Mage Guide
Introduction:
A long time ago, Mages lived only in Dalaran. But after the Burning
Leagion's attack, magic spread all along the Eastern Kingdoms and
Kalimdor. A Mage controls Frost, Fire and Arcane magic. His ability
to sheep oponents makes him a must-have when beating more than 1
oponent. Besides that, Mages can conjure water and food. They can
also teleport to major cities at lvl 20 (30 for capitals with less
majority-Darnassus,Thunder Bluff) and make portals at lvl 40 (50 for
DS and TB).
Available races:
- Alliance:
Human
Gnome
- Horde:
Troll
Undead
Armor and weapons:
- Armor-Cloth
- Weapons-Staves,Wands,Daggers,One-handed swords
Primary and secondary
attributes:
- Primary-Intellect
- Secondary-Stamina;Spirt
As int is your primary attribute, you should get as much int as
possible from items. The clothes (by animal types) you should wear
are Eagle and Owl. Both give int and a secondary attribute. Also,you
should be aiming for at least 6000 mana at lvl 60, so the more
intellect you get, the better (At lvl 57, we got ~5800 mana/~2000 hp
without buffs). Other type of armor you need is items, which give
+dmg. The more the better. For example if you have to decide
between +12 int or +11 int+10dmg with spells, you should get the
+11int+10dmg with spells one. Actually, 1 int=~25 mana, which is not
a lot but can be priceless when oom against Ragnaros, let's say.
Suitable professions:
- Tailoring/Enchanting
- Herbalism/Alchemy
Soloing:
When soloing, questing is the better choice for Mages. We are no good
grinders for sure. After nearly every battle, Mages need to
drink/eat. In order to avoid this for at least two or three breaks,
you need a lot of int gear. Fire Mages do really nice amounts of
daMage but the control,which frost offers is priceless. My personal
opinion, that is. There is a really nice trick, which you can do with
Ice Barrier+Frost Nova+Blizzard+Cone of Cold. But you need to be lvl
40 in order to get the barrier, which absorbs daMage. Cast it, then
aggro the group of mobs and after you colected all, frost nova all
and go around 20 yards from them. Blizzard them. If you have the
improved blizzard talent, then they will nearly be move-less. That's
when you cone of cold them. With the right talents, you will crit all
of them. If they are not dead, frost nova them again and blizzard
again. My personal record with that is 20 skeletons in Sorrow Hill,
WP(50-52) at lvl 52.
Grouping:
In instances, Mages are a must-have in most of the seups. As a
caster-type class,you should always be at a good range away from the
mobs having the tanks get hit. Remember,!!!MAGES SHOULD NEVER BE
TOUCHED!!!. Your job is to deal daMage. Don't bother about the
tanks or the healers. Concentrate on nuking. Most of times, you'll
die from two hits from boss mobs and that's not good. A dead dmg
dealer deals the same dmg a healer deals. If you get aggro, don't run
away. Best way to get aggro off is the Ice Block spell but it's a
talent-only spell (frost). Other option is not to get aggro at
all-BoS, Taunt. Also,when you're away from the mobs, the group is
attacking, try not to go too far and get out of range or accidentally
pull ads.
Talents:
The three possible trees for Mages are arcane/fire/frost. For fast
grinding mobs 1 by 1, we suggest a fire or fire/arcane
build:
Fire(there are only 48 talent points in fire
but you'll probably respec at lvl 60,so it doesn't matter where
you'll put the other points)
Fire/Arcane(21/30/0)
Another possibility is AoE grinding. For this type, the best Mage
is the fire/frost Mage:
Fire/Frost(0/21/30)
For PVP you should use a frost/arcane build as your survivability
will increase significantly with it.
When you start doing MC and BWL, even BRD, you'll need to respec
as the the mobs there are immune to fire (only the elementals are
immune in BRD). We recommend the build we use:
Frost/Arcane(18/0/33)
Class quests:
You can see all the Mage-only quests and everything about them here.
We advise you to do the first quest. Get the staff from it - Ley
Staff (Human,Undead) / Arcane Staff (Gnome,Troll), as you won't find
a better one till you finish Deadmines.
Also,Tabetha's quests
- a wand and a staff/orb (the staff is better) + she'll give you a
Zul'Farrak, Scarlet Monastery and Uldaman quest. The quest in
ST/Temple of Atal'Hakkar is boring (the pre-quests anyway) and the
prices are not worth it. Better skip the quests we didn't mention.
Especially, the pristine spider's silk quest. Try to get the
Arcanist's Cookbook at lvl 54.The quest is in DM and will give
you a trinket which gives you +10 fire res and decent dmg with spells
and healing (^^) increase.