Mage Class Guide — Class Guides · WoW Wrath of the Lich King
A cloth-wearing caster who deals Arcane, Fire and Frost damage from range, controls enemies with Polymorph and frost spells, and conjures food, water and portals.
- Roles
- Damage
- Specializations
- 3
- Popular builds
- 7
- Version
- WoW Wrath of the Lich King
How the mage plays
Mages in Wrath gain Mirror Image, Frostfire Bolt, Arcane Barrage, Living Bomb and Deep Freeze, and all three specs see raid use. Focus Magic lets an Arcane mage share crit with another caster.
Polymorph, Counterspell, Spellsteal and Blink remain, and Frost AoE leveling with Blizzard is still a favourite.
Mana still matters: Evocation and Mana Gems refill it, and Arcane lives by managing it.
Strengths and weaknesses
Strengths
- High damage in every spec.
- Control and utility: Polymorph, Spellsteal, Counterspell and Slow.
- Conjured food, Portals and Arcane Brilliance.
Weaknesses
- Fragile.
- High threat.
- Arcane is mana-hungry.
Specializations
The specs compared
Each spec rated from 1 to 5 at what it does in WoW Wrath of the Lich King. Single and several targets mean damage for damage specs, healing for healers and threat for tanks; a spec's own guide names its ratings for its role.
ArcaneDamage · 1 build
Mana, crit and burst: Arcane Concentration, Arcane Power and the arcane spells.
Top talent:
Arcane guide
Arcane Barrage
FireDamage · 3 builds
Fire damage and crits: Ignite, Combustion and stronger fire spells.
Top talent:
Fire guide
Living Bomb
FrostDamage · 3 builds
Chills, freezes and Frostbolt: the safest mage tree to solo and level with, and the tree of AoE leveling.
Top talent:
Frost guide
Deep Freeze
Gear
- Cloth with spell power, hit, haste and crit.
- Hit to 17% (446 rating) against raid bosses, less any from talents.
- Spell power gems in red sockets.
Each spec guide ranks its stats and says what to look for on its gear.
Mage class quests
The quests that unlock class abilities, by the level each route starts at.