Confused about this, im reading one guide saying Fire is the best PVE spec, then another guide saying Frost is superior
I have no clue about this class, Im sure i can go either or. However the wowhead guide is written up like your playing Frost. Im wondering about how to build for fire.
Unless Frost is better for Raids and dungeons i might go fire. But honestly have no clue
Frost, so much cc and survivabilty and damage and utility.
You don’t really have a choice in the first raid, because just about everything in MC is straight-up immune to fire. Because…you know…fire elementals. IIRC the next raid after that (BWL) had a good bit of fire resistant/immune stuff too, because it was all fire dragons.
I’d say Frost for general solo play. The sheer amount of field control you have is completely unmatched by any other class, and it’s the original AOE farm spec. Solo, you’re basically golden 1-60. If something goes wrong in a dungeon, you’re the most likely to be able to pull out a last-second win.
Frost is better for around the first 2 tiers. Fire is basically useless in MC/BWL due to everything being highly resistant to it.
If you plan on doing Molten core at level 60 It’s frost or your not going
You have at least half a year before it’s worth switching to Fire
Real gamers go Arcane!
Arcane-frost hybrid was the real deal
Arcane or go home.
For solo leveling/dungeons my opinion is spec anti spell resist and arcane threat reduction. You will be using a hybrid spec. Snare and root with frost, cc with arcane and damage with fire. Once you get enough talent points to get to the 3rd tier in talents get to the talent “Shatter” and spec frost. Don’t give up your 2 points in arcane though (for your threat arcane reduction).
If all you do is quest in groups and do dungeons then pick whatever you want after you pick up your 2 point arcane threat reduction and spell resist talents.
At 60 you can spec lots of different ways. The old talent trees are great for that.
Frost is generally better for leveling and early raiding but you will still want to use fireball atleast until around level 24. Once you get to 29 and get 5/5 Shatter it picks up a lot.
leveling =frost
MC = frost
BWL = frost
Naxx = fire
Frost nova / ice lance BOOM BOOM.
Pet frost nova MORE ICE LANCE AND BOOM BOOM.
pyroblast BIG BOOM
What is this pet you speak of for Mages in Classic?
And Ice Lance?
This is not Retail.
I never followed the min/max theory. I play the game the way I want too enjoy it. I like blowing stuff up, so I went fire from 10 to 60 and never regretted it. It sure is fun getting some insta cast pryo’s off. Others in this thread make all valid points. But nothing is funnier to me than a troll mage that uses fire (Don’t trolls hate fire?).
ps - you cant slow a corpse 
and fire makes alot of corpses!
Frost is best for leveling and the first couple tiers. Once the game is in the late game fire becomes better because of gear and how ignite functions between multiple mages in your raid.
Didnt mages get a pet in classic? Im going off my memory.
I think the Water Elemental was the big new TBC talent ability for frost mages.
I’ve never leveled mages very far, but I’ve always admired the class. I’d like to eventually learn to play the class in a few different ways, but I think I want to check out frost first and learn how to use those tools. I get a kick out of seeing frost mages do stuff out in the world.
But I know I’ll want to try out other builds too at some point.
Fire is technically the highest potential dps spec, but you don’t really get to spec fire until zg/aq (tons of high fire resist mobs in mc/bwl), and it’s not really super viable until you get like 25 or 30% crit (can’t remember the exact breakpoint for getting the most out of ignite, but it’s basically t2 geared or equivalent, ie bloodvine).
Tldr, you’ll have a way better time leveling frost. It’s much more efficient and you have more survivability tools which you get more value from leveling up than raw damage
Fire will do more dmg then frost. And frost just has alot more cc both are really good at 60.