Mage Leveling Guide

[Guest Malchir]

On 19.1.2017 at 6:14 PM, Blainie said:

You can level with any spec you truly wish to, but I would stick with either Fire or Arcane currently. 

I'm leveling a mage right now (level 105), and leveling with Frost is way easier and faster than with Fire or Arcane.

The reason for that is Archmage Medora.

Archmage Medora can be used as a bodyguard and has an incredible strong AoE freeze that does not break (i never saw damage breaking her freeze). She uses the freeze almost every time after casing two other spells (every fight), you can rely on it and time your Ebonbolt and Glacial Spike to hit right after she froze the enemies for massive damage. Or you can apply Frost Bomb before she hits her freeze and then cast Ice Lance 3 times, each hitting for more damage than Pyroblast (Pyroblast does 420% of your spell power as damage, Ice Lance + Frost Bomb procc does 517% of your spell power as damage), and having an increased critical hit chance thanks to shatter.

Thanks to Medora, Frost deals as much damage as Fire, and more than arcane (unless you want to stay at 4 charges and prefer to take a drink after every 2-4 fights).
But in addition, Frost also provides the best survivability of all specs thanks to the amazing slows with Frigit Winds. Dealing with 2 enemies at the same time is not easy with Fire or Arcane (if you can't sheep them), and it's not unlikely that you will die when dealing with 3 at once (keep in mind, i'm taking about the leveling and fresh-110-content). With the Frost specc, you can even survive a fight with 5+ enemies at once thanks to the slows and the additional water elemental freeze. In addition, Splitting Ice makes your Ice Lance hitting 2 targets. Combined with the water elemetal freeze... that's like casting 4 Pyroblasts with 90% crit chance within 3 seconds, and you can do that every 25 seconds.

Of course, that applies to open world content only, because Medora is not available in dungeons. :)

[Ellellesays 0]

This section requires update for 7.1.2. Thank you. :)

 

[Valks 2,373]

On 1/27/2017 at 3:56 AM, Guest Malchir said:

I'm leveling a mage right now (level 105), and leveling with Frost is way easier and faster than with Fire or Arcane.

I think also the focus on fire doesn't quite matter as much due to the AK changes. Given how easy it is to gain Artifact Knowledge now, ensuring you start with the Fire artifact just doesn't matter. You can level as any spec, immediately get loads of AP at 110 and swap to whatever spec you wish. 

I'd definitely just say play what you want, and these are some good tips for levelling with Frost. 

[Valks 2,373]

9 hours ago, Ellellesays said:

This section requires update for 7.1.2. Thank you. :)

It does indeed! We're working on it, but our focus is currently on ensuring that the class guides are completely up to date for 110 with simulations etc., since they have a higher priority for our team of writers. 

We'll get it done as soon as we can!

[Sidian42 0]

On 31.1.2017 at 10:27 AM, Blainie said:

I think also the focus on fire doesn't quite matter as much due to the AK changes. Given how easy it is to gain Artifact Knowledge now, ensuring you start with the Fire artifact just doesn't matter. You can level as any spec, immediately get loads of AP at 110 and swap to whatever spec you wish. 

And because of that, i would highly recommend Frost in the leveling guide. Of course, you can play as you want, every spec is viable for leveling, but imho Forst is the most efficient spec for leveling right now. But you have to use Champion: Archmage Modera as a bodyguard to get this efficiency.

These are the talents i use:
Ray of Frost - This spell can kill any normal enemy on its own, Bone Chilling doesn't stack up much while leveling and you want to keep your water elemental. 
Ice Floes - i prefer this over Shimmer because i want to keep the stun removal on Blink.
Incanter's Flow - It's a nice passive damage boost.
Splitting Ice - you have to fight two enemies at once quite often. Since most of your freezes are AoE and Fingers of Frost also works on the second lance, this talent can provide very good cleave damage. In addition, Ice Lance is your main source of damage, increasing it's damage is quite useful.
Frigid Winds - this talent is really awesome while leveling. It makes kiting much easier, sometimes even elite enemies can't reach you before they die.
Frost Bomb - best choice in this tier since your ice lance is the main source of your damage and if timed well with Modera's freeze, it can procc about 3+ times per fight.
Comet Storm - very good AoE and single target burst. Has also great synergy with Modera's AoE freeze. Thermal Void isn't very good while leveling, because rares should die before Icy Veins runs out anyways. Glacial Spike does less damage than Comet Storm, even on single targets, and you don't need an additional freeze.

[Valks 2,373]

3 hours ago, Sidian42 said:

And because of that, i would highly recommend Frost in the leveling guide. Of course, you can play as you want, every spec is viable for leveling, but imho Forst is the most efficient spec for leveling right now. But you have to use Champion: Archmage Modera as a bodyguard to get this efficiency.

I would definitely agree, I've put in a note about it but it's unlikely it will be changed until things settle after the NH/patch release (there's still plenty of hotfixes coming!). In the meantime, your suggestions look excellent!

[Guest Echoherb]

Frost is definitely better for leveling a mage, no question. It has better kiting and more control than fire. I guess the leveling guide hasn't been updated yet, but honestly I don't remember a time when frost wasn't the best leveling spec.

[Valks 2,373]

On 06/07/2017 at 3:42 PM, Guest Echoherb said:

Frost is definitely better for leveling a mage, no question. It has better kiting and more control than fire. I guess the leveling guide hasn't been updated yet, but honestly I don't remember a time when frost wasn't the best leveling spec.

At the start of the expansion, which was when all leveling guides were written and intended for, Fire was by far the strongest spec for Mage. It actually mattered at that point which artifact you chose/leveled first due to how terrible AK was then and how rare a decent relic was if you had fresh dinged 110. 

This was why it was initially recommended to level as Fire, since it was just so much better for end-game at the start of Legion. 

[rynaardren 0]

This guide is pretty outdated:

 

Level 60 Talent:

• Level 60:  Flame On or  Blast Wave

Blast Weave is no longer a talent

 

Level 75 Talent: 

• Level 75:  Ice Floes

No longer a talent

 

Also, according to 7.2.5 stats, Fire Mage is fairly weak compared to Frost. Would Frost be better to level with currently?

[Valks 2,373]

On 8/1/2017 at 5:13 AM, rynaardren said:

Also, according to 7.2.5 stats, Fire Mage is fairly weak compared to Frost. Would Frost be better to level with currently?

It no longer matters what you level with, since the time invested in the artifact is completely useless since AK25 can be purchased immediately and AK40 can be obtained incredibly quickly. I would advise Frost, since it has more control than Fire.

[Guest Zynthas]

This needs some major fixing.  There are abilities that dont' even exist for fire mage listed here, such as Ice Floes for level 75 talent, etc.  Please revisit this page and give it a good "once over" since its been about a year since last edit.  Thanks

[Valks 2,373]

On 10/14/2017 at 7:20 PM, Guest Zynthas said:

This needs some major fixing.  There are abilities that dont' even exist for fire mage listed here, such as Ice Floes for level 75 talent, etc.  Please revisit this page and give it a good "once over" since its been about a year since last edit.  Thanks

Asking Furty to update.

[Koviko 19]

So now that leveling has completely changed, would you recommend a different spec than Fire for Mages?

[Valks 2,373]

On 1/25/2018 at 6:00 AM, Koviko said:

So now that leveling has completely changed, would you recommend a different spec than Fire for Mages?

I'd recommend leveling as whatever you want to play as at 110. All 3 specs are viable in different fights in Antorus, they all have pros and cons. The AP you gain in leveling is no longer relevant at all (since AK kicks in at 110 immediately), so you can just try a spec you might want to play at 110. If you don't like it, it doesn't matter. They all perform solidly.

[Guest Wolfboy1]

I have noticed the fire guide in the Useful skills area says:  Ensure you are always casting Ice Barrier when possible to further reduce damage taken.

Of course, Ice Barrier is a Frost spec spell and is therefore unavailable to Fire Spec mages.  Might want to change it to Blazing Barrier instead. 

[Valks 2,373]

On 2/27/2018 at 3:52 PM, Guest Wolfboy1 said:

I have noticed the fire guide in the Useful skills area says:  Ensure you are always casting Ice Barrier when possible to further reduce damage taken.

Of course, Ice Barrier is a Frost spec spell and is therefore unavailable to Fire Spec mages.  Might want to change it to Blazing Barrier instead. 

Will let Furty know, thanks!