World of Warcraft: 5 Best Mage Tips

Despite their underwhelming strength in weapon-based combat, the Mage class in World of Warcraft handles themselves quite nicely using their elemental powers. You can choose between three mages: Arcane, Fire, and Frost. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses. However, across the board, they perform pretty powerful AOE attacks and burst damage. Whether you choose to mob grind or place your bets at a safe distance, you’ll quickly find that the Mage class is perhaps the most reliable one for coming out of battles unscathed. 

For all its advantages, there are still some cons to watch out for. Like how fast the Mana bar runs out, which is the source for casting spells, or how often others will want you to give them food or water, making you their vending machine. For these disadvantages, you’ll want to equip yourself with World of Warcraft: Best Mage Tips to make the most of your strengths and stay ahead of the competition.

5. Mages Have So Many Tools, Choose Them Wisely

You’ll quickly realize that Mages have more than a tiny bit of tools to spare. There are so many, in fact, that you’ll likely not exhaust all of them in your playthrough. That’s why choosing only the most powerful ones is paramount to leveling up in the game. 

Stat Priority

A quick tip for choosing which spells to focus on is to look at the stats. Normally, you’ll have critical strike, haste, mastery, intellect, and versatility. The stats will help determine how powerful your spells are, so it’s pretty important to prioritize them. For these, you might want to focus on intellect, at least for the first few runs. That’s because it boosts your Mana resource, which comes in handy when AoE grinding and leveling up. That, and critical strike, which gives you a leg up on your attack accuracy and heals.

Professions

As for professions, it depends on your overall goal. Do you want to trade more or craft more useful items? In the former, gathering professions like mining and herbalism would pay off more. In the latter, engineering and tailoring will get you closer to your crafting goals.

Races

When it comes to races, Alliance is a pretty good choice because it gives you extra legroom in your Mana resource pool. Horde, too, can come in handy. More specifically, the Troll race is great for AoE grinders since it gives you a magic DPS boost.

Talent Builds

Talent builds is where things get a little tricky. See, you might want to set out with the Arcane Mage. Afterward, switch to Fire Mage because there, you’ll desperately need his spells to take out the bosses after Blackwing Lair. What’s more? The Fire Mage class synergizes well with the critical strike stat, which, in turn, synergizes well with armor, which, in turn, synergizes well with upgrading. And, thereafter, you can switch to Frost Mage, whose offense strategy remains unmatched.

4. Choose Spells Wisely

Which spells should you focus on buying? Well, you don’t want to waste your gold. Rather, save it to buy other useful items, like a mount on level 40. So, make sure to level up your damage spells, primarily Frostbolt and Fireball. If you like to keep a safe distance, the Arcane Explosion, Blizzard, and Flamestrike are great damage spells for single-targets. 

On the other hand, Cone of Cold is great for AoE attacks and crowd control. Next, upgrade your buffs, usually the Ice Barrier, Frost Armor, Ice Armor, and Arcane Intellect. Don’t forget about your utility spells, like Frost Nova, Evocation, and Blink, although only moving them up one rank should do the trick. And finally, don’t forget to stock up on your portals, mana, teleports, and food, too.

3. Watch Out for How Quickly You Burn Through Your Mana

Mages draw their spell power from Mana. In fact, it’s one of the classes that’s been called the most mana-hungry class. So, make sure to watch out for how quickly your Mana pool drains out. One way to do so is to avoid using spells that drain Mana quicker than others.

For instance, the Improved Arcane Explosion spell. On one hand, it’s one of the most powerful AoE DPS spells you can use. However, it drains Mana extremely fast. 

Another trick you can do to ease your Mana usage is to choose stats and races that give your Mana pool an additional boost, like the Gnome race in Alliance or the Intellect stat. The Spirit stat also helps regenerate your Mana a little quicker. However, Spirit does have a five-second delay, where it only regenerates Mana if you refrain from casting spells for five seconds.

Lastly, consider using mana restorative consumables like Major Mana Potion, which restores 1350 to 2250 of your Mana. Nightfin Soup, which gives you 8 Mana within five seconds for 10 minutes, or Demonic Rune, which gives you 1356 Mana at the cost of 862 life.

Overall, try to estimate the length of a fight. If it’s near the end, use Arcane Explosion to maximize damage output. If you run out of Mana, use consumables or the five-second rule to regenerate more. Or simply avoid risking it all.

2. Always Level Up

Prioritize getting a wand to level up. That, and a mount, too, for 50 gold at level 40. Thereafter, get the epic mount at level 60. Wands come in handy when dealing damage to enemies at range. They also help conserve your Mana during cooldowns. Conversely, besides looking cool, mounts can help you traverse land faster and round up enemies for AoE attacks.

1. Fight or Flight

Choosing between AoE grinding and range attacks depends on your preference and playstyle. Either way, the Mage class is the best way to put yourself forward in either scenario. But remember, AoE grinding takes a toll on your Mana. Ultimately, you may need to freeze enemies in place using Frost Mage to avoid taking too much damage or take flight and try again after cooldowns.

So, what’s your take? Do you agree with our World of Warcraft: Best Mage Tips? Are there more tips you’d like to share with us? Let us know over on our socials here.