Mage Leveling Guide (Level 1-30) - Talents, Rotations, Races & More

We’ll start with putting 5 points into Improved Frostbolt

3/3 in Permafrost and 3/3 in Frostbite will vastly increase your kiting potential thanks to the movement slow and duration increase from Permafrost and the chance to freeze mobs solid with Frostbite.

3/3 in Piercing Ice is a must have due to to the 6% extra Frost damage for all of your main damaging spells while 1 in Ice Lance will give you a solid single target instant cast spell that will deal 300% damage to Frozen targets, synergizing amazingly well with Frost Nova and the Frostbite talent. 2 points in Improved Blizzard will grant a 25% movement speed slow for 1.5 seconds which will assist in AoE kiting potential.

2/2 Arctic Reach will increase the range of Frostbolt and Blizzard while also increasing the radius of Frost Nova and Cone of Cold by 20% allowing you to kite a lot more effectively while 1 point in Ice Block will be an emergency defensive if an encounter gets out of hand and you need to stall for Frost Nova or Blink to come off cooldown.

Level 30 you will want to invest in Fingers of Frost, giving all of your movement slowing effects a 15% to cause your next spellcast to treat the target as if it is frozen which synergizes exceptionally well with Ice Lance.

Every race has strengths for the Mage so you can get away with picking the race that you are most interested in, especially with the changes to Racials in WoW: Forever. If we have to pick one race for each faction then it would be Gnome for Alliance and Troll for Horde.

Alliance

Human, Gnome & Skyborne

Gnome have access to Expansive Mind, granting them an extra 5% Mana which is crucial for a Mage , allowing you to go on for longer while leveling without having to stop and rest. Eureka! Gives Gnomes an offensive buff that increases the damage and reduces the cost of their next three spellcasts by 10% giving them that little bit extra damage and mana efficiency while taking out some of the more sturdier mobs. Engineering Specialization’s more reliable engineering devices and Escape Artist’s brief immunity to Roots and Snares are definitely nice little bonuses to have but they will get more use in PvP environments. 

Horde

Orc, Undead & Troll

For the Horde, all 3 options have various benefits when it comes to leveling specifically, however we would give a slight edge to Troll, mainly due to their

Racial Beast Slaying gives them a huge edge against a very common enemy type while both Regeneration and Rapid Regeneration gives them a lot of health sustain, 10% passively while in combat with Regeneration and a huge 50% max health over time active respectively. Rapid Regeneration in particular would synergise exceptionally well paired with Ice Block. Finally, a casting speed boost from Berserking will give a Troll Mage a solid boost to damage.

The primary Skills you’ll use are Frostbolt, Ice Lance, Frost Nova and Wand Auto Attacks in Single Target while for AoE leveling your primary skills will be Blizzard, Cone of Cold , Frost Nova and Arcane Explosion.

Make sure your Arcane Intellect and Frost/Ice Armor buffs are applied at all times.

Single Target

1. Frostbolt- This is your main filler spell that you should be casting as often as possible to slow your target while fishing for Fingers of Frost procs.
2. Ice Lance - use this whenever your target is Frozen by Frost Nova or a Frostbite proc or when you get a Fingers of Frost proc. 
3. Frost Nova - Use this when your target comes within range to root them in place so you can back up and keep kiting with your slow effects.
4. Wand Auto Attacks - Use your wand while an enemy is slowed to deal consistent damage while conserving your mana pool.

Area of Effect

1. Blizzard - Your bread and butter AoE filler spell. Use this to deal massive damage while slowing mobs down.
2. Frost Nova - use this when mobs are all clustered up to keep them rooted in place.
3. Cone of Cold - use this mainly to buy you time to back away and continue kiting.
4. Arcane Explosion - use this to instantly finish off any low health mob

If committing to full AoE farming, you will tag mobs with your Wand, before then grouping them up a Frost Nova, and then moving away and using Blizzard until all the mobs die. If you use this method, there will be set collections of mobs in certain parts of Azeroth that will be optimal with this leveling strategy.

Blink is your main movement option, allowing you to quickly widen the gap between you and your attacker, further boosting your kiting potential while also getting you out of nasty situations if things go wrong. Pay attention though, you may end up pulling more mobs if you are not careful.

Make sure to visit your Mage Trainer to acquire higher ranks of your key damaging spells!

Keep any Light Feathers you find while also making sure to purchase other reagents such as Rune of Teleportation as some of your spells require them.

Be an upstanding citizen of Azeroth by buffing any passing players with your Arcane Intellect, helping them with their journey and who knows, maybe you will get a buff in exchange to help you with yours!

Keep stocked up on mana potions and also do not forget about your conjured mana gems, these will help you go on for longer without needing to sit down and rest.

Stats to Prioritize

1. Spell Power will increase your damage output, while it is not going to as common as the others on this list, it is a highly valuable stat while leveling a pure caster
2. Intellect grants spell critical strike chance while increasing your mana pool, which for a Mage is extremely important
3. Spirit is handy for regenerating your resources, allowing you to go on for longer without needing to stop and rest as often
4. Stamina increases your total hit points, which is always a nice thing to have.

Downrank spells to save mana, especially Blizzard, Frost Nova and Cone of Cold as they will be used primarily for their Slow effect and not damage output.

You can save some gold by skipping certain spells such as Scorch as you don’t get any benefit out of using them for a Frost Mage.

Frost Mages are excellent in dungeons and group content, bringing exceptional single target AND Area of effect damage while being able to slow mobs down to a crawl with their wide array of crowd control effects.
Mage’s ability to create food and water will also be highly valued by a party, healers and other casters will also appreciate your Arcane Intellect buff so be sure to keep that up on everyone.

If things get spicy feel free to pop a Polymorph to buy your group some time, and use Frost Nova if needed, but be mindful it will cause frozen enemies to attack their nearest target.

You’ll also want to swap to Mage Armor instead of Ice/Frost armor in dungeons as you won’t or shouldn’t be tanking!

Water and Food macro. Saves space on your action bars by compiling both food and water creation within one button.

#showtooltip

/castsequence reset=4 Conjure Water, Conjure Food

Buff Macro. Quickly buff yourself with Arcane Intellect and Frost Armor.

#showtooltip

/cast [btn:2] Arcane Intellect, Frost Armor

StopCasting Macro. Good when you find yourself up against a caster mob and you need to quickly counterspell while in the middle of a Frostbolt cast.

#showtooltip

/stopcasting

/cast Counterspell