Leveling as mage?

[Tabu34]

Just checking back in, I ended up playing my mage some more instead of going to bed. It seemed better than I expected, although I haven't played in a while so it might not be much different than frost. I definitely felt better about it than I remember feeling about frost.

If you've got some BoA gear (to give you that extra spell power), it might be worth a shot to try arcane.

[Mooseeye]

Just letting you know that I've reached lvl 9 and I see most of you want me to go frost, and some of you arcane, very few have sugested fire.

So I leave out fire. Then I supose I'll chose between arcane or frost. A friend of mine leveled a mage a while ago, he went as frost all the way (lvl 71) and he said that it was awesome (but he probably didn't test out the other speccs)

Yours Mooseeye

Btw the mage's name is Klooz and server is Burning Steppes ,Horde.

[Komati]

I think fire is best untill lv 64, then go arcane. If you have leveled a shadow priest you know what levling a frost mage is like. Killing things slow, but no down time. With fire or arcane you will use shorter time on mobs, but more time drinking.
Frost:
10s to kill a mob. 0s drinking.

Arcane:
4s killing a mob. 3s drinking.

With fire the rotation should be Fireball x2 then a Fire blast if necessary.
With Arcane it should be Arcane Blast x2 then Arcane Barrage, or Missiles if it procs.

Specc untill 64:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZbEzbRhIuVubhst:VwZo0 ofc, you can try that to see if you'll keep it, living bomb can be great to AoE grind btw.

If you choose to go arcane at 64:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#ocxVfb00zxGuMxekc:NwZo0

Whatever you do: Do NOT! go arcane before lv 64, the DPM is terrible and it's THE most boring specc before 64.

[Vladinator]

Frost was fun to level with, AoE a lot of mobs (except caster packs, avoid those) and drink up after. In the end you feel that you can do more AoE packs before having to drink, but not that it's a big deal as you can just summon more food/water and with frost you survive a lot better.

Only pain is Zul Drak as frost, I got dualspec arcane to kill water elementals (if you skip the water elemental mobs then no problem).

[Deleted]

i highly suggest to wait for next patch because mana consumption will be lowered for lower rank spells. This should prove usefull. I also have a lvl 20 mage parked with all buffs and everything waiting for next patch to go live

[Deleted]

Ok, I'm a new mage too. And I'm definitly going frost for now (might change later might not).

My dilemma is whether to Single Target Level or AoE...

AoE: Seems like a lot thinks it's fun, but also risky.

Single Target: Safe, but might not be so much fun (?)

AoE also seems like it's a little faster, but not much...

Is this about right? ???

[CaspianRoach]

Ok, I'm a new mage too. And I'm definitly going frost for now (might change later might not).

My dilemma is whether to Single Target Level or AoE...

AoE: Seems like a lot thinks it's fun, but also risky.

Single Target: Safe, but might not be so much fun (?)

AoE also seems like it's a little faster, but not much...

Is this about right? ???

You aint gonna kill mobs to level up. You will be completing quests. Sometimes they ask you to singletarget, sometimes it can be AoEd. So you cant choose one or other, you should be ready to do both.

[mcgenius99]

just level slow or not then go arcane and click your 2(3) buttons and faceroll your way to the top of the charts

[Swizzle]

fun AoE pulls:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH_vt9Zqwfc

best AoE grind in northrend:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ9DOKIGotw

[Deleted]

You aint gonna kill mobs to level up. You will be completing quests. Sometimes they ask you to singletarget, sometimes it can be AoEd. So you cant choose one or other, you should be ready to do both.

Right, it's mosty like this. And since now Dual Spec is available, I find quite confortable being Arcane as primary spec (after level 64) and Frost as secondary spec, for your AoE goodness, when needed. But mostly Arcane, really. After last patch we have even less mana problem than before, all along with great dps and some funny tricks against melee (Slow, Invisibility, etc.).

[Deleted]

You aint gonna kill mobs to level up. You will be completing quests. Sometimes they ask you to singletarget, sometimes it can be AoEd. So you cant choose one or other, you should be ready to do both.

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear there (?)... some people recomend that, while killing mobs in order to finish quests, that you focus on killing one mob at a time (what I calle single target). Frostbolt spam and so on... while others recomend that you AoE a lot. Blizzard, frost nove and so on.

I started following this guide: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...69412142&sid=1

A non-AoE build leveling guide... My dilemme is... so I keep following it or make a AoE build and kill mobs that way.

And sure I can make use of dual-spec later on, but that still 15 levels away :/

[WorldTree]

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear there (?)... some people recomend that, while killing mobs in order to finish quests, that you focus on killing one mob at a time (what I calle single target). Frostbolt spam and so on... while others recomend that you AoE a lot. Blizzard, frost nove and so on.

I started following this guide: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...69412142&sid=1

A non-AoE build leveling guide... My dilemme is... so I keep following it or make a AoE build and kill mobs that way.

And sure I can make use of dual-spec later on, but that still 15 levels away :/

Honestly, AoE grinding isn't very efficient. Due to mobs are not all bunch up and easy to pull. Takes time to set up Blizzard and well, it's more risky.

Not really worth it, in a leveling point of view to AoE grind.

[markmm00]

I think fire is best untill lv 64, then go arcane. If you have leveled a shadow priest you know what levling a frost mage is like. Killing things slow, but no down time. With fire or arcane you will use shorter time on mobs, but more time drinking.
Frost:
10s to kill a mob. 0s drinking.

Arcane:
4s killing a mob. 3s drinking.

With fire the rotation should be Fireball x2 then a Fire blast if necessary.
With Arcane it should be Arcane Blast x2 then Arcane Barrage, or Missiles if it procs.

Specc untill 64:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZbEzbRhIuVubhst:VwZo0 ofc, you can try that to see if you'll keep it, living bomb can be great to AoE grind btw.

If you choose to go arcane at 64:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#ocxVfb00zxGuMxekc:NwZo0

Whatever you do: Do NOT! go arcane before lv 64, the DPM is terrible and it's THE most boring specc before 64.

So much bad info in this post. Just started leveling this mage from 1-64 as frost. Boring as hell, but when u have a quest to kill 10 of this and 10 of that group them all up and one shot it with blizzard. When you get fingers of frost respec out of frostbite because they proc at the same time and are useless together. At 64 I went arcane. Heres the *right* spec. http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#ocxVf00czxGuMtxdc:mzZo0 . Arcane has 0, I repeat 0 mana problems. This is comming from someone who just did 64-71 this week. Also to the poster I quoted, not taking slow in an arcane leveling spec is like not taking ice barrier in a frost leveling spec. Gimp yourself for no reason. Mage leveling begins very slow, but when you get to the upper 40's you will see what mages are all about. Trust me 8)

[Komati]

So much bad info in this post. Just started leveling this mage from 1-64 as frost. Boring as hell, but when u have a quest to kill 10 of this and 10 of that group them all up and one shot it with blizzard. When you get fingers of frost respec out of frostbite because they proc at the same time and are useless together. At 64 I went arcane. Heres the *right* spec. http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#ocxVf00czxGuMtxdc:mzZo0 . Arcane has 0, I repeat 0 mana problems. This is comming from someone who just did 64-71 this week. Also to the poster I quoted, not taking slow in an arcane leveling spec is like not taking ice barrier in a frost leveling spec. Gimp yourself for no reason. Mage leveling begins very slow, but when you get to the upper 40's you will see what mages are all about. Trust me 8)

Uhm... why would you take slow? You should be able to kill a mob before it reaches you, unless you're planning on doing PvP I don't see any reason to take slow. When I leveled arcane wasn't a viable option so I took fire, and I nuked a mob down long before it reaches you, and with arcane you got even better nuke so it should be fine. Unless it got nerfed to h3ll while I wasn't' looking.
I'd like you to point out what information in my post was wrong, besides my specc. (Since markmm00 says you'll have no mana problems while levling as arcane there's no need to take the glyph of mana gem.

[karungash]

pain in the ass till lvl 35-40
really slow
no matter what spec ure using =)
thou never tried frost's aoe grinding that could be useful
anyway gl =)

[Nosotros]

I'm leveling a mage right now ( at 70 atm)
and I can't say I agree with mages leveling slow
definitely the fastest char i've leveled

and i went out on a limb and leveled arcane
had no issues really

[Needonboots]

I levelled frost for a while. Swapped to Arcane, everything's much faster. And I can still do pulls of 4-5 mobs if needed (am using full heirlooms of course). So I would say definately stick to Arcane

[Swizzle]

let us see..... you get arcane blast at lvl 64, and arcane barrage at lvl 60. till then...all you have is arcane missiles.

yeah, leveling as arcane is a good way to go. :

[Shamb]

Seriously why are ppl arguing over AoE or not ?

Best lvl'ing spec:
lvl:1-64 = frost
So if you wanna AoE go ahead... if not just as well it' still the best.

64-80 = Arcane/frost if you're GOOD at AoE

Here is a decision you must make. Ppl saying AoE grinding is not viable for leveling are wrong... I make 600k xp/hour in northrend with my mage AoE grinding... But GOD It's awefully boring !! after 1 hour I wanna bash my head at the wall !
EDIT: obviously that's NOT rested...

Also AoE IS more risky.

So really spec frost all the way if you like it or spec arcane once you get 64, makes next to no difference.

FACTS:
1- lvl 1-64 = FROST
2- lvl 64-80 = Arcane , slightly behind BUT you can solo EVERYTHING comes Frost.

Choose what you like, even fire is fine to lvl up really... just not optimal.

[GISP]

I have given up on my 4th mage just a few days ago... I cannot stand the slowness of it.

Honestly, go fire for the first few levels instead of frost like I did the last time. Frost is SOOOOOOOOOOO effing slow.

Slowness?
Mages are one of the fasted classes to lvl whit... 0o
nova+ blizzard = pure win when not doing quests.