AoE Leveling Help

[BaddyMcBad]

Level 23, working on fifth 80 and want to level my Mage as fast as possible.
Sometimes I like to go out and AoE grind but I'd like to stay proficient at questing.
Is there any difference between the two or is the same spec perfect for both?
I'm not great at Mages but I figured I would be better off making and attempt at a spec instead of straight up asking for a spec so here it is: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZZVc0Isbz:k
I'm by no means a Mage so I was hoping I could come to these forums for some guidance on how to level most efficiently.

[Moogie423]

The following is my opinion only, so try to keep that in mind.

I leveled my mage as frost as well. Whether you are looking for aoe grinding or for pure questing or a mix, 3/3 Frostbite will help by quite a bit. Especially with large packs and keeping damage off of you. With that I would recommend 3/3 Shatter, especially if you are going to stay frost and pick up 2/2 Fingers of Frost. Any talent you see that will prevent mobs from getting to you is what you'd use in an AoE spec. 2/2 Shattered Barrier is also very nice for that.

To answer your question on which is faster, I didn't do any AoE grinding until level 70 in BC, and very little post 70 in northrend. Goal of AoE grinding is to be able to survive that pack of mobs. Only your own experimentation will determine if you personally can level faster by doing quests or by AoE grinding.

Also you should take note of is if you level slow enough and 3.3 hits while you're still leveling, you will get that permanent water elemental glyph which would speed up single target kills by a decent amount while leveling.

[BaddyMcBad]

The following is my opinion only, so try to keep that in mind.

I leveled my mage as frost as well. Whether you are looking for aoe grinding or for pure questing or a mix, 3/3 Frostbite will help by quite a bit. Especially with large packs and keeping damage off of you. With that I would recommend 3/3 Shatter, especially if you are going to stay frost and pick up 2/2 Fingers of Frost. Any talent you see that will prevent mobs from getting to you is what you'd use in an AoE spec. 2/2 Shattered Barrier is also very nice for that.

To answer your question on which is faster, I didn't do any AoE grinding until level 70 in BC, and very little post 70 in northrend. Goal of AoE grinding is to be able to survive that pack of mobs. Only your own experimentation will determine if you personally can level faster by doing quests or by AoE grinding.

Also you should take note of is if you level slow enough and 3.3 hits while you're still leveling, you will get that permanent water elemental glyph which would speed up single target kills by a decent amount while leveling.

I'm more looking to quest but I always like a little AoE on the side when I get bored.
Thanks for the post, I'll take it all into consideration :] .

[Milamber]

want to level my Mage as fast as possible.

What's faster guys?

Questing with Questhelper/Carbonite or aoe-grinding?

[TacTican]

AoE grinding, easily. AoE grinding with a Frost mage (and a mount) is by far the fastest way to level in this game.

The problem is that AoE grinding has requirements like "mobs must be thickly clustered" and "there can't be elites who would really ruin your day" and "they can't be resistant to snares or Blizzard." Generally speaking, you'll find that there are only a very few areas with mobs conducive to AoE grinding - sometimes only one or two areas for your level range. But, if you can avoid dying, AoE grinding not only speeds up leveling, it also makes you rich.

[Snownova]

Personally I've found that frostbite and improved blizzard can work against each other, since when aoe grinding you want the mobs to stay as grouped up as possible, but when using imp blizzard on a group it might frostbite only half of them, thus splitting the group.

However for just regular questing frostbite is godly, especially once you get ice lance.

[Darxis]

AoE grinding, easily. AoE grinding with a Frost mage (and a mount) is by far the fastest way to level in this game.

The problem is that AoE grinding has requirements like "mobs must be thickly clustered" and "there can't be elites who would really ruin your day" and "they can't be resistant to snares or Blizzard." Generally speaking, you'll find that there are only a very few areas with mobs conducive to AoE grinding - sometimes only one or two areas for your level range. But, if you can avoid dying, AoE grinding not only speeds up leveling, it also makes you rich.

Burst fire as many frostbolts at as many distant targets as you can, frostnova+blink, turn around and blizzard the shit out of them, cone of cold once they are close, and turn and run... they are slowed, ofc, so they won't catch up too quickly... by now frost nova should be close to off CD. Happy time. Esp. effective if you get 8+ kills each time...

[Raphaei]

I lvled my mage as frost through questing. I did tests on Theramore dummies every second ding to confirm that frost was still way ahead of fire in dps (and longevity). I had full BoA gear, properly enchanted, and obviously had to wait until 40 to do dual specc testing.

I started my AoE-grinding on the boar-pigs-with-reindeer-horns in the eastern WotLK starting zones (not Borean) with 3/3 frostbite (ie my questing specc), since they are going in nice packs of 5+. Most of the time, like 6/10 of the mobs died while being perma-rooted on the spot. Some got half-way. Some mobs did manage from time to time to reach me, but Shattered Barrier helped there.

Now that Blizzard can crit (I played a mage in early TBC so it's news to me!) I found frostbite proccs extremely helpful. They kept the enemy at bay and gave serious crit streaks. The occational nuicense of having one or two mobs being over a Blizzard-length away from the other (rooted) mobs is completely obliterated by the free "the mobs dies one blizzard faster each pull" and "most of the time the mobs don't move at all, increasing your survivability by 10 000%".

Though when you get the hang of Blizzard-grinding you might want to skip frostbite for better, manual, control. However, it's an awesome talent to learn the drill, and can be used throughout the entire leveling by anyone who isn't a control freak, or by any control freak who is to lazy to go respecc to a proper AoE specc (someone such as myself).

[Milamber]

AoE grinding, easily. AoE grinding with a Frost mage (and a mount) is by far the fastest way to level in this game.

What's faster guys?
Questing with Questhelper/Carbonite or aoe-grinding?

Have you ever quested with Questhelper/Carbonite? It's damn fast... And now you even get the mounts sooner.

[BaddyMcBad]

I lvled my mage as frost through questing. I did tests on Theramore dummies every second ding to confirm that frost was still way ahead of fire in dps (and longevity). I had full BoA gear, properly enchanted, and obviously had to wait until 40 to do dual specc testing.

I started my AoE-grinding on the boar-pigs-with-reindeer-horns in the eastern WotLK starting zones (not Borean) with 3/3 frostbite (ie my questing specc), since they are going in nice packs of 5+. Most of the time, like 6/10 of the mobs died while being perma-rooted on the spot. Some got half-way. Some mobs did manage from time to time to reach me, but Shattered Barrier helped there.

Now that Blizzard can crit (I played a mage in early TBC so it's news to me!) I found frostbite proccs extremely helpful. They kept the enemy at bay and gave serious crit streaks. The occational nuicense of having one or two mobs being over a Blizzard-length away from the other (rooted) mobs is completely obliterated by the free "the mobs dies one blizzard faster each pull" and "most of the time the mobs don't move at all, increasing your survivability by 10 000%".

Though when you get the hang of Blizzard-grinding you might want to skip frostbite for better, manual, control. However, it's an awesome talent to learn the drill, and can be used throughout the entire leveling by anyone who isn't a control freak, or by any control freak who is to lazy to go respecc to a proper AoE specc (someone such as myself).

I have the PvE shoulders, chest, staff, and two haste trinkets so I'm good there.
The only thing I'm left with try to figure out really is a spec.

[TacTican]

Have you ever quested with Questhelper/Carbonite? It's damn fast... And now you even get the mounts sooner.

I have, and I stand by what I said, although I see your point. I was one of the poor mages who leveled to 70 in mid-BC and didn't discover AoE grinding until I was around level 65-ish, and then spent some time and gold learning how to do it properly. It took me half the time to go from 65-70 than it did from 60-65 (Nagrand packs ftw).

Not trying to diss Questhelper, of course. Ever since the achievement system came out and Loremaster with it, I've been lovin' on that addon.

[Milamber]

I have, and I stand by what I said, although I see your point. I was one of the poor mages who leveled to 70 in mid-BC and didn't discover AoE grinding until I was around level 65-ish, and then spent some time and gold learning how to do it properly. It took me half the time to go from 65-70 than it did from 60-65 (Nagrand packs ftw).
Not trying to diss Questhelper, of course. Ever since the achievement system came out and Loremaster with it, I've been lovin' on that addon.

So AoE Grinding > Questhelper for XP? Wow.