Mage Discussions

I guess I had a bit of free time on my hands, and so I put together some quick information about what mages in general go for regarding talent builds, glyphs and stats.

Talent Builds (glyphs included in web link)

I'll cover the common builds available, one for each tree.

1. Arcane (57/3/11): http://www.wowhead.com/talent#ofbicz0fzxGuMtedcZbhf0o:Nziczm
This is by far the most common build for any PvE mage, with Icy Veins, PoM, Arcane power capable of quick burst damage and sustainable damage if mana is managed correctly. Remember to pop mana gem as soon as 3.5k mana is depleted and don't exceed 5-6x arcane blasts looking for a missile barrage proc. If mana is a slight problem you can place 1 point from magic absorption into arcane mediation to get (3/3). Arcane Empowerment is a must-have talent for all arcane mages speccing into it doesn't only increase the mages dps but provides a 3% raid buff which is handy. However, this buff does not stack with a Beast mastery hunters Ferocious Inspiration and a Retri paladins Sanctified Retribution.


2. Fire (19/52/0): http://www.wowhead.com/talent#of0qcz0sZ0EcoRhIhVubhct:LViMzm
Since the recent patch updates, fire mages have had more to laugh about as they crush rival arcane mages dps in ICC fights, ofcourse this is variable depending on the encounter but overall fire mages are much more viable, they require a rotation of always having scorch up (unless you have an affliction warlock or a deep demonology in your group attacking your target, in which case scorch is useless as it doesn't stack with their improved shadowbolt), Keep living bomb up, Fireball till hotstreak procs and hopefully with scorch and living bomb still up cast pyroblast, if they are not cast living bomb then pyro.
Also, If there are 2 fire mages in your raid communicate with each other to designate a person to keep scorch up if possible, it may limit one persons dps slightly but will greatly increase the others.

3. Frost (20/0/51): http://www.wowhead.com/talent#ofcbrzMcZZAIbGobu0fdMfkt:jhmVcz
This build is the most commonly used build around for PvP mages there are alternatives such as arcane and fire with higher burst damage than frost but the survivability of those builds is not respectable at all. Frost mages can withstand much more thrown at them than any of the other trees. I am no PvP guru so cannot explain the Ins and outs of how to play your mage successfully. As a general rule though, always stay on the edges or peripheries of fights, your role is not to go in trigger happy frost bolting someone who is 5 yards away from you, keep your distance! someone gets close to you? sheep, frost nova, run away strafing or blink, but if against a rogue, don't blink too early wait for the damn kidney shot! or that fight will be an uphill battle. Those are all my words of wisdom Smile


Stats (in order of importance)

This will cover the stats for the arcane and fire builds luckily enough their priorities are very similar.

1. Hit: mages need 17% total, there are 2 talents that make mages lives much easier to obtain the required cap, Arcane focus and Precision, mages can also gain 3% from boomkins in raid if they have improved faerie fire or shadow priests with misery.

2. Spellpower: It should go without saying, spellpower is important.

3. Haste: get as much as you can always go Haste > crit. Watch out you don't get too much haste though 1400 is roughly the hard cap, so watch out when timing Icy veins and hero. You may be losing considerable dps if using them together, as your casts will not go below the GCD of 1 second.

4. Crit: still important,always try to obtain haste crit spellpower gear once you have reached your hit cap.

5. Intellect: bigger mana pool and slight increase in crit chance.

6: Spirit: with molten armor glyph slight increase in crit chance but don't aim for gear with spirit, as that gear is not the BiS for mages. It's best not to really concern yourself with this stat.


Gemming

Be very liberal with gemming spellpower! runed cardinal ruby is your gem of choice and secondly reckless ametrine. Don't worry about socketing for socket bonus if it is 5 spellpower or lower.

Hope this small summary helps any new 80 mage Smile

Very nice guide there Mixo! I've got a level 75 mage and i did do some research on mages too a while ago..
I only wonder about one thing..
What about PvE as frost spec..
I've seen a mage doing quite alot of dmg in ICC as frost spec..
Is it possible to make any success as a frost mage in PvE or is it pure for PvP?

Well Frost just seems to lack the pure dps talents and is more about control, Water elemental, ice barrier, cold snap. I think blizzard have just made it the PvP tree. I haven't actually seen any high end mages spec for frost in a veeery long time, it just does not compete with the other two trees at all and I can't see it being the spec to be in the future either. In catacylsm from what talent builds I attempted, Fire seems the way to go but its too early to tell. I will post later some more information such as useful addons and macros when I can.

Useful Macros

Macros are really useful shortcuts that save you alot of time and effort, I use them now and again. I can't say I know a huge list of them, but for the specs I play I can list a few helpful ones.

1. Counterspell

Really important in boss fights where the spell the boss cast is on a very short timer. Lady Deathwhisperers Frost volleys for example. it basically just stops you casting whatever you were doing and instantly counterspells.

#showtooltip
/Stopcasting
/cast counterspell

2. Arcane Blast burst damage

Pops all your Cd's at once along with trinkets if they have uses. Need to press it once to pop cd's then a second time to cast arcane blast. Personally I don't use it and prefer to time my cd's seperately e.g. with hero or if i need to nuke a certain add fast, but for anyone else who prefers a good nuking button:

#showtooltip Arcane Blast
/cast Icy Veins
/cast Mirror Image
/cast Arcane Power
/use 13
/use 14
/cast Arcane blast


3. Combustion Fireball

Same idea as the arcane blast macro.

#showtooltip fireball
/cast combustion
/cast mirror image
/use 13
/use 14
/cast fireball
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

4. Armor Macro

I personally really like this macro because it saves me on a few hot keys. Mage, Ice, and Molten armor all in one button

#showtooltip
/cast [button:2] Mage Armor; [mod:shift] ice Armor; Molten Armor;

If u right click on it, it will cast Mage armor. If u shift click it casts Ice armor and with a normal click it casts Molten armor.

5. Evocation with spirit

This macro is somewhat useful for increased mana regeneration. If you have for example a staff with alot of spirit on it compared to ur main hand and off hand. You can switch the weapons prior to casting then evocate and then return the previous weapons to their original slots.

#showtooltip Evocation
/equipslot 16 mag'hari chieftain's staff
/cast evocation
/equipslot 16 Frozen Bonespike
/equipslot 17 shadow silk spindle

Just replace the name of weapons with the ones I have

6. Portal Macro

This saves me on alot of buttons! now I know there are addons for this but its just pointless I feel if you can macro it yourself.

#showtooltip
/cast [btn:1,nomod]Portal: Stormwind;[mod:shift]Portal: Ironforge;[mod:ctrl]Portal: Darnassus;[mod:alt]Portal: Shattrath;

you can change the cities and button modifications as you like.

7. Teleport Macro

#showtooltip
/cast [btn:1,nomod]Teleport: Stormwind;[mod:shift]Teleport: Ironforge;[mod:ctrl]Teleport: Darnassus;[mod:alt]Teleport: Shattrath;

PVP Macros

Now I know we are a PvE guild but whenever you're bored you may PvP, I find this is when macros really come in helpful. I haven't included arena macros such as target arena123 and focus target as they are generally the same for all players.

1. Ice Lance Vs Shaman

Ice lance should almost be your number one spell against shamans with grounding totems up every 10 seconds it really helps with a quick Ice lance, but they also have a host of many other annoying totems, If you feel you have the time to take them all out, use this macro.

#showtooltip Ice Lance
/stopcasting
/target [exists] Grounding Totem
/target [exists] Mana spring totem
/target [exists] stoneclaw totem
/cast Ice Lance
/targetlasttarget

2. Water Elemental Freeze

very handy macro for a one button summon elemental and freeze. Press once to summon, press twice to cast freeze. You may be wondering why the pet is on passive and also on follow. I'll explain it with the 3rd macro that follows.

#showtooltip Summon Water Elemental
/cast [nopet] Summon Water Elemental
/stopmacro [nopet]
/petpassive
/clickpetactionbuttons
/petfollow
/cast freeze

3. Good boy! Water elemental

I've got to say I am so glad I found this macro, it has saved me pulling out my hair so many times. Basically one of our main spells in PvP is polymorph, now what good is polymorph if your CC'ed target breaks out because your water elemental casts a frostbolt on your sheep? Now you dont have to worry anymore.

#showtooltip
/cast Frostbolt
/stopmacro [@pettarget, exists]
/petattack

Amazing! now your water elemental will only cast waterbolt on the target you cast frostbolt on!
Note: One other amazing trick with this macro, when you cast mirror image, they will also target the same target as you. Genius!

I hope this has helped somewhat for PvE and PvP I will keep adding from time to time If I come across anything good.

<Reserved>

OK, I've been arcane spec for a while, only recently changed to fire spec and i love it, only one problem i'm always messing up on rotation, any tips of what my rotation should be?