription of the Crag - 21 Int, 16 Spirit, Sons of Hodir Exalted
  • Aldor/ Scryer Inscription
• Back:
  • Enchant Cloak - Greater Intellect - 50 Int, Enchanting 510
  • Lightweave Embroidery - attacks have chance to increase spellpower by 580 for 15 sec, requires tailoring 500
  • Spell Penetration
• Chest:
  • Enchant Chest - Peerless Stats - 20 to all stats (20 Int, 20 Stam,) Enchanting 525
  • PvP - Enchant Chest - Mighty Resilience - 40 Resilence
  • Exceptional Mana
• Wrist:
  • Enchant Bracer - Greater Speed - 65 Haste, enchanting 525
  • Enchant Bracers - Superior Spellpower - 30 Spellpower, enchanting 440
• Hands:
  • Enchant Gloves - Haste - 65 Haste, enchanting 455
  • Enchant Gloves - Greater Mastery - 65 Mastery, enchanting 525
  • Major Spellpower
• Legs:
  • Powerful Enchanted Spellthread - 95 Int, 80 Stam, tailoring 525
  • Runic Spellthread
• feet:
  • Enchant Boots - Precision - 50 Hit rating
• Rings:
  • Enchant Ring - Intellect - 40 Int, Self-Only Enchanting 475
• Weapon:
  • Enchant Weapon - Power Torrent - Sometimes increases Int by 500 for 12 sec, ench 525
  • Enchant Weapon - Hurricane - Sometimes increase Haste by 450 for 12 sec, ench 480
  • Enchant Weapon - Black Magic - Sometimes increase Haste by 250 for 12 sec, ench 440
  • Major Spellpower

Gems

All mages will be fitting Brilliant gems into all slots, unless the socket bonus is a very high Int bonus.

• Meta
  • Burning Shadowspirit Diamond- 54 Int, +3% crit. Expensive.
  • Chaotic Shadowspirit Diamond- 54% Crit, +3% increased crit damage
  • Ember Shadowspirit Diamond- 54 Int, 2% increased mana
• Red
  • Brilliant Chimera's Eye- 67 int, self-only Jewelcrafting gem
  • Brilliant Queen’s Garnet
  • Brilliant Inferno Ruby- This should go intoallslots unless some requirement has to be met or the slot bonus is really good.
• Yellow
  • Reckless Ember Topaz
  • PvP - Mystic Chimera's Eye- 67 Resilience rating, self-ony Jewelcrafting gem
  • PvP - Mystic Lightstone - 50 Res.
  • PvP - Mystic Amberjewel- 40 Res.
• Blue
  • Veiled Demonseye
• Green (fits blue or yellow socket)
  • PvP -Steady Dream Emerald- 20 Res, 30 Stam
• Orange (fits a red or yellow socket)
  • PvP -Willful Ember Topaz- 20 Res, 20 Int

Leveling Tips

• There are times when having a wand is nice, though it's far from essential.
• Learn to kite and constantly practice your snares and roots.
• 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.

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

Mage PvP Builds

With the release of WoW 4.0 Frost became a superb PvP build for mages, combining crowd control, very good survivability, and major damage. The other trees have less of the first two, but they also do plenty of damage, making all three trees at least decent in PvP.

Will this be the case at 85? Who knows. Get yourself leveled ASAP and let us know!

That said, here are some good starting points for your PvP mage:

• Arcane mage PvP build
• Fire mage PvP build
• Frostmage PvP 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 (barring flavor of the month effects,) but for those who would rather be more deliberate and strategic in battle this is the route to go.

Be aware of what your opponents can do. If you're not aware of what a Subtlety Rogue can do then he'll catch you by surprise and you'll be way down in HP, silenced, stunned, or any combination of the above. If you are aware then you can plan your counters.

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.

One you have an idea of what to do then endless practice is the best way to get good. At this point Frost is called the Faceroll build, because it has all the tools and can work very well. Next week may be different. If you have the skill to use all the tools, not just Ice Lance, then you'll be that much better when the "flavor of the month" changes to some other class/build.

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 which makes mistakes that much more lethal.

Learn how your mage can start dominating the battlefield and achieve much higher arean ranking, right here.