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  1. #1
    Bloodsail Admiral select20's Avatar
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    Why is Frost popular for leveling?

    First of all, I'm only lvl26 so bear with me. I've never played a mage before. I know Frost is the most popular leveling spec, but at my level its so slow and horrible to kill things. When does it start to shine for leveling?
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  2. #2
    Just go another spec until you hit higher lvl...

    Frost is usually preferred because its great at control and AOE

  3. #3
    No idea, I guess because it’s super safe. Arcane is many times better for levelling, in fact it’s one of the fastest specs in the game.

  4. #4
    It has not been popular for leveling for a while now. Arcane is the popular spec for leveling since you can 1/2 shot everything as you can stop to drink between pulls. More over since Frost is a mostly a melee counter PvP spec it has been nerfed to the ground. It's fun tho so many mages still use it at high level but don't expect to do a lot of damage. In fact in arenas Frost Mages are not the damage dealers but responsable for most of the CC.

    Frost is weak against magic oponents due to the low damage and since our cc not countering casters. Fire and Arcane is best for that because those specs can burst like crazy.

  5. #5
    Elemental Lord Makabreska's Avatar
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    Big perma slows, not requiring Rune of Power, easy rotation. But during levleing you just play w/e you feel most comfortable with.
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    Immortal TEHPALLYTANK's Avatar
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    Perma slows for questing, but if you're spamming dungeons to level Arcane is easily better. Just spam the shit out of Arcane Explosion when 2+ mobs, it is especially ridiculous at the lowest levels.
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  7. #7
    Bloodsail Admiral select20's Avatar
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    Ok thanks all. I was just curious and yes I've been using Arcane because yes, so much faster.

    Appreciate it. This is the first caster I've played past the low levels so I was feeling a bit lost
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  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by select20 View Post
    First of all, I'm only lvl26 so bear with me. I've never played a mage before. I know Frost is the most popular leveling spec, but at my level its so slow and horrible to kill things. When does it start to shine for leveling?
    Mage - is class, that is designed around avoiding damage, not self-healing it instead. It's the only class, that doesn't have self-heal in this game. Even Rogues and Warriors have one now. It the only class, that has food as it's core class mechanic. So your tactic is - not to let stuff hit you. There are three ways to achieve this goal:
    1) Mobility, i.e. blinking away. Not always possible. Especially when design is ultra-packed, as it is in recent xpacks.
    2) Nuking enemies before they get to you. Not always possible. Due to obvious reasons. Overtuned content/undergear - feels the worst on Mage.
    3) CC. Slowing enemies down. Easiest and the most reliable solution.

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  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by select20 View Post
    Ok thanks all. I was just curious and yes I've been using Arcane because yes, so much faster.

    Appreciate it. This is the first caster I've played past the low levels so I was feeling a bit lost
    stick with arcane. i did 50-60 on arcane it felt way faster than frost.

  10. #10
    I've only ever played Frost but dabbling with Arcane/Fire. I'd say Frost has more uptime, you NEVER have to drink, more control with the slows/freezes and you feel like you have a bit survivability with the tools.

    It's a safe pick however, i'd definitely go Arcane if I had to go again. Much quicker. leveling is all about burst and arcane excels there. Ridiculous burst compared to Frost.

    Frost is nice when cleaving but that's about it...even then it's not that good when you don't have someone taking aggro.

  11. #11
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  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by select20 View Post
    First of all, I'm only lvl26 so bear with me. I've never played a mage before. I know Frost is the most popular leveling spec, but at my level its so slow and horrible to kill things. When does it start to shine for leveling?
    They can slow and kite things easier than the other specs. Most mobs just run at you and melee so frost is the best for that.

  13. #13
    Frost as a leveling spec is old school. It's only still popular, because people think the slows are still necessary (as has already been mentioned in this thread).

    Back in the day, when mobs hit you it hurt. Now, specs don't matter. You kill the mob(s), before they ever get to you, and if they do get to you, they tickle and/or never get through your ward.

  14. #14
    I leveled 10 characters from level 10 to 50 for the heirloom achievements. The specs I used included Elemental, Balance, Marksmanship, Affliction, and Frost.

    Of these, I most enjoyed my two Frost Mages. It's not that they were the most powerful. They were not. In particular, soloing large, hard-hitting mobs was hard. But Frost was fun.

  15. #15
    I think the built in slow of the spells, great AOE, procs, and the fantasy aspect draws a lot of players to frost. Even though they aren’t the best right now, I’m still maining frost and I have been since cata.

  16. #16
    I think as others said it's mostly from the past influencing the present. I've tried all three and arcane is THE easiest spec to level with. There is no debating the level of ease that slow that offers when questing in the world on top of the most predictable ramp up to consistent dps and the most easily controlled aoe dps. Arcane is THE levelng spec if you want everything that a mage SHOULD be in a solo situation. The other two aren't terrible, but they aren't what you would expect a mage to feel like in an rpg.
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  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by blankfaced View Post
    I think as others said it's mostly from the past influencing the present. I've tried all three and arcane is THE easiest spec to level with. There is no debating the level of ease that slow that offers when questing in the world on top of the most predictable ramp up to consistent dps and the most easily controlled aoe dps. Arcane is THE levelng spec if you want everything that a mage SHOULD be in a solo situation. The other two aren't terrible, but they aren't what you would expect a mage to feel like in an rpg.
    Yah, for leveling it's all just one button to glory. Aoe? 1 Button, kill one mob? 1 Button.

  18. #18
    Fire Mage, trust me lol. I am not a mage main by any means but damn did I enjoy fire at higher levels. I did level Arcane to around 40 I think and switched to fire, never to look back. It is fun with the procs and love the visuals. Virtually no downtime and I never even make my food because I so rarely feel I need it.

  19. #19
    It gained popularity due to being safe. And then later on when you got Blizzard you could do AOE farming which was one of the highest XP / hr...

    When I lvld a lot back in vanilla and TBC days I didn't find a particular big difference in speed between the two, but I didn't do AoE farming.
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  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by select20 View Post
    First of all, I'm only lvl26 so bear with me. I've never played a mage before. I know Frost is the most popular leveling spec, but at my level its so slow and horrible to kill things. When does it start to shine for leveling?
    Arcane is far better for low levels because you can just run around 1-2 shotting things with a fully stacked Arcane Blast.

    Frost becomes better when mobs start actually surviving your initial spells, as you'll have more time DPSing before the mobs reach you, and you have AoE slows to control groups easier.

    Fire is really the only spec that isn't very good until you become geared, because your damage isn't bursty outside of CDs, you have no slows (unless you cast Frostbolt) and you're fragile.

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