WoW Mage Guide - the Power Might of Fire and Frost
Mages, in World of Warcraft, somewhat resemble the famous description of World War I battleships - eggshells armed with hammers. They can slow their opponents with bitter blasts of ice and frost, scorch them with potent fire spells, or blow them to pieces with a shower of arcane bolts. Their nearly unarmored condition, however, means that it requires an elusive play style to use them effectively - as any WoW mage guide will tell you, you must avoid close combat at all costs.
Mages are a damage class in World of Warcraft, able to inflict huge amounts of damage to opponents at range with their spells (which, incidentally, bypass most armor protection). They are incapable of either healing or tanking, the other two main roles of the game. They bring plenty of utility to raids, instance groups, and PvP, however, due to several of their spells. As any good WoW mage guide will tell you, conjuring water for group or raid members is a major utility role for mages in PvE situations. Crowd control in the form of Frost Nova, which freezes opponents to the ground for a brief period of time, is useful in some dungeons, and extremely useful in PvP, when it can immobilize a good part of an enemy team for several crucial seconds.
"Sheeping" opponents, which involves use of the Polymorph spell to turn a hostile creature or player into a harmless sheep for some time, is useful to reduce the odds when fighting several monsters or a group of "trash mobs" in a dungeon. Frost Nova is another crowd control spell, while conjured water is a free alternative to vendor-bought mana drinks that is appreciated by all dungeon groups.
Speccing into frost, as described in most WoW mage guides, is the main choice for mage players who enjoy PvP or want to level quickly to 85. It is the leveling and player versus player spec due to the many talents that increase the mage's chances of slowing or freezing foes while attacking them with frost spells. A water elemental pet is gained at level 10 as a signature ability, for extra damage.
Frost mages are the only spec of mage with a summonable pet - since Cataclysm, this water elemental has been the signature move of the spec, available from level 10 onwards.
Fire mages are the "run and gun" spec of the mage class, able to deal tremendous amounts of damage (considerably in excess of frost mages) but with very few panic buttons or crowd control moves to enhance their survival rate. A fire mage, this WoW mage guide notes, is able to select talents which give them stuns or slows, including Dragon Breath (a short range cone stun) and Blast Wave (an area of effect spell that slows opponents by 70% for three seconds).
Fire spec is very poor for PvP, both battlegrounds and arenas, due to a lack of enemy-slowing spells and panic buttons. Dragon's Breath and Blast Wave offer a bit of crowd control potential, but nothing like frost offers. It is a spec for endgame raids and those who enjoy PvE content rather than PvP.
Arcane mages were formerly the weakest tree of the class, but now reside somewhere between fire and frost. Arcane offers more damage than frost, but less than fire, and more survivability than fire, but less than frost. The talent spec is useful in both PvE and PvP, and has enough tricks and interesting spells to make it the Swiss army knife of mage specs.
Mages are a damage class in World of Warcraft, able to inflict huge amounts of damage to opponents at range with their spells (which, incidentally, bypass most armor protection). They are incapable of either healing or tanking, the other two main roles of the game. They bring plenty of utility to raids, instance groups, and PvP, however, due to several of their spells. As any good WoW mage guide will tell you, conjuring water for group or raid members is a major utility role for mages in PvE situations. Crowd control in the form of Frost Nova, which freezes opponents to the ground for a brief period of time, is useful in some dungeons, and extremely useful in PvP, when it can immobilize a good part of an enemy team for several crucial seconds.
"Sheeping" opponents, which involves use of the Polymorph spell to turn a hostile creature or player into a harmless sheep for some time, is useful to reduce the odds when fighting several monsters or a group of "trash mobs" in a dungeon. Frost Nova is another crowd control spell, while conjured water is a free alternative to vendor-bought mana drinks that is appreciated by all dungeon groups.
Speccing into frost, as described in most WoW mage guides, is the main choice for mage players who enjoy PvP or want to level quickly to 85. It is the leveling and player versus player spec due to the many talents that increase the mage's chances of slowing or freezing foes while attacking them with frost spells. A water elemental pet is gained at level 10 as a signature ability, for extra damage.
Frost mages are the only spec of mage with a summonable pet - since Cataclysm, this water elemental has been the signature move of the spec, available from level 10 onwards.
Fire mages are the "run and gun" spec of the mage class, able to deal tremendous amounts of damage (considerably in excess of frost mages) but with very few panic buttons or crowd control moves to enhance their survival rate. A fire mage, this WoW mage guide notes, is able to select talents which give them stuns or slows, including Dragon Breath (a short range cone stun) and Blast Wave (an area of effect spell that slows opponents by 70% for three seconds).
Fire spec is very poor for PvP, both battlegrounds and arenas, due to a lack of enemy-slowing spells and panic buttons. Dragon's Breath and Blast Wave offer a bit of crowd control potential, but nothing like frost offers. It is a spec for endgame raids and those who enjoy PvE content rather than PvP.
Arcane mages were formerly the weakest tree of the class, but now reside somewhere between fire and frost. Arcane offers more damage than frost, but less than fire, and more survivability than fire, but less than frost. The talent spec is useful in both PvE and PvP, and has enough tricks and interesting spells to make it the Swiss army knife of mage specs.
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