Leveling a mage.

[TheTacoMan]

Ok so I've been wanting to lvl a mage now for quite a long time, like the ending days of vanilla when I was getting bored of my rogue and shaman. I've tried a few times over the years but I always end up breaking down and stoping in about the early 30 range out of boredom with the early mage play style. I know frost is the main lvling spec and what not so I just wanted to ask a few questions to see if any battle hardened mages could help me out.

1. When does lvling pick up as frost or get at least little more interesting then frostbolt spam and nova+blink if something gets close.

2. I hear that mages are pretty good at AoE grinding and I was wondering if it's actually a legitimate way to lvl.

and 3. Is the upcoming change to the water elemental glyph gonna make lvling any faster as frost.

If I could get an answer to even one of the above questions you'd have my gratitude, thanks in advance and have a good day.

[Schpunk]

1. About the time you get the water elemental... that atleast makes it a bit fun... and when you get the fireball! talent, but i dont know when that is. Otherwise its kinda same same until you get ice lance at 63 or something and you can do the shatter combo.

2. Never did try this but I've also heard that it's profitable.

3. I think that would help alot, sure the freeze is realy nice, but i think you will benefit in the long run and maybe need to drink less.

And a tip, try to avoid tabbing out and do other things whilest you drink... it can get you killed alot of times. This is what I can say from my experiance, even tho I did level in TBC...

[Samin]

1. When does lvling pick up as frost or get at least little more interesting then frostbolt spam and nova+blink if something gets close.

2. I hear that mages are pretty good at AoE grinding and I was wondering if it's actually a legitimate way to lvl.

1. Try arcane, it's a great way to level to and I find it's fun before arcane blast too (pewpew lazer crits) Also its very different playstyle if you get bored by frost or fire levelling. (If you do, use a utility build not a raid build for levelling..basically go pure arcane with no points in other trees)
2. Only with heirlooms I guess.. questing will still always be more rewarding and faster. Also you need decend gear and skill to actually AoE grind without dying instant

[Shai]

I would recommend trying arcane at some point too. I was getting a bit bored of frost around level 38 so I decided to try arcane instead and ended up being arcane all the way up to lvl 80 (still am).

[TheTacoMan]

Thanks for all the quick replies guys. One quick thing though I hear Arcane is beyond horrible on mana does that hamper lvling at all?

[Shai]

I had two of the heirloom trinkets which helps somewhat, but once you get two minute evocation you do not have to drink much at all providing you stick to pulling one mob at a time (with heirlooms pretty much never even with chainpulling).

[Loeffel]

Yeah Arcane is a real mana drain compared to frost, but less noticable at lower level before you have all of the mana reducing frost talents. But it's kinda fun for a while. I myself stayed frost, by using cooldowns on alternating pulls and always summoning my 3 highest ranks of mana gems I would only have to sit and drink once every 30min or so.

AoE grinding isn't very viable anymore. With the boost to quest xp and lowering the amount of xp per level it's better to just chain a zone full of quests. I did it during TBC and AoEing wasn't worth it, so I assume it's even less productive now.

To break up the monotony of leveling I would save up my cooldowns and do suicidal pulls. Like..every furbolg in Feralas at level 43 Or respec to AP/POM Pyro, it's not amazing but it sure is fun to watch something asplode before it even moves once every 3min.

[Samin]

Thanks for all the quick replies guys. One quick thing though I hear Arcane is beyond horrible on mana does that hamper lvling at all?

Couldn't say this and at all you're a mage..you can make drinks
I actually don't know what is everyone complaining about with mage(arcane) and warrior(prot) levelling, I don't see annoying long downtimes and pauses to reg. And my main is a ret paladin who has not heard the words "out of mana" or "low on health" in very long time, so I don't think I'm especially tolerant on downtimes.

I would give it a try

[Nmy]

Arcane own for lvling atm, i just did it and it and u can take down mobs really fast and really easy! whit the slow thingy in ur spec u are able to solo elite quest aswell if the elite is not immune tho

[TheTacoMan]

Alot of nice helpful feed back the mage community is way nicer then the rogue community. One last little thing could anyone offer some decent frost lvling builds? I know next to nothing about mages this being the first time Ive actually invested myself in one.