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Improved Fireball or Improved Frostbolt are the key first talents (obviously depending on if you go fire or frost).

The faster cast time is insane. I first went with Impact (Fire tree, chance to stun target), thinking that it would work great to help me escape since I was so squishy...it didn't. I re-spec'd Improved Fireball....WOW! Everything died faster.

The thing you need to remember is that a mage is really squishy. You will die really fast once a mob gets to you. You don't have a pet to bail you out, or any armor to absorb damage. This is why frost is nice for beginners. More control = less death.

Fire is a bit more sketchy at first since you will die practically every time you ***** up. Once you've gotten better, burning down mobs before they reach you is just AWESOME!

My own recommendation would be to try frost at first. Learn how the mage class works. This will give you more room for error and learning without constant corpse runs. Then, once you feel more comfy and don't ever die (maybe around lvl 20ish), swap over to fire to start killing things really really fast. Plus, you'll be able to get Pyro...which is just so cool. Seeing a mob's health drop to 50% in one hit is just awesome. Fire spec before Pyro is.....meh.

Disclaimer - this is just my opinion.


EDIT - I wouldn't compare AoE mage grinding to AoE Pally grinding. They are completely different animals. Yes, you have a pile of dead mobs when you're done for both. However, one slight ***** up as a mage, and you're dead! As a Pally, you can't really ***** up AoE grinding (unless you pull casters). So there is an extra excitement in doing it as a mage. Again, just my opinion.


Edited, May 21st 2008 2:45pm by YJMark

I respecced several times whilst levelling my mage (between fire and frost) and found that while fire was faster for killing single mobs, frost gave more room for errors on my part.

Frost also felt a little more mana efficient, but the faster killing rate of fire may have made up for having to drink more often.

Ultimately the Big Blue Dress video made me stick with fire.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vqO7zEWu0W0

I couldn't say that it was the best way to level a mage, but it was the most fun for me.

My first mage leveled as mostly fire until around lvl 35, then I did AOE grinding and fire. I'm leveling a frost mage now, and I must say that the control makes it much easier. Mages are squishy, but frost mages get so much control that you should not die nearly as often, especially from adds.

Just remember one thing... you can run away. :-) It's something I notice that I did on my mage I'm leveling now that I didn't used to do on my first mage, but that's just experience talking.

Leveling a frost mage will also teach you how to kite mobs (a mage essential). Then, when you go to fire (as you should try out each tree just to see how they work), then you need to learn how to kite as a fire mage (which is the same as an arcane mage).

First I'll toss in my 6.2 cents.

I switched between fire and frost when I lvled my mage a few times. You've heard the "first kills faster, frost has more control" stuff so we can skip that. Over all I liked frost better then fire and spent probably 55ish of my lvls as frost. When you get shatter you DO kill fast, don't let the "omg 1337 pyro r00ls all" stuff get you. But the biggest reason I liked frost better was because I allow'd me to solo just about every quest in the game. If a mob can be frozen you can kill it, elite or not. I solo'd the giants in STV while I was 2 lvls below them with ease.

However, fire at 60-70 will really start to shine over frost if you keep you gear up to date.


As for your fire rotation here's what I did

Pyro
Fireball
Fireball
Fireball....
Fireblast for kill shot or nova then back up and..
Fireball
Fireball....

As i had read at the beginning that arcane/fire is nice, but i didnt find the part that said that while leveling is another bussines, i leveled while putting points both in arcane and fire. It was my first character, and it wasnt that hard at all. I dont remember dieing a lot or leveling very slowly.