Mage Leveling Guide

[Valks 2,373]

This thread is for comments about our 1-120 Mage Leveling Guide.

[Feida 0]

Thanks for the guide!

A couple of things, in the event you choose the Burst of Cold PvP talent, it would probably be better to pick up Ice Ward for the extra Frost Nova charge.

Also, why is Ice Nova always omitted from these leveling guides?  Ice Nova is an incredibly flexible and powerful tool for questing, whereas Bone Chilling requires a good amount of up-time in order to be 100% useful, which is hard to manage while questing.

[Genza 0]

In the fire section you advise to take living bomb and meteor, but they aren't mentioned in the rotation.

[Wizeowel 0]

On 8/16/2018 at 5:42 PM, Genza said:

In the fire section you advise to take living bomb and meteor, but they aren't mentioned in the rotation.

Indeed. They are also not mentioned in "3.2.3. Summary of Unlocked Abilities for Fire Mage". 

Meteor can be used on cooldown. Living bomb when there are 3+ mobs and the one you target isn't about to die. Check the regular fire mage guide for more information.

[Wizeowel 0]

On 8/16/2018 at 2:04 PM, Feida said:

Also, why is Ice Nova always omitted from these leveling guides?  Ice Nova is an incredibly flexible and powerful tool for questing, whereas Bone Chilling requires a good amount of up-time in order to be 100% useful, which is hard to manage while questing.

I agree, now that you can talent for it at low level. From level 18, cast Blizzard at distance then Ice Nova will hold mobs in the Blizzard area for an extra tick or two. From level 32 if gets more powerful, you can also lock mobs from a distance with Freeze and then the Ice Nova will AOE shatter. This will teach also teach crowd control skills and is fun on large packs of mobs in combination with Frost Nova and Cone of Cold.

Edited August 18, 2018 by Wizeowel
are*a

[Valks 2,373]

On 8/18/2018 at 8:52 AM, Wizeowel said:

Indeed. They are also not mentioned in "3.2.3. Summary of Unlocked Abilities for Fire Mage". 

Meteor can be used on cooldown. Living bomb when there are 3+ mobs and the one you target isn't about to die. Check the regular fire mage guide for more information.

They're not mentioned in unlocked abilities because they are talents - I'll get it added to the rotation, though.

[Valks 2,373]

On 8/16/2018 at 1:04 PM, Feida said:

Thanks for the guide!

A couple of things, in the event you choose the Burst of Cold PvP talent, it would probably be better to pick up Ice Ward for the extra Frost Nova charge.

Also, why is Ice Nova always omitted from these leveling guides?  Ice Nova is an incredibly flexible and powerful tool for questing, whereas Bone Chilling requires a good amount of up-time in order to be 100% useful, which is hard to manage while questing.

You don't take the extra charge because it doesn't actually do anything in terms of helping the CoC combo. You have two charges that still take 30 seconds to recharge and, given that CoC has a 12-second cooldown, you are unlikely to ever use two combos on a single pack. It ends up just being a wasted talent most of the time since a single combo + Blizzard + Ice Lance normally kills any large pulls off.

As for Nova, it's not really considered part of the "rotation", but is included in the spells unlocked section. Since you have to choose when to use it to best survive, it's tough to say when exactly to do so. We can add some advice on using it, though.

[TheRealBill 5]

You don't have to save your items until 120 for scrapping; you can scrap well before. There is a quest (alliance: A Load of Scrap - name is the same for Horde) for the scrapper that you qualify for at 110. I'm guessing the 120 note is a holdover from PTR. Instead I'd suggest you go there right after, or during, the welcome tour. Then you can get scrappy at 110. ;) 

[bdonovanw 0]

I might be missing something, but it seems as if the 1-120 leveling guide is inconsistent with the main spec, builds, and talents suggestions. Specifically, for an Arcane Mage of any level in the leveling guide, the Level 15 talent is Amplification, but on the Spec, Builds, and Talents page Amplification is X'd out and the Rule of Threes talent is stated as the "best single-target choice," which is a lot of leveling, honestly.

[Guest Anyavaya]

When leveling a frost mage, you mention Fire Blast becoming available at level 3 and include it in the spell rotation.  It is no longer available to a frost mage.

[Guest Mich]

I have returned to the game in Spring 2020 after not playing since Jan 2008. I was directed towards this as a very helpful resource. Normally I would say keeping things brief has a strong advantage. In this situation it was too brief to be helpful, as it assumes too much knowledge. Likely the information in the rotation would have made more sense for more recent/more currently experienced players. It would be nice if there was a sub-option to choose that stated something like "for a less condensed version with more background for new or returning players please click here" and that took you to a page that covered the rotation in a few paragraphs with significantly more of a fleshed out step by step guide as to the advantages of this approach and how to employ it. Thanks for reading!

[Seksi 208]

5 hours ago, Guest Mich said:

I have returned to the game in Spring 2020 after not playing since Jan 2008. I was directed towards this as a very helpful resource. Normally I would say keeping things brief has a strong advantage. In this situation it was too brief to be helpful, as it assumes too much knowledge. Likely the information in the rotation would have made more sense for more recent/more currently experienced players. It would be nice if there was a sub-option to choose that stated something like "for a less condensed version with more background for new or returning players please click here" and that took you to a page that covered the rotation in a few paragraphs with significantly more of a fleshed out step by step guide as to the advantages of this approach and how to employ it. Thanks for reading!

I understand where you are coming from, but luckily I think you can find what you want in the regular guide's rotation guide ? have fun!

[bdonovanw 0]

On 4/6/2020 at 8:55 AM, Guest Anyavaya said:

When leveling a frost mage, you mention Fire Blast becoming available at level 3 and include it in the spell rotation.  It is no longer available to a frost mage.

All mages get Fire Blast at level three, which is before mages can pick a specialty. It only disappears when mages can specialize at level 10, and is replaced by Ice Lance (for Frost mages) or Arcane Barrage (for Arcane mages). The leveling guide does specifically mention Fire Blast disappears at level 10 for Frost mages.

[wtfRobbi 0]

In the guide, when moving the slider to level 71 it gives:

At Level 71, you can visit the portal trainer to learn Teleport: Dalaran - Broken Isles, which will take you to Dalaran, above the Broken Isles.

However, this isn't available until level 105.