Mage soloFollow

I'm in a guild now and have a lot of friends, but that didn't happen until after level 40 or so, so I solo'd my mage for a good part of the time, besides being in PUGs for instances. Wasn't really that hard, and I'm saying this as a noob who'd played a lock for a short time before-hand, and hadn't really played any other mmorpgs, besides runescape, which hardly counts. I'm in Outland now, and I'm kind of whiny about soloing out there, but, until now, I've never really had a problem. And I don't really have a -problem- now, it's just that it's ugly in Outland, and fire spooks me and it's everywhere, plus I have guildies to whine to. :) I could do fine solo if I wanted, though, just a pita.

The best thing to do is to train every time you can and start adding all the spells to your bar, and learning to use them in different situations. I like the way the very beginning is for mages, because a couple of the quests tell you exactly which spells to use to complete the quest. I don't think I ever would have used mana tap otherwise. (not that I use it now. :) )

And...well, attack from the farthest distance you can. :)

And read these forums. Lots of awesome info you can pick up everywhere!

Good luck,
Trill

Another thing to add, and some advice I wish I'd gotten right away: learn to turn with your mouse, not your arrow keys. I don't remember what level you get blink, but using blink w/ arrow keys was just impossible for me in a fight, and blink helps a lot. Plus, just being able to manouver around more easily has been a HUGE help to me since I learned how to do it. I'm sure that goes for every class, but it made a big difference to me, and has kept me from dying as often.

Trill

My opinion (I have a 70 mage and a 70 pally). My pally was easier to level (level prot!) as he was nigh to unkillable. My mage is more fun at 70. I found that tanking at 70 is vastly different from leveling prot. I didn't have a lot of confidence in my ability to tank, so I went holy. As holy, you have to have a whole different mindset (as in you have to get excited about lots of smaller green numbers over your tank, rather than big yellow numbers over your enemy). This is hard to adjust to, but once you're there, it's not so bad. I do, however, like big yellow numbers so right now my pally is ret. My mage respecs to anything and his primary job is still to blow stuff up, I like that part a lot about mages.

Pick your poison. ;-)

I find that once you master the class, mages have incredible durability in PvE. This isn't how it will seem at first. Mobs will get on you, push back your casting bar and kill your clothy self in 4-5 hits. Stick with it and practice. You'll get spells and talents to solve most of these problems.

Basic mage solo theory: Pull from max range with your strongest nuke (pyroblast, fireball, arcane missiles or frostbolt depending on spec). Spam that til mob is on you. Frost nova. Strafe away and nuke again. End with fireblast once the nova breaks. If the mob isn't dead yet, it's probably an elite.

If there are two mobs, poly the second when it's in the nova and finish off the first. Then gain distance from the second and repeat. If three, then it gets fun. My fire mage does three mobs fine. One usually dies before the nova, one gets sheeped while frozen and I nuke the third w instants.

Don't be afraid to run. Frost nova/blink is the best escape tool in the game.

Also, you may know this already, but don't start w the Arcane tree. Start w fire or frost. Low-tier arcane talents are painfully bad.

My first char was a mage and also my first one to reach 70. Next will be shaman and I'm currently leveling him in outlands. As a mage I had to learn when my time had come and had to leave the battle. As shaman I can survive with same mobs longer but if I need to leave it's maybe too late since got no escape or cc.

Mage is really a glass cannon, meaning that you can easily destroy (well not in low lvl's) mobs even before they get to you but when they do it's gonna be pain. Well as mage you might lvl frost and have also ice barrier absorbing dmg so that saves some hp. As mage you only have one role in endgame and that is dps/cc. No way to respecc to heal or tank or even melee, just cast those fiery painfull bombs. Well I love it =)

If you want to do PVP you can with mage, but it's gonna be little more difficult meaning that mages are great if in hands of a skilled player. Well I think it's time for a cup of coffee and give these 5 cents of mine.