I started this guy in Classic but would like to level him up to 70 now. I had a few questions on which I’m hoping to get your help. This is for a PVE server with heroic dungeons and raids as 70 goals.
What spec should I level? I’ve leveled Mages as Frost in the (distant) past. I can do so again if it’s clearly more effective but I wanted to ask if Fire is ok. I’m hoping to try something different and also practice what I understand will be the better raiding spec.
Is Fire the best raiding spec for new 70s? Based on what I’ve read, I think this is the case, but I wanted to confirm. I understand that there’s raid gear that may make Arcane better later in TBC, but I’d be surprised if I ever progress that far with this guy.
Is it still reasonable to plan to craft the Tailoring items? I understand that it takes lots of cloth with cooldowns and other items that may be long to grind or very expensive. I am hoping to craft the items because that sounds like fun character progression to me, but I’m not sure if it will still make sense by the time I get to 70.
Frost is best for ease of leveling, but any spec is viable. Especially if you are on a cozy PvE server, no need to worry about being Frost to survive jumps. Main thing is long as you enjoy your spec, that is what matters. All perform just fine for what you want to do.
Since you are unsure of your progression depth for TBC, I still say stick with the spec/rotation that you enjoy. You only need to worry about ‘the best’ specs if you are pushing content or playing competitively.
As for tailoring, I say yes. Why not? If this is going to be your dude for TBC, there’s no reason to not have the fun of progression crafting. And if you are being casual with upgrades, who knows how long those pieces will last you?
https://wowtbc.gg/bis-list/arcane-mage/
Just slap in your spec and choose “Pre-Raid” in the top right dropdown box. As you can see every spec benefits from the BoP tailoring sets, it will provide you with the oomph you need as you travel through content.
Now, one thing I’ve noticed mages are doing this time around in Classic, for classic vanilla and tbc classic, they are AoE grinding as frost.
Which apparently is decent leveling, pretty laid back, and good income as you come across more things to sell/BoEs. You can even solo Zul’Furrak ~40-52+ at the Graveyard section. I did it. It’s actually kinda fun and the exp is addicting. Good loot.
Anything works. Fire leveling is fine but its not as good as frost. Leveling tailoring is fine but if you are efficient in gearing up quickly it probably won’t feel particularly worthwhile.
IMO the most efficient route is to sit frost and solo aoe grind until 70. I personally would recommend just staying frost until you’re ready to swap to arcane. Frost isn’t really much worse than fire at low gear levels and has double veins/water ele to keep up on shorter fights. Its also way better for heroics.
Regardless of whether you choose frost or fire, if you plan to ever try “current” content your goal will be to swap arcane so I wouldn’t recommend spending much gold on frost/fire gems or enchants and instead focus on preparing to swap arcane.
Go Frost for leveling, you can do aoe pulls. But honestly all three mage specs are fine for leveling.
Most of the mages I’ve grouped with are either fire or arcane for raiding. Being a fire mage that knows how to keep scorch up might help you get into a raid team if they have multiple fire destros as most mages are trying to be arcane atm.
Definitely get the spellfire and spellstrike pieces they are all huge upgrades and will carry you to T5 easily. Any decent guild will help you with the cooldowns needed to create them, just soften them up by farming the primals yourself.
Thanks all! This is great. I’ll level Frost. I may even give AOE farming a shot.
I didn’t mean to imply I was bound to the meta for raiding. I was just thinking of trying out a new spec and figured it might as well be one I might be using once I hit 70. In any event, it seems like Frost is worth using to level and I’m happy to stick with that for now.
I’m also happy that the crafting items seem likely to be worth making.
generally herb/enhancting is good for mages, herb should provide potions flasks and oils. As for raiding spec all should be valid play what you like most and actually. You should not need expensive tailoring pre raid bis for post nerf phase 1 raids. For the most part show up for the raids with dungeon blues, dungeon quest blues, and group quest blues and you should be fine.
