Mage guide for WoW Forever

The mage is the pure damage caster: cloth, mana, crowd control and the best utility in the game (portals, food and water, Polymorph). It does not heal, tank or own a pet, so everything it does is kill before things reach it and travel faster than anyone. In Forever, hit is one stat for spells, melee and ranged, and so is crit; on top of that, wands no longer gain spell power.

Arcane (damage)

In Classic, Arcane is more a utility and mana tree than a rotation: Arcane Power and Arcane Mind scale with intellect and total mana. It is the tree that gets the most out of intellect and mana per 5 seconds, and the least suited to solo leveling.

Fire (damage)

The crit tree: Ignite leaves a damage-over-time after every crit and Fire Power pushes it further. Forever adds Heating Up (called Hot Streak until October 1), a new talent, and reworks Improved Fire Blast, which Blizzard's deep dive calls Wake of Fire. Fire deals more damage in dungeons but suffers against fire-resistant mobs.

Frost (damage)

The control and survival tree: Frostbolt slows, Shatter turns frozen enemies into near-guaranteed crits and the ice armour keeps you alive. It is the leveling spec by definition and the one that holds up best in dungeons without a perfect tank.

On October 7 Blizzard published the mage's class deep dive. These are the changes you will notice most as a mage, in our own words. Blizzard warned that abilities and talents could keep changing during the beta, and some did, mostly with build 1.60.1.70450 (October 17): we point it out wherever the last game client differs.

• Frostfire Bolt: a new level-40 spell that counts as both Fire and Frost, so almost every talent of either school improves it; it uses the higher of your two spell damage bonuses and the lower of the target's two resistances. It has a 3-second cast and leaves damage over time and a slow. It is the backbone of hybrid builds: with Ice Shards and Ignite, a crit reaches 280% damage.
• Other baseline changes: Cone of Cold lasts less, against those who dragged huge packs around to farm gold and experience; Mage Armor gives more mana regeneration from Spirit, and Comprehension is a new mage-only minor profession.
• Arcane: Arcane Blast (11-point milestone) is a new spell. Each cast raises the damage of your other spells and its own mana cost, up to 4 times, for 18 seconds or until you cast another spell: the idea is to build it up and cash it in with other spells. Missile Barrage, presented as the 16-point milestone, gives Arcane Blast (at double the chance), Fireball, Frostbolt and Frostfire Bolt a chance to make your next Arcane Missiles channel twice as fast and cost no mana, and Arcane Mind gives Intellect instead of maximum mana. In the last game client, Arcane Blast gives you spell damage based on your Intellect (12% per stack at launch, was 15%), its mana cost grows by 100% per stack (was 175%), Missile Barrage sits on the second row and the only single-rank talent on the fourth row, the 16-point one, is Arcane Wrath, which the deep dive does not mention. At launch Arcane Focus is gone, merged into Precision, Missile Barrage is consumed at the start of the Arcane Missiles channel, and it no longer eats Clearcasting when both are active.
• Fire: with Heating Up (row 4, requires Pyroblast), each non-periodic crit from Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Fire Blast or Scorch shortens your next Pyroblast by 25%, up to 3 times: with 3 stacks it casts in 1.5 seconds. Ignite is now a separate debuff for each mage and no longer loses damage when two crits land almost together. Wake of Fire (formerly Improved Fire Blast) cuts Fire Blast's cooldown further and, each time you kill a non-trivial target, gives your next one a lot of crit; in the last game client it is Improved Fire Blast again and extends its range instead of granting that crit. At launch Critical Mass is back to a maximum of 3 points (6% critical strike chance, not 10%), Incineration takes up to 5 points for 10%, and Improved Fireball is now Accelerant, which also shortens the cast of Arcane Wrath by up to 0.5 seconds.
• Frost: Ice Lance (11-point milestone) is instant and deals little damage, except to frozen targets, which take 300% more (a beta build lowered it to 200%, but it is back at 300%). It has an 8-second cooldown shared with Fire Blast. Fingers of Frost (row 5, requires Ice Lance) gives your Chill effects a chance to grant 1 or 2 charges, depending on rank, that make your spells treat the target as frozen. Ice Block moves up to row 4 as the 16-point milestone and Cold Snap down to row 5 as the 21-point one, with a 10-minute cooldown instead of 5. Improved Blizzard slows by 40% at most, not 65%, another change against AoE farming. At launch Piercing Ice and Frost Blast are gone, Precision (formerly Elemental Precision) is a 3-point talent for 2/4/6% chance to hit with all spells, and Ice Barrier also raises your Frost damage by 15% for 1 minute when you cast it, plus 5% more while the barrier holds.

For Blizzard, the mage is still one of the strongest damage classes, with the best ranged area damage, though very fragile in melee. Talents, Legacy talents included, are changed at your class trainer in a capital city, and dual specialization arrives at level 40. Read our summary of the deep dive or Blizzard's official article.

Build 1.60.1.70170, from October 1, touches Fire again. Hot Streak is renamed Heating Up, since it no longer depends on chaining crits: in the game client, every non-periodic crit from Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Fire Blast or Scorch shortens your next Pyroblast, stacking up to 3 times. Combustion goes back to 3 charges (was 4), and Improved Scorch's Fire vulnerability no longer rolls a second time to see if it is resisted. In Frost, applying Winter's Chill cannot be resisted either, because the spell that applies it already had to hit. And Comprehension scrolls get another balance pass and can no longer be cast while moving.

One general change hits the mage squarely. On the character sheet, Blizzard now explains that spells of ranks far below your level get less from your spell power and are less likely to trigger your talents. At launch Blizzard removed that penalty from most talents, so a low-rank Frostbolt can trigger Frostbite again. It remains only for the spell Blizzard, which has a reduced chance to trigger Arcane Concentration, Frostbite and Fingers of Frost if its rank was learned more than 12 levels below your level.

In the previous build, 1.60.1.70009, the mage had four documented changes, three of them in Fire. Hot Streak (now Heating Up) is a new talent and Wake of Fire a reworked Improved Fire Blast: the beta had them at 15 and 20 seconds and that build raised them to 20 and 30, so the window to use them is more generous. The other side is Ignite, which in Classic applied damage modifiers twice (to the crit and to the periodic damage) and in Forever no longer does: Fire damage is more honest and slightly less explosive.

That build's general change was quality of life: Arcane Missiles checks line of sight once at the start of the channel instead of missile by missile, so a mob hiding behind a pillar no longer cuts your spell in half.

The changes that matter most for the mage are not on its list but among items: wands no longer gain spell power (back to Classic) and Wizard Oil returns to its Classic values (8, 16 and 24 spell damage). While leveling, the wand is still your finisher, but not your scaling. And Arcane Blast, which we knew about because the Cooldown Manager could not track it yet, is a row-3 Arcane talent in the game client.

Recommendation: Frost from 10 to 60. It is the tree that survives best without a pet or heals, spends the least mana per mob and fits dungeons best without depending on the tank. Fire deals more damage with gear and group buffs, but levels worse: every crit that does not land is mana lost and every mob that reaches you is a flask of water. Arcane, with the Forever data we have, remains a support tree for the other two.

Recommended talent order, broadly:

• From 10 to 20, the Frost talents that improve Frostbolt and slows. The 16-point milestone arrives around 25-26 and by then the tree has taken shape; if you would rather not think, Forever ships two class presets.
• Then everything that makes frozen enemies die before they touch you: Shatter and the control talents are your "armour".
• Spread into Fire or Arcane only from 40, and only if you play in a group. A reset cost 1 silver in the beta, so switching was cheap; at launch, check what it costs at your trainer.

Pacing:

• No level scaling: the mage is the class that feels an orange mob the most: more resistance, more spell misses. Stay in yellow and move zones as soon as you see orange.
• Conjure water and food before every session: it is your only "resource" and in Forever the campsite sets up vendors and workbenches so you do not go back to town.
• Use the three one-hour campsite buffs before every dungeon: Shadowfang Keep and Blackfathom Deeps hold your level-20 BiS pieces, and the Scarlet Monastery and Gnomeregan your level-30 ones.
• Dungeon quests: since October 1 they give half the extra experience they used to give on top of a normal quest. Go in for the loot and the mobs, not just the quests.
• Low ranks: since October 1, the character sheet explains that ranks far below your level get less from your spell power and trigger your talents less often, so use them to save mana knowing what you give up.
• Legacy Points: Well Rested, the example perk Blizzard has shown, gives more rested experience, which shows on a class that kills fast.

Spell power first (specific Fire or Frost damage is worth almost the same within its tree), then hit and crit, which is worth more for Fire thanks to Ignite and Fire Power than for any other class. In Classic the spell hit cap against bosses was 16%; Blizzard has not said what it is in Forever now that hit is shared. Intellect weighs more for Arcane because of Arcane Power and Arcane Mind; Frost takes a bit more stamina because it is the tree that goes into dungeons. Remember that in Forever hit is one stat for spells, melee and ranged, and so is crit (Blizzard's Deep Dive Panel Recap): a hit piece meant for a warrior works for you too.

At level 30, the beta's last cap, Tailoring rules: Fire and Frost equip six recipes and Arcane five, almost all new in Forever. The Scarlet Monastery provides the Bloodmage Mantle, Scorn's Icy Choker and Scorn's Focal Dagger for all three trees, plus the Necrotic Wand for Fire and Frost. Arcane and Frost add the Spidertank Oilrag from Gnomeregan and carry an Enchanting orb in the off hand. The belt, a ring and the trinkets come from the battleground supply officers; our list mixes both factions' versions, so get the one for yours.

On the way, at level 20, all three trees wore five Tailoring pieces and three from dungeons: the Tree Bark Jacket and Ghamoo-ra's Bind from Blackfathom Deeps and the Mindthrust Bracers from Shadowfang Keep.

Higher up, the Scarlet Monastery is still the dungeon with the most BiS pieces for the mage (four), followed by Blackrock Depths with three and Blackfathom Deeps with two. Forever's new dungeons that are already playable (Hall of Thanes, Ruins of Lordaeron and Excavation Site) have no BiS-marked loot for the mage in our data yet. The list per level and slot is on the mage BiS page.

What it can wield. In Classic the mage uses daggers, one-handed swords, staves and wands, with an off-hand item next to a one-hander; no shield, and no ranged weapon other than the wand. Blizzard has not announced any change to this for Forever. As in Classic, every weapon type has its own skill, which rises with use up to 5 points per character level, and that includes the wand: use it rarely and its skill falls behind, so you miss more with it.

What our lists score. The types our mage lists score are one-handed swords, daggers, staves and wands. All three trees compare a one-hander plus an off-hand item against a staff, and the ranged slot is always a wand, scored by its DPS. The weapon skill points some items carry add nothing to our score.

What changes in Forever. According to Blizzard's Deep Dive Panel Recap, weapon skill works as it always has, but items that grant it give less per piece. What matters more for a mage is that caster weapons now grant spell damage and healing: your weapon becomes an upgrade you chase while leveling, like a warrior's. Wands no longer gain spell power in the beta, as in Classic, so pick them by DPS. And in the beta's talent tree, Wand Specialization moves up to the first row of Arcane, with two ranks for up to 25% more wand damage: if you level by finishing mobs with the wand, it is within reach from level 10.

Racials. The weapon racial worth knowing is the humans': Sword Specialization added 5 sword skill in Classic, and in Forever it gives 2% critical strike chance with all spells and attacks while you have a one- or two-handed sword equipped. A human mage with a one-handed caster sword gets that crit on every Frostbolt or Fireball, and in Fire it is worth more because of Ignite. The orcs' Axe Specialization does nothing for the new orc mage, because mages do not use axes; gnomes, undead, trolls and the Skyborne have no weapon racial. The full comparison is in the best race for a mage.

Forever's news is the orc mage, one of the six new combinations, and the Alliance Skyborne, who start on Zephras Isle and have two active and two passive racials not yet detailed; Horde Skyborne cannot be mages. The Alliance keeps humans and gnomes; the Horde keeps undead and trolls. Among the racials changed in the beta, Eureka, the gnomes' new active racial, now gives every class the same 10%: on a mage, your next 3 damaging abilities cost 10% less mana and deal 10% more damage. According to the October 1 notes, it no longer affects any periodic effect (channeled spells such as Arcane Missiles do not count as periodic). Otherwise, choose by faction and looks.

Tailoring + Enchanting is the mage's natural pairing and in Forever it has a new argument: five of the eight level-20 BiS pieces with a known source are Tailoring recipes; at level 30, the beta cap, Tailoring provides five or six depending on the tree, Enchanting crafts the off-hand orb for Arcane and Frost, and it also disenchants whatever you do not use. Neither needs gathering, so you lose no leveling time. With more than 600 new recipes and a passive bonus per profession, Forever's Tailoring gives more than Classic's.

If you want gold, Herbalism + Alchemy sells mana potions to the whole server. Cooking is barely needed (you conjure your food), but crafted food gives a small experience bonus. Each profession's leveling path is in the profession guides.

And there is one only your class can learn: Comprehension, a new Forever secondary skill mages pick up from level 6 and raise up to 300 skill. What we know about it is in the Comprehension guide.

• Leveling as Fire for the damage. Level as Frost: control is your health. Switch to Fire from 40 if you play in a group.
• Hunting wands with spell power. They no longer gain it in Forever. Pick the wand by its DPS and school.
• Chaining Frostbolts without a slow. A slowed mob that never reaches you is free damage; a mob glued to you is a Frost Nova spent.
• Going without water. Always conjure a full stack before starting and another at the campsite.
• Fighting orange mobs. Without level scaling, resistance and spell misses climb fast. Yellow and green.
• Cutting Arcane Missiles for fear of line of sight. In Forever it is only checked when the channel starts.
• Skipping the Scarlet Monastery. At level 30 it gives you three or four BiS pieces (mantle, choker, dagger and, for Fire and Frost, the Necrotic Wand); before that, Shadowfang Keep and Blackfathom Deeps hold the level-20 ones.
• Counting on Frostbite with a low-rank Frostbolt. Since October 1 the character sheet explains that a rank far below your level triggers your talents less often, with Frostbite as the example, and the developers add that rank 1 at level 60 never triggers it; if you want the freeze, use your highest rank.
• Dismissing hit pieces because they look like melee gear. In Forever hit is one stat for every class: if the piece has hit, it works for you too.