[Mage] For 'Dummies' (PvE & PvP guide)

[Beaver1337]

Hallo :wave:

Beaver1337, making a guide on how what gems, glyphs and talents you shall have for your mage, both for PvE and PvP!

Better get going!

PVE
-Talents (Arcane) & Rotation
-Gems
-Glyphs

PvP
-Talents (Frost) & "Rotation"
-Gems
-Glyphs

PvE

Talents (Arcane) & Rotation

The talent that works best for a PvE mage is Arcane, without any doubt. If you are going to spec Arcane, this one is what i prefer:
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

The most epic rotation that i also use is the following:
4x ArcaneBlasts->/Repeat till Missile barrage procs/->Arcane Missiles->"Arcane Barrage"*. !Repeat from ArcaneBlast to 4x!
V->->->->->->->->->->^
* = Arcane barrage is good if you need to move while having the Arcane Blast 'debuff', then get a fancy crit and repeat, but go to 4 ArcaneBlasts, then when missile barrage procs, cast it and end with a Arcane Barrage.

Gems

Gems that you should aim for in PvE and is:
Runed Cardinal Ruby - +23 spell power | "Matches a red socket"
Reckless Ametrine - +12 spell power & +10 haste | "Matches a red/yellow socket"
Quick King's Amber - +20 haste | "Matches a yellow socket"
Glowing Dreadstone - +12 spell power & +10 stamina | "Matches a red/blue socket"

Those gems are the best for Arcane raiding, crit isn't that important for an arcane mage, so aim for spellpower and haste instead of socketing with crit.

Glyphs

The glyphs you should use is the following:
Major Glyphs:
"Glyph of Arcane Blast" - Increases your damage with 3% from the Arcane Blast (A Must!)
"Glyph of Arcane Missiles" - Increases your critical damage bonus from arcane missiles with 25% (A Must!)
"Glyph of Molten Armor" - Increases the molten armor's spirit with 20%, giving some crit.
"Glyph of Mana Gem" - Increases the mana you recieve from your mana gem by 40%

If i were a recently dinged 80 and doing some heroics / raids, i would go with the Mana Gem glyph instead of Molten Armor and replace it when you get some better gear with moar int and spirit. Do what you feel, you can buy the Molten Armor glyph aswell in the start.

Minor glyphs doesn't matter that much, but get the Arcane Intellect Glyph and Slow Fall, to save mana and slow the fall speed

PvP

Talents (Frost) & "Rotation"

I choose frost as PvP-spec, since PvP is all about survival and *pew-pew* and what suits this better than frost?
Im not very into PvP anymore, so if this talent doesn't *roxorz*, feel free to post a better one so i can edit this here.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#of0Vf...0fdMfot:jmw0oz

With the "rotation", i more mean how to control your mage with attacks and such. Its fairly easy, when Fingers of Frost procs, cast 1x Frostbolt then another Frostbolt along with a Ice Lance. Then whenever Brain Freeze procs, just throw your instant fireball after your target! *mohaha* (If you have a brain freeze, try to land it on your last charge of Fingers of Frost, like this: *Fingers of frost procs*-> Frostbolt ->Frostbolt & Brain freeze, a very nice burst.

Gems

For PvP, you should go for the gems listed below. 'nuff said!

Mysterious Dreadstone - +12 spell power & +13 spell penetration | "Matches a red/blue socket"
Purified Dreadstone - +12 spell power & +10 spirit | "Matches a red/blue socket"
Runed Cardinal Ruby - +23 spell power | "Matches a red socket"
Reckless Ametrine - +12 spell power & +10 haste | "Matches a red/yellow socket"

Glyphs

As i have said and you probably understand, survival is the key to victory in PvP. So the following glyphs are good for PvPing as FROST, remember. Frost!

"Glyph of Ice Barrier" - Increases the damage your Ice Barrier absorb by 30%.
"Glyph of Icy Veins" - Removes all your movement imparing effects.
"Glyph of Blink" - Increases the distance by 5 yards.
"Glyph of Evocation" - Also heals you for 60% of your health.

Those four glyphs are the best but as i have said, im abit rusty with this PvP. The Evocation glyph is a must along with Ice Barrier, then imo i would take Icy Veins to escape the slowing effects. Its very useful!
For minor glyphs you should get:
Glyph of Slow Fall, Glyph of Fire Ward and Glyph of Frostward.


Sidenote: PvP hit cap for spellpen. and hit: 4% for hit/130 spellpenetration.
----------------

Thats it.. Or is it?

But.. Beaver1337, do you got another secret for us?!

Yes, i do. I was thinking for those who liked this guide and can't wait to level a mage ;D, i'll add a fast leveling guide in this post aswell!

Leveling a mage (Alt. with healer)

To start, this works best if you have a friend that can heal you without being in a party. In that case, you'll earn all experience from the mobs.

1-10. Just do the start quests! Do them... Cookies?

10-(~15) - Westfall, crab spot! Here is one of the best places to start. In Westfall is alot of crabs, that instant respawn(!) when you kill them. See map for location!


(15-16)-(~20-21) - Get boosted in Deadmines / Wailing Caverns. That is the best spot.

(~20-21)-30 - Duskwood. Go to Raven Hill and AoE farm those skeletons there, at 26-27 - go inside the tomb and AoE all ghouls there to 30.


30-(39-40) - The various Scarlet Monastery instances will go fast with a 80.
(Gy, Lib, Armory, Cath)

(39-40)-43 - Zul'farak or AoE the wastewander in the ruin west of Gadgetzan and at the camps!

43-49 - Feralas, yetis. Those are melee and is a great place to AoE farm!


49-54 - Searing Gorge. Do quests along with some AoE farming of the spiders, if you're out. Start moving to Stratholme / Scholomance.

54-(58-60) - Boosted in Stratholme / Scholomance. Its optional if you wanna go and quests in Outland at 58, might go faster.

(58-60)-(62-64) - Quest in Hellfire Peninsula and get boosted in Ramparts along with Blood Furnace.

(62-64)-66 - Quest in Zangarmarsh, do Slave Pens and Underbog if you can. If you ding 64-65, go Nagrand!

66-68 - Nagrand. Do quests and AoE farm the ogres there till 68. Then leave for Northrend.

68-73 - Quest in Howling Fjord / Borean Tundra.

73-(75-76) - AoE along with your homie-healer in the Scarlet Camps, Dragonblight.


(75-76)-79 - Quest in Grizzly Hills and Zul'Drak. There are pretty much melee mobs there.

79-80 - Quest in either Icecrown or Storm Peaks. Your choice.

And thats it. Pretty fast made 'leveling guide'. Just a bonus!


Bye everyone !

Edit: Thanks all for the feedback, especially for PvP !

[nooblol]

Pvp gems are wrong..
23 sp in red
12 sp/13 spen in blue
12 sp/10 haste yellow

Mage absolutely does not want to gem for resi or stam! (only use sp/stamina gem in pve gear which you also use for pvp, or if it would put your spen over 130)

[Beaver1337]

The PvE gem is also added in PvE gems, forgot to add it there.

[Couwae]

__________

[Beaver1337]

Thanks for that spec, seems alot better ^.^. As said, is abit rusty about PvP

[Thidan]

And most arcane pve mages doesn't go higher then 3 arcane blasts without a proc (Not talking endgame 30k+ mana users, talking about people with avg gear).
As in:
Arcblast -> Arcblast -> Arcblast -> If missile barrage arcane missiles else arcane barrage.

[Beaver1337]

Well Thidan, if you're "unlucky" with the proc, it'll go to 4 Arcblast, then it'll probably proc.
But the thing 'bout the rotation seems best, cause im not a endgame mana user with +30k mana, got around ~25k BUFFED, but even if i sometimes have to spend all mana gems, you'll still have two evocation + 3 mana gems, and if your mana s***** there, that is some asslow dps you got in your raid ;D

[tantos]

ty for that guide
A lot prefer to take one point of Precision out and put it at Icy shards since u get from dr. blizzard a lot of hit rate

[thekrazyking]

The arcane rotation doesn't use arcane barrage unless a mage needs to move.

The rotation is arcane blast X4 --> Missiles Barrage arcane missiles. If missile barrage doesn't proc by the time you do 4 arcane blasts, you need to keep arcane blasting as mana allows until you get an missile barrage proc. If missile barrage doesn't proc and mana doesn't allow you to fish for procs, you must cast arcane missiles or arcane barrage to drop your arcane blast stacks.

[Don'tTazeMeBro]

Yeah I just do ABx4>AM proc>barrage rinse and repeat and if no AM procs just skip it and do barrage

[Don'tTazeMeBro]

Sorry for double post but krazyking I think that an extra 5k crit at the end of AM is a lot better than nothing, in most boss fights I never run oom and it's a nice dps increase. If mana is your problem either your gear blows or you're not effectively using mana gems / evo, or a druid in your raid is a prick and won't give you mana regen (my mind just kinda blanked on wtf druid spell is called)

[[Z]em]

nice guide, thanks for contributing
+ 2 rep

[Coolio Jenkins]

ummm do not gem stamina in blue socket for pve lol?
Go for the +SP +Spirit
it gives you the sp and crit (and mp5 I guess lol.)
but yeah stamina is completely useless in pve

[Tokker]

Lol, why are you writing a guide when you can't nothing about Mages?

When you have stacked your arc blast to x4 and have a missile proc, use it, but don't be a noob a waste a GCd on the arc barrage (It will only lower your dps cause it wont get the +dmg from your stacked arc blast)

So, Arc blast x4 -> Missiles / Arc barr (Dont use both on the same arc blast debuff)

And blue gems for a raiding arc mage is sp/spirit.

Have you even tried to get a good frost PvP spec?

The World of Warcraft Armory

I use Evocation, Ice Barrier, And polymorph glyphs for 3v3's.

For minor glyphs, Slow fall, Frost ward, Fire Ward.

Try to always use your Fireball proc to go off with a frostbolt, when you have a Fingers of frost proc, and if you have alot of haste you can cast a frostbolt - deep freeze - and now can you get off one more shatter on that target.

When you gem in your PvP gear always gem for SP when you have reached the hitcap/spellpen cap (4% for hit/130 spellpen) The spellpen is only for ppl that plays arena and dont want sheeps to be resisted etc.

/One of those Mages that have 33k mana and 2500 in rating.

[Beaver1337]

To answer Tokken's essay.

Yes, i know how to play a mage.

About the rotation: Read..

About the gem: You maybe should read this once again.

About the spec: Very nice, i tried 0/0/0. Didn't work out very well.

About the PvP part: You appearently got no idea that Battlegrounds and Arena is NOT the same thing.