Classic Mage DPS Gear and Best in Slot

Last updated on Dec 01, 2020 at 14:11 by Seksixeny 37 comments

On this page, you will find the best PvE gear and best in slot items for your Mage DPS in WoW Classic.

If you were looking for TBC Classic content, please refer to our TBC Classic Mage gear and best in slots:

1.

Gearing Strategy for Mages

While a clear best in slot (BiS) list is always available in WoW Classic, the items contained might be extremely hard or expensive to get. Thus, we will try to give at least one alternative, for most slots in the list, so that you can pick where and how to farm them.

2.

Season of Mastery Lists

As WoW Classic's Season of Mastery consists of Phases that are separate from the regular branch of Classic, we have created unique gear lists for its pre-raid and Phases. In addition, you may find it useful to look over our Fire Resistance Gear guide for your specialization, which is applicable for either version of Classic.

3.

Mage AoE Grinding / Farming Best in Slot (BiS) List

If you are in this Mage business to farm gold for your main, or simply because you feel that is the most fun thing to do in WoW Classic, this list has you covered! No need to do raids or cherry pick dungeon gear, there are plenty of easy to get options with high Intellect and Stamina (as well as "of the Eagle" gear) to get you ready almost as soon as you hit Level 60!

4.

Mage Pre-Raid Best in Slot (BiS) List

In order to get ready for raiding, it is recommended that you follow this guide in order to learn which gear to gather for maximizing DPS before ever setting foot in raids, and probably also before getting your first epic loot. Even so, expect to get a few pieces that you will have a hard time replacing, such as Briarwood Reed Icon Briarwood Reed and Tome of the Ice Lord Icon Tome of the Ice Lord.

Look out also for the Tailoring Bloodvine Set, which you can buy and is extremely powerful when compared to most other pre-raid BiS pieces!

5.

Naxxramas Mage BiS

Naxxramas is the final destination of the original World of Warcraft, and as such carries the best gear and the most difficult bosses.

Mage Tier 3, Frostfire Regalia looks amazing and has great stats, but its set bonuses are, unfortunately, very weak. We will be listing multiple pieces of this set below, regardless, as their raw stats more than make up for the lack of useful set bonuses.

In Naxxramas, all bosses are undead except for Grand Widow Faerlina and Maexxna. This makes specialized anti-undead items such as Rune of the Dawn Icon Rune of the Dawn, Mark of the Champion Icon Mark of the Champion and the Regalia of Undead Cleansing set really effective. Consider any of these items and the full set of undead cleansing to be a top 3 piece of gear for its slot.

Slot Item Source
Helm
Neck
Shoulder
Cloak
Chest
Wrists
Gloves
Belt
Legs
Boots
  • Gothik the Harvester, Instructor Razuvious or Gluth in Naxxramas
Rings
Trinkets
Two-Hand
One-Hand
Off-hand
Ranged
6.

Other Useful Phase 6 Gear for Mages

While the list above contains the absolute best gear setup, you are unlikely to quickly gather all of it. We provide more options below, some which are very close to the best and some which are just much easier to get!

Slot Item Source
Helm
Neck
Shoulder
Cloak
Chest
Wrists
Gloves
Belt
Legs
Boots
Rings
Trinkets
Two-Hand
One-Hand
Off-hand
Ranged
7.

Frost Resistance Gear for Mages

In order to smooth out the Sapphiron encounter, it is advised that DPS players, Mages included, use a good amount of Frost Resistance gear, in order to reduce the high raid damage intake to manageable levels. We made a list with good options for almost every slot, so that you can face down the undead dragon while prepared:

8.

Nature Resistance Gear for Mages

As a Mage, you should not be required to use Nature Resistance gear on Princess Huhuran, but can still benefit from it while trying to freeze Viscidus. Read this guide to figure out where to find such gear, and which pieces to wear!

9.

Mage PvP Best in Slot Gear

You can find our recommended gear for PvPing as a Mage in the link below.

10.

Mage Weapons

For more information about Mage weapons, please refer to our dedicated guide.

11.

Special Gear for Mages

Finally, some items have niche uses and do not belong in a best in slot list, but are still very valuable to acquire for specific encounters, or as a weapon swap mid-fight. We will list the most notable special items below, as well as their effects and common applications.

  • Gnomish Battle Chicken Icon Gnomish Battle Chicken summons a chicken that attacks your enemies for 1.5 minutes, with a cooldown of 30 minutes. The chicken scales with your Engineering skill (Level 60 at 300 skill), and buffs your group with 5% increased Attack Speed through Battle Squawk. This is what makes it well worth using while grouped.
  • Arcanite Dragonling Icon Arcanite Dragonling summons a dragon that attacks your enemies for up to 1 minute, with a cooldown of one hour. The dragon scales with your Engineering skill (Level 60 at 300 skill) and causes a stacking debuff that increases Fire damage taken, which makes it worth using in later raids to boost Fire Mage damage.
  • Skull of Impending Doom Icon Skull of Impending Doom is given as a quest reward from completing Forbidden Knowledge in the Badlands. While generally undesirable, if you need to run somewhere fast, it can be a useful item to have.
  • Furbolg Medicine Pouch Icon Furbolg Medicine Pouch is sold by Gorn One Eye when you reach Honored status with Timbermaw Hold. This is a great item that you can swap during combat to provide you with a significant 1000 heal over 10 seconds. For comparison's sake, Heavy Runecloth Bandage Icon Heavy Runecloth Bandage heals you for 2000 over 8 seconds, but requires you to channel it, and you cannot take any sort of damage in the channel duration.
  • Tidal Charm Icon Tidal Charm allows you to instantly stun an enemy for 3 seconds. It has a 50% drop chance from Prince Nazjak, who spawns around 25,84 in Arathi Highlands. Due to his very high respawn timer it might be hard to get this trinket, but the stun it provides is a life saver and duel winner.
  • Linken's Boomerang Icon Linken's Boomerang allows you to potentially disarm or stun an enemy when used, which makes it useful in certain scenarios, especially in PvP. Its rewarded from the Un'Goro Crater quest It's Dangerous to Go Alone.
  • Luffa Icon Luffa removes a bleed effect, such as Garrote Icon Garrote, from yourself when used. You get this item from the Searing Gorge quest Incendosaurs? Whateverosaur is More Like It.
  • The Alliance-only Crystal of Zin-Malor Icon Crystal of Zin-Malor allows you to kill yourself easily, and you do not get durability loss if you die from its effect. This can occasionally be useful, such as when you regret getting on a fly path after you are already flying or if you need to talk with the Blackrock Depths key ghost NPC. You get it from starting the quest Tormented By the Past.
12.

Changelog

  • 01 Dec. 2020: Reworked the BiS guide with Naxxramas and clarity in mind.
  • 12 Nov. 2020: Added a Phase 6 gear best in slot list.
  • 05 Nov. 2020: Added a Frost Resistance gear list.
  • 06 Aug. 2020: Transferred the Ahn'Qiraj gear into the main guide.
  • 27 Jul. 2020: Added a link to the Nature Resistance gear guide.
  • 13 Jul. 2020: Added a link to Ahn'Qiraj gear suggestions.
  • 19 May 2020: Added Cloak of the Hakkari Worshipers and Sandworm Skin Gloves.
  • 15 May 2020: Added Silithus Twilight boss summonings gear.
  • 23 Apr. 2020: Added Bloodcaller and Zulian Ceremonial Staff.
  • 15 Apr. 2020: Added a few missing Zul'Gurub items.
  • 14 Apr. 2020: Updated with Zul'Gurub gear and some new PvP options.
  • 11 Mar. 2020: Updated with Arathi Basin gear.
  • 28 Feb. 2020: Added Flarecore Leggings.
  • 11 Feb. 2020: Transformed this page into a WoW Classic Mage gear hub and added Blackwing Lair BiS.
  • 04 Jan. 2020: Added PvP reputation gear and more ranked PvP gear.
  • 23 Nov. 2019: Separated the Horde / Alliance PvP gear into different lines.
  • 18 Nov. 2019: Updated the BiS list for Phase 2.
  • 04 Nov. 2019: Added an Area of Effect grinding BiS gear list.
  • 13 Oct. 2019: Added Dire Maul gear to the BiS list.
  • 29 Sep. 2019: Added Phase One Molten Core / Onyxia gear BiS list.
  • 19 Sep. 2019: Changed some gear slots due to powerful gear that was confirmed to be available in Phase 1, when it was previously not thought to be the case.
  • 16 Aug. 2019: Added new special gear to the list and changed its position to the bottom of the guide.
  • 30 Jun. 2019: Page added.
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