Spec for levelling a mage

Classes Mage
1

Hey,

I have read on Wowhead frost is most recommended spec for levelling. I have a mage level 34. I might be missing something but I find frost the least entertaining, it does not hit hard, it’s slow and cc is not as useful as I expected, although It does help a bit. The worst thing is randomness and damage increase heavily relies on that.

I checked arcane and it is such difference. Everything dies so fast. I usually get 4 arcane stacks so damage is good and casting time reduced. When I begin with arcane blast followed by missiles, and this is almost always the kill. If not, I finish mob by arcane barrage. I can do small AoE but mana cost a lot. I also test-fire and it’s much better than frost but I still need to have 2x crits to use pyro which is also random.

Did you have favourite spec, if yes what was is and why would you recommended it.
or what was interesting?

Thanks

1 Like
2

I levelled as fire but that was back in WotLK.

Just play whatever you like. Guides are based on spreadsheets and raw math, your playstyle has a huge impact on how much damage you do, so if you enjoy levelling as arcane, just do so.

3

I levelled mine as arcane until late wotlk. At low level with heirloom gear mana regen is not an issue.
I switched to frost little before wod, arcane burst wasn’t that uber anymore and the frost kiting abilities saved my butt more than once.
Sticking to frost for the good on demand AoE on island and dungeon.

4

Frost is recommended because of efficiency, but efficiency does not come from killing a mob quickly (and arcane is indeed the best for that). Instead, efficiency comes from levelling through the last expansion by gathering up large groups of mobs and AoEing them down all at the same time.

Frost does that better than either arcane or fire, and not even because it does more AoE damage in general (which would be debatable and depend on exact AoE scenario), but because you can pull more that you can face tank and kite it while it dies in your blizzard, frozen orb, and comet storm without taking damage.

At level 34 and chilled questing it’s quite different, if not irrelevant.

FWIW, as fire, try out Firestarter (lvl 15 talent). Then, when you pull a new mob, you get guaranteed crit of fireball, into Fire Blast and you can insta-pyro a mob already. Very efficient. If the last pyro crits, use it on a new mob for another guaranteed crit + fire blast and keep chaining like that.

5

Comet Storm + Pet’s freeze = win :).

Add a Frozen orb and blizzard to that and you can just keep going, as long as they’re melee or you pull them around a corner.

I lvld as fire, and it went fine. But if I had to do it again I’d go frost.

6

Comet storm you won’t get till lvl 90 or something. If your op Arcane or Fire for the burst especially since arcane missles got change for bfa. When you gear isn’t op frost’s slows and freezes is great. Also frost’s shield is best against melee.

7

Thanks guys! I actually stopped levelling Mage at 50. At the moment I can’t stand waiting for buffs to trigger. Yes, sometimes I kill things within three spells but usually I don’t and then what is left is just Fireball because everything else is on CD. I tried frost AoE but could barely endure it, since everything scales to your level. Not all mobs are melee and some mobs shoot hard. I don’t know maybe Mage is not for me :stuck_out_tongue:

8

go arcane up to 70/90. the burst is huge and mobs die in 2-3 spell.
after that you can go back to frost, kiting helps and you’ll have plenty of spell to use

9

Arcane is the best until Frost gets Frozen Orb, then you should swap to Frost, gather 10-20 mobs per pull and just CC+AoE them down.

1 Like
10

I hear ya. Ever since Vanilla others kept telling me “oh, but frost is better!!”. Sigh

To me, Arcane is the best. Easy, fast and powerful. So efficient. It is true that frost is much better when handling AOE (including big packs of mobs, which is why it’s so popular), although if you combine rune of power, arcane power and spam arcane blasts you can also manage to kill a group of 4 or 5 enemies too - although you have to watch your hp.

11

For levelling i suggest you the frost spec. leater when you reached 120 change to arcane or fire if you want.

12

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