Mage Leveling Guide

Welcome back to my free Mage leveling guide.  If you are new here you may want to Click Here to check out my Mage Leveling Guide Review

Today’s section of my free Mage leveling guide is going to be all about Mage leveling builds.  Mages are potent casters who posses the ability to do extreme amounts of dps while also being able to crowd control enemies.  Bar none, the Mage is one of the most powerful dps classes in game regardless of whether you are Arcane, Fire, or a Frost Mage. By utilizing area of effect (AoE) spells combined with effective crowd control such as frost nova Mages are able to do damage to multiple targets at once.

Unfortunately, one thing you will find out quickly when leveling a Mage is that this high dps comes with a price.  Mages are one of the squishiest classes in Wow wearing only cloth armor and typically having low hit points.  One part of your mage leveling build that will be crucial is ice block.  Without it, you are a dead Mage.

Click Here to Download Dugi’s In Game Leveling Guide for FREE

Although a Mage cannot heal he does have ways of regenerating health (and mana) between battles.  Unlike other classes who must spend gold to buy food and drink Mages are able to conjure their own.  This isn’t just a money saver, its a huge time saver as you won’t constantly be running back to town to buy items.

Mages are highly sought after in game not only for their high dps but also for their ability to control enemy NPC’s.  Polymorph is one of the Mage’s greatest talents as it allows him to completely remove a target from the battle and can be recast an infinite number of times assuming the Mage has enough mana.  Mages also have the ability to open a portal to other major cities, for example when a raid is over or when someone needs to run back to town to buy reagents or repair.  This also saves you time when you are Mage leveling.

While leveling your Mage you will want to make sure you don’t forget to buff yourself with Arcane Intellect and whatever armor you choose.  My recommendation is that you always use Ice Armor when mage leveling as it boosts your armor just a bit and slows your enemies should you need to escape.

There are three main Mage talent builds in Wow.  They are Arcane, Frost, and Fire.  Although you will eventually want to spec a certain way for pvp and another for pve, there are specific Mage leveling builds you should follow when leveling.  Those are covered further down on this page.  Without going into too much detail here however, I recommend that you use the Frost build for your mage leveling build as it is mana efficient and does high amounts of burst dps.(perfect for single target dps on low hp enemies)

Although Arcane has finally been made  viable with the release of Wrath of the Lich King i advice you not to spec Arcane until you reach level 80.  I won’t say it can’t be used as a mage leveling build but it is certainly not the optimal choice.

Hey everyone welcome back to my free mage leveling guide.  Today I wanted to cover one of the most important aspects of leveling your mage; spec.  Your spec is going to determine a lot of things none the least of which is how fast you level.  We want to put out the max dps without having to stop and drink every 2 seconds so I am going to cover exactly what spec I use when I level a new mage.  Keep in mind, I’ve got three of these boogers and this spec works VERY well.  Ok, so here we go, my mage leveling guide to specs.

If you have been around Wow any amount of time at all I’m sure you’ve heard that frost is by far the best mage leveling spec but do you know why?  The frost spec allows for higher survivability, improved mana efficiency, better control, and high burst damage.  Now, rather than just tell you that you need to be using a frost mage for leveling I wanted to also cover exactly which talents to get and when to get them in this mage leveling guide so here goes.

• Improved Frostbolt 5/5
• Ice Shards 3/3
• Permafrost 3/3

• Icy Veins 1/1
• Frostbite 3/3
• Arctic Reach 2/2
• Shatter 3/3
• Cold Snap 1/1

• Frost Channeling 3/3
• Piercing Ice 3/3
• Winter’s Chill 3/3
• Ice Barrier 1/1

• Shattered Barrier 2/2
• Arctic Winds 5/5
• Fingers of Frost 2/2
• Summon Water Elemental 1/1

• Brain Freeze 3/3
• Enduring Winter 3/3
• Chilled to the Bone 5/5

• Deep Freeze 1/1
• Precision 3/3
• Enpowered Frostbolt 2/2
• Ice Flows 3/3

• Cold as Ice 2/2
• Frozen Core 3/3
• Improved Cone of Cold 2/3
• Improved Blizzard 3/3

Obviously once you get past level 65 things get a whole lot more open to interpretation so if you want to move some points around it won’t hurt you much.  This just happens to be the spec I use.  So I hope that you found this mage leveling spec section of my mage leveling guide helpful and be sure to check back soon as I am going to be adding even more free tips.

Ok, so last week’s edition of this free mage leveling guide left off with your possible race choices as an alliance player so today I wanted to spend some time covering your choices should you choose to go Horde.  I personally have a little more experience overall Alliance side but that’s just because its where I started.

Troll – Trolls have three semi decent talents for a mage one of which is very nice.  They include

• Berserking – Increases casting speed by 20% for 10 seconds
• Regeneration – Increased health regeneration by 10% and allows 10% regen during combat
• Da Voodoo Shuffle – Reduces the effect of all movement impairing effects by 15%

Undead – Undead mages are great for pvp as they come with three very useful racials.  They are

• Will of the Forsaken – Removes any charm, fear, or sleep effect.  It does NOT share the pvp trinket cooldown however it does have its own 2 minute cd
• Cannibalize – Regenerates 7% of your hp every 2 seconds for 10 seconds when activated.  Can be used on human or undead targets
• Shadow Resistance – Passive ability which reduces your chance to be hit by shadow spells by 2%

Blood Elf – Blood Elves are another great choice for pvp.  They come packed with 2 useful abilities which are

• Arcane Torrent – When used silences all enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds and 6% of your base mana
• Magic Resistance – Passive ability which reduces your chance to be hit by spells by 2%

Goblin – That’s right!  When Cataclysm released you will have the option to be a Goblin mage.

• Rocket Jump -  Can be activated to jump forward but shares a 2 min cooldown with Rocket Barrage
• Rocket Barrage – Fires belt rockets at an enemy.  Deals 1654-2020 damage at level 80
• Time is Money – 1% increase to attack and casting speed

Well, again, as I mentioned in the alliance section of my mage leveling guide it really depends on the style of play you prefer.  Each race is going to have some unique pvp perks and some unique pve perks.  I personally am very excited to play a Golbin mage and by the looks of the racials there are going to be a bunch of us.

In my next portion of this free mage leveling guide I will cover the different zones for each faction as well as some tricks to shave hours or possibly days off your leveling time.

Until then, go download this Free In-Game Mage Leveling Guide

I know this site is dedicated to a free mage leveling guide but I wanted to spend some time on the different races because you are going to be stuck with whatever you pick for a very long time (unless you wanna pay to change).  Because there are such a large number of races in the game capable of playing a mage I will be breaking this down into two seperate posts.

Humans – Humans essentially come with three distinct racial abilities one of which is totally useless to mages so lets look at what they do offer.

• Diplomacy – If you are planning on doing a lot of pve the Diplomacy racial is nice as it gives you a 10% boost to all rep gains.  It certainly makes grinding rep much easier especially if this is going to be an alt.
• Every Man for Himself – This is essentially the same talent offered by the pvp trinket i.e break stuns etc.  If you plan on playing a lot of pvp this is a very nice racial as it frees up a trinket slot you can then use to stack spell power, resilience, haste, etc.

Gnomes – Gnomes are an excellent choice for any caster packing two usable racials.

• Bonus to Intellect – Gnomes offer a passive 5% increase to your mage’s intellect meaning more mana as well as more spell power or critical strike rating depending on your spec.
• Escape Artist – Very similar to the human “every man for himself” racial but this only removes movement slowing effects not stuns.  However, as a plus, this does not share a trinket cool down like the human racial.

Draenei – There are 3 major points of interest when choosing a Draenei.

• Heroic Presence – This is an outstanding ability for any mage.  It provides a 1% hit bonus for you and all party members.
• Gift of the Naaru – Perhaps my favorite racial of all, this Hot (heal over time) is on a 3 minute cooldown and scales with your level.  In a tight spot, this can be the difference between life or death.
• 2% Chance to Dodge Shadow Magic – If you’re a pvper you’ll love that Warlocks and Shadow Priests are going to have a 2% chance to miss you every time they cast.

Night Elf – It has been announced that during Cataclysm you will have the option of playing a Night Elf Mage.  No word on new racials as of yet.

There is no one answer for this question.  Each race has it’s strong points and weak points but try to select a race best suited for your style of play.  For example if you love pvp, I personally think the Human is the best choice whereas if you are more into pve you may go with the Draenei or the Gnome.  I personally have played Gnome Mages as well as Human and Troll.

In the next portion of this Mage Leveling Guide I am going to cover the different race possibilities for horde players so if the Alliance racials didn’t catch your eye make sure and check back soon.

Hello I’m Dave,

First and foremost I’d like to thank you for stopping by my site dedicated to bring you a free mage leveling guide.  I’ve been building websites for a few years now and playing Wow much longer lol.  I originally got my start as a Ret Paladin back in vanilla Wow but have long since grown fond of mages.  My collection of level 80′s currently stands at 12 spread across three servers and 3 of the 12 are mages.

Great question, I’m glad you asked.  In this free mage leveling guide I plan on covering everything you need to know to level your character from level 1 to level 80.  Among the things I’ll be discussing is choosing an appropriate race, leveling specs, gear, grinding versus questing, and a whole lot more so I suggest you go ahead and bookmark this site now!

There is no one right answer for everyone.  It will depend on how closely you follow this guide and whether you choose to level your mage through grinding, questing, or a mixure of both.  In my experience I have consistently been able to level from 1 – 80 in under 7 days play time.  If you are fortunate enough to have access to BoA (Bind on Account) gear then that time can be reduced drastically.  My fastest time ever was with a paladin and it took me 2 days 7 hours of play time.  Matter of fact, if enough people comment I can post a video I shot of it from Youtube.

Ok, so I just wanted to introduce myself and welcome you to the site.  Make sure you bookmark us and check back often because I should have the free mage leveling guide uploaded within a few days.