New to WOW & Playing a MageFollow

Baron it really depends on what style you which for you mage. Do you which to be a nuker with massive damaging capabilities in end game or do you wish to be a much more defensive mage with decent damage output. I decided to go 20/41/0 myself getting Dragons Breath instead of PoM(presence of mind) although I now know I should have probably got pom. So choose what you will go to a talent tree builder and see what works best and ***** around a little bit see if you like frostbolt of fireball better see if you think you might have some AoE in mind which would call for frost some. Just see what suits you personally.

Even at level 6 you have experienced the core difference between fire and frost since you have both spells. Which one do you use more now? I would suggest you use that to decide which tree to start with. Since you are new to the class and the game, you should expect to respec at level 40 or so. Level 40 opens up a core talent for each tree (arcane/Arcane Power, fire/Combustion, frost/Ice Barrier). This respec allows you to jump trees if the lower talents of the tree weren't good enough on their own, and fix the mistakes you will make trying certain talents that seemed "better at the time".

Like other people said don't go arcane untill you can get deeper in the tree. Otherwise you will spend your first 40-50 levels not doing anything great.

For basic leveling – choose frost or fire. You can drop a few points into Arcane, but don’t spec full arcane. (You can do it, but it’s not the most efficient way.)

I leveled with Fire because at lvl 10 fireball did more damage than frost bolt. It’s not a great way to choose a spec because I didn't consider what I liked or what was really best, but it worked until I hit the 50s. I spec’d frost and I love it. I am now in farm mode and I’ve spec’d literally every point in frost. (Mainly because I get the single mob target benefits of deep frost and the AOE Blizzard power to quickly farm mats.)

I would advise you think hard about what you want/like. Most people pick frost because it’s “More Survivable”. That’s true, but it’s also a BS reason to spec Frost. Pick whichever you like more. If you die a lot – you’re doing something wrong and respec’ing will help, but not save you from stupid decisions.

Here is the stuff I would get if I spec frost. (in this order)

Tier 1
Frost warding – Skip
Imp Frost Bolt – 5/5 – Get this first
Elemental Precision – Skip at first, get at a later lvl. (this talent lowers the cost of spells, it’s great, but at the early levels, you don’t necessarily need it. Later it is important. Maybe drop a few points in your 30s or when you start to notice your going OOM fast) See the next post from Anobix and my response for more on this talent. It's a good talent and this is one of those hard decisions. Nearly everything he or Pol say is good advice - he advises you take it - so he's probably right

Tier 2
Ice Shards – 5/5 (This is a basic frost skill Frost is about crits. This makes your crits hit harder. Get this 2nd)
Frostbite – 3/3 (I like this, but this game is a race to tier 4 Shatter. That is the big talent Wait till after Shatter)
Imp Frost Nova – 2/2 (Get this 3rd. This is a great survival skill. 4 sec is a big deal.)
Permafrost – Skip now, you can come back for it.

Tier 3
Piercing Ice – 3/3 (More damage for a DPS is good.
Icy Veins – Skip – This is a great talent for 5mans or raids, but not really needed to lvl
Imp Blizz – Skip – Unless you plan on AOE grinding – never get this talent. (You can not really AOE grind that efficiently at low lvls anyway)

At this point you should have 15 points in frost.

Tier 4
Get Shatter. This is the big talent.

After this fill in where you like. In my opinion – this is the best way to get to tier 4 shatter. You will be lvl 24 when you start to put points into shatter.

Here is the stuff I’d do in Fire:

Tier 1
Imp Fireball – 5/5 (Duh)
Impact – Skip (you might think this is some added CC, it’s pretty helpful at times, but not needed.)

Tier 2
Ignite – 5/5 Damage over time
Flame Throwing – Come back for it. In the first few lvls, you don’t really need the extra distance. I know the “Good” mage starts from as far away as possible, but you'll live without it.
Imp Fireblast – Great talent, but get Pyro first. Then go 3/3

Tier 3
Incinerate – Skip until you get heavy into 5mans. I never was a huge fan of solo PVE and scorch and you shouldn’t be using fireblast that often anyway.
Imp. Useless Strike – Petition blizzard to remove this spell. I have used it about 3 times and have no idea why it’s even in the game. (I know it can keep a rogue from stealth…. I don’t care – it’s freaking useless.)
Pyro Blast – This should be your 11th point. Imp Fireball, Ignite, then Pyro. This is the best opener a mage has.
Burning Soul – After going back to Tier 2 for Imp Fireblast, max this out at 2/2

Tier 4
Imp Scorch - Get for 5 mans or raids. Nothing should be alive long enough for you to take advantage of the scorch buff --- if you are soloing mobs.
Molten Shields – Skip (This gives some damage to things that strike you – hint – you shouldn’t be getting hit that much. This is a great buff later – when you solo or ‘boost’ lowbies through instances, but it’s not needed)
Master of Elements – 3/3 – Get mana back…

At this point you are 1 talent point short of getting tier 5 Blast wave. I would say drop it in Flame throwing, but pick whatever you want.

After that – get Blast Wave.

That leaves you at lvl 30. The rest you can figure on your own.

As I mentioned above, use the Arcane tree as a buffer to your main tree. At any point you can drop some points into Arcane (It will just slow down your race to either Shatter or Blast Wave)

Here is my recommendation for the talents.

Tier 1
Arcane Subtlety – 2/2 (Good talent)

Then 3 points in either of the other tier 1 talents – both are fairly useless in my opinion (Remember we are dropping points to benefit Fire or Frost and neither of them really has a direct fire/frost benefit.)

Tier 2
Arcane Concentration is the only valuable talent

Tier 3
Arcane Impact

Tier 4

Imp Counter spell

Tier 5(The big one)
POM (You will need to get 20 points into Arcane to even pick this. Remember that’s 20 lvls…)

I wouldn’t recommend you go that deep while leveling. Stick to frost or fire heavy with the Sole exception of 2 points in Arcane Subtlety – which IS helpful.


Edited, Jun 5th 2008 2:34pm by Borsuk

I agree with pretty much all of your recommendations and agree with this one too. It was a good talent. I should have been more clear that this was a race to shatter.

I am lvling a Paly now and find this sort of question to be the biggest issue. Clearly shatter is one of the big talents for a frost mage. Just like Devine Favor a holy paly. (100% chance to crit)

It's always tough to know/decide when to pick up a good ability and when to skip it and in order to come back to it at a higher lvl.


Doing it your way would push full shatter into the low lvl 30 area and honestly that's not going to be a problem for most people. I really found that the need for massive crits (From a solo perspective) wasn't a major issue until outlands. In most of the old world content, I seemed to burn down most mobs with just good damage and relatively good gear.

In fact - up through lvl 35 - I used a wand a lot.

So - I agree with you - getting it, rather than passing it for a faster trip to shatter is probably a good idea.

I would hold off on a frost build until level 30 when you can max out shatter. Leveling frost without shatter can be painful. At level > 30 Frost can definitely be a fun build.