Empowered Fire

Mage Leveling Guide

- Updated for 3.3! Changes were made to sections addressing levels 1 through 20 and level 50.

So you’ve decided to level a mage, huh? Good for you: mages are awesome. Here’s an outline of how to level your newbie mage to 80 quickly and efficiently.

Table of Contents:

• What race should I be?
• What stats are important?
• Levels 1 through 10
• Levels 11 through 20
• Levels 21 through 30
• Levels 31 through 50
• Levels 51 through 63
• Levels 64 through 70
• Levels 71 through 80

What race should I be?
This is a question asked frequently by members of the LJ community where Ais and I met. Of the six races that can be mages, five have decent racial abilities that make being a mage easier. (Sorry, Forsaken.) Even though I’m a compulsive min-maxer, I make decisions about a character’s race based on what I enjoy playing and not what has the best advantages in gameplay. But here’s how the racial traits affect mages:

Blood elf: Arcane Torrent is decent for mages, for pretty obvious reasons. And while blood elves get +10 to enchanting, I’d like to again remind people that not all mages are enchanters. (Okay, yes, I happen to be. I’m not breaking your greens for you, though.)

Draenei: The hit aura, my god, the hit aura: draenei get 1% additional chance to hit with spells. This is great while leveling and it’s even better when raiding. You’ll be loved by your raid groups if you roll draenei. And Gift of the Naaru is just OP for leveling.

Forsaken: I wish there were better racials for Forsaken. If you plan to PVP, Will of the Forsaken makes rolling an Undead a good choice. For pure PVE reasons, there’s not much here that will help you – mages can make their own food and water, so Cannibalize doesn’t help much, and Underwater Breathing is a joke. (Dear Blizzard, please fix Forsaken racials. Love, Meta.)

Gnome: Expansive Mind is a nice boost for leveling mages – a bigger mana pool isn’t anything to shake a stick at. The arcane tree increases your spell power based on a percentage of your intellect, so gnome arcane mages have a slight boost there in end-game content. Escape Artist is handy for some PVE content, and will definitely be useful while leveling.

Human: Human Spirit gives a slight boost to spirit, which will boost end-game raiding but won’t do much of anything for you while leveling. Diplomacy makes it easier to grind rep, but with 3.3 looming on the horizon, that becomes less important. Every Man For Himself is great for both PVE and PVP, though: human mages who don’t have EMFH keybound while raiding are doing it wrong.

Troll: Trolls get Berserking, which is 20% haste every 3 minutes. This is fantastic for end-game raiding, though it’s not going to be as noticeably good while leveling. In my opinion, trolls have the best end-game racial for raiding. Plus, they’re awesome.

What stats are important?
As far as gear goes, you’ll want items that have spell power or hit on them, though these pieces are few and far between—at least until you get to Outland. Spell power is pretty straightforward—it increases the amount of damage your spells do. Hit is a bit trickier: players start out with only a certain chance that their spells will actually hit their target. For example, you have a 96% chance of your frostbolt hitting a mob of the same level you are, and that chance decreases as the mob’s relative level to you increases. A lot of the time you’ll be in combat with mobs two to three levels above your own, which means your spells will miss the target anywhere from 6 to 17% of the time. You’ll pick up some hit from talents, but grabbing a piece or two of gear with hit rating will help your spells to land on your target more frequently. Will you be fine without it? Sure. But picking up gear like Simple Pearl Ring as soon you hit 17 will definitely pay off.

But, again, gear with hit and spell power is rare until the later levels. In the meantime, you’ll want to grab a good chunk of regular old stamina and intellect: “…of the Eagle” items will be your friends. Spirit won’t do much of anything for you until level 62 when you get Molten Armor, but get used to seeing it on any cloth drops. Haste and critical strike are fine stats for mages, though don’t expect to see anything with those stats until Northrend. Strength, agility, and attack power do nothing for mages.

Levels 1 through 10
I’m not gonna lie to you: one through ten isn’t fun. Make sure Frost Armor is up and start firing fireballs at mobs. 3.3 drastically lowered the mana cost of lowbie spells, so mana shouldn’t be as much of a problem as it once was. At level 2 you get Arcane Intellect, which you’ll want to make sure is up at all times, like your armor spell. You’ll get frostbolt at level 4, and you’ll want to start using that immediately: it does a bit less damage than fireball, but costs nearly half the mana and slows the mob down. For the next 60 levels, frostbolt will be the spell you cast more than anything else. Get used to it. At level 6, you’ll learn fire blast, which can be used to quickly finish off a mob. It’s not much in the way of variety but, hey, every little bit helps. If the mob is frost immune or resistant (as the murlocs in Wetlands are, stupid bastards), use fireball.

You’ll get one of the most iconic mage spells at level 8: polymorph. It’s invaluable while leveling, provided that you’re not fighting dragonkin or undead. (Damn those zombie murlocs in Ghostlands!)

After many frostbolts, you’ll hit level 10 and with it, your first talent point. Hooray! Put it in Frostbite. (5% chance for a root on the mob is better than .1 second less casting time on a spell, in my opinion, particularly since the lower levels have shorter cast times.) Level 10 gives you the other crucial weapon in the frost mage’s arsenal: frost nova. From now on, you’ll be casting frostbolt until the mob gets near you, at which point you’ll cast nova and move away from the mob before you start casting again.

Levels 11 through 20
More frostbolting and more novaing. At level 15, you’ll unlock your first major and minor glyph spots. For minor, I’d go with Glyph of Slow Fall over Glyph of Arcane Intellect – it’s much more important for me to be able to jump off of stuff and live than to reduce the mana cost of a spell I cast once every 30 minutes. The best glyph for mages while leveling won’t be available to you until level 20, so just leave that spot open for it. (If you’re really concerned with having an empty glyph spot, you can use Glyph of Frost Nova or Glyph of Frost Armor until 20, but you’ll want to replace it.)

Your first five talent points should be spent filling out Frostbite and then moving into Improved Frostbolt. As soon as you’ve unlocked the second tier of frost talents, you’ll want to put your next three points into Precision: this increases your chance to hit with all spells by 3% as well as reducing their mana costs by 3%. After you’ve filled out Precision, you can go back and drop the remaining points into Improved Frostbolt.

As far as the spells you’ll learn along the way to 20 go … nothing really exciting to report. You’ll get the two most useless mage spells: Dampen Magic at 12 and Amplify Magic at 18. You might as well run with Dampen Magic on as it will reduce the amount of spell damage you take. If you group with a healer at any point, however, click it off. Amplify Magic is sorta useful on maybe three encounters in the game, so go ahead and forget you learned it.

At 20, you’ll get one of the spells mages love to hate: Blink. The first time Blink bugs out and causes you to fall through the earth is a milestone in every mage’s career. Of course, since you now get a mount at level 20 you won’t be using it to travel the way the rest of us did. Blink will, however, be a staple in your combat rotation: frostbolt until the mob gets close, frost nova, and then blink away before resuming combat. This level also gives us Mana Shield, which is perhaps the single worst spell in a mage’s arsenal. Yes, it will absorb damage, but your mana will empty out faster than a keg at a frat party. You may be alive, but you’ll be unable to do anything about the mob smacking you. Use it only when fleeing.

Level 20 also opens up the biggest perk to the mage class: teleports. You should be able to train the ability to teleport to Stormwind, Ironforge, and Exodar for Alliance; Orgrimmar, Undercity, and Silvermoon for Horde. You’ll get Darnassus or Thunder Bluff at 30. Be sure to pick up a stack of Runes of Teleportation.

Remember how I said the best leveling glyph for mages was available at 20? Pick it up now: Glyph of Evocation. We’re a very squishy class, if you hadn’t already noticed it, and being able to heal yourself while restoring mana will keep you running longer.

At level 20, your spec will look like this.

Levels 21 through 30
Business as usual for much of 21-30. You’ll continue to use frostbolt, frost nova, and fire blast as your main damage-dealing abilities. You’ll get Counterspell at level 24, so be sure to use it against casters while leveling. Level 26 yields Cone of Cold, a nice AOE ability with a chill effect.

We also get our first rank of mana gem at 28, which allows a mage to store up some mana for later use. Always have your mana gem conjured and ready to pop in a fight.

The first talent point you spend after 20 should be to get the Icy Veins ability. This gives you 20% haste and 100% pushback protection for twenty seconds. It’s extremely useful to burst down enemies, and you can use it combined with evocation to make sure your evo isn’t interrupted (thus ensuring you get the heal). After IV, fill out 3/3 Piercing Ice (+damage to frost spells), 3/3 Frost Channeling (10% reduced mana cost), and 2/2 Arctic Reach (+20% range to frost spells). The last point in this bracket should be spent in Cold Snap – this gives you a quick reset on any frost cooldowns you have up (right now, this will mostly be frost nova and Icy Veins, though it will affect other spells later).

At 30, pick up the last teleportation spell (in your faction’s druidic city: Darnassus or Thunder Bluff). You’ll also learn our oh-shit ability, Ice Block. While soloing, Ice Block isn’t going to do much for you – it doesn’t reset aggro, so angry gnolls will continue to smack away at the ice, waiting for you to become unfrozen. It will be useful when you’re in groups, however. Also at 30, you’ll learn Ice Armor. Why, yes, it is almost identical to Frost Armor! Don’t ask me why it’s not just Frost Armor Rank 4. Mage Armor gets an additional function at Rank 5, but Frost Armor just gets completely reinvented. Anyway, you’ll be using Ice Armor for the next handful of levels, so replace it on your bars.

Level 30 also gives you another Major Glyph spot. Even though you won’t get the spell for another four levels, I’d pick up Glyph of Mage Armor – 70% mana regen while casting is definitely nice. Glyph of Mana Gem is another option if you want something for the four levels before we learn Mage Armor.

At level 30, your spec will look like this.

Levels 31 through 50
Not much new here: at level 34, you’ll get Mage Armor, which will replace Frost/Ice Armor as the buff of choice. You’ll fill in 3/3 Shatter, 3/3 Ice Shards, and 3/3 Winter’s Chill before unlocking Ice Barrier, which will improve your survivability. You’ll want to have Ice Barrier up at all times. Your rotation is the same, however—repeated frostbolts, a nova when the mob gets close, and a fire blast to finish the job.

At 35 you can learn the ability to teleport yourself and open portals to Stonard or Theramore, woo. Level 40 unlocks the ability to open portals to the same cities you could teleport to at 20. (Darn and TB portals come at level 50.) Don’t expect any tips.

At level 40, your spec will look like this.

Fill out 2/2 Cold as Ice, 5/5 Arctic Winds, and 2/2 Empowered Frostbolt. You’ll then be able to unlock your Water Elemental. Finally, something to cast other than Frostbolt! Well, sorta – Fluffy hast two abilities, a frostbolt nuke of his own, and a frost nova. Unlike your nova, however, Fluffy’s nova can be cast at range, so it’s now easier to keep mobs off of you. See this for some helpful macros to manage your pet.

Level 50 gets you another minor glyph spot: go ahead and pick up Arcane Intellect. You will probably also want to replace your Glyph of Mage Armor/Mana Gem with Eternal Water, which will make your pet permanent. And be sure to pick up your Portal spell for Darn or Thunder Bluff.

At level 50, your spec will look like this.

Levels 51 through 63
After getting your Water Elemental, the next three points should be spent in Brain Freeze: a 15% chance to have a mana-free, instant-cast spell? Yes, please! Whenever you cast a spell that has a slowing effect on it (hint: that’s pretty much all of them), you have a chance to get the Brain Freeze proc, called “Fireball!” Cast a fireball as soon as the proc hits.

After Brain Freeze, drop one point in Enduring Winter: this will give your frostbolts a 33% chance to proc a replenishment effect, reducing the amount of downtime you have. (1 in 3 frostbolts proccing it is enough to have nearly a 100% uptime on replen.) After that, it’s 5/5 Chilled to the Bone, 2/2 Fingers of Frost and then off to the Fire tree for 2/2 Improved Fire Blast.

The only new abilities in here are Molten Armor, which you’ll get at 62, and Teleport: Shattrath, which is learned at 60. For leveling purposes, I’d stay with Mage Armor – the tiny amount of critical strike rating you’ll get from Molten Armor less important than the 50% mana regen while casting (70% if you’re glyphed) from Mage.

At level 63, your spec will look like this.

So why do I stop at 63? Because at level 64 you’ll learn an ability that means you can stop being frost: the most efficient leveling spec will now be arcane. If you like frost and want to keep playing frost, by all means continue to do so, but you’ll do more damage and have even less downtime as arcane from here on out. (You’ll want to pick up Deep Freeze next if you’re staying frost, though.)

Level 64 through 70
At level 64 you learn Arcane Blast and that changes everything for a leveling mage. You’ll want to respec entirely, and you’ll be using a different set of offensive abilities.

First the spec: I’d go with this. This introduces a few new abilities, so be sure to visit the trainer after respeccing to make sure you have the highest level ranks. Note that with this build, you will not want to use Glyph of Mage Armor: you get 50% increased mana regeneration while casting from this build. Mana regeneration in combat cannot exceed 100%, so 3/3 Arcane Meditation + Mage Armor is enough; the glyph becomes useless. Pick up Glyph of Mana Gem instead.

Your rotation now will be to pull a mob with Slow and cast Arcane Blast either until you get a Missile Barrage proc or you feel you’re burning through too much mana. As soon as you get a Missile Barrage proc (MB), cast Arcane Missiles. If you’ve cast Arcane Blast a few times and the mana cost is too much, clear the stack with regular Arcane Barrage. (In a raiding situation, clearing the stack with Arcane Barrage is a no-no; however, while leveling it’s nice to just zap them with it.) Putting Slow on the mob means your spells will do 12% more damage to the target in addition to the obvious benefits the debuff applies. Mobs will die more quickly than you’re used to, but don’t hesitate to continue using frost nova and blink to prolong the kiting stage.

The great thing about leveling as arcane is that Missile Barrage procs not only mean that your arcane missiles spell is faster, but that it costs no mana. And the spell rotation is dynamic – each application of Arcane Blast increases the damage of the next arcane spell, but also increases the mana cost. You’ll need to adjust how many arcane blasts you stack (up to four) before you remove the stack with either Arcane Barrage or Arcane Missiles. It’s much more interesting than casting frostbolt over and over again with the occasional fireball.

Remember how much I loved Glyph of Evocation? As arcane, you can use Evocation every two minutes. That means after just about every other pull you can use it to restore 60% of your mana and health. Then consider that you have 100% mana regen while casting, you get more mana from your mana gems, you have a 10% chance that your arcane blasts or barrages are mana-free, and all of your arcane missile procs are mana-free. You may very well never sit down to drink again.

All this regen means that it may be sustainable to use Molten Armor instead of Mage Armor. Molten armor takes a percentage of your spirit and converts it into critical strike rating. If mana isn’t a problem, try switching to Molten to increase your damage.

The next few talent points will be spent finishing up 3/3 Netherwind Presence, 2/2 Spell Power and then 3/3 Prismatic Cloak (you’ll get Invisibility at 68, but the reduced damage taken is nice even before you learn invis). While recent patches have improved invisibility, I still think having it as an instant-cast ability is invaluable while leveling. Or maybe that’s just because I have a habit of accidentally pulling elite mobs and needing to get away quickly.

At level 70, your spec will look like this.

Levels 71 through 80
Almost there! At 71 you’ll get a quest to learn the Teleport: Dalaran spell – it’s in Dragonblight. Even if you’re not to that zone yet, I’d travel there to do the quest as soon as you ding. As you get closer to 80, fill in 3/3 Ice Floes in the Frost tree, followed by two points in Frostbite and 3/3 in Precision. The last two points can be tossed into Incineration in the Fire tree – though you’ll want to respec again at 80 to streamline your spec for heroics or raiding.

Congratulations! And if you’re not burned out from playing a mage, Empowered Fire has more guides for you! Check out Ais’s Guide to New 80s and my 3.3 Raiding Guide. Good luck, and may warlocks never break your sheep!

Tags: leveling-arcane, leveling-frost, leveling-mage, mage-leveling-guide