Mage Build?

[Tai]

My mage is up to 3 talent points, and I have no idea how to deploy them. I would like to have strong aoe and defensive skills if such a thing is posible. Does anybody have any suggestions, or pointers that I should keep in mind?

[Harka]

Defense I think your best going with an Ice mage build. Lots of slowing and such in that tree.

[bridude]

foe and I watched a 2something mage take on 5 enemys 3 levels higher than him with no problem. We were like WTF?

he was holding and using some other cast. He just did it over and over.

[FoeKilla]

he used frost nova to lock them all in place and then used blizzard to aoe them. He must have had improved blizzard based on how slow it made the enemies.

Bri took off before the end of the fight, so he didn't see that it didn't end well. The mage ran out of mana before they all fell. Blizzard is not a mana friendly spell and I saw at least 3 of them get cast during that fight.

Now, my mage went up the arcane tree. you can get instant arcane explosions that way (good aoe) and you can also improve your mana pool and improve your mana shield (improved defense).

it's been a while since I played a mage, but I'd suggest heading up the arcane tree. uninteruptable arcane missles will save your ass time and time again.

[bridude]

lol I thought he had them.

[jackrabbit]

Tai, 3 talent points wont make much of a difference. Your first respec is cheap enough that you're better off trying the talents you find interesting and then respeccing when you decide on a tree. I know both Pogo and Orion swapped back and forth between fire and ice a few times on their mages.

[Andri]

Now, my mage went up the arcane tree. you can get instant arcane explosions that way (good aoe) and you can also improve your mana pool and improve your mana shield (improved defense).

it's been a while since I played a mage, but I'd suggest heading up the arcane tree. uninteruptable arcane missles will save your ass time and time again.

That is exactly what I did with my mage so far. The uninterrupted missiles and instant arcane explosion just seemed the obvious thing to go for. I find the ice tree more appealing than fire, but I am not sure it is more defensive than fire. Sometimes wiping your enemy as fast as you can is the best defense you get, and fire has some heavy hitters up the tree. :D Also, doesn't it have some stuns or slows in that three as well?

[Tai]

Cool, it does not sound like there is just one route that almost everyone agrees on, unlike say for example, Shadow priests. I shall try those uninterupted missles, those sound yummy (and they look pretty).

Thanks Martians :)

[Q]

Instant Arcane Explosion is a must-have in my opinion. I'm also a big fan of Presence of Mind. Blast Wave in the fire tree is also one of my favorites.

Early in the game, the following are good to have: Improved Arcane Missiles, Arcane Concentration, Improved Fire Blast.

I never took any ice powers with my mage, so I am not familiar with those.

I think this (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/mages/talents.html?0250505102010005055021305031000000000 000000000) was Quaron's build when I quit.

[Harka]

I went into the Fire tree when I saw Blast Wave. It outdamages Arcane explosion and has a chance to stun. HEEEEE. good stuff there.

[Sir Lucius]

I started my mage on Friday, but I had Troy change my password so I wouldn't play WoW until finals are over. I'm thinking of making an elemental mage (frost/fire) and skipping arcane like a crazy person. I've been reading up on some of these experimental builds, and I really want to try it.

[BoX]

Arcane/fire is your basic cookie cutter build with a respec to frost at 60.

[pogozorro]

Ice sub-50 is an absolute waste of time. Not enough of the core talents in either that or arcane to be really good at anything.

The first 16 points for any mage should be:

Improved Arcane Missles
Arcane Concentration
Evocation
Improved Arcane Explosion

Go to town as you please after that.

[pogozorro]

I went into the Fire tree when I saw Blast Wave. It outdamages Arcane explosion and has a chance to stun. HEEEEE. good stuff there.

Snare, not stun unless you take Impact as well. This ability is on a 45sec timer for a reason. (Currently, my build has this)

[Sir Lucius]

You say that, but this post caught my eye: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-mage&t=109627&p=1&tmp=1#post109627

Now maybe for leveling up to 60 it'd be silly, but I haven't read the entire thread. I like the perspective, though in some ways I feel it'd be like creating a survival/beast mastery hunter.

Still, the thought of ignoring arcane is very appealing to me. And end game isn't very much fun since I've never done it. So it something I'd like to journey with. Besides, as a mage I'll have trouble getting a group for instances. Everyone loves mages.

[pogozorro]

Do what you want, I am just speaking from experience. This is not an advocation of min/maxing but just what works well. (And Survival/BM hunters are very viable. My hunter is BM.)

[Sir Lucius]

Yea, well when I left pets spirit bond was at the end of BM and Some dot that did 50 damage was at the end of Survival.

[Sir Lucius]

Ok, I haven't gotten past level 6, so I'm basing this off theory, not practice. Here is my elemental build. I would go up fire first, then ice second.


Frost Talents (30 points)

# Improved Frostbolt - 5/5 points
Reduces the casting time of your Frostbolt spell by 0.5 seconds.

# Improved Frost Nova - 2/2 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Frost Nova spell by 4 seconds.

# Ice Shards - 5/5 points
Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Frost spells by 100%.

# Piercing Ice - 3/3 points
Increases the damage done by your frost spells by 6%.

# Cold Snap - 1/1 point
When activated, this spell finishes the cooldown on all of your frost spells.

# Improved Blizzard - 3/3 points
Adds a chill effect to your Blizzard spell. This effect lowers the target's movement speed to 35% of normal. Lasts 1.50 seconds.

# Shatter - 5/5 points
Increases the critical strike chance of your frost spells against frozen targets by 50%.

# Arctic Reach - 2/2 points
Increases the range of your Frostbolt spell and the radius of your Frost Nova and Cone of Cold spells by 20%.

# Improved Cone of Cold - 3/3 points
Increases the damage dealt by your Cone of Cold spell by 35%.

# Ice Block - 1/1 point
You become encased in a block of ice, protecting you from all physical attacks and spells for 10 seconds, but during that time you cannot attack, move, or cast spells.



Fire Talents (21 points)

# Improved Fireball - 5/5 points
Reduces the casting time of your Fireball by 0.5 seconds.

# Impact - 5/5 points
Gives your fire spells a 10% chance to stun the target for 2 seconds.

# Ignite - 5/5 points
Your critical strikes from fire damage spells cause the target to burn for an additional 40% of your spell's damage over 4 seconds.

# Improved Flamestrike - 3/3 points
Increases the critical strike chance of your Flamestrike spell by 15%.

# Incinerate - 2/2 points
Increases the critical strike chance of your Fire Blast and Scorch spells by 4%.

# Blast Wave - 1/1 point
A wave of flame radiates outward from the caster, damaging all enemies caught within the blast for 160 to 192 fire damage, and dazing them for 6 seconds.

Level 36: 201 to 241 damage
Level 44: 277 to 329 damage
Level 52: 365 to 433 damage
Level 60: 462 to 544 damage

Try to look at this from a perspective of Arcane not existing. In that, am I missing any critical fire or ice abilities exclusive to that talent tree? Have I picked up any worthless talents? Have I missed a core ability?

[Orion]

You know, I never liked impact. 2 second stun just wasn't worth it in my opinion. ya, it's cool to stun something for 2 seconds, I just prefer doing more damage than the stun.

just personal preference, really.

[Sir Lucius]

Where would you put the 5 points instead? I have to keep them in the fire tree to get blastwave.

But I think I'd like impact, since that 2 seconds keeps the enemy away from you long enough to cast another spell. I can imagine flipping between frostbolt and fireball to keep the enemies slowed then stunned, not letting them get into melee range. Plus I believe that will act as an interrupt and cancel spells.

[Q]

I agree with O on this one - Impact is meh. I would go for Improved Fire Blast instead. Fire Blast is the only insta-cast single target damage spell that mages have, and reducing its cooldown by 1.5 secs is great.

[pogozorro]

This is my current build (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/mages/talents.html?0250505102010005051221320031500000000 000000000). I spent a lot of time 31/20 Arcane Fire, and then a goodly time as 18/33 Arcane/Frost. I respecced this time (45g just to respec) largely for PVP reasons. Ice is, shall we say, boring, in PVP. To slow, not enough "Oomph" even with +200 damage gear.

Fire, though, backed with Blast Wave and Presence of Mind, is a LOT of fun. My fireballs alone hit for just under 900 dmg, let alone if I crit.

Look at the trees this way: frost is control, fire is damage, arcane is utility. Arcane only supplements the trees (instant cast pyroblast? THANKS!) where as the other two don't mesh nearly as well.
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[Harka]

Pogo, just curious as to why you did take the improved dampen magic over the improved counter spell? Dampen magic you can have up all the time whereas counterspell is on a timer for casting.

[pogozorro]

I didn't. At least the link I linked doesn't have improved damped magic.

[Harka]

I meant to type didn't.

[pogozorro]

Improved counterspell is a godsend for against any caster you face in game, be they player or NPC. Dampen Magic, especially at higher levels does relatively little, where as counterspell can stop that heal, attack, etc.

I'll use dampen magic on occaision, but especially in PVP and instances, counterspell is used once a fight if not more, time depending. Also, CS can be used as a pulling method for that caster standing too far away to run up and hit with the melee classes. It aggros the caster and they run in to attack since they are afflicted with the silence component.