Mage

Overview

A ranged caster with strong area damage, the best crowd control in Polymorph, and food, water and buffs for the group.

Mages deal damage from range and control fights with Polymorph, roots and slows, but are fragile up close. WoW Forever adds Frostfire Bolt at level 40, which counts as both Fire and Frost, and encourages hybrid builds that mix schools.

Specs

• ArcaneCaster DPS

  Mana-hungry burst. Arcane Blast stacks to empower your spells, and Arcane Wrath sits at 16 points.

  Full build coming after launch
• FireCaster DPS

  Big hits and crits. Heating Up shortens Pyroblast after critical strikes, and each Mage now has their own Ignite.

  Full build coming after launch
• FrostCaster DPS

  Control. Ice Lance and Fingers of Frost reward freezing targets, and Ice Block becomes the 16-point talent.

  Frost build and talents →

What changed from Classic

• New
  Frostfire Bolt (level 40)

  A 3-second cast that counts as both Fire and Frost, hits hard, then burns and slows the target. It uses your better spell damage bonus and the target's weaker resistance.

• Removed
  Frost Blast

  Added during beta, then removed on November 2.

• New
  Comprehension

  A minor tradeskill: read scrolls dropped by creatures with Comprehend Scroll. Scrolls can't be used while moving.

• Changed
  Cone of Cold and Mage Armor

  Cone of Cold's slow is shorter to limit kiting; Mage Armor gives more mana regeneration from Spirit.

• New
  Arcane Blast (Arcane, 11 points)

  Redesigned on October 16: a 1.5-second cast that stacks up to 4 times, adding spell damage from Intellect with each stack.

• New
  Arcane Wrath (Arcane, 16 points)

  A 3.5-second cast on a 6-second cooldown, added in the October 16 build.

• New
  Heating Up (Fire)

  Critical hits from Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Fire Blast or Scorch shorten your next Pyroblast, up to 3 stacks.

• Changed
  Ignite is personal

  Each Mage keeps their own Ignite instead of sharing one debuff.

• New
  Ice Lance and Fingers of Frost (Frost)

  Ice Lance (11 points) is an instant that deals 300% more damage to frozen targets, on an 8-second cooldown shared with Fire Blast. Fingers of Frost lets chills make targets count as frozen.

• Changed
  Ice Block and Cold Snap

  Ice Block is now the 16-point Frost talent. Cold Snap becomes the 21-point talent with a 10-minute cooldown.

• Changed
  Winter's Chill and Improved Scorch

  Both now benefit only the casting Mage. Winter's Chill was redesigned to empower Cone of Cold.

• Changed
  Hit chance talents

  Precision (Frost, renamed from Elemental Precision) raises hit chance with all spells by up to 6%. Arcane Focus was removed and merged into it on November 2.

Abilities