Mage Guide

. Introduction
2. General Information
3. Talent Builds
4. Gear
5. Teaming
6. Raiding
7. Proffesions
8. PvP

Introduction:

The Mage is in a couple words "Glass Cannon" they specialize in ranged DPS while attempting to stay at a range from their enemies. The Mage is one of the highest damage classes in the game with a huge mana pool but not much life. Mages are useful in almost any situation with a wide range of spells for any battle.

The Mage does best when protected by a warrior or some of front-line combatant as they cannot withstand much punishment with their cloth armor, but rather are better at ending a battle before a enemy can retaliate.

Mages also have the ability to summon food and water which is very helpful when they or their allies are far from any town or flight path and can keep the party going. They also have some helpful buffs and other spells which are very useful.

General Information:

The mage has 3 spell casting trees each with a number of spells. The Arcane Tree which is a mix between damage and efficiency as well as a number of buffs and summoning spells. Arcane mages have some useful mana conserving talents/spells. An Arcane mage can mix his arcane spells with either fire or frost for the maximum damage.

The Fire Tree focuses on direct damage and killing any enemies before they can do anything to the mage. Fire Mages can dish out quite a bit of damage in the space of a few seconds but may exhaust their mana pool. Fire mages can quickly dispatch multiple enemies before having to rest.

The Frost Tree is all about slowing an enemy down and efficiency as many of frosts talents are focused around conserving mana while still dishing out damage. The Frost mage has the ability to kite an opponent around keeping him away from the mage while the mage wears them down.

Most mages use a combination of either of the 2 spell tree's. Many mages find combining Fire with Arcane or Frost with Arcane makes the best of the spells. Sometimes however mages will combine fire and frost to make a quick killing machine without much mana efficiency.

Mages also have a number of abilities to keep enemies at range such as Frost Nova or slowing abilities such as Cone of Cold, or Blast Wave. Most times a mage can defeat an opponent without taking any damage at all.

The worst thing for a mage is to get caught by a warrior or a rogue at close range. A rogue or warrior can tear through a mage in a matter or seconds if you don't get out of range fast. Blink is great for this as it breaks stuns and gets you out of melee range fast.

Talent Builds:

PvP/Grinding build 31/20 Arcane/Fire

Arcane Talents (31 points)
Improved Arcane Missiles - 5/5 points
Arcane Focus - 4/5 points
Arcane Concentration - 5/5 points
Evocation - 1/1 point
Improved Arcane Explosion - 5/5 points
Improved Counterspell - 2/2 points
Arcane Mind - 4/4 points
Presence of Mind - 1/1 point
Arcane Instability - 3/3 points
Arcane Power - 1/1 point

Fire Talents (20 points)
Improved Fireball - 5/5 points
Impact - 5/5 points
Ignite - 5/5 points
Flame Throwing - 2/2 points
Pyroblast - 1/1 point
Incinerate - 2/2 points

33/18 Frost/Arcane PvP/PvE DPS Build

Arcane Talents (18 points)
Improved Arcane Missiles - 5/5 points
Arcane Concentration - 5/5 points
Evocation - 1/1 point
Improved Arcane Explosion - 5/5 points
Improved Counterspell - 2/2 points

Frost Talents (33 points)
Improved Frostbolt - 5/5 points
Improved Frost Nova - 2/2 points
Ice Shards - 5/5 points
Improved Blizzard - 3/3 points
Cold Snap - 1/1 point
Shatter - 5/5 points
Arctic Reach - 2/2 points
Improved Cone of Cold - 3/3 points
Ice Block - 1/1 point
Frostbite - 5/5 points
Ice Barrier - 1/1 point

30/21 Fire/Arcane PvP Build

Arcane Talents (21 points)
Improved Arcane Missiles - 5/5 points
Arcane Concentration - 5/5 points
Arcane Focus - 2/5 points
Evocation - 1/1 point
Improved Arcane Explosion - 5/5 points
Improved Counterspell - 2/2 points
Presence of Mind - 1/1 point

Fire Talents (30 points)
Impact - 5/5 points
Improved Fireball - 5/5 points
Flame Throwing - 2/2 points
Ignite - 5/5 points
Pyroblast - 1/1 point
Burning Soul - 2/3 points
Incinerate - 2/2 points
Critical Mass - 3/3 points
Fire Power - 5/5 points

Gear:

For Damage Gear Refer to our Mage Damage Gear Guide

http://www.gotwarcraft.com/Raid%20Instances/gear/magedamagegear.php

Teaming:

In a team a mages main role is DPS and also can help with Crowd Control(CC.) The Mages sheep spell is extremely useful for harder pulls and can save a group from a wipe in used correctly. Mages also can use AoE to finish off a large group of weaker monsters quickly.

While running through a instance one of your main problems will be mana conservation. A mixture of wanding and casting is the best while fighting through the trash monsters as this way you always have mana and the group can keep going.

Also using sheep for the harder pulls can make it less mana intensive on the healer's and make it easier overall for the group. Coordinating with the group to keep them from breaking sheeps is a must.

Also to speed up some rooms you can use AoE generally starting off with Frost nova after rounding the monsters up and then destroying them with the help of other mages and warlocks. With proper timing of spells you can utterly destroy mana groups of monsters.

Raiding:

A Mages role in area's such as Molten Core and Blackwing Lair is purely DPS. For sustained DPS you will want a lot of Mana per second gear and mana efficiency talents. Many mages used the Frost/Arcane builds for raiding as it provides the best mixture of mana efficiency and damage in raids.

Many bosses are also resistant or completely immune to fire damage currently and this really affects a fire mages usefulness in raids. In other area's such as Zul'Gurub however fire mages do fine.

In Zul'Gurub mages also provide the much needed role of crowd control as many of the pulls are extremely dangerous without a few monsters being sheeped and sapped. Also when in some of the boss fights mages can deal that burst DPS to finish off the last few % of HP if the main-tank goes down.

Proffesions:

Generally Tailoring and Enchanting are good proffesions for mages as they both provide many useful things for mages. Some of the rare craftable robes are very good for pre-raid gearing up mages, and enchanting allows you put +Int and other enchantments on all of your gear.

Also if you read the Gotwarcraft Tailoring guide you can get a better idea on what you could make that would benefit your mage and why enchanting works well with tailoring to make money and gain skill.

Gotwarcraft Tailoring Guide: http://www.gotwarcraft.com/guides/tailoring.php

PvP:

Fire Mage PvP:

Fire mages will want to take out whoever there fighting as fast as possible. Your main ability is to destroy and opponent in the space of a few seconds. If you are ambushed a well timed PoM(Presence of Mind) Pyroblast + Fireblast combo can deal enough damage to scare off almost any enemy.

Also if you are a more arcane focused Fire mage then Arcane Power + Blast Wave and your other instant spells such as fire blast can deal massive damage to even warriors. When dealing with more durable classes such as paladins and druids timing is everything.

You will have to place that PoM Pyroblast, Fireblast combo just right or your AP(Arcane Power) blast wave at otherwise it can be wasted if the druid/paladin heals themselves with either divine shield or natures swiftness. Also a well timed counter-spell can spell death for any healing classes.

Frost Mage PvP:

Your power as a frost mage is the ability to kite enemies back and forth wearing them down. With well timed slowing abilities you can win fights without ever taking any damage. Also with shatter and other spell crit talents/items you can put out some serious damage.

Having Ice Block and Ice Barrier helps you immensely versus melee classes such as warriors and rogues. If they manage to get the jump on you just use Ice Block and then you have time to prepare your assault/defense. Also you have some very damaging combo's you can use.

A CoC(Cone of Cold) + fire blast + cold snap + CoC + FN(Frost Nova) can decimate an opponent. That combo leaves the opponent 1-2k HP down and frozen in place allowing you to get range and nuke them to death.