#0 - Feb. 20, 2007, 3:13 a.m.
Friday September 28 : modifications to raiding specs, addition of the arcane raiding spec.
Sunday August 18 : a new article discussing the different variants of the classic PvP mage build, 17/0/44, has been added. It's still being written. If it gets too long to fit in the remaining spots of the guide, I'll make it a whole new post.
Tuesday May 29 : the guide has been modified to take into account the last 2.10 patch. The modifications concern only the deep frost part of the guide.
Friday April 13 : the level 70 mage builds have been rewritten and reorganized for more clarity. Many points have changed, also taking into account recent mage changes as the nova nerf. Thanks to check the guide again if you want an up to date version of them.
Thanks for reading.
Ahine.
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Hail to my fellow mages,
So as noone did it yet, I decided to make a compilation of the most current mage builds at level 70. This is not meant to be a static guide but on the contrary an interactive one. So I need your help : post me your builds, your advices, your experiences and we can together contribute to make this a clear and usable guide of good mage builds for everyone.
But to answer many questions on this forum, I will start by describing the main leveling builds.
I. Leveling Builds :
1-70 is a long way to go and most players are worried about the fact they could make wrong choices that would slow their leveling : this feeling is of course totally natural. But dont worry here, tou cant really do any big mistake, provided you choose a way and stick to it. The main different ways to level your mage have been perfectly balanced by Blizzard.
The first question coming here again and again is : should I go for frost or fire to level my mage ? The answer is simple : both are fine. It's two different playstyles and I would rather advise you to try both of them, as soon as you feel the opportunity for a respec.
Knowing your mage deeply costs many and many respecs and nothing is better than "your own" experience as a true guide and master to follow.
Fire is about high sustained dps on a single target (before you get Blast Wave and Dragon Breath two excellent aoe skills). Frost is more about control and huge dps on frozen targets. You kill faster with fire, but you run out of mana a bit faster too. You have a bit more mana efficiency and more control against one or several mobs with frost, but you're more dependant on your nova/shatter for killing them, and on your cooldowns for survival.
If as a mage you like to burst your damages very fast on your ennemies, trying to get them down the fastest you can at all costs, then Fire is made for you. If on the contrary you enjoy controlling your ennemies, freezing them, slowing them, and to have a few defense and survival tricks at hand, then you should go frost. Remember that you wont be able to fully enjoy the fire or frost way before level 40-50, when you finally get enough points to take the main talents in each tree. Some will still ask here : but which one is best ? Which one will I prefer to play ? There I can only answer : only you may know. Fire/frost is really a personnal choice and noone can say, but you, which way should be yours as a mage. I'd rather advise you to choose one at the beginning following your intuition, stick with it until the level 40, then go for a respec and see by yourself which one you prefer to level your character.
The second question here is : should I go for a AoE grinding build or not ? If you want to do alot of AoE grinding then you need mainly to go frost and take the suitable talents. However this guide is not meant to be a AoE grinding guide, and I will redirect you to you to Bangy's excellent guide (first sticky on this forum). I'll just mention later the talents you need as a frost AoE Frost mage. Notice that many mage builds may work well for AoE and not only the pure frost way (Elemental ones with shatter, or even fire mages using Flamestrike for example). But the pure AoE grinding from level 40+ is mostly done with Improved Blizzard and Cone of Cold.
I'll give here five examples of leveling builds, if you want to go : 1. fire, 2.a frost, 2.b frost aoe, 3. elemental, 4. Arcane. Leveling with arcane is a bit more tricky to my mind, but if this is really your choice and your dream tree, then go for it. Remember : nothing is impossible for a mage !
Those talent builds are intended for pure solo pve/questing. Pvp is meant to be balanced (*cough*) only at level 70, so if pvp is your choice I can just advise you to grind to level 70 faster as you can.
1. Fire leveling talent build
I'll give here just an example of talent picking order until the level 50. After the level 50 you can refer to the level 70 builds in this same guide, and should start to think which one you're going to play. That will mainly answer to the question about what talents to pick between levels 50 and 70.
Lvl 10-14 : Improve Fireball 5/5
Lvl 15-16 : Flame Throwing 2/2
Lvl 17-19 : Ignite 3/5
Lvl 20 : Pyroblast 1/1
Lvl 21-22 : Ignite 5/5
Lvl 23-24 : Burning Soul 2/2
Lvl 25-29 : Impact 5/5
Lvl 30 : Blast Wave 1/1
Lvl 31-33 : Critical Mass 3/3
Lvl 34 : Improve Fire Blast 1/3
Lvl 35-39 : Fire Power 5/5
Lvl 40 : Combustion 1/1
Lvl 41-43 : Pyromaniac 3/3
Lvl 44-45 : Molten Fury 2/2
No there is no need to take Empowered Fireball as your +sd gear should not be that high.
Lvl 46-47 : Improve Fire Blast 3/3
Lvl 48-49 : Incinerate 2/2
Lvl 50 : Dragon Breath 1/1 ! Congratulations you got one of the best mage fire talent/skill in whole game, that's an achievement you deserve to enjoy ! You just need to get used to it as its range is not huge and it doesnt scale with Flame Throwing. For pve it will always be easier to Dragon Breath a pack of mobs on you to distract them, in pvp you need to work on the positionning and the range. Before that you will probably cast several Dragon Breaths in the air.
At level 50 your fire tree should look like this one : http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000055523201200003105312010000000000000000000000
Of course there are many alternatives to the way i just described. You can choose to skip Impact to get Master of Elements for more mana efficiency if you bother sitting alot (actually leveling a mage is about sitting alot so...). Improve Fireblast is very good to be put at max soon if you occasionnally do some pvp or use it alot in pve. But I like Impact and even in pve it has many procs that brings the whole process a bit more fun.
2. Frost leveling talent build
2.a non-aoe frost leveling
Lvl 10-14 : Improve Frostbolt 5/5
Lvl 15-19 : Ice Shards 5/5
Lvl 20-22 : Frostbite 3/3
Lvl 23-24 : Improved Frost Nova 2/2
Lvl 25-29 : Shatter 5/5. Done ! This one will make your whole frost leveling faster and funnier ! 5/5
(As an alternative some ppl even advise to go fire before being level 27-29, then respec to get shatter and going full frost. To my mind that's not really necessary, but it's up to you)
Lvl 30 : Ice Block 1/1 (a good life savier)
Lvl 31 : Cold Snap 1/1 (a second life saving chance, variant : you can get this one higher if you think you dont need it yet).
Lvl 32-33 : Artic Reach 2/2
Lvl 34-36 : Piercing Ice 3/3
Lvl 37-39 : Frost Channeling 3/3
Lvl 40 : Ice Barrier 1/1
Lvl 41-42 : Ice Floes 2/2
Lvl 43-45 : Improve Cone of Cold 3/3
Lvl 46-48 : Permafrost 3/3
Lvl 49 : Elemental Precision 1/3 (variant : you can take Elemental Precision to 3 and Permafrost to 1, as you prefer. Permafrost gives you a good kiting tool, mobs will reach you later. On the other hand Elemental Precision avoids you "annoying" resists)
Lvl 50 : Summon Water Elemental 1/1 ! Congratulations !
At level 50 your frost tree should look like this one : http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000515323310235013201001
2.b Frost aoe grinding talent build
For more details about aoe grinding, refer to Bangy's excellent guide : http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=107621534&sid=1&pageNo=1.
I'll give just an example of build that can be suitable for aoe grinding. The build is intended mainly for blizzard and coc aoeing. AoE grinding usually starts at level 40
Lvl 10-14 : Improve Frostbolt 5/5
Lvl 15-19 : Ice Shard 5/5
Lvl 20-22 : Permafrost 3/3
Lvl 23-24 : Improved Frost Nova 2/2
Lvl 25-29 : Shatter 5/5
Lvl 30-31 : Ice Block 1/1 Cold Snap 1/1 (very good for aoe, but as the cd is 5/10 mins or 4/8 mins with Ice Floes, you cant rely on it at each pull)
Lvl 32-33 : Artic Reach 2/2 (this one is fundamental)
Lvl 34-36 : Improved Blizzard 3/3 (this one is fundamental too)
Lvl 37-39 : Improved Cone of Cold 3/3 (a must also)
Lvl 40 : Ice Barrier 1/1 , congratulations you're ready to start AoE kiting-grinding :)
At level 40 your build should look just like this one : http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000505023013205013001000
Then you can keep on by taking Piercing Ice 3/3, Ice Floes 2/2, Frost Channeling 3/3... Just skip Frostbite which is very bad for AoE kiting as it will make some mobs frozen while others keep on running after you. Enjoy^^
