The mage is a DPS casters that specializes in burst damage and area of effect spells. Their primary role in a group at lower levels is damage dealing and crowd control through the use of Polymorph, temporarily changing humanoids and beasts into harmless critters. At end-game levels, mages' damage is supplemented with Counterspell, Remove Curse, and Spellsteal. Mages' utility spells also include conjuring food and drink and the ability to teleport to major cities and open portals for party members. In PvP, Mage deals ranged damage while using snare effects and Polymorph to control enemy players. As damage casters, primary stats are spell power, spell hit rating and spell haste. intellect, stamina, spell crit, and spirit also benefit mages, but to a lesser degree.
The mage class can be played by the following races :
> Draenei ( Burning Crusade ) – Alliance
> Dwarf ( In Cataclysm ) – Alliance
> Gnome – Alliance
> Human – Alliance
> Night Elf ( In Cataclysm ) – Alliance
> Worgen ( In Cataclysm ) – Alliance
> Blood Elf ( Burning Crusade ) – Horde
> Forsaken – Horde
> Goblin ( In Cataclysm ) – Horde
> Orc – ( In Cataclysm ) – Horde
> Troll – Horde
Weapons, Gear, and Armor
When first created, a mage is only able to wield staves and wands; one can later learn how to use daggers and one-handed swords from weapon masters in Stormwind, Darnassus and the Exodar for the Alliance, Undercity and Silvermoon for the Horde. Wands go in the ranged slot and have the autoshoot ability, and do not require any form of ammunition. A mage can only wear cloth armor.
Magi gear primarily for spell power and haste. An appropriate amount of Spell hit is maintained to ensure no spells miss. Spell crit is inferior to haste and generally avoided. Spirit is also useful in endgame raiding for mages, as it provides spell crit through Molten Armor.
Spells
Mages have a wide variety of spells which fall in to three schools of magic: arcane, fire and frost. All spell schools include damage spells. Arcane includes some crowd control and utility, and most Frost spells provide a movement-slow effect supplementing their damage.
Fire spells are primarily damage-dealing spells, including direct single-target damage and area of effect damage. Many Fire spells include damage over time effects.
Frost spells are primarily single-target and area of effect damage-dealing spells, but with more emphasis on chilling effects. Nearly every frost spell has a chill or freeze effect that fully or partially immobilizes an enemy. This includes freezing it in place (called a root) or slowing its movement speed (called a snare). Frost specialized mages can further improve these chilling effects and increase frost damage output to respectable levels. Frost spells help the mage use kiting as a combat tactic.
Arcane spells include single-target damage spells and utility. Arcane spells allow the mage to remove curses, provide crowd control, absorb damage, teleport himself or others to major capital cities, Slow Fall, Counterspell, buff players' intellect stat, save mana for later use in the form of mana gems, conjure food and water for himself or others, and provide many other conveniences.
Arcane and Fire are the trees currently best suited to raid damage. Frost's snare effects and Ice Barrier make it the best leveling and PvP tree. Fire and Arcane specs lack the control and survival abilities crucial to leveling and PvP.
Talent Trees
Mage talents are split into 3 categories which mirror their 3 main spell types. Descriptions of the roles of mages who specialize in each talent tree are shown in parentheses.
Arcane
The arcane tree's damage focuses on Arcane Blast and Arcane Missiles. Arcane can provide the greatest potential damage output mages can offer. The Arcane tree includes Slow, an instant single-target slowing effect, and Arcane Barrage, an instant-damage ranged attack. Arcane mages can provide substantial burst damage with Arcane Power and Presence of Mind.
Fire
Fire's damage output is oriented around Living Bomb and Hot Streak. Living Bomb is an instant cast damage-over-time effect. Hot Streak is a triggered effect: whenever a Fire mage deals two critical strikes in a row, their next Pyroblast spell is instant. Fire is currently worse than Arcane for single-target damage, but Living Bomb can allow Fire to keep pace with Arcane in fights with multiple targets. Fights in which players are forced to move frequently can also benefit Fire mages, as Living Bomb and Hot Streak-enabled instant Pyroblasts can fill the movement time which Arcane mages can only use for Arcane Barrage, Fire Blast and Ice Lance which is especially poor damage against bosses. The Fire talent tree provides few survival tools. This has historically made the fire tree a good choice for high-end raiders who seek to maximize damage output, but poor in PvP due to Resilience's reduction of critical strike chance and Arena's survival requirements.
Frost
Frost specializes in crowd control and snaring foes with its various chills, allowing for powerful kiting, and provides good AoE capability. It is the most mana-efficient spec. That efficiency coupled with the survival abilities derived from its chilling tools make it the most popular leveling and PvP tree. Frost's AoE makes it the spec best suited to five-player dungeons. However, it is not as competitive as fire and arcane for producing DPS in raid instances. Frost is most effective in PvP, as Frost mages can learn Ice Barrier to protect themselves from damage and Deep Freeze to supplement their snare effects with a stun. Frost mages can also learn Summon Water Elemental, gaining a pet which has a Freeze ability similar to Frost Nova.
Common custom builds and their names
Notice that while all three trees of talents already have been given names, different talent-builds invented by players have also been given names.
Frost & Fire:
• A mage with talent-points spent both in fire and frost is often called an "elemental mage" / "elementalist". Since Wrath of the Lich King was released, a mage with such a build is also usually aiming to specifically empower his/her Frostfire Bolt, becoming a "Frostfire Mage" (sometimes abbreviated to FFB mage).
Arcane & Fire:
• A mage with points both in fire and arcane is often referred to be a "three-minute mage" because this kind of mage often base(d) their damage on combining the fire-talent spell Pyroblast, which takes long time to cast yet provides powerful damage, with the arcane-talent-spells Presence of Mind and Arcane Power to create a instant-cast, long-ranged, high-damage spell. As the two arcane-spells both had a three minute cooldown, one would say the mage "functioned" (most likely in a humorous context) only every three minutes. However, since patch Patch 3.0.9 Arcane Power and Presence of Mind shares cooldown, which somewhat ruined the three-minute mage. Still, with the talent Arcane Flows which was introduced in Patch 3.0.2, the cooldown of both Arcane Power and Presence of Mind may be reduced to two minutes, changing the original Three-minute mage into a "Two-minute mage". This spec was championed during The Burning Crusade by the mage Pigvomit[1].
Arcane & Frost:
• A mage with points both in arcane and frost is sometimes called a "Arcane Shatter" mage. The names most likely derive from the arcane spell Arcane Barrage, the arcane talent Missile Barrage and the frost-talent Shatter. This talent specialization was popularized by the success of Abni, who obtained Gladiator titles for several seasons using this spec.
Endgame expectations
In a group or raid environment, mages are usually tasked with ranged DPS, AoE, Counterspell, Spellsteal, Crowd Control and finally Ritual of Refreshment.
With the introduction of patch 1.11, mages enjoyed a high degree of flexibility in the end game. Previous to patch 1.11, it was expected that most mages would spend at least 11 talent points in the arcane tree for Evocation, as it is a quite powerful mana-regenerative spell. It was given free without the use of talent points. New changes to all three trees also made investing points into both the fire and the frost trees much more viable. This still holds true with the release of Burning Crusade. It should be mentioned that a build predominantly using the fire tree will contribute greater DPS; those using a predominantly frost tree will contribute a fair amount of control.
The endgame mage also acts as a utility class, providing drink, food, buffs and portals. When it comes to providing drink and food, mages are by some considered equal to "vending machines" due to their unique ability to create food and drink out of thin air and provide them with no cost except mana and time. Refreshments Tables may also be created at level 70 at the cost of two arcane powder. However, some mages feel that this is not their primary role and therefore refuse to give away merchandise free to people he or she doesn’t know. It is usually expected that the mage provides his party or raid with food and drink for free.
PvP
PvP-wise, mages are considered "glass cannons" - a design philosophy which gives mages generous burst damage at the cost of, generally, low health and armor values. Aided by talents such as Presence of Mind and Arcane Power, they are one of the classes with the potential for dealing out the greatest amount of damage in the shortest amount of time. In group PvP, mages will stay back and focus on crowd control with Polymorph and pick off targets from range. Depending on the Battleground and the situation, mages typically AoE to prevent node captures or nuke flag carriers as fast as possible. In solo PvP, a skilled frost mage is a formidable opponent, but the word "skilled," needs to be emphasized.
Info from wowwiki.com
The mage class can be played by the following races :
> Draenei ( Burning Crusade ) – Alliance
> Dwarf ( In Cataclysm ) – Alliance
> Gnome – Alliance
> Human – Alliance
> Night Elf ( In Cataclysm ) – Alliance
> Worgen ( In Cataclysm ) – Alliance
> Blood Elf ( Burning Crusade ) – Horde
> Forsaken – Horde
> Goblin ( In Cataclysm ) – Horde
> Orc – ( In Cataclysm ) – Horde
> Troll – Horde
Weapons, Gear, and Armor
When first created, a mage is only able to wield staves and wands; one can later learn how to use daggers and one-handed swords from weapon masters in Stormwind, Darnassus and the Exodar for the Alliance, Undercity and Silvermoon for the Horde. Wands go in the ranged slot and have the autoshoot ability, and do not require any form of ammunition. A mage can only wear cloth armor.
Magi gear primarily for spell power and haste. An appropriate amount of Spell hit is maintained to ensure no spells miss. Spell crit is inferior to haste and generally avoided. Spirit is also useful in endgame raiding for mages, as it provides spell crit through Molten Armor.
Spells
Mages have a wide variety of spells which fall in to three schools of magic: arcane, fire and frost. All spell schools include damage spells. Arcane includes some crowd control and utility, and most Frost spells provide a movement-slow effect supplementing their damage.
Fire spells are primarily damage-dealing spells, including direct single-target damage and area of effect damage. Many Fire spells include damage over time effects.
Frost spells are primarily single-target and area of effect damage-dealing spells, but with more emphasis on chilling effects. Nearly every frost spell has a chill or freeze effect that fully or partially immobilizes an enemy. This includes freezing it in place (called a root) or slowing its movement speed (called a snare). Frost specialized mages can further improve these chilling effects and increase frost damage output to respectable levels. Frost spells help the mage use kiting as a combat tactic.
Arcane spells include single-target damage spells and utility. Arcane spells allow the mage to remove curses, provide crowd control, absorb damage, teleport himself or others to major capital cities, Slow Fall, Counterspell, buff players' intellect stat, save mana for later use in the form of mana gems, conjure food and water for himself or others, and provide many other conveniences.
Arcane and Fire are the trees currently best suited to raid damage. Frost's snare effects and Ice Barrier make it the best leveling and PvP tree. Fire and Arcane specs lack the control and survival abilities crucial to leveling and PvP.
Talent Trees
Mage talents are split into 3 categories which mirror their 3 main spell types. Descriptions of the roles of mages who specialize in each talent tree are shown in parentheses.
Arcane
The arcane tree's damage focuses on Arcane Blast and Arcane Missiles. Arcane can provide the greatest potential damage output mages can offer. The Arcane tree includes Slow, an instant single-target slowing effect, and Arcane Barrage, an instant-damage ranged attack. Arcane mages can provide substantial burst damage with Arcane Power and Presence of Mind.
Fire
Fire's damage output is oriented around Living Bomb and Hot Streak. Living Bomb is an instant cast damage-over-time effect. Hot Streak is a triggered effect: whenever a Fire mage deals two critical strikes in a row, their next Pyroblast spell is instant. Fire is currently worse than Arcane for single-target damage, but Living Bomb can allow Fire to keep pace with Arcane in fights with multiple targets. Fights in which players are forced to move frequently can also benefit Fire mages, as Living Bomb and Hot Streak-enabled instant Pyroblasts can fill the movement time which Arcane mages can only use for Arcane Barrage, Fire Blast and Ice Lance which is especially poor damage against bosses. The Fire talent tree provides few survival tools. This has historically made the fire tree a good choice for high-end raiders who seek to maximize damage output, but poor in PvP due to Resilience's reduction of critical strike chance and Arena's survival requirements.
Frost
Frost specializes in crowd control and snaring foes with its various chills, allowing for powerful kiting, and provides good AoE capability. It is the most mana-efficient spec. That efficiency coupled with the survival abilities derived from its chilling tools make it the most popular leveling and PvP tree. Frost's AoE makes it the spec best suited to five-player dungeons. However, it is not as competitive as fire and arcane for producing DPS in raid instances. Frost is most effective in PvP, as Frost mages can learn Ice Barrier to protect themselves from damage and Deep Freeze to supplement their snare effects with a stun. Frost mages can also learn Summon Water Elemental, gaining a pet which has a Freeze ability similar to Frost Nova.
Common custom builds and their names
Notice that while all three trees of talents already have been given names, different talent-builds invented by players have also been given names.
Frost & Fire:
• A mage with talent-points spent both in fire and frost is often called an "elemental mage" / "elementalist". Since Wrath of the Lich King was released, a mage with such a build is also usually aiming to specifically empower his/her Frostfire Bolt, becoming a "Frostfire Mage" (sometimes abbreviated to FFB mage).
Arcane & Fire:
• A mage with points both in fire and arcane is often referred to be a "three-minute mage" because this kind of mage often base(d) their damage on combining the fire-talent spell Pyroblast, which takes long time to cast yet provides powerful damage, with the arcane-talent-spells Presence of Mind and Arcane Power to create a instant-cast, long-ranged, high-damage spell. As the two arcane-spells both had a three minute cooldown, one would say the mage "functioned" (most likely in a humorous context) only every three minutes. However, since patch Patch 3.0.9 Arcane Power and Presence of Mind shares cooldown, which somewhat ruined the three-minute mage. Still, with the talent Arcane Flows which was introduced in Patch 3.0.2, the cooldown of both Arcane Power and Presence of Mind may be reduced to two minutes, changing the original Three-minute mage into a "Two-minute mage". This spec was championed during The Burning Crusade by the mage Pigvomit[1].
Arcane & Frost:
• A mage with points both in arcane and frost is sometimes called a "Arcane Shatter" mage. The names most likely derive from the arcane spell Arcane Barrage, the arcane talent Missile Barrage and the frost-talent Shatter. This talent specialization was popularized by the success of Abni, who obtained Gladiator titles for several seasons using this spec.
Endgame expectations
In a group or raid environment, mages are usually tasked with ranged DPS, AoE, Counterspell, Spellsteal, Crowd Control and finally Ritual of Refreshment.
With the introduction of patch 1.11, mages enjoyed a high degree of flexibility in the end game. Previous to patch 1.11, it was expected that most mages would spend at least 11 talent points in the arcane tree for Evocation, as it is a quite powerful mana-regenerative spell. It was given free without the use of talent points. New changes to all three trees also made investing points into both the fire and the frost trees much more viable. This still holds true with the release of Burning Crusade. It should be mentioned that a build predominantly using the fire tree will contribute greater DPS; those using a predominantly frost tree will contribute a fair amount of control.
The endgame mage also acts as a utility class, providing drink, food, buffs and portals. When it comes to providing drink and food, mages are by some considered equal to "vending machines" due to their unique ability to create food and drink out of thin air and provide them with no cost except mana and time. Refreshments Tables may also be created at level 70 at the cost of two arcane powder. However, some mages feel that this is not their primary role and therefore refuse to give away merchandise free to people he or she doesn’t know. It is usually expected that the mage provides his party or raid with food and drink for free.
PvP
PvP-wise, mages are considered "glass cannons" - a design philosophy which gives mages generous burst damage at the cost of, generally, low health and armor values. Aided by talents such as Presence of Mind and Arcane Power, they are one of the classes with the potential for dealing out the greatest amount of damage in the shortest amount of time. In group PvP, mages will stay back and focus on crowd control with Polymorph and pick off targets from range. Depending on the Battleground and the situation, mages typically AoE to prevent node captures or nuke flag carriers as fast as possible. In solo PvP, a skilled frost mage is a formidable opponent, but the word "skilled," needs to be emphasized.
Info from wowwiki.com
