best leveling spec for mage

[Deleted]

i am currently lv 22 i am was wondering what i should level as i got herloom chest shoulder and staff

[tijuanaben]

IMO frost is the way to go. The pet is invaluable. Much higher survivability.

[Deleted]

ok thanks is frost also some big crits

[graagh]

Frost for a while. Once you hit around 70-80 fire is more fun and just as good for leveling (better in certain situations, perhaps slightly worse against elite mobs as you don't have the huge burst from deep freeze, but generally you can solo elite mobs as any class as a mage so that's not really a problem either way) IMO.

[runyy]

Frost, no doubt. Uber survivability and good dmg.

[tigojones]

Frost for a while. Once you hit around 70-80 fire is more fun and just as good for leveling (better in certain situations, perhaps slightly worse against elite mobs as you don't have the huge burst from deep freeze, but generally you can solo elite mobs as any class as a mage so that's not really a problem either way) IMO.

Completely subjective. I was frost till 65-70ish when Dual Spec was brought in and swapped between Frost and Arcane. Frost has always been the favourite for leveling , but you can really level in whatever spec you like. They all have their strengths and weaknesses.

Not to mention that in 8 more levels you can get dual spec for 10g. Then it's just a matter of picking which one you don't like and speccing the other two.

[Setzerr]

I am currently Arcane and i hate it, I have read it is good for DPS, but it is not doing me so good, I have not tried out frost yet, I will though, I do like fire though, it is very good and useful

[tomplum68]

I've been leveling an arcane mage and have tried the other specs too and arcane is not any more difficult. Most mobs are dead before they even hit me.

[Setzerr]

>Tomplum I do not really like arcane, it is horrible for damage wise. Besides being horrible damage wise, it consumes way too much mana, I like Fire, and like I said I have not tried frost yet.

[Deleted]

Frost have the best aoe low lvl. Very good to instances and with frost novas and pet you will do good damage. After fire win all the tools 70+ then fire will be the best to instances but frost still good for quest.

Btw never use blizzard. Just use cone, frost nova your pet frost nova, etc..
Remeber that you cone hit hard when they are frezze and you win procs of FoF with novas and cone. Allways save your novas (your and pet) to use before cone for huge aoe dmg. That do a lot of dmg! Way more then blizzard and less mana pain.

[Bure]

Go frost. Amazing survivability, the pet is amazing, and it has awesome burst damage (which is basically what killing a mob is). Fire isn't optimal for leveling since it's more of a long-term damage spec (meaning not good for burst).

[Veliane]

My honest opinion, if I had to pick one, would be fire, at least 80 to 85.
First off I'm a die hard Frost fan, my Mage was my first character (although she was shelved for a bit through the end of Wrath) Frost from day one, etc.
I tried both.. can't say Arcane so.. here goes.

Frost: Pros - Staggering single target damage and control + Split Mob tagging.
Nothing gets to touch you but with a catch, nothing You are targeting... it's much less mana intesive allowing you to use defensive armors like FA to take on big, bad, mean mobs.
Your Water Elemental can hold, give or take, 2 extra mobs you can't and gets healed for a portion of your damage so it's pretty constant.

Cons - Revolves too much around hard casting, so while you get to crush anything in your path, you don't tag very time efficiently either and if you do, all your CC will be barely enough to hold them before they crush your skull, specially when mobs start having 70k HP each, because, of course, you're single target damage.

Fire: Pros - Mana downtime is never an issue, tagging is super fast, Scorch hits hard, fast, procs Pyros more often than not and can all be done on the move for wicked mobility, amazing AoE and multiple mob control, Living Bomb till Twilight highland mobs can get about 70% of a mob's health on it's own.

LB 3 mobs, round them up, blast wave, impact spread the one you crit, dragon's breath and watch them die while disoriented... rinse and repeat.

Cons - You're eating your Health back up often, veeeery often, but at the ratio speed you kill.. is acceptable.. noteworthy, otherwise you're very weak and requires Mage Armor up to afford Mana Shield all the time or you'll find yourself drinking your mana up aswell.

One thing I find interesting and gives fire the upper hand is you can take on absurb ammounts of mobs, melee and caster alike every 3min while your Mirrors are up.. whereas Frost it doesn't make a big difference unless they're exclusively melee mobs. (try tagging 5 Water elemental in TwH as fire and as frost, you'll get your ass kicked with the later.)

TLDR: Dual spec is 20g, respec'ing is ~30 and 60 at it's worst, Leveling gives you thousands of Gold, you'll find packs of mobs and Elite mobs alike - Get both, you will use them.

[miguelcrespo85]

they should give more types of ele spells.. like water bolt or Thunder bolt.. that would be pretty sweet

[Deleted]

Having leveled a Mage across the last 2 months (reached 85 yesterday), Frost no doubt. Whenever I tried Fire - pre-Norhrend, in Northrend, 80-85 - I found it significantly slower than Frost, and more often than not unable to kill a mob before it reached me, despite running away spamming Scorch. Sure, it's probably possible with use of Blast Wave and Frostbolt - but it's slower at killing stuff than Frost in any case.

Arcane felt pretty equal to Frost when I tried it somewhere between 40-60, can't say how it works later on, but probably still better than Fire.