Mage Basics Guide
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What is supposed to be the role of the Mage class?
The Mage class is primarily a ranged damage-oriented support class that has three separate schools of magic available to them: Arcane, Fire, and Frost. The three different forms of magic schools available to the Mage make it a very flexible class to deal damage to almost any type of creature in the game. The Mage also has the strongest multiple target area of effect (AoE) damaging spells/abilities in the game. Other support functions that a Mage can provide include single target control [Polymorph], and short-term crowd control [Frost Nova/root effects]. The Mage class is also the only class that has the ability to conjure food and drink – This saves a great deal of cash for the Mage and his/her friends. The Mage is very highly sought after class for groups, raids, and instance dungeon crawls.
Although the Mage is a very strong group-role class, it makes a very effective character in soloing many same-level quests and creatures on its own. The general rule is:
-Anything below your level is safe
-Anything one/two levels above your level will cost a good portion of your mana but is usually safe and you should expect resistances at around 10-25%
-Anything three levels above your level will cost you a majority of your mana and a decent supply of your health and you should expect about 50%+ resistances.
-Anything four levels above your level or higher will cost you all of your mana, all of your life, potions/mana gems, and you should expect around 75% or higher resistances. Success is not ensured and may result in an unplanned visit to the Spirit Healer in some cases.
What character stats are most important to my Mage?
How important a stat is to your Mage truly depends on how you wish to play your Mage. It is the general understanding of the Mage community that Intellect and Stamina are the two top priority stats a Mage should focus on: intellect impacts your Mage’s critical strike chance with spells and increases your available mana pool; stamina increases your Mage’s health points. Spirit, although the description states it regenerates your mana and health pools, is largely seen as insignificant by the Mage community simply because of its diminishing returns at higher stat levels and lack of effectiveness during spell casting. Agility and Strength stats primarily affect melee-based characters defensively and offensively. Although these melee stats can affect a Mage’s melee abilities, the benefit from these stats alone will not impact your function in combat as greatly as the others [intellect, stamina, and spirit].
What armor, weapons, and tradeskill professions can a Mage learn?
- Mages start out with proficiency in Cloth armor; Mages cannot learn any other armor types, regardless of their character levels.
- Mages start with the weapon skill Staves. Mages can also learn how to wield Daggers and 1 handed swords in addition to their existing weapon skills.
- New spells become available to Mages on every even-numbered level: 2, 4, 6, etc to 60. Be sure to visit a Mage trainer as soon as you can upon reaching an even-numbered level: you will be finding it more difficult to fight creatures at your level without updated spells.
- Mages have the ability to learn any two of all the available tradeskill professions.
Where can I find more information about tradeskill professions?
The official Blizzard profession guide can be found here:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/professions/
The player community has put together an awesome amount of in-depth information [FAQs] regarding all available professions, here:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-professions&t=40&p=1&tmp=1#post40
What tradeskill professions should I train into for my Mage?
Tradeskill professions vary in effectiveness on a per-player and per-character basis – There is no one perfect profession that is absolutely best for every Mage; all of us play our Mage differently and have different goals/needs for our characters. It would be strongly advised to read through the above mentioned links to better understand tradeskill professions and decide upon which, if any, you would like to explore with your Mage. It is a general rule of thumb that the gathering professions have the potential to make money without as much effort, time, or money as the crafting professions – gathering professions can sell their items directly on the auction house whereas crafting professions must gather/buy resources, learn how to create the item, create the item, and then sell it. However, the crafting professions do provide your character with the ability to produce useful items for your character without the need to purchase them from someone else.
What are talents and which are available to the Mage class?
All classes obtain the ability to train in class talents upon achieving level 10 with their character. Talents are ability/spell enhancements for your character classes. Once your character reaches level 10, a new icon will be placed on your action bar that allows you to access your class talents allocation page – The keyboard shortcut key is by default the “N” key. Training in your class’ talents requires one talent point per ability/skill/spell ranking you wish to learn. Your character will gain one talent point per level from level 10 through level 60 – 51 talent points in total at level 60. A character cannot move allocated talent points once they have been spent. The only way a character can ‘clear’ their talent point allocations is to visit their class trainer and ask them to reset their talents. Please remember that this will reset ALL your talent points, it is not a selective process and you will be refunded all of your talent points as if you never spent them. This talent reset process is expensive: 1 gold for the first time you reset your talents and the price increases steeply afterwards; try to plan ahead on a talent roadmap if you can.
For a Mage, talents are split into three categories: Arcane, Fire, and Frost. A character can train in any of the three available talent trees [tabs/categories available on the talent allocation page]. As a matter-of-fact, a majority of players train into two or more talent trees because they wish to have spells and abilities within multiple talent trees available to their characters. Remember that just because your Mage trains into one talent tree does not mean that your character cannot use any other schools of magic. For example, if your Mage character has trained extensively into the Frost and Arcane talent trees it does not mean he/she cannot use the Fire-based spells any longer; although you may find it more effective to use those magic schools you have placed talents into.
Where can I find more information about available Mage talents?
An excellent resource for creating a talent roadmap for your character is here:
http://wowvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Talents.View&category_select_id=4
What is this 33/18, 30/16, 31/20 talent thing I keep hearing about?
Class talents are broken down into categories, as mentioned previously, and players tend to create what are called ‘talent builds’ for their characters. Talent builds are usually represented in the form of numbers and slashes: numbers representing the number of talent points into a talent tree and the slashes separating different talent trees. For example, if you see a 33/18 Frost/Arcane talent build, you would expect 33 talent points allocated into the Frost talent tree and 18 talent points allocated into the Arcane talent tree.
Alcaras began a thread in the Mage forums whose sole focus is on talent builds and explanations of talents. This excellent guide/thread can be found here:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow- mage&t=23&p=1&tmp=1#post23
Most popular talent builds, for all talent trees, can be found here:
http://wowvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Templates.List&class_select_id=Mage
I am having some problems understanding what some of these spells do, help! Do not panic, you are not alone in having a difficult time understanding all your spells. Not only are some of the Mage spell descriptions misleading or very vague, they are sometimes just insufficient in explanations. I will list some of the most popular spell-related questions here:
- Amplify Magic: This spell can be cast upon yourself or your group mates and will amplify [increase] any magical effects on the character; this includes healing spells as well as damaging spells and effects. Uses: Very effective to cast on tanks when fighting against pure melee targets; increases healing effectiveness. Each rank of this spell increases its effectiveness on spell effects.
- Dampen Magic: This is the exact opposite of its sister spell Amplify Magic. This spell can be cast upon yourself or your group mates and will dampen [lessen] any magical effects on the character; this includes healing spells as well as damaging spells and effects. Uses: Very effective against casting targets that deal a majority of their damage via spell/magical damage. This spell also affects damage shields, such as Fire Shields, and in many cases lessens Elemental creature melee damage [because it is considered magical, in nature]. Each rank of this spell increases its effectiveness on spell effects.
- Arcane Missiles: This is a multiple volley channeling spell which must require your Mage to stand still, facing your target, and not perform any action while casting. This spell has multiple rounds; meaning that Arcane Missiles will launch a magical missile every second, dealing its respective damage each round. Remember, like all channeling spells, if your character is hit during the channeling of Arcane Missiles, it will stop the remaining Arcane Missiles from launching – Unless you place talent points into the Arcane talent tree to become uninterruptible while casting Arcane Missiles. This spell is currently known to be bugged in the game where your character will channel the spell; however, no damage is dealt to the target.
- Polymorph: This spell is the Mage class’ single target control that allows the Mage to place one target out of combat for a period of time. There are some very important side effects of this spell that every Mage must keep in mind: Your target will regenerate their health and mana very quickly while under the effects of Polymorph; you will only be able to Polymorph another player for up to 15 seconds, during PVP combat. A target under the effects of Polymorph will wander around aimlessly in a five yard radius surrounding the spot it first came under the spell’s effects – If you look closely you will even see the Sheep graphic eating grass and blinking its eyes at you. Any damage done to the target, including Damage over Time effects, will cause the target to break out of the Polymorph effect.
-Portals and Teleports: These lines of spells are very rapid methods of transportation for both the Mage and his/her group mates. A Mage will gain his/her first teleport and portal spells beginning at level 20 by finding the Portal Trainers at any of the major capital cities of their respective faction : Undercity, Stormwind, Orgrimmar, and Ironforge. At level 30 the Mage will be able to purchase the remaining teleport spells: Thunderbluff and Darnassus. Teleport spells are self-only rapid transportation spells and require a reagent component that is consumed each time the spell is cast – Reagent “Rune of Teleportation” is found on Arcane Goods/Reagent vendors throughout the game and must be purchased in order for the teleport spells to function. Portal spells are group teleportation spells that enables the Mage’s group to travel to a target location very quickly. The locations are the same as the Mage teleport spells, however, unlike the teleport spells group mates must click on the portal to be transported to the destination. Spell availability for locations is identical to the teleport spells, except for the levels required to purchase the spells: level 40, first round and level 50 for the second/final round of locations – Reagent required is “Rune of Portals” .
-Blink: This is an instant spell that propels the Mage forward for 20 yards in the direction he/she is facing – Only exception to this rule is that there must be a clear walkable path 20 yards in front of the Mage, jumping or climbing paths will not work. A major side effect of the Blink spell is its ability to propel the Mage out from many root and stun effects. The casting cost [mana] required for this spell will gradually increase each level your Mage gains after obtaining the spell.
-Slowfall: This spell will allow the Mage to float for 30 seconds, allowing the Mage to not take falling damage while under the spell’s effects. A Mage’s downward momentum will be slowed while under Safefall’s spell effects – read: You will not fall as fast as you would if you did not have the effect cast on you. Safefall is a self-only spell that requires a spell reagent – Light Feather. Youcannot purchase Light feathers from Arcane goods/reagent vendors, you must obtain them either through the auction house [from other players] or kill feathered creatures throughout the game.
What’s with Wands? How the heck can I use one?
Wands are magical ranged attack items that are found throughout the game as dropped items, purchased from vendors, and can be created by enchanters. Wands use the school of magic listed on them to induce their damage to your target. To use a wand simply open your character equipment portrait (keyboard shortcut key is “C” ), drag your wand from your inventory to the Ranged slot on your character. Open your character abilities/spells book and click on the “general” tab, select the “shoot” ability and drag the icon to your action bar. You will now be able to click that action bar icon to perform your new wand ranged attack. Keep in mind, like melee weapons, wands have delays and your ranged attack ability will require it to refresh in order for it to become available again for use; and unlike melee weapons wands will not auto attack your target, you must click the icon in order to perform another attack round.
A good listing of available wands in the game is available here (notice the magic school name next to the damage range, this is the school of magic the particular wand uses to cause damage): http://www.thottbot.com/index.cgi?s=wand
What is this + damage thing I keep hearing about?
+ damage is a very vague effect that can be found on some armor, weapons, and items within the game that increases the damage caused by a particular school of magic by a certain amount of damage points.
Here is a link for the official answer on + damage:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=785402&p=1&tmp=1#post785402
There are actually two different types of + damage gear in the game. An example of the first “up to…” type would be an item that “increases damage done by Frost spells and effects by up to 10″ . One would think that reading this would mean every Frost spell cast by the item wearer will be granted a flat + 10 damage bonus. However, it has been discovered that the casting time of a spell directly affects how much benefit these + damage effects truly give the wearer. This means if the wearer casts two different Frost-based spells, with different casting times on both spells, the wearer will be granted different + damage bonuses for both of those spells. The damage bonus for all channeled spells (Blizzard and Arcane Missiles are both excellent examples) will apply across the WHOLE spell. This means that if you have a five second channel spell (Arcane Missiles) and obtain a +10 damage bonus item, your Arcane Missiles will have the chance to land +2 damage each round for a total of five rounds.
An example of the second type of + damage gear is the “wrath” series. These pieces of equipment have a straight + xx damage to yy type of magic. You will see these items with the appropriate names, such as “Uber Sword of Fiery Wrath” which will have the description somewhat like, “+ 50 Fire Spell Damage” . This type of + damage modifier is straight to the spell line; meaning + 50 Fire damage to your fire spells. Just like the “up to…” damage gear, the damage bonus for all channeled spells (Blizzard and Arcane Missiles are both excellent examples) will apply across the WHOLE spell. This means that if you have a five second channel spell (Arcane Missiles) and obtain a +10 damage bonus item, your Arcane Missiles will have the chance to land +2 damage each round for a total of five rounds.
Please take note that a majority of + damage items within the game have a serious lack of any stat increases and should cause you to pause for a moment and think about the benefit of the item before accepting it over a stat increase piece of equipment; this is not to say that + damage items are worthless, however, in some cases stat increasing equipment would grant your character a larger benefit and vise versa.
Help! I see spells on my trainer and have the appropriate level; however, I cannot purchase them!
Relax; you have not been kicked out of the Mage community [unless you’ve received a letter from us…]. You are probably referring to the many of the talents that Mages receive in the form of new spells. Talents such as Pyroblast, Blastwave, and Ice Barrier, to name a few, are all rank two spells unavailable on the Mage trainer until you purchase rank one via the appropriate talent tree.
