Mage Leveling Guide and Mage Leveling Spec
It’s always a bit difficult to start a new toon on Wow, as you have a lot of new information to learn. Mage in particular is a tough class to master, but this mage leveling guide and mage leveling spec should help flatten the learning curve a bit.
Being skill dependent means that Mage can be the best class in the game, depending on your skill. The best soloing tree is Frost, as it grants a level of control and survivability that cannot be matched by other specs.
Here is my preferred Frost Mage leveling spec:
(Don’t go Arcane until Frost is done)
Improved Frostbolt – 5/5
Freezing – 3/3
Ice floes – 3/3
Ice Shards – 3/3
Permafrost – 3/3
Icy Veins – 1/1
Arctic Range – 2/2
Frost Channeling – 3/3
Shatter – 3/3
Cold snap – 1/1
Cold as ice – 2/2
Winter cold – 3/3
Shattered Barrier – 2/2
Ice barrier – 1/1
Arctic winds – 1/5
Empowered Frostbolt – 2/2
Frost Fingers – 2/2
Brain Freeze – 3/3
Summon Water Elemental – 1/1
Enduring winter – 3/3
Chilled to the bone – 3/5
Deep Freeze – 1/1
Then, move on to the Arcane to finish your specialization:
Arcane Subtlety – 2/2
Arcane Focus – 3/3
Arcane Fortress – 3/3
Magic Absorption – 2/2
Magical Attunement – 2/2
Spell Impact – 3/3
Improved Counterspell – 2/2
Torment the weak – 3/3
So there’s the mage leveling spec… now the mage leveling guide!
General tips come first (applies to all classes):
Use key combinations for your spells; DO NOT CLICK ON SKILLS. It is too slow and the magician depends on the skill. Once you’ve got that out of the way, your mouse is free for MUCH faster and more precise movement; Hold down the right mouse button and move your mouse to rotate quickly. You NEED this kind of control to play well as a wizard; you will be almost useless if you cannot master these skills.
I wouldn’t bother with any profession until level eighty. They are a waste of time when you are leveling up. Instead, buy all of your gear. You can easily afford this as long as you sell all white quality or better on the auction house; Do this quickly by holding an alt in a major city and mailing everything to Auction.
Don’t let rest XP go to waste; sign out at an inn!
Use a good quest guide! I’ll link my review of the most popular ones at the end of the article.
Keep a good supply of food/drinks at the correct level! Mana will always be your limiting factor, and it takes forever to regenerate if you don’t use water.
Now, the specific tips of the Mage leveling guide!
Be conservative with mana, especially at lower levels; don’t use mana expensive instants when one or two wands will take down the mob.
Always remember to use your cooldowns effectively; for example, Evocation is useless if it just sits; use it as soon as your mana is low enough to get the full effect.
Once you have your pet, get used to controlling it manually; letting it run wild is much less effective.
Don’t rely on shields, especially the mana shield; wasting mana on them is going to cause you WAY more downtime than you would if you just played smart and avoided getting hit.
Learn to kitesurf! One of the biggest advantages of Frost mages is the ability to never let an enemy get you.
Choose hit rate, magic power/frost damage, and intelligence over other stats! You shouldn’t get hit so stamina is useless!
Now how exactly do you play your wizard? It depends on what level you are!
For the first few levels, you pretty much just want to use whatever spell is newer; it will usually be the strongest and most mana efficient. It might be a good idea to use Frostbolt to get the trap started, but other than that, just blitz. A wand is great for mana efficiency, so buy one ASAP.
Once you start getting talent points, use Frostbolt exclusively. Seriously, nothing else is worth it once you have a few talent points. Continue killing mobs with your wand. Frost Nova is a great help; with a few talent points, you will be able to use it in every fight. This is how things will be for a long time: Frostbolt until you’re about to get hit, Frost Nova, run away, start over.
Things will get MUCH easier once you get your “Shatter combo” talents; crit damage is increased and chance to crit frozen mobs. You can expect to get at least one MAJOR crit per fight thanks to Frost Nova.
Things stay the same for a long time, until you get your water elemental. Suddenly, you no longer have mana problems and nothing can oppose you, even elites. I recommend using Glyph of Eternal Water, as the loss of your freeze is completely worth the buff to your overall damage abilities.
