Classic Mage: Basics and Leveling Guide

What is covered in this guide? 
This guide covers the following subjects:
-Basics of the mage class, such as role, stats, professions
-Basics of leveling
-Basic information on talent builds, as well as some sample builds
-Basic information on stats such as, spell crit, spell hit, spell penetration, and spell damage

Should I play a mage?
Well that depends. The Classic mage has a generally good reputation and it was considered to be one of the strongest classes during Vanilla, but it is not for everyone. We are the “squishiest” of all the classes available in Classic due to having the lowest hit points, wearing cloth armor, and not having many defensive abilities. Or in other words, we die easily. Basically, if you’re a fan of running away from things and the saying “The best defense is a good offense” you will probably enjoy the Classic mage class.

It remains to be seen if mages will be one of the most popular classes in Classic. When Vanilla launched we were one of the most complete classes and didn’t have any glaring balance or gameplay issues like some other classes did (e.g. warriors). So obviously a class without glaring balance and/or gameplay issues is going to be much more popular than other classes that do have those issues. In Classic however we are getting the 1.12 version of the classes, and in 1.12 everything seemed fairly well balanced and most seemed happy with their class (which was not the case at launch). So it will be interesting to see how class balance plays out in Classic. Personally I expect it to be pretty well balanced between all the classes.

What is the role of the mage class?
The mage class is primarily a ranged damage-oriented support class. We have three separate schools of magic available to us to deal damage with: Arcane, Fire, and Frost. We also have the strongest multiple target area of effect (AoE) damaging spells/abilities in the game. Our support functions include single target crowd control (Polymorph), and short-term crowd control (Frost Nova/root effects). We are also the only class that has the ability to conjure food and drink, which saves a great deal of cash for us and our friends. 

If you never played Vanilla these support functions might not seem like much, but believe me they are huge. Mana is a critical mechanic in Classic and any class that uses mana will be sitting down to drink after a few pulls in a dungeon. Crowd control is also a critical component in Classic due to classes being quite weak in comparison to the rest of the world (i.e. you are not a great Champion of your faction, but instead a lowly, insignificant adventurer in a big, bad, scary world). So being able to eliminate a mob from a pull makes things much safer and easier for the group in a dungeon. In addition to this, Polymorph is the best crowd control ability in the game because it is easily reapplied, which is not the case with other crowd control abilities in Classic.

So between having the best AoE, the best crowd control, and being able to provide food and drink to your group members you will be a highly sought after class for dungeons. 

What armor, weapons, and trade skill 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. You should eventually train all these weapon skills because some daggers and 1 handed swords have caster stats on them (like spell damage).
- New spells become available to Mages on every even-numbered level: 2, 4, 6, etc up to 60. Be sure to visit a Mage trainer as soon as you can upon reaching an even-numbered level so that mobs are not more difficult than they have to be.
- Mages are also able to learn teleport (lvls 20, 30) and portal (lvls 40, 50) spells from portal trainers. Portal trainers are located near the mage trainers in the major cities
- Mages, like all characters, have the ability to learn any two of all the available trade skill professions and all of the secondary professions (first aid, fishing, cooking). 

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. It is the general understanding of the mage community that Intellect and Stamina are the two top priority stats a mage should focus on while leveling to 60.

Intellect: impacts your critical strike chance with spells and increases your available mana pool; intellect should be the stat you focus on most while leveling to 60.

Stamina: increases your health points. Although it is not as important as intellect for leveling be sure you don’t neglect this stat otherwise you will be making many trips to the graveyard. 

Spirit: although the description states it regenerates your mana and health pools, it 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 (i.e. its regeneration doesn’t start until 5sec. after you stop casting, iirc). Spirit does however affect your evocation and some raiding mages keep a high spirit staff and wand in their inventory and use a macro to swap to them when they evocate. 

Other important stats to a mage are spell damage, spell critical rating, spell hit rating, and spell penetration. Spell damage is what it sounds like, an increase in either all spell damage, or the damage of a particular school. It is a passive bonus found on gear and will increase the spell damage up to a particular amount. How much +damage a spell receives depends on the spell.

Spell critical and hit rating obviously increase your chance to crit or hit with spells. This is good for a mage to have because if a spell crits, it is more damage for the same amount of mana. Hit works kind of the same way, if you get resisted you basically just wasted mana on a spell that did no damage; increasing your spell hit will help negate that. Don't forget though that you can't have 100% to hit. 

Spell penetration lowers your target’s resistance by x, which helps with partial resists, such as the ones mages see with fireball. 

Spell damage, crit, hit, and penetration are not needed for leveling and should not be taken over intellect and stamina while leveling.

These stats will be discussed in more detail in a future post.

How do I level a mage?
With the mage class you can really level however you want. We are effective soling and we are very valuable in groups also.

I do not recommend AoE leveling for several reasons. First, mobs are not shared in Classic like they are in retail. That is, if someone else attacks a mob, even if they are the same faction, and they are not in your group you will get 0 experience for killing the mob. You know a mob is tapped by someone else when their nameplate/unit frame turns grey (like retail). So you need to truly be alone in order to AoE level, something that is unlikely to happen, especially at launch. Second, there are almost always ranged mobs present in every place throughout the world which you will not be able to move into your AoE easily or at all. Third, it is dangerous and if not executed correctly you will easily die. Finally, I think it is just plain boring.

The quickest way to level to 60 is by solo questing. The basic method to solo questing is this:
(1) Get to a new town.
(2) Gather up all the available quests (which are not marked on the mini map in Classic).
(3) Complete all those quests.
(4) Hand them in.
(5) Gather up more quests.
(6) Repeat steps 3-5 until out of quests then move to a new town.
If you want to truly maximize your leveling efficiency Joana has the fastest known time for leveling from 1-60 at 4 days 20 hours /played. I would follow his guide for optimal leveling efficiency: https://www.joanasworld.com/

Doing dungeons will slow down your leveling compared with solo questing, but they offer good gear. In fact some of the gear is so good that it can last you for 10+ levels before you find something better. I would recommend doing dungeons unless you are just absolutely hell bent on getting to 60 ASAP. They offer good gear that will make leveling easier and will help you learn your class.

The general rule for leveling is:
-Any mob whose level appears as green or yellow is safe. You shouldn't be killing grey mobs to level as they offer no experience. Ideally you should focus on green and yellow mobs/quests
- Any mob whose level is orange is killable, but will probably cost you a bit more mana and life than a yellow or green mob
- Any mob whose level is red will probably not be killable by you. It is not a good idea to attack red mobs while soloing. 

What stats are important when leveling? 
From 1-60 Intellect should be the primary stat you focus on, then stamina as a secondary stat. Basically if you look for "of the Eagle" gear you'll be fine. There are also a few tailoring pieces that you can make that are pretty good. My personal favorite is Robe of Power.

Spell damage gear is not necessary while leveling; your base damage is more than adequate for leveling. Your main limitation while leveling will be your mana pool, not damage. The more mana you have the less downtime you will have and the faster you will level.

Are there any mage quests? 
Yes, there are a number of mage class quests. You can find a complete list here: https://classic.wowhead.com/mage-quests?filter=38;13;0#0+2+11 

The only one I would absolutely do is the Magecraft line you start at 52. The ones with Tabetha are also good and provide a good reward if you can get them done. Whether or not you do the others is up to you.  

What is the best leveling build? 
There really isn’t a “best” leveling build for mages as either fire or frost builds are effective at leveling. Frost is generally considered the “best” due its low mana cost for spells and the slows and snares that give you more control over mobs. Fire though is equally viable if played correctly and works especially well in PvP situations. 

How do I level as frost?
As frost your priority is to get 5/5 Shatter ASAP. It is an essential talent for leveling and your life will be quite rough without it. In fact you may notice yourself struggling until you do max out this talent. Fortunately in Classic you can use fireball if you need the extra damage before then.

As frost your basic leveling rotation will be (from max range): Frostbolt, Frostbolt, Frostbolt, Frost Nova, strafe to max range, Frostbolt until low hp, wand until dead.

For your leveling build I would do the following from 10-29:
5/5 Improved Frostbolt
2/2 Improved Frost Nova
5/5 Ice Shards
3/3 Piercing Ice
5/5 Shatter 

After 29 I'd pick up 2/2 Arctic Reach, Ice Block and Cold Snap. 

After those move to the arcane tree and pick up 5/5 Improved Arcane Missiles and 5/5 Arcane Concentration. The reason for this is because Arcane Missiles is a lot of damage, but costs a significant amount mana and gets interrupted by damage (i.e. you lose waves). But if it doesn’t get interrupted by damage (Improved Arcane Missiles) and doesn’t cost any mana (Arcane Concentration) you’ve just done a big chunk of damage for no mana. This improves your leveling efficiency because you will kill mobs quicker and with less mana. 

If you choose these talents your leveling rotation changes a bit. You will still cast Frostbolt, but whenever you proc Clearcasting you will switch to Arcane Missiles. You should be able to make this switch easily with a macro:

#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cast Arcane Missiles

*I have not tested this macro yet because Classic beta is shutdown, but it “should” work. And if you find a better, more efficient macro share it with me.

However, as frost you do not need to use Arcane Missiles on Clearcasting since you are pretty mana efficient already. I find though that it makes the gameplay more engaging. But if you choose not to do this then after picking up Cold Snap I would pick up 2/2 Arcane Subtlety and 3/5 Arcane Focus and 5/5 Arcane Concentration and keep your rotation the same. 

After picking up these talents in the arcane tree how you fill out the rest of your build is up to you. I would recommend filling it out with the frost tree since there are not many beneficial leveling talents deeper than Arcane Concentration in the arcane tree for frost. 

My final build at 60 would look something like this: https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/mage/005005--05350223102351351

How do I level as fire?
Fire is not the “best” leveling build according to popular wisdom, but popular wisdom is often incomplete. The reality is that fire is perfectly viable for leveling if done properly. 

As fire the main difficulty you will face while leveling will be mana efficiency. So the majority of your talent points will be spent in the arcane tree because there are several useful mana efficiency talents available that will help overcome this difficulty. You will also need to switch to Arcane Missiles when you proc Clearcasting; this is not optional unless you want to sit down and drink after 2-3 mobs. See the discussion above for my reasoning behind this.

From 10-19 your talent points will go into:
5/5 Improved Arcane Missiles
5/5 Arcane Concentration

Your basic rotation will then be: Arcane Missiles on Clearcasts, otherwise Fireball, Fireball, Fireball, strafe to max range, Fireball until low hp, wand until dead.

From 20-30:
5/5 Improved Fireball
5/5 Ignite
1/1 Pyroblast

Pyroblast deals a significant amount of damage, but has a very long cast time (6 seconds). You can actually open with this spell if you want, but it is not required. In fact, if you are facing a green level mob you can probably open with Pyroblast, cast Fireball, and then start wanding to kill the mob.

From here you will go back go the arcane tree. You have some options as to where you spend your talents, but the essential ones are: Arcane Meditation, Arcane Mind, Presence of Mind, and Arcane Power. I would personally allocate my points like this:

2/2 Wand Specialization
2/2 Arcane Subtlety
1/1 Arcane Resilience
3/3 Arcane Meditation
2/2 Improved Counterspell
1/1 Presence of Mind
5/5 Arcane Mind
3/3 Arcane Instability

1 point wherever
1/1 Arcane Power

After you pick up Presence of Mind make the following macro and bind it to a key:

#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cast Presence of Mind
/cast Pyroblast

This macro is very useful in PvP situations and can possibly save your hide in sticky PvE situations also.

Once you pick up Arcane Power be sure to add that spell to the macro also:
#showtooltip
/stopcasting

/cast Arcane Power
/cast Presence of Mind
/cast Pyroblast

From here I would fill out the rest of the build in the fire tree. You can really choose whatever, but I would personally allocate my remaining points like this:
2/2 Flame Throwing
2/2 Burning Soul
3/3 Improved Scorch

2/3 Master of Elements
So at 60 the final build would look like this: https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/mage/2152050010231531-505200012302

 

What spells should I train while leveling?

Gold saving is a major consideration while leveling because mounts are not cheap. One of the things you can do to save gold is to avoid training unnecessary spells. Mages have quite a few spells and abilities available, but not all of them are essential for leveling. This is my recommended list of spells to train, but you are free to make your own decisions on this matter:

- Your main nuke, either Frostbolt or Fireball
- Arcane Missiles if you will be using them on Clearcasts, otherwise ignore
- Frost Nova (rank 1 only)

- Blink
- Teleport and Portal spells (people will expect you to have them)
- Arcane Intellect/Brilliance
- Polymorph (the duration increases with higher ranks, so train the higher ranks)
- Frost/Ice/Mage Armor
- Conjure Food/Water/Mana Gems
- Evocation
- Remove Lesser Curse
- Slow Fall

- Cone of Cold (if frost)

- Blizzard

Strictly speaking I consider Scorch, Fire Blast, and Arcane Explosion optional for leveling. Neither of these spells are part of your main leveling rotation, but they are very useful, especially in PvP situations. I would recommend training them regardless of leveling build, but technically speaking you can level just fine without them.

I would eventually train all ranks of all spells, but they are not all necessary for leveling. Fire Ward for example is very useful in Molten Core, but it is not necessary for leveling. So you will need to train it for endgame content, but before that point you can save your gold and avoid training it.

Do you have any other leveling tips?

Yes!

Always logout in a rested area. Leveling in Classic is time consuming, so getting a rested xp bonus helps out a lot.

Don’t repair your gear. You replace your gear frequently while leveling, so by the time it actually starts to break you most likely will find an upgrade for it. Only repair individual items that you know you will be keeping for a while (like Robes of Argus, Illusionary Rod, etc).

Macro all your spells that have ranks. The reason for this is that Classic has spell ranks, and you need to drag new ranks onto your bar to replace old ranks. This can get kind of tedious and you can easily forget to do this. So for Frostbolt the following macro will ensure that you are always using the max rank of Frostbolt:

#showtooltip
/cast Frostbolt

By leaving the spell rank off the game automatically uses the max rank. Other spells operate the same way, so just replace Frostbolt with whatever spell you want to use and you will always be using the max rank.

What is this 33/18, 30/16, 31/20 talent thing I keep hearing about? 
Class talents are broken down into trees and players 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. Typically a x/x/x is Arcane/Fire/Frost unless specified. 

What if I have more questions?
The official WoW forums or fan sites such as Wowhead are good places to ask more specific questions. You can also leave a comment below and I will do my best to answer it.