Modifications Notice

Friday September 28 : modifications to raiding specs, addition of the arcane raiding spec.

Sunday August 18 : a new article discussing the different variants of the classic PvP mage build, 17/0/44, has been added. It's still being written. If it gets too long to fit in the remaining spots of the guide, I'll make it a whole new post.

Tuesday May 29 : the guide has been modified to take into account the last 2.10 patch. The modifications concern only the deep frost part of the guide.

Friday April 13 : the level 70 mage builds have been rewritten and reorganized for more clarity. Many points have changed, also taking into account recent mage changes as the nova nerf. Thanks to check the guide again if you want an up to date version of them.

Thanks for reading.

Ahine.

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Hail to my fellow mages,

So as noone did it yet, I decided to make a compilation of the most current mage builds at level 70. This is not meant to be a static guide but on the contrary an interactive one. So I need your help : post me your builds, your advices, your experiences and we can together contribute to make this a clear and usable guide of good mage builds for everyone.

But to answer many questions on this forum, I will start by describing the main leveling builds.


I. Leveling Builds :

1-70 is a long way to go and most players are worried about the fact they could make wrong choices that would slow their leveling : this feeling is of course totally natural. But dont worry here, tou cant really do any big mistake, provided you choose a way and stick to it. The main different ways to level your mage have been perfectly balanced by Blizzard.

The first question coming here again and again is : should I go for frost or fire to level my mage ? The answer is simple : both are fine. It's two different playstyles and I would rather advise you to try both of them, as soon as you feel the opportunity for a respec.

Knowing your mage deeply costs many and many respecs and nothing is better than "your own" experience as a true guide and master to follow.

Fire is about high sustained dps on a single target (before you get Blast Wave and Dragon Breath two excellent aoe skills). Frost is more about control and huge dps on frozen targets. You kill faster with fire, but you run out of mana a bit faster too. You have a bit more mana efficiency and more control against one or several mobs with frost, but you're more dependant on your nova/shatter for killing them, and on your cooldowns for survival.

If as a mage you like to burst your damages very fast on your ennemies, trying to get them down the fastest you can at all costs, then Fire is made for you. If on the contrary you enjoy controlling your ennemies, freezing them, slowing them, and to have a few defense and survival tricks at hand, then you should go frost. Remember that you wont be able to fully enjoy the fire or frost way before level 40-50, when you finally get enough points to take the main talents in each tree. Some will still ask here : but which one is best ? Which one will I prefer to play ? There I can only answer : only you may know. Fire/frost is really a personnal choice and noone can say, but you, which way should be yours as a mage. I'd rather advise you to choose one at the beginning following your intuition, stick with it until the level 40, then go for a respec and see by yourself which one you prefer to level your character.

The second question here is : should I go for a AoE grinding build or not ? If you want to do alot of AoE grinding then you need mainly to go frost and take the suitable talents. However this guide is not meant to be a AoE grinding guide, and I will redirect you to you to Bangy's excellent guide (first sticky on this forum). I'll just mention later the talents you need as a frost AoE Frost mage. Notice that many mage builds may work well for AoE and not only the pure frost way (Elemental ones with shatter, or even fire mages using Flamestrike for example). But the pure AoE grinding from level 40+ is mostly done with Improved Blizzard and Cone of Cold.

I'll give here five examples of leveling builds, if you want to go : 1. fire, 2.a frost, 2.b frost aoe, 3. elemental, 4. Arcane. Leveling with arcane is a bit more tricky to my mind, but if this is really your choice and your dream tree, then go for it. Remember : nothing is impossible for a mage !

Those talent builds are intended for pure solo pve/questing. Pvp is meant to be balanced (*cough*) only at level 70, so if pvp is your choice I can just advise you to grind to level 70 faster as you can.


1. Fire leveling talent build

I'll give here just an example of talent picking order until the level 50. After the level 50 you can refer to the level 70 builds in this same guide, and should start to think which one you're going to play. That will mainly answer to the question about what talents to pick between levels 50 and 70.

Lvl 10-14 : Improve Fireball 5/5
Lvl 15-16 : Flame Throwing 2/2
Lvl 17-19 : Ignite 3/5
Lvl 20 : Pyroblast 1/1
Lvl 21-22 : Ignite 5/5
Lvl 23-24 : Burning Soul 2/2
Lvl 25-29 : Impact 5/5
Lvl 30 : Blast Wave 1/1
Lvl 31-33 : Critical Mass 3/3
Lvl 34 : Improve Fire Blast 1/3
Lvl 35-39 : Fire Power 5/5
Lvl 40 : Combustion 1/1
Lvl 41-43 : Pyromaniac 3/3
Lvl 44-45 : Molten Fury 2/2
No there is no need to take Empowered Fireball as your +sd gear should not be that high.
Lvl 46-47 : Improve Fire Blast 3/3
Lvl 48-49 : Incinerate 2/2
Lvl 50 : Dragon Breath 1/1 ! Congratulations you got one of the best mage fire talent/skill in whole game, that's an achievement you deserve to enjoy ! You just need to get used to it as its range is not huge and it doesnt scale with Flame Throwing. For pve it will always be easier to Dragon Breath a pack of mobs on you to distract them, in pvp you need to work on the positionning and the range. Before that you will probably cast several Dragon Breaths in the air.

At level 50 your fire tree should look like this one : http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000055523201200003105312010000000000000000000000

Of course there are many alternatives to the way i just described. You can choose to skip Impact to get Master of Elements for more mana efficiency if you bother sitting alot (actually leveling a mage is about sitting alot so...). Improve Fireblast is very good to be put at max soon if you occasionnally do some pvp or use it alot in pve. But I like Impact and even in pve it has many procs that brings the whole process a bit more fun.


2. Frost leveling talent build

2.a non-aoe frost leveling

Lvl 10-14 : Improve Frostbolt 5/5
Lvl 15-19 : Ice Shards 5/5
Lvl 20-22 : Frostbite 3/3
Lvl 23-24 : Improved Frost Nova 2/2
Lvl 25-29 : Shatter 5/5. Done ! This one will make your whole frost leveling faster and funnier ! 5/5
(As an alternative some ppl even advise to go fire before being level 27-29, then respec to get shatter and going full frost. To my mind that's not really necessary, but it's up to you)
Lvl 30 : Ice Block 1/1 (a good life savier)
Lvl 31 : Cold Snap 1/1 (a second life saving chance, variant : you can get this one higher if you think you dont need it yet).
Lvl 32-33 : Artic Reach 2/2
Lvl 34-36 : Piercing Ice 3/3
Lvl 37-39 : Frost Channeling 3/3
Lvl 40 : Ice Barrier 1/1
Lvl 41-42 : Ice Floes 2/2
Lvl 43-45 : Improve Cone of Cold 3/3
Lvl 46-48 : Permafrost 3/3
Lvl 49 : Elemental Precision 1/3 (variant : you can take Elemental Precision to 3 and Permafrost to 1, as you prefer. Permafrost gives you a good kiting tool, mobs will reach you later. On the other hand Elemental Precision avoids you "annoying" resists)
Lvl 50 : Summon Water Elemental 1/1 ! Congratulations !

At level 50 your frost tree should look like this one : http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000515323310235013201001

2.b Frost aoe grinding talent build

For more details about aoe grinding, refer to Bangy's excellent guide : http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=107621534&sid=1&pageNo=1.
I'll give just an example of build that can be suitable for aoe grinding. The build is intended mainly for blizzard and coc aoeing. AoE grinding usually starts at level 40

Lvl 10-14 : Improve Frostbolt 5/5
Lvl 15-19 : Ice Shard 5/5
Lvl 20-22 : Permafrost 3/3
Lvl 23-24 : Improved Frost Nova 2/2
Lvl 25-29 : Shatter 5/5
Lvl 30-31 : Ice Block 1/1 Cold Snap 1/1 (very good for aoe, but as the cd is 5/10 mins or 4/8 mins with Ice Floes, you cant rely on it at each pull)
Lvl 32-33 : Artic Reach 2/2 (this one is fundamental)
Lvl 34-36 : Improved Blizzard 3/3 (this one is fundamental too)
Lvl 37-39 : Improved Cone of Cold 3/3 (a must also)
Lvl 40 : Ice Barrier 1/1 , congratulations you're ready to start AoE kiting-grinding :)

At level 40 your build should look just like this one : http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000505023013205013001000
Then you can keep on by taking Piercing Ice 3/3, Ice Floes 2/2, Frost Channeling 3/3... Just skip Frostbite which is very bad for AoE kiting as it will make some mobs frozen while others keep on running after you. Enjoy^^

3. Elemental leveling talent build

The underlying idea is to get shatter as soon as possible then go in the fire tree. During your pve, you alternate between fire and frost spells to kill your opponents with the most suitable spells, according to each situation, having huge bursts of damage against your frozen targets. That's a very good alternative to the previous 2 builds. To try it, is to love it. Only drawback : when you're level 30 you have to forget some excellent frost things that come at hand to start to work on the fire tree again from the beginning. That's a bit frustrating, and probably the main reason why people prefer to go either pure frost or pure fire. But if you can endure this relative "pain", you'll love the elemental way to level your mage.

Recently Frost Nova has been nerfed to avoid Ice Lance crit spams on a frozen target. This nerf was mainly intended to level 70 pvp mages but unfortunately it has also unfairly nerfed level 1-65 mages who only struggle to level their character (Ice Lance is a level 66 talent). What has changed : before you could score several crits on a frozen target. Not always but sometime, nova would break at the very first damage, and sometime it would last long as 3 crits or maybe more. Now nova will likely break at your first crit. So the elemental way to level a mage is much less interesting as before : elemental remains a level 70 way to specialize your mage for pvp experienced players. I'll just let it in the guide as a possibility.

Lvl 10-14 : Improved Frost Bolt 5/5
Lvl 15-19 : Ice Shards 5/5
Lvl 20-22 : Frostbite 3/3
Lvl 23-24 : Improved Frost Nova 2/2
Lvl 25-29 : Shatter 5/5

Now you have one alternative according you decide to go fire directly or you prefer to take Ice Block 1/1 and delay your fire leveling by one point (or 2 points if you want also Cold Snap 1/1). No good or bad choice here, just a matter of what you prefer. Assuming you wanna get Dragon Breath at 70 and go to a classic 0/41/20 Elemental Build without any respec I'll describe here only the first way to proceed.

Lvl 30-34 : Improved Fireball 5/5 (Impact 5/5 is another very good way to go here, depends on what you prefer)
Lvl 35-39 : Ignite 5/5
Lvl 40-41 : Flame Throwing 2/2
Lvl 42 : Pyroblast 1/1 (not so useful for that build, but still nice to have in case)
Lvl 43-44 : Burning Soul 2/2
Lvl 45-47 : Improved Scorch 3/3
Llv 48-49 : Improve Fire Blast 2/3
Lvl 50 : Blast Wave 1/1
Lvl 51-53 : Critical Mass 3/3
Lvl 54 : Improve Fire Blast 3/3
Lvl 55-59 : Fire Power 5/5
Lvl 60 : Combustion 1/1

At level 60 your fire and frost trees should look like this :
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000050523001230003105010000505320000005000000000

Then you'll go through Pyromaniac, Molten Core, Impact... all your way to level 70. Consult the 0/41/20 Elemental talent build for more informations (the only difference being that pvp elementalists dont take Improved Fireball).

But whatever happens that should end with :
Lvl 70 : Dragon Breath 1/1 ! Congratulations !


4. Arcane leveling talent build

This is a really tricky way to go to my mind, but nothing impossible. But just know that you will be less effective than pure frost of fire mages during the first two thirds of your leveling. Therefore if you are not sure about your "arcane motivation" I would rather suggest you to skip this way and go for one of the three main possibilities described above. If Arcane is really the tree you always dreamt about, then dont hesitate, go for it.

Lvl 10-14 : Improved Arcane Missiles 5/5 (variant : Arcane Subtlety 2/2 and Arcane Focus 3/5 if you dont like AM)
Lvl 15-19 : Arcane Concentration 5/5
Lvl 20-21 : Arcane Subtlety 2/2
Lvl 22-24 : Arcane Focus 3/3 (Arcane Impact 3/3 Magic Absorption 2/5 in the variant where you didnt take Improved AM. You can ever go to Wand Specialisation 2/2 instead of Magic Absorption 2/5 as you may use wands alot in lower levels. Anyway if you do this you'll have to respec later to drop it cause wands are not so useful at higher levels. If you go for it, then change the order and take it at level 15-16 as you need it the sooner for the lower levels)
Lvl 25-27 : Arcane Meditation 3/3
Lvl 28-29 : Improved Mana Shield 2/2 (I know it's a shame not to take Improved CS here, but it's mainly a pvp talent even if it's one of the best. Personnally I would take it anyway, up to you^^)
Lvl 30 : Presence of Mind 1/1
Lvl 31-34 : Arcane Mind 4/5 (here is an alternative if you love to blink alot, go for Improved Blink 2/2 and put only 2/5 on Arcane Mind for the moment. Just count how many blinks you cast in a whole mana pool and see it isnt more interesting for you in terms of mana economy. Blink becomes very expansive at higher levels : 630 mana at level 70)
Lvl 35-37 : Arcane Instability 3/3
Lvl 38-39 : Arcane Potency 2/3
Lvl 40 : Arcane Power 1/1
Lvl 41-42 : Spell Power 2/2 ... now you're going to truely love your Arcane build ! But that was a long way to get there !
Lvl 43 : Arcane Potency 3/3
Lvl 44 : Arcane Mind 5/5

At level 44 your arcane tree should look like this one :
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2350050002030150330120000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Now you have several ways to go. You can choose to stick with Arcane and get :
Lvl 45-49 Mind Mastery 5/5
Lvl 50 : Slow 1/1 ! Congratulations for your pure arcane leveling ! And enjoy slow which is a good talent to my mind (for pve it's indeed dicussable, but you'll love it in pvp anyway).

Otherwise you may want to spend points to get :
lvl 45-49 : Improved Fireball 5/5 (or Impact 5/5 if you dont mind 3.5 sec fireballs and wanna be prepared for pvp the sooner)
Lvl 50-54 : Ignite 5/5
Lvl 55 Pyroblast 1/1 to use with your pom/AP.
Then after back to Arcane with :
Lvl 56-60 Mind Mastery 5/5 (now you'll start to get some nice spell damage to enjoy it fully)
Lvl 61 Slow 1/1 ! Congratulations !

And dont forget to take back Improved Counterspell 2/2 on the way as soon as you gonna start to pvp ! Those two points have been the reason why so many pvp mages went into arcane for ages.

II. Mage Builds at level 70


1. The Deep Frost Mage

The deep frost mage combines a very good survivability with a nice burst of dps on frozen targets. You can crit at least one instant Ice Lance on a frozen target, or score one frostbolt + ice lance crit. The Water Elemental is its great addition both for pve and pvp : he's the addition you need to boost your dps in a boss fight as well as a great dps/burst source in a pvp fight.

As a friend of mine used to say "The frost mage has an answer to every situation". On the other hand, in solo pve and pvp he depends alot on his nova and frostbite procs to burst damages, and on his cooldowns to survive in battlegrounds. Paradoxically the deep frost mage is the true "cooldown" mage. You can beat warlocks, shadow priests and nasty melees but for that you'll need your ice block and your water elemental. A deep frost mage with Ice Block, Cold Snap and his elemental on cooldown is rather weak in most pvp encounters, even more if he gets focused.

For pve Frost mages your dps might be inferior to a pure pve fire mage, but still you will do rather good and your spec will remain good for pvp and duels. That's the great advantage of the deep frost mage. Control, dps, burst, survivabilitly in one same tree.


The Deep Frost PVE Mage 10/0/51

This build takes the maximum mana conservation from both Frost and Arcane trees to be as efficient as possible on long boss fights, as well as the most offensive of the Frost pve talents. It's more pve oriented, but can still do good in pvp.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300050000000000000000000000000000000000000000535220310235010251551

Solo pve : 5/5*
Group pve : 4.5/5
Raid pve : 4/5
Duel : 4/5
Battlegrounds : 3.5/5
Arena : 4/5

(* : 1/5 against immune frost mobs)

Many variants are possible here. If you want a more balanced build between pve and pvp then you can drop the 1 point in Winter Chill for example and complete Frostbite at 3/3. On the other hand if you want to go deeper in pure pve/raiding you might want to drop Imp Frost Nova and Shatter to get more mana conservation with Arcane Meditation.


The Deep Frost PvP Mage 17/0/44

This one is considered as the king build for pvp mages ! Improved Counterspell is indeed an awesome tool to get in pvp. You add to that the great survivability of the Frost tree, the awesome dps and burst coming from the Water Elemental, and you get maybe the best or one of the best build to pvp with your mage. There you need to learn to use your Water Elemental correctly : it's mainly about using its freeze talent either to score a great burst damage or to control your opponents. I suggest you to put the WE freeze macro on a very handy keybind when you pvp with this build. You'll often want to cast Freeze at the end of your frostbolt bar to score a frostbolt + icelance double crit on your target which can make a 5k burst easily. Don't forget that you get 2x freeze with one Water Elemental lasting 45 sec.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300052210200000000000000000000000000000000000505320310205013251501

Solo pve : 4.5/5*
Group pve : 3/5
Raid pve : 3/5
Duel : 5/5 !
Battlegrounds : 4/5
Arena : 5/5 !

For more details about the 17/0/44 build, its variants and strategies, check the last posts of the guide, where i reserved a whole section for this build.


The Deep Frost Elemental Mage 0/19/42

There are many good variants with a deep frost build and a few fire points. There are all pvp intended, those fire points wont help you alot in group or raid pve. The one I'm quoting here is the more fire oriented. You go in Frost up to the Water Elemental and spend your 20 remaining points in Fire. For pvpers who miss too much their Ignite, Impact and fire talents, and still wanna do good in arenas, it's a very nice way to go. The version I give here is with 19 fire points only choosing Incinerate over Improved Scorch in the Fire tree, but you can go 0/20/41 by taking Improved Scorch and removing one point in Frostbite. You will use the molten armor to pvp with this build.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000005523200200000000000000505320310235013201501

Solo pve : 4.5/5*
Group pve : 3/5
Raid pve : 2.5/5
Duel : 4.5/5
Battlegrounds : 4.5/5
Arena : 4.5/5


2. The Arcane/Frost Mage

The Arcane/Frost mage is based on a three talents combination : Spell Power, Ice Shards, and Shatter. At level 70 you can get a huge dps burst on a frozen targets with a very high crit rate. Ice Lance may hit for 2k+, and frostbolt up to 3k very regularly, not depending on any cooldown other than nova procs. With Arcane Power you can reach 4k+ frostbolts easily. Adding to this the high survivability of frost mages with double Ice Block, and chill effects. Those are mainly pvp intended builds, but as they combine high crit numbers with a very good mana efficiency, with a suitable gear they are the ones frost pve raiders choose. The dps of the Arcane/Frost mage in instances and raids is much better than the deep frost mage dps.


The "Classic" Arcane/Frost Mage 40/0/21

This build is a combination of Mind Mastery in the Arcane tree with Ice Block and the main frost goodies in the first talent tiers. It's a good way to go if you want to be able to dps in raid and instances environments using frost spells. This build has also the advantage to be very suitable for pvpers, and that is its strengh. You can both be raid/pve efficient with this build, and still do well in arenas and pvp fields. Note that Mind Mastery will add you approximately 120 spell damage, depending on your intellect.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300052302210150330125000000000000000000000000505220010005010000000

Solo pve : 4.5/5* (you'll miss Artic Reach a bit)
Group pve : 4/5
Raid pve : 4/5
Duel : 4/5
Battlegrounds : 3.5/5 (you'll miss Artic Reach a bit)
Arena : 4/5

Note that there is an alternative for pure pve raiders who will use the 40/0/21 dropping Shatter, but this is a very different build I will describe in another paragraph.


The "Versatile" Arcane/Frost Mage 34/0/27

The choice here is to drop Mind Mastery to get more good frost talents, mainly Artic Reach which can be missed alot otherwise. This build will be a bit less "brutal" than the 40/0/21 in the pure dps field as Piercing Ice wont fully compensate for the loss of Mind Mastery, but on the other hand it offers more versatility and possibilities. It's a great Arcane/Frost build both for pve and pvp players. You can go for everything with such a build.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300052302210140330120000000000000000000000000505320310205010000000

Note that pvp players will prefer Improved Cone of Cold over Piercing Ice.

Solo pve : 5/5*
Group pve : 4/5
Raid pve : 4/5
Duel : 4/5
Battlegrounds : 4/5
Arena : 4/5


The Raid Arcane/Frost Mage 40/0/21

Frost raiders often choose to skip Shatter. Mainly because a boss is always immune to freeze effects and therefore shatter will never help when dpsing a raid or instance boss. Furthermore, the number of frost pve mages dropping Shatter has been increasing alot since the last nova nerf. Nova will always break in group pve so Shatter is almost useless there now too. And in solo pve you can sometime paradoxically do better without Shatter. Against a frozen mob it may be more handy to fire 4x900ish damage Ice Lance, than 1x1800 crit then to see your nova break.

Note that this build is primarily intended for pure pve mages. I wouldnt recommand to drop Shatter if you do also some pvp, as you will lack the damage burst it brings.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300052300230150330125000000000000000000000000515000310230010000000

Solo pve : 4.5/5*
Group pve : 5/5
Raid pve : 4.5/5
Duel : 3/5
Battlegrounds : 2.5/5
Arena : 2.5/5

Note that I choose here Arcane Impact 3/3 and Magic Attunement 2/2 over Magic Absorption 5/5. Magic Absorption is a very situationnal talent. Now many frost raiders have learnt to use spell rotations, mainly between Arcane Blast and Frostbolt. You must know there that 2xAB, 2XFB, AB will let you cast the last AB with low casting time and lowest mana cost. It's very dps and mana efficient. Arcane Blast is a great tool for any Frost Raider. Furthermore if you want to max the dps meter on trash encounters during a Karazhan or Gruul guild raid, Arcane Blast spam will be your main friend if you dont mind sitting alot to drink.

Thanks here to Slammer and Worth who have contributed to set up and clarify this build.

3. The Deep Fire Mage

Fire has for long been considered as the king way for a mage, mainly for its huge sustained dps, and for the big crit numbers you'll score. Deep fire has a great versatility being as good for pve or group pvp. And it's maybe the one tree that will bring you the more fun in this game, as being a mage. In solo pve you will see many mobs dieing before they can even reach you and in group pve you will often be at top of the dps meters. In group pvp it will depend alot about your positionning, whether you manage to get the opening or not on your opponent, whether you manage to keep range from you and your ennemies. Your great instants, being Fire Blast, Blast Wave and Dragon Breath should be used only to finish your ennemies, or to get some range and place a few scorchs.

Now the main drawback of a deep fire build is its lack of survivability in pvp. You must count on your partners to survive in battlegrounds, and never position yourself on the front line. You can have alot of fun in pvp and deal very high damage and get many killing blows, only as long as you're not targeted. In this case Blazing Speed can be sometime a very nice escape, but you cant always count on it as its proc relies alot on luck. Furthermore a deep fire mage will be shot down very fast in an Arena where he mainly misses Ice Block, and will find it very hard to face certain opponents in duels, as rogue or warlocks.

But even in pvp, the deep fire mage is above all about fun. And still you will learn the ways to survive and improve alot your positionning playing this build. The only field I really dont recommand it, is the arena.


The Deep Fire Mage 0/59/2

If you take everything that is good in the Fire tree (and basically everything is really good and fun in it), you'll end with this build. Flamestrike is not used alot, and Elemental Precision 2/3 is very nice to avoid annoying resists on your fire spells.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000055523201232333125312510020000000000000000000

This build is a very good way to learn about fire and has the great advantage to be balanced both for pve and pvp. You can get better results in each of those fields, but then you'll have to make choices. Pvp deep fire mages will of course rather choose a 17/44/0 with irmproved counterspell, but there they drop a bit the pve sphere, while the pve raiders will choose the classic 10/48/3 with Clearcasting, and there drop main pvp tools. To start as a deep fire mage, if you want to experience it both in pve and pvp 0/59/2 is a very good way to go. For raid you will have the same dps as the awesome 10/48/3 but you will lack the 10% more mana conservation that clearcasting gives : then you just need to burn more mana potions.

Solo pve : 4.5/5** (5/5 against normal mobs, 4 or 3.5/5 against elites which are harder to kite with a deep fire build)
Group pve : 4.5/5
Raid pve : 4.5/5
Duel : 3/5
Battlegrounds : 4/5
Arena : 2.5/5

(** : 1/5 against fire immune mobs)


The Deep Fire Raiding Mage 10/48/3

This build is considered at the moment to be the King build for any mage raider (only deep Arcane mages with 2xT5 parts can beat its awesome dps, but with a higher dpm).

You will use Scorchx5 to improve your fireball damages by 15% on bosses, one more scorch being used time to time to maintain the debuff. Fireball will be the only nuke on trash who are killed fast to maximize dps.

It's an amazing build to raid with, Clearcasting from Arcane and Master of Elements from Fire gives it a very good mana conservation. The main drawback of this build compared to a deep arcane raiding build is that you'll need to get some hit rating in your gear to avoid resists (3% from elemental precision is not enough). And also you need to respec to clear TK and Al'ar who is immune fire.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300050000000000000000050521201230333105312510030000000000000000000

Solo pve : 4/5**
Group pve : 5/5
Raid pve : 5/5 !**
Duel pve : 2.5/5
Battlegrounds : 3.5/5
Arena : 2.5/5


The Improved Counterspell/Dragon Breath PvP Mage 17/44/0

There we go again with Improved Counterspell which is an awesome pvp tool. The deep pvp fire mage will naturally choose this build over a 0/59/2. The main choice here abides in letting down Improved Fireball and Empowered Fireball. So you'll nerf your pve side : you wont be very efficient in a raid, but still can go in every instance and use scorch spamming.

This build for a pvp mage has the qualities and flaws I mentionned above : you need to work alot on your positionning in a BG to always get the opening on the enemy. In a solo encounter or duel where you cannot get an easy opening sheep must be your first reflex to get back the opening on your side. However in an arena you should pray not to be focused too fast or you might die before casting anything. This is a very fun way to pvp with a mage, but not the right one to go in an Arena.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0350052000200000000000005523201032303125312010000000000000000000000

Solo pve : 3.5/5*
Group pve : 3.5/5
Raid pve : 3/5
Duel : 4/5
Battlegrounds : 5/5
Arena : 3.5/5


4. The Arcane/Fire Mage

The underlying idea for a pve Arcane/Fire Mage is to combine Spell Power with Fire talents to get huge crit numbers on targets, it's a powerful dps raiding tool, often concurrencing the classic deep fire 10/48/3. the main hesitation is between getting Mind Mastery for more spell damages, or Critical Mass for more critics.

On the pvp side those builds are often called "3 minutes mage" builds : it points at of the Arcane Power/Presence of Mind/Pyroblast combination. This combo offers a great burst of damage against an opponent every 3 minutes, and even if it relies alot on your "critical luck" it can help you to get an opponent down fast in many cases. The main drawback on pvp is that it lets you without any specific trick the 2 minutes and 45 seconds following. That is indeed true for the non-experienced mage who will rely a bit too much on his AP/Pom/Pyro macro each time he wants to kill someone in pvp. However every skilled mage wlll still do very good with this build, and not only every 3 mins : the best example here is the famous french mage Gegon.

Arcane/fire is a very fun and efficient way to build your mage nowadays. If you love big crit numbers, and even keep records of them, then you should love the Arcane/Fire builds.


The Classic Mind Mastery/Blast Wave 40/21/0

Here you choose the very nice spell damage boost that comes from Mind Mastery (around 120 points, depending on your intellect). Blast Wave is then often preferred to Slow. Slow is not reall useful in pve, and Blast Wave adds a very nice instant to any pvp burst damage. There comes the classic 40/21/0. In a raid Arcane Blast will be a very handy tool to max the dps meter on trash mobs, while AB/Scorch rotations will do great on any boss or longer fight.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300052300230150330125005522201030000100000000000000000000000000000

You have alternatives to this build as pure pve players might choose Improved Fireball over Impact, and Burning Soul over Incinerate if they use the Fireball more than the Scorch.

Solo pve : 4/5**
Group pve : 5/5
Raid pve : 5/5
Duel : 4/5 (considering your PoM/AP is not on cooldown of course)
Battelgrounds : 4.5/5
Arena : 3.5/5


The Spell Power/Fire Power 33/28/0

This is also an excellent Arcane/Fire build. You get a bit less spell damage from Mind Mastery, but more critical fire chance from Critical Mass. Note that the 3/5 in Fire Power wont fully compensate to the loss of the 120ish spell damage of Mind Mastery, but the additionnal 6% crit chance will make those two builds very close one from the other in terms of their dps efficiency.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300052300230140320120005523001230003103000000000000000000000000000

Once again here, Improved Fireball can be an alternative to Impact for pure pve raiders. But note that Impact remains a good choice as AB/Scorch rotations do very good with this build in pve/raids, and Impact procs will be useful in pvp.

Solo pve : 4/5**
Group pve : 5/5
Raid pve : 5/5
Duel : 4/5 (considering your PoM/AP is not on cooldown of course)
Battlegrounds : 4.5/5
Arena : 3.5/5

You can also have a more pvp oriented version of the 33/28/0 with Blazing Speed and Improved Mana Shield. It's intended to players who want to keep the AP/PoM/Pyro burst while having a bit more escapes in pvp. This will do nice in BG.

5. The Deep Arcane Mage

The Pure Arcane Mage is most often not so far from the hybrid Arcane/Fire mage we just discussed.

The pvp Arcane Mage will choose Slow over Blastwave. There he gives up some burst damage to get more control and snare. Those specs however are not popular, frost being considered mostly as the only viable way to spec for pvp in the arena, and Arcane/Fire or Elemental for BGs and fun.

The pve Arcane Mage will go deep in the tree to take Arcane Missiles specializations. Deep arcane raiding mages are becoming more and more popular with the great 2xT5 set bonus, and the apparition of immune fire raid bosses (Al'ar in TK). Don't forget your mana potions and protest to your raid leader if you dont get a shadowpriest in your party. Then enjoy the 40% threat reduction coupled with the free 10% hit rating :)


The Pve Arcane raiding mage 49/12/0

Getting everything which is necessary for raiding in the arcane tree costs 48 points (+1 if you take slow). Then you're left with 12-13 points (there are variants as some might drop imp counterspell). In the build listed below I have put the points in fire (more versatility and allows a bit fun in BGs).

As a variant some mages will fill up entirely the Arcane Tree with 61 points, if it's just for pve/raiding it's perfectly fine too. Furthermore Magic Absorption, Improved Blink, Prismatic Cloak can be rather useful in certain encounters. But dont plan to go for pvp then ;)

In raid you will either spam AM (get the Mystical Skyfire Diamond gem and the Lightning Capacitor trinket for maximum efficiency) or use a AB/AB/AB/AM/scorch rotation (2xAB only if your mana pool cant stand it). If you use the AB spam and the AB rotations, avoid haste effect item : they will break your rotations and AB will fall under the GCD timer.

This build allows you bigger bursts than the classic 10/48/3 with AB spam, AP, haste procs on AM spams., but your mana pool will go down faster.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2350050300200150333125105520001220000000000000000000000000000000000

Solo pve : 3.5/5
Group pve : 5/5
Raid pve : 5/5 watch your mana pool !
Duel : 3.5/5
Battelgrounds : 3.5/5
Arena : 2.5/5


The PvP Arcane Mage Slow/Pyroblast 43/18/0

This is the main pvp build for an Arcane Mage. Slow for the control, Arcane Fortitude, Improved Mana Shield and Prismatic Cloak for the defense. You'll lack Blastwave from the classic 40/21/0 but you'll get more snare and a bit more defense. This is a personnal choice, and if you like the 40/21/0 for pvp you should give a try to this one to see how you fit with Slow in pvp.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300052312200152330125105523201000000000000000000000000000000000000

Solo pve : 3.5/5
Group pve : 3.5/5
Raid pve : 3/5
Duel : 4/5
Battelgrounds : 4/5
Arena : 3.5/5


Mini's Arcane Blast/Shatter build

This build is a very nice idea suggested by Minibuff. It's different from the other deep Arcane builds as it gets Ice Block from the frost tree and uses only 39 points in Arcane. However this build relies mainly on Arcane nukes both in pve and pvp, so it's definitely an Arcane build.
As Mini wrote about it : "Pvp - The burst of a classic 3 minute mage, with a pom arcane blast, hitting a shatter for about 4k. Then missiles proceeding to tick for 1.6k. Also having ice block for those nasty encounters. And imp counterspell to silence those casters.
Pve - Massive damage consistency , although you will need mana regen and a big mana pool. Using arcane blast for those mobs while proccing arcane missiles on clearcasts. Using frost bolts and arcane missiles for raid bosses."

I just changed the 3/3 Permafrost to max Ice Shards at 5/5 to be able to use Ice Lance on frostbite procs in pvp in the link below. Mini plays it with 2/5 Ice Shards and 3/3 Permafrost for more control i guess.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2050050300230140323123000000000000000000000000505320010005010000000

Solo pve : 3.5/5
Group pve : 4.5/5
Raid pve : 4/5
Duel : 4/5
Battelgrounds : 3.5/5
Arena : 4/5

(I never tried it myself... so the ratings are rather an estimation)


6. The Elemental Mage

The elemental mage try to combine the best of fire and frost trees to get good damage bursts, survivability and alot of versatility. Elemental is not the easiest way to go for a mage and asks alot of knowledge, fast reactions and experience. But it's a very fun and rewarding one when you start to master it.

Elemental specs have been used alot in world pvp, pre TBC, and many mage videos post TBC also feature elemental specs, which are among the funniest to see in action. However the whole "arena world" has proven that elemental remains inferior to deep frost for pure pvp efficiency. And in a same way, dueling with such a spec is really fun but some opponents like pvp Soul Link locks will be unbeatable (where a 17/0/44 mage on the other hand can really shine alot).

Just know also before going for that kind of spec that elemental is not at all intended to pve players. With the main elemental builds your instance/raid dps will get low. You can still run basic instances, but whenever a high sustained dps on mobs and bosses will be required you wont be able to deal it. Elemental is totally intended for fun pvp action.


The classic Ice Barrier Elementalist 0/30/31

Elemental is about getting the survivability of frost to pvp, while still having some good fire power and as many instants as you can have. So the 0/30/31 is certainly the favorite builds of most elemental mages. Combining ice Block and Ice Barrier with Blazing Speed gives you the top of mage defenses and will boost your survivability at maximum. Still you have many instants at hand to get your opponent down in pvp, plus the burst damage given by shatter.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000005523201000303123000000505321010205013201000

Solo pve : 4/5
Group pve : 2.5/5
Raid pve : 2/5
Duel : 4/5
Battelgrounds : 4/5
Arena : 3.5/5


The Balanced Fire Elementalist 0/35/26

This is a more fire oriented elementalist build. Here you give up the survivability of Ice Barrier to get more damage from your fire spells. It's still very nice to play with. Less defense, but more damages. If you feel you sometime miss burst damage on your classic 0/30/31 and dont mind to weaken a bit your defenses for that, then you should try this one.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000005523201000303125012000505220010205013000000

Solo pve : 4/5
Group pve : 2.5/5
Raid pve : 2/5
Duel : 4/5
Battelgrounds : 4.5/5
Arena : 3.5/5


The Pure Fire Elementalist 0/40/21

Its main idea is to get shatter and Ice Block from frost and still deal massive damage with fire spells, where you'll miss only Dragon Breath. It's a "more fire" extension of the 0/35/26 elementalist.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000005523201002303125312000505220010005010000000

olo pve : 4/5
Group pve : 2.5/5
Raid pve : 2/5
Duel : 4/5
Battelgrounds : 4.5/5
Arena : 3.5/5

Note that the same build exists also with Dragon Breath instead of Ice Block. Just switch those two talents and you get a much more offensive build. His purpose is to deal massive damages as a deep fire build, and combining them with shatter for more crit %. This build should rather be considered as a pure pvp Fire build than an elemental build.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This guide doesnt claim to be complete nor perfect. You can always post me your suggestions or remarks to help me to improve it. Dont hesitate to post any question too, I'll answer as soon as I check the topic. Thanks for reading.

Ahine.

A study about the classic 17/0/44 PvP mage build : discussions, variants, strategies.


Since TBC release Arena has become more and more a benchmark for true pvp efficiency. And concerning mages there is no doubt that a Water Elemental build coupled with an improve counterspell has proven to be the most efficient overall pvp build. It's maybe the strongest dueling build (with 0/19/42 and variants), as the strongest arena one (Arc/Frost being also playable in some particular 5v5 setups).

We'll discuss here the building of a Water Elemental, Improved Counterspell mage and its different variants.

Why a Water Elemental (WE)? Simply because, pvp wise, it's probably the best mage talent in the whole 3 trees. The WE makes the mage the equal of a pvp warlock for 45 sec (x2 with coldsnap), and even better in some circumstances, and that's not nothing to say. It's a great dps addition which keeps on nuking, whatever your mage is doing, even if he's hiding under his Ice Block. Its freeze talent gives an additionnal nova every 30 sec, and can be use for the classic "Shatter combo" burst, we'll discuss later.

Why Improved Counterspell ? Because the normal counterspell is simply not enough in certain situations. While being very good at shutting down a Paladin or Shaman's heals, sometime you just need the "naked 4 sec silence" on a restoration druid or priest's instant heals. You must also be able to use your counterspell offensively, to shut down a nuker for 4 sec to put pressure on him or to help one of your partner to survive a burst.

Going to Improved Counterspell in the Arcane tree takes 17 points. And you're left with 44 points to get the main pvp talents of the Frost tree. You wont go deeper in the Arcane tree as the lower Arcane tiers give mainly fillers, besides Improved Counterspell and Clearcasting. And you need all of your 44 points for your frost talents.

Usually your Arcane tree will go like this. There might be variants, but they're not so important or interesting to discuss as they wont change anything in your gameply.

- Arcane Subtlety 2/2 : for the -10 resistances to your target.
- Arcane Focus 3/5 : a bit less resist on sheep on counterspell, it's capped at 4% in pvp anyway so you dont need to put more points here.
- Arcane Concentration 5/5 : this is the clearcasting effect, and it's really needed. It's 10% mana conservation on most of your skills. It helps you to drop Frost Channeling in the Frost tree to save more points for the offensive talents.
- Magic Attunement 2/2 : Improved Dampen Magic, nothing great, but while playing without a healer the effect is far from being useless.
- Arcane Impact 2/3 : rather a filler as you wont cast any Arcane Blast with this build, and Arcane Explosions crits wont help you much further too.
- Arcane Fortitude 1/1 : it's a very small addition to your defensive abilities, but it's always good to take.
- Improved Counterspell 2/2 : here we are !


Now let's study deeper the Frost part of the build which is the interesting point of this topic.

- Frost Warding (2 points) : its main utility is if you duel another frost mage. If both use the WE then it's almost useless as it will go down too fast. But in a "no-cooldown duel" it can be an awesome tool as the dps is going to be much slower the few reflect procs can really be an utter pain for your opponent. Otherwise it's rather useless. Utility : 2/5

- Improved Frostbolt (5 points) : you need that of course, no use to discuss that point. Frostbolt will be your main nuke in every situation you're not focused fire. Utility : MUST.

- Elemental Precision (3 points) : rather a PvE talent, you wont need the 3% resist less badly, and the 3% mana gain is nice, but you already have Clearcasting to help you on the mana side. Utility : 1/5.

- Ice Shards (5 points) : here is your dps on frozen targets. Utility : MUST.

- Frostbite (3 points) : each time a melee is focusing you, the combined use of Frost Armor and Frostbite is what makes you survive. And every frostbite proc is always a free 1.5 - 2k Ice Lance. So of course, utility : MUST.

- Improved Frost Nova (2 points) : you need it to get Shatter which is another MUST, so utility : MUST.

- Permafrost (3 points) : there is an amazing talent, you may drop in this build or not, according to your preference. The 3 seconds more and 10% speed less on every slowing effect are really huge each time you kite a warrior or a rogue. It makes the warrior slower than you on a cone of cold, even if you got hamstringed. But it's still 3 points, and in many other situations it wont be useful. Utility : 4/5.

- Piercing Ice (3 points) : it's a good dps boost. 6% on all your frost spells (using a multiplicative effect, coupled with Artic Winds). Let's say it's a MUST as you need to boost your dps.

- Cold Snap (1 point) : here is your second Ice Block and second WE, you want this. Utility : MUST.

- Improved Blizzard (3 points) : very little use in pvp. Utility : 0/5.

- Artic Reach (2 points) : 20% more range on your novas, cones of cold and every frostbolt, ice lance is truely a MUST.

- Frost Channeling (3 points) : a very good talent for the 15% mana less on each frost spell. Mages running so fast oom in long fights that it can help much. On the other hand you already have clearcasting and have many other goodies to take in this tree. Utility : 3/5.

- Shatter (5 points) : your best dps will be on frozen targets due to this talent, it's of course a MUST.

- Frozen Core (2 points) : as it is this talent is rather useless in most situations. The damage reduction works only against other mages (or fire warlocks) so it's far from being worth its 2 points. Utility : 0/5.

- Ice Block (1 point) : your life saver, from dps and from control. Every pvp mage steps to that one. Going in pvp without an Ice Block makes you most vulnerable to focus fire, as to control, sap, blind, fear. Utlity : MUST for every frost mage of course.

- Improved CoC (3 points) : turns a great control spell into a good instant burst too. We can hesitate here a bit, but to my mind it's definitely a "must have". Only in the 5v5 arena it can be considered as not necessary. Utility : MUST (4/5 if you focus on the 5v5 arena bracket).

- Ice Floes (2 points) : a great talent, that some people drop. The main reason is that you dont need it absolutely for arena as you rarely wait for a second IB or coldsnap. There its only use is on CoC and Ice barrier. In 5v5 arena CoC wont be used so often as you need to play conservative on the mana side. And Ice Barrier is rather a display of your Frost mage status making other teams less eager to focus fire you. That's mainly the reason why some top mages may drop it. On the other hand for 2v2, 3v3 arena and if you like to duel (and not wait endlessly for cooldowns to come back), it's a must. Overall utility : 4.5/5.

- Winter's Chill (5 points) : not only a pve talent as many people think. You dont use it for the crit rate but as an additionnal debuff on your target. It makes dispelling harder for the opponent priest or paladin. It's very good for the arena, while being a little expansive taking 5 of your precious talent points. Utility : 4/5.

- Ice Barrier (1 point) : even if it scaled poorly in TBC it remains a great defensive talent. It has also a pvp-threat reduction on sight, as it makes people relunctant to focus you, compared to a mage without (sometime after a hard day of work you dont want to be the chicken kiting your opponents arena after arena the whole evening ;) ). Definitely a MUST.

- Artic Winds (5 points) : another expansive one, but which helps really to improve your dps especially when coupled with Piercing Ice. The reduce hit on ranged and melee attacks is nothing great, but still good to take at the same time. Utility : 4.5/5

- Empowered Frostbolt (5 points) : cancels the (shameful !) 10% spell dmg tax on Improved Frostbolt and gives you 5% more crit. It's good, really... But depending on your playstyle you may drop it too. Each time you gonna get focused fire, even just having a pet on you, you will hardly cast any frostbolt, and so it's useless. So it's up to you to know if you really need that or can save 5 points here for something else. Utility : 4/5.

- Water Elemental (1 point) : no word will be enough to describe the true imbaness of this talent ! Thanks to Blizzard, it's the talent which makes the mage a truely viable class in most pvp situations. Utility : MUST.

Continued in the next post...

A study about the classic 17/0/44 PvP mage build : discussions, variants, strategies. (following)


So as you're supposed to take every "Must have" talent in this tree, passed Ice Barrier you have used already 31 of your 44 points. Remove one point for the WE, and you're left with 12 points you can dispatch among : Permafrost, Ice Floes, Winter Chill, Artic Wind, Empowered Frostbolt.

My personnal choice at the moment is to go with Ice Floes, Winter Chill and Artic Wind, so there is the build quoted higher in my guide :

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300052210200000000000000000000000000000000000505320310205013251501


Here are some variants from some top pvp mage players.


- Agramon, who released recently a really great 17/0/44 pvp movie, prefers Empowered Frostbolt over Artic Winds :
( http://armory.wow-europe.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Frostmane&n=Agramon )

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2302052010200000000000000000000000000000000000505320310205013201551


- Radikal, a great source of inspiration and mage theorycrafting over his blog, always go with permafrost, drops Ice Floes and takes 4/5 Winter Chill :
( http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Black+Dragonflight&n=Radikal )

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300052210200000000000000000000000000000000000505323310205013041501


- Ohnoes, Zeck's partner in Mob TurtleForce, on a more 5v5 oriented build at the moment, drops Improved CoC, Ice Floes and max at 5/5 Winter Chill, Artic Winds and Empowered Frostbolt :
( http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Tichondrius&n=Ohnoes )

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/mage/talents.html?2300150310200000000000000000000000000000000000505320310205010051551


With this detailed study and those good examples, taking into account your playstyle, you should now be able to make your own variant of the top pvp 17/0/44 build.


Now we'll discuss some strategies.

Notice that I dont intend this post or paragraph to be for people who are already very skilled at playing their mage. It's rather for beginners and mages struggling to achieve decent ratings in the arena. I'll give links for more advanced tips at the end of the post.


The Shatter Combo

What is called the Shatter Combo is the way you use your pet nova to get a great dps burst on a single target by scoring a Frostbolt + Ice Lance crit at the very same time. How does it work ?

First make the following macro, and assign it to a very handy keybind, close to your frostbolt and ice lance.

/click [pet] PetActionButton5

This is for using the Pet Nova, without having to click it on the pet action bar, and this is really needed.

Secondly check in the interface options that "Sticky Targeting" is selected (it's on the first page, middle row, top of the page). It prevents you from loosing your target each time you click on the ground, and especially this options if not selected makes the shatter combo bug alot, loosing target, or loosing the pet nova while casting.

The shatter combo works this way : select your target, cast your pet (make it attack too generally), start a Frostbolt on your target, and when you pass 1.5 sec cast, click on your pet nova macro and freeze the target. Just after the frostbolt is launched, cast an Ice Lance. Both will benefit from the Shatter effect, and if both crit it's easily 4-5k damage !

If you have the Gladiator gloves you can even try to score a Fireblast in the Shatter before the Frostbolt and Ice Lance have broken it, but it's a bit more tricky and you need perfect range for that.

This combo provides an incredible burst : 3-5k from Frostbolt + Ice Lance (depending on crits) + 1-1.5k Fireblast + one pet nuke during this time = 4.5k minimum if you're not lucky on crits to 7k damage !! Useless to say you can burn down a single target very fast by scoring this combo on your opponent.

Who said that Arcane/Fire was the only Mage burst spec ? Actually a frost mage can burst for the same amount, even with a bigger crit rate.

Its only drawback is of course that you must not be targeted. If you're focused fire, dont even try it, you will never manage to land the combo. But each time your opponents let you alone to focus on your partner, or to go more defensive they become vulnerable to your burst. And that's why as a Frost Mage you can be a real pain for your arena opponents : If they target you, you can outlive alot (especially against melees), due to blink, frostbite procs, shields, Ice Block. If they forget you, you can stab them hard in the back by using the shatter combo.

The Shatter Combo requires just some training : as everything else it must get down in your fingers rather than only stay in your brain. That's why I advise you if you never used it, first to go try it on some mobs, then to practice a few in BGs (focusing opponents in the melee while you're left quiet), then only try to use it inside the arena.


The Focus Counterspell

While fighting in the arena you must often nuke hard one dps target while being able to counterspell their healer at the very same time. Changing target there makes you loose a precious time, and can make you fail a decisive counterspell. That's why you should use the Focus maco. How does it work ?

First make a macro :

/focus

And assign it to a keybind.

Then a second macro :

# showtooltip Counterspell
/stopcasting
/cast [target=focus,modifier:shift] Counterspell; Counterspell

Assign it to your normal counterspell keybind as it will replace it.

Third step, if you dont have an addon which display the focus target casting bar (xPerl does it for example), download Quartz, which is an incredible addon to my mind.

http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info7158-Quartz-ModularCastingBar.html

Type /quartz once in the game, go to the Focus section, uncheck Lock and move the Focus castbar to a convenient place for you, but something very visible. At start I even advice you to put it as big as possible, so you should never miss a healer cast.

The macro works this way : if you press your usual Counterspell key, it will cast a Counterspell on your current target. But if you press shift+this key it will cast the Counterspell on your focus target.

How does it work inside the arena ? Let's take an example. You enter the arena with your partner and you see a dreadful warrior + paladin combo. Just before engaging the fight you select the other paladin and press your focus macro : the focus is set on the paladin until you change it. Then you start to dps the warrior with your partner and as soon as the paladin tries to heal him you will see his cast bar big on your screen, at the spot you said Quartz to display the focus enemy castbar. Then do not think, press shift+counterspell, and if you face the paladin (it doesnt work if the paladin is in your back or hiding behind a pillar) the counterspell will go directly on him, locking his school down while you keep killing his warrior.

It's an incredible tool to use in the arena and doesnt change your normal counterspell to be used as usual. Just be attentive at each new arena to check the focus is set on the right target (generally a healer, paladin or shaman).

If you dont like the shift use and feel not at ease pressing multiple keys inside an arena, there is another alternative.

# showtooltip Counterspell
/stopcasting
/cast [target=focus] Counterspell; Counterspell

This macro works as your normal counterspell if no focus is set, and will counterspell your focus target if it's in your los instead than your current target.

Advantage : both uses in one single key, no shift to press.

Drawback : if you want to cast the counterspell on your current target, because you changed your mind during the arena, or because your focus target is dead, you just cant with one key. You have first to set the new focus on your current target, which is 2x key press.


Whatever macro you choose, It just requires practice : always keep in mind the positions in the arena, always keep an eye on your focus target and even if he's in your back, face him to cast the counterspell and interrupt his cast. Also dont forget if you face the same team again in the next arena, the focus often stay on the last person you have put it. So check each new arena the focus is well set.

Focus Controlling

What we saw in the previous paragraph can be extended to sheep too. It'smainly very useful in 5v5, and also often in 3v3.

Make the following macro :

#showtooltip Polymorph
/cast [target=focus,modifier:shift] Polymorph; Polymorph

And assign it to your normal Polymorph keybind.

If you press your polymorph keybind it works as a sheep, if you press shift + this key bind it will sheep your focus target. Now you can full nuke a ugly rogue ganking your warlock partner while keeping sheeping his priest, without switching targets. Isnt it handy ?

In 5v5 as a mage you will often be asked to full control a target as you full nuke another. This is done by using the focus macro.

According to your setup you could even be asked to play the full control game : only chain sheeping the enemies your team doesnt focus fire, counterspelling their paladin, and start to dps only to assist your warrior finishing a target. In this case the focus is set on this paladin while you tab between full life targets to sheep them.

If the opponent dispeller is a paladin, dont forget to add a detect magic on your target after each of your sheeps. Because a Paladin can dispell magic effects only once by once, and in this case he has 50% chances to miss the dispell sheep if he casts it only once.

So for focus sheeping you can also use this macro. Do it only if you feel at ease with previous macros. Adding too many macros to your gameplay could be a bit too much confusing at start.

#showtooltip Detect Magic
/cast [target=focus,modifier:shift] Detect Magic; Detect Magic

It works the same way as the focus polymorph macro. Casts al Detect Magic on your current target while pressing the usual key and cast it on your focus target if you press shift + that key.

If the opponent dispeller is a priest, dont take time to Detect Magic : he will dispell your effects both in one click.

Ice Block macro and tactics

#showtooltip Ice Block
/stopcasting
/cancelAura Ice Block
/cast Ice Block

Normally when you cast your Ice Block, to prevent just a double click mistake, the game makes you stay at least the time of a global cooldown inside. But sometime to remove an annoying control you need to just press Ice Block and go out of it at the same instant. That's what this macro does. It works like a normal Ice Block, and cancel it at the very same instant if you press it a second time. So be careful not spamming the key !

Often in the arena you'll want to stay full 10 seconds under your Ice Block, examples :
- you got focused hard, and your healer needs time to heal you.
- you got focused hard, and you want to annoy them by forcing them to select another target, start to dps it again before you exit.
- your opponent paladin in 2v2 has bubbled, his warrior gets full healed and your rogue partner can vanish. Just Ice Block and wait until the bubble ends.
- in a 1v1 against another mage for example, you Ice Blocked to avoid a silence + nova ? Stay full 10 seconds under it while your pet is nuking him.

When you're focus fired be very very attentive to your life and actions. Dont forget that Ice Block is under the Global Cooldown, contrarily to Counterspell, and dont wait the last instant casting fireblasts or ice lances, otherwise you could be forced to Ice Block with a too low life. Ice Blocking with 1k life when you dont play with a healer is rather useless, as you gonna get ganked at the very moment you get out. You should always Ice Block with at least 4-5k health if you dont play with a healer, and even if there is a healer, 3k life is a minimum as your healer can always be controlled.

Timing your Ice Blocks, staying under them the very right time, are the most important factors in your mage strategies. Experience here is the best factor to gather this knowledge and get it down right in your fingers.


.... to be continued.

You're just flat out wrong about arcane/frost specs, frankly. No mage in their right mind with a competent team is going to spec anything other than 41+ frost for serious rated 5v5 arena. The water elemental does more damage than AP, is harder to 'dispel', is more versatile than AP, and can be cold snapped. AP is just worse.

You also forgot 17/0/44 as a deep frost build, but other than that it was good.

[edit] Forgot 0/30/31 as an elemental build as well.

o.o long post

Can't comment on everything as I haven't read everything yet, but, I would really recommend taking Flame Throwing before Ignite when leveling as fire. You have at best 5% crit so Ignite doesn't really provide that much more damage whereas FT often gives you an extra fireball or just makes the pulls safer.

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Q u o t e:
o.o long post

Can't comment on everything as I haven't read everything yet, but, I would really recommend taking Flame Throwing before Ignite when leveling as fire. You have at best 5% crit so Ignite doesn't really provide that much more damage whereas FT often gives you an extra fireball or just makes the pulls safer.

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Nice point. It's changed.

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Q u o t e:
34/0/27 is not about AP but rather spellpower combined with shatter and ice shards. Ofc it misses the water elemental. But you may be right on the efficiency on the water elemental in arena, I gonna wait about more competent comments and may change this. Just note that what I call arena is not 5vs5 but rather 2vs2 and 3vs3 for the moment. 5vs5 would need his own category.

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Fair enough on spellpower. For 2v2 and 3v3, it may be a better build due to the fact that burst damage has more viability in both those setups. In 5v5, however, and probably in 2v2/3v3 after players gear up with resilience/stamina as they'll end up doing, water elemental specs will reign supreme. The pure damage output is insane, and since its mostly based around icelance you also have plenty of time to cs, cc, and generally be a nuisance for the other team.

Beware, however, of skipping out on stuff like frost channelling for ANY arena build. Arena games are so long, and getting longer every day, that mana is starting to become a real issue for mages. You cant afford to go around using coc every time the cd is up without frost channelling, and even chain spamming fbolts is going to land you in mana problems if the other team heals enough or has high enough average hp.

[edit] and if the competent comments thing was with regards to my level, I was 70 on my other mage before 90% of this forum, if not more :X

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?1052052000230150330125000000000000000000000000515000310230010000000

add this to arcane-frost builds ^^ pve build ;) 5/5 tbh

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Q u o t e:
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?1052052000230150330125000000000000000000000000515000310230010000000

add this to arcane-frost builds ^^ pve build ;) 5/5 tbh

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There is a 40/0/21 build already in the Arcane/Frost section. But looking at your build taking 21 points in frost without shatter seems a weird choice. And wand specialisation is not as useful for mages at level 70^

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=kZVgGzf0cReRzbAr0o0x

my current heavy fire elemental build. nice utility. good fire crits.

big on fire damage, cold snap for emergancy frost novas. decent shatter dmg for ice lance.
lacks survivability. - for mages who live on the edge!

for raid pve shatter is nearly useless

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Q u o t e:
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?1052052000230150330125000000000000000000000000515000310230010000000

add this to arcane-frost builds ^^ pve build ;) 5/5 tbh

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i hope he wont, cause that build is just plain crap.

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Q u o t e:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=kZVgGzf0cReRzbAr0o0x

my current heavy fire elemental build. nice utility. good fire crits.

big on fire damage, cold snap for emergancy frost novas. decent shatter dmg for ice lance.
lacks survivability. - for mages who live on the edge!

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Nice alternative on the frost side compared to the one I listed. I will add it as an option. Thanks for your suggestion.

Even though one might not agree with all that is written..
very well done. /sticky