Mage Talent Builds

If you’re looking for the best mage talent builds then you’ve come to the right place. This mage spec guide will be continually updated to reflect the current best arcane, fire, frost and hybrid builds for pvp, pve, leveling and more! With that said, let’s get to the good stuff!

PvP Mage Specs
When we consider mage pvp builds their are a variety of factors we must consider. The first, and most important is the purpose of the build. We basically have two types of pvp builds, those builds for arena, and those builds not for arena.

For the purpose of arena we are really looking at 2 types of mage talent builds. Mage builds that focus on burst or mage builds that focus on longevity. In essence, frost vs. arcane.

• 20/0/51 – frost, high survivability, high mana longevity
• 58/13/0 – arcane, high burst, moderate survivabilty
• 55/16/0 – arcane, variation on stanard arcane burst build, very similar to 58/13/0

If you’re looking for additional information on pvp and arena, head over here, mage pvp specs guide.

The following pvp specs are great for battlegrounds and world PvP, though I don’t consider them optimal for arena. That said, if you have the right type of team they could work.

• 0/56/15 – fire, high burst, moderate longevity, great for battlegrounds

PvE Mage Specs
The one thing I really love about raiding as a mage is the wide variety of potential specs you can choose to raid with. There are many great mage talent builds out there for PvE. They all offer a slightly different experience and play style, but each is viable in it’s own regard.

• 18/0/53 – frost
• 0/18/53 – frost
• 30/0/41 – frost / arcane hybrid build
• 0/51/20 – frostfire
• 18/53/0 – fireball
• 57/3/11 – arcane

Mage Leveling Build
For leveling purposes I like to keep it pretty simple…let’s just say we’re going to have a few points in frost. The following build is your ideal leveling build, you’ll have great AoE spells for pulling huge packs, mana longevity, and survivabilty. It’s the perfect build for long grinding and questing sessions.

• 0/0/71 – full frost

Additionally, if you’re looking for a kick ass guide to help you power through your levels check out this, level 1-70 in 6 days 5 hours. I’ve personally used this guide myself and let me tell you, it’s got an awesome in-game mod that guides you the whole way!

PvE Boss Strategy and Etiquette

Hey guys i would like to talk about Etiquette and knowing what to do in PVE…especially Karazhan.

1. Research Bosses and Encounters
There nothing more annoying then someone who’s knew to a particular instance such as Karazhan going and doing everything wrong. Now i can use one such example as “Shade of Aran”, he has a variety of ability’s that can turn an awesome fight into a bloodbath.

Researching bosses is vital in pve, not knowing what to do when example Shade of Aran uses Flame Wreath or Arcane explosion can cause your group to fail miserably and leave them with a nasty repair bill. Make sure you know what to do… also if the leader is talking to you and telling you what to do talk back; there is nothing more annoying then telling someone a whole 5 minutes of information when they just run out and die again. This leads me to the point of feedback, when a leader tells you that this boss does this recap what he says e.g. “Shade of Aran will use Flame Wreath when this happens DON’T MOVE”… respond to this by saying “Ok i wont move when he uses Flame Wreath”, it just makes the leaders life easier knowing that you know what to do.

2. Loot Etiquette
There isn’t anything more frustrating then doing a 3 hour raid and then someone out rolling you on a piece of gear, with this comes etiquette. If a player that has green bracer’s rolls on a epic bracer’s and you do to but your bracer’s are far better then him “Pass” if you win the roll and let him take them, they are a far bigger upgrade to him then to you, not only will this earn you respect with that fellow player but it will also maximize your raids efficiency.
“Main set before off set” this is a neat little rule to describe before you enter the heart of an instance, it saves time and trouble over certain loots. Only if that peice of gear is better then yours and you need them the most, and it is for your main set then yes, you can have a fair chance on rolling for that epic, but it is really annoying to fellow players that a “Enhance shammy” gets those awesome healing legs off “X” boss when there is a “Resto Shammy” that needs them. If there is no one in the raid that needs them for their main set then its anyones chance to grab an offset piece, but please if you are rolling for that certain offpiece be sure that you will actually use it in future.
“Cloth,Leather,Mail,Plate” all of these different types of amour are made for different classes, if a epic leather piece of gear drops it should be automatically made that first priority is given to Druids and Rogues, if no one can use that or no one in the leather class needs them, then the next priority should be Shamans and Hunters and so on up to warriors and pallies.
“Congratulations” a simple “Congratz” or “Gratz” can be quite effective by earning another players respect, using this phrase after someone in your party/raid receives a piece of loot is a nice way of saying “good on you”. Also if you are out rolled by someone on a certain peice of gear that you both need don’t rage and start shouting about how you’ve been trying to get that for “X” amount of time, simply say “Gratz” and move on, there is many more chances in later instances/raids that you will get that piece.

3. The Blame Game
No one likes being blamed wrongly, or even blamed at all for an incident that has happened, it shows your bad side if you instantly start blaming someone for that certain “pull” or “wipe”. If you see that someone has accidentally pulled an “extra mob” or died during a “boss encounter” do not scream at them about how they “Epic Fail”, simply show your kind side and offer them tips for next time on what to do to minimize the risk of it happening again.
If you know you caused your party/raid to wipe own up, don’t stand there like a stunned mullet and keep defending that it wasn’t you and it was someone else, simply say “Sorry that was my fault for that then” or “It was my fault it won’t happen again”, many times this will work and instead of being kicked from the party for having a big argument on who’s fault it was they will recognize that you owned up for it and they will try again. This has worked many times during my “Oops i pulled Curator, omg aggro radius” times or my “What??? I pulled threat off tank”, just generally being nice in raids will help you achieve more and have more fun, it will also speed up the time your party/raid completes the instance/raid.

4. The End
When a party/raid has finished, dont just leave vent and quit party, say “Thankyou for the Run” and then leave once you have said your goodbyes. In many other cases you might want to talk to the raid leader and organise a second party/raid or organise for the next weeks party/raid, this is an easy way to make friends and have guaranteed spots for party’s/raids.

Hopefully this guide has helped you a bit with common everyday WoW play.

Strategy courtesy of Electrocow