Mage Classic Guide

The Mage is the comfort class. You conjure your own food and water so you never spend a copper on consumables, Blink and Frost Nova get you out of anything, and Polymorph turns a deadly add into a sheep for thirty seconds. New players gravitate to Mage and they are right to. It is forgiving where it counts and powerful where it matters.

Where it gets interesting is the gold. A Mage with the right AoE build can pull half a dungeon, freeze it in place, and Blizzard or Arcane Explosion the whole pack down at once. AoE farming spots like the Maraudon princess run, Zul'Farrak, and Stratholme are how a lot of people fund their whole server. No other class farms gold the way a Mage does.

And then you raid, and you are at the top of the damage meters anyway. Frost for the survivability and the early Winter's Chill debuff, or Fire for raw ceiling once you have the gear and the hit. Either way, you press buttons from thirty yards away while the Warriors bleed.

Level as Frost. It is not close. Frostbolt slows everything, Frost Nova roots a pack, and you have enough escapes that you almost never die to overpulling. Improved Frostbolt brings your main nuke down to a faster cast, and the survivability lets you tag more mobs and grind harder than a Fire Mage who runs dry and gets punched in the face.

The AoE grind

Around the mid levels you can start AoE grinding, which is the fastest way to level a Mage and the skill that funds your whole character. The pattern is the same everywhere: round up a pack, run them to a spot, Frost Nova to freeze, then Blizzard or Arcane Explosion until they fall over, Blinking and re Nova-ing when the root breaks. It takes practice to learn how many mobs you can handle and when to bail, but once it clicks you outpace almost everyone.

• Always keep conjured water topped up. Drink to full between pulls, you have all the time in the world.
• Make a Polymorph macro and use it. Sheeping one mob in a two pull turns a scary fight into a free one.
• Blink is on a short cooldown. Use it to break roots, dodge a charge, or escape a bad pull.
• Wand mobs down at low levels to save mana. The wand is not just decoration.

The bad news for new Mages: the optimal Classic Mage rotation is mostly one button. The good news: doing it well is harder than it looks. As Frost you cast Frostbolt, manage your mana with Evocation and mana gems, and keep Winter's Chill rolling. As Fire you cast Fireball, open with Combustion, and live and die by your crit streaks and Ignite.

The real skill is everything around the cast. Pre cast as the pull starts so your first nuke lands the instant the boss is in range. Use a mana gem and Evocation at the right moments so you never hard stop. Watch the debuff limit, because Classic only allows sixteen debuffs on a target and your Improved Scorch or Winter's Chill stacks are competing for slots with everyone else. Sit at max range so you do not eat cleaves, and never, ever stand in the fire you cannot put out.

Improved Scorch is a notable Fire raid tool: a few Mages keep five stacks of the fire vulnerability debuff up so the whole fire roster hits harder. Assign it so it never drops and never wastes casts.

Spell hit comes first, full stop. The cap against raid bosses is 16 percent to never miss, but talents cover some of that, so most Mages chase 3 to 6 percent on gear depending on spec and then move to other stats. A missed Fireball is a wasted global and a broken Ignite chain, so hit is worth more than its raw number suggests until you are capped.

After hit, the priority is roughly spell crit, then spell damage, then intellect for the mana and the crit it grants. Fire leans harder on crit because of Ignite, while Frost is happy with a balance of damage and crit. Pre raid you want pieces like the Devout and mage dungeon sets, plus key trinkets and the staff or wand upgrades from dungeons.

Do not raid without consumables. Greater Arcane Elixir, Elixir of Greater Firepower or Frost Power, Flask of Supreme Power for the big nights, and the world buffs (Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer for the crit, Songflower) all add up. A buffed, flasked Mage doubles a naked one.

Mage PvP is about control and burst. Against most targets you kite: Frost Nova, Blink back, Frostbolt a slowed target for a Shatter crit, and weave in Cone of Cold and Fire Blast for instant damage when they are frozen. A Frost Mage who never lets you reach them is one of the most frustrating things to fight in the game.

The burst comes from Arcane. Presence of Mind into an instant Pyroblast, plus a trinket and Arcane Power, can drop a clothie from full. Many PvP Mages run a Frost shell with an Arcane splash exactly for that combo. Counterspell locks down a school of magic, which wins the mirror against other casters.

Your scary matchups are anything that sticks to you and trains you down: Warriors with a Net o Matic, Rogues out of stealth, and other Mages who Counterspell your Frost line. Save Blink and Ice Block for the moment you actually need them, not the moment you panic.

Tailoring plus Enchanting is the classic Mage pairing. Tailoring gives you cloth gear you will actually wear, including strong pieces from the high end recipes, and the bags to hold all your reagents. Enchanting lets you disenchant the greens you find AoE farming and turn them straight into gold and into the enchants you need for your own gear. The two feed each other perfectly.

Engineering is a strong alternative for PvP Mages who want bombs, the Net o Matic, and the trinkets, plus utility like the goblin jumper cables and teleporters. If you go that route, pair it with Mining to feed the materials.

Whatever you choose, you save a fortune on food and water by conjuring your own, so a Mage can afford to run two crafting professions where other classes might need a gathering profession just to stay solvent.

• Shatter is the whole Frost playstyle. Frost spells against a frozen or rooted target get a huge bonus to crit. Frost Nova, then Frostbolt or Ice Lance, and watch the crits roll.
• Make a mana gem and use it on cooldown. Free mana you forget to use is DPS you threw away. Conjure the highest rank you can and keep one in the bags.
• Polymorph breaks on any damage. It also heals the target while it ticks, so never Poly a mob someone is hitting. Sheep the loose add, not the tank's target.
• Spellsteal does not exist yet. This is Classic, so your dispel tool is limited. Remove Lesser Curse handles curses, that is it for Mage cleansing.
• Sixteen debuff slots are shared. Your Improved Scorch and Winter's Chill compete with Warriors' Sunders, Warlock DoTs, and more. Coordinate so the important raid debuffs win the slots.
• Pre cast on the pull. Start your Fireball or Frostbolt so it lands the instant the tank has aggro. Casting from a standstill the moment combat starts is wasted time.