Mage Class Overview & Changes

Often described as Vanilla’s Hero class, the Mage was a force to reckoned with in the base version of World of Warcraft, boasting unparalleled utility in its ability to teleport themself and allies to major cities, lock down entire rooms with slows and crowd control while being able to create food and water without spending a penny. Add that to their high mobility and DPS and it’s no wonder that Mage earned this moniker.

WoW: Forever is keeping that identity intact, making some vast improvements to its underwhelming specs while carefully lowering Frost’s movement slowing abilities so it’s not as overbearing as it previously was.

Arcane Summary

Arcane can now function as a standalone, focused DPS spec in WoW: Forever thanks to the addition of Arcane Blast, both as a filler and also a steroid to really pump out some devastating damage with Arcane Missiles, especially thanks to the new Missile Barrage talent. Additional scaling thanks to the crit strike chance and damage from Arcane Impact and Arcane Mind means that Arcane will not be left by the wayside.

Players looking to play a high risk, high reward class with an emphasis on mana management will find the Arcane Mage a perfect option.

Fire Summary

WoW: Forever has made Fire a lot more bombastic in its approach as opposed to its rather static interactivity in Vanilla while still keeping its high damage profile intact. The dynamic procs from Hot Streak adds a little more flavour to Fire’s rotation and makes it so Pyroblast isn’t relegated to just the opener and now that Dots can critically hit in WoW: Forever, Ignite management is even more satisfying.

Fire is perfect for players who enjoy the thrill of rolling the dice for big, meaty critical hits in a fast paced environment. Our Fire Mage Guide has the recommended talents and rotation

Frost Summary

Frost is feeling a lot more fleshed out in WoW: Forever, adding in a more reactive playstyle thanks to Ice Lance and Fingers of Frost, which also provides a way of unleashing devastating Shatter combos on frozen-immune targets. Frost looks to be an incredibly potent PvP Spec with these new talent additions providing huge extra burst damage alongside their crowd control, mobility and utility.

Frost also looks to continue being a very viable leveling & dungeon spec with its AoE damage and slows.

It’s hard to say just how effective Frost might be in single target boss encounters, but for open world, PvP, dungeons and more, it will undoubtedly be a fantastic option.

Comprehend Scroll - Deciphers an untranslated scroll.

Frostfire Bolt - While the specifics is not known, several talents augment this spell in all three spec talent trees. 

Arcane

Arcane Geometry - Passive. Increases the range of Arcane spells by 3/6 yards. 2 Ranks

Arcane Blast - Blasts the target with energy, dealing Arcane damage. Each time Arcane Blast is cast, the damage of other spells is increased by 10% and the mana cost of Arcane Blast is increased by 175%. Effect stacks up to 4 times and lasts 8 seconds or until any other damage spell is cast.

Missile Barrage - Passive. Gives Arcane Blast a 40% chance, and Fireball, Frostbolt and Frostfire Bolt a 20% chance to reduce the channeled duration of the next Arcane Missiles cast by 50%, reduce the mana cost by 100%, and missiles will fire every 0.5 seconds. 1 Rank

Fire

Hot Streak - Passive. Non-periodic critical strikes with Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Fire Blast, and Scorch grant Hot Streak for 15 seconds. Hot Streak reduces the cast time of Pyroblast by 25%, stacking up to 3 times. 1 Rank

Frost

Ice Lance - Deals Frost damage to an enemy target. Deals 300% increased damage to Frozen targets.

Fingers of Frost - Gives Chill effects a 15/30% chance to grant the Fingers of Frost effect, which treats the next spell cast as if the target were Frozen. Lasts 15 seconds.

On top of the new talents introduced, Mage has had a lot of their talents changed with each spec receiving 9-12 changes. Notable talent changes include;

Arcane

Arcane Focus - Now increases chance to hit with Arcane spells by up to 5% instead of reducing the chance that opponents can resist Arcane spells up to 10% like how it was in Vanilla.

Arcane Impact - Now increases the critical hit chance of all Arcane spells rather than just Arcane Missile and Arcane Explosion as stated in Vanilla. 

Arcane Meditation - Now allows up to 50% Mana regeneration to continue while casting, up from the 15% provided in Vanilla.

Arcane Mind - Increases Intellect by up to 20% as well as up to 100% Critical damage bonus with Arcane spells. A drastic difference from Vanilla’s 10% mana increase.

Arcane Shielding - Decreases mana lost per point of damage taken by up to 35% while now increasing resistances from Mage Armor by up to 50%. An increase over Vanilla’s values of 20% mana lost per point. Was previously known as Improved Mana Shield.

Fire

Incineration - Now increases the critical strike chance of Fire Blast, Ice Lance, Arcane Blast and Scorch by up to 6%. In Vanilla it was called Incinerate and only increased the crit chance for Fire Blast and Scorch.

Wake of Fire - Reduces the cooldown of Fire Blast by up to 2 seconds while also increases the critical strike chance of the next Fire Blast cast by 25% after killing a none-trivial target. In Vanilla it was called Improved Fire Blast, had 3 ranks instead of 2 and reduced Fire Blast’s Cooldown by up to 1.5 seconds.

Frost

Elemental Precision - Increases chance to hit with Fire and Frost spells by up to 5%. Previously in Vanilla it reduced the chance that the target would resist Fire and Frost spells by up to 6%. Ranks have also been increased from 3 to 5

Improved Blizzard - The movement speed slow has been reduced to 40% at max rank down from Vanilla’s 65%

The Alliance have the choice between Humans, Gnomes and the new race Skyborne to play as a Mage while Orcs have been added as an option for Horde alongside the Undead and Trolls.

Alliance

Humans have Will to Survive which gives them an on demand stun removal which, on top of Blink’s ability to cleanse stuns, makes them a lot harder to lock down in PvP environments. Being able to detect nearby stealthed foes with Perception will give them a crucial edge against Horde Rogues and Feral Cat Druids and while Sword Specialization wouldn’t seem helpful for a full casting class, the additional spell critical chance and a Mage’s ability to train and wield swords would be a nice little bonus should they come across a nice Int based Spellsword. Finally, The Human Spirit’s bonus Spirit will give a handy bonus to regeneration.

A Gnome’s ability to become briefly immune to roots and snares with Escape Artist will make them exceptionally slippery in PvP engagements while Eureka!’s 10% cost reduction and damage increase for the next three spells will help with lining up some exceptional burst windows. A PvP orientated Gnome Mage would greatly appreciate having more reliable engineering devices thanks to Engineering Specialization and a 5% increased mana pool from Expansive Mind will help with resource management in more sustained encounters.

The new race Skyborne’s ability to increase their Health and Mana regeneration with Read Ley Line will assist with downtime between pulls for leveling while Wind Blessed’s additional 1% haste will be much appreciated for all specs. Dealing more damage to Elementals with Elemental Insight will prove helpful in some zones and dungeons and even though Mage’s have access to Slow Fall, Walk on Air’s downward glide would be a solid backup in case you find yourself without a light feather.

Horde 

Orcs start off strong as a Mage, Blood Fury’s added Spell Power increase will be a strong added burst Cooldown while the 20% stun reduction with Hardiness, mixed in with the Mage’s already potent defensive options will make Orc Mage’s deceptively hard to kill. Shatter Curse’s reducing magic damage and immunity to curses and banes will give Orcs an edge over Alliance spellcasters, especially Warlocks. Unfortunately, Mages cannot learn how to wield Axes so Axe Specialization is not useful.

Undead are able to Cannibalize corpses, regenerating Health and Mana over time, reducing downtime while out in the open world while Touch of the Grave’s ability to sometimes drain health with attacks gives some added sustain in combat. Will of the Forsaken’s removal of Charm, Fear and Sleep effects will be extremely handy in PvP environments as well as the occasional PvE encounter and Underwater Breathing 300% longer Breath while diving will be helpful with some nautical quests. 

Troll Mages can increase their throughput thanks to the increased casting speed from Berserking, adding a nice little DPS cooldown to their toolkit while Beast Slaying will be a little extra bonus in certain PvE encounters. Both the passive 10% Health regeneration and the higher on demand 50% from Regeneration and Rapid Regeneration respectively will help with downtime while leveling and farming out in the open.

See our full list of race and class pairings for every other new pairing added in WoW: Forever.

What is the best race for Mage?

For Alliance, Humans and Gnomes make for the more optimal choice for a Mage, especially in PvP with their ability to remove the more devastating crowd control effects while Gnomes have a slight edge in PvE thanks to their additional burst cooldown. That being said, Skyborne’s situational effectiveness against Elementals and their aforementioned haste still has its benefits.

The best race for Horde is fairly situational depending on what you would prefer. Orcs damage boost and sturdiness would be helpful in both PvE and PvP while Troll’s and Undead’s ability to sustain would assist in open world content. 

Mage is looking to be an even more viable option in WoW: Forever, still keeping its baseline utility while all of its specs received some much needed alterations making rotations feel less one note and more dynamic and satisfying to pull off.

See how Arcane, Fire and Frost rank against each other on our best specs tier list.