Mage Arena PvP

[BaboonX]

Today I'm going to make a guide to help those mages out there to understand there role in arena. Mages are a really hard class to play, and you can know the class very well but you can still be bad, being good takes a lot of time and practice.
Guide Contents
-Talents and Glyphs
-Gearing
-Getting the Basics Down
-Time to Arena


Talents and Glyphs

In order to start taking arenas seriously you will need the proper gear and talents. There is a lot of different gear options for a mage and it really depends on what spec you are and the people you play with. The two specs that are viable for arena is Frost and Arcane.

Talent Builds:
Frost 20/0/51 - This is the most used spec for arena. Frost offers the most control and survivability in arena and a good amount of burst damage with all of its procs. The one thing worth noting for my build is the one point in Enduring Winter.. You can move that point arena if you want.
Glyphs Recommended for Frost Spec:
[Spoiler]Polymorph - This glyph is great for most set ups. If you can't get a sheep, or even if you sheep when there's 1 second left on dots it can be game breaking. Being a mage is all about controlling the map, and if you can't do that because of miss communication or because you don't have this glyph, ITS GAME BREAKING.

Ice Barrier - This is a good glyph for frost as it provides more survivability and there really isn't another glyph to replace this that's game breaking.

Evocation - This is a very important glyph, I always use it because if a arena match comes to a 2v1 or sometimes a 1v1, you might lose because you don't have it.

Mana Gem - This is a nice glyph if a lot of games with your set up come to mana. I would use this over Evocation for some set ups.

Other glyphs I will not review:
Icy Viens
Ice Barrier

Okay glyphs but just not as good IMO[/Spoiler]

Arcane 57/3/11 - Even though frost is the most used spec, arcane is proven to be very powerful as well. It offers a lot of burst along with more mobile damage with arcane barrage. I haven't had much experience with arcane so the rest of the guide won't mention this spec.

Glyphs Reccomended for Arcane Spec
[Spoiler]
Polymorph - Mentioned in frost spec
Evocation - Mentioned in Frost Spec
Mana gem - Mentioned in Frost Spec

Arcane Missiles - This is great to increase your burst damage.
Arcane Barrage - It's great for having more mana, defenitly can make the difference in a match.
[/Spoiler]

Gearing

The stats you will need as a mage:
[Spoiler]4% Hit Rating or More - Having hit rating is very important as any DPS class. You should have at least 4% hit but 5-6% is recommended

130 Spell Penetration - Getting spell penetration is hard to do if you just started PvP'ing. You will need to get a majority of it through gems and the cloak enchant for 35 spell pen. Make sure you match your blue sockets with spell pen gems.

Haste - This is the secondary stat a PvP mage should have. You should make sure you have atleast 500 or more haste.[/Spoiler]

Getting gear to have success in arena as a mage can be frustrating. You will preferably need a mix of PvE and PvP gear to do good, although, using full PvP gear can be viable to a certain point. Because as a mage, you have a lot of survivability. A lot of set ups won't even think of going on you, so you should take advantage of this by using more PvE gear.

Most mages prefer to use 4 pieces of the PvP set along with one good haste piece in main slots. Some good haste pieces that are easy to get are:
[Spoiler]Wintersgrasp Shoulders - I think 60 Wintersgrasp Tokens
Merlin's Robes - A BoE crafted item, easiest to get and really good.
Meteor Raiment - 75 Frost badges
Shoulders of Mercy Killing King - These are probably the best to get. They have hit and haste on them, which means you can have a extra haste off piece instead of having a hit off piece. They drop in 25 man ICC second boss.
T10 Haste Pieces

All in All any haste piece with spell power is good to use. [/Spoiler]

Now onto off pieces. Off pieces are a pain to grind and most mages feel the need to get every PvP off pieces, but, if you have a good PvE item with haste+hit on it USE IT. These items include:
[Spoiler]
Amulet of Silent Eulogy - Gunship 25. It's a neck with haste and hit on it, I highly recommend getting it.
Ashen Verdict Ring - Ring recieved from reputation of the ashen verdict. It's very important to get.
Ring of Rapid Ascent - Gun Ship 25. It's a ring with haste on it but it has a blue socket and provides a lot more spell power than the PvP haste ring, and haste is so much better than crit. [/Spoiler]

And last but not least, trinkets. For a PvP trinket you should either get the Haste Wintersgrasp Trinket or the Spell Power trinket. It really depends on who you play with and what gear you have access to. If you have over 3,400 spell power with the spell power PvP trinket, I would use the haste one. Other wise stick with the spell power trinket.

As for the other trinket slot, having a good PVE trinket can help a lot. I would use Reign of the Dead or Dislodged Foreign Object if you have them. But if you don't have them, a battlemasters is good to have.

Getting the Basics Down

The number one rule for arena and PvP as a mage is to control the fight with Polymorphs and Counter spells.

You have the gear and the spec, but, you don't know much about PvP. What I recommend you do is duel a lot of people, and do BG's. To get a feel of how to play, and of how other classes function. It's very important to understand other classes abilities so you know how to counter them.

If you don't have any key bindings, I recommend you start now, as a mage if you are clicking your spells good players will be able to notice easily.

Make sure you make focus macros for; Sheep, Deep Freeze, and Counter spell. Even for R1 Frost Bolt if you have the room. To make a focus macro, open up your macros pane (/m) and type in:
/cast [@Focus] (SPELLNAME GOES HERE)

For more macros I suggest you go to arena junkies site (GOOGLE IT) and look at there macros list. All of them are nice and handy.

Sheeping! This is the most important thing to do as a mage. You need to have something sheeped most of a arena match. The most important thing to note for sheeping is DR's (Diminishing Returns) you should only sheep 2 times for the most part so the DR can reset. DR takes 20 seconds to reset and there's plenty of addons to track it. The ones I recommend is Gladminish (ARENA ONLY), and DrTracker

Deep Freeze. Deep freeze is a very important ability, only if used right though. If you play with a rogue, you should never deep freeze a kill target your rogue is on. As it DR's kidney. You should instead use it on a healer or for a peel. You can use it to lock targets in the open to make it easier to switch to, but the one thing you should never do with deep freeze is use it randomly just because the button looks shiny.

The next thing I want to talk about in this section is Mage Armor and Frost Armor, I see a lot of mages not switching these out, even in 2k+ ratings. It's sad, but true. What you will want to do is switch it out depending on the person you are facing. Against a Melee you will want to use Frost Armor, against a caster, you will want to use Mage armor. Before a arena match you should usually start out with Frost Armor as teams that have you use Mage Armor are more forgiving of the global. (Beast Cleaves and TSG rush you down). But it doesn't really make much of a difference.

You should also use Dampen or Amp Magic depending on what team you use. If you play a all DPS set up, you should use Dampen, if you play with a healer, you should use Rank One Amplify Magic.

Rank One Frost Bolt! This is a very important ability, and you should use it in a lot of cases. You should use it to put up debuffs so it's harder to dispel sheeps, you should use it when your oom to fish for a fireball proc if your target is low, you should use it in the beginning of the match when nothing is happening.

Something very important for arena is to call out every thing you are doing in skype / vent / etc. Even if you make a mistake, its important to call it out and let your team mates know.

~I don't really know what else to add in this section, if you have any ideas please let me know~

Time to Arena

Now that you have a basic understanding of your class, it's time to finally start arena. The first thing you will want to do is find people willing to play with you. I recommend always playing with people more experienced than you so you can always learn and improve. If you are 1,600 rated, play with someone 1800 rated, etc. Even if you are not that good, if you are a likable person and willing to improve, people may still play with you.

2v2 Set Ups You Should Run - Ordered Greatest to Worst
[Spoiler]Disc Priest Mage - This is probably the most powerful set up as a mage. It has great CC and burst. In order to be successful at this set up, your priest has to be good. He should do nearly half the damage as you every game and fear well.

Resto Druid Mage - This is actually a very strong set up, as you can CC chain someone for nearly 30 seconds. You will have problems against high rated teams, but it's a great starter set up to get to 1800 with.

Warlock Mage - Very strong set up with lots of CC.

Mage Rogue - It's a strong DPS set up but it requires a very high skill cap for both players to succeed it. A lot of matches end very fast, and it will come down to you either getting a lock out, you fake casting, etc.
[/Spoiler]

3v3 Set Ups
[Spoiler]
Mage / Shadow Priest / Resto Shaman - This is a really strong set up to play currently. The reason why this set up is so strong is the ability for the priest to heal and play defensive.. Compared to a warlock, playing with a priest is much better.

Mage / Warlock / Resto Shaman or Druid - This is a great set up to run, It has a lot more CC and more burst but if you play with a resto shaman it will really rely on you and your lock peeling for him.

Mage / Elemental Shaman / Disc Priest - Very strong set up. With a disc priest you have the ability to fear people into the open, and with all 3 people bursting into a target the damage is outhealable in most cases. It's a very strong ladder climbing set up.

Paladin / Warrior / Mage - This is a pretty good set up, I've played it with some success and I really enjoyed it. It isn't as faced paced as other set ups and it doesn't rely on a big CD to kill a target.. Compared to playing with a ele shaman.

Rogue / Mage / Priest - this is a fun set up but it takes a lot of time to get down. You will actually have to make strats with this set up, compared to wizard cleaves, you just kill something.

If you can't run any of these set ups, a lot of variations of them can work. And if your just starting out in arena, any set up will help you get better. [/Spoiler]



I don't really know what else to add to this guide with out going into details about fighting specific comps.. If you have anything you think I need to add to this guide, let me know. Because I know a lot of stuff is missing.

[Gankenstein]

Thanks very much for this guide it made alot of things much clearer. I think you should write one for hunters next!

EDIT: Repped

[BaboonX]

Thanks very much for this guide it made alot of things much clearer. I think you should write one for hunters next!

EDIT: Repped

Thanks for replying =P I was begining to think this guide helped no one out.

I would like to write more class guides, but I don't know how to play a hunter . You can probably learn a lot by watching things like MLG / ESL and Arena Junkies Live Streams. Also you can read up on your class in PvP on a lot of different forums. Last but not least, practice, and have fun .

[ArenaRating]

Well writen guide, informative and a lot of useful information.

I think this guide will especially help beginners with mage, for reaching around 1800 rating.

Instead of other class guides, you could also do guides for comps that you played with mage - many people would be interested, in advanced tactics and playstyle of mage / priest for example.