WoW Classic Mage Guide

Whether a returning World of Warcraft Veteran or a Newcomer that got swept by the wave of hype for Classic release, since you are already here there is a fair chance you are interested in trying the game out, in particular playing with the Mage class. You may have heard that Mage is highly desired and to be ahead of the pack you are at the right place.

Classic vs Retail (BFA) - If you have only started WoW in the last couple of years there are a few things that you need to prepare yourself for. 

First comes questing as in Classic you are not displayed your quest objective on the map but rather you need to read your quest out and explore the map to find your way around. 

Second of all, you will no longer be able to kill monsters while watching a show on your second monitor or cramming because you realized at 3 am that you have a test the same day. Vanilla offers quite the challenge in terms of monster strength so you will need to pace yourself and only ever pull a few mobs at a time. 

Lastly, zones will no longer be a one time visit, on the contrary, you will have to walk back and forth between a few zones even in the span of one level.

So now you’re thinking that maybe mage is not the way to go or maybe you are the type of person who prefers a quick list to better evaluate things, either way here in our  WoW Classic Mage Guide you can find the main pros and cons of playing Mage in Classic WoW.

Pros:

• Above-average leveling speed (past level 20);
• High single target and AoE Damage;
• Not bound by gear;
• Fast-paced and exciting gameplay
• Free consumables, thus greatly needed in group content;
• Strong in PvP and hard to catch on to;
• Many crowd control options (baaa).

Cons:

• Slow leveling from 1 – 20;
• Squishy with no self-healing options;
• Need to keep hydrated (drink for mana);
• AoE farming can be slowed down by other players.

As for race choices, I would recommend Gnomes for Alliance mainly for their Escape Artist (Escape the effects of any immobilization or movement speed-reducing the effect). Go gnome!

While if you want to go Horde your best bet will be Troll for their DPS cooldown Berserking (Increases your spell haste by 10% for 12 seconds).

Another important stat we need to mention is Spell Hit, for which as a caster by default you will always have a 1% chance to miss your spell. In addition, the level of your target also affects your spell hit: Against Targets which are the same level as you the chance to miss is 4%, 1 level above you grants 5% chance to miss, 2 levels above are 6% and 3 levels above are 17%. Optimally you would always be 1% off the level % as that would make you hit cap.

Addons You Might Need

Suggested add-ons would be Spawn Timer Tracker - tracks spawn times and locations for monsters around you,

XP / Hour Tracker - track your leveling efficiency;

Energy Timer - track drinking ticks;

Range Finder – pretty self-explanatory, allows you to be effective with cast range.

Leveling

After briefly going over the mage class let’s now talk about the leveling process. As we already mentioned 1 till 20 is going to be the hardest time for you as a mage however do not get discouraged as we are here to help you out.

Levels 1 to 10 you would want to go for 3x Firebal/3x Frostbolt + a Wand if you have one. To feel secure just cast Frost Nova and run at a safe distance and repeat.

As for the talent tree, experienced players can go with their gut and experiment, but for newer players, we recommend this build:

Frost Tree: 3/3 Elemental Precision -> 2/5 Imp. Frostbolt -> 3/3 Frostbite -> 2/2 Imp. Nova -> 5/5 Ice Shards -> 5/5 Shatter -> 1/1 Ice Block -> 5/5 Frostbolt -> 1/1 Cold Snap -> 3/3 Frost Channeling -> 2/2 Arctic Reach -> 1/1 Ice Barrier 

Then proceed into Arcane Tree: 2/2 Arcane Subtlety -> 3/5 Arcane Focus -> 5/5 Arcane Concentration -> 2/2 Wand Specialization

Then proceed back into Frost Tree: 3/3 Piercing Ice -> 5/5 Winter’s Chill

As for AoE farming, you can experience with skills as you may like, however, we would like to give you some ideas to guide you. Start off by wanding a number of minions (at this point you should have a general idea of your own limits so try to not go too overboard), proceed to Cone of Cold and Frost Nova, then kite a bit and ideally if all is done correctly you should be able to cast two Blizzards before mobs reach you. After that just start over with Cone of Cold/Frost Nova and repeat the whole process until you kill all the mobs.

Even though AoE grinding sounds fun and useful maybe you feel like it is not your bread and butter so we are offering you a simple rotation for non-AoE farming. Start off with 3-4 Frostbolts, Frost Nova the target, kite, cast 2 more Frost Bolts and Wand to death. Keep in mind that Wands do not share a global cooldown with other spells so you can use it in any downtime you have to make your leveling process more efficient.

As for some tips and tricks for leveling you want to consider a few things:

• Aim to kill monsters at the same level as you. While you do get slightly more from monsters one level above you the difference is not as significant to justify the time lost fighting harder mobs.
• You should not be full health/mana, always aim to push yourself to the limits not just with the mage, but with any class. Being in the high-pressure situation will prepare you for the endgame where you will most likely need to be alert and quick all the time.
• After some time with your class try to experiment with your rotation. While there are ‘optimal’ rotations you can always try and make the class your own, be creative and you might end up even by luck defining some new meta.
• AoE farming should not be a one spell thing, as per the point above, and should ideally be done with a group to avoid getting your precious packs stolen.
• Keep rank 1 Fireball/Frostbold at all times as they cost less mana and in a nail-biter may be the difference between death and quest completion.
• Don’t rush buying spells! You may not think of them being that expensive but at one point you will reach level 40 and you may not have the money for the amount. Be smart with your silver and you will save yourself a lot of downtime walking.
• Make stopcast macros - /stopcasting/cast Polymorph(Rank 1) or Blink or Ice Block or Counterspell. These are your high priority spell that you need to cast right away so making a stop cast macro will save your life.

The whole leveling process is not an easy task, so we advise you to try our WoW Classic Leveling Service Service.

Stat Priority

As for your stat priority it goes Intellect -> Stamina -> Agility -> Strength so generally try to find these on your gear. Also, try to not get baited by gear that has the ‘Spell damage’ tag. You need a lot of it to actually make a difference to your damage so just focus on other more important stats.

Wands

You may have noticed that Wands are mentioned a fair but throughout this guide, so let us give you just a few wands as a suggestion so you know what to look for.

Leveling Zones

Leveling zones – Alliance

Upon completing your starting zone for your race you should generally be around Level 11 so your best option is to head to Darkshore or Loch Modan up until level 18-19. Redridge Mountains is your next go-to followed by Duskwood and Wetlands.

Leveling zones – Horde

As a Horde character, you are going to The Barrens where you will stay till around level 18 then to Silverpine Forest and Sotnetalon Mountains.

All of the above are faction-specific zones. Also, keep in mind what we mentioned earlier in this guide – Classic WoW is nothing like Retail so you will find yourself going between zones to find quests, so be prepared for the adventures. As you get around level 30 on both Alliance and Horde you will need to go to one of the contested zones so take caution and be alert at all times. Hillsbrad Foothills: Home to the infamous Southshore vs. Tarren Mill world PvP spot, this zone has a lot of good quests for both Alliance and Horde and is usually worked into most people's leveling routes.

AoE Farming Zones

Alliance: 

Horde:

Final Thoughts And Conclusions Of Our Vanilla Mage Leveling Guide

Well, thank you for reaching the end of our guide. To sum it up mage is a challenging class, to say the least, there are many things you will need to learn but if you manage to push through you will be a viable part of your guild, raid, or PVP team. 

Also, a quick tip, be a nice guy and don’t charge for portals and food. Good luck in the fields of battle!