Dusting off the 70 TBC Frost Mage...want to go Fire...please help

[Slaytanicus]

I was thinking I'd level from 70-80 as fire and or frost fire since that's what I'd like to play @ 80. I've always thought it was a good idea to level as the intended spec. However, I leveled the toon as frost and only ever instanced as frost...never really raided though on this toon though. I can't seem to find posts on leveling anymore and was just looking for some pointers and possibly even a recommended lvl 70 talent build, with ideas on how to spec up to 80...maybe I should just go frost till 80?

Thanks.

[Foster]

if you wanna raid at 80 your most likely gonna be fire specced or frostfire spec but while not totally horrible for leveling they are both not nearly as good as frost with frosts massive survivability and ok dmg its a great leveling spec sadly it is not a viable raiding spec

[whiskey_oktober]

frost or arcane both are decent for starting heroics/raids at 80. i'd suggest leveling frost as well however.

[aquifer]

fire CAN be ok to level with but definately not FFB, purely because FFB damage sucks until you get both fire and frost talents (which you can only really reach at 80, if you wana level as fire, prepair to be ganked alot, frost is really the best option for the reason already said, survivability.

[Mangostuff]

Frost or Arcane are the best leveling specs. If you really don't want to go frost i would suggest arcane, you can kill anything with 3 spells max. As fire you rely a bit more on crits. Considering your gear won't have an adequate amount of crit on it you should consider going a different spec. Fires defenses are minimal, you will die more frequently, and if you use your full rotation (keeping living bomb and scorch up, then fireball until you see a hotstreak) you will be running oom frequently. I cannot suggest fire for a good leveling spec.... however, if you are looking for something other than frostbolt spam and summon water elemental (which I thought was fun, but w/e) arcane is a good alternative. It is a very slippery leveling spec, and it allows you to move around a lot.

Arcane is also the best possible raiding spec to start out with, since it yields 6% hit from talents, and the rotation is probably the easiest (next to frost of course).

You really don't want to go fire until you have about 20% unbuffed crit, and of course meet the hit requirements.

[Jeasdp]

You can solo group quest's bosses with Arcane.
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=31589 works on bosses such as http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=26836. Just spam Barrage and Mbarr on proc, Blink when boss gets near you.

[LavaDuck]

Stay frost to 80.
Spec fire or FFB
???
Profit

[Flucks]

I leveled my mage to 80 both ways and I would have to say that it really depends on the player.

Frost will enable you to survive much longer, but your damage will be less and you won't have to drink as much.

Fire on the other hand, will enable you to burn things down very quickly, but you will be drinking a good bit.

Like I said, it really depends on what the player wants. I would say at 80, go Fire with Focus Magic. I just recently discovered this and I get about 1000dps more than i did with Frostfire.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-t...s&gn=The+Drift If you want to take a look.