Zaasu 0 Report post Posted May 18, 2017 Hello everyone and welcome to my mage guide. In this guide I will cover everything from selecting a race, to the best professions and builds. To allow you to gain a deeper insight into this I will furthermore also display the various talents, how they work and how they interact with each other. In the later parts of the guide I will delve deeper into the mage class uncovering our stat priority and Best in Slot list. The guide will conclude with some useful macros, addons and tips and tricks beneficial to you and your mage. I have reserved the top comment slot in which you can track the progress and updates of the guide. Please leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions for improvement. I try my best to answer within 24-hours. Alternatively you are welcome to contact me in-game, I play Horde on the Elysium PvP realm, and like the guide suggests my name is Zaasu. Thank you for taking the time to read my guide. _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ This section will cover the available races to the mage class, as well as the individual benefits each race brings to the table. This section will cover the various professions and how they can benefit your mage. This section will cover all the talents available to the mage class. This section will cover the most viable raiding builds available to the mage class. This section will cover the stat priority of a mage. Note that this section will be aimed at the most viable for the current content, as such the current stat priority is designed around Frost mages. (Coming soon) This section will cover the current pre-raid bis list. This is similar to the stat priority designed around the Frost mage. This section will cover the relevant enchants for your mage. This section will cover the relevant consumables for your mage in a raid setting. This section will cover the most notable and important macros that will assist you in your PvE and PvP endeavours alike. This section will cover the relevant addons specific to a mage. (Coming soon) This section will cover various helpful tips and tricks, this includes AoE farming various instances, smart spell usage etc. (Coming soon) _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ Before we get down to the nitty gritty I'd like to say that choosing a race should be entirely decided upon your visual preference, the racial traits are so small that they are negligible. Human Base stats: 22 Stamina, 20 Intellect, 21 Spirit Racial traits: Perception (active): Activate to increase stealth detection radius by 10 yards - lasts 20 sec - 3 min cooldown The Human Spirit (passive): Increase Spirit by 5% Diplomacy (passive): 10% bonus to faction point gain Gnome Base stats: 21 Stamina, 24 Intellect, 20 Spirit Racial traits: Escape Artist (active): Activate to break out of a Root or Snare effect - 1.5 sec cast - 1 min cooldown Expansive Mind (passive): Increase Intelligence by 5% Arcane Resistance (passive): All Gnomes get +10 Arcane Resistance Technologist (passive): 15 skill bonus to Engineering Troll Base stats: 23 Stamina, 16 Intellect, 21 Spirit Racial traits: Berserking (active): Activate when "Wounded" to increase melee and spellcasting speed by 25% - lasts 20 sec - 2 min cooldown Regeneration (passive): 10% health regen bonus, 10% active in combat Beast Slaying (passive): 5% damage bonus to Beasts Undead Base stats: 23 Stamina, 18 Intellect, 25 Spirit Racial traits: Will of the Forsaken (active): Activate to become immune to fear, sleep, and charm effects - lasts 20 sec - 3 min cooldown Cannibalize (active): Increase health regeneration by 200% while consuming a corpse - lasts 15 sec - 3 min cooldown Underwater Breathing (passive): Underwater breath increased by 4x Shadow Resistance (passive): All Undead get +10 Shadow Resistance In conclusion, the most effective race for Alliance is Gnome for both PvE and PvP, whereas for Horde, the most effective race is Troll for PvE and Undead for PvP. _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ Alchemy "Alchemists use herbs to create strange, magical brews that heal, empower, and produce a variety of positive effects - invisibility, elemental resistance, mana restoration, and much, much more." Perks: None. Purpose: To craft flasks, potions and transmutations. For personal use and/or selling at a profit. Goes well with: Herbalism Mage relevance: Taking Alchemy allows for some level of self-sufficiency with regards to potions and flasks, but if you do not plan to pair it with Herbalism, you might as well get a guildie to craft them for you. Blacksmithing "Blacksmiths utilise their expertise with hammer and anvil to craft deadly weapons, heavy suits of mail and plate armour, and other, more specialised items." Perks: Skeleton Keys, used to open chests. Purpose: Crafting mail and plate armour and various weapons, however, Blacksmithing does not offer BiS items reserved to blacksmiths like as tailoring does to tailors. For a mage this profession is redundant. Goes well with: Mining Mage relevance: None. Enchanting "Enchanters disenchant surplus magical items - and use the residue to permanently augment equipment of their choosing." Perks: None. Purpose: To enchant and disenchant gear, often at a high profit. Goes well with: Tailoring. Tailoring doesn't require a gathering profession, so you will be able to collect cloths, craft items, disenchant items and in turn skill up your Enchanting. Mage relevance: Given that Tailoring is a must-have profession, and that Enchanting goes very well with Tailoring, I'd rate this as highly relevant. Engineering "Engineers take advantage of their inventiveness to create an immense (and occasionally random) variety of helpful items." Perks: Various gadgets and items reserved to the engineer. Some of which are considered invaluable to PvP. Purpose: The purpose of Engineering is quite simply to craft various gadgets that are hugely beneficial for PvP. Some even consider it a must for PvP enthusiasts. Goes well with: Mining. To collect the necessary materials. Mage relevance: Must-have for PvP, occasionally beneficial to PvE. Herbalism "Herbalists carefully harvest the helpful and potent herbs found throughout the world." Perks: None. Purpose: Herbalism is a gathering profession. As such the purpose is to gather herbs to either sell for a profit or to channel into potions and flasks in combination with alchemy. Goes well with: Alchemy for crafting purposes and Skinning/Mining for gathering purposes. Mage relevance: Can significantly improve gold income from instance AoE farming. Leatherworking "Leatherworkers take the rough, spiny or sturdy hides of beasts everywhere and turn them into useful products." Perks: Primal Batskin set bonus: Minor increase to running and swimming speed, and Blood Tiger set bonus: +1% critical strike chance. Purpose: Crafting leather and mail armour, cloaks and armour kits. Goes well with: Skinning. To collect the necessary materials. Mage relevance: None. Mining "Miners pursue valuable and useful ores, extracting them straight from the earth with their picks." Perks: None. Purpose: A gathering profession used to gather ores to either funnel into your Blacksmithing or to sell in the Auction House at a profit. Goes well with: Blacksmithing or Engineering for crafting purposes and skinning or herbalism for gathering purposes. Mage relevance: None. Skinning "Skinners ensure that nothing goes to waste by removing the hides of dead beasts and amassing piles of fur and leather." Perks: None. Purpose: Skinning is like Herbalism and Mining a gathering profession and is, as such, used to collect skins and furs to either sell for a profit or to craft various items with Leatherworking. Goes well with: Leatherworking. Mage relevance: Can significantly improve gold income from instance AoE farming. Tailoring "Tailors take simple cloth and weave wonders out of it; cloth armour and robes, shirts, bags and other creations are the purview of the tailor." Perks: Tailoring grants 300 skill level tailors a 2% critical strike bonus on the Bloodvine set, which will be your best in slot set until AQ40. As such Tailoring is by many considered to be the "must-have" profession of any serious raiding mage. In addition to this, tailoring allows you to craft yourself upgrades as you level, quickening the process. Purpose: Boosts your raiding performance and allows you to sell bags and crafted items at a profit. Goes well with: As cloth drops from random mobs, there is no need for a paring profession. As such my recommendation would stand between the following: Enchanting for the pure raider, Engineering for the occasional PvPer and Herbalism/skinning for gold making. Mage relevance: Must-have for raiding. In conclusion I would recommend going with Tailoring paired with either Enchanting or Engineering, or Tailoring paired with Herbalism or Skinning for gold purposes. Cooking "Cooks experiment with strange and wondrous ingredients gathered from the far corners of Azeroth." Perks: Self-sufficiency with food and transformations. Purpose: Some cooking recipes, especially the Savory Deviate Delight, that transforms you into either a ninja or a pirate, can be sold a quite a profit if you are willing to both fish them and cook them yourself. First Aid "Physicians save lives in the dangerous world of Azeroth by using bandages and antidotes to heal injuries and remove poisons." Perks: Enables you to use bandages to get out of sticky situations. Purpose: Various PvP, leveling and world content. Fishing Fishers relax and feed themselves by catching the bounty of Azeroth's lakes and seas. Perks: None. Purpose: Fishing fish to be used with cooking or sold at the Auction House. _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ Students gifted with a keen intellect and unwavering discipline may walk the path of the mage. The arcane magic available to magi is both great and dangerous, and thus is revealed only to the most devoted practitioners. Choose to manipulate the arcane, destroying enemies with overwhelming power, ignite enemies with balls of fire and combustive flames, or freeze enemies in their tracks and shatter them with Frost Magic. Spoiler Arcane Subtlety Effect: Reduces your target's resistance to all your spells by 5/10 and all of your Arcane spells cause 20/40% less threat. Relevance: Viable filler for reaching further into the Arcane Tree. Arcane Focus Effect: Reduces the chance that the opponent can resist your Arcane spells by 2/4/6/8/10%. Relevance: For a frost mage this talent is almost entirely useless as the only arcane spell we will ever use is Arcane Explosion, which in itself is a rarity in raids and dungeons. It is, however, still superior to Improved Arcane Missiles. Improved Arcane Missiles Effect: Gives you a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while channeling Arcane Missiles. Relevance: Arcane Missiles is not a great damaging spell and will as a result rarely be used. Skip this entirely. Wand Specialization Effect: Increases your damage with Wands by 13/25% Relevance: Your wand should always be your very last resort and it is therefore unwise to spend talent points in something that is ideally never used. Magic Absorption Effect: When you resist a spell, you regain 1/2/3/4/5% of your max. mana and increases all resistances by 2/4/6/8/10 Relevance: Some extra mana regeneration never hurts. This is a viable filler to reach further into the Arcane Tree. Arcane Concentration Effect: Gives you a 2/4/6/8/10% chance of entering a Clearcasting state after any damage spell hits a target. The Clearcasting state reduces the mana cost of your next damage spell by 100%. Relevance: Again, mana efficiency. This spell can be hugely beneficial during AoE farming, but will also save you some mana over the duration of a fight, as well as being cheesed by purposely using mana heavy spells during a proc. Magic Attunement Effect: Increases the effect of your Amplify Magic and Dampen Magic spells by 25/50% Relevance: This talent is best used in solo PvP scenarios as it lowers magic damage taken as well as adding a layer that needs to be dispelled. But serves as a decent filler for the PvE scene. From time to time it will serve it's purpose in dungeons and raids as you can improve your tanks healing taken or diminish the magical damage taken. Just be sure to communicate the appliance of either spell with your healer as it can cause unforeseen spikes or frustration from diminished healing. Improved Arcane Explosion Effect: Increases the critical strike chance of your Arcane Explosion spell by an additional 2/4/6% Relevance: Blizzard is our go-to AoE spells and carries the advantage of being cast at range, so this will have little to no use in a PvE scenario. Arcane Resilience Effect: Increases your armor by an amount equal to 50% of your Intellect. Relevance: Adds around 150 armor, which in itself is decent for one talent point, but it simply not useful for non-PvP scenarios. Improved Mana Shield Effect: Decreases the mana lost per point of damage taken when Mana Shield is active by 10/20% Relevance: You will never be using this talent in a raiding scenario as mana is a precious resource that you will be focusing entirely on DPS. It does carry some use in PvP. Improved Counterspell Effect: Gives Counterspell a 50/100% chance to silence the target for 4 sec. Relevance: One of the greatest PvP talents in the game, but unfortunately not very useful for raiding. Arcane Meditation Effect: Allows 5/10/15% of your Mana regeneration to continue while casting. Relevance: This talent is a must for raiding, I cannot underline the importance of maintaining your mana pool. No mana. No damage. Presence of Mind Effect: When activated, your next Mage spell with a casting time less than 10 sec becomes an instant cast spell. Relevance: Immensely strong PvP talent. Dispellable. Arcane Mind Effect: Increases your maximum Mana by 2/4/6/8/10% Relevance: More mana is always great, and if you're this deep in the Arcane tree this talent is a great place to spend some points. Arcane Instability Effect: Increases your spell damage and critical strike chance by 1/2/3% Relevance: A very solid talent that applies to ALL spells, not just Arcane ones. Arcane Power Effect: When activated, your spells deal 30% more damage while costing 30% more mana to cast. This effect lasts 15 sec. Relevance: Whilst it does provide great burst, especially paired with Presence of Mind, it only really increases your DPS on short encounters as you will often find yourself oom as a result of using this, ultimately removing the previously attained DPS edge. Spoiler Improved Fireball Effect: Reduces the casting time of your Fireball spell by 0.1/02/03/04/05 sec. Relevance: Great for a Fire specced PvE mage, and occasionally beneficial in PvP. Impact Effect: Gives your Fire spells a 2/4/6/8/10% chance to stun the target for 2 sec. Relevance: This talent is an incredibly powerful PvP talent, but it serves little to no purpose in PvE as most bosses are immune to stun. Ignite Effect: Your critical strikes from Fire damage spells cause the target to burn for an additional 8/16/24/32/40% of your spell's damage over 4 sec. Relevance: Dispellable. Flame Throwing Effect: Increases the range of your Fire spells by 3/6 yards. Relevance: Extra range is always attractive to a caster and as such this talent is a must for every Fire mage, in PvP and PvE alike. Improved Fire Blast Effect: Reduces the cooldown of your Fire Blast spell by 0.5/1.0/1.5 sec. Relevance: Fire Blast is not a spell that is used in your PvE Fire rotation, this talent is, however, great for PvP. Incinerate Effect: Increases the critical strike chance of your Fire Blast and Scorch spells by 2/4%. Relevance: This talent is exceptional for PvP, but it's strength is greatly diminished in PvE as Fire Blast is not used and as Scorch is only used to apply 5 stacks and thereafter only once every 30 seconds to reapply Improved Scorch. Improved Flamestrike Effect: Increases the critical strike chance of your Flamestrike spell by 5/10/15%. Relevance: This talent is a decent PvP talent for cluster situations, it is however useless for PvE. Pyroblast Effect: Hurls an immense fiery boulder that causes 141 to 188 Fire damage and an additional 56 Fire damage over 12 sec. Relevance: In PvP this talent is epic paired with Presence of Mind, but is unfortunately never used in PvE. Burning Soul Effect: Gives your Fire spells a 35/70% chance to not lose casting time when you take damage and reduces the threat caused by your Fire spells by 15/30%. Relevance: The push back reduction is a nice add on, but the threat reduction is nice as it allows you to go more ham without worrying too much about overaggroing. Improved Scorch Effect: Your Scorch spells have a 33/66/100% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to Fire damage. This vulnerability increases the Fire damage dealt to your target by 3% and lasts 30 sec. Stacks up to 5 times. Relevance: You should at all times have at least one Fire mage in the raid with this talent as both Warlocks and Fire mages alike benefit from it. Improved Fire Ward Effect: Causes your Fire Ward to have a 10/20% chance to reflect Fire spells while active. Relevance: A 10/20% chance to reflect Fire spells is simply too low considering how few damage sources that deal Fire damage, both in PvP and in PvE. Master of Elements Effect: Your Fire and Frost spell criticals will refund 10/20/30% of their base mana cost. Relevance: Mana efficiency is once again always a good choice. This is by all means a good talent for PvP and PvE alike. Critical Mass Effect: Increases the critical strike chance of your Fire spells by 2/4/6%. Relevance: A solid talent on its own. More crits, more damage. Blast Wave Effect: A wave of flame radiates outward from the caster, damaging all enemies caught within the blast for 154 to 187 Fire damage, and dazing them for 6 sec. Relevance: The 'daze' mentioned in the talent description provides a 50% snare. By all means a PvP talent with little to no uses in raiding. Fire Power Effect: Increases the damage done by your Fire spells by 2/4/6/8/10%. Relevance: This talent is a damage multiplier, so the better your gear gets the more you benefit from this talent. A must have talent for a fire mage. Combustion Effect: When activated, this spell causes each of your Fire damage spell hits to increase your critical strike chance with Fire damage spells by 10%. This effect lasts until you have caused 3 critical strikes with Fire spells. Relevance: Mediocre DPS cooldown, but by all means worth spending one point in. Spoiler Frost Warding Effect: Increases the armor and resistances given by your Frost Armor and Ice Armor spells by 15/30%. In addition, gives your Frost Ward a 10/20% chance to reflect Frost spells and effects while active. Relevance: Mostly relevant in PvP. Improved Frostbolt Effect: Reduces the casting time of your Frostbolt spell by 0.1/0.2/0.3/0.4/0.5 sec. Relevance: As your Frostbolt is your main damaging spell, this talent is a must-have for PvP and PvE mages alike. Elemental Precision Effect: Reduces the chance that the opponent can resist your Frost and Fire spells by 2/4/6%. Relevance: A missed or resisted spell causes 0 damage, as such this talent is highly useful for both leveling, PvP and PvE. Ice Shards Effect: Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Frost spells by 20/40/60/80/100%. Relevance: A must have for a raiding Frost mage, PvP and PvE alike. Frostbite Effect: Gives your Chill effects a 5/10/15% chance to freeze the target for 5 sec. Relevance: By all means a PvP talent as most bosses are immune to being Frozen. A notable exception is Ragnaros. Improved Frost Nova Effect: Reduces the cooldown of your Frost Nova spell by 2/4 sec. Relevance: Once again, a PvP talent. Most raid bosses are immune to freezes. Permafrost Effect: Increases the duration of your Chill effect by 1/2/3 secs and reduces the target’s speed by an additional 4/7/10%. Relevance: This talent is mainly used in combination with Improved Blizzard and is aimed at leveling, AoE farming and a handful of add control encounters. Piercing Ice Effect: Increases the damage done by your Frost spells by 2/4/6%. Relevance: More damage is good, and this talent applies its multipler to your +dmg gear, which means it scales as your gear gets better. Cold Snap Effect: When activated, this spell finishes the cooldown on all of your Frost spells. Relevance: Mostly useful for PvP where an extra Frost Nova/Cone of Cold combo or another Ice Block is most useful. Worth picking up as you go deeper in the Frost tree, as it's a solid talent, althought its own cooldown is somewhat long (10m). Improved Blizzard Effect: Adds a chill effect to your Blizzard spell. This effect lowers the target's movement speed by 30/50/65%. Lasts 2 sec. Relevance: Best used in Alterac Valley or other places with tightly clustered groups of enemies (e.g. around Arathi Basin flags or WSG flag rooms). Also has select uses in raids (e.g. can be used in Nefarian's room). Finally, this can be the cornerstone of an AoE kiting levelling build if combined with Permafrost (which makes the snare last 4.5s). Arctic Reach Effect: Increases the range of your Frostbolt and Blizzard spells and the radius of your Frost Nova and Cone of Cold spells by 10/20%. Relevance: More range is a good thing. This bumps Frostbolt over 30 yards, which is the radius for many raid bosses' area effect abilities. Frost Channelling Effect: Reduces the mana cost of your Frost spells by 5/10/15% and reduces the threat caused by your Frost spells by 10/20/30%. Relevance: A cornerstone of a mana efficient raiding build. Shatter Effect: Increases the critical strike chance of all your spells against frozen targets by 10/20/30/40/50%. Relevance: Frost's burst dps potential lies around the careful use of this talent. Note that it also works with non-Frost talents. Combine this talent with AoEs and/or +crit talents to obtain near certain crits on frozen targets. Ice Block Effect: You become encased in a block of ice, protecting you from all physical attacks and spells for 10 sec, but during that time you cannot attack, move or cast spells. Relevance: You can be healed while Ice Blocked. Thus if you are getting focus-fired, hit Ice Block and wait for a healer to heal you. Then when you get healed, you can drop Ice Block and go back to work. Improved Cone of Cold Effect: Increases the damage dealt by your Cone of Cold spell by 15/25/35%. Relevance: Useful if you're relying on Nova+CoC combos for burst. If you're just using CoC as another snare, it isn't worth grabbing this talent. Has some use for Frost kiting levelling builds. Winter’s Chill Effect: Gives your Frost damage spells a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to apply the Winter’s Chill effect, which increases the chance a Frost spell will critically hit the target by 2% for 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times. Relevance: You want at least one Frost mage to have this talent in your raid. Ice Barrier Effect: Instantly shields you, absorbing 438 damage. Lasts 1 min. While the shield holds, spells will not be interrupted. Relevance: It can be dispelled. It gains 10% from any +dmg that affects Frost, thus "Increases damage and healing done by magical spells and effects by up to XX" will affect it. _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ This build will be your standard go to build for frost raiding, and will most likely be how your talents will be arranged until you've become a well geared, established member of a guild, to which you can transition into the 'Arcane Instability' spec listed below. Note that in this build you can switch out one point from 'Improved Blizzard' to either 'Cold Snap' or 'Magic Absorption'. I have personally chosen to go with 3 points in 'Improved Blizzard' as it allows me to AoE farm. Whilst this spec does offer more in terms of damage output, a silence and a bigger mana pool, it does remove a great deal of utility that is gained with the deep frost tree. Especially with regards to the AoE slow through 'Improved Blizzard' and immunity to interruptions through 'Ice Barrier'. Finally you will no longer be applying 'Winter's Chill', and will be relying entirely on another mage in your raid or dungeon group providing it. This spec is a variation of the above shown Arcane Instability spec. The only difference being that this spec sacrifices Ice Block and the 2nd rank of Arctic Reach to obtain Arcane Power, the final talent of the Arcane tree. Note that this spec will be hard on poorly geared mages as Arcane Power, whilst providing a DPS boost, will oom you. I would suggest to go with the Arcane Instability until you reach a point of which you kill bosses and have "plenty" of mana to spare. With the arrival of AQ and a fond farewell to the fire resistant content of BWL and MC, we can finally spec into Fire. This is the classic Fire spec providing you with Improved Scorch, which works much like the above mentioned Winter's Chill spec, in improving the DPS of every fire spell user in the raid. _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ Crimson Felt Hat Dropped by: Magistrate Barthilas, Stratholme (13,42% chance to drop) Stats: +8 Stamina, +8 Intellect, +8 Spirit, +30 Spell Damage Alternative(s): Spellpower Goggles Xtreme Plus Crafted Item: Engineering (requires 270 Engineering) Stats: +27 Spell Damage Orb of the Darkmoon Darkmoon Faire reward: 1200 tickets Stats: +7 Stamina, +21 Spell Damage Alternative(s): Tempest Talisman Dropped by: Hydropspawn, Dire Maul East (16,03% chance to drop) Stats: +7 Intellect, +6 Spirit, +1% Critical Strike Chance Boreal Mantle Dropped by: Warder Stilgiss, Blackrock Depths (17,45% chance to drop) Stats: +10 Frost Resistance, +29 Frost Damage Amplifying Cloak Dropped by: Magister Kalendris, Dire Maul West (21,75% chance to drop) Stats: +18 Spell Damage Alternative(s): Frostwolf Advisor's Cloak PvP Reward: Frostwolf Clan - Honored Stats: +11 Stamina, +5 Frost Resistance, +14 Spell Damage Heliotrope Cloak Dropped by: Guard Mok'dar & Guard Slip'kik, Dire Maul North (4,32% chance to drop) Stats: +10 Intellect, +1% Critical Strike Chance Bloodvine Vest Crafted item: Tailoring Stats: +13 Intellect, +2% Hit Chance, +27 Spell Damage (+ Tailor 300/300: 3 set = +2% Critical Strike Chance) Alternative(s): Robe of Winter Night Crafted item: Tailoring Stats: +12 Intellect, +40 Frost Damage, +40 Shadow Damage Robe of the Archmage Crafted item: Tailoring Stats: +12 Intellect, +40 Spell Damage, +1% Critical Strike Chance, +Use 375-625 Mana Dryad's Wrist Bindings PvP Reward: Warsong Outriders (H) / Silverwing Sentinels (A) - Exalted Stats: +8 Intellect, +7 Spirit, +8 Stamina, +22 Spell damage Alternative(s): Sublime Wristguards Dropped by: Guard Mok'dar & Guard Slip'kik, Dire Maul North (4,32% chance to drop) Stats: +10 Intellect, +6 Spirit, +6 Stamina, +12 Spell Damage Hands of Power Dropped by: Quartermaster Zigris, Lower Blackrock Spire (14,24% chance to drop) Stats: +6 Spirit, +6 Intellect, +26 Spell Damage Alternative(s): Blood Guard's Silk Gloves (H) / Knight-Lieutenant's Silk Gloves (A) PvP reward: Rank 7 Stats: +11 Stamina, +21 Spell Damage (+ gloves: 2 set = +23 Spell Damage) NOTE! Only pursue this if you cannot afford the Bloodvine set Frostweave Gloves Quest reward: Tailoring Stats: +6 Intellect, +21 Frost Damage Frostwolf Cloth Belt (H) / Stormpike Cloth Girdle (A) PvP reward: Frostwolf Clan / Stormpike Guard - Honored Stats: +11 Stamina, +10 Intellect, +5 Frost Resistance, +18 Spell Damage Alternative(s): Oddly Magical Belt Dropped by: Gordok Tribute, Dire Maul North (19,15% chance to drop) Stats: +13 Stamina, +16 Spell Damage Bloodvine Leggings Crafted item: Tailoring Stats: +6 Intellect, +1% Hit Chance, +37 Spell Damage (+ Tailor 300/300: 3 set = +2% Critical Strike Chance) Alternative(s): Skyshroud Leggings Dropped by: Highlord Omokk, Lower Blackrock Spire (10,02% chance to drop) Stats: +8 Stamina, +8 Intellect, +34 Spell Damage Bloodvine Boots Crafted item: Tailoring Stats: +16 Intellect, +1% Hit Chance, +19 Spell Damage, +40 (+ Tailor 300/300: 3 set = +2% Critical Strike Chance) Alternative(s): Blood Guard's Silk Footwraps (H) / Knight-Lieutenant's Silk Boots (A) PvP reward: Rank 7 Stats: +16 Stamina, + 15 Intellect, + 15 Spell Damage (+ gloves: 2 set = +23 Spell Damage) NOTE! Only pursue this if you cannot afford the Bloodvine set Riptide Shoes Dropped by: Hyrdrospawn, Dire Maul East (23,45% chance to drop) Stats: +12 Intellect, + 19 Frost Damage Eye of Orgrimmar (H) / Songstone of Ironforge (A) Quest reward: The Princess Saved? (H) / The Princess's Surprise (A) Stats: +7 Intellect, +4 Spirit, +18 Spell Damage Frigid Ring Dropped by: World BoE - Visit the Auction House (30-35g) Stats: +10 Intellect, +14 Frost Damage Alternative(s): Band of the Unicorn Dropped by: World BoE - Visit the Auction House (15-20g) Stats: +13 Spell Damage Advisor's Ring (H) / Lorekeeper's Ring (A) PvP reward: Warsong Outriders / Silverwing Sentinels - Honored Stats: +8 Stamina, +14 Spell Damage, + 4 mp5 Freezing Band Dropped by: World BoE - Visit the Auction House (850g) Stats: +10 Frost Resistance, +21 Frost Damage Maiden's Circle Dropped by: Molten Core BoE - Visit the Auction House (225g) Stats: +7 Intellect, +6 Spirit, +18 Spell Damage Briarwood Reed Dropped by: Jed Runewatcher, Upper Blackrock Spire (25,67% chance to drop) Stats: +29 Spell Damage Eye of the Beast Quest reward: For The Horde! (H) & General Drakkisath's Demise (A) Stats: +2% Critical Strike Chance Mind Carver Dropped by: Prince Tortheldrin, Dire Maul West (14,62% change to drop) Stats: +8 Intellect, + 12 Spell Damage Combined with: Tome of the Ice Lord PvP reward: Frostwolf Clan / Stormpike Guard - Exalted Stats: +9 Intellect, +34 Frost Damage Alternative(s): Inventor's Focal Sword Dropped by: Tinkerer Gizlock, Maraudon (26,52% change to drop) Stats: +6 Intellect, + 1% Critical Strike Chance Spirit of Aquementas Quest reward: It's Dangerous to Go Alone (Elite) Stats: +20 Spell Damage Rod of the Ogre Magi Dropped by: Gordok Tribute, Dire Maul North (7,13% chance to drop) Stats: +11 Stamina, +14 Intellect, +7 Spirit, + 1% Critical Strike Chance, +23 Spell Damage Elemental Mage Staff Dropped by: World BoE - Visit the Auction House (200g) Stats: +20 Fire Resistance, +20 Frost Resistance, + 36 Frost Damage, +36 Fire Damage Wand of Biting Cold Quest Reward: The Legend of Korrak Stats: +16 Frost Damage Alternative(s): Bonecreeper Stylus Dropped by: Darkmaster Gandling, Scholomance (11,11% chance to drop) Stats: +4 Intellect, +11 Spell Damage Lethtendris's Wand Dropped by: Lethtendris, Dire Maul East (25,56% chance to drop) Stats: +9 Spell Damage Freezing Shard Dropped by: Razerfen Down BoE - Visit the Auction House (100g) Stats: +10 Spell Damage _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ Arcanum of Focus Stats: +8 Spell Damage Materials: 1 Libram of Focus, 1 Pristine Black Diamond, 4 Large Brilliant Shard, 2 Skin of Shadow Chromatic Mantle of the Dawn Stats: +5 All Resistance Reputation reward: Argent Dawn - Exalted Flame Mantle of the Dawn Stats: +5 Fire Resistance Reputation reward: Argent Dawn - Revered Enchant Cloak - Lesser Fire Resistance Stats: +5 Fire Resistance Materials: 1 Lesser Astral Essence, 1 Fire Oil Enchant Chest - Greater Stats Stats: +4 to each of the five attributes. Materials: 4 Large Brilliant Shard, 15 Illusion Dust, 10 Greater Eternal Essence Enchant Chest - Major Mana Stats: +100 mana Materials: 3 Greater Eternal Essence, 1 Small Brilliant Shard Enchant Chest - Major Health Stats: +100 health Materials: 6 Illusion Dust, 1 Small Brilliant Shard Enchant Bracer - Greater Intellect Stats: +7 Intellect Materials: 3 Lesser Eternal Essence Enchant Gloves - Riding Skill Stats: +Minor movement bonus while mounted Materials: 2 Large Radiant Shard, 3 Dream Dust Arcanum of Focus Stats: +8 Spell Damage Materials: 1 Libram of Focus, 1 Pristine Black Diamond, 4 Large Brilliant Shard, 2 Skin of Shadow Enchant Boots - Minor Speed Stats: +Slight Movement Speed Increase Materials: 1 Small Radiant Shard, 1 Aquamarine, 1 Lesser Nether Essence Enchant Boots - Greater Stamina Stats: +7 Stamina Materials: 10 Dream Dust Enchant Boots - Spirit Stats: +5 Spirit Materials: 2 Greater Eternal Essence, 1 Lesser Eternal Essence Enchant Weapon - Spell Power Stats: +30 Spell Damage Materials: 4 Large Brilliant Shard, 12 Greater Eternal Essence, 4 Essence of Fire, 4 Essence of Water, 4 Essence of Air, 2 Golden Pearl Enchant 2H Weapon - Major Intellect Stats: +9 Intellect Materials: 12 Greater Eternal Essence, 2 Large Brilliant Shard _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ Flask of Supreme Power Stats: +150 Spell Damage Duration: 2 hours (persists through death) Brilliant Wizard Oil Stats: +36 Spell Damage, +1% Critical Strike Chance Duration: 30 minutes (persists through death) Greater Arcane Elixir Stats: +35 Spell Damage Duration: 1 hour Elixir of Greater Firepower Stats: +40 Fire Damage Duration: 30 minutes Mageblood Potion Stats: +12 Mp5 Duration: 1 hour Nightfin Soup Stats: +162 Mp5 Duration: 10 minutes Major Mana Potion Stats: +Restores 1350 to 2251 Mana Duration: 2 minutes cooldown Limited Invulnerability Potion Stats: Drops all aggro (works like Ice Block) Duration: 6 seconds (2 minutes cooldown) _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ Spammable Arcane Missiles This macro prevents you from interrupting an Arcane Missiles cast by recasting too early. Spoiler /cast [nochanneling:Arcane Missiles] Arcane Missiles Opener Pyroblast This macro casts Pyroblast when you’re pulling. If you’re in combat, it casts Fireball. Spoiler /cast [nocombat] Pyroblast; Fireball Frostbolt(Rank 1) Kiting Hold alt for the fast casting snare, or cast your maximum rank. Spoiler /cast [mod:alt] Frostbolt(rank 1); Frostbolt Fireball(Rank 1) DoT Hold alt for the fast casting DoT, or cast your maximum rank. Spoiler /cast [mod:alt] Fireball(rank 1); Frostbolt Stealth Breaker Arcane Explosion Spoiler /cast [nocombat] Arcane Explosion(Rank 1); Arcane Explosion Break Ice Block & Blink Spoiler /cancelaura Ice Block /cast Blink Break Ice block & Counterspell Spoiler /cancelaura Ice Block /cast Counterspell Polymorph + Star raid Icon + Focus + Announcement Spoiler /cast Polymorph /focus /run SetRaidTarget("focus", 1) /run if UnitSex("target")==1 then g="female " else g="male " end;s="I'm going to sheep a "..g..UnitLevel("target").." %T";c="Party";if GetNumRaidMembers()>0 then c="raid" end;SendChatMessage(s,c) Focus Counterspell Spoiler /cast [mod:ctrl, target=focus, exists, nodead] [] Counterspell Interrupt Counterspell Spoiler /stopcasting /cast Counterspell Decurse mouseover Spoiler /cast [target=mouseover, help] [target=player] Remove Lesser Curse Food & Water all-in-one Spoiler /use [nomod] Conjured Manna Biscuit /use [nomod] Conjured Glacier Water /use [nomod] Conjured Croissant /cast [mod:shift, btn:2] Conjure Food;[mod:shift] Conjure Water One-Button Portal Spoiler /cast [mod:shift] Portal: Undercity; [mod:ctrl] Portal: Thunder Bluff; Portal: Orgrimmar One-Button Teleport Spoiler /cast [mod:shift] Teleport: Undercity; [mod:ctrl] Teleport: Thunder Bluff; Teleport: Orgrimmar Totem Turret! Spoiler /target Earthbind Totem /target Searing Totem /target Magma Totem /target Mana Spring Totem /target Grounding Totem /target Healing Stream Totem /cast Shoot /script TargetLastEnemy(); Instant Pyroblast Spoiler /script SpellStopCasting() /cast Presence of Mind /script SpellStopCasting() /cast Pyroblast 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zaasu 0 Report post Posted May 18, 2017 Update 19/05/2017: Layout changed and added pictures for an enhanced user experience. Update 23/05/2017: NEW section added: Talents Update 25/05/2017: NEW section added: PvE Builds Update 26/05/2017: NEW section added: Selecting a Race Update 29/05/2017: NEW section added: Professions Update 06/06/2017: NEW section added: Enchants Update 06/07/2017: Updated for patch 1.5 Update 12/07/2017: NEW section added: Macros Update 12/07/2017: NEW section added: Consumables Update 21/07/2017: Updated for patch 1.6 Update 10/10/2017: Updated for patch 1.7 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kolmar 3 Report post Posted May 19, 2017 Some notes: The Crystalline Threaded Cape doesn't exist on Elysium, it was added in the AQ patch as a reward from the Sack of Spoils. I'd normally link to allakhazam/db.vanillagaming/etc but they all seem buggy in regards to the Sack of Spoils items and don't list them, which is odd. The Band of the Penitent gives physical crit, not spell crit. There are typos on where Gordok's Handwraps and Riptide Shoes are obtained. And finally, this is just small nitpicking, but you could also add the alliance versions to Champion's Silk Shoulderpads (Lieutenant Commander's Silk Spaulders), Blood Guard's Silk Footwraps (Knight-Lieutenant's Silk Boots) and Eye of Orgrimmar (Songstone of Ironforge). Other than that, good work 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zaasu 0 Report post Posted May 19, 2017 9 hours ago, Kolmar said: Some notes: The Crystalline Threaded Cape doesn't exist on Elysium, it was added in the AQ patch as a reward from the Sack of Spoils. I'd normally link to allakhazam/db.vanillagaming/etc but they all seem buggy in regards to the Sack of Spoils items and don't list them, which is odd. The Band of the Penitent gives physical crit, not spell crit. There are typos on where Gordok's Handwraps and Riptide Shoes are obtained. And finally, this is just small nitpicking, but you could also add the alliance versions to Champion's Silk Shoulderpads (Lieutenant Commander's Silk Spaulders), Blood Guard's Silk Footwraps (Knight-Lieutenant's Silk Boots) and Eye of Orgrimmar (Songstone of Ironforge). Other than that, good work Hello Kolmar, Thank you for your feedback. I have now removed the "Crystalline Threaded Cape", corrected the typos regarding "Gordok's Handwraps" and "Riptide Shoes", and added the alliance version of both "Champion's Silk Shoulderpads", "Blood Guard's Silk Footwraps", and "Eye of Orgrimmar". Regarding "The Band of the Penitent" I am unsure whether or not it only applies to physical critical strike chance as I don't recall WoW differing between the two, unless directly specified. Thus I am leaving it on the list, pending further investigation. Kind regards, Zaasu 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sabre 5 Report post Posted May 19, 2017 Dragonskin Cowl is the best helmet at the moment. Amplifying Cloak is slightly better than Heliotrope Cloak. Oddly Magical Belt is slightly better than Clutch of Andros. You will need PvP Rank 7 to get the cloth gloves and boots, which give you a two set bonus making them the best. The critical bonus from Band of the Pentiant ONLY applies to melee. Items that give spell crit are only those thay specifically say so. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zaasu 0 Report post Posted May 19, 2017 21 minutes ago, Sabre said: The critical bonus from Band of the Pentiant ONLY applies to melee. Items that give spell crit are only those thay specifically say so. Thank you for clearing this up, "The Band of the Penitent" has now been removed. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kolmar 3 Report post Posted May 19, 2017 Hey Kolmar here again, thanks for taking my feedback from my last post. I'd like to add one extra thing, and that's on the subject of Spell Crit vs Spell Power. I might be wrong on this so feel free to correct me, but as far as I understand from Sheepstick's post on the old Nostalrius forums, you can calculate how much spell damage you gain on average from a single spell crit with this formula: 1% of average frostbolt damage / frostbolt's co-efficient* = how much damage 1% crit adds to each frostbolt So lets say I do an average of 850 damage per frostbolt. 1% of 850 = 8,5 8,5 / 0.814 = 10,4 This means that 1% spell crit will add roughly 10,4 spell damage to each frostbolt on average. So an item that would give me +15 spell damage would benefit me more in the long run than 1% crit. The reason I bring this up is that you seem to favor spell crit a lot more than spell damage on your list, which isn't what most people recommend from what I've heard. But again, I could be wrong on this since I'm no expert on the game mechanics, so if you or somebody else could explain this topic in more detail, that would be appreciated. *For those that don't know, a spell co-efficient means how much spellpower that the spell makes use of. For example, you can't stack 400 spellpower and then start spamming 430 damage rank 1 frostbolts, as that would be pretty broken. So instead a rank 1 frostbolt only uses 40.71% of the spellpower that you have currently have, 400 * 40.71% = 162.84, so combined it does about ~190 damage per bolt. Same thing with rank 10 frostbolts, it uses 81.4% of your spellpower. You can find more info about that here (though you unfortunately require a twinstar account to access the thread) 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zaasu 0 Report post Posted May 19, 2017 44 minutes ago, Kolmar said: Hey Kolmar here again, thanks for taking my feedback from my last post. I'd like to add one extra thing, and that's on the subject of Spell Crit vs Spell Power. I might be wrong on this so feel free to correct me, but as far as I understand from Sheepstick's post on the old Nostalrius forums, you can calculate how much spell damage you gain on average from a single spell crit with this formula: 1% of average frostbolt damage / frostbolt's co-efficient* = how much damage 1% crit adds to each frostbolt So lets say I do an average of 850 damage per frostbolt. 1% of 850 = 8,5 8,5 / 0.814 = 10,4 This means that 1% spell crit will add roughly 10,4 spell damage to each frostbolt on average. So an item that would give me +15 spell damage would benefit me more in the long run than 1% crit. The reason I bring this up is that you seem to favor spell crit a lot more than spell damage on your list, which isn't what most people recommend from what I've heard. But again, I could be wrong on this since I'm no expert on the game mechanics, so if you or somebody else could explain this topic in more detail, that would be appreciated. *For those that don't know, a spell co-efficient means how much spellpower that the spell makes use of. For example, you can't stack 400 spellpower and then start spamming 430 damage rank 1 frostbolts, as that would be pretty broken. So instead a rank 1 frostbolt only uses 40.71% of the spellpower that you have currently have, 400 * 40.71% = 162.84, so combined it does about ~190 damage per bolt. Same thing with rank 10 frostbolts, it uses 81.4% of your spellpower. You can find more info about that here (though you unfortunately require a twinstar account to access the thread) The spell damage / critical strike chance ratio differs in gear level, in other words, the more spell damage you have, the more critical strike chance becomes worth, thus there's no short cut in determining which is better. I have however found a spreadsheet for calculating it based on ones current gear, so I will calculate the BIS and return back with which item is superior of the above mentioned proposals. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zaasu 0 Report post Posted May 19, 2017 5 hours ago, Sabre said: Dragonskin Cowl is the best helmet at the moment. Amplifying Cloak is slightly better than Heliotrope Cloak. Oddly Magical Belt is slightly better than Clutch of Andros. You will need PvP Rank 7 to get the cloth gloves and boots, which give you a two set bonus making them the best. The critical bonus from Band of the Pentiant ONLY applies to melee. Items that give spell crit are only those thay specifically say so. Based on this I decided to confirm it my putting your proposals through a spreadsheet, and you are correct. However, the shoulders + boots would be the BIS option taking PvP items into account, but given that rank 8 is a lot "harder" to achieve than rank 7 I understand your argument. I have altered the list accordingly. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sabre 5 Report post Posted May 20, 2017 8 hours ago, Zaasu said: Based on this I decided to confirm it my putting your proposals through a spreadsheet, and you are correct. However, the shoulders + boots would be the BIS option taking PvP items into account, but given that rank 8 is a lot "harder" to achieve than rank 7 I understand your argument. I have altered the list accordingly. The shoulders are rank 10. What spreadsheet are you using? 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zaasu 0 Report post Posted May 20, 2017 11 hours ago, Sabre said: The shoulders are rank 10. What spreadsheet are you using? Yes, sorry. That's what I meant. Here's the spreadsheet: https://forum.nostalrius.org/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=34186 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Esrath 0 Report post Posted May 26, 2017 Hands of Power is BiS before reaching rank 7 and Elemental Mage Staff is BiS overall. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Burny 0 Report post Posted May 27, 2017 Why the hell are you missing Arcane Power in your second talent spec? 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zaasu 0 Report post Posted May 27, 2017 4 hours ago, Burny said: Why the hell are you missing Arcane Power in your second talent spec? Think of Arcane Power as nitro for a car, it will improve your performance temporary but burn out your engine. At the entry gear level for a raid, being close to pre-raid bis, we will most certainly oom ourselves before the end of the encounter, as such I do not find it worth taking as we would have to pass up the 2nd rank of Arctic Reach and our only viable survivability of the spec: Iceblock. That's "why the hell" I'm missing Arcane Power. At later gear levels it will surely be worth taking, but not for the people this guide is catering to. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
John2000 0 Report post Posted May 29, 2017 Man, I hope no one takes this guide seriously just because it has nice formatting. Pretty much garbage. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zaasu 0 Report post Posted May 29, 2017 4 hours ago, John2000 said: Man, I hope no one takes this guide seriously just because it has nice formatting. Pretty much garbage. I'm sorry to hear that you feel this way about my guide. It is still a work in progress. Writing a guide is very time consuming and working full-time I only have the hours I'm left with. If you have some constructive feedback I'd be happy to hear it. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kolmar 3 Report post Posted May 29, 2017 2 hours ago, Zaasu said: If you have some constructive feedback I'd be happy to hear it. I have no idea what these people are talking about by calling the guide garbage, you've done outstanding work so far. I just see some minor mistakes/typos here and there, which are: 1. The second version of your Arcane-Frost spec with Arcane Power should be listed as "31 / 0 / 20" rather than "30 / 0 / 20", as Arcane Power is the 31st talent point. 2. The alliance version of the rank 7 gloves are the Knight-Lieutenant's Silk Gloves , not the Knight-Lieutenant's Silk Handwraps, the handwraps get added later on in patch 1.11 to replace the gloves. 3. Some of your archived allakhazam links don't work because nobody saved them in the past, such as the Knight-Lieutenant's Silk Boots or Riptide Shoes for example. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zaasu 0 Report post Posted May 29, 2017 40 minutes ago, Kolmar said: I have no idea what these people are talking about by calling the guide garbage, you've done outstanding work so far. I just see some minor mistakes/typos here and there, which are: 1. The second version of your Arcane-Frost spec with Arcane Power should be listed as "31 / 0 / 20" rather than "30 / 0 / 20", as Arcane Power is the 31st talent point. 2. The alliance version of the rank 7 gloves are the Knight-Lieutenant's Silk Gloves , not the Knight-Lieutenant's Silk Handwraps, the handwraps get added later on in patch 1.11 to replace the gloves. 3. Some of your archived allakhazam links don't work because nobody saved them in the past, such as the Knight-Lieutenant's Silk Boots or Riptide Shoes for example. Once again, thank you for the positive feedback, Kolmar. I have now corrected the mentioned mistakes. I will correct the broken links and find appropriate alternatives as soon as possible. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sabre 5 Report post Posted May 29, 2017 Inventor's Focal Sword and Spirit of Aquementas is slightly better than Rod of the Ogre Magi. Also, Elemental slayer on weapon works for spells. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sabre 5 Report post Posted May 31, 2017 @Zaasu Dragonskin Cowl no longer drops. Spellpower Goggles Xtreme Plus are a good substitute. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dodgerino 0 Report post Posted June 4, 2017 On 2017-5-29 at 2:10 PM, Sabre said: Inventor's Focal Sword and Spirit of Aquementas is slightly better than Rod of the Ogre Magi. Also, Elemental slayer on weapon works for spells. Rod = 11 sta, 14int + 9int from enchant + 7 spirit + 1% crit + 15 SP sword+spirit = 6int 1% crit + 20sp is it really? 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sabre 5 Report post Posted June 4, 2017 1 hour ago, dodgerino said: Rod = 11 sta, 14int + 9int from enchant + 7 spirit + 1% crit + 15 SP sword+spirit = 6int 1% crit + 20sp is it really? Yeah you shouldn't even get the 9 intellect enchant as I said elemental slayer is best for MC. Stamina and spirit are useless for raiding basically. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
John2000 0 Report post Posted June 7, 2017 On 5/29/2017 at 8:38 AM, Zaasu said: I'm sorry to hear that you feel this way about my guide. It is still a work in progress. Writing a guide is very time consuming and working full-time I only have the hours I'm left with. If you have some constructive feedback I'd be happy to hear it. Maybe if you focused more on substance over style you'd have more time. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zaasu 0 Report post Posted June 7, 2017 4 hours ago, John2000 said: Maybe if you focused more on substance over style you'd have more time. Listen bud, if you don't like it, don't use it. Your feedback is both vague, condescending and unappreciated. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IzZaGod 0 Report post Posted June 20, 2017 Fantastic guide! Don't let any of the self righteous negative butt holes discourage you. Keep the updates coming! 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
