Mage DPS Season of Mastery Phase 3/4 Gear
On this page, you will find the best gear and best in slot items from Tier 2 / Blackwing Lair and Zul'Gurub for your Mage DPS in WoW Classic's Season of Mastery. For pre-raid gearing advice, please refer to our Mage DPS Pre-Raid Gearing and Best in Slot guide for the Season of Mastery.
Gearing Strategy for Mages in Season of Mastery Phase 3/4
While a clear best in slot (BiS) list is always available in WoW Classic Season of Mastery (SoM), 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.
Mage AoE Grinding / Farming Best in Slot (BiS) List
If gold farming is your passion, or simply because you feel that is the most fun thing to do in WoW Classic SoM, 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!
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 and Tome of the Ice Lord or any high rank PvP gear.
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!
Mage Raid Best in Slot (BiS) List for Blackwing Lair
This is the (Frost) gear we recommend you to chase in the Blackwing Lair.
Mage's Tier 2, Netherwing Regalia has some nice perks, the 3 set bonus reduces your threat, allowing you to deal damage freely without the risk of pulling aggro from the tank. The 5 set increases the radius of your AoE spells by 25%, which is nice when trying to kill many spread out enemies. Finally, the 8 set bonus grants you a 10% chance to make your next spell instant when casting your main spells, which is a decent damage boost for Frost and even stronger for Fire builds in later tiers.
We will be recommending only the strongest tier pieces below, with the weaker ones only being recommended in case you need them to hit a set bonus or if your current item is weak. Because the 8 piece bonus is good, using the full set is a decent option, although you will lose on some of the most powerful off-pieces in the game, such as Mish'undare, Circlet of the Mind Flayer.
While the main focus is on Blackwing Lair gear, the list below also contains some gear from older raids, Zul'Gurub, epic PvP sets (above rank 11) and world bosses, when warranted, in order to create a good list for players who regularly clear the raids up to Tier 2.
Also, while we are only listing the Horde versions of these quests / PvP sets and PvP reputation gear, equivalent versions can be found on the Alliance side, with the same requirements, cost and stats.
*These items have random suffixes. You will be looking for of Frozen Wrath, which gives +Frost Spell Damage. Since you need both the item and the correct suffix to drop, these are often hard to farm, so make sure you have reasonable alternatives until you can get the correct drop.
** Will of Arlokk is a special case in that you swap to it specifically for added Mana regeneration while using Evocation, when out of Mana or when there are no enemies you can attack. Due to its extremely high Spirit value, you can gain a huge amount of extra Mana by swapping to it at the right times.
Fire Resistance Gear for Mages
As a Mage, you might benefit from using a small amount of Fire Resistance gear for Ragnaros, in order to avoid an untimely death, especially if your Soul of Iron is still active! Read this guide to figure out where to find such gear, and which pieces to wear!
Mage PvP Best in Slot Gear
You can find our recommended gear for PvPing as a Mage in the link below.
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 removes a bleed effect, such as 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 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.
Other Best in Slot Lists
As this list is meant to be used for Mages in WoW Classic's Season of Mastery, we have created separate gear lists for those interested in optimizing themselves for the "main" branch of Classic instead. If you are not playing in the Season of Mastery, it is recommended that you consult this gear hub instead. In case you still need them, we have also included links to other phases of our Season of Mastery gear lists.
Changelog
- 07 Mar. 2022: Updated with Zul'Gurub gear.
- 08 Feb. 2022: Page added for Season of Mastery Phase 3.
This guide has been written by Seksi, original vanilla player and multi-class player, currently playing on Gehennas Horde. You can find him on the Classic Warrior, Mage and Shaman Discords, as well as the Icy Veins Discord.
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