Welcome Mages!
World of Warcraft Mage PvP Guide!
For starters here are the Characteristics of a Mage. I will lay out the Pros and the Cons of being a Mage for PVP!
Cons
- Mages are Squishy (Squishy meaning compared to other classes in WoW they don’t have much armor to protect againt powerful melee damage. So when struck they take a lot more damage from it than for a example a Warrior
- Mages can not heal themselves. Unlike other classes like Shaman or Priest or even druids Mages don’t have the capability to heal themselves or others for that matter.
- They are very very mana based Characters. If a mage has no mana they are worthless. Because all of their spells requires using up mana.
Pros
- Mages have a lot of CC’s (Crowd Control Abilities). For example they have abilities such as freezing targets on the floor making them unable to move for a period of time as you run away and cast a spell to hurt them. They also can turn an enemy into a sheep with polymorph spell.
- Mages can create a water elemental pet to help them freeze targets on the floor as well
- Because mages can’t do things like heal or don’t have things like a lot of armor, they get abilities to help them survive with damage absorbing barriers and ice blocking them selves to take no damage for a period of time.
- They are also a fun class to play overall requires a bit of practice to become a pro but its very possible =)
Now that I have discussed the Pros and Cons I will get into detail about the best ways to get gear and how to practice your gameplay.
How to Spec
Frost
(20/0/51) Frost + TTW
“An Arena standard, this Frost build has not only the most survivability, but also has the most burst potential Frost can achieve through Deep Freeze and Brain Freeze, boosted by Torment the Weak. Improved Counterspell is also obtained, as are most utility Frost talents. It also includes Magic Absorption, Arcane Fortitude, and Magic Attunement for added defenses. With this, you can switch between Ice and Mage Armor as situations require. Some mages that group with other casters may prefer to drop a single point from Spell Impact to pick up Focus Magic. It is also advised to attain around 11% haste, to be able to get off the very lethal Deep Freeze + FB + IL + IL combo.” – WoWwiki
(28/0/43) Frost w/Prismatic Cloak
“The ‘Frismatic’ build combines the survivability and utility of Frost with Prismatic Cloak and Presence of Mind.The Frost part of the build can be customized as necessary to obtain specific talents such as Permafrost. ” – WoWwiki
Arcane
(58/13/0) Arcane Barrage, POM/Arcane Blast spec.
“This spec is meant for those who have more experience with the arcane tree. You will rely more on your arcane spells, mostly not [pom + pyroblast] but more on [pom + arcane blast] its a spec that works well in PvP. Also great versus paladins. Keep in mind some people seem to not have noticed that impact is not only for fire. It works globally now.” – WoWwiki
(51/2/18) POM Frostfire Bolt
“This spec utilizes crit damage modifiers (similar to the Frostfire Bolt PvE spec above) but instead of using Fire as it’s base, it optimizes the PvP power of Arcane. Uses the root and snare mechanics to minimize enemy mobility while using Shatter, Spell Power, and Torment the Weak to provide large crits. Great for high burst damage. Updated for 3.2 to incorporate Permafrost’s new anti-healing effect. ” – WoWwiki
(55/16/0)Arcane Barrage + POM + Pyroblast
“Combines the power of the 3 minute mage spec, and adds impact for a stun, and world in flames for a better crit chance. ” – WoWwiki
(56/12/3)Arcane Barrage + pompyro + ice flows for quicker snare cooldowns.
“Very nice kiting spec with plenty of instant casts for mobility. Very powerful. ” – WoWwiki
Fire
(17/54/0) Fire PvP
“This is a cookie cutter fire PvP spec. It is very RNG dependend and has no main nuke. There are many tactics to playing this build. These include, Rapid scorches to proc a Hot Streak, using Dragons Breath to get off a Frostfire Bolt (damage + snare), following up with a Blastwave and Fire Blast, all while retaining use of instant casts such as a Nova/IL/CoC/Arcane Exlosion to proc impacts. Motlen armor works for proccing impact for both melee and ranged attacks. Frost and Fire Ward have a high chance to reflect Fire and Frost spells with minor glyphs for added effect. A PvP Fire mage is always on his toes adapting to different situations. It isn’t as consistent as other tree’s for PvP, but it can be entertaining and effective. ” – WoWwiki
(0/53/18) Frostfire PvP
“This is very similar to the above build with the exception that it adds the possibility for shatter combo’s and Icy Veins within a fire spec. It adds slightly more survivability to melee classes through Ice Armor buffs and more snares. However, the lack of Imp. Counterspell, Magic Absorption, and Magic Attunement can make fighting other casters significantly more difficult. The point into Imp. Blizzard is simply to provide slightly more utility inside a battlegrounds environment by adding a snare/freeze to blizzard, this point may be removed if needed. ” – WoWwiki
Gearing up!
The best way to gear up is to PvP in battlegrounds! If you turn in one mark of each battleground you receive roughly around 1300 Honor. Personally I do battlegrounds until I reach 30 marks for each battleground. The honor grind from that makes you enough honor for something like bracers. Also que for WG. Wintergrasp is a very crucial part because the marks for WG can get you trinkets you need for PvP.
List of Activities
Here is a list of things to do that will help you gear out your character.
Battlegrounds
Battleground farming is the typical way people start off getting gear. Not only because it gives you enormous amounts of experience going up against other WoW Classes but you gain constant honor to get you epic’s!
WinterGrasp
Ever Since WOTLK came out Wintergrasp has been added. It’s like a battleground that comes once every three hours. They have their own special uses of Marks.
Daily PVP quests
Like I said battlegrounds are very useful, Blizzard just makes it even better by adding daily battleground PVP quests. Going in and winning a certain battleground will complete your quest which you can not only turn in for gold but honor as well! =)
Vault of Archevon Raid
Very Very Very important to complete every week. Both 10 and 25 man! Usually the best groups you’ll find is on tuesdays when the raid resets because people want to get it done quick and get it over with. It is a very easy raid that drops very epic loot =). Be sure to do it you will not be disappointed. This raid drops both insane PVP and PVE epics so you don’t want to miss out.
As far as Specs and actual PVP guides go. I would encourage any viewer to send me their Spec and how they play so I can post it for them! Or leave a comment. More info will be coming soon. You can e-mail me your specs and guides or ideas to webmaster@hordelife.com
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