Mage Guide

[Falaras]

I thought I would throw this up here and see what people think, any criticisms or feedback are appreciated. I do feel that some of the things I added or said are very different than the standard guides you find on the official forums.


The Mage Guide
I. Race
Most people say race doesn’t matter, I am here to disagree. After playing 3 different races on my mage (Undead, Gnome, and Troll) I will tell you race matters! I will break down for you the advantages for every race in a PVE environment, and also throw in some PVP things too (although this is a PVE guide)
Horde:
1.Troll
a. Berserking (No, not the enchant): 20% haste is HUGE for a mage, this is by far the best racial in the game if you choose mage. It compliments our cool down timers very nicely (3 minute CD is the same as Mirror Images) and you can usually get 2 uses out of it per fight. To put this in perspective, the lovely haste potions you should be using (hint) only add 15% haste and can only be used once per fight unless you pop one before entering combat.
b. Beast Slaying: Not particularly amazing, only one raid I know of has beasts which is the first bosses of ToC (Thanks Shiznicle for correcting this!), but in Dungeons, Raid Trash, or Leveling you fight Beasts pretty often making this racial pretty useful.
c. The Voodoo Shuffle: PVP talent, 15% less duration on snares against you.
2.Blood Elf
a. Arcane Torrent: Decently useful, 6% mana in ICC gear is around 1250 mana back which isn’t much but is better than nothing. Also useful in PvP as an extra silence.
b. Magic Resistance: 2% chance for magic to miss, not offensively useful other than the mana you gain from Magic Absorbtion, but can help keep you alive during some fights.
3.Undead
a. Will of the Forsaken: A PVP talent that was once very powerful and has been drastically nerfed to oblivion. Still useful for breaking the occasional fear (Bloodqueen, Archimone, ect)
b. Shadow Resistance: Same as Magic Resistance except only works on shadow damage, good thing is a lot of the damage you take in raids is shadow anyways!
c. Cannibalize: Good for PVP, you can eat in PVE.
Summary: Go troll if you want to PVE.

Alliance:
1.Gnome
a. Expansive Mind: The best racial that alliance gets for the mage class, 5% INT isn’t terrible by any means but definitely is no Berserking. Adds about 100 INT to a fire mage in 264 gear.
b. Escape Artist: Allows you to get out of certain snares on a 1.75 minute cooldown. Not entirely useful unless you guilds rogues/warriors allow frostbolts to go out on Valithria.
2.Human
a. The Human Spirit: 3% Spirit is a decent racial for a Fire mage, not very useful for arcane though. Since most of the BIS gear even for Fire does not have Spirit on it, you won’t get too much out of this sadly.
b. Every Man for Himself: The ultimate PVP talent for a mage, works exactly the same as having a Medallion of the Alliance/Horde equipped. Can be useful for PVP like in situations mentioned under the Will of the Forsaken and Escape Artist sections.
c. Diplomacy (Honorable Mention): 10% Rep is awesome, sadly WOTLK rep grins are much easier than the vanilla and BC rep grinds of old. This won’t really matter in PVE except get you an Ashen Ring faster if you are new.
3.Draenei
a. Heroic Presence: The main reason to be a draenei, this gives you and your party 1% more hit, which allows you and your party to gear more Haste/Crit/SP/Strength/Stam/Bananas. Generally speaking though you can get it from other people in your raid.
b. Gift of the Naaru: Useful for PVP, can be used in PVE if you need a little more healing.
c. Shadow Resistance: Same as Magic Resistance except only works on shadow damage, good thing is a lot of the damage you take in raids is shadow anyways!
Summary: Not as cut and dry, choose whichever one you want but Gnome is the highest DPS increase assuming you can get Heroic presence from another raid member.



II. Spec
First let me say this, both Arcane and Fireball specs are viable, the difference in DPS between the two at max gear has been estimated to be less than 200 DPS and at most 500 DPS. In this section you will learn the pros and cons of the specs along with the cookie cutter builds.

Arcane
The Build: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#of0ifz...xedcZbGc0o:Nzi
The hit talents can be switched out with things like Student of the Mind or pushback resistance based on your current hit. SOTM isn’t good enough to be a baseline arcane talent though.
The Rotation: Arcane Blastx4 -> Arcane Missiles. In days of old the rotation was much harder but with 2 piece T10 giving you 12% haste after every Missile Barrage there is no reason to do anything like spam Arcane Blast. If you end up at 4 Arcane Blast stacks without a missile barrage you may want to keep using Arcane Blast to fish for a proc.
The Gems: Runed Scarlet Ruby in all red sockets and blue sockets unless the socket bonus is worth it (usually 7 SP is worth it)
Reckless Ametrine in all yellow sockets.
Purified Dreadstone in blue sockets that are worth the set bonus or you need for meta.
The Gear: Arcane uses the same kind of gear that most casters do, you want Spellpower and Haste. Crit, Spirit, and Hit are all secondary stats you generally do not want on your gear (You will get enough hit from items such as the ring slot that you won’t have to look for it). INT is somewhat useful on items like Talisman of Resurgence due to arcanes reliance on mana and talents to convert INT into Spellpower. Like all mage specs 4 piece T10 is very important.
Reasons to go Arcane:
1. Burst, arcane has the highest burst of any class at the moment.
2. Gearing, arcane does not take much gear to be good.
3. Simple, the rotation is very easy.
4. Threat, arcane has a 40% threat reduction.

Fire (Also known as FB-TTW)
DISCLAIMER! This spec is only viable once you get into mostly ICC gear.
The Build: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#of0fck...RhIhVubhct:VLi
Not much wiggle room in fire builds, the 2 points in Magic Absorbtion can be moved to Arcane Concentration but for the most part you shouldn’t even have to pay attention to your mana bar.
The Rotation: LB > Instant Pyroblast > Fireball
OR
Instant Pyroblast > LB > Fireball
This isn’t a rotation as much as it is a priority list, also the position of LB and Hotstreak could be argued to death but for the most part they do the same DPS. If you don’t have an afflic or destro lock you also should prioritize keeping the Scorch debuff up.
The Gems: Runed Scarlet Ruby in all red sockets.
Reckless Ametrine in yellows sockets IF Haste < 800
Potent Ametrine in yellow sockets IF Haste > 800
Purified Dreadstone in all blue sockets
The Gear: Fireball uses everything, as always Spell Power is your most important stat though if you are hit capped. Hit Rating is a big deal for Fire because it has no Hit+% talents, meaning you need to get 18% Hit (or 15% Raid buffed or 14% Raid buffed with a draenei). Most people will say Crit Rating is also a big deal for Fire, they would generally be wrong. Crit is a very good stat, but only after you have over 800 Haste and 18% Hit, plus it’s not better than Spell Power. Spirit is worth a little more than half of what crit is point for point, it’s generally a good stat to have on your gear.
Reasons to go fire:
1. Gear, fire can use all the Spirit/Crit/Hit gear that most casters don’t want. Also fire gets a superior trinket from Icecrown 25
2. Cleave, Living Bomb hits every target in range, this is especially useful for things like Vile Spirits or adds on Lady Deathwhisper.
3. Higher DPS, technically Fire has the highest single target DPS (But not by much)
4. Movement, Fire has more DPS while moving thanks to Living Bomb and Hot Streak.
5. Haste Cap, Fire has less of a chance of capping haste during cool downs which wastes stats.
6. Flame Caps, Fire can use them!

III. Programs and Add-ons
USE RAWR: http://rawr.codeplex.com/
I can’t stress this enough, Rawr is the greatest thing for mages. Make sure to configure it to your raid settings and import your character. If you have to keep scorch up, check that. If you don’t have Replinishment in your raid, make sure to tell rawr that. This will help you fine tune your gear so much better than any guide could.

Read patch notes at: http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/
The mage class changes almost every patch, one day blizzard might decide to make Arcane Blast do +over 9000% damage, you will want to know when this happens.

Mage Specific Add-ons: I use Mage Nuggets: http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-a...e-nuggets.aspx
This add-on will help visually track your Living Bomb, Hot Streak, Missle Barrage, Arcane Blast, Scorch, and Clearcast timers, and can also track things like Mirror Image cooldowns. Another feature is the little box that tells you your current stats and can be configured to tell you when the mob is Snared for TTW.

IV. Enchants and Professions
Most of this is pretty self explanatory.
1.Enchants
Head: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Storm
Back: Greater Speed
Chest: Powerful Stats OR Major Spirit (Fire only)
Wrists: Superior Spellpower
Hands: Exceptional Spellpower
Legs: Brilliant Spellthread
Feet: Tuskkars Vitality (DO NOT USE ICEWALKER)
Weapon: Staff=81 SP, One-hander=Black Magic
All profession only enchants are generally superior, although Rocket Boots may not be better than Tuskkars depending on how you play (I recommend Tuskkars)
2.Professions
Engineering is generally considered the top tier mage profession.
Jewelcrafting, Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, Alchemy, and Enchanting all give the same +46 SP
Tailoring gives a good back enchant
Skinning, Mining, and Herbalism are not useful for raiding, do not take these if you are a min/max-er.

V. Important Notes
Important Notes: This section is to help you stop mistakes before they are made, most of these are common sense but you would be surprised.
• Do not get the MP5 Ashen Verdict Ring, it doesn’t matter if the hit is wasted.
• Spend frost emblems on T10 before you buy off pieces, the 2 piece bonus is game changing and the 4 piece is huge burst.
• Don’t ever use pure Haste or Crit gems.
• Nibelung is a surprisingly bad staff and should only be used in PVE outside of ICC, most 251 staves are better.
• Don’t be afraid to use PVP gear in PVE, wrathful offset pieces are 264 ilvl and give nice amounts of haste.
• If you don’t have 2 of these: Phylactery, DFO, Muradins Spyglass, Reign of the Unliving, or Flare of the Heavens. Abyssal Rune is worth getting.
• NEVER skip Torment the Weak when talenting, this is the most important talent you can take and sadly many people do not realize that. Also Torment the Weak procs off all tank slows (Thunder Clap variations) so you don’t need to cast Slow to proc it.


VI. So I just hit 80
Personally I’ve never seen a guide that mentions gear that would be useful for a new mage to know about for when they just hit 80, but whenever I level I research what gear I’ll need to grab up at 80 to make the most of my class.

Merlin’s Robe- This is pretty cheap now, and very amazing for the starter mage. Not only does this robe have a lot of Haste, but it has three sockets and is 245. T9 aint got shit on this.

Bejeweled Wizard’s Bracers- These I don’t hold as important as Merlin’s Robe, while they have a nice mix of Haste and Spellpower on them and certainly are not bad bracers to buy off the bat, you can grind 43000 Honor and get Wrathful Gladiator’s Cuffs of Alacrity for free. Generally the Bejeweleds are better, but by almost nothing.

The Lady’s Brittle Bracers-The only ICC BOE I have on the list, wonder why? First off these are usually super cheap, ranging from 2-5k. Second, they are 264 (ICC 25 man gear). Third, they are only beaten by a few ICC 25 heroic pieces and 1 ICC 10 heroic piece for a Fireball mage.

Leggings of Woven Death- Don’t believe the hype. These pants are hyped up and praised by every mage known to man, they are not that great. One big thing is you are likely to get the 264 Tier 10 pants from VOA in your adventures which will make getting 4 piece T10 easier. Technically for Arcane you get better results using Head/Shoulders/Body/Hands and using these legs though. The legs are an exact stat match with Meteor Chasers Raiment, and can be beaten by multiple HICC10 and ICC25 pieces.
BUT…for a starting mage these leggings are basically godly, if you have the money after getting your other BoEs you should probably get them.

Sash of Ancient Power- Eh. Strip of Remorse from HHOR is better but HHOR takes a lot of gear to get in to. Get it if you have the money lying around, not to mention HHOR hates to put out useful items.

Spellslinger’s Slippers- Much better feet than any options from heroics or badges. I’d recommend grabbing these up as soon as you hit 80 for they should last you up till ICC shoes or possibly TOGC shoes.

Runed Signet of the Kirin Tor- If you are rich this is a nice ring to buy. Not only is it very hard to get rings from ICC (Only one in 10ICC, most in 25ICC have spirit) but its another one of those pure items where you don’t get any of those messy Hit/Spirit stats.

[Ohaigaiz]

i didn't read the entire guide, this was just glaringly obvious

Leggings of Woven Death- Don’t believe the hype.

what? the only piece better than these are sanc pants if you absolutely need the hit, and 277 plague bringers. how is virtually second BiS something that you shouldn't prioritize over?

[Falaras]

i didn't read the entire guide, this was just glaringly obvious

what? the only piece better than these are sanc pants if you absolutely need the hit, and 277 plague bringers. how is virtually second BiS something that you shouldn't prioritize over?

For a long time Arcane raiding mage that is true, for most people it is not. Most mages going through the gearing up phase need to get their 4 piece as fast as possible, VoA drops legs. Once you have the extra badges to get 4 piece without the legs and you are still arcane, that is when the legs finally shine. The thing is, soon you should be transitioning to Fire where the T10 legs are absolutely essential.
Basically the legs are only really good for a small amount of time depending on your drop luck and that's really not worth spending 7k gold on for a starting item.
Also the same could be said for the Deathfrost Boots which are only beaten by about 3 items in the game at the moment but there is almost no hype about them. The only reason the legs where included was to inform people about the pros/cons of getting them and how they are not game breaking.

To further this: Putting a pre-raiding mage into Rawr (Bloodmage, ICC 5 man gear, triumph gear, wrathful gear) the difference between Sanctified Bloodmage Leggings and Leggings of Woven Death is around 142 DPS. While the difference between something like Strip of Remorse to Circle of Ossus is 196 DPS. If you choose to gain your four piece by buying an extra Bloodmage Piece to get rid of your legs (and transition your legs to woven death) you put off gaining other benefits from Frost Badges such as the Circle of Ossus.

[Dahui]

The Gems: Runed Scarlet Ruby in all red sockets.
Reckless Ametrine in yellows sockets IF Haste < 800
Potent Ametrine in yellow sockets IF Haste > 800
Purified Ametrine in all blue sockets

lolwat?

[Siniroth]

Think he meant Dreadstone there bud

[Ohaigaiz]

why would you put dreadstone in all blue slots anyway?

[Siniroth]

I don't know, I know for warlock it has some use for socket bonuses cause of Fel Armor spirit +SP portion, does spirit portion of Molten Armor for mages help that much?

[Lucavi]

Mage guide: Spam two buttons at end-game. Collect epix.

I kid, sorta.

[Ohaigaiz]

I don't know, I know for warlock it has some use for socket bonuses cause of Fel Armor spirit +SP portion, does spirit portion of Molten Armor for mages help that much?

yes, it adds to crit%, but the same rule that applies to warlocks applies to mages as well

[Boyiee]

So why did you make this guide? Thought the other guides out there were pretty decent. I can see some of the stuff that's more advanced maybe and towards the bottom isn't bad to be out there. But it seems alot of info is covered in others guides.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/689924-Mage-PvE-FAQ
http://www.empoweredfire.com/2009/10...eveling-guide/ (leveling and starting out)

[Falaras]

why would you put dreadstone in all blue slots anyway?

Spirit is worth about half as much as Crit, if the socket bonus is worth going for at all a Dreadstone will provide more DPS than straight socketing for SP.

So why did you make this guide? Thought the other guides out there were pretty decent. I can see some of the stuff that's more advanced maybe and towards the bottom isn't bad to be out there. But it seems alot of info is covered in others guides.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/689924-Mage-PvE-FAQ
http://www.empoweredfire.com/2009/10...eveling-guide/ (leveling and starting out)

While the MMO-Champion guide is pretty good compared to the official forums guides, it has some things in it that I find to be wrong. First of all, all Fire guides talk about Crit being better than Haste, this is just flat out wrong for the majority of Fire mages out there. The talent spec they provide doesn't have Flame Throwing which is a very key talent and one of the reasons to go Fire over Arcane (range). Not to mention their BIS list is wrong, they favor Fireball over Pyroblast procs? It seems to have some nice more in depth explaining of the math than mine, but lots of flaws.

[Boyiee]

If you read the thread he's been saying over and over again that he was planning to change the BIS list as well as a few other things since the guide is from around 3.3.

[Falaras]

If you read the thread he's been saying over and over again that he was planning to change the BIS list as well as a few other things since the guide is from around 3.3.

That shouldn't really matter, the BIS list hasn't changed since Icecrown came out just his is wrong. I'm not talking about Ruby Sanctum gear or anything.

[Bokey]

Mage guide: Spam two buttons at end-game. Collect epix.

I kid, sorta.

i basically remember my Arcane Mage being exactly like that . . . so i sorta Rebelled and went Fire/Arcane its a bit more all over the place but i feel im not just sitting there twiddling my thumbs but eh

[erish]

The talent spec they provide doesn't have Flame Throwing which is a very key talent and one of the reasons to go Fire over Arcane (range).

just no. straight up no.

[Falaras]

just no. straight up no.

I'm sorry you feel this way, but you are wrong. Student of the Mind is one of the worst DPS talents even for Fire. For me the change between 1/3 and 3/3 is .53 Crit (Or 78 DPS) while using: Archus, Voldes, Bracers of Dark Blessing, and Lingering Illness. The current best in slot gear does not include ANY spirit outside of the gems. If you are joining a 25 man HM guild with bad gear and just taking whatever Spirit gear you can get you could justify 3/3 Student of the Mind, but even for Fire spirit gear is not optimal. Taking a look at a BIS mage with full buffs the difference is only 66 DPS. I mean hell, if you need the Hit, Icewalker is worth almost 121 DPS (87 DPS in the full BIS build which is 5 under the hit cap) but Tuskkars are generally regarded as the best foot enchant.

Six yards on your Fireball on the other hand will give you much more room to spread out, along with allow you to get back into position faster after moving. Fights such as: Blood Princes, Marrowgar, and Dreamwalker it is easy to find yourself out of range on. Fights such as: Deathbringer, Festergut, Rotface, Putricide, Princes, Blood Queen, and Sindragosa HM all require the raid to spread out. As the fire mage you have the longest casting ability unless you need to be in range to scorch (Tip: You shouldn't) which not only gives you more safety but also frees up closer spots for DPS that need it (Think Boomkins on Saurfang). Of course you can easily do these fights using 0/2 Flame Throwing but theres really no reason not to, increasing your DPS by 1/300th is not worth the loss of such a key talent.

If anything dropping the points in Burning Soul is the best thing to do if you want SoTM but this is assuming your tanks are very good. I know I never really have threat problems after the initial 28 seconds (Invising at the last few seconds of MI). Theres also the ability to be salved which most guilds forget they have, but then again those pesky fury warriors always take it.

[Correction]

Runed Signet of the Kirin Tor

This 12k toy is a ridiculous suggestion for a fresh 80 mage. If you're that hard up for a ring go grind on ICC trash for the friendly rep ring and buy the 226 pvp ring. Boom, 2 free rings in far less time than it would take a fresh 80 to earn that much money.

[Falaras]

This 12k toy is a ridiculous suggestion for a fresh 80 mage. If you're that hard up for a ring go grind on ICC trash for the friendly rep ring and buy the 226 pvp ring. Boom, 2 free rings in far less time than it would take a fresh 80 to earn that much money.

Thats why I said if you are rich, the ring itself blows the Triumph ring out of the water and getting better rings is pretty hard to do from experience. I do not at all advocate spending that much gold for it though, I'm just saying its a possibility.

[erish]

I'm sorry you feel this way, but you are wrong. Student of the Mind is one of the worst DPS talents even for Fire. For me the change between 1/3 and 3/3 is .53 Crit (Or 78 DPS) while using: Archus, Voldes, Bracers of Dark Blessing, and Lingering Illness. The current best in slot gear does not include ANY spirit outside of the gems. If you are joining a 25 man HM guild with bad gear and just taking whatever Spirit gear you can get you could justify 3/3 Student of the Mind, but even for Fire spirit gear is not optimal. Taking a look at a BIS mage with full buffs the difference is only 66 DPS. I mean hell, if you need the Hit, Icewalker is worth almost 121 DPS (87 DPS in the full BIS build which is 5 under the hit cap) but Tuskkars are generally regarded as the best foot enchant.

Six yards on your Fireball on the other hand will give you much more room to spread out, along with allow you to get back into position faster after moving. Fights such as: Blood Princes, Marrowgar, and Dreamwalker it is easy to find yourself out of range on. Fights such as: Deathbringer, Festergut, Rotface, Putricide, Princes, Blood Queen, and Sindragosa HM all require the raid to spread out. As the fire mage you have the longest casting ability unless you need to be in range to scorch (Tip: You shouldn't) which not only gives you more safety but also frees up closer spots for DPS that need it (Think Boomkins on Saurfang). Of course you can easily do these fights using 0/2 Flame Throwing but theres really no reason not to, increasing your DPS by 1/300th is not worth the loss of such a key talent.

If anything dropping the points in Burning Soul is the best thing to do if you want SoTM but this is assuming your tanks are very good. I know I never really have threat problems after the initial 28 seconds (Invising at the last few seconds of MI). Theres also the ability to be salved which most guilds forget they have, but then again those pesky fury warriors always take it.

As a caster dps you should already be good at "spreading out" by the time you have completed any kind of raiding, 6 yards give you space to accomplish this but really by the time your entering hard modes most people should already know where to stand unless your well bad?

I wouldnt invite and undergeared player to a hardmode unless i was desperate for there buff ( looking at you shammies ) so i doubt any undergeared people get into a normal 25 HM guild, no wait let me rephrase that. I doubt anyone earns a regular place in a 25man HM guild unless there are very exceptionall cirumstances.


To put it bluntly if your in a HM guild you should be expected to have a spec that pushs your DPS to the max as a ranged if your having to rely on being what 40 from the target your doing it wrong. Basically just learn to be better its not hard really is it? Giving advice to any new players that might read this is really bad but then again arent you the same mage in another thread that said being a few points under hit cap was ok?

edit spelling.

[Mugekuge]

I know nothing about mage but checking a friend of mine spec, he is 18/53/0 but with a few different points assigned, he has 1/2 Magic Absortion, 0/3 Student of the Mind, 5/5 Arcane Concentration, rest is same.