I have noticed that there is like 10 new posts every day with the topic "Hey Im new, what spec should I level with?"
This is very understandable as it is not easy to know with a new class, and it certainly has a significant impact on your leveling effeciency.

I therefore decided to try and make a little list of what I, personally, feel would be the most effecient leveling spec.
-Please feel free to comment if you dont agree with me, all alterations I make will be credited to the mage posting the suggestion-

This will be a frost spec, even though some people think fire is more fun, frost is the most effecient due to the increased mana effeciency and its kiting aspect (also it has higher survivability as you level up).

It is possible that I will add a fire and even arcane leveling spec later.

I know spec is very subjective, therefore I stress it is my point of view. For example, after teh first eight points, some people would rather put 3 points into permafrost rather than frostbite.

Following is the list point by point what I think you should spec as you level up (meaning you put talents into that "box" untill you reach the amount I wrote. E.g. "5 points - Improved frostbolt" means that you put your talent points from level 10-14 into this, before you move on to the next one)

5 points into "Improved Frostbolt" - This is your main ability, important to lower the cast time
3 points into "Precision" - Hit is always important and reduced mana cost means less down time
3 points into "Frostbite" - 15% chance to freeze target is quite usefull and a proc in a bad situation (especially with multiple mobs) can save you.
1 point into "Icy Veins" - While I realize this is a cooldown, it only cost one point and can be useful if you try to solo elites for example.
1 point into "Improved Blizzard" - It is usefull when you pull the odd 5 mobs by accident, to slow them all down and get away (I only put one untill now, as youre only level 22 and probably dont have quite the mana pool to aoe grind yet)
3 points into "Permafrost" - Slowing is the major strength of the frost tree.
3 points into "Piercing Ice" - This is a flat % dmg increase, which simply helps you kill stuff faster
3 points into "Frost Channeling" - This reduces mana cost and thereby downtime
1 point into "Cold Snap" - This is only one point, which gives you a powerfull cooldown
2 points into "Arctic Reach" - This allows you to put more distance between you and the mob(s), which is quite useful
3 points into "Winters Chill" - Gives you flat 3% crit and is usefull against mobs with more hp and very good if youre running instances.
2 points into "Ice Shards" - Increases your critical damage
1 point into "Ice Barrier" - One of the key strengths of the frost tree. Extremely usefull
2 points into "Shattered Barrier" - Can often save you if you have pulled to much and need to get away
5 points into "Arctic Winds" - 5% more damage and 5% "evasion"
2 points into "Empowered Frostball" - Gives you more damage and more crit.
1 point into "Summon Water Elemental" - Your most powerful ally yet :)
1 point into "Ice Shards" (you now have 3/3) - To get the last critdmg
3 points into "Brain Freeze" - This is a very cool ability, with a decent proc chance
5 points into "Chilled to the Bone" - Very powerful. More damage and more slow
1 point into "Deep Freeze" - Pure Pwnage
3 points into "Shatter" - Some people would take this earlier, but as you dont have ice lance etc. yet I dont tank it untill now
2 points into "Fingers of Frost" - Again, some would take this sooner, but as this is really a talent for shatter combos, you dont have ice lance untill the next level.
1 point into "Cold as Ice" - Congratulations, you are now level 66 and get icelance which is awesome for the (in)famous shatter combo

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZZAccIkfu0sdgfot is what your tree should look like.

After this, the points become less important, and you have now played mage long enough to make your own choices, which is based very much on personal preferences.

In case you dont. You could spend points something like this:
1 point "Cold as Ice"
3 points "Enduring Winter"
3 points "Ice Floes"
2 points "Improved Blizzard"

last 5 points really dont matter this much and many will also chose to switch to FFB spec, since you are now lvl 75, where you learn this.

I hope this will be of some use to you new mages.

Feedback is appreciated.

Thank you
Omegasupreme
Epiphany (www.epiphanyguild.com)
Twilight's Hammer -EU

Fire:

First question: Why would I want to level as fire? Everone says frost is much better?
Yes, frost is arguably faster/more mana effecient etc. But some people just love fire, cause they simply think its more fun.
I can understand the argument, and it is sometimes more fun to play the "glasscanon". Fire while leveling will give you more down time, but will also produce higher numbers.
I would always level as frost personally, but I will attempt to make this guide anyways:

The format is the same as the above frostguide:

1-5 Points "Improved Fireball" - This is your main offensive ability, reducing the cast time is essential.
1-5 Points "Ignite" - This is a considerable damage boost.
1 Point in "Pyroblast" - This is a powerfull spell, however very expensive (22% base mana) and with a long cast time.
2 Points "Burning Soul" - As fire you dont have the kiting element, and will often be hit while casting, so a 70% reduction of lost cast time is desirable
2 Points in "Impact" - Gives you a 7% chance to get another "stun button"
3 Points in "Improved Scorch" - Not so much for the applied debuff (no point in stacking this on single mobs) but rather for the 3% fireball crit
2 Points in "Master of Elements" - Returns mana on crit, reducing down time
1 Point in "Blast wave"
1 Point in "Master of Elements" (you now have 3/3)
3 Points in "Critical Mass" -Adds 6% crit to all your fire spells
5 Points in "Fire Power" - Adds 10% damage to all your fire spells, very nice damage boost
1 Point in "Combustion" - Powerfull Cooldown for only one point
2 Points in "Blazing Speed" - While these points dont provide any damage modifiers, beeing a fire mage, one of your problems is the mobs reaching you, and the 10% chance to get run speed for as much as 8seconds will often come in handy in my opinion.
2 Points in "Molten Fury" - Gives you a 12% flat damge boost to the last 35% of the mobs health, meaning fewer casts needed, meaning less mana spent (and bigger numbers to make you happy :))
2 Points in "Fiery Payback" - While this beyond lvl 80 is completely useless, it is a powerfull defence mechanism for the lvling "glasscanon"
3 Points in "Empowered Fire" - Increases your spellpower by 15%
1 Point in "Dragon's Breath" - Powerfull Spell for just one point
3 Points in "Hot Streak"
1 Point in "Pyromanic" - I dont chose Firestarter for the reason that for purposes of solo lvling, you will rarely be fighting enough mobs at one time to make the mana cost of flamestrike worth it.
5 Points in "Burnout" - Gives you nice big fat crits, increasing the wonderful feeling of playing fire.
1 Point in "Living Bomb" - You might not use it that much while solo levling, but it is only one point for a cool spell.
2 Points in "Pyromaniac" (Now have 3/3)
3 Points in "Playing with Fire" - This is a powerfull talent, and some people might chose to take it sooner. I have not due to the dmgtaken increase (which some argue can be quite neglible, and I do agree to a certain extend), and I was very much in doubt. But chose not to cause I thought alternatives were more attractive. -Purely a matter of preference.
3 Points in "World in Flames" - Increases the crit chance of, amongst other things, your pyroblast, which you now use more frequently due to hot streak.

Your tree should look like this: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZ0EcMRhIuiurhst

You are now level 68 and should have a pretty good grasp of the class and the spec, and to be honest after this point it doesnt really matter to much where you put your talents point, simply put them in a matter that fits your playstyle.
As a rough draft you could spec:
3 Points "Incineration"
1 Point "Impact"
2 Points "Flame Throwing"
2 Points "Firestarter"
2 Points "Molten Shields"
2 Points "Improved Fire Blast"

I know some people might comment on the fact that I dont spec pyromaniac earlier, but it is because I deem the natural mana regen rate for mages neglible.

I only ever leveled as frost myself, so this guide is just based on my general knowledge of the tree and the leveling experience as a mage.

Feedback is highly appreciated.

Omegasupreme
Epiphany (www.epiphanyguild.com)
Twilight's Hammer -EU

Reserved

This is the new post, which was made to get the first posts reserved for an easier overview for the new mages.

Could you please report this as sticky so Vaneras can update the mage thread.

Thank you.

Thank you for the nice guide. Here a few additional comments:

First, with respect to the spec, it also depends whether it's your first character or if it is an alt.

- If it is your first character, then frost is probably the best choice, because you are going to be overwhelmed anyway. For instance: you don't know the quests and the different places, you don't know flypaths, you can't judge corrrectly aggro range, etc...

- If it is an alt, then I found that the key is to have fun. Here is an opinion about the different specs (I have tried all of them at different points):

* frost is the easiest: you spam one key and you have all: slowing the mob, mana efficiency, decent dps, and procs. The general idea is that you do: frostbolt, frostbolt, frostbolt, frostbolt, ... starting from max distance until the mob is dead. If you have brainfreeze, then you can use the proc.

* frost is maybe the least stressful spec of the game for single target: yes this can feel boring if you do frostbolt spam on 20 mobs in a row, one by one, at max distance. The main reason is that you have 0 chance to die or even to be hit - if you don't aggro a second mob, and also, every time, you wait 2+ seconds before casting another spell. However you can spice things with the elemental and the 2 following points:

* frost is the AoE grinding spec. It's dangerous hence fun, and yet relatively safe when you master it. There are not that many opportunities to use it fully in Wotlk though. No details here but:
small tip 1: if you have frostbite, don't use ice armor but molten armor while AoE grinding.
small tip 2: use your elemental for failure control: use its ranged frost nova (easy when bound to the middle button on your mouse) if some mobs are not correctly in the blizzard, and if only one mob is out of control, make it attack (hence tank) it. The typical case is: you aggro the pack, you blink and you aggro another mob (damn!)- quick pop the elemental, send it tanking the mob while you take care of the rest of the pack. Cold snap is another nice emergency button.

* frost is the 'survival' spec: you see the quests "get X" (or "collect 10 of X") when X is an artefact with many mobs around? well with frost you often can collect the 'X' without even bothering killing any mob. Ice armor, frost nova, send the elemental tanking, elemental ranged nova, shattered barrier, blink, cold snap and repeat all this, and ultimatly flee. If you need a blink, but it is still on cooldown, use iceblock for gaining time. It takes skill but you can escape alive from situations where even a paladin/DK tank would die.

* frost is probably the best elite soloing spec.



* fire is the most burst capable. The general idea is that you try to kill mobs in 3-4 shots most of the time: 2 fireballs+one fireblast for instance. With 30% crit (talented), you have 80% chance to have at least one crit out of the first 3 casts, and very often the mob is dead or near death.

* fire is the most burst depend: if you don't kill the mobs in 3 shots, then you'll probably try a finisher such as dragon's breath, and then blast wave or another fireball (or wait and then fireblast).
The problem is that dragon's breath and blast wave feel cool, but are expensive in mana: if you use both, they cost more than the mana of 2xfireball+fireblast for killing the same mob. Hence you should really kill mobs in 3 or 4 shots max, or you'll go slowly, and spend lots of time drinking. For this reason, I suspect fire is problematic when you have low gear, or/and when you are attacking higher level mobs, and you may have to be careful in selecting your quests areas.

* for fire, combustion is not frequent but it is nice - now that's *burst* - yeah 2k dps bursts on a level 65.


* arcane has the most freedom for single target: you probably need 'slow' (talent obtained at level 50) to make it really fun, and arcane barrage (level 60) to make it fully comfortable. Then you have the choice between slowing the mobs (the usual choice), tanking them directly (top talent arcane stability = 100% pushback reduction), or tanking them with your mana shield on (increases your spell power but costs mana - Incanter's absorption, level 40). Technically you can also open with different spells (even frostbolt), because you can cast "slow" independently of other spells.

* arcane has interesting freedoms in choosing mana/damage tradeoff.

* arcane has twice as many evocations! (at level 45, arcane flows)

* arcane keeps you awake since after you cast 2 arcane damage spells, you have about 40% to proc missile barrage (talented, level 55+)

* arcane has some good burst, but if you fail to kill the mob, you can cast slow, and blink (or tank the mob), unlike fire where you will waste your mana. Actually for single target, arcane feels very safe, since "slow" is an instant and a 60% slowdown - you can aggro and kite a mob by just walking, and cast refresh "slow" on the move. In fact, you can easily kite mobs even when walking backwards (and casting instants: arcane barrage, fire blast, ice lance) if you want.

* missile barrage (and presence of mind) fells like real burst, and... actually is. Nothing like a good volley of arcane missiles to finish killing a mob, with a nice animation - eat flamming death!



At level 65, I tried all the specs on the target dummy: they do about the same damage at the same speed, and they go out of mana after doing approximatively the same damage.

At level 72+, I tried the same experiment: it seemed to me that fire felt behind, while frost became dominant for longevity.

Personnal view: I started as a frost mage, then I dual specced fire/frost (at about level 50), then switched to arcane/frost at level 65. I didn't see the point of Arcane at first (and wanted to go back to fire), but I liked it, after mastering it. Although frost is the "best" for leveling, I actually ended spend most of Wotlk as Arcane. At the end I used frost only for elites, AoE grinding, quests that are indoors (caves, etc...), and survivability (collect X objects).

All the specs are viable for leveling. The easiest is frost, but remember that for many people, at level 80, running Halls of Lightning is more fun than running Dead Mines - just because HoL is more challenging. Sometimes you need to go near death to feel alive. Also just trying a new spec can be fun.

Here is an comment about the frost talents.

Frost on single target is about frostbolt spam.
The key is then:
- to kill the mob before it reaches you (hence you want to slow it more, hit it harder, ...)
- to spend the minimum time (hence mana) hitting the mob.

For this reason the top talents I would take in order of importance (not order of selection) are:
- 1) Improved Frostbolt: You spam it, you want to spend the minimum time spamming it
- 2) Frostbite: a frozen target is pretty well slowed.
- 3) Ice shards and Shatter: the best way to cast less spells is to crit. Frostbite/Ice shards/Shatter are designed to fit together perfectly and are the backbone of frostbolt spam. With those, you have like 35% more chances to crit at least once, if you cast 5 frostbolts on a mob.

Then there are talents designed to be able to cast more spells before the mob reaches you:
- Artic Reach
- Permafrost

For the other top talents:
- I've never selected Precision, however it is true that one miss is one more frostbolt to cast. I still felt Precision depends whether you are attacking mobs with lower level.
- the mana regen talents of all trees are not very useful for leveling. 10% is like drinking for 20 seconds instead of 22 seconds. You'll have to drink anyway.
- Improved Blizzard is essential for AoE grinding.
- More damage is indeed a way to have a chance to cast less frostbolts (Piercing Ice)


For the talents at the bottom, for survival:
- 1) Elemental is essential (survival, dps, ranged frost nova)
- 2) Ice Barrier, Shattered Barrier is a great survival boost - a must have for AoE grinding
- 3) Cold snap: reset some cooldowns sometimes a matter of life or death - at least gives another immediate elemental.
- 4) Enduring Winter: a great way to have the elemental longer (and don't forget the glyph for the cooldown)

Talents at the bottom, damage:
- 1) Finger of Frost: the perfect complement to Ice shards/shatter
- 2) Brain Freeze is a great way to kill a mob faster (you may need an addon to show proc though)
- 3) other damage increasing talents (but not Improved Cone of Cold)

Generally, Icy Veins is good but personally I always forgot to use it.

I've been leveling a mage as of recently, and from what i know about frost i took Shatter the moment i reached it and never had regrets. Yes, no Ice Lance at low levels, but u do know it's not the only instant frost spell out there :P

At lvl 38 (new FB rank) i'm was doing 1k+ shatter combos with FB+Cone of cold, which is from all the chars i lvl'd at that point the highest damage i've seen and it's not hard to do - nova and cast outside mele range :)

Also helps a ton with AoE - Nova -> and my blizzard goes crazy with crits.

I'd also recommend Putting 3/3 in the fisrt frost tier in the CD reduction for Ice block and glyph of ice block. Combined with Cold snap provides 3 Frost Novas back to back on demand for emergency cases (saved my skin countless times, just cuz only using unglyphed Ice block while solo only delays the ghost run)

Hope i was somewhat useful :)

Thank you for your feedback.
Even though as it appears im not updating it right away. I am writing down all comments in a doc, working on taking in as much collective feedback as possible and THEN updating it.

Best regards

//omegasuprem

Keep up the good work o.-

Hey there. guys. I just want to react to the post from Angeliabolic guy. I am now leveling a mage and I was frost since 20 I think I switched from the fire obviously cause I am not an alt and I needed survivability plus mana cause yes it is true that fire spells look a lot more better than frost cause it's like boom burn in eternal flames with the Ignite talent :) though I think that it its not so bad that Ice Lance is only at 66....because mage would be really strong at the early battlegrounds ...Shatter talent does not need ice lance so bad... I was using Fire Blast and I really rocked though :)

And there is an another thing I want to talk about.... I'm 69 and I specced arcane. It's great I mean I love the Arcane Barrage spell it's looks terrific. And the burt from missile barrage :) It's good for PvP even though I do not have so much survivabilty.....still I like kamikadze style cause i was warrior before x) Unfortunately it is a little bit harder when I am leveling.....cause my mana drains really fast and I got low hp all the time...but luckily the improved evocation talent saves it.. But please can you please guys tell me some spell rotation to kill mobs fast and stay with almost fulll hp and mana or it is just like that in frost spec?

Anyway thanks for the replies you are going to write(I hope) :)

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Q u o t e:

And there is an another thing I want to talk about.... I'm 69 and I specced arcane. It's great I mean I love the Arcane Barrage spell it's looks terrific. And the burt from missile barrage :) It's good for PvP even though I do not have so much survivabilty.....still I like kamikadze style cause i was warrior before x) Unfortunately it is a little bit harder when I am leveling.....cause my mana drains really fast and I got low hp all the time...but luckily the improved evocation talent saves it.. But please can you please guys tell me some spell rotation to kill mobs fast and stay with almost fulll hp and mana or it is just like that in frost spec?

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There is no definite rotation for arcane but:
your problem is that you are getting hit -> you should use the spell "slow" and attack from maximum distance.

One example rotation is:
Arcane Blast / Slow / Arcane Barrage/ Arcane Blast / Arcane Barrage
(maybe conclude with Fireblast if necessary)

or Arcane Blast / Slow / Arcane Blast / Arcane Missile

or Arcane Blast / Slow / Arcane Blast / Arcane Blast / Arcane Barrage

The key thing is to note how Arcane Blast increases the damage of Barrage/Missile, and how spamming Arcane Blast alone costs more and more and more :)

Also you are level 69 so you should be/get in Norfendre soon. You'll get good gear from Nexus quests and Utgarde.

(more on this later :) )

i got a mage - and i got AoE grind talents .... and I am proud of myself :P

in my opinion, a honest one actually , for leveling up you don't really need anything - one can do some research and find out about gear and talents needed for doing stuff ... bad stuff to mobs :P , and threads like this one are very helpful to the "uninitiated"

here's my contribution:


The following wall of text is only for those who want to go Frost AoE
For a mage that wants to have incredible control over huge crowds of mobs I can only recommend the Frost specc , the one that brings the mage AoE to a new level. For this build it’s best if ppl will read Bangy’s guide – it was made in TBC, but the last pages contain updated information ( I helped there a bit :P )
[PvE][2.0] A guide on Mage AoE grinding - by Bangy - http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=107621534


Talents - what they do, and why you should have them .

Frost tree
Ice Floes - Reduces the cooldown of your Frost Nova, Cone of Cold, Ice Block and Icy Veins spells by 20%.
This Is a very important talent, as it lowers the CD of some of your best, and most needed, AoE spells.
Ice Shards - Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Frost spells by 100%.
You will crit with a lot of your spells ( around 50% ) , so this talent will bring your damage up by 33% ( normal critical hits do 150% damage; with a 100% increase for the critical bonus they will hit for 200% normal damage )
Precision - Reduces the mana cost and increases your chance to hit with spells by 3%.
This talent helps you not to miss with your spells. Along with the hit rating on your gear ( if you have any – it’s recommended to have some…) this talent will ensure that you don’t miss with spells. It’s not really good to have a 10mob pack all gathered and see a mob escaping from it because you missed the first blizzard hit on him.
Permafrost - Increases the duration of your Chill effects by 3 secs and reduces the target's speed by an additional 10%.
I don’t have to point out the obvious benefit from having mobs slowed even more ;)
Piercing Ice - Increases the damage done by your Frost spells by 6%.
This talent helps, but it’s not as good as others, so put points here only as fillers when there’s nothing else you can get at your level.
Icy Veins - Hastens your spel lcasting, increasing spell casting speed by 20% and reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting by 100%. Lasts 20 sec. 3 min cooldown.
This is a very good place to spend 1 talent point – you get a 20% haste buff for 20 seconds, this is like a shamans Bloodlust – only without the downsides, and it stacks with it giving a 50% buff ;)
Improved Blizzard - Adds a chill effect to your Blizzard spell. This effect lowers the target's movement speed by 50%. Lasts 1.50 sec.
This is the defining talent for AoE grind. It makes mobs stay still ( almost ) while you bring some nice frost shards from the sky to kill them ;) . After getting this talent maxed out at lvl 22-25 you can start your AoE grind adventure ( it’s recommended to do it when you have also maxed out Ice shards )
Shatter - Increases the critical strike chance of all your spells against frozen targets by 50%.
It will only help you if you combine it with Fingers of Frost, so you can skip it if there’s a better place to put points in . Once you got Fingers of Frost it’s vital to max it out , as it will boost your critical strike with Blizzard at more than 50%
Cold Snap - When activated, this spell finishes the cooldown on all Frost spells you recently cast. Instant; 8 min cooldown.
Nice to have in that “oh sh!t” moment
Winter's Chill - Increases your chance to critically hit with Frostbolt by an additional 3% and gives your Frost damage spells a 100% chance to apply the Winter's Chill effect, which increases the chance spells will critically hit the target by 1% for 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.
It’s a nice talent to pick up as a filler on your way to more useful ones. As you cast Blizzard you will get 5% more crit on the mobs
Ice Barrier - Instantly shields you, absorbing 3300 damage. Lasts 1 min. While the shield holds, spellcasting will not be delayed by damage. Instant cast; 30 sec cooldown.
Combined with:
Shattered Barrier - Gives your Ice Barrier spell a 100% chance to freeze all enemies within 10 yds for 8 sec when it is destroyed.
I’t a good pair of talents that help you gather the mobs in a nice tight pack. The way to use it will be described in the next post
Fingers of Frost - Gives your Chill effects a 15% chance to grant you the Fingers of Frost effect, which treats your next 2 spells cast as if the target were Frozen. Lasts 15 sec.
This is the last important AoE grind talent. After you get this ( and Shatter ) you are the killing machine you have just heard about all this time ;)

The rest of your talent poins should go to the places that increase your frost damage, your crit rating with AoE spells - those talents that help you do more damage ;)

Glyphs – for AoE grind ( they don’t bring too much for single target dps - except fot the molten armor glyph )
Glyph of Frost Nova - Major Glyph - Requires Level 15
Use: Your Frost Nova targets can take an additional 20% damage before the Frost Nova effect automatically breaks.
Your first major glyph , and your best one for AoE grind. It’s just beautiful to have the mobs frozen in place for longer ;)
Glyph of Ice Barrier - Major Glyph - Requires Level 46
Use: Increases the amount of damage absorbed by your Ice Barrier by 30%.
Good glyph, it comes at the right time ( exactly when you have the necessary talent ) . This glyph will give you a second or two before the Ice barrier brakes ( if you have 5-10 mobs on you ) so that you can cast a CoC or an Arcane Blast .
Glyph of Molten Armor - Major Glyph – Requires Level 62 -
Use: Your Molten Armor grants an additional 20% of your spirit as critical strike rating.
This will be the last glyph you put on ( the last that is available to put on as you progress ) . I’t good, might help more than the glyph of IB so you might whant to swap this in it’s place at lvl 62. It helps you get more crit rating from spirit , but it’s worth to use it if you have a lot of spirit on your gear …. But, as you will see in the gear section I will advise you not to have spirit…


Gear
… of the eagle
That gear is for you – nothing else, nothing more – just stamina and intelect ( SP comes from lvl 58 on items ). Stamina will help you survive the moments you do get hit , and intelect will give you the necessary mana to cast your spells – and they are expensive ones .
Crit rating, haste … even hit rating are just not worth taking, since they will lower your stamina and mana pool.



tell me where i'm wrong and I will edit the above ;)

tactics

1. mana shield + mount up
2. gather them ( making sure you don't get a lot of hits )
3. put up Ice Barrier
4. CoC the pack
5. Arcane explosion until IB freezes them
6. run 10y and cast a blizzard
7. CoC + Arcane explosion if any mob is still moving ( which I doubt.. )

the above is most of the times enough for a mage to kill a mob...or 100 - it just doesn't matter their number

Now let me explain myself and what I've wrote above

1. Put mana shield, not ice barrier at first, because you have a chance to get them frozen in place where you are not in the position to AoE them down. If you use Mana Shield you don't lose as much mana as some would say - and you always have a mana gem available ;). Mount up and run to them - it's harder ( not imposible) to do it without a mount.
2. The gatherin part is tricky -- you need to be careful about many things , like not aggroing too many mobs, not leting them hit you , not runing outside their range ( they will disengage and you will ahve to repeat the pull ) . When gathering them try to run around the mobs and keep a healthy distance from them. When I do it I decide where I will kill them and run around it, in a large circle, gathering all mobs around that point and only after i get the mobs around I head to the center to aggro the mobs there. It is important to clear an area so that you have space to run away from the mobs after you freeze them in place.
3, 4 and 5. Ice Barrier will only absorb some damage - it won't keep you alive if 10 mobs are pounding your head ;) . Ice barrier, and the Improved IB talent are the best thing that happened to mage AoE ( along with Blizzard criticals ) . Let me explain : you get the mobs around you, they are not in the right position, in that nice compact position - so you put up IB and start casting Arcane explosion -- they will group on you like bugs on sh!t ( :P ) and all you have to do is move to have them all grouped in a tight pack. If IB doesn't freeze them try blasting them with a CoC, it's a very mana eficient spell, and it does a lot of damage. It takes a bit of practice until you can do an Arcane explosion, a CoC and move around a bit in the lilte time you have until IB breaks and freezes them - but, when mastered , this will get the mobs to 60-70% health in just a few seconds.
IMPORTANT Do Not Get Scared if one or more mobs don't get frozen the moment IB brakes - just run to the pack with them on you and use Frost Nova , then blink away.
6. As you start the damage on the mobs while gathering them you will notice their health is rather low when you begin casting your first Blizzard spell. This is why you no longer have to be at maximum range ( as you will see written in Bangy's guide - that was for TBC, when mage AoE spells didn't crit ). The first blizzard you cast will probably kill the mobs if you have Fingers of Frost and Shatter , but, if they don't die, just do step 7 ;)


There is another thing to consider about the tactics :

The level of the mobs you grind on

As you know ( if you don't know this I suggest you read the stikkyz and learn about it ) you have a chance to miss with your spells on mobs that are higher lvl than you. That's why you have to pick up the Precision talent - and that's why you should NEVER grind on mobs that are above your lvl ... maybe 1 lvl above ... but never 2 lvls or more. The chances for the mobs to escape from your CC are increasing as they are higher lvl than you, and it simply isn't worth to grind on higher lvl mobs. The bonus experience you gain from killing higher lvl mobs is so small that it doesn't justify the chance to wipe, the effort to kill a mob that has more hp, that hits harder, etc - it's just not worth the effort.
You need to find yourself a nice grind spot with mobs on your lvl and grind them for 3-4 levels, then move on to higher lvl mobs. That isn't possible all the time but you must try to kill only lower lvl mobs ( from lvl 40+ you can grind murlocs on the east coast of Swamp Of Sorrows ...but the next place to grind is a lvl 50+ area... and you get stuck on the murlocs for a long time ... you get a lot of pearls :P ).

Bangy's guide has some posts about the places to grind at different lvls - check that up , it's good info ;)

Nice to see a usefull post, it's just what i would be looking for if i were starting out as a mage.

But maybe add a section about glyphs?

Glyphs would be good, i have been using this guide from the start.
Have amended a few things in talents as i love my elemental but apart from elemental glyph i would like to know what else to put in there plz :)

glyph section commin up :P - i'll make one for the AoE part - for the "general" mage glyph section I hope that the OP will provide some info ;)

IMO take Glyph of Evocation - It's a life saver, and while not used in extreme situations helps u lower the downtime, esp. for arcane with their 2-min CD .

Also, for Frost -> Icy Veins + Evo used together makes Evocation faster and safer to use, even when your crown control cannot give u 8 sec to channel undisturbed.

The second Major slot u get at 30 is probably spec - oriented and i'm gonna skip it. Then again I'm pretty sure U can lvl even without glyphs and will do ok, pick those which YOU think are fun/useful or improve fun/useful spells.

Off topic : I really dislike how there are just a few minors with no big changes(I'm ok with minors being minors) but having an absurd amount of majors of which only few are are commonly used - Like glyph of evo being pvp one - and some are just there to make the list of glyphs big enough for Northrend Inscription Research to take some time to get the good ones :S

Thank you for the continued feedback.

I was considering adding an arcane leveling guide one of these coming days as well.
But what is the community's opinion on arcane as leveling spec. Do you even think its viable?

//Omega

Well arcane lacks a base nuke of its own on low lvls , so u are stuck with what fire and frost provides and arcane missles - which are rather mana consuming :[

Then again arcane offers some all improving talents, so it shouldn't be a huge problem leveling as arcane, after all everything is possible ;p (hint: when i was new to the game i never noticed the flashing near my spellbook button and actually managed to lvl a elem (!) shamy to 30+ with no talents and so messed up gear u wouldn't believe xD )