Hardcore Mage Class Overview

If you are curious about more general Hardcore tips that apply to not just Mage checkout our Hardcore Classic Overview that includes tips and tricks that will greatly increase your chances of surviving.

In Classic World of Warcraft, only a couple of races on each faction can be a Mage. Each has its own unique strengths when it comes to surviving the Hardcore Challenge

• Gnome — Gnomes are the best for race in Hardcore. Gnomes come with increased Intelligence, which is always good for a caster. Intellect increases your Mana and also increases Critical Hit chance with your spells. Not only that, but the other Gnome racial, Escape Artist, removes root/slow effects and can get you out of many dangerous situations that you will encounter while leveling. Gnomes come with increased Engineering skill, which is great since Engineering is one of the best and safest professions for Mages in Hardcore. All of this combined makes for Gnome being the best option for race as a Mage.
• Human — Human lacks all of the helfpul racial bonuses that Gnome has, but does have increased Spirit, which increases the Regeneration Rate of your Health and Mana.
• Dwarf and Night Elves cannot be Mages.

• Troll — Trolls are an amazing race for Mages. They have Regeneration, which increases your Health Regeneration Rate by 10%, as well as having access to Berserking, which increases your Attack Speed by 10% to 30%. At full Health, the Attack Speed increase is 10%, increasing to 30% as you take damage. This is a very powerful DPS cooldown and should be used together with your other DPS cooldowns.
• Undead — Undead have an extremely helpful racial ability that will break any Fear or Charm, Will of the Forsaken. Undead have Cannablize, which is exactly what it sounds like. You can eat Humanoid and Undead mobs to heal you for 7% of your maximum Health every 2 seconds, lasting for 10 seconds. This ability can be used frequently, making it it extremely useful for survival. Undead have the ability to breath underwater, which can be helpful for the few quests that have you underwater for a long time. To top it off, Undead come with additional Shadow Resistance.
• Orc and Taurens cannot be Mages.

The Stat priority that you will be following for Classic Hardcore is very similar to original Classic, but with a larger emphasis on Stamina. The additional Health can at times be the difference between surviving an encounter with an enemy or not and is typically more reliable than gearing towards just damage. Even in a best case scenario gear wise, you still have a significant chance of missing, and leveling in Hardcore is all about removing variability.

For a more in-depth explanation of what stats you should be prioritizing and their benefits to your leveling experience checkout our Mage leveling guide listed below, specifically the Mage Gear section.

Frost is by far the most popular and effective spec to choose fromdue to it being much safer than the other two specs. With countless slows, freezes, Frost barrier and not one, but two Ice Blocks, thanks to Cold Snap allowing you to safely survive, kill and kite pretty much any mob that exists. Fire is also a good spec that is very fun to play, but is usually only chosen for the Fire only achievement. Arcane sadly, is by far the worst spec for Hardcore. You lack all of the safety that Frost brings, and the damage that both specs bring, as well as costing more Mana, making you have to sit and drink constantly. It's highly suggested that you never play Arcane while leveling.

For a detailed route on how to spend each of your talent points while leveling, check out our Frost or Fire Mage talent build guide specifically for leveling. This page also includes a Frost and Fire specific priority list of how to deal maximum damage while leveling.

Professions are extremely important for not just Mages, but for anyone in Hardcore. They do a range of things from providing extra damage, boosting your damage via buffs or providing you with items that can get you out of any sticky situation. When it comes to which professions are the best for Mages, both Engineering and Alchemy are great. You have the option of pairing them with their gathering profession, for example Engineering would require materials that you'd need to be Mining to get, and Alchemy requires you to pick herbs via Herbalism. However you are allowed to use the auction house on the Official Hardcore server, making it exponentially easy to get the materials, if you don't want to farm them yourself. To make it even easier, you can simply choose to go Engineering, and just buy all the potions and elixirs that Alchemy would provide from the auction house or from trading another player with the Alchemy profession. This allows you to get all the amazing perks of Enchanting, while still getting the perks of Alchemy.

If you're SSF - Solo Self Found - meaning you are not using the auction house or trading, then below will be a brief breakdown on the profession pairings.

These are all secondary professions, so you can get them without getting in the way of your two major professions that we're about to talk about. You should always be First Aid and keep your bandages up to date. It's easy for Mages to get bandages off since you can simply Frost Nova, Blink away and get a full bandage in. Fishing and Cooking are great for some extra stat buffs, however in my opinion doesn't feel worth the time sink since you have so many defensives as a Mage. But feel free use them if you want.

Mining and Engineering is the best option for Mages. It provides the most safety out of the out of the professions as well as a decent amount of extra damage with all the grenades and bombs. Target Dummy is a usable item that will instantly redirect threat to it, causing mobs to stop attacking you for either 15 seconds or until it dies. This is a get out of jail free card. Between your pet tanking and this, you should have no issue surviving or escaping any situation.

Herbalism and Alchemy is a great pairing of professions, as it will allow you to make consumable potions that not only give you a burst of health in an emergency situation, but also offer considerable stat increases and the occasionally solution to a niche situation. You get potions that give you Defense, Stamina Hp5 and many more. The only downside to this profession being the time you must invest to harvest your own materials via Herbalism.

Many Mages choose to go Tailoring and Enchanting in order to obtain their wands early, as wands are quite strong in the early game. Lesser Magic Wand and Greater Magic Wand. The only way to obtain them is to farm the materials and make it yourself. A typical profession route is to pick up Tailoring and Enchanting until you can craft both wands, then drop these two professions for a set of the previous one mentioned. In terms of Tailoring while you level, it is nice to make your own bags and even to make gear while you level.

If you are curious about the most efficient way to level your professions, or would like a list of many of the useful items you can craft, make sure to check out our Classic Profession guides listed below.

Many people are enjoying Classic Hardcore by duo leveling. Mage does quite well when paired with almost any another class. Included below is a list of the most popular/effective class duos and their strengths/weaknesses!