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The mage in WoW, like a lot of other games, has quite low HP and defense; this means that an inexperienced player is likely to be killed quickly in battle; the inability to add a tanking pet makes the problem larger.
If you play as a mage, your job is to deal as much damage as you can while stay away from the enemies as best as you can. Having a mage in your group can be helpful because he has good crowd control abilities and good DPS spells. There are a few playing style depends on which talents tree that you want to focus.
Arcane Mage
As an Arcane Mage you have high DPS (damage per second) that surpass even the heavy fire mage which has high fire damage. To be successful with this you will need the proper gear and a great deal of mana. These are basic playing style as an Arcane mage:
1. Arcane Blast will be your primary spell from level 64 and up. Using this ability will increase the damage done by arcane spells by 15% per cast, but it costs more mana as well. You can stack this spell up to three times, giving you a very high damage boost. On the third cast using this ability your total damage boost will be 45% but it will use around 56% of your mana, so in order to preserve your mana you must have the proper gear.
2. After powering with 3 times Arcane Blast the spell you should use is the Arcane Barrage. Cycling between Arcane Blast and Arcane Barrage will give you high DPS while not having to deal with the debuff.
When trying to overcome the problem with mana you have a few options: you can use mana gems, runic mana potions, mage armor, and evocation.
Fire Mage
The fire mage will be expected to deal the most DPS while the rest of the group protects you; while you aren’t using as much of your mana for damage boost like an Arcane mage, maintain enough mana to keep high burst DPS is still necessary. You won’t have the same survivability as a Frost mage so you will need to have more control skills. These are the basic playing style as a Fire mage:
1. Your primary spell for damage is Fireball, but it is not a wise decision to spam it since it will make your mana pool suffer; the best way to use it is mixing other spells to complement this spell. With Improved Fireball talent you will lower your cast time, which means more DPS.
2. For AoE (area of effect) spells Flamestrike is your best choice since you can talent it to create high critical rate and it can be cast from a long distance.
3. As a Fire mage you want to deal the highest level of damage possible so you need to add talents that will increase your damage: Incinerate, Ignite, Fire Power, and Improved Scorch.
4. Having Flame Throwing will increase your survivability since it gives you an extra 6 yards of casting distance. Definitely a must have talent.
The purpose of this build was to increase damage, so the next thing you will want to concentrate on is spell damage gear and enchant boost so you can increase your damage output.
You may notice that those two builds rely heavily on gears, enchats, and items to make it powerful enough. Check the best farming spots where you can stack gold in Northrend to fund your gears and items.
Frost Mage
As a Frost mage, you will have more survivability since you have the spells to kite such as Frostbolt and have less problem with mana since frost spells are quite mana friendly. Despite all these advantages, Frost spells don’t have as much damage as Fire spells or insane damage boost as Arcane spells, so you need to invest your points very carefully. These are the basic playing style as a Frost mage:
1. Your main damage spell is Frostbolt, but the spell is not very effective on its own. Complement it with Frostbite, Ice Shard, Shatter, Piercing Ice, and Frost Channeling will get you a nice damage package. Don’t forget to invest on Improved Frost Bolt; it will reduce your cast time, which means more DPS.
2. Blizzard and Improved Blizzard together will lower your target movement.
3. Artic Reach will increase your spell range, keep you in safer distance from your foes.
4. Get Frost Nova, it is the gateway to Shatter effect.
5. Ice Block is a must have defensive skill; you can’t act during it, but you will gain benefits by becoming immune to everything, almost all debuffs cleared, lose all aggro, and buy you time so that your priest can heal you.
Casting Blizzard won’t burst as much damage, but by adding Improved Blizzard, Frostbite, and Shatter you can help out your group since you can kite the whole mob and allow them to be killed by your group.
These builds are only basic WoW mage guide that focusing only on one talent tree; there are various creative build that aim for different playing styles such as Arcane-Frost, Fire-Frost, etc with so much variation on each build. If you planning to start a mage, I recommend that you check Ultimate WoW Guide Review for a fast leveling guide with in game talent guide included.
Note: if you are into spellcasters, you might have interest in playing a Warlock, which has very unique methods to kill his adversaries; learn more about it at world of warcraft warlock guide.