Mage General FAQ

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What are the best races for playing a mage in PvE?

It's not simple to say definitively what the best raiding race is for a mage, but the general consensus is that Orc followed by Troll are both great all-round choices, while Undead is the best mage race for Naxxramas (and is slightly good for Tower of Karazhan too). Here are the most notable racial abilities and passives from certain races that benefit mages the most in raids (in no specific order).

Alliance

Human: The Perception racial ability gives a 2% increased spell critical strike chance for 20 seconds (3 minute cooldown). As this ability is on the global cooldown, it can be awkward to use it while already casting, unless you need to move during a fight. The Human Spirit racial passive gives 5% increased Spirit and allows 5% of your Mana regeneration to continue while casting, both of which are not the best but can be slightly helpful during long fights.

Gnome: The Expansive Mind racial passive increases your Intellect by 5%. This scales with your gear and buffs, giving you around 0.5% bonus spell critical strike chance at level 60 in best in slot gear with buffs, as well as a little more mana. The Disassembler racial passive which gives 5% increased damage against mechanical mobs only helps in the Chess boss encounter in the Tower of Karazhan raid.

High Elf: The Quel'dorei Meditation racial ability generates 10% of your maximum mana over 5 seconds (1.5 second cast time, 3 minute cooldown). This is fairly insignificant and doesn't make much of an impact while raiding, due to already having evocation, mana gems and mana potions to restore mana.

Horde

Orc: The Blood Fury racial ability gives 60 spell power at level 60 for 15 seconds (2 minute cooldown). It also reduces healing on you by 25% for 25 seconds. Blood Fury is not on the global cooldown and can easily be combined into a macro along with your damage spells/trinket.

Undead: The Vengeance racial passive gives 2% increased damage against non-player humanoids and undead. This makes Undead the strongest mage race when raiding Naxxramas. It's also beneficial in some areas of the Tower of Karazhan raid (against the Echo of Medivh boss, the Chess boss pawns and some trash mobs). Outside of those two raids, it's not used much elsewhere (a notable exception being the humanoids in Zul'Gurub). The Will of the Forsaken racial ability is useful to break fears on the Mephistroth boss in the Tower of Karazhan raid.

Troll: The Berserking racial ability gives 10% to 15% haste based on how wounded you are for 10 seconds (3 minute cooldown). Berseking is not on the global cooldown and can easily be combined into a macro along with your damage spells/trinket. However, do note that there is a haste cap for arcane missiles when stacking multiple haste effects at the same time. The Beast Slaying racial passive gives 5% increased damage against beasts, which helps in Zul'Gurub, Naxxramas (against the spider wing trash mobs and Maexxna) and the Tower of Karazhan (against the owls during the Keeper Gnarlmoon fight), but it isn't that useful elsewhere.

File:TWoW 1180 Mage Best PvE Races.png

What spec to level as?

All three specs are fine for leveling play what seems fun to you. 

Frost - generally the easiest to start with and the most efficient especially if you use it to aoe farm.  Just be aware Blizzard slow is nerfed on twow but cone of cold is not.  Shatter also nerfed from 50% crit to 35%.

Arcane - also good for leveling as you can completely remove spell pushback with the Improved Arcane missiles talent and has good mana recovery.

Fire - hardest but still very doable.

What is the pre-raid best in slot (BiS)?

There are currently no up to date pre-raid BiS lists for any mage specs. This is because you can just jump right into raids like ZG, AQ20, Onyxia, MC, BWL, AQ40 and ES without any difficulty, even in green and blue gear. Many guilds are fully BiS and have been farming Naxx for years at this stage, so you can easily get carried and be freely given epic raid gear from these guild's raids just by attending them.

Due to Turtle WoW items regularly being updated, it also becomes difficult to maintain any pre-raid BiS lists. Therefore it is not recommended to go out of your way to farm pre-raid BiS gear before doing any raids. Instead, you should focus on getting your attunements done and start raiding as soon as possible, while picking up any dungeon upgrades you find along the way.

If you don't want to raid or you want some suggestions for upgrades, you can farm these key items from dungeons that are good:

But if you want to farm some pre-raid gear before raiding, here are some suggested pieces for each spec. This list only includes dungeon drops and excludes PvP gear, Professions, Reputation Rewards, World Bosses, and other sources:

Arcane Mage:


Fire Mage:


Frost Mage:

What spec to raid as?

All three specs are competitive with each having advantages on certain fights. 

Fire - generally highest boss damage when you get good rng, in general less good on trash than other specs.  Easy to play, longest range.

Frost - hardest to play at a high level due to needing to maximize flash freeze procs and manage more cooldowns.  Highest average single target dmg and best dps on small trash packs. As of April 7th, frost has mana issues.

Arcane - strong single target, best aoe for large trash packs, best mana sustain by a large margin, easy to play but has a rotation with slight nuance when trying to maximise DPS.

Naxx boss rankings since CC2 to give a general idea that all three specs are viable and being played. Don't take this to mean fire is the strongest as this doesn't include trash damage and many of those parses had multiple fire mages contributing to one person's damage.

What to farm?

Lashers in Dire Maul east is a good thing to start with and decent gold per hour. Here's a tutorial video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmIMjD9321w

What are the best professions?

Only engineering really matters for raids because of goblin sapper charges. The other profession choice is up to you (herbalism is good for gold).

How to get the conjured mana oranges quest?

First, you need to have completed the Arcane Refreshment quest from Dire Maul, which starts in the Dire Maul Library and requires you to loot a quest item from the Hydrospawn boss in Dire Maul East.

Then talk to Archmage Malin in the Stormwind Mage Quarter (Alliance) or Bethor Iceshard in the Undercity Magic Quarter (Horde) and accept A Special Kind of Summons.

They will make you talk to Archmage Xylem in Azshara. To get up to him, there is an NPC under a white awning that will teleport you up to his tower. His apprentice (the way to get up) is at 28,50.

You will have to kill the Moam boss in AQ20 and loot the Perfect Obsidian Shard from his corpse. Only one person per raid can loot this shard, so you may have to roll against other mages for it. As the shard isn't a quest item, you don't need to have the oranges quest in your quest log at the time of looting it.

Once you have the Perfect Obsidian Shard, hand in the quest to Archmage Xylem and you will receive the Tome of Refreshment Ritual. Once you learn the oranges spell from the tome, you can then safely destroy the tome as it no longer serves a use.

How to get Teleport: Theramore and Teleport: Stonard?

Tome of Teleportation: Theramore quest: https://database.turtle-wow.org/?quest=41114. The book you have to get in the Gilneas City dungeon is at the south side of the instance, inside of a building near Judge Sutherland (see image).

Tome of Teleportation: Stonard quest: https://database.turtle-wow.org/?quest=41117

The portal versions of each spell are random trash mob drops in Karazhan 10.

What are the alternate T1/T2/T3 gear sets for arcane and how do I get them?

An easy way to see all of the different versions of each set in game is to get https://github.com/Otari98/AtlasLoot.

To get new pieces of T3 gear - Light's Hope Chapel from Archmage Angela Dosantos. You get to choose if you want the regular T3 item or the arcane one.

To get new pieces of T1/T2 gear - from an NPC in the middle of blackrock mountain when you walk across the chains.

To convert existing pieces of T1/T2/T3 gear - go to Feid Rota in Ratchet. WARNING - SWAPPING WILL REMOVE ANY ENCHANTS YOU HAD.

What are some useful macros?

Instant ice block + cancel ice block:

#showtooltip Ice Block
/stopcasting
/cancelaura Ice Block
/stopcasting
/cast Ice Block

Arcane surge if available otherwise fireblast (requires https://github.com/MarcelineVQ/Roid-Macros):

#showtooltip Fire Blast
/cast [reactive:Arcane_Surge]Arcane Surge;Fire Blast

What are some useful addons for mage?

Check the general addons wiki as well, here are some particularly useful for mage

How does haste work?

Cast Time and Haste Mechanics

Simplified Formula

The cast time of an ability or spell with a single source of haste can be calculated using the formula:

<math>\mathrm{cast\_time} = \frac{\mathrm{base\_cast\_time}}{1 + h}</math>

Where:

  • base_cast_time: The unmodified casting time of the ability or spell.
  • <math>h</math>: Decimal haste, calculated as <math>h = \frac{\mathrm{haste\_percentage}}{100}</math>.

Example

For a 2-second base cast time with 50% haste:

<math> \mathrm{cast\_time} = \frac{2}{1 + 0.5} = \frac{2}{1.5} \approx 1.33 </math>

Full Formula with Multiple Haste Sources

If you have multiple sources of haste, they stack multiplicatively rather than additively. The full formula is:

<math> \mathrm{cast\_time} = \frac{\mathrm{base\_cast\_time}}{(1 + h_1)(1 + h_2)(1 + h_3) \cdots(1+h_n)} </math>

Where:

  • <math>h_1, h_2, \ldots, h_n</math>: The decimal hastes from each individual source of haste.

Example

For a 2-second base cast time with a source of 15% haste from gear, and 33% haste from a trinket, the cast time would be:

<math>\mathrm{cast\_time} = \frac{2}{(1 + 0.15)(1 + 0.33)} = \frac{2}{1.15 \cdot 1.33} \approx 1.307</math>

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