Mage in WoW: Forever

What changed for Mages in Forever

• Frostfire Bolt at level 40 for every Mage. It benefits from whichever of your Fire or Frost talents is stronger.
• New abilities: Arcane Wrath, Frost Blast and Teleport: Dalaran. Comprehension is a Mage-only minor tradeskill for reading scrolls. Magic Attunement is baseline.
• Arcane: Arcane Blast stacks damage and mana cost on repeat casts, Missile Barrage interacts with Arcane Missiles.
• Fire: Hot Streak (Heating Up at 16 points) reduces the next Pyroblast cast time by 25% per Fire crit, stacking three times. Wake of Fire resets Fire Blast on kills. Combustion lasts four crits.
• Frost: Ice Lance and Fingers of Frost add instant proc damage. Cold Snap is at 21 points with a 10-minute cooldown. Improved Blizzard and Permafrost slows were toned down.
• Hit is unified, so any hit gear works for your spells.

Specs and builds

Frost to level and survive, Fire for raid damage when you have crit, Arcane for burst and mana games.

Leveling 1–60

• Frost from level 10. Frostbolt, Frost Nova, back up, Frostbolt. Ice Barrier at 40 makes you unkillable.
• Frostfire Bolt at 40 is a strong filler for any spec. Conjure water for the group before every dungeon.
• Orc Mages are brand new to the Horde: Blood Fury on a 2-minute cooldown is a real casting cooldown now.
• Alliance Skyborne Mages get Read Leyline for 50% health and mana regeneration (100% while Attuned at a Ley Line).

Dungeon role

• Polymorph the marked target and re-sheep early. Counterspell healers.
• Frost Nova plus Blizzard (or Cone of Cold) for packs once the tank has them grouped. Let the tank establish threat first; Mages pull aggro fast.
• Water and food for everyone before the first pull. Arcane Intellect on every caster.

Raid prep for December 9

• Fire for Barrow Deeps and Hyjal Summit, assuming the boss is not fire-immune. Spell power, hit and crit.
• Onyxia is a dragon; Frost or Arcane rather than Fire for her. Decurse on Hyjal trash.
• Teleport: Dalaran is new. Portals for the raid will make you popular.

Professions

Tailoring and Enchanting from level 1. You make your own robes and sell portals for gold.

Sources

Talent names and values reflect Blizzard's deep dives and the launch build and may change with hotfixes. Builds are The Outfit's recommendations, not official Blizzard guidance.