Mage

The mage is a damage-dealing spell-caster that specializes in burst damage and area of effect spells. Their primary role in a group at lower levels is damage dealing and crowd control through the use of Polymorph, temporarily changing humanoids and beasts into harmless critters. At end-game levels, mages' damage is supplemented with Counterspell, Remove Curse, and Spellsteal. Mages' utility spells also include conjuring food and drink and the ability to teleport to major cities and open Portals for party members. In PvP, mages deal ranged damage while using snare effects and Polymorph to control enemy players.

As a spell-caster, a mage's primary stat is intellect, which directly increases the mage's spell power, mana pool and critical strike rating. Secondary stats that mages should wear on their gear for include hit rating (until reaching the hit cap), critical strike rating, haste rating and mastery rating. Stamina also benefits mages, but should not be focused on at the expense of other stats unless gearing for PvP. Spirit is of no use to mages at all after Patch 4.0.1 and should be avoided in all cases. Agility, strength and the other secondary stats should likewise be avoided.

Lore
Mages, the most common of arcanists, are found all over Azeroth. They focus on magic that creates and that changes things, most often with the purpose of damaging their enemies and boosting the power of their allies. Such beings can obtain a familiar, which is a normal animal that gains new powers and becomes a magical beast when summoned to service by a mage, while others choose to become focused mages. Mages also understand the workings of arcane energy so well that they can counter most magic with great effectiveness. An adept mage who has dedication to and natural predilection for one of the schools of specialization becomes more entrenched. At this point the mage chooses either evocation or transmutation as a preferred school, and casts spells from his chosen school. The mages of the Kirin Tor first mastered the arts of casting spells using the elements of ice and fire. Mages are also known for being able to summon elementals, usually water elementals, but can also summon air, earth and fire elementals as well. The greatest mortal mage ever to live is the Naga Queen Azshara, who still lives. In fact, she may no longer be mortal.

The first known mages on Azeroth were elves, before the breaking of the Well of Eternity and the Exile of the High Elves, who lived on the shores of the Well of Eternity and wielded its powers.

Origins
Early kaldorei civilization was defined by direct manipulation of magic drawn from the Well of Eternity to create and sustain their society. The constant use of the well attracted attention from Sargeras and the Burning Legion, and their coming resulted in a massive war known as the War of the Ancients. The war had grave consequences, for even though the combined might of Azeroth's mortal races were victorious, the continent of Kalimdor was shattered, and a swirling, raging miasma of sea storms flowed into the vacant area where the Well of Eternity used to reside. This Great Sundering caused the Well's waters to be permeated into the atmosphere and spread magic all over the world.

This event convinced the majority of night elves to reject arcane magic and embrace Malfurion Stormrage's call for druidism. Many of the Highborne refused this lifestyle, and left in self-imposed exile to Lordaeron where they eventually founded their kingdom of Quel'Thalas and became the high elves. When their kingdom came under siege by the trolls of Zul'Aman the high elves agreed to teach one hundred humans the arts of magic in exchange for military aid from the human nation of Arathor. From these two races, the arcane arts have spread to various races all over Azeroth.

Dalaran


Once students of the Conjurers of Azeroth, this new order of mages had been forced to discover untapped magical forces to command in their war against the ruthless orcs. Although masters of their arts, the Conjurers who fell during the First War were unprepared for the rigors of warfare. Determined to avoid a similar fate, the mages began to undertake a regimen equally demanding on body and soul, thus dedicating themselves to the command of more aggressive and destructive magic. Whether in their sanctum at the Violet Citadel in Dalaran or on the many battlefields of Lordaeron, the mages are resolute in their efforts to defend the people.

The most powerful mages of the Eastern Kingdoms were perhaps the Archmagi of Dalaran. The city was transported to Northrend when the mages believed they were in danger. It now hovers in the skies over Crystalsong forest and is ruled by the Kirin Tor. The Kirin Tor are quick to recognize fellow mages as allies where outsiders must do more to prove themselves.

Notable mages

 * Aegwynn
 * Rommath
 * Antonidas
 * Nielas Aran
 * Azshara
 * Kel'Thuzad (Now a Lich)
 * Khadgar
 * Krasus
 * Medivh
 * Jaina Proudmoore
 * Rhonin
 * Illidan Stormrage
 * Kael'thas Sunstrider
 * Modera

Races


The mage class can be played by the following races:

Mage Beneficial Racial Abilities:

Draenei
 * Heroic Presence is one of the most important mage beneficial racial abilities for PvE encounters as it increases the spell hit by 1%.
 * Gift of the Naaru is a minor (self) heal.

Dwarf
 * Stoneform is a minor defence trait which can be used in PvP and PvE.

Gnome
 * Expansive Mind is one of the most important mage beneficial racial abilities as it increases mana by 5%. Note that it increases mana pool but not Intellect, spell power or spell critical.
 * Escape Artist removes snares and speed reduction effects. Usable to PvP and certain PvE encounters. (Note: does not remove stun effects).

Human
 * Every Man for Himself is another beneficial trait enabling players to remove all incapacitating effects on the character (Slow, stun, fear, immobilize effects)
 * Diplomacy grants a 10% extra reputation gains for every faction.

Night Elf
 * Quickness mainly useful in PvP, gives a slight advantage over receiving damage.
 * Shadowmeld acts as a minor and temporal focus distraction from PvE encounters. However, player is still vulnerable (in contrast with Ice Block), does not reduce threat (unlike Invisibility but it removes Combat status (similar to Vanish).

Worgen
 * Viciousness is another of the most mage beneficial racial abilities as it increases spell critical strike by 1%
 * Darkflight enables the player to move faster. Usable in both PvP and PvE encounters.

Blood Elf
 * Arcane Torrent has similarities with Counterspell and restores a percentage of mana. Due to its limit in AoE range, it has limited use in Boss PvE encounters and is half effective on PvP.

Goblin
 * Rocket Barrage as small damage ability.
 * Rocket Jump similar to Blink for use in PvE and PvP.
 * Time is Money is a slight reduction in casting time.

Orc
 * Blood Fury gives an increase in spell power whenever activated.
 * Hardiness a reduction in the total time of stun effects.

Tauren
 * Mages are not available for the Tauren race.

Troll
 * Berserking has similar effects to Time Warp, has 10 seconds duration, 3 minutes cooldown but the most important is that unlike Heroism does not place a 10 minutes debuff thus making it an extremely beneficial racial ability.
 * Regeneration (racial) is useful as an additional health regeneration effect, especially beneficial on long encounters.
 * Da Voodoo Shuffle has use in both PvE and PvP.

Undead
 * Will of the Forsaken is usable in all cases in PvP and PvE when losing control of character (does not include slow or immobilize effects)

The above list includes only the abilities that interact directly with the mage abilities, playstyle and needs over specific situations. Other traits are available and are usable as to what a player wishes to do with the character.

Gear
A mage is able to wield staves, wands, daggers, one-handed swords, and can use items with the slot "Held in Off-hand" if using a dagger or one-handed sword in the main hand. Wands go in the ranged slot and will continue to shoot once manually started. A mage can only wear cloth armor.

Mages gear primarily for intellect (which increases spell power, critical strike chance and mana pool) and hit rating to reach the hit cap. Other ratings like crit, haste and mastery are next in importance. Reaching the hit cap (+17% for PvE, +4% for PvP) is important, but not at the expense of intellect. Reforge weaker ratings stats like crit,haste or mastery instead.

As of 4.0.1, spell power mostly no longer appears on gear, with the notable exception of caster weapons, so the lack of raw spell power on a mage's gear is not a sign for alarm. Additionally, spirit confers no mana regeneration to mages and should be avoided in all cases. In-combat mana regeneration is provided by abilities, including Mage Armor, Evocation, Conjure Mana Gem, talents, such as Arcane Concentration or Master of Elements, and the use of low-mana casting cycles (such as Scorch for fire mages or heavy use of Arcane Missiles for arcane mages).

Spells


Mages have a wide variety of spells which fall in to three schools of magic: arcane, fire and frost. All spell schools include damage spells. Arcane includes some crowd control and utility, and most Frost spells provide a movement-slow effect supplementing their damage.

Fire spells are primarily damage-dealing spells, including direct single-target damage and area of effect damage. Many Fire spells include damage over time effects. Fire mages trust heavily on RNG in raid situations to proc Hot Streak.

Frost spells are primarily single-target and area of effect damage-dealing spells, but with more emphasis on chilling effects. Nearly every frost spell has a chill or freeze effect that fully or partially immobilizes an enemy. This includes freezing it in place (called a root) or slowing its movement speed (called a snare). Frost specialized mages can further improve these chilling effects and increase frost damage output to respectable levels. Frost spells help the mage use kiting as a combat tactic.

Arcane spells include single-target damage spells and utility. Arcane spells allow the mage to remove curses, provide crowd control, absorb damage, teleport himself or others to major capital cities, Slow Fall, Counterspell, buff players' spell power and mana pools, save mana for later use in the form of mana gems, conjure food for himself or others, and provide many other conveniences.

Arcane and Fire are the trees currently best suited to raid damage. Frost's snare effects and Ice Barrier make it the best leveling and PvP tree. Fire and Arcane specs lack the control and survival abilities crucial to leveling and PvP.

Talents
Mage talents are split into 3 categories which mirror their 3 main spell types. Descriptions of the roles of mages who specialize in each talent tree are shown in parentheses.

Arcane
The arcane tree's damage focuses on Arcane Blast and Arcane Missiles. Arcane can provide the greatest potential damage output mages can offer. The Arcane tree includes Slow, a powerful instant single-target slowing effect, and Arcane Barrage, an instant-damage ranged attack. Arcane mages can provide substantial burst damage with Arcane Power and Presence of Mind. Leveling as an arcane mage was once very difficult, but since Patch 4.0.1 the signature arcane spells (Arcane Barrage, Arcane Missiles, and Arcane Blast are learned much earlier thus it is more feasible.

Fire
Fire's damage output is oriented around Living Bomb and Hot Streak. Living Bomb is an instant cast damage-over-time effect. Hot Streak is a triggered effect: whenever a Fire mage deals two critical strikes in a row, their next Pyroblast spell is instant. Fire is currently behind Arcane in single-target damage, but Living Bomb makes Fire vastly superior to Arcane in AoE situations. Fights in which players are forced to move frequently can also benefit Fire mages, as Living Bomb and Hot Streak-enabled instant Pyroblasts can fill the movement time which Arcane mages can only use for Arcane Barrage, Fire Blast and Ice Lance which is especially poor damage against bosses. The Fire talent tree provides few survival tools. This has historically made the fire tree a good choice for high-end raiders who seek to maximize damage output, but poor in PvP due to Resilience's reduction of critical strike chance and Arena's survival requirements.

Frost
Frost specializes in crowd control and snaring foes with its various chills, allowing for powerful kiting, and provides good AoE capability. It is the most mana-efficient spec. Frost also has very high survivability, making Frost very popular PvP tree. Frost's AoE makes it the spec best suited to five-player dungeons. However, it is far behind fire and arcane in terms of DPS. Frost is most effective in PvP, as Frost mages can learn Ice Barrier to protect themselves from damage and Deep Freeze to supplement their snare effects with a stun. Frost mages also learn Summon Water Elemental, gaining a pet which has a Freeze ability similar to Frost Nova.

Common builds (pre-cataclysm)


Prior to Patch 4.0.1, which pretty much removed talent-hybridization (the act of mixing different trees), three major hybrid-builds existed for mages. While it is no longer possible to create these builds, the information about them is still listed here for historical purposes.

Frost & Fire:
 * A mage with talent-points spent both in fire and frost was often called an "elemental mage" / "elementalist". After Wrath of the Lich King was released, a mage with such a build was also usually aiming to specifically empower his/her Frostfire Bolt, becoming a "Frostfire Mage" (sometimes abbreviated to FFB mage). The changed mechanics in 4.0.1 forced Frostfire Bolt (and Flame Orb) to be either fire-based or frost-based.

Arcane & Fire:
 * A mage with points both in fire and arcane was often referred to as a "three-minute mage" because this kind of mage often based its damage on combining the fire-talent spell Pyroblast, which takes long time to cast yet provides powerful damage, with the arcane-talent-spells Presence of Mind and Arcane Power to create a instant-cast, long-ranged, high-damage spell. As the two arcane-spells both had a three minute cooldown, one would say the mage "functioned" (most likely in a humorous context) only every three minutes. Patch 3.0.9 Caused Arcane Power and Presence of Mind to share cooldown, which somewhat ruined the three-minute mage. Still, with the talent Arcane Flows which was introduced in Patch 3.0.2, the cooldown of both Arcane Power and Presence of Mind was reduced to two minutes, changing the original three-minute mage into a "Two-minute mage". This spec was championed during The Burning Crusade by the mage Pigvomit . Patch 4.0.1 made it impossible for a Mage to obtain both Pyroblast and Presence of Mind within the same build. Additionally, it also changed Pyroblast to be received by choosing Fire as the main spec and Presence of Mind to be an Arcane talent spell on tier 3.

Arcane & Frost:
 * A mage with points both in arcane and frost was sometimes called a "Arcane Shatter" mage. The name derived from a combination of the arcane-talent Arcane Barrage and the frost-talent Shatter. This talent specialization was popularized by the success of Abni, who obtained Gladiator titles for several seasons using this spec. After 4.0.1 it is still possible to place a few talents in Frost after choosing Arcane or vice versa, but mixing the two trees doesn't make much of a difference compared to placing all points in one tree.

Stats
This is a list of the Mage's primary stats for level 85 raiding in order of importance according to latest theorycrafting.

Note that Hit above 17% (1742 rating) is worthless. Crit cannot go higher than 97.9% because of crit suppression versus bosses. Haste reaches a cap when the spellcast reaches the minimum cast time of the GCD, 1 second.

Endgame expectations
In a group or raid environment, mages are usually tasked with ranged DPS, AoE, Counterspell, Spellsteal, Crowd Control and finally providing food.

With the introduction of patch 1.11, mages enjoyed a high degree of flexibility in the endgame. Previous to patch 1.11, it was expected that most mages would spend at least 11 talent points in the arcane tree for Evocation, as it is a quite powerful mana-regenerative spell. It was given free without the use of talent points. New changes to all three trees also made investing points into both the fire and the frost trees much more viable. This still holds true with the release of Burning Crusade. It should be mentioned that a build predominantly using the fire tree will usually contribute greater DPS in multiple-target encounters; those using a predominantly arcane tree will usually contribute greater DPS in single-target encounters; and finally, those using a predominantly frost tree will contribute a fair amount of control.

The endgame mage also acts as a utility class, providing drink, food, buffs and portals. Originally, when it came to providing drink and food, mages were by some considered equal to "vending machines" due to their unique ability to create food and drink and provide them with no cost except mana and time. In Wrath of the Lich King, Refreshment Tables may also be created at level 80 at the cost of five Arcane Powder; the table lasts for three minutes or 50 charges of Conjured Mana Strudel, whichever comes first. It is expected that a mage provides his party or raid with food and drink for free. A second (or third) table can sometimes be called for while mustering players at the beginning of a raid if the first expires before everyone has received their strudel.

PvP
PvP-wise, mages are considered "glass cannons" - a design philosophy which gives mages generous burst damage at the cost of generally low health and armor values. Aided by talents such as Presence of Mind and Arcane Power, they are one of the classes with the potential for dealing out the greatest amount of damage in the shortest amount of time. In group PvP, mages will stay back and focus on crowd control with Polymorph and pick off targets from range. Depending on the Battleground and the situation, mages typically AoE to prevent node captures or nuke flag carriers as fast as possible. In solo PvP, a skilled frost mage is a formidable opponent. Fire mages are in PVP well known for their burst damage, and arcane mages are known as venerable supporters.

General preview
{{Bluepost|poster=Bashiok|title=Cataclysm Class Preview: Mage|date=04/09/2010 11:57:21 PM PDT|link=http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=24262357286|body= In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, we’ll be making lots of changes and additions to class talents and abilities across the board. In this preview, you’ll get an early look at what's in store for the mage class, including a rundown of some of the new spells, abilities, and talents, and an overview of how the new Mastery system will work with the different talent specs.

New spells
Flame Orb (available at level 81): Inspired by Prince Taldaram's ability in Icecrown Citadel, this spell allows the mage to cast a flaming orb that travels in front in a straight line, sending beams that cause fire damage to passing targets. Once it's cast, the mage is free to begin casting other spells as the Flame Orb travels. While the spell will be useful to any spec, Fire mages will have talents that improve it, possibly causing the Flame Orb to explode when it reaches its destination.

Time Warp (level 85): Grants a passive Haste effect much like Bloodlust or Heroism to party or raid members. Time Warp will be exclusive with Bloodlust and Heroism, meaning you can’t benefit from both if you’ve got the Exhaustion debuff, though the movement-speed increase will still work even when under the effects of Exhaustion.

Curtain of Frost (level 83): Creates a line of frost in front of the mage, 30 yards from end to end. Enemies who cross the line are snared and take damage. The mana cost will be designed to make Curtain of Frost efficient against groups, not individuals. This spell is intended to give mages a way to help control the battlefield, whether the mage is damaging incoming enemies (Blizzard can be channeled on top of Curtain of Frost) or protecting a flag in a Battleground. 15-second duration. 2-minute cooldown.

Changes to abilities and mechanics
In addition to introducing new spells, we're planning to make changes to some of the other abilities and mechanics you're familiar with. This list and the summary of talent changes below it are by no means comprehensive, but they should give you a good sense of what we intend for each spec.


 * Arcane Missiles is being redesigned to become a proc-based spell. Whenever the mage does damage with any spell, there is a chance for Arcane Missiles to become available, similar to how the warrior’s Overpower works. The damage and mana cost of this spell will be reworked to make it very desirable to use when available. This change should make gameplay more dynamic for the mage, particularly at low levels.
 * We are planning to remove spells that don't have a clear purpose. Amplify Magic, Dampen Magic, Fire Ward, and Frost Ward are being removed from the game, and we may remove more.
 * The ability to conjure food and water will not become available until higher levels (likely around level 40), as we're making changes to ensure mages generally won’t run out of mana at lower levels. Once mages learn how to conjure food and water, the conjured item will restore both health and mana.
 * Scorch will provide a damage bonus to the mage's fire spells. Our goal is for Scorch to be part of the mage's rotation and a useful damage-dealing ability, even if someone else is supplying the group with the spell Critical Strike debuff. Scorch will provide the mage with more specific benefits, which can also be improved through talents.

Talent changes

 * Arcane Focus will now return mana for each spell that fails to hit your target, including Arcane Missiles that fail to launch. We want Arcane mages to have several talents that play off of how much mana the character has and give the player enough tools to manage mana.
 * The talent Playing with Fire will reduce the cooldown of Blast Wave when hit by a melee attack, instead of its current effect.
 * Pyromaniac will grant Haste when three or more targets are getting damaged by the effects of your damage-over-time (DoT) fire spells.
 * The Burnout talent will allow mages to cast spells using health when they run out of mana.

Masteries

 * Arcane
 * 1) Spell damage
 * 2) Spell Haste
 * 3) Mana Adept: Arcane will deal damage based how much mana the mage has. For example, Arcane mages will do much more damage at 100% mana than at 50% mana. If they begin to get low on mana, they will likely want to use an ability or mechanic to bring their mana up to increase their damage.


 * Fire
 * 1) Spell damage
 * 2) Spell Crit
 * 3) Ignite: All direct-damage fire spells will add a damage-over-time (DoT) component when cast. The flavor will be similar to how Fireball works; however, the DoT component will be much stronger.


 * Frost
 * 1) Spell damage
 * 2) Spell Crit damage
 * 3) Deathfrost: Casting Frostbolt places a buff on the mage that increases the damage for all frost, fire, and arcane spells. The only damage spell that won't be affected by this buff is Frostbolt.

We hope you enjoyed this preview, and we’re looking forward to hearing your initial thoughts and feedback on these additions and changes. Please keep in mind that this information represents a work in progress and is subject to change as development on Cataclysm continues. }}

Trivia

 * The Wrath of the Lich King faction of Dalaran, the Kirin Tor, start with a reputation standing with all other classes. Mages, however, are automatically  with the Kirin Tor, making it possible to purchase and wear the Tabard of the Kirin Tor at level 1.


 * Dr. Bill Lee, a re-occurring character from the TV Series 'Stargate SG-1' and 'Stargate Atlantis,' states that he plays a mage, and makes multiple references to the game, including Elwynn Forest. While his character's race is not explicitly stated, it's assumed from that statement that he plays a human.