Welcome to my article about the best mage leveling spec. Honestly, the easiest way to level a Mage is by going Frost. You may have a different opinion and want to go Fire, and that’s fine too. I like the Frost tree because it’s the most mana efficient spec and offers the most survivability through snares and damage mitigation.
This is not an AoE Spec. It’s simply a build for efficiency while leveling. If you want to level reallyfast, I strongly suggest you check out Zygor’s Leveling Guide. It’s an in-game leveling guide that can get you from 1-80 in as little as 7 days.
A quick word about your new Mage. He or she is a caster… try to keep away from the mobs (called “kiting”). You’re only wearing cloth, so your enemies will tear through your virtually nonexistent armor.
When you hit level 10, you’re basically going to cast Frostbolt until the enemy reaches you, then cast Frost Nova, get some space and cast Frostbolt some more.
Level 10-14: 5/5 Improved Frostbolt.This gives you a reduced casting time for Frostbolt, which is great since it will be your primary nuke for a long time.
Level 15-17: 3/3 Permafrost.Improves the effect of your snares, which makes it take enemies longer to get to you.
Level 18, 19: 2/3 Frostbite.Will occasionally freeze enemies in place. A handy thing, but don’t rely on it to proc when you need it ;p
Level 20: 1/1 Icy Veins.Increases your haste and eliminates pushback for 20 seconds. It has a 3 minute cooldown, but can help you out in a pinch. Great against ranged mobs.
Level 21: 3/3 Frostbite
Just finishing it off.
Level 22-24: 3/3 Ice Shards.Increases your critical strike damage bonus by 100%. Great increase to your damage output.
Level 25-27: 3/3 Shatter.Increases your crit chance against frozen targets. It’s now time to start casting Frost Nova offensively, so you can capitalize on your chance to hit them hard. It works great when you get a Frosbite proc. Learn to use Fireblast on frostbitten targets for instant big damage.
Level 28, 29: 2/2 Arctic Reach.This lets you start your casting from further away, which leads to more frostbolts before the mob gets to you.
Level 30: 1/1 Cold Snap
Consider this your “Oh Sh–!” button. Resets the cooldowns on all of your Frost Spells.
Level 31-33: 3/3 Ice Floes.Reduced the cooldown on Cone of Cold and Frost Nova. Awesome talent.
Level 34-36: 3/3 Frost Channeling.
Reducing the mana cost of your frost spells means less time spent drinking.
Level 37: 1/3 Piercing Ice.We’re just using this as filler for now, the increase will become more important at later levels.
Level 38, 39: 2/2 Cold as Ice.We’re just getting this to get to the next talent down. However, this is a great talent to have when we finally get our Water Elemental.
Level 40: 1/1 Ice Barrier.One of my favorite talents! You’ll want to keep this up as often as you can. It’s made even better by the next talents.
Level 41, 42: 2/2 Shattered Barrier.
It’s like a free Frost Nova (without having to cast Frost Nova) whenever your Ice Barrier is destroyed…
Another chance to take advantage of Shatter.
Level 43, 44: 3/3 Piercing Ice.
Finish it off/
Level 45, 46: 2/2 Fingers of Frost.
A chance for more crits using your frost spells.
Level 47, 48: 2/2 Empowered Frostbolt.
Not the best yet, but it’s a great help as the spellower on your gear improves.
Level 49: 1/3 Precision.
Reduces the cost of your spells while raising your hit. We’ll be finishing this off a little later.
Level 50: 1/1 Water Elemental.
A castable pet! Keep him out as much as possible. He does a decent amount of damage and has ranged Frost Nova that you can use.
Level 51-53: 3/3 Brain Freeze.
Occasional mana free instant cast Fireballs and Frostfire Bolts, pretty great! If Fingers of Frost procs at the same time, cast a Frostbolt over a Fireball as your other damage modifiers won’t have any effect on a Fireball.
Level 54: 1/3 Improved Water Elemental.
Just filling up some space… we’ll be back.
Level 55-59: 5/5 Chilled to the Bone.
More damage, more powerful snares. Good stuff.
Level 60: 1/1 Deep Freeze.
A 5 second stun that treats the enemy as if they’re frozen! Like you didn’t have enough ways of stopping your enemies before. It’s great to use this in conjunction with a Frostbolt and 2 Ice Lances (when you learn that spell). Massive damage.
Level 61, 62: 2/2 Arcane Subtlety.
Filler to get to Arcane Concentration. Honestly, you could spend 5/5 in Arcane Stability over this and Arcane Focus if you prefer.
Level 63-65: 3/3 Arcane Focus.
More filler.
Level 66-70: 5/5 Arcane Concentration.
With even more chance to have 0 mana cost spell procs, this is a great talent. Less time spent drinking equals more time spend fighting. Use Evocation whenever it’s off cooldown instead of drinking for even less downtime.
Level 71, 72: 3/3 Improved Water Elemental.
Finish it off. More time with your watery minion.
Level 73, 74: 3/3 Elemental Precision.
Finish it. It’s becoming more important to be able to hit at these higher levels. The mana conservation is nice as well.
Level 75-79: 5/5 Arctic Winds.
This modifier is a lot more helpful at higher levels than it would have been earlier.
Level 80: 1/1 Focus Magic.
Or better yet, go respec for PvP or raiding or whatever it is you want to do now! Check out the World of Warcraft Forums for more information on Raiding or PvP specs for your Mage.
Stats
This is pretty simple. Basically: Spell power, intellect, stamina.
Leveling Glyphs
Major Glyphs
Glyph of Evocation
Causes your Evocation ability to regenerate 60% of your health while your channeling it. This helps keep you from having to stop and eat/drink.
Glyph of Ice Barrier
Increases the amount of damage absorbed by your Ice Barrier by 30%. Pretty useful since you’ll have your Ice Barrier up at all times while engaged in combat.
Switch to Glyph of Ice Lance as soon as you get the Ice Lance spell (replace Glyph of Ice Barrier). It causes your Ice Lance spell to do 4 times damage to targets that are frozen and a higher level than you. Your targets will be frozen quite often.
Minor Glyphs
Glyph of Slow Fall
Like most classes, our Minor glyphs suck pretty majorly. Get Slow Fall and call it a day. It’s the only one worth having and you won’t need a regent before jumping off the top of that mountain/tower/whatever.
Of course, you can always get Glyph of Penguin, which is pretty funny, but not necessary).
That about wraps it up for the Mage Leveling Guide. I hope you found it helpful! Remember, visit Zygor Guide for the fastest way to get your World of Warcraft character to 80!
