Debating on spending the gold to go back arcane build or frost build following icy-vein for build ideas. Been playing with fire, but it’s stuns and ignite rarely hit. Even though I got what is needed to make them hit more then they do now. Which one is better on mana use? Fire does good dps, but i am finding myself always taking a water break. Cant remember if arcane was just as good or not. My main human mage is about lvl 36.
1 Like
It really depends on what you enjoy playing. Frost is pretty efficient and the control is one of the best in the game, meaning you can kill mobs without taking any damage. Generally arcane is more of a supporting spec to your main spec.
Are you looking to aoe farm at all or just kill mobs one at a time?
I am going the route of what is more survivable and not going oom on my mana at the wrong time. Was debating going frost so I can keep the unexpected mobs away and being able to take them out. Also thought about arcane so I can go overboard with arcane explosion since I can point to make it stronger. When I get the unexpected mobs chasing me.
You’re level 30. Deep Frost all the way.
3 Likes
I’d recommend against using AE to kill mobs as it’s not super Mana efficient. Frost is definitely your go-to spec it sounds like. Here’s a link to one that is focused on Mana efficiency and high damage to targets you freeze in place. You can move talents around as you see fit.
https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/mage/--023032311003513
Ignore this, OP. AoE farming is the most efficient way to level as a Mage. You should be seeking to gather as many mobs as possible and AoE them all down at once for the most XP/hour.
1 Like
When you’re max level and geared those ignites will proc like crazy, but as others have said while you’re leveling and not geared frost is the way to go.
Sigh, AE (arcane explosion)…not aoe… That’s why I asked if they planned to aoe or solo kill mobs because I’d have made a different spec. I leveled my mage mostly by aoeing so…yeah.
2 Likes
I referred my human mage that is 36 fire spec build. This undead one was a toon I lost interested in. Horde side got boring for me. I know she was frost, so fire and arcane was my go to for my current build. Guess I may just play with frost on my main mage.
That is why I am debating on doing a build that focuses arcane. Then slips into frost later. So when I have that oom moment. I can make use of the talent that beefs up the wand. But maybe doing a build that focuses on aoe in frost may be better. My human mage has a luck to get a whole mob on him even if I am being sneaky as possible to pull one. Either frost or arcane to make use of AE aoe when running away. when they seem to resist my spells.
I would not go arcane at level 30 maybe pom Fire at 42+ but even then deep fire or frost are probably better.
I leveled to 60 as fire, infact I’ve been fire since launch, and I had a lot of fun with it, but I was meme’ing until this phase, it’s certainly not optimal sub 60.
You’re level 36. Your soec doesn’t matter at all. Just have fun with it. When you hit 60 is when you will pigeonhole into frost if you’re in a guild progression on mc/bwl, then fire for the rest of the game afterward. Because Classic kills variety.
Ah, my bad. I play a lot of games, and some people use AoE and AE interchangeably. Totally missed the part where the OP was talking about using Arcane Explosion.
1 Like
I would have a look at YouTube and Xaryu. He has done awesome guides.
Ignite damage only occurs when you crit and since you’re only level 36 your crit won’t be that high.
Frost in my opinion is the best levelling spec, the slows that Permafrost provides is VERY good which is why i don’t understand seeing so many low level mages go fire ever since phase 5 hit. Ice Barrier is another reason to go frost, frost provides general survivability which the other 2 specs don’t do.
Fire mage is only good when you have 4-5 other fire mages with you, rolling the Ignite damage and imo only good in a raid setting.
When/If TBC comes I’ll respec to frost, because you’d only want 1-2 in your raid and fire performs significantly worse the fewer mages in your raid/group.
I’d suggest levelling as frost but you want some mana sustain Ill suggest talents that you should at least look at. Go to a talent calculator to see them in their full values.
-
Elemental precision - Is a must have, it gives you a free 6% hit to your frost and fire spells which you’ll be casting all the time. Hit cap for casters is 16% and with this talent you’ve already shaved off basically a third with this.
-
Arcane Focus - Free 10% hit to your arcane abilities, get this if you see yourself using AE a lot.
-
Clearcasting - 10% chance for your next damaging spell to cost nothing.
It’s mainly Clearcasting that you should look at when looking for mana sustain. Yes you can look at arcane meditation for the 15% passive mana regen but that isn’t really that good unless you’re stacking spirit.
For more things to add into the arcane tree would be…
- Improved Arcane Explosion for the 6% crit chance to Arcane Explosion.
- Arcane Subtlety for if you’re ever in a dungeon and you’re using AE it’s harder for you to pull threat (40% threat reduction)
Those two are the ones i would recommend the most out of the arcane tree for levelling.
As for frost there’s a lot of benefits of going frost.
- Permafrost - Slows the enemy down to a crawl, making you fit more casts in before you need to move.
- Cold Snap - Resets all frost spells making you more adaptable to surprise pulls.
- Improved Blizzard - What you’d use if you AoE farm but otherwise not used save for maybe dungeons.
- Frost Channelling - Frost spells cost less, you wanted mana efficacy this is it at max rank it reduces mana cost of your frost spells by 30%
- Frost Barrier - The spell that makes frost the best for levelling imo the shield is great lasts a minute with a CD of 30 seconds.
- Ice Block - The oh s**t button, coupled with cold snap you can pop this again right after you’ve used it, if the situation calls for it.
Now you don’t have to do this but i suggest this build
https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/mage/25000503--05350233102301201
This build is a 15/0/31 with 5 points that can go anywhere, sorry for this being so long, i hoped it helped and thank you for reading it.