The Greatest Mage Post Ever.Follow

That's right ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages. This amazing post will make you better looking, faster, smarter, and make you a big hit with the ladies. (If you are a lady, work with me here) Astounding, breathtaking, extraordinary, all of these overused adjectives will run through your mind as you think, how could I have lived without this post?

This is hands down, the greatest mage post ever. Fear not children, I, the great Baron Von Filterspawn will guide you to the light, (Or at least to the bigass nukes) at times you will be too stunned to read more, but you must, for the greater good of mankind, and baby mages everywhere you MUST carry on.

Alright, now that I am done tooting my own horn and blowing smoke up your collective asses, not to mention the obnoxious sarcasm, let's get down to business shall we?

For awhile on this forum, we have had all types of things written up in regards to the mage class as a whole. Talent specs, spells, talent explanations, what to spec first, and the ever dreaded, "what class is best?" posts.

So, with no further ado, I give you:

The Greatest Mage Post Ever!
Subtle aren't I?

Here's how it works. Blow by blow, play by play and spec by spec I will go over the following.

1. Talent Review.
2. Talent Specs.
3. What to spec first as you level.
4. What race truly is the best for mage.
5. Gemming your mage.

Instead of writing up multiple posts, covering all these things, I will put all of it together into one resource where you can consult a quick reference on all things mage. I hope this will help answer some of the questions we have pop up on these boards, and maybe even slow down some of the hate mail you bastards keep sending me.

One thing I'd like to point out before we start. If I am a "lazy, good for nothing, pain in the *** who needs to hurry the @#%^ up" then what does that make you, the one who didn't bother writing a post in the first place? Yeah that's right, a lazy good for nothing pain in the mother@#%^ing ***. So ****, off

All talents when discussed will be addressed as being at the max level, anything less than max will be covered under Part III, What to Spec as You Level.

One more thing, if typed, edited swearing bothers you on the internet, then just gtfo now. Half of the fun of my guides is me ranting about stupid sh*t, so if you have no sense of humor, just go away. Thanks

Here we go, about time he shut the hell up and got on with it eh?

Part I. Talent Explanations and Review.

Arcane Talents

Arcane Subtlety - Reduces your target's resistence to all your spells by by 10 and reduces the threat of your Arcane spells by 40%.

Why doesn't this suck? The -resists. That's it, the 40% threat reduction is good for killing other mages when you are all AoEing together, otherwise, it doesn't matter. Want proof? The -threat talents for the fire tree give you a whopping 10%. You think they would put something like -40% if it was as good as it sounds? Hell no. We don't use much arcane for damage dealing, even with the new arcane spell.

Arcane Focus - Reduces the chance an opponent can resist your arcane spells by 10%.

Same thing, this is good for the resist reduction, primarily applies to polymorph and counterspell. Would be even better if it was all spell schools, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

Improved Arcane Missles - Gives you a 100% chance to avoid interruption cause by damage while channeling arcane missles.

First of all, a 100% "chance"? Dude, 100% means it's a sure thing, you fail english ******** Alright, this is good when leveling, and used to be good for a number of boss fights, at level 70, I can't recall the last time I used arcane missles, much less thought "Man I really wish these had a 100% "chance" to avoid interruption". So, it's situational, at 70, leave it alone.

Wand Specialization - Increases your damage with wands by 25%.

It sucked at release, it sucked after the mage review, and it still sucks now. Just like some of you some sick ****'s doing strange things to the sheep and/or pigs you turn people into, it's only fun if no one catches you. Don't do it, seriously, just... don't.

Magic Absorbtion - Increases all resistences by 10 and causes all spells you resist to restore 5% of your total mana.

More resists, with a mana return? Sign me up on this sh*t for raiding. Now a 5% return sounds small, but most of us have over 9k mana when raid buffed, and 5% of that is 450. If you are resisting a lot, you can get a crapload of mana back really quick. (Read: Doing content blocking resist gear fights, Huhuran anyone?)

Arcane Concentration - Gives you a 10% chance of entering a Clearcasting state after any damage spell hits a target. The Clearcasting state reduces the mana cost of your next spell by 100%. (By the way, it lasts 15 seconds, not forever like the talent would have you believe).

They should make this free like AE, it is nice to have even this way though. I get it for every PvE spec, PvP, it's not as good, but can still be handy. Especially if you use it with certain spells (Read: Blizzard, fuggin mana hog of a spell).

Magic Attunement - Increases the effect of your Amplify Magic and Dampen Magic spells by 50%

This one is great for PvP. The combined amplify and dampen magic onto one talent. With 2 points into this, you can ruin a priests shadow word pain and **** him off really good.

Arcane Impact - Increases the critical strike chance of your Arcane Explosion and Arcane Blast spells by 6%.

Increasing your crit chance with Arcane Explosion (Why? Means the other mages will oulive me when I crit like mad in a group) and Arcane Blast (I hardly ever use this, a fun toy, not a serious spell) by 6% is meh at best, I'd skip it.

Arcane Fortitude - Increases your armor by an amount equal to 100% of your Intellect.

Like it's retarded cousin wand spec, useless. Just say no to drugs and fortitude, they both might make you feel better for a short time, but when the reality of it hits you (by reality I mean a rogue or a warrior with a bigass sword) then you realize you are wasting away your life. Don't do it.

Improved Mana Shield - Decreases the mana lost per point of damage taken when Mana Shield is activeby 20%

Less mana used when you turn your shield on. This is great if you are the type of player to use your shield a ton, just make sure you have a bigass mana pool before you do.

Improved Counterspell - Gives your Counterspell a 100% chance to silence the target for 4 seconds.
A MUST have for any PvP mage out there. Why does it say 100% chance (again ) if it can be resisted? Should say "A really good chance", or something like that. Seriously, how can you write a language like Draconic, but fail English?

Arcane Meditation - Allows 30% of your mana regeneration to continue while casting.

More mana regen. Great talent overall. Keep in mind, it isn't 30% regen, it is 30% of the regen that you ALREADY have. Consider that when you spec.

Improved Blink - For 4 seconds after casting Blink, your chance to be hit by all attacks and spells is reduced by 25%.

Could save you if you find yourself in a sticky situation, but I'm willing to bet that the odds are low that this talent will be what saves you. Not bad if you're trying to PvP as an arcane mage, but overall not great.

Presence of Mind - When activated, your next mage spell with a casting time of less than 10 seconds becomes an instant cast spell. (3 min cooldown).

Still godly as far as talents go. Although I would like to point out they say "your next mage spell" as opposed to what? My next Priest spell? My next Warrior spell? Pretty sure I am a mage here, putting points in the mage talent trees, so it's probably safe to assume I'll be using A @#%^ING MAGE SPELL! Idiots.

Arcane Mind - Increases your total Intellect by 15%.

This comes into play in a huge way if you spec as far as Mind Mastery. I use this in every 40 Arcane spec I do, it rocks.

Prismatic Cloak - Reduces all damage taken by 4%.

Reduction of 4% may sound small, but don't think about it on large numbers, like a 1k crit yeilding a 40 dmg reduction, think about it eating up damage from DoT's in PvP. Pretty solid talent.

Arcane Instability - Increases your spell damage and critical strike chance by 3%.

Used to be the sole reason mages went 28 Arcane, a 3% damage and crit increase is just nuts, I HIGHLY recommend it.

Arcane Potency - Increases the critical strike chance of any spell cast while Clearcasting by 30%.

Sounds great in theory, more crit right? Except Clearcasting happens 10% of the time, and a 30% increase on a 10% proc will get you a whopping 3% overall. Really isn't all that great. If it was 3% all the time, it would be worth it.

Empowered Arcane Missles - Your Arcane Missles spell gains an additional 45% of your bonus spell damage effects, but mana cost is increased by 6%.

If you sat around and spammed Arcane Missles as a main spell all day, this might be good. Oh wait, no it wouldn't, because it would suck you dry of mana even faster. Want proof it sucks? Blizzard hands it right to you, this one is 45%, while the fire and frost versions are 15% and 10% respectively. Yeah, they were that sure no one would use it. However, in PvP this is a rather handy spell to have. If you do not get silenced or feared, this can ruin a casters day. (The exception to this would be two piece tier 5 for the bonus, it's great then, but only then.)

Arcane Power - When activated, your spells deal 30% more damage while costing 30% more mana to cast. This effect lasts 15 seconds (3 min cooldown).

Still a good talent. A must have if you go this deep in the Arcane tree. If people cry to you about 3 minute mages, cry to them about Warlocks with 12,000 life unbuffed. Or getting feared to death.

Spell Power - Increased critical strike damage bonus of all spells by 50%.

This is godly. Seriously, this is the best thing that has happened to us in a LONG time as far as talents go. Speccing 40 Arcane and stacking this with Arcane Mind and Mind Mastery will make you hit like a truck.

Mind Mastery - Increases spell damage by up to 25% of your total Intellect.

As I said above, stacking this with the other two talents is great. I go this far into Arcane for this talent alone.

Slow - Reduces target's movement speed by 50%, increases the time between ranged attacks by 50% and increases casting time by 50%. Lasts 15 seconds, Slow can only affect one target at a time.

This spell is just nuts in PvP, the question you have to ask, is it worth giving up a 21 point talent for? I personally don't use it much, as I can get better stuff elsewhere, but if it was any lower in the tree than 41 points, I would have it in a heartbeat. Up to you

So that's Arcane, up next, Fire!



Fire Talents

Improved Fireball - Reduces the casting time of your Fireball spell by 0.5 seconds.

Unless you spec something centered around all instant cast spells for PvP, this is a must in the fire tree. Faster casting = more damage, get it.


Impact - Gives your fire spells a 10% chance to stun the target for 2 seconds.

A great PvP talent, and useful in solo PvE as well. It can also proc off of Molten Armor, so that rogue beating on you just got a nasty suprise.

Ignite - Your critical strikes from Fire damage spells cause the target to burn for an additional of your spells damage over 4 seconds.

This is the talent that makes fire do so much more damage than frost. If you are fire and don't have this... quit playing this game. The way the math works, is say you crit a target for 1,000 damage, then it will tic (A tic is every 2 seconds) twice for 20% of the damage, in this case 200, over 4 seconds. So 2 tics at 200 damage each = 400 damage or 40% of the original crit.

Flame Throwing - Increases the range of your Fire spells by 6 yards.

This lets you shoot a fireball from really, really far (try it without this talent, then with it, the difference is huge) great for fighting mobs who have some sort of AoE, and standing in the back sniping people from afar in a battleground.

Improved Fire Blast - Reduces the cooldown of your Fire Blast spell by 1.5 seconds.

Average in PvE, great in PvP where a mage uses so many instant cast spells during his fights. If you PvP as fire, get it.

Incineration - Increases the critical strike chance of your Scorch and Fire Blast spells by 4%.

Suited for Scorch mages, and anyone who PvP's heavily. 4% more crit on an instant and a 1.5 second cast spell is awesome. Also helps you get those ignites going on a target.

Improved Flamestrike - Increases the critical strike chance of your Flamestrike spell by 15%.

Also frequently called Improved Gimpstrike by a number of mages in my guild. If you are doing a ton of group fighting, this can be good, (Alterac Valley anyone?) but on the whole, you are better off with points elsewhere.

Pyroblast - Hurls an immense fiery boulder that causes 877 to 1087 Fire damage and an additional 324 Fire damage over 12 seconds.

If you spec fire, get this. The 6 second cast may seem long, especially in PvP, but this used in conjuction with Presence of Mind is very, very dangerous. If you use Arcane Power, cast this, pop Presence of Mind and toss another Pyro, someone's day is completely ruined. That is where the term "3 minute mage" comes from. Having about 700 +damage will put these close to 5,000 damage when Arcane Power is up and you crit. Two of those will kill anyone, when you add the ignites in.

Burning Soul - Gives your Fire spells a 70% chance to not lose casting time when you take damage and reduces the threat caused by your Fire spells by 10%.

The chance to not lose cast time in PvP is huge. The 10% reduced threat in PvE is huge. By those factors combined, you have one helluva talent. Don't leave home without it.

Improved Scorch - Your Scorch spells have a 100% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to Fire damage. This vulnerability increases the Fire damage dealt to your target by 3% and lasts 30 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.

If you don't have this in a raid, make sure another mage does. An additional 15% Fire damage is great to have. Not as useful in PvP where fights are fast and furious, but can still better than nothing at all.

Molten Shields - Causes your Fire Ward to have a 20% chance to reflect Fire spells while active. In addition, your Molten Armor has a 100% chance to affect ranged and spell attacks.

Sounds great in theory. It has two parts. The first is the reflect. The only classes this is all that good on, are other mages (Nothing funnier than reflecting a Pyroblast and watching him kill himself) or Warlocks, (Who are going to fear you to death anyway).

The second part is that Molten Armor damage now hits enemies who strike you with ranged attacks. While the damage itself is not all that great, the fact that it can proc Impact is pretty interesting. All in all, not a great talent by any means, but certainly has its place now.

Master of Elements - Your Fire and Frost spell criticals will refund 30% of the mana cost.

Part of the ongoing conspiracy to make sure the Arcane Tree damage spells will suck you dry of mana, while the other tree's keep going, this is a good talent for a heavy raid spec. PvP, not as much, again because the fights are so much faster and you don't get the time for this to add up enough to truly shine.

Playing with Fire - Increases all spell damage caused by 3% and all spell damage taken by 3%.

More damage is always a good thing in my eyes. You just have to decide if the additional damage taken is worth the output. I would lean towards this being better in PvE since a mage never takes near as much damage as they do in PvP.

Critical Mass - Increases the critical strike chance of your Fire spells by 6%.

This is so good it's not funny. End of story.

Blast Wave - A wave of flame radiates outward from the caster, damaging all enemies caught within the blast for 640 to 754 Fire damage and dazing them for 6 seconds. (30 second cooldown).

Ahh yes, the Blast Wave. this, Impact and Dragon's breathe give a full Fire mage a variaty of stuns to play with. Being on a 30 second cooldown makes this a very nice spell to have for PvP. Using this, then an Arcane Powered Flamestrike and another Presence of Mind Flamestrike is devastating in group PvP. One more reason why we get focus fired so hard in a battleground.

Blazing Speed - Gives you a 10% chance when hit by a melee or ranged attack to increase your movement speed by 50% and remove all movement impairing effects. This effect lasts 8 seconds.

So a hunter jumps you and this procs, guess what? His range advantage just vanished. That rogue that ambushed you? Yeah, hope his sprint is up because if it isn't, you can run circles around him. Beyond good in PvP, PvE it's kinda meh. Wish it worked on casters as well though.

Fire Power - Increases the damage done by your Fire spells by 10%.

More damage again, this is getting kinda nuts eh? Going this far into fire will make this a must have.

Pyromaniac - Increases chance to critically hit and reduces the mana cost of all Fire spells by an additional 3%.

Jesus, crit must be getting pretty high with all these talents in the Fire tree. Another great talent.

Combustion - When activated, this spell causes each Fire damage spell you cast to increases your critical strike chance with Fire spells by 10%. This effect lasts until you have caused 3 critical strikes with Fire spells. (3 minute cooldown).

For PvE, this talent is great, more crits. Granted it has a 3 minute cooldown, but it is much better than the old version. Also decent in PvP to help burn down those pesky enemy players. Not as good as PvE, once again due to limited casting times, well, not as good in 1v1, but quite nice in group fighting.

Molten Fury - Increases damage of all spells against targets with less than 20% health by 20%.

The mage version of a warriors execute. Good raiding talent, not so much in other areas.

Empowered Fireball - Your Fireball spell gains an additional 15% of your bonus spell damage effects.

This is nice to have, in that it brings Fireball back on par to what it was prior to the nerf it and Frostbolt got. More damage is something I will never cry about as a mage.

Dragon's Breathe - Target's in a cone in front of the caster take 680 to 790 Fire damage and are disoriented for 3 seconds. (20 second cooldown).

One last PvP toy in the Fire tree, another way to stop your enemy in order to get another cast off is nice for a fire mage to add to his bag of tricks. With the tree giving you a total of three stuns, two of which are on command, it helps with the Fire mages survivability issues in PvP.



Frost

Frost Warding - Increases the armor and resistances given by your Frost Armor and Ice Armor spells by 30%. In addition, gives your Frost Ward a 20% chance to reflect Frost spells and effects while active.

While this talent has some rather amusing applications (Ever Frostshocked a Shaman?) it is best skipped. The only classes you really can use this against in PvP are other mages and the shammies. In PvE, most mobs that you could reflect their frost spells onto, are immune to *gasp* frost. Just ignore it.

Improved Frostbolt - Reduces the casting time of your Frostbolt spell by 0.5 seconds.

Same deal as Improved Fireball, lessens the damage you do with the spell, but makes it cast faster. If you spec Frost, you have this. A big nuke that is only 1 second longer to cast than Scorch is pretty badass, especially given it's slowing capabilities.

Elemental Precision - Reduces the mana cost and chance targerts resist your Frost and Fire spells by 3%.

Even with all the crap being spouted about changes to this talent, it is still awesome, almost (not completely) but almost irreplacable in a PvE spec. In PvP it helps as well, just not as much since you won't be fighting many players that are 3+ levels higher than you once you reach level cap. (If you do, let me know, I wanna know how they pulled it off).

Ice Shards - Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Frost spells by 100%.

Now, let's clear some sh*t up, since some people want to argue with me about the semantics on this talent. I am right, you are wrong if you disagree with me, so stfu and sit your dumbass down. (If this doesn't apply to you, and you are a smart little cookie, then disregard the last sentence). All this talent does, in layman's terms, is cause your critical strikes with frost spells to do double the damage of the regular strike. That's it, there is no 250% x ninja kitten/samurai squared to the @#%^ing Nth power of bewbs. Don't make this overcomplicated, just double your damage, remember that and you will be ok. In case some still aren't getting it, let's go to the math chart below:

Regular Frostbolt hit = 1,000
Critical Frostbolt strike without Ice Shards = 1,500
Critical Frostbolt strike with Ice Shards = 2,000

Got it? Good, if you don't, please review the red text again.

Frostbite - Gives your Chill effects a 15% chance to freeze the target for 5 seconds.

Bad for AoE kiting, good for single targets. Especially in PvP, wanna **** a warrior off? Kite him to death with rank 1 Frostbolt, he will be having a coronary when this goes off. Also great for soloing elites. I've soloed a 70 elite before with rank 1 Frostbolt just to see if I could, granted, it took me about 45 minutes, but I got it done.

Improved Frost Nova - Reduces the cooldown of your Frost Nova spell by 4 seconds.

A must if you are going after Shatter, also nice when fighting groups, be it players or mobs, also makes running away easier. Big fan of this myself.

Permafrost - Increases the duration of your Chill effects by 3 seconds and reduces the target's speed by an additional 10%.

Another great talent for kiting. Simple as that, nothing else to add.

Piercing Ice - Increases the damage done by your Frost spells by 6%.

Pretty much a no brainer here, more damage = good mmkay?

Icy Veins - Hastens your spellcasting, increasing spell casting speed by 20% and gives you 100% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting. Lasts 20 seconds.

Extremely useful talent in a myriad of situations. Resistance to interruption is great for PvP, and the increased casting speed is godly for both raids and PvP. Odds are, if you can sacrifice something from your build to get this, you want it.

Improved Blizzard - Adds a chill effect to your Blizzard spell. This effect lowers the target's movement speed by 65%. Lasts 1.5 seconds.

This is a must for AoE grinding. Now, 1.5 seconds may not sound like a lot, but it can mean all the difference in many situations. Example would be WSG, a single mage can turn the tide of a battle with this spell. If you aren't planning on doing much AoE, you can go without this.

Artic Reach - Increases the range of your Frostbolt and Blizzard spells and the radius of your Frost Nova and Cone of Cold spells by 20%.

Given that the mage is meant to fight from a distance, a tool to allow him to do it from even farther out is a handy thing to have. Gives you a bigger margin of error when kiting.

Frost Channeling - Reduces the mana cost of your Frost spells by 15% and reduces the threat caused by your Frost spells by 10%.

This makes the efficiency of the Frost tree as far as mana goes truly shine, add in the reduced threat, and you have a very solid PvE talent. Not so great in PvP, as the reduced threat does nothing, but it can save you some mana.

Shatter - Increases the critical strike chance of all your spells against frozen targers by 50%.

Now, everyone is still screaming about the Shatter nerf, yes it hurts, but it isn't the end of the Frost tree. You can still get a few spells to crit with this easily before Frost Nova breaks, and if you happen to have Ignite and Pyroblast.... yeah, it gets pretty nuts for PvP. In groups just skip it, but solo play and PvP are great with this talent. It's basically our version of Cold Blood.

Frozen Core - Reduces the damage taken from Frost and Fire effects by 6%.

Waste of talent points, ignore it.

Cold Snap - When activated, this spell finishes the cooldown on all of your Frost Spells. (10 minute cooldown)

If you skip this as a Frostie, ehh, I have some beachfront property to sell you in Arizona. This spell turns a formidable Frost mage into a demigod. Learn how best to use it and you can be better than baby Jesus at PvP.


Improved Cone of Cold - Increases the damage dealt by your Cone of Cold spell by 35%.

Queue the "How much does your CoC hit for?" jokes. In group fighting, whether it be PvP or PvE, this spell adds another page to the mages nasty book of AoE tricks. Story time: I was in Arathi Basin, and rode up to the Lumber Mill which the opposing team held at the time. Seeing no one near the flag, I dismounted and proceeded to cap the flag. Of course, out come the rogues, two of them. I quickly hit Blink and Frost Nova to get my distance. Following up with a PoM Flamestrike to keep them from vanishing. I hit my CoC (Joke again) then Cold Snapped to go into another Frost Nova and CoC. Hit them with two Arcane Explosions and they both fell over dead. That's right, one mage versus two rogues and they lost, lost badly I might add. If I hadn't had Improved CoC, it might have turned out differently.

Ice Floes - Reduces the cooldown of your Cone of Cold, Cold Snap and Ice Barrier and Ice Block spells by 20%.

Being able to use my Frost tree toys even faster? Yes please.

Winter's Chill - Gives your Frost damage spells a 100% chance to apply the Winter's Chill effect, which increases the the chance a Frost Spell will critically hit the target by 2% for 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.

Quick math again: 2% x 5 =10%. An added 10% crit for your Frost spells. Now I have never had this talent as a Frost mage, but I ALWAYS made sure someone else in my raid group had it. Just sick for PvE, not as good for PvP because it takes a bit to get it stacked up. Oh and they use that "100% chance" crap again, seriously wtf is with that?

Ice Barrier - Instantly shields you, absorbing 1175 damage. Lasts 1 minute. While the shield holds, spells will not be interrupted. (30 second cooldown)

Our version of Power Word: Shield, except we don't have to waste it on sh*tty tanks, it is all ours. Simply awesome spell. Good for AoE grinding, good for PvP, good for PvE good for everything. Also gets a bonus from your spell damage gear.

Arctic Winds - Increases all Frost damage you cause by 5% and reduces the chance melee and ranged attacks will hit you by 5%.

Now, 5% may not seem like a lot, but believe me, the rogue who is swinging his bigass dagger at your backside is noticing. Nothing pisses melee off more than seeing "Miss" roll across the screen when they are trying to beat up a caster. And anything that pisses off rogues is good in my book.

Empowered Frostbolt - Your Frostbolt spell gains an additional 10% of your bonus spell damage effects and an additional 5% chance to critically strike.

Brings Frostbolt back to where it should be after speccing into Improved Frostbolt, but also gives you 5% more crit. Great talent.

Summon Water Elemental - Summons a Water Elemental to fight for the caster for 45 seconds.

The awesomeness of this thing is not to be underestimated. People keep crying about how nerfed it is, but it is still seriously gross. If you spec into this, you can kill ANY other class in PvP. Gives you another Frost Nova (which can be reset with Cold Snap) and shoots Frostbolts at stuff. Also gets a damage bonus from your gear. Play with this thing a bit, I will aggro any and all classes on sight if I am specced into this thing.


That wraps up our talent review, up next, talent specs!



Alright, on to the talent specs. There is always more than one way to skin a cat, there is also more than one way to get to what you need in a certain tree. Speccing 33 Arcane for PvP will look different that for PvE, same with the other trees. These are merely suggestions, tested ones that I have experience playing with. You can always change stuff around, these are what I have found to work for me. Use at your own risk.

Don't come crying here if it doesn't work for you either. These all work for their designated purposes, maybe you just suck if it doesn't. None of these will make you an instant PvP or PvE uber leetsauce haxzor if you suck to begin with. So, enough with the disclaimers, on to the specs.

Arcane

Arcane still serves as our utility tree, used to round out what you are trying to do with frost or fire. Making this your primary school of damage dealing magic, will make you OOM extremely fast. It can be used in shorter fights, i.e. 5 man dungeons, anything over that and keeping yourself in mana to keep casting becomes difficult. It also lacks the added toys you get in other trees for PvP, the control of frost and the burst of fire. With that in mind, most people spec 21, 33, or 40 Arcane. We will discuss those, as well as some off specs used for special cases.

21 Arcane - PvP Talents or "Getting to Presence of Mind"

Arcane Subtlety - 2/2
Arcane Focus - 5/5
Magic Absorbtion - 5/5
Arcane Impact - 3/3
Arcane Fortitude - 1/1
Improved Counterspell - 2/2
Improved Mana Shield - 2/2
Presence of Mind - 1/1

Notice that we skip Arcane Concentration here, and max out Arcane Focus, this is to help with your Counterspell. Arcane Impact works well for those of you who run into a group of players spamming Arcane Explosion as a finisher.


33 Arcane - Deeper PvP or "Holy sh*t did you see the size of that crit?"

Arcane Subtlety - 2/2
Arcane Focus - 5/5
Magic Absorption - 5/5
Arcane Impact - 3/3
Arcane Fortitude - 1/1
Improved Counterspell - 2/2
Improved Mana Shield - 2/2
Improved Blink - 2/2
Presence of Mind - 1/1
Arcane Mind - 2/5
Prismatic Cloak - 2/2
Arcane Instability - 3/3
Arcane Power - 1/1
Spell Power - 2/2

Built with extreme burst in mind, this spec takes the much debated "3 minute mage" to a whole new level. I used this for quite awhile, in arena and BG's. Let the other classes whine, when I get Skillcoil like Warlocks, or Cloak of Skill like rogues, or 14k unbuffed HP, then I might listen to your cries of pain while you are enveloped in my ball of fiery death. Until then, flame on ******** I can't hear you over the roar of the flames.


40 Arcane - Deep Arcane or "Pretty sure I just crit that guy for a bajillion."

Arcane Subtlety - 2/2
Arcane Focus - 5/5
Magic Absorption - 5/5
Arcane Impact - 3/3
Arcane Fortitude - 1/1
Improved Counterspell - 2/2
Improved Mana Shield - 2/2
Improved Blink - 1/2
Presence of Mind - 1/1
Arcane Mind - 5/5
Prismatic Cloak - 2/2
Arcane Instability - 3/3
Arcane Power - 1/1
Spell Power - 2/2
Mind Mastery - 5/5

Focuses on beefing up your total intellect to get as much power as you can out of Mind Mastery stacked on top of Spell Power. An interesting spec to play with, especially if you enjoy really large numbers popping up on your screen.


Those were all of your specs focused more on PvP, let's discuss some that are more PvE oriented shall we? Gotta keep the carebears happy, wouldn't believe the amount of hate mail those bastards send me.


21 Arcane - PvE Talents or "Even the carebears likes dem some PoM."

Arcane Subtlety - 2/2
Arcane Focus - 3/5
Magic Absorbtion - 2/5
Arcane Concentration - 5/5
Arcane Impact - 3/3
Improved Counterspell - 2/2
Arcane Meditation - 3/3
Presence of Mind - 1/1

Yes I know Counterspell is arguably a PvP talent, but I hate not having it, even when PvE specced. Arcane Concentration is an absolute must, and Meditation is a boost to your regen.


33 Arcane - Deeper PvE or "Big crits to pull aggro off the tank."

Arcane Subtlety - 2/2
Arcane Focus - 3/5
Magic Absorbtion - 3/5
Arcane Concentration - 5/5
Arcane Impact - 3/3
Improved Counterspell - 2/2
Arcane Meditation - 3/3
Presence of Mind - 1/1
Arcane Mind - 5/5
Arcane Instability - 3/3
Arcane Power - 1/1
Spell Power - 2/2

Again, Concentration is key here, Arcane Mind to beef up that mana pool and my all time favorite talent, Instability adding crit and damage. A solid PvE spec with big numbers. Another option with this spec is to drop Meditation and get Potency.


40 Arcane - Deep Arcane or "Let's see if I can pull aggro every 10 seconds and live."

Arcane Subtlety - 2/2
Arcane Focus - 3/5
Magic Absorbtion - 5/5
Arcane Concentration - 5/5
Arcane Impact - 3/3
Improved Counterspell - 2/2
Arcane Meditation - 3/3
Presence of Mind - 1/1
Arcane Mind - 5/5
Arcane Instability - 3/3
Arcane Power - 1/1
Spell Power - 2/2
Mind Mastery - 5/5

A continuation of the 33 build, working deep enough into the tree to get mind mastery. Again, you can drop Meditation and get Potency if you feel like it.


Now some of the off specs, there are two of them, 10 Arcane to get Concentration for a 10/48/3 Fire spec, or 17 Arcane to do the 17/0/44 Frost spec, both which will be discussed more in depth later.

10 Arcane
Arcane Subtlety - 2/2
Arcane Focus - 3/5
Arcane Concentration - 5/5

17 Arcane
Arcane Subtlety - 2/2
Arcane Focus - 4/5
Magic Absorbtion - 5/5
Arcane Impact - 3/3
Arcane Fortitude - 1/1
Improved Counterspell - 2/2

53 Arcane - Deep Arcane for use with two piece Tier 5.

Arcane Subtlety - 2/2
Arcane Focus - 5/5
Improved Arcane Missiles - 5/5
Magic Absorption - 5/5
Arcane Concentration - 5/5
Arcane Impact - 3/3
Improved Counterspell - 2/2
Arcane Meditation - 3/3
Presence of Mind - 1/1
Arcane Mind - 5/5
Arcane Instability - 3/3
Arcane Potency - 3/3
Empowered Arcane Missiles - 3/3
Arcane Power - 1/1
Spell Power - 2/2
Mind Mastery - 5/5

A variation of this is to go 50 arcane and stick 11 in to fire. Personally, I would drop two points in to Elemental Precision then the other 6 wherever you feel like it. You can drop the Improved Counterspell, as this is really only useful in raids as a build and Imp CS is not that great for them. Then take 1 point out of Magic Absorption to spec the 50/11/0 build.


One thing you may have noticed, only one of these has Improved Arcane Missiles in them. I can't remember the last time I even looked at the spell, much less cast it as a 70 mage. If you want to use it, go for it, and get Empowered Arcane Missiles deep in the tree. I don't, too many other things that I would rather spec, be it for a PvP or PvE build. It is handy for leveling though, and I will talk about that when we go over what to spec as you level later in the guide.

That wraps it up for the Arcane tree, our good buddy Fire is next on the list.



Fire

Anyone else have kids? Seen Ice Age 2? You know when the sloth, Sid gets kidnapped by the other sloths and they all worship him calling him "Fire King" over and over? Yeah, that is us in this tree. Fire still brings the most damage to the table, combined with Arcane it is why other classes complain about our burst capabilities. Nothing can match the sheer damage output of fire as far as mages go. Fully raid buffed, I am tossing 3k fireball hits these days. Factor in Ignite and we are talking just stupid power. Any mage crying about how sh*tty our damage is needs a nice big cup of stfu and l2p. This tree not only provides that cup, but runs the ***** over the brim with damage goodness.


21 Fire - Stack with 40 Arcane or "Holy massive fireballs Batman!"

Improved Fireball - 5/5
Ignite - 5/5
Flame Throwing - 2/2
Incineration - 2/2
Pyroblast - 1/1
Burning Soul - 2/2
Master of Elements - 3/3
Critical Mass - 1/3

This is a PvE focused build, stacked with 40 Arcane it can provide some very nice damage. Has little to no utility or control however.


28 Fire - Use with 33 Arcane or "Dial 1-900-Crit-Alot"

Improved Fireball - 5/5
Ignite - 5/5
Flame Throwing - 2/2
Incineration - 2/2
Pyroblast - 1/1
Burning Soul - 2/2
Master of Elements - 3/3
Playing with Fire - 2/3
Critical Mass - 3/3
Fire Power - 3/5

Continuation of the 21 build, nice when used with 33 Arcane, centers around lots of crits from both trees. Very strong burst as well, I like this one in 5 man dungeons and smaller raids, like Karazhan.


40 Fire - Deep fire or "Did somebody call the exterminator?"

Improved Fireball - 5/5
Ignite - 5/5
Flame Throwing - 2/2
Incineration - 2/2
Pyroblast - 1/1
Burning Soul - 2/2
Master of Elements - 3/3
Playing with Fire - 3/3
Critical Mass - 3/3
Fire Power - 5/5
Pyromaniac - 3/3
Combustion - 1/1
Empowered Fireball - 5/5

Even deeper fire for PvE, more crits and increased damage. Very solid build, another nice group spec when dealing with something smaller than 25 players in regards to groups.


48 Fire - For use in 10/48/3 and 2/48/11 or "Raid Spec Xtreme."

Improved Fireball - 5/5
Ignite - 5/5
Flame Throwing - 2/2
Improved Fireblast - 3/3
Incineration - 2/2
Burning Soul - 2/2
Improved Scorch - 3/3
Master of Elements - 3/3
Playing with Fire - 3/3
Critical Mass - 3/3
Fire Power - 5/5
Pyromaniac - 3/3
Combustion - 1/1
Molten Fury - 2/2
Empowered Fireball - 5/5
Dragon's Breathe - 1/1

This spec will most likely put out the max damage you can possibly come up with. Combined with a healthy mix of +dmg and +crit gear, it is absolutely lethal. I spec this for raids. No PvP talents, except maybe Dragon's Breathe and that is there only because you really have nowhere better to place it.

Poldaran's Addendum: I prefer instead to take the 3 points out of Imp Fireblast and put 1 in Pyroblast and 1 in Blastwave, as I really love Blastwave for AoE packs. While the damage isn't quite as good as Arcane Explosion(since the changes to the AoE damage cap), the fact that you will most certainly crit and get an MoE mana return makes it worth adding to a rotation. Put that last point whereever you want, though.


28 Fire - Use with 33 Arcane PvP or "BBQ PvP"

5/5 Impact
5/5 Ignite
2/2 Flame Throwing
3/3 Improved Fire Blast
2/2 Incineration
1/1 Pyroblast
2/2 Burning Soul
2/3 Playing with Fire
3/3 Critical Mass
1/1 Blast Wave
2/2 Blazing Speed

Notice there is no Improved Fireball, I don't even put Fireball on my bar when I spec this. Centers around fast casting and instant spells, along with the occasional Arcane Powered Pyroblast. While useable in arena (I have done it, great for murdering a healer) it truly shines in Battlegrounds. Not all that great in 1v1 PvP, but still dangerous. I was specced this when I back to back crit my Shadow Priest brother for 6k damage each, netting me over 12k and killing him instantly, and that was before the Ignite tics. Also, Blazing Speed is godly in group PvP, do not doubt this.


Alright, a few things to note on the Fire specs. You may have noticed that I only put one full on PvP spec in here, reason being, anything else is just cheating yourself. Yes you can PvP with 40 Arcane 21 Fire, but it won't be as good. Other classes have to deal with speccing back and forth from PvE to PvP, so do we. If you truly want to shine at one or the other, you can't try to do both, because then you just end up being mediocre.

Dragon's Breathe, while a PvP oriented talent, is so deep in the tree it really isn't worth getting. You lose to much in the Arcane tree from doing it, the biggest one being Spell Power. It also shares a cooldown with Cone of Cold, but here is where it stops making sense.

Cone of Cold, by itself has an 8 second cooldown, and Dragon's Breathe has a 20 second cooldown. Now, if you use Dragon's Breathe, the Cone of Cold cooldown goes to 20 seconds. Make sense? Didn't think so. I figure Blizzard didn't want 3 AoE crowd Control spells being spammable (Blast Wave being the third).

You can mess around with talents, and still PvP with different specs, but again, I wouldn't recommend it. Enough of the Fire, on to Frost!



Frost

Not having as much of a damage output as a full fire spec, frost still brings some amazing tricks to the table. With Shatter the burst potential is absolutely lethal. Looked at by many to be THE PvP tree these days, it can also provide some decent numbers in raids. I really wish I could link music into posts, I'd bust out the remix of "Ice, Ice Baby" I have with Eminem in it.


40 Frost - PvE Frost or "Raiding, as frost, again..."

5/5 Improved Frostbolt
3/3 Elemental Precision
5/5 Ice Shards
2/2 Improved Frost Nova
3/3 Piercing Ice
1/1 Icy Veins
2/2 Arctic Reach
3/3 Frost Channeling
1/1 Cold Snap
5/5 Winter's Chill
5/5 Arctic Winds
5/5 Empowered Frostbolt

There a freaking thousand ways to spec a frost tree. This one is built mainly for raids, if you couldn't figure that out when Ice Barrier wasn't in there, I dunno what to tell you, I can't help you. A good frost raid spec, but stuck as being only good at that.


28 Frost - PvE Solo Frost or "Look I'm Faxmonkey lolz!"

5/5 Improved Frostbolt
5/5 Ice Shards
3/3 Frostbite
2/2 Improved Frost Nova
3/3 Permafrost
3/3 Piercing Ice
1/1 Icy Veins
2/2 Arctic Reach
3/3 Frost Channeling
1/1 Cold Snap

This one gets paired with a 33 Arcane spec to build on crits. It doesn't work as well as a 28 fire spec, due to not getting ignites off a critical strike, but it does decently. I like a build like this for soloing old world dungeons.


21 Frost - PvP Burst or "Dude I crit my pants".

5/5 Improved Frostbolt
5/5 Ice Shards
2/2 Improved Frost Nova
3/3 Piercing Ice
1/1 Icy Veins
5/5 Shatter

Burst in the extreme. This stacked onto a 40 Arcane build, using Arcane Power is lethal in PvP. Not much survivability as far as frost is concerned, but probably the best burst build in the game. Nova something, pop timers, cast a frostbolt, then toss and ice lance, GG target.


44 Frost - PvP Frost or "Baby Jesus is my name."

5/5 Improved Frostbolt
2/3 Elemental Precision
5/5 Ice Shards
3/3 Frostbite
2/2 Improved Frost Nova
3/3 Permafrost
3/3 Piercing Ice
1/1 Icy Veins
2/2 Arctic Reach
5/5 Shatter
1/1 Cold Snap
3/3 Improved Cone of Cold
2/2 Ice Floes
1/1 Ice Barrier
5/5 Arctic Winds
1/1 Summon Water Elemental

The PvP spec that is all the rave. I use this, love it. The pet makes for some very nasty bursting, pretty much every pvp toy that frost can give is in this spec. Most serious arena players are rolling with this build, the control and survivability are top notch. Anything less would be uncivilized.


11 Frost - Icy Veins or "No, Mr Bond, I expect you to DIE!"

5/5 Improved Frostbolt
3/3 Elemental Precision
2/2 Improved Frost Nova
1/1 Icy Veins.


This spec can actually be rearranged however you would like. The only mandatory parts are Elemental Precision(for raiders) and Icy Veins. Combined with 48 Fire or 50 Arcane, this makes for some solid damage output. If using 48 Fire, throw your remaining 2 points into Arcane Subtlety for threat reduction when you Arcane Explosion spam. Combined with other haste effects, trinkets, and either Combustion/Molten Fury or Arcane Power, Icy Veins time is sexy time.



That should sum up our talent builds section. REMEMBER! This is an overview, if you find something a bit different, that you just LOVE (omgkittens!) so, so much and you HAVE to tell us about it, feel free. I am not saying you are wrong, there is more than one way to skin a cat .(omgkittensagain!) These are all to get you started is all. So if you don't like the build, don't use it, build your own you lazy, unoriginal @#%^ing ok, ok, sorry, I'm done.

Part III: What to spec as you level.

I'm not going to be giving you an easy way out here. You will not be getting a step by step guide on what talents to pic in what order. Instead, as I am a big fan of making you think for yourselves, I'm going to teach you how to decide what talents are good for your own leveling progression.

First: What makes a good leveling talent?

A good leveling talent has at least one of the three following properties.

1)Control - It gives you a greater ability to control what your enemy is doing. Or it gives you a bit more control over your own abilities or mana pool. Less downtime means faster leveling.

2)Burst - The talent gives you faster, harder hits, with an emphasis on damage in quick "bursts" optimal. Generic Increases in damage(such as present from "Playing with Fire" or "Piercing Ice" are inferior for this to talents that give greater chances to crit such as "Pyromaniac" and "Empowered Frostbolt" as well as to talents that increase the damage of your criticals such as "Ice Shards", "Spell Power" and "Ignite".

3)Survive - Deaths do not help you level faster. Anything that makes it easier for you to stay alive has at least some emphasis on survival. Many control talents will also gain points for survival as well.


Second: Are there talents that have aspects of each?

Hell yes. Some of the greatest leveling talents include all three. Though the absolute best is when you can have a multi-talent synergy going.

Third: Synergy? What do you mean by that?

There are multiple talents that are decent on their own, but when two or more are combined, they become phenomenal. Here's an example:

Ice Shards - Good burst talent by itself. But it really doesn't have enough crit to work off of while leveling to be great. However, when you add in Shatter, now you've seen a major increase in your burst potential. Every frost nova now becomes an invitation to a nice fat crit(that wouldn't be as big without Ice Shards).

But it gets even better. Add in Frostbite, and now you'll find your foes being frozen a lot more often, meaning the number of crits you see skyrockets.

But wait, there's more. Add in the water elemental, and now you have an extreme potential to burst down your foes with free crits via the elemental's ranged "Freeze" ability.

And that's what I mean by Synergy. There are many sets of talents that function like this. I urge you to seek them out for yourself.

Fourth: Ok, seriously, just give me a step by step leveling talent build.

No. I will, however, urge you to consider what spell you'll be using most often as you level(Fireball, Frostbolt, Arcane Missiles, Scorch/Fireblast), and pick up the Improved version of that ASAP. You'll be glad you did.


Part IV: What race is truly best for a mage?

The short answer:
The one you think sounds the most fun!

The long answer:
It really depends first of all on your choice of what you intend to do as a mage. If solo questing is really all you desire, then go back to the short answer. Otherwise, continue reading.

First, let's look at the racials:
Horde
Blood Elf


Undead


Troll



Alliance
Human


Gnome


Draenei



At this point, you have a decision to make. Will you be choosing Alliance or Horde? If you don't care which, go on to the next step. If you do care, pick one and...go on to the next step.

Now, we must break it down to PvP and PvE. Which is more in the cards for you? Do you plan to be a BG bunny or an instance rat? A master of arena combat or a slayer of all monsters great and large? Think about it and continue.

PvP
In Arenas and BGs both, you'll find that control over your enemies and yourself is often key to victory. Gaining the initiative in a fight will often give you a victory as well, so that is something to consider. Anything that helps you survive can be nice, but most racials available to mages are pretty sh*tty here.

Let's look at each race that has something nice to offer for PvPers.
Alliance
Draenei - Gift of the Naaru will indeed will help you survive. But it's a drop in the proverbial bucket and not much to write home about.

Gnome - Escape Artist is the big thing here. Since mages rely on mobility to stay alive, anything to keep you from getting locked down and destroyed is ace in my book. The intellect bonus is pure gravy.

Human - Perception helps gain you the initiative on rogues and druids. By removing the initiative from them, you severely hamper their ability to harm you. This most often comes into play in arenas, but it makes a huge difference therein.

Final winner:
For BGs, Gnomes are definitely the superior mage. For Arenas, Humans smash them in any battle involving rogues and druids, but fall short on other match ups.

For overall PvP, go Gnome.

Horde
Blood Elf - Arcane Torrent allows you to interrupt enemy spells. This is great for when you have more than one enemy healer you need to lock down for a moment in many situations, but the duration of the silence makes the Blood Elf advantage mediocre at best. The mana drain is nice but pretty weak overall.

Troll - Berserking gives you a serious advantage in a nuke fight with another caster. Combine that with Icy Veins for some decent power. Not the greatest overall, but definitely powerful.

Undead - Will of the Forsaken gives a mage a huge advantage against a lot of different classes. Having this will give you the ability to nullify most any CC used against you. Combined with Ice Block, you can neutralize the two most powerful fears a warlock can use against you, or you can pop out and CS that damned priest right before he gets off that saving heal. All around, a great ability. Cannibalizing corpses in BGs is just another bit of happiness that'll keep you going longer.

Final Winner:
While Trolls and Blood Elves are strong contenders, the Undead just devour the competition. If you want to BG or Arena, you really can't go wrong with Undead.

For overall PvP, go Undead.



PvE
In group PvE, it's all about what makes you burn a little harder or a little longer. Being able to escape roots/stuns/fears can be a factor, but it's really pretty minor overall(makes a very strong showing in a very small number of fights). There are other factors as well, but they're pretty minor. We'll discuss em all, though.

Horde
Blood Elf - Mana Tap + Arcane Torrent gives a bit of longevity overall, but it's really a minor amount. Nothing to write home about. The resistance bonus is nothing to write home about.

Undead - Will of the Forsaken again shows some strength as the ability to get out of fears is key on some fights. But these fights are pretty rare, so while it's a nifty thing to have, it's not required. Much more useful in raids than in 5 mans.

Troll - Berserking isn't the strongest buff overall. But it can be used often and does contribute to a mage's main role, damage. Combined with Icy Veins and a trinket(and maybe even AP!) this can be a powerful buff.

Final Winner:
On a few fights, especially in raids, Undead make a very strong showing. But for their overall damage increasing racial, you can't beat Trolls.
For overall PvE, go Troll.



Alliance
Gnome - The biggest thing gnomes really bring to the table is their increased Intellect. At 5%, it's a pretty nice increase. This brings more damage in the form of higher crit from int as well. Escape Artist is less useful than WotF for the most part due to the lack of fights where the ability to break snares means the difference between victory and death. Not a bad race, though.

Human - Humans bring two major things to the table here. The first is the increased Reputation gains. This often means humans are first to get the rep they need for pieces of gear. However, this also stops mattering after everyone else reaches that gear too. They also bring in a 10% bonus to spirit. Not a huge increase, but since the change to spirit mechanics, it's definitely helpful. Arcane mages will notice it most of all, especially after WotLK comes out.

Draenei[i] - The mighty blue squids from outer space bring something that gives them an edge in damage(atm, WotLK's talents may make the human spirit bonus a more worthy damage increase). 1% bonus hit with spells to everyone in their party. For a group of 5 casters in a raid, this is HUGE. Their minor HoT is also nice, but nothing to write home about.

Final winner:
For those with an eye to raiding in the right now, Draenei are an incredible choice. Arcane mages will love being human, though, and that's something to consider when you're choosing your mage. And after WotLK comes out, Arcane mages will [i]really love being human.

For 5 mans as fire or frost, you can't beat Gnomes.

For raids as fire or frost, you can't touch Draenei.

For arcane mages, you really should go Human.



-Useful tips and general mage knowledge.
Ice Block - You become encased in a block of ice, protecting you from all physical attacks and spells for 10 seconds, but during that time you cannot attack, move or cast spells. (5 minute cooldown)

Possibly the most powerful spell a mage has. Most people tend to use Iceblock as an "OH sh*t!" button, which it is in PvE. But in PvP, learning to use this spell offensively can be devastating to whomever is on the recieving end of the *** whooping you are handing out. Yes, it is that good.

Edited by popular demand.





Notic a trend here? The biggest advantage in any fight, is suprise. Whether it be an ambush in a real conflict, or in a game, one like, oh let's say World of Warcraft.

Most players use Iceblock for defense. Pull aggro off the tank? Iceblock. Get focus fired in a battleground? Iceblock. Girlfriend won't leave you the hell alone about taking her out? Iceblock... sorry that one would require Inivisibility, and also possibly a Frost Nova, another thread entirely right there.

In PvP, Iceblock's power isn't in it's ability to keep you alive, it is in being able to stop the fight altogether. Stopping a fight allows a quick thinking mage to evaluate the situation, and react accordingly. It can completely destroy your opponents initial plan of attack and allow you to set one up of your own.

A few easy examples:

1. A Rogue jumps you, you nova and blink, and he pops sprint, or possibly even Cloak of Shadows, now what? Iceblock. You can sit there for 10 seconds while he mashes his buttons and figure out what to do next.

I have used Iceblock for nothing other than waiting for the cooldowns on Blink and Frost Nova to be up. Is this a defensive move? Yes but the latent effect is it allows YOU to control the fight now, and that is what offense is all about.

2. A Warlock or Priest is on the attack, don't panic, let them waste a ton of mana and DoT the crap out of you. After they finish, Iceblock it all off. They are now reacting to you instead of you reacting to them.

OH NOES! I've been Deathcoiled! Let's hit this button over here and ICEBLOCK!

If you fight enough Warlocks, you can almost predict when they are going to Deathcoil, and there is nothing funnier than watching him spit as his little green flying skull smacks into your safe wall of ice.

3. You pick a fight with another mage, and he blows all his timers in an effort to kill you with one massive nuke. Iceblock and wait for it to wear off, then proceed to kick his ***.


Further elaboration isn't really needed at this point, I think you get the idea. Even if someone knows you have Iceblock, they have no way to predict when you will use it. When you do, control of the fight now belongs to you entirely. Suprise is an offensive tool, the most powerful one you have in a fight period. Iceblock gives you that element of suprise. Use it wisely.



Part V: Gems

This question has been coming up a lot lately, so I thought I'd add a section on it. First of all, for a basic primer on gems, go here.

Now, things to remember about gemming:
1)You do not have to match socket colors unless you want the bonus.
2)Blue quality gear should at least have green quality gems. Epic gear should have at least blue quality gems. T6 level epic gear optimally should have epic quality gems(there will be no excuse not to in 2.4 thanks to gems from heroic badges).

There are three levels of gem attributes that a PvE mage should consider.

Level 1 - These are the best of the best stats to gem for as a mage. All gems should have one of these on it. No gems should be socketed that lack one of these unless it's a specific circumstance set of gear(Stamina gear, for instance).

Level 2 - These are good stats to gem for, work best as secondary stats paired with one of the level 1 stats, but should probably not be by themselves if you can avoid it.

Level 3 - These are ok stats to gem for, but should never ever be by themselves. Best used when trying to match a socket bonus or a metagem requirement.

PvE Gems

 
Level 1                           Level 2               Level 3 
spell hit                           Stam                   Int 
spell dmg                         spell crit               mp5 
spell haste(available in 2.4)         

Obviously, the best gems will be ones that combine nothing but level 1 attributes. But if you're out to meet a socket bonus or metagem requirement, nothing wrong with socketing with something also containing something from level 2 or level 3 as well. A lot of epic gems from heroics actually contain attributes from level 3 along with ones from level 1, and they're still good gems. Especially nice for getting more spell hit into a socket that needs a blue gem for some reason or another.


PvP Gems

 
Level 1                 Level 2                 Level 3 
Spell Damage           Spell Crit              Spell Hit 
                       Spell Haste          Spell Penetration 
                                                  Int 

Now, some of you may wonder about resilience and stamina. Everyone values those differently and I urge you to make up your own mind about them. The rest of the gems were placed partially because of their usefulness and partially because of the colors they take, which affects the Mystical Skyfire Diamond, arguably the best PvP metagem in the game.

+dmg isn't mitigated by resilience, so it sits alone in that slot. Spell crit is mitigated, but is still excellent, but it also is a yellow gem stat, meaning bad for MSD. Haste is rated so high because of the new effects on the GCD in 2.4, which will help. Would be higher, but you need a fair amount of the stuff to see any real benefit. Hit is useless if you've got Elemental Precision and Arcane Focus(2 points). Only on the chart because some people may not get both of those. Spell penetration is low because it's situational. Not many classes have resistances to you, but for those that do, it's quite useful.

Some people believe that Haste is better than damage for PvP gems. Because it may make it hard to gem for the MSD, I've rated it as a level 2 gem. If you are not using that Meta, then certainly you'll want to consider rating it higher.


Additional Useful Guides
This is a list put together by Echou a while back, and many may find it useful, so I'm adding it here. Removed the link to this sticky, though.


Edited, Apr 9th 2008 2:13am by MageSock

Edited, Apr 30th 2008 2:43am by MageSock

Edited, May 16th 2008 3:18am by MageSock

Edited, Jun 8th 2008 5:22am by MageSock

Edited, Nov 29th 2008 10:43am by Wordaen

Yeah I know, I thought about that yesterday actually and will fix it later today.

Filler.

Yes.







This is fun.

Are you popping AP and the trinket too?

Thanks for the gem update!

Call me a complete and utter Noob, but how do you decide what points to put where first? This is my first time leveling a mage, I'm going arcane fire, I mainly just level right now, but I'd like to survive in PVP as well.

So do I fill in mostly fire then switch to fill in the arcane side, mix and match, or what? Also, which arcane setup goes with the 40 fire build?

If I don't get another response on the resilience and stamina gems before tomorrow night(Tuesday night), I'm just gonna go ahead and put in the statement "All players value resilience and stamina differently and it is up to you where you value it". I already have an idea of where the other stuff goes, though.

Why does it say "The Greatest Mage Post Ever" was made by Magesock? I thought it was made by Filterspawn.


EDIT: Ah I just checked the sig... I feel like an idiot :P

Edited, Mar 25th 2008 8:09pm by Drakothh

I like the mix gems of resilience and stamina the best. Its the best of both worlds. Both of them are important for on reason or another, and are useful in different situations. Always pile on both.

I've updated the sticky to reflect Arcane Fortitude, Molten Shields, Imp Blink, and Icy Veins. Let me know if I'm forgetting an altered talent. Moved the section on Ice Block to a new section called Useful tips and general mage knowledge as it is no longer a talent.

Great info thus far. Out of curiosity... Where are sections 3 and 4? I was so eager to read your input (okay, I just wanted the sarcastic humor) on the "best" race!