How do actually level a mage and do daily?

Dead serious. How do you guys do it. I try to level a mage though quest got it to 60 through dungeons and for the life of me can’t do the dailies, targhast or anything. I do fine in dungeons since there is a tank but in OW everytime I try to kill just one trash I am down to 60% hp. I am just to playing melee and is so much easier to level and do quest espeically with a tank spec. Round up mobs and after mobs and kill them all with 0 downtime and come up with full hp. Even a hunter is easy as your pet tank for you can just heal your pet.

But mage I am having a hard time. I don’t PvP so maybe that’s why? Any tips at all.

I mean frost is gonna be the best for leveling…but it’s a 100% different experience between melee and ranged. The only ranged that is close to how melee plays is a BM hunter. You get to create unlimited food for a reason haha.

1 Like

I always leveled frost as a mage, and I’m pretty sure I have over 4 mages lol.

In Torg I just just to the end, lust, and blow everything up, but that depend son gear.

LOL yea is very different. I guess I am just not use to downtime. As a melee I never eat or take rest. Just AoE mobs in tank spec. I try with frost is better but still I take damage and have to sit and drink. Doing dailies isn’t too fun either since I can not kill elites and have to wait for someone to help.

Guess that’s just why way mage work.

1 Like

I have started to point this exact problems in a few threads. if a class can solo an elite mobs, all classes should be able to or it’s unfair. Some elites are completely unsoloable as a mage, and you can literally afk a pet class while the pet kills them.

It’s not fair and not balanced.

6 Likes

It’s fairly easy once you know the class and understand the playstyle. It is squishy and depending on the spec is fairly mobile (arcane is pretty stationary and the hardest “learning curve” if you can call it that.) But fire and frost aren’t too bad.

Everyone likes to say that mage is easy to play and it is… sort of… but the learning curve comes from positioning and planning ahead (some rotations might be a bit janky but theyre not to hard to learn). You have to really know and understand the class tool kit to plan ahead effectively, but once you know it, youre good.

Unless things have changed, Frost is actually pretty bad for levelling. Yes it provides slows and controls but because it is so heavily reliant on procs for any damage it is massively slow where you can’t just round up 20 mobs and AoE them down. The Welly makes a difference and adds further control, but you lose so much damage as well. Sadly if a mob (often elites) can’t be slowed, then we won’t be soloing them.

Arcane on the other hand (again unless things have changed) is a powerhouse for levelling. AB at 4 stacks will 1-2 shot pretty much any standard mob and even chain pulling you don’t have to worry about mana much.

That said, Mages have never been super strong for levelling outside of the big AoE farm. Melee these days have better small burst, so many DR and self-healing and depending on the class can round up 4-5 mobs and smash them down without any issue then just move to the next pack. The real trick for Mages is to not get hit, which means killing all the things before they reach you.

2 Likes

I leveled mostly as Arcane from 1 to 60. Touch of the Magi gives 4 stacks on the arcane blast so I could mostly 2 shoot, 3 shoot or 4 shoot mobs. They die very fast. Fire and frost are slower until they start procing. Even without Timewarp and/or Arcane Power. You can solo some elites, some you can’t. That’s fine imo
Kroke the Tormented is an example of a rare which is incredible easy to solo as a mage

Yeah and I agree with you but I also see OP’s point. We are just too squishy to AOE level. Even at max level as a mage you’re going to go into daily quest zones and the Druids and Hunters will be mass pulling the whole area and getting a sandwich while you run around kiting the stragglers one or two at a time.

I’m not complaining, I play Mage knowing that’s our reality. But, it’s our reality. It’s not impossible to level and quest solo but we are nowhere near the most efficient at it.

1 Like

I mean it works just slower I guess.
Remind why I never level my mage when i started in BC. It was already hard to level around stormwind but name once you reach Westfall mobs kill you in 1 to 2 attack and you can easily aggro 2 or 3 more trash at once.

Well, I don’t think it’s THAT bad, and I’ve been playing Mage since launch all the way back in 2004. Yes. I’m old.

Gotta learn to be proactive. Sheep, Nova, Mirror Image, etc. Learn to kite. Mage doesn’t have the margin for error that tanks do. If you’re used to having 5-6 mobs beating on you without having to do anything about it, then yes Mage will be hard for you.

1 Like

I can totally get behind that statement. Very well worded. Especially compared to some druids/paladins and the execisive toolkits some hybrids have. We’re definitely not efficient and our dmg doesnt exactly reflect that. In some regard we (mages) have “been left behind.”

Yeah, unfortunately Mage playstyle feels rather anachronistic in modern WoW. Part of the problem IMO is that the game isn’t designed to give the people playing it some kind of payoff like naturally higher damage than other DPS classes that require less effort.

1 Like

I feel that Mage is probably generally weaker in solo content than some other classes, or at least has a more difficult time of achieving the same results.

That said, I’m absolutely able to mass pull mobs in open world content and handle them with ease, even with low gear. I can finish just about any quest involving slaying mobs in 1-2 pulls.

Just play to the strengths and use all the tools you have available to you. Don’t rely exclusively on damaging or healing/shielding abilities as you may be able to get away with on other classes in similar situations.

As a Fire I never had any problems leveling, Torghast was not a problem. No boss could with stand my burst. In the open world I keep PVP on for extra worldly powers and occasionally get ganked but seldom got in trouble otherwise. And for PVP, forgetaboutit.

I don’t usually have problems with questing or doing content like Zereth Mortis. I sometimes switch specs for certain fights to Frost since it has more control, but I can usually stay as Arcane or Fire.

Actually Arcane is.

One thing I will say about Bfa was that there rarely was an elite that was immune to snare, and when they were, Blizz made sure there was a nice buff a mage could Spellsteal to give them a decent chance to win.

It seems like all those lessons learned got thrown out the window in Shadowlands.

Yea let’s just give every class a pet and ranged and melee abilities so that everyone can feel comfortable playing anything

you just need out-world talents.

Frost:
rotate Ebonbolt, Comet Storm, Glacial Spike + WE Freeze. They have short CD’s and you essentially use a different one on every mob. When they are all on CD, pull a couple mobs into Frozen Orb + Blizzard and by the time you kill them, your other CD’s will be ready.

Fire:
Firestarter is the best leveling talent. You’ll essentially open every mob with Pyro + Fireblast + Pyro. Blazing Barrier on Blink is also very strong.

Arcane:
Keep your stacks at 4. Only use Barrage when Touch of the Magi or Arcane Orb are off CD to regain your 4 stacks. Only use Evocation outside of combat. This is probably the easiest but also the most boring.

Don’t use Rune of Power while leveling.