GGL Wire

Welcome to the third installment of a nine part set all about the classes of World of Warcraft. Today we’ll be talking about Mages. With Arena PVP debuting in 2007, it’s time to take a look at how you can become a better player. This guide will show you how to get better, what to look out for and what you should be doing in PvP.

Mages: This powerful class is usually the number one dps class out there. With a ton of Area of Effect spells mages are really useful in 3v3 and 5v5. Whether you are Frost or Fire, you’ll be dishing out some serious damage, not to mention crowd controlling to your hearts content.

Let’s take a look at the Mage spells. These are calculated for a level 70 character with no extra gear.

Main Spells:
Frost Nova (185 Mana, Instant) – 99 to 111 damage and freezes all enemies in a ten yard radius (more with talents) in place for 8 seconds. This spell is incredibly useful in arena if that pesky Warrior is beating on your healer; freeze him in place and let that Priest get back to healing you.

Polymorph (150 Mana, 1.5s Cast) – Also known as “Sheep” because you transform the enemy into a sheep. This is extremely useful in arena because the enemy cannot do anything, however, special abilities will allow your opponent to break out of polymorph. Any damage breaks polymorph right away so be very careful about doing area of effect damage with a polymorphed target in the area. The downside to this spell is that the enemy regenerates health very fast, so only use it on nearly full healthed targets.

Ice Lance (150 Mana, Instant) – Ice Lance is incredibly useful as a frost mage, it deals 161 to 187 damage to the target and has no cooldown. However, this spell does triple the damage if the target is frozen in place. Use this whenever something else is on cooldown or you need some quick burst damage; make sure to use this if the target is frozen also and spam it until they are unfrozen.

Pyroblast (Talent. 500 mana, 6s Cast) – The signature spell of a PoM/Pyro Mage, this has huge damage: 939 to 1191 damage instantly and another 356 over 12 seconds. With Presence of Mind, this spell becomes instant and with 1000 +Damage this spell will do a minimum of 2649, and crit for nearly 5000. The long cast time makes this spell nearly useless without Presence of Mind, but if you can get a 6 second cast off, go for it.

Presence of Mind (Talent.) – This spell is incredibly useful if you are a 3 minute mage, given that name for the cooldown on this talent. A 3 minute mage can do a ton of damage every 3 minutes, but is nearly useless while it’s on cooldown. This spell costs no mana, and makes the next spell you cast that has a casting time of less than 10 seconds (Which is nearly every spell a mage has) instant. This in conjunction with Pyroblast is what makes a mage so powerful as Arcane/Frost.

Ice Block (15 Mana, Instant) – This spell is incredibly useful in arena if you are about to die, as you reach low health and see no heal in sight, pop this spell and become immune for 10 seconds and let your healer catch up. The only problem is that Mass Dispel and Arcane Shot can dispel this, so be very careful. It can save you but don’t rely on it as an end-all-be-all save. As of patch 2.3.2, every mage gets this spell, and it is no longer a talent.

Cold Snap (Talent, Instant.) – As of patch 2.3.2 this spell replaces Ice Block in the Frost talent tree. It is extremely useful for Frost mages, as it finishes all cooldowns on all frost spells. Why is that so useful? Because you can cast Frost Nova twice in a row, or you can iceblock twice in an arena match. This will allow mages to have high survivability in 2v2 and 3v3 arena.

Fire Blast (465 Mana, Instant.) – Fire blast is useful for quick damage; it causes 664 to 786 damage and has a very short, eight second cooldown. The only downside is it’s semi high mana cost. Use this spell whenever possible however.

Arcane Explosion (545 Mana, Instant.) – Arcane Explosion is the bread and butter of AoE spells. This causes 377 to 407 damage to all targets within 10 yards of the target, if you find yourself caught in the middle of a group of enemies, spam this until you get away; you will cause opposing healers to work much harder to heal their groups.

Spellsteal (29% base mana) – This spell, although amazing, has such a high mana cost that you really want to save it for tough situations. Situations like another mage Ice Blocking, a Warrior with Blessing of Freedom on him or Renew.

Cone of Cold (645 Mana, Instant) – Cone of Cold is very useful if more than one person is grouped together. It does 410 to 448 damage and slows all targets’ movement speed by 50% for 8 seconds. It can be used as a get away or simply slowing down the enemy rogue or warrior.

Buffs:
Food/Water – Mages are known for their food and water and are often times called vending machines in a joking manner. Mages are the only class that can give free water in arena. Water is extremely useful so make sure you give it to any class that has mana. Food is also useful for a class that can’t heal but is able to get away long enough to eat.

Arcane Intellect – Increases the players intellect by 40. 40 Intellect is equal to an extra 600 mana. But when used in conjunction with Blessing of Kings, this spell gives an extra 660 mana.

Stats to watch for:
Intellect – Intellect is the number one stat to focus on, Stamina comes second due to the fact that you can cast Mana shield on yourself which becomes your Stamina. Every point gives you 15 Mana.
Stamina – Stamina is a main stay for every class, and Mages are no different, every point gives you 10 Health Points.
+ Spell Damage – Every mage can benefit from spell damage, the more you have the better off you are. If you have 1000 +Spell Damage, youre instants do an extra 420 damage.
+ Spell Crit – Depending on your spec, spell crit can be very useful. As a fire mage, the more spell crit you have the more damage you can ultimately do. Save this for last however, as it should not go above Intellect or Spell Damage.

Important Talents
Cold Snap – This talent is great for any mage after patch 2.3.2, as you can cast Ice Block twice in under 35 seconds (only due to the 30 second Hypothermia debuff that you get from Ice Block) which will increase your survivability by a ton.

Pyroblast – Great for that Fire mage, and in use with Presence of Mind, this spell can do some serious damage very quickly. Combine this with a fast Fire Blast and Arcane Explosion and the enemy is nearly dead before he knew what hit him.

Presence of Mind – A great Arcane talent, used mostly with Pyroblast to get that amazing 6000+ instant damage.

Builds
10/48/3 - Click To View

41/17/3 - Click To View

17/0/44 - Click To View

Good Arena Compositions:
3v3:
Druid/Mage/Warlock – Mage is great in this team and is one of the major points of crowd control. Combined with the Warlock/Mage synergy this team is very hard to beat.
Used By: Insurrection

Druid/Rogue/Mage – This team is also very hard to beat, with fast heals and a ton of crowd control combined with the fast damage of the rogue/mage duo, any team is hard pressed to heal through that damage.
Used By: Evil Geniuses

Priest/Rogue/Mage – This is the line up that has won Pandemic so many championship titles. With Prayer of Mending healing everyone that gets hit and Renew, the greatest healing over time spell in the game, the rogue and mage duo is free to do all the damage in the world and not worry about dieing.
Used By: Pandemic

Paladin/Warrior/Mage – Pandemic first used this line up in Wuhan for the first ever WSVG 3v3 tournament. It won them the tournament and the next few tournaments following it. It is very useful because the mage can crowd control while the Warrior does all the damage. If the warrior gets caught up or snared Blessing of Freedom gives him the ability to do what he does best.
Used By: Pandemic

2v2:
Warlock/Mage – One of the most powerful burst teams out there, this 2v2 team runs off the theory of “Kill before you’re killed.” With high burst damage and undispellable DoTs (Due to Unstable Affliction) this team is very hard to kill.

Paladin/Mage – While this team isn’t too common, it is fairly useful. With the Paladins Blessing of Protection and the mage speced into Fire/Arcane, this can be a powerful line up. The mage does all the damage, in burst form. Sheep the healer of the opposing team and quickly take down his partner to take the win.
Used By: Warmachine

Job in Arena
As one of the best crowd controlling classes in the game, Mages job is to keep people controlled while doing as much damage as possible. Make use of Frost Nova and sheep as much as possible, make sure that you

Job in Battlegrounds
Damage, pure and simple. There is nothing a mage does better than do mass damage to everyone in a battlegrounds. Try to run into the middle of a group of enemies, Arcane Explosion and Frost Nova, blink out of the ground and cast Blizzard upon them and sit back watching the Honorable Kills roll in.