Mage Leveling Guide

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Crucial AoE Leveling info
3. Mage talent builds for Leveling

This Mage leveling guide will tell you all you need to know about mage's. From my opinions on AoE leveling and how to do it to more traditional fire/frost builds.

 Serious About Leveling your mage? 

 Elite WoW Guides Recommends the iDemise 1-80 Leveling Guide. It is quite simply essential if you want to spend as little time leveling as possible (And who doesn't?) I used it myself 1-70, four times

 Not only is the mage one of the most rewarding and exciting classes to play at 80, it's also one of the best solo leveling classes and has the benefit of being able to level in a number of different ways - That mean's you can keep it interesting.

 Full leveling guides will speed up your leveling more than this mage leveling guide alone ever could, I'd recommend you check out my leveling guide reviews section. Don't underestimate the power of using one either, it could increase your leveling speed by as much as 60%!

AoE leveling or not?

 Leveling traditionally or AoE? It's one of the most common questions and is a matter of opinion. Having tried AoE on my mage I must say I prefer the traditional grinding and questing method. For those of you who are unfamiliar with AoE leveling it is grinding several different mobs at once using area of effect (AoE) spells. It can be done in 2 ways:

 Frost - This method uses Blizzard. Getting improved blizzard is essential as this slows the mobs down.

 A step by step guide:

• Round up the mobs, preferably on your mount.
• When you have 7 or so melee enemies after you, Frost nova.
• Run or blink away 
• Blizzard, then blizzard again, run back since they will be slowed and blizzard again if necessary.
• Remember to throw in a cone of cold if your enemies get to close or you need some extra quick DPS to finish them off.

 It can be very effective if done right but every enemy must be melee in order for it to work and you better hope one doesn't resist nova or it will screw everything up. Save cold snaps and iceblock's for this situation. Note: If using this spec, don't put any points into frostbite as it can cause the enemies to get split up and they need to all stay together.

 Fire/Arcane - Here you'll be using flamestrike and arcane explosion and possibly blast wave later on. I personally prefered this way of leveling to frost, it seemed to go wrong less and was easier to learn. You will be getting up close and personal with the mobs and so be prepared to die a few times while your figuring out how to stay outside the 5yard melee range. 

 A step by step guide:

• Round up the mobs, preferably while mounted.
• When you have 5 or so mobs after you, Frost nova. (Less than frost because you are closer to them and it's more risky).
• Back away slightly and flamestrike. Then instant flamestrike again if you have Presence of mind.
• Spam arcane explosion until the mobs die, use cone of cold or blast wave to make it easier for you if you wish.

 While you can't handle as many mobs with fire you can take ranged mobs. If there's ranged mobs amongst them then be sure to kite the melee in tight circles close to the ranged as he won't chase you. I used that exact strategy to level from 43-48 in tanaris on the pirates and it was very effective (It's a very good spot, I highly recommend it).

 Overall though, I found that while the idea of AoE leveling seems incredible, in practice it's really not and is usually more trouble than it's worth. If you intend on grinding (AoE or not), rather than questing then BE WARNED: Grinding is NOT the fastest way to 70. Questing is much faster, especially if you use a guide to tell you exactly which quests to take and how to complete them in the quickest time possible.

 Side Note: You can read my reviews of all the most popular leveling guides right here.

Traditional Mage leveling and talent builds.

 By traditional I mean the classical way of leveling by questing and killing single targets one at a time.

 Fire or frost? Aah the age old riddle, the fact is that both are viable but the general preference is fire 1-60 and frost 60-70 where mobs have increased fire resistance and require greater control from the slowing effects. I constantly changed my talents on my mage and found that I felt more comfortable leveling with frost, but that's just me. Remember that this is only a mage leveling guide, and that my opinions shouldn't be taken as fact!

 Fire talent build, taken from the WoW forums:

Lvl 10-14 : Improve Fireball 5/5
Lvl 15-16 : Flame Throwing 2/2
Lvl 17-19 : Ignite 3/5
Lvl 20 : Pyroblast 1/1
Lvl 21-22 : Ignite 5/5
Lvl 23-24 : Burning Soul 2/2
Lvl 25-29 : Impact 5/5
Lvl 30 : Blast Wave 1/1
Lvl 31-33 : Critical Mass 3/3
Lvl 34 : Improve Fire Blast 1/3
Lvl 35-39 : Fire Power 5/5
Lvl 40 : Combustion 1/1
Lvl 41-43 : Pyromaniac 3/3
Lvl 44-45 : Molten Fury 2/2
No there is no need to take Empowered Fireball as your +sd gear should not be that high.
Lvl 46-47 : Improve Fire Blast 3/3
Lvl 48-49 : Incinerate 2/2

After that you can basically spec how you want towards your endgame builds.

 Frost talent build:

Lvl 10-14 : Improve Frostbolt 5/5
Lvl 15-19 : Ice Shards 5/5
Lvl 20-22 : Frostbite 3/3
Lvl 23-24 : Improved Frost Nova 2/2
Lvl 25-29 : Shatter 5/5. Done ! This one will make your whole frost leveling faster and funnier ! 5/5
(As an alternative some ppl even advise to go fire before being level 27-29, then respec to get shatter and going full frost. To my mind that's not really necessary, but it's up to you)
Lvl 30 : Ice Block 1/1 (a good life saver)
Lvl 31 : Cold Snap 1/1 (a second life saving chance, variant : you can get this one higher if you think you dont need it yet).
Lvl 32-33 : Artic Reach 2/2
Lvl 34-36 : Piercing Ice 3/3
Lvl 37-39 : Frost Channeling 3/3
Lvl 40 : Ice Barrier 1/1
Lvl 41-42 : Ice Floes 2/2
Lvl 43-45 : Improve Cone of Cold 3/3
Lvl 46-48 : Permafrost 3/3
Lvl 49 : Elemental Precision 1/3 (variant : you can take Elemental Precision to 3 and Permafrost to 1, as you prefer. Permafrost gives you a good kiting tool, mobs will reach you later. On the other hand Elemental Precision avoids you "annoying" resists)

 After level 49 you can spec anyway you want towards your endgame build, but I would strongly suggest the water elemental as it's very powerful and does a lot of damage for a very low mana cost.

 If you are really serious about leveling fast then be sure to use a guide, you can read my reviews of all the best leveling guides right here, on elite wow guides.

Thank you for reading EWG's mage leveling guide, I hope you found the information useful and it helps you decide what the best approach would be for you.