WoW Mage Guide

Introduction

When you first took a look at a mage, did the sorcerer class from Diablo come to your mind? It did for me, but maybe that’s just because I was addicted to that game for a long time. In any case, the mage class in World of WarCraft is a good choice for anyone that loves using magic.

The mage does use direct damage magic with crowd abilities mixed in for good measure. Arcane magic as well as the elemental fire and frost spells are the bread and butter of the mage and it has the ability to create food and water for personal consumption and sharing. You can also teleport to other cities with threshold levels as a mage and finally you can use a blink ability to actually go forward and avoid any enemies that you don’t really want to fight.

Strengths and Weaknesses
As a class, the mage has some impressive strengths. Burst area of effect damage is one of them, as is the overall high level of damage that the mage can do to begin with. The ability to open raiding portals for maximum mobility is another impressive strength, as is the ability to create food and water from thin air.

At the same time, the mage is weak physically with low HP and pathetic defences otherwise. This is especially true for melee combat, so don’t do it when you are a mage. Furthermore, the mage is highly mana dependent, meaning that you can really get owned something fierce if you happen to run out of mana in the middle of an encounter. And since you are a mage and are the only one that can make food, water and mobility portals, you can expect other players to harass you consistently for all three of those things.

Race Selection
Just like with the warlock and other magic casting classes, the alliance mage is best served by being a gnome. Gnomes get intelligence bonuses and the Escape Artist abilities, making them ideal for a physically fragile ranged magic caster. Humans are a decent choice as well with their spirit bonus, although you will find useless the sword bonus that they come with.

As far as the Horde races are concerned, the troll’s bezerker ability is one that could definitely be parlayed into a fun time with a mage. At the same point in time, the Forsaken Undead have the cannibalize ability that can also make a mage really fun to play. Blood Elves in Burning Crusade are probably the best numerical choice for mage since their abilities all go towards increasing the amount of mana that you have. Even so, they are certainly not a lock when compared with the others.

Basic Strategy
The basic strategy that comes with using the mage in World of WarCraft is basically the same basic strategy that you would get with other characters. It is minimize your weaknesses and maximize your strengths. In the case of the mage, that essentially means finding groups of enemies far away from you and hitting them with ranged spells with area effect damage. It also means avoiding close encounters if at all possible, something that can be done with the blink and teleport abilities.