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ZilviS · 12-31-2008, 09:13 AM

Mage Class Guide

1.0 - The Mage
Mages are the arbiters of the Arcane, Fire, and Frost. They are wielders of mystical energies beyond all natural comprehension, and sheep-happy 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 by no means overpowered though, rather I would say that if anything they’re much underpowered, however whether or not this is the case, they still present a potent enemy in all styles of gameplay.

We are based around the philosophy of burst-damage, annihilation of opposition before they can react, or at least reach you, and beyond that initial burst you’ll find our DPS and utility decrease dramatically on all fronts.

In PvP the fight is decided almost entirely upon whether you either A: Kill the opponent in the first 5-8 seconds, or B: Bring him down low enough that your teammates can finish him as you run out of mana, either one is a decidedly risky venture because you never really know quite how durable your enemy is before it’s too late.

The un-expected resist to one of your main damage spells can leave you completely defeated or even worse is having frost nova broken, blink bugging out and teleporting you forward about a quarter of an inch, and all manner of other troubles you’ll face with one simple mistake.

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.’

This crosses over into PvE woes as well, with the increasing frequency of AoE boss fights dictating that we either risk dying a minute into the fight or gimp our damage/mana pool for the extra life required. Neither choice is a good one, and to make yourself useful you’ll need to possess enough skill to make your positive qualities shine above all the disadvantages present, not an easy task at all.

This guide is simply intended to provide a general overview of the Mage. For a more in-depth and highly detailed resource check out the Killer Guides' Mage Guide, here.

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 70, 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 and Northrend.

Multiple sets of cloth armor are greater than even Karazhan gear and quite more accessible even for a brand new 70, all it takes is a high if not maxed out tailoring skill by the time you reach maximum 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.

Check out our Tailoring Guide for information on leveling the skill

2.0 - Mage 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 that 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.

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.

Generally PvP or PvE builds will pick up frost or fire as a primary tree and build up Arcane as a supporting cast style of talent picking, however some mages have been known to favor arcane as a primary or even all points into the single tree.

Arcane

As said above, Arcane is largely 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.

Arcane also happens to be my personal favorite spell tree, but I’ll have to warn you that aside from specific raiding or PvP situations, it doesn’t provide nearly as much splashy effects and noticeable increasers aside from when your cooldowns are ready.

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.

Fire

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

Many raiding and gladiator mages choose a mixture of primary fire and secondary arcane, it definitely works, and with a few perks such as blazing speed it becomes all that much more useful.

Frost

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.

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 react, you kill them via a small amount of kiting if necessary augmented by the frost spells snare effect.

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

3.0 - Leveling
As I mentioned near the start of the guide, mages are great fun at level 70, it’s getting there that’s really quite painful. Levels 1-60 were nothing short of the worst grinding I’ve ever done, somewhat like you’d expect pulling your brain out and dropping it in a blender would feel like, but maybe a little worse.

That’s not to say it’s slow, rather that I personally find it the most detestable leveling experience in the entirety of world of warcraft, but terrible or not it can still be fast. 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 come completely self-supporting.

Fire Mage Leveling

11/50/0 Fire Leveling Build

0/50/11 Fire Leveling Build

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 the chance of requiring food per pull.

All the basics of blasting away and dropping multiple mobs a pull before they even reach you are enhanced at each talent. Improved scorch gives you a great low-cost high-damage returns spell for finishing off low health mobs as well.

Well rounded and easily utilized, the 10/48/3 is an easily customized and usable talent setup.

Frost Mage Leveling

11/0/50 Frost Leveling Build

Leveling as frost will be likely similar speeds to fire if not slightly faster depending on your degree of skill concerning frosts primary calling card, snares and roots. Frost mages are all about mobility, survivability, and in many cases AoE grinding as opposed to fires 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, many players I’ve seen run fire from 1-50 before changing to frost for the remainder of the leveling.

Finally AoE grinding is best done as a mixture of frost and arcane, blizzard is the ultimate AoE spell simply due to its slowing effect allowing you to kite mobs almost indefinitely with proper planning and execution.

Arcane Mage Leveling

Arcane is a spec simply not designed for leveling, at least not as a primary tree of development while leveling. Most all of arcanes benefits are revealed and utilized to their maximum potential much later on, somewhere around the time you pick up arcane blast and really start to gain some massive damage via arcane power/presence of mind.

Due to this you’ll find yourself the classic example of inefficient burst damage and forced to drink every other kill, leading you to a very long and exasperating trip to level 50 or so before things finally begin to pick up.

I seriously won’t recommend arcane for anything other than supporting talents such as Arcane Concentration and Arcane Focus perhaps.

4.0 - PvP

5.0 - Raiding
Just a listing of gear for newer level 70's mages looking to begin karazhan and other such content, not all encompassing, just my personal choices and what I picked up along the way if possible. Many pieces are crafted, tailoring is your friend.

Helm:

Spellstrike Hood - Crafted
Battlecast Hood - Crafted
Evoker's Helmet of Second Sight - Crafted

Neck:

Manasurge Pendant - 25 Heroic Badges
Charlotte's Ivy - World Drop BoE
Brooch of Heightened Potential -Drop(Shadow Laybrinth)

Back:

Shawl of Shifting Probabilities - 25 Heroic Badges
Baba's Cloak of Arcanistry - Drop(Mechanar)
Sethekk Oracle Cloak - Drop(Sethekk Halls)

Shoulders:

Frozen Shadoweave Shoulders - Crafted
Mantle of Three Terrors - Drop(Black Morass)
Spaulders of the Torn-heart - Quest Reward

Chest:

Spellfire Robe - Crafted
Incanter's Robe - Drop(Botanica)
Robe of the Crimson Order - BoE World Drop

Wrist:

Bands of Rarefied Magic - Drop(Heroic Shattered Halls)
Bands of Nethekurse - Drop(Shattered Halls)
Shattrath Wraps - Quest Reward

Hands:

Spellfire Gloves - Crafted
Incanter's Gloves - Drop(Steamvault)
Gloves of the High Magus - Quest Reward

Belt:

Spellfire Belt - Crafted
Girdle of Ruination - Crafted
Mage-Fury Girdle - Drop(Heroic Slave Pens)
Sash of Serpentra - Drop(Steamvault)

Legs:

Spellstrike Pants - Crafted
Battlecast Pants - Crafted
Mana-Etched Pantaloons - Drop(Heroic Underbog)
Incanter's Trousers - Drop(Sethekk Halls)

Boots:

Frozen Shadoweave Boots - Crafted
Boots of Blasphemy - Drop(Heroic Slave Pens)
Silent Slippers of Meditation - Drop(Shadow Laybrinth)

Rings:

Ring of Cryptic Dreams - 25 Heroic Badges
Cobalt Band of Tyrigosa - Drop(Heroic Mana Tombs)
Seer's Signet - Scryers Exalted
Ashyen's Gift - Cenarion Expedition Exalted
Band of the Guardian - Quest Reward
Seal of the Exorcist - 50 Spirit Shards

Trinkets:

Shiffar's Nexus-Horn - Drop(Arcatraz)
Arcanist's Stone - Drop(Heroic Old Hillsbrad)
Oculus of the Hidden Eye - Drop(Auchenai Crypts)

Weapons:

Eternium Runed Blade - Crafted
Blade of the Archmage - Reputation Reward(Honor Hold Exalted)
Mana Wrath - Drop(Mechanar)
Greatsword of Horrid Dreams - Drop(Shadow Laybrinth)

Off-hand:

Lamp of Peaceful Radiance - Drop(Arcatraz)
Manual of the Nethermancer - Drop(Mechanar)
Hortus' Seal of Brilliance - Drop(Shattered Halls)

Two-Handed:

Terokk's Shadowstaff - Drop(Heroic Sethekk Halls)
Bloodfire Greatstaff - Drop(Black Morass)
Warpstaff of Arcanum - Drop(Botanica)
Ameer's Impulse Taser - Quest Reward

Ranged Weapon:

The Black Stalk - Drop(Heroic Underbog)
Nexus Torch - Drop(Shattered Halls)
Nethekurse's Rod of Torment - Quest Reward
Wand of the Netherwing - Drop(Shadow Laybrinth)

6.0 1-80 Mage Leveling Guide
Once you have the right build for your Mage , consider a full blown 1-80 Mage leveling guide for the most effective (fastest) leveling. Zygor's Guide automates the whole 1-80 path for your mage, starting from any level and taking you all the way through Wrath.

ZilviS · 12-31-2008, 09:14 AM

The Arcane Mage

1.0 - The Arcane Mage
Arcane Mages represent massive and continued burst DPS so far as mages go, even surpassing that of the much vaunted heavy fire mage once you obtain the proper gear. However, that's just it, without the amount of mana required to sustain Arcane's massive DPS you fall far short of par.

Additionally Arcane Mages see much less light in the Arena as opposed to cookie cutter 17/0/44 Frost Mages or 17/44/0 Fire mage PvP specs, often due to the simple fact that either of those will be a direct improvement over arcane. However, see the video in the PvP section (below) for 61/0/0 Arcane pwnage.

All is not lost, with proper control, skills, and of course gear, Arcane can still succeed quite nicely at brining the pain in PvP, earlier raid instances, and much more so on into the later end raiding game EX: Mount Hyjal & Black Temple

2.0 - Talent Builds
61/0/0 Pure Arcane (see video, below)
2.1 - Spell Rotation

Arcane Blast - Arcane Blast - Arcane Blast - Arcane Missiles - Scorch

2.2 - Leveling Arcane Build

40/21/0 Arcane/Fire Leveling Build

10 – 14 Improve Arcane Missiles
15 – 19 Arcane Concentration
20 – 24 Improved Fireball
25 – 29 Ignite
30 – Pyroblast
31 – 33 Arcane Impact
34 – 35 Magic attunement
36 – 38 Arcane Meditation
39 – 40 Improved Counterspell
41 – 45 Arcane Mind
46 – Presence of Mind
47 – 49 Arcane Instability
50 – Arcane Potency (1/3)
51 – Arcane Power
52 – 53 Spell Power
54 – 55 Arcane Potency (3/3)
56 - 70 Expand more into the fire tree picking up flame throwing and blast wave as well as finishing the arcane tree's useful talents

3.0 - Arcane PvP Build
48/13/0 Arcane/Fire Arena Build
36/0/25 Arcane/Frost Arena Build
Arcane Mage 61/0/0 - PVP Dominance, by Kilobyte

NOTE: The below section is nearly identical for all three specializations of mage, this is due to the usage of almost entirely the same stats for any mage no matter the talent build/elemental specialization.

4.0 - Number Crunching
Spell Hit - 12.6 = 1%
Spell Critical - 22.1 = 1%
Spell Penetration - 1 = 1 Lost point of Resistance
Spell Haste - 15.7 = 1%/0.025 seconds off of Global Cooldown & Spell Cast Time

Spell Damage Coefficients:

Arcane Missiles = 142.9%(or 28.57% per wave of missiles)
Arcane Explosion = 21.4%
Arcane Blast = 71.4%
Scorch = 42.8%

Spell Hit Cap:

Spell Hit Cap W/ (3/3) Elemental Precision = 164 For Fire & Frost/126 (Frostbolt Only)
Spell Hit Cap W/ (5/5) Arcane Focus = 76 for Arcane
Spell Hit Cap W/ (3/3) Elemental Precision & (3/5) Arcane Focus = 126 for Fire, Frost & Arcane

4.1 - Spell Hit, Crit, etc.

The Numbers above detail the percentage to which each point of +Spell Damage actually effects any given spell. For instance, 1 point of spell damage does not automatically equal an increase of one damage, rather it will increase it to a percentage as listed above.

If the spell you're looking for isn't listed above then simply take the base casting time(without talents) and divide it by 3.5. However, a different formula will apply to AoE spells.

Defacto Priority:

Spell Hit(Until Capped) - Spell Damage OR Haste - Spell Critical

What to shoot for when entering Karazhan & Heroics:

If you simply want to make certain you're good to begin attempting karazhan and heroics try aiming for the stats below as an absolute minimum, surpassing them however is recommended to make things overall quite easier.

Additionally, you can downgrade these stats somewhat for the easier heroic dungeons as Karazhan is definitely more challenging than most if not all of them.

Spell Hit: 90
Spell Damage: 600
Spell Critical: 20%
Health: 6,000
Mana: 7,000

What to shoot for when heading into 25-Raids:

These numbers should cover you for passing Karazhan into the 25-man raiding content, statistics such as spell hit will be notably harder to achieve prior to gearing up in Karazhan & Heroics quie a bit. Otherwise if you have this or higher by the time you eclipse Karazhan you'll be fine.

Spell Hit: 16% (With Talents)
Spell Damage: 800+
Spell Critical: 23%
Health: 7,000+
Mana: 9,000

4.2 - Gems

[Runed Living Ruby]
[Great Dawnstone]
[Quick Dawnstone]
[Veiled Noble Topaz]
[Unstable Topaz]

4.3 Enchantments

Head: Glyph of Power
Shoulders: Aldor/Scryer Inscription
Back: Spell Penetration
Chest: Exceptional Mana
Wrist: Spellpower
Hands: Major Spellpower
Legs: Runic Spellthread
Weapon: Major Spellpower

5.0 - PvE Gear Guide
Note: As this is a PvE gear guide I'll only list the PvP rewards capable of being obtained via Honor, arena rewards are however viable alternatives to many pieces of gear.

Many pieces of gear will be equally useful to both fire, frost, and arcane mages, the only few pieces that really differ are Spellfire Vs. Frozen Shadowweave and a couple little rings.

Head:

[Annihilator Holo-Gogs] - Crafted
[Spellstrike Hood] - Crafted
[Hood of Oblivion] - Arcatraz
[Incanter's Cowl] - Mechanar

Neck:

[Vindicator's Pendant of Subjugation] - PvP Reward
[Brooch of Heightened Potential] - Shadow Laybrinth
[Hydra-fang Necklace] - Heroic Underbog
[Torc of the Sethekk Prophet]- Quest Reward

Shoulders:

[Mantle of Nimble Thought] - Crafted
[Fel-tinged Mantle] - Heroic Magister's Terrace
[Duskhallow Mantle] - Normal Magister's Terrace
[Gladiator's Silk Amice] - PvP Reward

Back:

[Cloak of the Betrayed] - Normal Magister's Terrace
[Cloak of Arcane Alacrity] - (60) Badges of Justice
[Sethekk Oracle Cloak] - Sethekk Halls
[Cloak of the Black Void] - Crafted

Chest:

[Spellfire Robe] - Crafted
[Scarlet Sin'dorei Robes] - Heroic Magister's Terrace
[Robe of the Crimson Order] - World Drop BoE
[Warp Infused Drape] - Botanica

Wrist:

[Bracers of Nimble Thought] - Crafted BoE
[Bindings of Raging Fire] - Magister's Terrace
[Vindicator's Silk Cuffs] - PvP Reward

Hands:

[Spellfire Gloves] - Crafted
[Gloves of Arcane Acuity] - Normal Magister's Terrace
[Studious Wraps] - (60) Badges of justice
[Manaspark Gloves] - Normal Underbog

Belt:

[Belt of Blasting] - Crafted BoE
[Spellfire Belt] - Crafted
[Girdle of Ruination] - Crafted BoE
[Vindicator's Silk Belt] - PvP Reward

Legs:

[Spellstrike Pants] - Crafted
[Legwraps of Sweltering Flame] - (100) Badges of Justice
[Breeches of the Occultist] - Heroic Black Morass
[Battlecast Pants] - Crafted BoE

Boots:

[Boots of Incantations] - (75) Badges of Justice
[Vindicator's Silk Footguards] - PvP Reward
[Sigil-Laced Boots] - Arcatraz
[Shattrath Jumpers] - Quest Reward

Rings:

[Ashyen's Gift] - Reputation Reward
[Sparking Arcanite Ring] - Heroic Old Hillsbrad
[Band of Arcane Alacrity] - Normal Magister's Terrace
[Seal of the Exorcist] - (50) Spirit Shards
[Seer's Signet] - Reputation Reward
[Band of Dominion] - BoE World Drop

Trinkets:

[Darkmoon Card: Crusade] - Darkmoon Card Deck
[Icon of the Silver Crescent] - (41) Badges of Justice
[Scryer's Bloodgem] - Reputation Reward
[Sorcerer's Alchemist Stone] - Crafted
[Arcanist's Stone] - Heroic Old Hillsbrad

Two-Handed Weapons:

[Gladiator's War Staff] - PvP Reward
[Terokk's Shadowstaff] - Heroic Sethekk Halls
[Sun-infused Focus Staff] - Normal Magister's Terrace

Main-Hand:

[Scryer's Blade of Focus] - (150) Badges of Justice
[Jaded Crystal Dagger] - Heroic Magister's Terrace
[Gladiator's Spellblade] - PvP Reward
[Blade of Wizardry] - BoE World Drop
[Blade of the Archmage] OR [Stormcaller] - Reputation Reward

Off-Hand:

[Fetish of the Primal Gods] - (35) Badges of Justice
[Flametongue Seal] - (25) Badges of Justice
[Lamp of Peaceful Radiance] - Arcatraz
[Star-Heart Lamp] - Black Morass

Wand:

[Carved Witch Doctor's Stick] - (25) Badges of Justice
[Nether Core's Control Rod] - Arcatraz
[Voidfire Wand] - Normal Mana-tombs
[Gladiator's Touch of Defeat] - PvP Reward

6.0 -- 1-80 Mage Leveling Guide
Arcane mages have all the powers to level very quickly, but they will do it even faster with a full blown 1-80 leveling guide, such as Zygor's. Every step of the way, what to do, where to go, is right there on your main screen at all times. Quests automatically update as you complete them and waypoints are also set, automatically. You may never have to look at your quest log again.

ZilviS · 12-31-2008, 09:15 AM

The Fire Mage

1.0 - The Fire Mage
Fire Mages are one of the flashier styles of mage, whether you're an avid fan of raiding or more akin to the daring PvPer, either one will see you posting up your fair share of 'big numbers' throughout your tenure.

Of course you're not the only one with big numbers, notably warriors, hunters, and practically every other class out there has the ability to and will do everything possible to bring you down, likely with some big numbers of their own.

That's why mages take skill, finessse, amongst the highest if not the number one skill based class in the game due to the fine line between total domination and utter annihlation by the hordes of melee and high damage attackers who cut through armor like butter.

This guide is simply intended to provide a general overview of the class. For a more in-depth and highly detailed resource on this class, check out this guide here.

2.0 - Talent Builds
11/50/0 Fire
0/50/11 Fire
2.1 - Spell Rotation

Scorch x5(For the debuff) - Fireball x8 - Scorch - Fireball x8 - Scorch
2.2 - Leveling Fire Build

10/48/3 Fire Leveling Build

10 - 14 Improved Fireball
15 - 19 Impact
20 - 24 Ignite
25 - 26 Flame Throwing
27 - 28 Incinerate
29 - 30 Burning Soul
30 - 33 Critical Mass
34 - 36 Improved Scorch
37 - 39 Master of the Elements
40 - Combustion
41 - 45 Fire Power
46 - 48 Pyromaniac
49 - Pyroblast
50 - Dragon's Breath
51 - 53 Precision
54+ - Explore your options, pick up more arcane for mana efficiency

Leveling Spell Rotation(Assuming Max Range):

Fireball - Fireball - Fireball - Either Scorch/Wand until death if mob is below 40% or Frost Nova and continue fireballs from a range.

If Clearcasting becomes active - Arcane Missiles

3.0 - Fire PvP Build
21/40/0 Fire/Arcane PvP Build
17/44/0 Fire/Arcane Arena Build

NOTE: The below section is nearly identical for all three specializations of mage, this is due to the usage of almost entirely the same stats for any mage no matter the talent build/elemental specialization.

4.0 - Number Crunching
Spell Hit - 12.6 = 1%
Spell Critical - 22.1 = 1%
Spell Penetration - 1 = 1 Lost point of Resistance
Spell Haste - 15.7 = 1%/0.025 seconds off of Global Cooldown & Spell Cast Time

Spell Damage Coefficients:

Scorch = 42.8%
Fireball = 100.0% OR 115% W/Empowered Fireball
Pyroblast = 135% (or 115% intial damage/20% over duration of DoT)

Spell Hit Cap W/ (3/3) Elemental Precision = 164 For Fire & Frost/126 (Frostbolt Only)
Spell Hit Cap W/ (5/5) Arcane Focus = 76 for Arcane
Spell Hit Cap W/ (3/3) Elemental Precision & (3/5) Arcane Focus = 126 for Frost & Arcane

4.1 - Spell Hit, Crit, etc.

The Numbers above detail the percentage to which each point of +Spell Damage actually effects any given spell. For instance, 1 point of spell damage does not automatically equal an increase of one damage, rather it will increase it to a percentage as listed above.

If the spell you're looking for isn't listed above then simply take the base casting time(without talents) and divide it by 3.5. However, a different formula will apply to AoE spells.

Defacto Priority:

Spell Hit(Until Capped) - Spell Damage OR Haste - Spell Critical

What to shoot for when entering Karazhan & Heroics:

If you simply want to make certain you're good to begin attempting karazhan and heroics try aiming for the stats below as an absolute minimum, surpassing them however is recommended to make things overall quite easier.

Additionally, you can downgrade these stats somewhat for the easier heroic dungeons as Karazhan is definitely more challenging than most if not all of them.

Spell Hit: 90
Spell Damage: 600
Spell Critical: 20%
Health: 6,000
Mana: 7,000

What to shoot for when heading into 25-Raids:

These numbers should cover you for passing Karazhan into the 25-man raiding content, statistics such as spell hit will be notably harder to achieve prior to gearing up in Karazhan & Heroics quie a bit. Otherwise if you have this or higher by the time you eclipse Karazhan you'll be fine.

Spell Hit: 10%
Spell Damage: 800+
Spell Critical: 25% or 28% W/ Molten Armor
Health: 7,000+
Mana: 9,000

4.2 - Gems

[Runed Living Ruby]
[Great Dawnstone]
[Quick Dawnstone]
[Veiled Noble Topaz]
[Unstable Topaz]

4.3 Enchantments

Head: Glyph of Power
Shoulders: Aldor/Scryer Inscription
Back: Spell Penetration
Chest: Exceptional Mana
Wrist: Spellpower
Hands: Major Spellpower
Legs: Runic Spellthread
Weapon: Major Spellpower

5.0 - PvE Gear Guide
Note: As this is a PvE gear guide I'll only list the PvP rewards capable of being obtained via Honor, arena rewards are however viable alternatives to many pieces of gear.

Many pieces of gear will be equally useful to both fire, frost, and arcane mages, the only few pieces that really differ are Spellfire Vs. Frozen Shadowweave and a couple little rings.

Head:

[Annihilator Holo-Gogs] - Crafted
[Spellstrike Hood] - Crafted
[Hood of Oblivion] - Arcatraz
[Incanter's Cowl] - Mechanar

Neck:

[Vindicator's Pendant of Subjugation] - PvP Reward
[Brooch of Heightened Potential] - Shadow Laybrinth
[Hydra-fang Necklace] - Heroic Underbog
[Torc of the Sethekk Prophet]- Quest Reward

Shoulders:

[Mantle of Nimble Thought] - Crafted
[Fel-tinged Mantle] - Heroic Magister's Terrace
[Duskhallow Mantle] - Normal Magister's Terrace
[Gladiator's Silk Amice] - PvP Reward

Back:

[Cloak of the Betrayed] - Normal Magister's Terrace
[Cloak of Arcane Alacrity] - (60) Badges of Justice
[Sethekk Oracle Cloak] - Sethekk Halls
[Cloak of the Black Void] - Crafted

Chest:

[Spellfire Robe] - Crafted
[Scarlet Sin'dorei Robes] - Heroic Magister's Terrace
[Robe of the Crimson Order] - World Drop BoE
[Warp Infused Drape] - Botanica

Wrist:

[Bracers of Nimble Thought] - Crafted BoE
[Bindings of Raging Fire] - Magister's Terrace
[Vindicator's Silk Cuffs] - PvP Reward

Hands:

[Spellfire Gloves] - Crafted
[Gloves of Arcane Acuity] - Normal Magister's Terrace
[Studious Wraps] - (60) Badges of justice
[Manaspark Gloves] - Normal Underbog

Belt:

[Belt of Blasting] - Crafted BoE
[Spellfire Belt] - Crafted
[Girdle of Ruination] - Crafted BoE
[Vindicator's Silk Belt] - PvP Reward

Legs:

[Spellstrike Pants] - Crafted
[Legwraps of Sweltering Flame] - (100) Badges of Justice
[Breeches of the Occultist] - Heroic Black Morass
[Battlecast Pants] - Crafted BoE

Boots:

[Boots of Incantations] - (75) Badges of Justice
[Vindicator's Silk Footguards] - PvP Reward
[Sigil-Laced Boots] - Arcatraz
[Shattrath Jumpers] - Quest Reward

Rings:

[Fused Nethergon Band] - (60) Badges of Justice
[Ashyen's Gift] - Reputation Reward
[Sparking Arcanite Ring] - Heroic Old Hillsbrad
[Band of Arcane Alacrity] - Normal Magister's Terrace
[Seal of the Exorcist] - (50) Spirit Shards
[Seer's Signet] - Reputation Reward
[Band of Dominion] - BoE World Drop

Trinkets:

[Darkmoon Card: Crusade] - Darkmoon Card Deck
[Icon of the Silver Crescent] - (41) Badges of Justice
[Scryer's Bloodgem] - Reputation Reward
[Sorcerer's Alchemist Stone] - Crafted
[Arcanist's Stone] - Heroic Old Hillsbrad

Two-Handed Weapons:

[Gladiator's War Staff] - PvP Reward
[Terokk's Shadowstaff] - Heroic Sethekk Halls
[Sun-infused Focus Staff] - Normal Magister's Terrace

Main-Hand:

[Scryer's Blade of Focus] - (150) Badges of Justice
[Jaded Crystal Dagger] - Heroic Magister's Terrace
[Gladiator's Spellblade] - PvP Reward
[Blade of Wizardry] - BoE World Drop
[Blade of the Archmage] OR [Stormcaller] - Reputation Reward

Off-Hand:

[Fetish of the Primal Gods] - (35) Badges of Justice
[Flametongue Seal] - (25) Badges of Justice
[Lamp of Peaceful Radiance] - Arcatraz
[Star-Heart Lamp] - Black Morass

Wand:

[Carved Witch Doctor's Stick] - (25) Badges of Justice
[Nether Core's Control Rod] - Arcatraz
[Voidfire Wand] - Normal Mana-tombs
[Gladiator's Touch of Defeat] - PvP Reward

6.0 -- 1-80 Fire Mage Leveling Guide
Once you have the right build for your Mage , consider a full blown 1-80 Mage leveling guide for the most effective (fastest) leveling. Zygor's Guide automates the whole 1-80 path for your mage, starting from any level and taking you all the way through Wrath.

ZilviS · 12-31-2008, 09:16 AM

The Frost Mage

1.0 - The Frost Mage
Frost mages represent a mixture of mana efficiency and damage, being quite capable of matching fire mage damage throughout earlier dungeons such as Karazhan before being slightly to moderately surpassed within Serpent Shrine Cavern and other such mid-level raids by Arcane & Fire.

However, Frost does have a ressurgence at the true end-game section such as Black Temple and the Sunwell, but in between theses raids you can also make up for it by hogging the PvP spotlight with immensely superior CC and survivability.

Frost may not be quite as deadly as fire, but it certainly has a lasting power other mage builds lack, and many players use frost very effectively.

This guide is simply intended to provide a general overview of the Frost Mage. For a more in-depth and highly detailed resource on this class, check out this killer Mage Guide, here.

2.0 - Talent Builds
11/0/50 Frost
2.1 - Spell Rotation

Frost Bolt Spam - Summon Elemental (When Avaliable) - Icy Veins (Also When Avaliable)

2.2 - Leveling Frost Build

19/0/42 Frost/Arcane Leveling Build

10 – 14 Improved Frost Bolt
15 – 16 Improved Frost Nova
17 – 21 Ice shards
22 – 24 Piercing Ice
25 – 29 Shatter
30 – 31 Arctic Reach
32 – Icy Veins
33 – Cold Snap
34 – 38 Improved Arcane Missiles
39 – 43 Arcane Concentration
44 – 46 Frost Channeling
47 – 49 Elemental Precision
50 – Ice Barrier
51 - 70 Expand more into the Arcane Tree for Meditation and finish off the frost as well with water elemental

Leveling Spell Rotation(Assuming Max Range):

Frostbolt - Frostbolt - Frostbolt - Frost Nova if within range - Continue Frostbolt spam and perhaps finish with a wand if possible.

If Clearcasting becomes active - Arcane Missiles

3.0 - Frost PvP Build
17/0/44 Frost/Arcane Arena Build
21/0/40 Frost/Arcane PvP Build

NOTE: The below section is nearly identical for all three specializations of mage, this is due to the usage of almost entirely the same stats for any mage no matter the talent build/elemental specialization.

4.0 - Number Crunching
Spell Hit - 12.6 = 1%
Spell Critical - 22.1 = 1%
Spell Penetration - 1 = 1 Lost point of Resistance
Spell Haste - 15.7 = 1%/0.025 seconds off of Global Cooldown & Spell Cast Time

Spell Damage Coefficients:

Frostbolt = 81.4% OR 91.4% W/Empowered Frostbolt
Blizzard = 114.3%( or 14.2% per wave)

Spell Hit Cap W/ (3/3) Elemental Precision = 164 For Fire & Frost/126 (Frostbolt Only)
Spell Hit Cap W/ (5/5) Arcane Focus = 76 for Arcane
Spell Hit Cap W/ (3/3) Elemental Precision & (3/5) Arcane Focus = 126 for Fire, Frost & Arcane

4.1 - Spell Hit, Crit, etc.

The Numbers above detail the percentage to which each point of +Spell Damage actually effects any given spell. For instance, 1 point of spell damage does not automatically equal an increase of one damage, rather it will increase it to a percentage as listed above.

If the spell you're looking for isn't listed above then simply take the base casting time(without talents) and divide it by 3.5. However, a different formula will apply to AoE spells.

Defacto Priority:

Spell Hit(Until Capped) - Spell Damage OR Haste - Spell Critical

What to shoot for when entering Karazhan & Heroics:

If you simply want to make certain you're good to begin attempting karazhan and heroics try aiming for the stats below as an absolute minimum, surpassing them however is recommended to make things overall quite easier.

Additionally, you can downgrade these stats somewhat for the easier heroic dungeons as Karazhan is definitely more challenging than most if not all of them.

Spell Hit: 90
Spell Damage: 600
Spell Critical: 20%
Health: 6,000
Mana: 7,000

What to shoot for when heading into 25-Raids:

These numbers should cover you for passing Karazhan into the 25-man raiding content, statistics such as spell hit will be notably harder to achieve prior to gearing up in Karazhan & Heroics quie a bit. Otherwise if you have this or higher by the time you eclipse Karazhan you'll be fine.

Spell Hit: 10%
Spell Damage: 800+
Spell Critical: 22% or 32% W/ Winter's Chill
Health: 7,000+
Mana: 9,000

4.2 - Gems

[Runed Living Ruby]
[Great Dawnstone]
[Quick Dawnstone]
[Veiled Noble Topaz]
[Unstable Topaz]

4.3 Enchantments

Head: Glyph of Power
Shoulders: Aldor/Scryer Inscription
Back: Spell Penetration
Chest: Exceptional Mana
Wrist: Spellpower
Hands: Major Spellpower
Legs: Runic Spellthread
Weapon: Major Spellpower

5.0 - PvE Gear Guide
Note: As this is a PvE gear guide I'll only list the PvP rewards capable of being obtained via Honor, arena rewards are however viable alternatives to many pieces of gear.

Many pieces of gear will be equally useful to both fire, frost, and arcane mages, the only few pieces that really differ are Spellfire Vs. Frozen Shadowweave and a couple little rings.

Head:

[Annihilator Holo-Gogs] - Crafted
[Spellstrike Hood] - Crafted
[Hood of Oblivion] - Arcatraz
[Incanter's Cowl] - Mechanar

Neck:

[Vindicator's Pendant of Subjugation] - PvP Reward
[Brooch of Heightened Potential] - Shadow Laybrinth
[Hydra-fang Necklace] - Heroic Underbog
[Torc of the Sethekk Prophet]- Quest Reward

Shoulders:

[Frozen Shadoweave Shoulders] - Crafted
[Fel-tinged Mantle] - Heroic Magister's Terrace
[Duskhallow Mantle] - Normal Magister's Terrace
[Gladiator's Silk Amice] - PvP Reward
[Mana-Etched Spaulders] - Heroic Slave Pens

Back:

[Cloak of the Betrayed] - Normal Magister's Terrace
[Cloak of Arcane Alacrity] - (60) Badges of Justice
[Sethekk Oracle Cloak] - Sethekk Halls
[Cloak of the Black Void] - Crafted

Chest:

[Frozen Shadoweave Robe] - Crafted
[Scarlet Sin'dorei Robes] - Heroic Magister's Terrace
[Robe of the Crimson Order] - World Drop BoE
[Warp Infused Drape] - Botanica

Wrist:

[Bracers of Nimble Thought] - Crafted BoE
[Bindings of Raging Fire] - Magister's Terrace
[Vindicator's Silk Cuffs] - PvP Reward

Hands:

[Gloves of Arcane Acuity] - Normal Magister's Terrace
[Studious Wraps] - (60) Badges of justice
[Manaspark Gloves] - Normal Underbog

Belt:

[Belt of Blasting] - Crafted BoE
[Girdle of Ruination] - Crafted BoE
[Vindicator's Silk Belt] - PvP Reward

Legs:

[Spellstrike Pants] - Crafted
[Legwraps of Sweltering Flame] - (100) Badges of Justice
[Breeches of the Occultist] - Heroic Black Morass
[Battlecast Pants] - Crafted BoE

Boots:

[Frozen Shadoweave Boots] - Crafted
[Boots of Incantations] - (75) Badges of Justice
[Vindicator's Silk Footguards] - PvP Reward
[Sigil-Laced Boots] - Arcatraz
[Shattrath Jumpers] - Quest Reward

Rings:

[Fused Nethergon Band] - (60) Badges of Justice
[Band of Frigid Elements] - Heroic Sethekk Halls
[Ashyen's Gift] - Reputation Reward
[Sparking Arcanite Ring] - Heroic Old Hillsbrad
[Band of Arcane Alacrity] - Normal Magister's Terrace
[Seal of the Exorcist] - (50) Spirit Shards
[Seer's Signet] - Reputation Reward
[Band of Dominion] - BoE World Drop

Trinkets:

[Darkmoon Card: Crusade] - Darkmoon Card Deck
[Icon of the Silver Crescent] - (41) Badges of Justice
[Scryer's Bloodgem] - Reputation Reward
[Sorcerer's Alchemist Stone] - Crafted
[Arcanist's Stone] - Heroic Old Hillsbrad

Two-Handed Weapons:

[Gladiator's War Staff] - PvP Reward
[Terokk's Shadowstaff] - Heroic Sethekk Halls
[Sun-infused Focus Staff] - Normal Magister's Terrace

Main-Hand:

[Scryer's Blade of Focus] - (150) Badges of Justice
[Jaded Crystal Dagger] - Heroic Magister's Terrace
[Gladiator's Spellblade] - PvP Reward
[Blade of Wizardry] - BoE World Drop
[Blade of the Archmage] OR [Stormcaller] - Reputation Reward

Off-Hand:

[Fetish of the Primal Gods] - (35) Badges of Justice
[Flametongue Seal] - (25) Badges of Justice
[Lamp of Peaceful Radiance] - Arcatraz
[Star-Heart Lamp] - Black Morass

Wand:

[Carved Witch Doctor's Stick] - (25) Badges of Justice
[Nether Core's Control Rod] - Arcatraz
[Voidfire Wand] - Normal Mana-tombs
[Gladiator's Touch of Defeat] - PvP Reward

6.0 -- 1-80 Frost Mage Leveling Guide
Frost mages have all the powers to level very quickly, but they will do it even faster with a full blown 1-80 leveling guide, such as Zygor's. Every step of the way, what to do, where to go, is right there on your main screen at all times. Quests automatically update as you complete them and waypoints are also set, automatically. You may never have to look at your quest log again.