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Tips For Mage Leveling in World of Warcraft
By Thomas McCarthy | December 16, 2009
So you want to roll a mage, and are looking for the best way to get to 80 in a hurry? Well, look no further, because I’m going to tell you everything you need to know to roll through the levels in a hurry with this article on Mage Leveling.
The first thing a lot of mages do wrong is gearing. Spirit is on a lot of lowlevel gear, but it is almost completely useless for mages, because it only effects out-of-combat regen. As a mage, you want Int for regen, because Evocation is based on your max mana. The other stats are fairly obvious, though: Spell damage gear of the appropriate element for your spec, and enough hit to be capped against mobs your own level (around four percent).
Hit capping takes priority over the rest, but after that you have to determine for yourself whether you need more damage, or more regen. Generally if you are getting hit again after your frost nova, you need more damage. Otherwise stack Int and reduce your downtime by improving the regen from you get from Evocation.
Now that your gear is in order, let’s talk specs. Frost is incredibly good for leveling…once you have the right talents. Until level 29, though, it is going to be inferior to Arcane in pretty much every way. So grab those first two five-point Arcane talents, then get Arcane Attunement and Arcane Focus maxed. What you get after that doesn’t really matter, you’ll be respeccing to Frost at 29 or 30.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=#oZZAc0hobu is what you should aim for in your new Frost spec, although if you are killing quickly enough you’ll want to get Icy Floes instead of Frostbite. Not that it matters, since you’ll get whichever one you DON’T start with using your next three points. Then, get Frost Channeling and Winter’s Chill, followed by Ice Barrier and Shattered Barrier, and finally Cold as Ice. Pretty much fill out the tree at this point, grabbing everything below and including Empowered Frostbolt and Fingers of Frost. With the Eternal Water glyph, you can turn your elemental permanent, at which point you’ll be nearly unstoppable.
Now that you know how to spec and how to gear, let’s discuss actually playing your Mage. Your basic pull should basically be “Nuke until I’m getting hit, Frost Nova and run away, Nuke enemy until it dies.” Note that you should be using whatever you are specced for as your nuke. And for the first 10-15 levels, just use whatever you got a new rank of last. Don’t forget to finish enemies with your wand to conserve mana!
You’ll usually want to cast until you start getting hit, then Frost Nova and run away. As Arcane you’ll only be able to Nova every other fight, but that’s okay because you don’t have to worry about knockback as Arcane. I wouldn’t recommend using damage shields except in emergencies or when fighting ranged mobs, as they’re a waste of mana in the majority of situations.
So there you have it, all you need to know about leveling mages. There are some advanced strategies that I’ve left out, but on the whole you should be able to pick them up with experience; trying to teach them would be close to impossible as many are very situation-based. As a last note, be sure to check out my other guides if you liked this one!
Want to read more?? Check out my blog about everything related to WoW gold at http://wowgoldspot.blogspot.com. For more about mages in particular, Check out my article about Mage Gold farming!
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