How to Play a Mage in World of Warcraft
Decide what role you want to play as a mage., Choose your race!, Name your mage!, Start leveling your mage!, Make lots of friends!, "Spec" into talent points focusing on damage dealing (as opposed to mana-conservation or utility)., Focus on killing...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Decide what role you want to play as a mage.
This is crucial.
Do you want to deal as much damage as possible in the shortest amount of time? Do you want to sustain your damage output long after everyone else has become exhausted? Or do you want to play a suicide-bomber? Do you want to succeed in end-game content? Or would you rather PvP? Or even perhaps, just chill with your friends and explore? , On the Alliance-side, you can be a Human, Gnome, or Dranei.
On the Horde-side, you can be a Troll, Forsaken (undead), or Blood Elf. (See Tips #1 to help decide.) , This might be more important than you think, along with your appearance, you will have to live with this name for the rest of your Mage's career, so pick one you LOVE. , Quests are essential to leveling quickly, coordinate them with the area in which you are spending the most time. , Leveling takes a while, but if you have friends to play with, you won't even care. , Fire and Arcane pair well, Improved Fireball, Impact, Improved Scorch and Incinerate are very nice in the fire tree.
In the arcane tree, Arcane Subtlety, Improved Arcane Missiles, Arcane Concentration, and Improved Mana Shield are also nice.
If you are dying a little too often for your liking, play a Frost Mage, not quite as much damage, but you will be able to survive a lot easier with spell such as ice block and ice barrier, not to mention slows, etc. , Killing more easy monster grants more experience than killing one difficult monster.
As you level, learn to kill monsters by a technique called 'Kiting'(this is also a very good skill to learn for PvP), in which you keep the target's movement hindered, yet still apply damage.
Good Hunters can train you with this.
There is a technique called 'AoE Grinding' that has proven itself to be very effective.
AoE grinding requires the kiting of many monsters (3 or more), while applying AoE damage. , You can have two, and you can change them whenever you want. (They will reset to zero when you do though, so be careful.) The most common Mage professions are Tailoring/Enchanting and Herbalism/Alchemy.
But pick whatever you like most. , Don't put loot before your friends! You didn't know loot even existed before you started playing, so don't let it define your game. , If you want to go and take over a town, do it! If you want to conquer the end-game, do it! , Be prepared to make sacrifices, but don't join a guild just because they are raiders.
Join a guild with people that you like and have similar goals.
Don't let your guild push loot onto you that you don't want. , Most people get lost along the way. , And don't forget to add to this wiki if you learned anything new. , (If you plan to use potions to further increase your effectiveness, save them for when you become proficient at AoE grinding.
If you die, you'll lose the buffs from the potions!) -
Step 2: Choose your race!
, (And Ice Barrier if you have it.) , (AoE grinding before level 30 is VERY difficult.) ,, Be sure to hit every mob you pulled. , Only spend a second or two doing this. ,,,, If you picked a good place to grind, you just killed three mobs at once! ,, Blizzard, frostbite (imp. or not) are your main tools to dealing damage (not necessarily a lot) and not take damage , If done correctly, you can kill an enemy before they can even reach you.
Turn and Blink if you are taking damage after Cone of colding to slow them. ,,,,,,,, Each member of a raid or party has a primary role to manage threat levels and aggro in an instance.
For a mage this means staying at max range from the mob being tanked and hesitating after casting a critical hit.
Frost mages after level 30 have an advantage because they can use Ice Block which, for the duration of the Ice Block, wipes their accumulated threat.
As mentioned above, being a great player does not mean doing the most damage, especially in an instance.
So the mage may have to resort to their wand at times so that the tank can maintain aggro.
Critical hits tend to come in groups, so it is inevitable that a mage will grab aggro away from the tank.
Should the mage get the attention of the boss or mob being attacked it is important to run or blink toward the main tank instead of running away.
Do not compound your error of grabbing aggro by making the tank chase you and the mob around the instance.
A mage will be called upon to "sheep" a mob when there are multiple targets in a group that your party must kill. , There will be times when the leader will call for a sheep pull, which requires the mage to start the fight by casting the sheep spell on the indicated target.
After completing this cast, the rest of the mobs in the pull will want to kill you, so it is important that you do nothing further until the tank has gotten the attention of the rest of the mob to keep you safe.
When a rogue is part of your party, the mage will be required to wait until the rogue has performed their crowd control (Known as:
Sap) before casting their sheep spell, as Sap can only be done out of combat. , Whatever the pull turns out to be, remember that your sheep will probably break (revert to it's true form) before the end of the fight.
Your mob will be very angry with you, and will want to kill you as quickly as possible.
At this point your number one priority is re-sheeping your target.
If you are in the middle of a cast, hitting the escape key, or space bar will stop your cast.
Re-target on your ex-sheep and cast sheep quickly.
If you are in a good group, the others in your party will leave your mob alone, but it is not unusual for them to try to save you by attacking it.
It is a good idea to continue re-sheeping until you know that your group is leaving that mob alone.
A great technique for re-sheeping is to make a "focus" macro pair.
One macro is to /focus on a target, and the next is /cast polymorph on the focused target.
This will allow you to instantly re-sheep without re-targeting.
You just have to re-designate your focus target before each pull.
The Mage has the capability to remove curses from their fellow party members.
In some instances, bosses will do terrible damage with curses and the mage will be required to spend the majority of their time removing these curses in a particular fight.
There are addons and macros that will assist the mage in identifying group members who are cursed.
The World of Warcraft community forums are a good place to begin learning about addons and macros for mages.
Finally, a mage will make friends with all mana users if he or she has prepared several stacks of conjured water for the group.
Once the mage has Arcane Brilliance, at least one stack of Arcane Powder is essential for short runs, two or more for long runs like MC or Karazhan. -
Step 3: Name your mage!
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Step 4: Start leveling your mage!
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Step 5: Make lots of friends!
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Step 6: "Spec" into talent points focusing on damage dealing (as opposed to mana-conservation or utility).
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Step 7: Focus on killing quantity over quality for leveling.
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Step 8: Pick your primary professions!
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Step 9: Once you hit your level-goal
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Step 10: work to obtain the equipment you require for your goal
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Step 11: don't be greedy
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Step 12: the first time you see an item drop WILL NOT be the last time
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Step 13: so be generous
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Step 14: even if you don't get that particular item you want
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Step 15: there's always more waiting.
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Step 16: Now go do what you originally set out to do when you started playing!
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Step 17: Join a guild
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Step 18: if you want to raid end-game content
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Step 19: this will be necessary.
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Step 20: Once you've done what you set out to do
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Step 21: congratulate yourself!
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Step 22: Pick new goals
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Step 23: or pick a new game!
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Step 24: Buff yourself with Arcane Intellect and Ice Armor.
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Step 25: Fill your mana and health bars.
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Step 26: Cast Mana Shield.
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Step 27: Mount up!
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Step 28: Aggro two to ten(The amount you can aggro increases with your level) mobs and run them to a clear area.
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Step 29: Dismount
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Step 30: and immediately cast Frost Nova.
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Step 31: Run to about 30 yards (27.4 m) from the farthest mob you pulled.
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Step 32: Cast Improved Blizzard.
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Step 33: Cast it again
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Step 34: if the mobs are far enough away.
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Step 35: Cast Cone of Cold if the mobs are too close.
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Step 36: Run around the group and cast Arcane Explosion a few times.
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Step 37: Now experiment with what spells you prefer
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Step 38: Flamestrike is very useful
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Step 39: as is an occasional direct damage spell if one mob resisted your AoE.
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Step 40: Frost mages need to keep the enemy slow at all times
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Step 41: cone of cold
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Step 42: If you are a Fire mage
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Step 43: use Pyro
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Step 44: then spam Fireball with occasional Fire blast.
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Step 45: Run from an aggro'ed mob.
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Step 46: Jump into the air.
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Step 47: While in the air
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Step 48: use the mouse to turn your character at least 180 degrees around.
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Step 49: Cast a Cone-of-Cold or another insta-cast
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Step 50: such as fireblast or ice lance.
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Step 51: Rotate 180 degrees again so you face straight forward.
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Step 52: Land on the ground.
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Step 53: Keep running.
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Step 54: Here are some notes that you will need to know about when playing as a mage in a dungeon.
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Step 55: Here are some important notes to know about.
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Step 56: Back to the original notes: At other times the tank or a hunter may pull a group
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Step 57: and the mage will need to sheep their target as it is running toward the tank.
Detailed Guide
This is crucial.
Do you want to deal as much damage as possible in the shortest amount of time? Do you want to sustain your damage output long after everyone else has become exhausted? Or do you want to play a suicide-bomber? Do you want to succeed in end-game content? Or would you rather PvP? Or even perhaps, just chill with your friends and explore? , On the Alliance-side, you can be a Human, Gnome, or Dranei.
On the Horde-side, you can be a Troll, Forsaken (undead), or Blood Elf. (See Tips #1 to help decide.) , This might be more important than you think, along with your appearance, you will have to live with this name for the rest of your Mage's career, so pick one you LOVE. , Quests are essential to leveling quickly, coordinate them with the area in which you are spending the most time. , Leveling takes a while, but if you have friends to play with, you won't even care. , Fire and Arcane pair well, Improved Fireball, Impact, Improved Scorch and Incinerate are very nice in the fire tree.
In the arcane tree, Arcane Subtlety, Improved Arcane Missiles, Arcane Concentration, and Improved Mana Shield are also nice.
If you are dying a little too often for your liking, play a Frost Mage, not quite as much damage, but you will be able to survive a lot easier with spell such as ice block and ice barrier, not to mention slows, etc. , Killing more easy monster grants more experience than killing one difficult monster.
As you level, learn to kill monsters by a technique called 'Kiting'(this is also a very good skill to learn for PvP), in which you keep the target's movement hindered, yet still apply damage.
Good Hunters can train you with this.
There is a technique called 'AoE Grinding' that has proven itself to be very effective.
AoE grinding requires the kiting of many monsters (3 or more), while applying AoE damage. , You can have two, and you can change them whenever you want. (They will reset to zero when you do though, so be careful.) The most common Mage professions are Tailoring/Enchanting and Herbalism/Alchemy.
But pick whatever you like most. , Don't put loot before your friends! You didn't know loot even existed before you started playing, so don't let it define your game. , If you want to go and take over a town, do it! If you want to conquer the end-game, do it! , Be prepared to make sacrifices, but don't join a guild just because they are raiders.
Join a guild with people that you like and have similar goals.
Don't let your guild push loot onto you that you don't want. , Most people get lost along the way. , And don't forget to add to this wiki if you learned anything new. , (If you plan to use potions to further increase your effectiveness, save them for when you become proficient at AoE grinding.
If you die, you'll lose the buffs from the potions!)
, (And Ice Barrier if you have it.) , (AoE grinding before level 30 is VERY difficult.) ,, Be sure to hit every mob you pulled. , Only spend a second or two doing this. ,,,, If you picked a good place to grind, you just killed three mobs at once! ,, Blizzard, frostbite (imp. or not) are your main tools to dealing damage (not necessarily a lot) and not take damage , If done correctly, you can kill an enemy before they can even reach you.
Turn and Blink if you are taking damage after Cone of colding to slow them. ,,,,,,,, Each member of a raid or party has a primary role to manage threat levels and aggro in an instance.
For a mage this means staying at max range from the mob being tanked and hesitating after casting a critical hit.
Frost mages after level 30 have an advantage because they can use Ice Block which, for the duration of the Ice Block, wipes their accumulated threat.
As mentioned above, being a great player does not mean doing the most damage, especially in an instance.
So the mage may have to resort to their wand at times so that the tank can maintain aggro.
Critical hits tend to come in groups, so it is inevitable that a mage will grab aggro away from the tank.
Should the mage get the attention of the boss or mob being attacked it is important to run or blink toward the main tank instead of running away.
Do not compound your error of grabbing aggro by making the tank chase you and the mob around the instance.
A mage will be called upon to "sheep" a mob when there are multiple targets in a group that your party must kill. , There will be times when the leader will call for a sheep pull, which requires the mage to start the fight by casting the sheep spell on the indicated target.
After completing this cast, the rest of the mobs in the pull will want to kill you, so it is important that you do nothing further until the tank has gotten the attention of the rest of the mob to keep you safe.
When a rogue is part of your party, the mage will be required to wait until the rogue has performed their crowd control (Known as:
Sap) before casting their sheep spell, as Sap can only be done out of combat. , Whatever the pull turns out to be, remember that your sheep will probably break (revert to it's true form) before the end of the fight.
Your mob will be very angry with you, and will want to kill you as quickly as possible.
At this point your number one priority is re-sheeping your target.
If you are in the middle of a cast, hitting the escape key, or space bar will stop your cast.
Re-target on your ex-sheep and cast sheep quickly.
If you are in a good group, the others in your party will leave your mob alone, but it is not unusual for them to try to save you by attacking it.
It is a good idea to continue re-sheeping until you know that your group is leaving that mob alone.
A great technique for re-sheeping is to make a "focus" macro pair.
One macro is to /focus on a target, and the next is /cast polymorph on the focused target.
This will allow you to instantly re-sheep without re-targeting.
You just have to re-designate your focus target before each pull.
The Mage has the capability to remove curses from their fellow party members.
In some instances, bosses will do terrible damage with curses and the mage will be required to spend the majority of their time removing these curses in a particular fight.
There are addons and macros that will assist the mage in identifying group members who are cursed.
The World of Warcraft community forums are a good place to begin learning about addons and macros for mages.
Finally, a mage will make friends with all mana users if he or she has prepared several stacks of conjured water for the group.
Once the mage has Arcane Brilliance, at least one stack of Arcane Powder is essential for short runs, two or more for long runs like MC or Karazhan.
About the Author
Cheryl Rogers
Experienced content creator specializing in organization guides and tutorials.
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