Guide to a Mage

				   By DoNu7

				   Version 2.0

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Version History

3. Definitions and Acronyms

4. Skills
   4.a. Arcane
   4.b. Fire
   4.c. Frost

5. Talents
   5.a. The Talents
   5.b. Template Builds

6. Professions
   6.a. Manufacturing Professions
   6.b. Gathering Professions
   6.c. Secondary Skills
   6.d. General Tips

7. Combat
   7.a. PvE
   7.b. Small-scale PvP
   7.c. Large-scale PvP

8. Recommended Mods (Work in Progress)

9. Disclaimer

10. Helpful Sites

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1. Introduction

Thank you for choosing this mage guide! I have played my mage for a while now, 
and I have found this class to be very intriguing and fun. I would like to 
make a few notes before we begin. 

First off, much of the information in this guide is opinionated. Some people
may disagree with the facts, while others heartily agree with what I have 
written. However, whether you agree with the facts or not, I hope that you 
will find some use in this guide.

Another note that I would make is that we mages have burst damage. This does 
not mean we are the highest damage dealers. Rather, we deal damage in a short 
period of time, but if the fight lasts longer, well-equipped Rogues and 
Warriors would outstrip us badly in terms of damage.

While we do not have many abilities that directly help our allies, such as 
healing spells, or the ability to tank, we help others by quickly finishing 
off enemies, and therefore making the battle safer for everyone. In addition, 
we can polymorph enemies and help control large crowds. Finally, we can also
make food and water for party members.

Mages are also very fragile. However, each class has their problems, so 
there is no reason to think that mages are a weak class for in fact, we can 
solo very well and we can kill enemies with quick succession.

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2. Version History

1.00 Release

1.01 Tiny update, fixed a couple of minor errors and edited the disclaimer,
     added new section (this one), fixed some incompleteness that I missed.
     Might add Battlegrounds section at one point, but so far I have never 
     tried one yet.

1.02 Few errors fixed. Fixed Disclaimer a bit.

1.12 Changes to a couple of sections.

1.22 Fixed more errors. Added new information. Hope I haven't missed out 
     on anything...

1.32 Many changes to PvP section. Removed part of the group section which
     didn't seem to be very useful, but rather a huge waste of space.

1.52 BIG fix, mainly to Combat section (which I pretty much revamped). Note 
     that I skipped all the way from 1.32 to 1.52, and this was intended as I
     considered releasing 1.42, but decided I had more to add.

1.62 Phwew, it's finally out. Made some changes. Added "Ice Block" <-- Yay! 
     Decided to screw BG section since most of the strategies were covered in
     "Large Scale PvP" section. Planning to add equipment section and maybe
     introduce some good talent builds.

1.72 W00t template builds!

1.82 Ok sorry guys I forgot that in 1.11, the talents are changed so things
        would look weird. I've fixed the prob now.

1.92 Everything's updated for patch 1.11 now. Phwew. I have also removed
        that block of descriptions on each talent since once can simply view
        the online talent calculators. Also, for those of you who were confused
        about section 7, sorry about that I scrapped that idea in the end but
        forgot to remove it from the guide.

1.94 Added more goodies. Added paragraphs in certain places so people don't
     go blind reading my guide x_x

1.95 Someone pointed out to me that all of my talent URLs were wrong, 
	which I fixed. Thanks for the headsup =D

2.0 Updated for new patch.

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3. Definitions and Acronyms

Here is a list of the definitions of some more obscure words that relate to
mages.

Add-Extra monster that enters the battlefield

Aggro-Also called threat, determines chances for enemy to attack it's 
opponent. The higher the aggro, the more likely the enemy is going to attack 
that player.

AoE-Area of effect. 

Buff-Spell or ability that benefits the target.

Caster-Character class that uses spells to damage enemies and heal allies.

Chain Casting-Cast several spells in quick succession.

Dps-Damage per second.

DOT-Damage over time

Int-Intelligence. If someone asks you "int buff please", it would mean that
they want an Arcane Intellect, or Arcane Brilliance buff from you.

Kite-A term that means to keep the enemy at range while damaging them.

NPC-Non-player characters. These are the vendors, enemies, quest givers, and
trainers of the game

Puller-Person that pulls enemies to a party. Mages do not make good pullers,
despite what some may think. Act as puller only if you are assigned to 
"silence pull", which means silencing the target with Counterspell so that
they are forced to come to the group and melee, rather than fight from range.

PvP-Player versus player.

PvE-Player versus environment (NPC's).

Root-Trap the target in place.

Spam-Repeatedly cast a spell on a target as fast as the spell regenerates.

Spi-Spirit.

Stam-Stamina.

Threat-See "aggro".

For a complete glossary, visit this page: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info
/basics/glossary.html;jsessionid=CC6857B8D2332ED6B877B67528439F68.app02

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4. Skills

The first section covers the uses of the skills of a mage. For information on
the stats of each spell, go to http://www.thottbot.com/?c=Mage.

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4.a. Arcane

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The arcane line consists of a variety of spells that deal damage and protect
the mage. This is the most damaging tree, but it is also fairly mana
inefficient.

Arcane Brilliance
This spell is dropped from loot. Basically, it has the same effects as 
Arcane Intellect, only it buffs the entire group, so this is a good way to 
instantly give everyone Arcane Intellect. In addition, this ability lasts 30
minutes longer than the generic Arcane Intellect.

Amplify Magic
Amplify Magic increases the amount of magic damage taken. This may sound like
a downside, but the good part is that it also increases amount healed. For
this reason, cast it on the party when there are no enemy casters, and be
sure to tell them to turn it off should any casters appear!

Arcane Explosion
This is the spell for the ultimate fast AoE damage potential. It dumps a ton 
of mana down the drain, but it dishes out the damage just as fast. This 
spell is good to use after using an aoe opener, like Flamestrike.

Arcane Intellect
This is an important buff that increases your intellect by a moderate amount.
The amount of mana increased through this buff can't be overlooked however. 
All casters love to have this buff, because the increased intellect really
does make a difference in the battlefield. As you learn higher levels of this
buff, it will become very costly, but this is not a problem because the long 
term effects of this spell are much more worth it.

Arcane Missiles
This is a very powerful spell that when fully talented, can dish out torrents
of nasty arcane damage. To balance it's huge DPS, the spell doesn't have
very good mana efficiency, so therefore it's a tradeoff; less mana
inefficiency for more damage. Another upside is that you can get a talent
that reduces threat generated by arcane spells by 40%. For all other spells,
you can only reduce 10% threat. This makes arcane missiles useful during
aggro-intensive fights. One thing to be aware of is that arcane missiles is 
channeled, so if any damage is done to you, it will reduce the length of 
the channeling, and may even threaten to cancel your casting. 
Fortunately, there are talents to prevent this from happening.

Arcane Power (Talent)
This is a buff learned through the arcane talent line. When activated, it 
increases the damage from all your spells by a substantial amount, but it also
increases the mana cost by the same percentage. For this reason, the best use
for this spell is if you want to quickly finish off the enemy, and you aren't
too worried about your mana pool. This is surprisingly useful in PvP because
it can help you kill your opponent so fast they won't have much time to 
retaliate.

Blink
Blink instantly teleports you 20 yards forward. This may not sound like much,
but it will gain you quite a bit of distance in PvP or PvE fights. As you know
distance is very important to a mage, so being able to instantly gain some 
distance is a crucial thing. Another important thing to keep in mind is that
blink will also cause you to break free from stuns and roots. Therefore, if
you get holed down, you can instantly break away. Keep in mind the 15 second
cooldown.

Conjure Food
The use of this spell could not be underestimated. Conjure food allows you to
conjure food that is quite reasonable for the level you are currently in. The
big plus for this spell is that you can create food out of thin air, and you
do not need to go to vendors to buy food. In some cases, even the hunter's pet
in your group may wish for a loaf of free bread!

Conjure Water
This is similar to food, although it conjures water instead. This is much more
important than food since liquids are the only things in World of Warcraft 
that replenish mana. Spells and bandages can replenish health, but not mana.
The only exception to this is the mage's Evocation and the druid's Innervate.

Conjure Mana Agate/Citrine/Jade/Ruby
This spell allows you to conjure a mana gem. In some ways, these gems are like
mana potions because they instantly restore mana. The only difference is that
all you need in order to make a gem is mana! Take note that only one gem of 
each type can be in your packs at a time. This does not mean that you can't 
have a mana ruby and a mana jade at the same time! Conjuring several types of 
mana gems and keeping them in your packs is a very good idea. Although all 
gems recieve a cool-down after you use one, some of the longer fights may be 
so long that you'll use all your gems in one go. Note that mana gems are bind 
on pick-up, so you cannot give it to other players. Gems are on a 2 minute
cooldown.

Counterspell
This is one of the best ways to anger enemy casters. What it does is that it
halts enemy casting mid-sentence, and they cannot cast any spell from that
school of magic for another ten seconds. The only problem is that it creates a
large amount of aggro, although this isn't a problem during soloing. In groups
use it wisely. Improved Counterspell greatly helps this ability by attaching a 
4 second silence to it.

Dampen Magic
Dampen Magic reduces the amount of magic damage taken by a small amount, and
also reduces the amount healed. Magic damage includes anything from poisons to
curses. Of course the downside to this is the reduction of the amount healed
through spells. Use this if there are no healers in the group, or when 
soloing.

Detect Magic
Nothing special about this spell. It shows the magic buffs on a target. While
this is useful in some cases (such as when they cast a spell-immunity shield),
it won't make a huge difference in combat. I suppose if you are grouped with
a shaman or a priest, you can put detect magic on the opponent so that they
will be able to know if they need to dispell anything. I have yet to try this
out, but I believe it will work.

Evocation
Evocation allows your mana to regenerate at super fast speeds for a couple of
seconds. Your mana begins regenerating even if you have just cast off a spell
and you aren't using Mage Armor, or you haven't learned the talent to allow
mana regeneration while casting. Note that this is channeled, so any damage
taken will shorten its length. Also note the long cooldown, so save this spell
for important battles when you absolutely need to quickly replenish some mana.

Mage Armor
Mage armor increases resistance to all schools of magic, and it allows 30% 
mana regeneration while you are casting. Unfortunately, it does not provide
an armor bonus like Frost/Ice Armor. If you constantly find yourself running 
out of mana while retaining tons of health, you should consider migrating to 
Mage Armor. If your mana and health seem to always stay at the same level, 
stick with Frost/Ice Armor. Mage Armor is great for groups. In a group 
setting, you will rarely get hit, and the only thing you will need to worry 
about is mana.

Mana Shield
Not a bad spell, but it gets your mana drained pretty quick. The big bonus to
this is that it negates any interruptions. This means that you can cast away
without losing any casting time, or losing your channeling. Also works with
bandages. A good way is to shield then bandage so that it doesn't get stopped.
This also negates daze effects when a mob attacks from behind, so it's a
good idea to use mana shield when you are making a run for it. Mana Shield is
also very good when paired with mage armor. While you are casting, your mana
will still regenerate a tiny bit, and this will help keep up your mana
reserves.

Polymorph
This spell turns the enemy into a wandering sheep. This is definitely the best
way to control large groups of enemies since even putting at least one enemy
out of action would make a difference during solo and group. The downside is
that any damage done to the sheep would cause it transform back. Also, the
target quickly regenerates health as a sheep. For this reason, it is not a
good idea to cast sheep on an injured target. Polymorph can also be used to
buy you, or your group some time as they bandage up, regenerate some mana, or
start a long-casting spell such as Pyroblast.

Polymorph: Pig
Same effect as normal polymorph except it transforms them into a pig. That
way if there is more than 1 mage in the party, it'll be easier to distinguish
who's polymorph is who's. This spell is learned through a quest.

Polymorph: Turtle
The third polymorph, this spell turns the target into a turtle. The
spellbook drops from Gahz'ranka, a spawned boss in Zul'Gurub.

Portal
This is a special ability learned through a portal trainer at a major city.
Be aware that you can only learn to be able to create a portal to whatever
city that trainer is in. In order to create portals to other cities, you will
need to talk to the trainers in those cities. Only you and your party members
can go through the portal, and once you go through, you cannot come back.

Presence of Mind (Talent)
This is an ability that reduces the casting time of your next spell by 100%.
The only abilities that are not included are portals, teleportation, and
hearthstone. For other spells, this is extremely useful. Mages who also go
into the fire line generally get Pyroblast to pair it with this spell as 
Pyroblast has a very long casting time, and making it instant is absolutely
killer.

Remove Lesser Curse
Although this spell says "remove LESSER curse", it could apparently remove any
curse as long as it is around your level. This spell doesn't cost very much
mana either, so feel free to use it any time you need to. Note that
occasionally it may fail, forcing you to recast it.

Slow
Unfortunately, I haven't gotten to use this much yet. The main reason is that in
current WoW, if you take Slow, you will not be able to take Pyroblast,
although with additional levels in the expansion, this is not a problem.
Anyhow, Slow is a very decent spell. Many Slow naysayers will say that
"zomgz u can get same effect w/ lvl 1 forstboltz1!1!!", however, that's
not really the case. Slow is instant, while level 1 frostbolt has a 1.5 second
(1 second w/ talents) cast time. It may not seem like much, but if your
opponent is right at your heals, you have absolutely NO time to cast that
frostbolt. In addition, the frostbolt slow effect is weaker than Slow 
(40% snare compared to 50% of Slow) and requires the Permafrost
talent in order to match the effect of Slow. Slow's cast time increasing
portion is also invaluable. The melee speed reduction isn't much since
most melee classes rely on instant attacks to achieve damage (think 
rogue), but many spells require cast times. Heals and fears all take longer
to cast, and this also makes it much easier to counterspell. The only
downsides to this spell is its fairly steep mana cost (400 at level 60)
and the fact that two classes (3 if you count warlocks w/ felhunters)
are able to despell it and that it is fairly useless against opponents
that use channeled spells and DoTs, since Slow doesn't affect them.

Slow Fall
Reduces falling speed so you don't take fall damage. Not very useful,
but you can jump very far with it. It's more of a "fun" spell rather than a
"useful" spell.

Teleport
Same effect and rules as Portal, except it only affects you. However, this
ability is cheaper and a rune of teleportation cost only half as much as
rune of portal does.

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4.b. Fire

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The fire line is mostly centered around damage. Fire spells are best for high
damage while maintaining modest amounts of mana. This makes an efficient line 
in which damage is dealt with fair speed.

Blast Wave (Talent)
This is an instant AoE that hits surrounding enemies with a wave of fire. It
does decent fire damage and slows victims to 50% normal speed. Be aware of 
the long cooldown, so you'll probably only get to use it once in a given 
battle.

Combustion (Talent)
This an instant ability that raises your chance to crit with a fire spell each
Time you cast a fire spell. The first fire spell recieves 10% extra crit
chance, the second recieves 20% crit, and so on. The ability lasts until 3 crits
have occured so save this ability for Fireballs. What's nice is that even
though it says that it only lasts 3 crits, you can make it so that it lasts 4.
The trick to do this is that when there is only 1 more crit available, use
Fireball and follow up with fireblast before the fireball hits. The reason
this works is because projectile spells (Fireball, frostbolt etc) are 
determined the moment they leave your hands if they are going to crit or
not. If your combustion is at 70% crit, then the moment your fireball
leaves your hands, it's determined already that it has a 70% chance to
crit. Meanwhile, combustion does not fade until your fireball has impacted
the target, so therefore the buff is still there, and if you fireblast 
immediately afterwards, the fireblast will also recieve the 70% crit chance.

Dragon's Breath
Dragon's breath is a powerful spell that breathes fire on enemies in a cone
in front of you, does some hefty damage to them, and disorients them. This
is a very powerful ability because not only does it work as a spell
interrupt, but it can also be a handy escape tool. Dragon's Breath + sheep
is a decent way to start a battle if you get jumped, provided your DB did
not crit. Dragon's Breath + Scorch + Fireblast is also nice for dishing out
quick damage while not taking any damage yourself and it is a decent
finisher. A couple tidbits to note, first off it shares a cooldown with Cone
of Cold. If you use Dragon's breath, both CoC and DB receive a 20
second cooldown. If you use Cone of Cold, both CoC and DB receive a
10 second cooldown.

Fire Blast
This spell instantly blasts enemies with a hit of fire. It's usefulness cannot
be underestimated. Use it to complement your normal spellcasting whether you 
are frost, fire, or arcane as it will increase your DPS by a large amount. Be 
aware of the short range and the cooldown.

Fire Ward
This spell is nice to have when fighting fire casters. It'll stave off a few
hits from fire spells from mobs. When fighting other mages, expect it to only
last one fire ball. Still, it will save you quite a bit of health.

Fireball
A very basic spell, this will be the main thing you'll be using if you are a 
fire mage. It does have a relatively long casting time at the later levels, so 
talents really help. It is more mana efficient than Arcane Missiles, and is a 
good thing to use when fighting mobs. Complementing it with occasional blasts 
of Fire Blast and that makes things even better.

Flamestrike
The primary AoE of the fire line, it does a modest amount of damage 
immediately, but the damage it does mainly relies on the DoT that comes along 
with the spell. Indeed half the damage is from the DoT, while the rest is from 
the immediate hit. Obviously it'll require the enemy to stay in that spot so
that the spell can do its full damage potential. This makes the spell quite
useless for repeated casting. A good idea is to Flamestrike the enemy, then
Frost Nova them in place and start using Blizzard, or spam them with Arcane
Explosion. A tank at the head of the battlefield will also be useful as they 
can keep the enemy in place.

Pyroblast (Talent)
This is a spell learned through fire talents. Sure it has a long casting time,
but the damage it does is tremendous. Use it against unsuspecting targets in 
order to get a good head start, or pair it with Presence of Mind during the 
course of the battle to unleash a sudden, tremendous attack.

Scorch
A very efficient fire spell, it has slightly less DPS than fireball, but it
has much better efficiency and versatility. Since it has such a short cast
time, you can literally use hit-and-run tactics with this spell. Fireball
on the other hand requires 3 seconds to cast. Normally, this is enough 
time for your enemy to close in on you and start meleeing. 

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4.c. Frost

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The last line for a mage, these spells do somewhat lower damage than fire
spells, but when used in the right combo, plus the correct talents, this can
be a very potent set.

Blizzard
One of the main AoE's that you will be using, this is a channeled spell that
showers an area with ice. The power of this ability cannot be underestimated.
With the right talents, this spell will also be able to slow enemies down, and
will even gain a chance to freeze the enemy in place. This reduces the need
to use Frost Nova to keep the enemy in place while you pound them. Be aware of
the large mana cost. If you learned Arcane Concentration, then it is a good 
idea to cast some other spells to gain a Clearcast, then unleash a mana-free
Blizzard.

Cold Snap (Talent)
When activated, finishes the cooldown of all your cold spells except for the
spell itself. The spell itself does have a long cooldown, but it can be used
if you really need to pull off that extra Ice Block, Frost Nova, etc.

Cone of Cold
This is an AoE spell that hits a cone of enemies in front of the caster with
frost damage. A good idea is to run backwards so that the enemies will tighten
up a bit, then use cone of cold to hit them all. A good combo with this spell
is to use Blast Wave first, then use CoC when the daze affect goes away. Cone
of Cold also reduces the enemy's speed by 50%, so you can use this to 
accomplish what Blast Wave fails at. Cooldown is relatively short at 10 
seconds.

Frost Armor
A basic and necessary spell, it increases your armor by a substantial amount,
and enemies also have a chance of having their movement speed and attack speed
slowed down. Frost Armor is simply awesome when you have also learned Frost
Bite talent. With each hit from the enemy, they have a chance to freeze in
place. Unfortunatly, it does not stack with Mage Armor, so you have to choose 
whether you would have one or the other. 

Frost Nova
This is one of the most important spells to use to get you out of melee 
trouble. Whether you are in a group, or you are soloing, this is one of the
most important spells you will get. Paired with Blink, this spell becomes
even more powerful. Note that it does have a pretty long cooldown, so you'll
probably only get to use it once during a battle. 

Frostbolt
Just like Fireball, this is the spell you will be using most of the time if
you are a frost mage. However, even if you are specced in something else, this
is still not a bad spell to start off a fight with since it slows the enemy 
down by a modest amount. This will force the enemy to take some time to get to
you while you dish out spells at it.

Frost Ward
Similar to Fire Ward, except it absorbs frost damage instead. The only bad
part about your ward spells is that only one can be activated at a time
because the moment you activate one of them, the other ward spell also
receives a cooldown. Therefore don't accidentally activate the wrong ward.

Ice Armor
Similar to Frost Armor, except is also increases your frost resistance by a
tiny amount. Like frost armor, it also replaces Mage Armor if you activate it.
This can only be learned later on, after Frost Armor.

Ice Barrier (Talent)
The apex of the frost line, Ice Barrier acts like the priest's Power Word:
Shield, except it absorbs less damage and can only be cast on the self. A
nice perk is that the shield lasts 1 minute, but has a 30 second cooldown,
meaning you can have the shield up and it has already cooled down. This 
equates to you being able to cast an ice barrier immediately after it falls.
Coupled with Cold Snap, you can have up to 3 ice barriers per fight!

Ice Block (Talent)
The second to last spell in the frost line, this is quite useful in PvE, but
is INCREDIBLE in groups and in pvp. While you can't cast for the 10 second
duration, you are completely immune to everything except for a server crash
for those seconds. This gives you time to have a breather and it also gives
you time to replenish some cooldowns. Say you use blink, and you find that
you need to use it again. You can ice block and effectively grant you 10 free
seconds to recharge blink. Ice Block can also be used to remove yourself of
debuffs that are placed on you.

Water Elemental
The Water Elemental is a very powerful pet. It does hefty damage and also
has a nasty ranged frost nova. Unfortunately, it doesn't last forever, and
currently has some glitches, such as not performing any actions when
summoned. Aside from the glitches and the fact that it is easily killed, it is 
a great supplement to your damage every three minutes. Think 
cheap Arcane Power.

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5. Talents

In World of Warcraft, talents are a special ability tree that is similar to 
the skill tree in Diablo II. However, talents only help to improve your
fighting capability of your character, rather than being the deciding factor
of how well you will be able to fight as spells do.

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5.a. The Talents

-----------------------

Simply go to 
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/mages/talents.html?
and voila! You have with you a talent calculator that works fully like a 
real talent tree and also has descriptions of each talent.

-----------------------

5.b. Template builds.

-----------------------

For template builds, I like to use the WoWHead talent calculator. To
view these builds, simply copy the URL onto your web browser and hit 
"enter".

Remember that you can always tweak these talents to your liking, so if
you don't like having one talent in a certain place, take the points off 
of it and put it somewhere else.

Note: I have ordered these in their usefulness according to my opinion and
have added stars behind them as ratings (5 being best, 1 being not-so-great)

The Cookie-Cutter Frost Spec *****

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=RbZZVAGIkfxsbot

Very decent spec that is useful in all situations. It offers good damage, good
protection, and great versatility. It is very well-rounded and favored by most
mages. I did not take Winter's Chill since as long as there is one mage in your
group that has it, you're good, but if you wish to take it, then go right ahead.

Cookie-Cutter Fire *****

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=kbZEgMzbccReot0h

Great damage and amazing efficiency. Also, dragon's breath works
wonders in a pvp setting. Unfortunately, it lacks defensive capabilities.
At least, Fireballs hit hard enough to make it a small matter.

Arcane/Fire Spec *****

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=kf0E00fzLGuwZxx0z

The Arcane spec is absolutely amazing. Arcane Missiles deal roughly the 
same damage as fireball, and it doesn't cost that much more mana. In
addition, you can temporarily boost your damage with arcane power,
allowing you to far out dps fire mages. Despite the steep mana cost that
arcane missiles carry, you have talents to help you out. Arcane
Meditation help you regenerate mana faster, and Arcane Mind increases
your total intellect, which boosts mana pool, crit rate, and works in
conjunction with Mind Mastery, and Mind Mastery is a whole new story.
Overall, a great spec. This is also a great spec if you have lots of
intellect gear, but little +damage gear.

Arcane/Frost Spec *****

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=Rf0E00fzLGuwZZVV00o

Frost instead of Fire. Plus, who doesn't like huge frostbolt crits that
also have a decent snare?


Burnination ****

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=RbZVgGzffcReRz0h

This spec is absolutely amazing for PvE, and it certainly does not suck for
PvP. Improved Scorch and Fireblast means you can dish out DPS like a rogue. 
Ok maybe not THAT much but you can cut it pretty close. For PvP, provided you 
have decent gear, you can finish off most opponents in seconds with scorches
and fireblast.

The Elementalist ****

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=RZEgMz000oZVVGhobxs

Well, elementalists don't suck anymore after 1.11. This build lacks Imp.
Counterspell, but it has pretty much everything else. Lots of damage,
and powerful snares. Use frostbolts for snares, fireblasts and scorches
for damage. Remember that Shatter works with ALL spells, so you can
shatter-crit with fireblast and scorch also. After 2.0, this spec some-
what pales compared to some of the 41-point fire/frost specs, but it's
still decent nonetheless.


The Damage-Junkie Elementalist ***

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/mage/talents.html?00000
00000000000055232010003315005050220100051000

A bit less snare, but more damage.


The POM Frost Spec ***

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=Rf0E00fzZZVVGcobxs

This spec trades off Ice Barrier and Water Elemental for Presence of Mind. 
It offers more versatility than the Cookie-Cutter frost spec because 
Presence of Mind can be used for ANY of your spells 
(except teleport and portals). This lends to a usefulness that the 
cookie-cutter spec cannot match. However, your protection goes down 
because you miss out on Ice Barrier and you miss out on a hunk of damage 
due to loss of the Water Elemental. In addition, the cooldown of Presence 
of Mind cannot be cleared by Cold Snap, unlike Ice Barrier and Water
Elemental.


Tri-build **

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=Rf0E00fzZxxZVVMMo0x

Surprisingly it doesn't suck. However it is VERY reliant on frost nova 
and being able to shatter. If POM and frost nova are up though, 
frost nova > Fireball crit > POM Pyroblast crit > Fireblast crit > 
dead target.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6. Professions

There are numerous professions in this game, as well as numerous 
combinations of professions. So you're probably wondering, which profession 
or profession combo would suit a mage the most? The fact is, any profession 
would suit a mage. This even includes Blacksmithing, since in that profession,
you can create keys that help you open locks, and some of the one-handed 
swords and daggers that can be made through this profession may have 
some aspects that will benefit you. Here is a list of professions and how they 
will suit you as a mage. Following that is a section on tips for professions.

6.a. Manufacturing Professions

--------

Alchemy

Best profession to pair this with: Herbalism

Benefits at a glance: Potions to increase mana/health pool for short periods.
Potions to instantly recover mana/health. Increase run speed so you can make a 
quick getaway, or speed you up on a delivery quest.

Cons: Some of the potions do not have very important effects. Potion effects
are temporary.

Alchemy is a solid profession to take for a mage. Most of the effects are
instant, short-term effects rather than long-term effects. For this reason,
potions can be notorious for quickly turning the tide of a battle. If you
take part in a lot of grouping and PvPing, Alchemy is definitely the 
profession to take up. In addition, there are potions that damage enemies, and
potions that increase your movement speed whether above ground or underwater.
There are also potions that increase your stats, however these aren't very
important. Since you will rarely go into melee, strength and agility potions
are out of the picture. Intellect potions are useless too because your 
intellect buff does not stack with them. There are potions that add spirit
and stamina (or they add directly to your health) and these are somewhat more
useful. Possibly the best types of potions are those that increase your spell
damage. Although some of the potions are useless to you, they may benefit 
others, so you can go around selling potions you wouldn't use normally and
bring home the money.

Of course you can also take Alchemy for other reasons. Grab this profession
along with mining and start farming Arcane Crystals. Then convert the 
Crystals and Thorium Bars into Arcanite bars and watch as your money piles
up. This can be a very fast way to earn money without needing to spend tons
of time farming mobs.

--------

Blacksmithing

Best profession to pair this with: Mining

Benefits at a glance: Open your own lockboxes! Create one-handed weapons that
add bonuses if you wish to take up an off-hand weapon. Create different kinds
of fine equipment with which to sell to others to make large clumps of money

Cons: Most of the equipment created through this profession cannot be used by
mages.

Normally, mages don't take this profession because it has very few attributes
that will benefit you. However, it does have some pluses. One of these is that
it can help you earn large amounts of money simply by auctioning various
products. Some of the equipment that you can make later on, such as Phantom 
Blade, will really get people to dig into their pockets. One of the direct
bonuses of this profession is that you can open lockboxes by yourself without
the need of a rogue. Blacksmithing also allows you to create sharpening stones
that increase your melee damage by a small amount. Therefore, if you wish to
take up a bit in melee, then these stones are a perfect choice.

--------

Enchanting

Best profession to pair this with: Any, but mages usually take it with 
tailoring

Benefits at a glance: Increase the effectiveness of your equipment. Earn tons
of money by selling enchants, likewise you will not need to spend tons of
money by purchasing enchants from others.

Cons: Big money sink at the beginning where people generally don't wish to 
purchase your inferior enchants. Takes time and practice to get customers,
although the amount of time and effort taken is often worthwhile.

This is a very good profession to take up if you are a mage. It allows you to
marginally increase the effectiveness of your equipment by placing enchants
on them. You can also earn lots of money later on because usually, people are
willing to spend huge amounts of money on your enchants. Some good examples
include the Icy Chill enchant, which usually sells for around 80 gold, and the
Firey enchant, which usually sells for around 45 gold. Note that this 
profession is a big money sink if you cannot get customers. This is because
the reagents you get for enchanting are from disenchanting items that are
uncommon or better. This means that instead of being able to sell such items, 
or auction them at the Auction House, you must instead disenchant them. To 
sum it up, you will run out of money quickly if you don't find customers fast.
There is however a way to make money even if you don't have customers by
simply selling the enchanting materials on the auction house. On some servers,
enchanting materials sell for quite a bit and you can still stack up a lot of
money.

Most people who get lucky off this profession can purchase their mounts 
earlier than others because they were very successful through their enchanting 
profession. Enchanting effects you over a period of time, so it will not make 
dramatic changes in a battle like what Alchemy can do. 

--------

Engineering

Best profession to pair this with: Mining

Benefits at a glance: Bombs to help damage, disorient, etc. Cloth head armor 
that provide high intellect/spirit/stamina/spell-damage. Numerous nifty
items that help groups and solo. Provide some laughs.

Cons: Big money sink, and once you dive into this profession, there's no way
you can redeem that money, unlike enchanting where you can sell enchants. This
is because most of the engineering products can only be used by other 
engineers.

This is also a very good profession to take up. You can use the bombs to 
increase the damage dished out during a group fight, but the biggest reward
for this profession are the goggles. These cloth headgear are perfect for
casters, and the attributes that they have can help improve your stats even
more. Of course there's also nothing like a stun with a bomb to disrupt
enemy spellcasting should your counterspell still be recharging. There are 
many other pluses as well. A main addition to this profession is that you
can summon pets. Mages have very few options in order to protect themselves,
so a combat chicken or an arcanite dragonling will seriously help defend you
should you get attacked by multiple mobs and you need some backup. One serious
problem with engineering is that it uses up gobs of money. The reason for this
is because the reagents needed for engineering becomes very broad toward the
end. Unless you have alternative characters who have invested in other types
of professions, you will need to go to others to buy reagents from them. This
will cause you to spend a large amount of time and money. Ultimately, this
will be worthwhile and you will well appreciate it. 

--------

Leatherworking

Best profession to pair this with: Skinning

Benefits at a glance: Armor kits to provide massive boosts to your armor. 
Ability to create numerous leather and mail items to sell to others. Cloaks can
be created through this profession, and these benefit everyone.

Cons: You will not be able to use most of the products.

Leatherworking isn't a very good choice when you are a mage, but it does help
in certain ways. One of these is that you can create armor kits out of it.
The armor boosts provided by these kits will overlap any enchants, but if
you don't have any enchants on that particular item, then it doesn't hurt to
slap on an armor kit. These kits can only be used on the chest, hands, legs,
and feet, but when you put the bonuses on each of these items, the effects 
will stack and the overall amount of added armor will be extreme. A good 
example are the rugged armor kits. These provide 40 armor each, and 40X4 would
equal 160 armor. Casters generally don't get more than 1000 armor at level 60,
so even 160 armor would help a great deal. Another benefit of this profession
is that you can earn lots of money by creating leather products and selling
them to others. Some of the later leather armor and mail armor are quite
diserable, and many people will surely dig into their pockets in order to buy
one off of you. The last bonus of this profession is that you can create
cloaks. As you know, cloaks can be worn by anyone, so this is one type of 
leatherworking product that you can wear. The bad part about leatherworking is
of course the fact that you won't be able to wear most of the products. They
will either have to go to the vendors, or to the hands of another person.

--------

Tailoring

Best profession to pair this with: Any, but most people pair this with 
enchanting. Skinning is not a bad choice either.

Benefits at a glance: Create your own high-end armor! Create bags, which just
about everyone needs. Create high-end items to sell to others for a profit.

Cons: Slightly less cash income, due to the fact that instead of being able to
sell your cloth, you'll have to use them, and cloth generally sells for quite
a bit. Also counters with First Aid because First Aid also requires cloth.

Tailoring is probably the best profession for a mage to have, in fact any 
caster class would benefit greatly from Tailoring. One big reason is that you
can create some high-end items later on with Tailoring. A couple of these are
bind on pickup, so it becomes even more important to grab this profession 
because you will not have a chance of having those items if you did not take
up Tailoring.

In addition, you can also create bags from this profession. 
Everyone loves bags because it gives them more room to store their items. At
the Auction House you will generally find many bags that are being auctioned
for. Don't be discouraged, make a ton of bags and stick them in. Most of them
will sell because so many people wish to have bags. Possibly the best 
profession to take with this is enchanting. The reason is that you can create
items from this profession in order to level it up, and you can disenchant
these items to get reagents for enchanting. Therefore, the two professions 
help each other out. The biggest problem is that you will need cloth to make 
your items, and these generally sell for quite a bit. In addition, this 
profession also counters First Aid because in that secondary skill, you will
need cloth to make bandages. While you use cloth for that, you will also need
the cloth for your tailoring.

--------

6.b. Gathering Professions

--------

Herbalism

Best profession to pair this with: Alchemy

Benefits at a glance: Gather herbs which are required for alchemy.

Herbalism is best taken with alchemy. The reason is because almost all the
products require herbs. This is a relatively easy profession to take up, and
your herbalism skill will go up in no time. 

--------

Mining

Best professions to pair this with: Blacksmithing, Engineering

Benefits at a glance: Mine ore, and transform them into bars for use in
blacksmithing and engineering. Also gather rare gems that are also needed in
some of the recipes.

Mining is definitely the thing to take when you have Blacksmithing and 
engineering. These two professions solely rely on mining, although the 
ingredients needed for engineering tends to be quite broad. Note that you can
also get some rare gems that are required in some recipes. In addition, the
stones that you sometimes get through mining will also help as they are used
in certain other recipes. 

--------

Skinning

Best professions to pair this with: Leatherworking, Tailoring

Benefits at a glance: Skin the hide of beasts in order to get leather for
certain recipes. Also a great way to bring in large amounts of cash if that
is what you are going for.

Skinning helps leatherworking the most. This is because leatherworking is 
mainly reliant on the leathers gathered through this profession. In addition,
skinning also helps Tailoring. One of these is that at certain times, when you
skin a sheep they will drop you some wool. Another thing is that certain 
tailoring products will require you to get some leather. Some of the more 
popular recipes, such as Small Silk Pack will require leather, and since you
will be making large quantities of them, it will mean requiring large 
quantities of leather. In addition, skinning is a great way to bring in the 
cash. You can generally make large amounts of money in a short period of time
by selling your leather.

--------

6.c. Secondary Skills

--------

Cooking

Benefits at a glance: Create food to eat. Generally, such foods also provide a
short bonus to certain stats.

Cons: Mages can already create your food, being able to create additional 
sustenance is not very impressive, although generally turning a pile of meat
into a steak will increase its sell value.

Cooking is definitely unnecessary. Sure it provides some statistical bonuses,
but these aren't very useful in the long run. Plus, you can already reduce 
your downtime through your conjured food and water. A good thing about cooking
is that it will increase the sell value of an item than when it was raw. For
this reason, you can actually increase your income by a small amount. Plus, 
it's quite fun to see what types of food that you can cook, and some of the
foods such as Dragonbreath Chili are outrageously wild.

--------

First Aid

Benefits at a glance: Allow you to quickly regenerate health in or out of
combat.

Cons: When you have downtime, you also need to replenish your mana, and this
will not help decrease your downtime since you still have to sit down and
drink. In fact, this will increase your downtime because you cannot bandage
and drink at the same time, while you can eat and drink at the same time.

First Aid isn't very important in some cases, it won't help reduce downtime, 
and generally mages die so fast that if they try to bandage themselves, they 
will get killed before they regenerate a decent amount of health with their 
bandaging. In addition, it will grab off cloth from your tailoring profession. 
One of the pluses to this profession is that you can bandage others, so if you 
have an injured warrior who is not getting hit, you can bandage him and save 
the need of having to have the healer use their mana supply to heal him. 

However, for a Mage on a PvP server. First Aid may benefit a mage more than 
any other class in the game. When a rogue comes out of nowhere and 
ambush/backstabs you to 1/4 health, you're going to want to polymorph him and 
use a bandage. First Aid and evocation coupled with polymorph can basically 
reset any fight, except against druids (and to some extent shamans, since 
they're so hard to polymorph).

--------

Fishing

Benefits at a glance: Fish up fish that can be eaten or sold. Also allows you
to hook up fish that are needed in certain alchemy potions. Sometimes, you 
might also get a rare object that will help one way or another.

Cons: Raw fish sells for very little, although cooking tends to nearly double
their sell value.

Fishing benefits your mage depending on which professions you have taken. In
general, this skill helps no matter what you have taken. Fishing can always
allow you to fish up something needed for alchemy, but there are times where
you just might get lucky. One of these are the health and mana potions. These
are generally hard to come by. Another thing that you can fish up are clams,
and just like clams dropped from mobs, they might contain a pearl inside. Then
there are the times when you can fish up a Venture Company crate that contain
various engineering parts, therefore helping you out if you are an engineer.
There are also the times when you get REALLY lucky and you can fish up an 
uncommon sword!

--------

6.d. General Tips

--------

Bringing in the Money

There are certain people out there who just like to bring in the cash. There
is nothing wrong with this approach. Generally, these people are able to buy
many quality items from the auction house, and they usually get to purchase
their mounts earlier than others. The matter with this is how to bring in the
money. 

The most straightforward approach is to take Mining and Skinning. 
Leathers from skinning can sell for a ton. The ores, stones, and gems go for
quite a bit at the auction house, especially the high-quality ones. 

Cooking is also good to take up. It will help increase the sell value of 
many of the items received from beasts. 

Another, but riskier way of bringing in the money is to take Tailoring and 
Enchanting. Enchants can sell for tons of money later on, and if you get 
costumers to buy those enchants, then you will get even more rich than if 
you were to take Mining and Skinning. The only problem is the risk 
involved. You must be able to find costumers, otherwise you will end 
up quite broke. Make sure that your enchants are reasonably priced also, so 
that people will actually be willing to get your enchants.

--------

PvP Professions

If you are going for a PvP mage, then the best thing to take is Alchemy and
Herbalism. This combo is very nice at changing the way a battle is going. 
The potions that regenerate health and/or mana are the most worthwhile. In
addition, the flask effects, as well as the potions that increase damage
or do damage themselves will greatly help too. Just note that with this
profession combo, you will not receive very many long-term effects. 

Another good profession is engineering. There are many gadgets and such 
with this profession that help change a battle also. The main difference 
between these two is that potions tend to center more on defense, while 
engineering is all about damage and harassing the enemy.

--------

PvE Professions

The best thing to take for a player versus enemy mage is Tailoring. When 
fighting mobs, you'll generally want things that last. Tailoring will allow 
you to create items that will benefit you over time. For this reason, any
mage that like to fight mobs will generally like this profession since the
benefits are so useful. 

Enchanting is awesome too. When you receive a high-quality item and you 
wish to put it on, enchant it to improve it further. Just keep the powerful
enchants for the more powerful items as they can cost you a lot.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

7. Combat

In this section, we will discuss various tactics on playing as a mage. There
will be many tips concerning what to do to handle various situations. Note
that there are many exceptions, so any of the scenarios that are stated will 
not always be what they are in this guide.

--------

7.a. PvE

--------

Arcane

Concept: Mages with huge mana pools shoot Arcane Missiles with huge
mana costs that deal huge damage for huge enjoyment.


When playing arcane, much of your fighting revolves around Arcane Missiles. As
an arcane mage, this is your main ability, and fortunately, it is suitable for
a variety of situations. It does have its problems though. For one, it is not
mana efficient. Compared to spells found in the fire and frost line, this 
spell is quite inefficient; you will not be saving much mana. Another problem
is that to me, it is outrageously boring. It's just... spam Arcane Missiles
and throw in fireblasts to complement. Still, for the simpler, casual player,
or for the person who just wants to mindlessly kill, there's nothing wrong
with taking this line.

Start off all fights with a Pyroblast. It does a nice burst of damage, and is
a good opener. Then arcane missiles, frost nova, skirt away, arcane missiles, 
arcane missiles. This should be enough to effectively take out most 
of the enemies that are around your level, although I doubt most enemies will
be able to survive your second volley of arcane missiles.

In group settings, just keep on spamming arcane missiles. Scorch if the 
enemy appears to be dying, it is not a good idea to waste this spell on a
target with only a hundred hitpoints left. When multiple enemies are out in 
the field, spam arcane explosion. This is a solid way to take out a large 
number of enemies at once. Although it does leave you low on mana, it's 
worth taking the risk.

If the situation becomes tough, numerous adds are coming and the leader calls
for sheer kill power, fire up Arcane Power, use a Presence of Mind followed
up with fireball or Pyroblast (if you have it) and let the damage fly. This
talent drastically improves kill rate and on the bright side, you won't be
using extra mana as the mana cost and damage increase by the same percentage.

--------

Fire

--------

Concept: If you play with fire, you'll get burned! (sorta)  Great mana
efficiency and fantastic damage.


Fire is more complicated than arcane. Rather than having literally only two
offensive spells, you get a whole smorgasbord of them. I find this line to
be much more fun than Arcane. Plus, this is more efficient. 

I like to start fights with either fireball or pyroblast. After the initial
hit, follow up by fireball, scorch, frost nova. Then, gain some distance 
Scorch, fireball, scorch again and that will usually be enough to finish 
them off. 

Blast wave is an awesome spell that is learned through fire talents. It does
heavy damage and provides a daze, which is a 50% speed reduction. 
Unfortuantely, its 30 second cooldown limits its use. Still, it's a great
spell to use during aoe sessions and as another plus, it has a nice visual ;).

When AoEs are called for, I like to start off with a preliminary Flamestrike.
I then follow up with frostnova, another flamestrike, blast wave, and arcane
explosion the rest of the way. Use Cone of Cold as necessary to keep the 
enemy snared while you blast away at them with instant AoEs.

Dragon's Breath is a decent spell, but I don't find much use in a PvE
setting. With multiple mages aoeing, the disorient won't amount to jack.
I'd rather use Cone of Cold, which has a shorter cooldown, meaning more
potential damage. Besides, Dragon's Breath has a very small radius.

--------

Cold

--------

Concept: Great defensive capabilities, decent damage, and many
frostbolts... many, many frostbolts.

Cold, frost, ice, whatever you like to call it is perhaps one of the best mage
builds so far. It allows you to stay on top of the damage and recieve higher
defensive bonuses. There will certainly be rebalances where fire and arcane 
will be improved so that they are up to par with frost.

Like arcane, solo with frost is also quite simple. Start fights off with
frostbolt, and repeatedly do so until they are point-blank with you. Frost
Nova, retreat a SHORT distance and fire some more frostbolts. This should
usually be enough to kill your enemy.

In group settings, I also like to continuously use frostbolts. They won't
generate too much aggro for you, but they will still deal heavy damage.

When AoE's are called for, I like to start with a Flamestrike. Followed up is
Frostnova. I then use Cone of Cold and then trade off Arcane Explosion and 
Cone of Cold until they are dead.

Use Water Elemental whenever you can. It only requires a tiny amount of
mana, and does a lot of damage. Not to mention, its ranged frost nova is
absolutely invaluable.

---------------------------

7.b. Small-scale PvP

---------------------------

Before I start off on the pvp section, I must admit that regrettably, there
is no "easy" class to fight against. You can't sit on any class to kill them,
you must execute a specific series of spells to vanquish your enemy. That's
what makes playing mage hard, and that's what makes mage the class that 
requires the most skill to play.

Normally it is not a good idea to try defeating other players by yourself, 
unless it is a duel. When PvPing, you never know if there are other players
nearby. Also, when PvPing, you won't be able to defeat enemies of a higher
level. If you had a higher level person to help you, then you can go for 
players of a broader level range. 

The following will contain strategies for killing each class of enemies. Note
that situations will change depending on your talent line and depending on 
the level of the enemy as well as the talent line that they picked.

Druid	Difficulty: Medium/Hard

Druids can offer a pretty difficult fight, mainly depending on your spec. If
you're fire or arcane specced, you may have an easier time since you don't 
need to rely on your snares and roots so much. With frost, druids are nearly
impossible.

Start off simply by blasting away at them. Polymorph won't hold them off for
long unless they're a newbie. Druids can pick and choose from three different
trees. Two of them focus on ranged damage, the third one (feral) focuses on
melee damage. Either way, they are both very tough. Ranged druids often spam
moonfire on you. It's very annoying because it causes you to lose a ton of
casting time. Feral druids have some nice melee damage, but what's scariest 
feral charge, which is similar to the warrior's intercept, but can lock down
the type of the spell that you're casting for several seconds.

Use roots and snares even though they can break simply by shapeshifting.
Not all players have lightning-quick reflexes, and your frost nova my be able
to you buy you 2-3 seconds.

Concentrate on throwing as much damage in their face as possible. Once they
begin attacking you, use arcane missiles. This ability, when improved with
talents, cannot be interrupted, so you are free to cast this without losing
casting time. Also use scorch. This spell has a fast cast time so you may be
able to get it off between hits. If you have burning soul, then heck even 
better.

If you can manage to bring their health down to the point where they have to
heal, counterspell their healing and that'll bring their end.


Hunter	 Difficulty: Hard

Hunters can make a very difficult fight. Polymorph them first, then, when 
their pet gets close, frost nova the pet and let off a flurry of shots at the
hunter. If you can, Polymorph the pet afterwards. Hunters have a region where
they cannot fire at you, and they cannot melee you. This is between the 5-8
yard range. Most hunters won't let you get into this secret spot, so it's 
imperative that you frost nova the hunter at some point (provided that it has
recharged) and get a few moments where you won't get damaged. 

Hunters will also try to Freeze Trap you. This trap places you in an ice cube
and prevents any action, allowing the hunter to prepare a deadly Aimed
Shot. There is no way to combat this unless you are frost-specced and 
you decide to blow an Ice Block. Even then, the hunter's Freeze trap is 
only on a thirty second cooldown, compared to the five minute cooldown 
of Ice Block. So the next time the two of you battle again, you won't stand 
much chance. After you are frozen, the hunter will move away, use 
Aimed Shot followed by Multi-Shot and Arcane Shot. Usually, this is 
enough to wipe away one-half of your health if they don't crit, and you'll 
probably be dead if one of them does crit. 

If you still aren't dead yet, 41-point marksmanship hunters 
(which make up about 70%) of all hunters, will pop a silencing shot on 
you. This shot does extremely hefty damage and silences you for 
3 seconds. This is usually certain death, and unfortunately, there isn't 
much you can do about it. Just bow to your new PvP gods before 
Blizzard eventually decides to nerf them.


Mage	Difficulty: Easy to Hard

The difficulty of fighting another mage is quite varying. If two mages have 
similar builds, it will mainly come down to resistances and stamina. For 
example, if the fight is between a mage with an arcane build and a mage with
a frost build, then it's almost a no-brainer. Arcane builds have too much
burst damage, and they'll most likely win over the frost mage. On the other
hand, skill and equipment, which is stated above, are also involved. Maybe 
the guy behind the mage with the arcane build doesn't even know he has 
presence of mind. Maybe the person with the frost mage has all these 
extreme spell damage gear and deal 1k damage frostbolts. It really is 
varying. 

However, there are a few key things to know. First off, remember to
use Counterspell. If there appears to be a spell that the other player uses
often, counterspell that and force them to try something else. This breaks
them off their rhythm as they attempt to find an alternative. In addition,
never forget your ward spells. If you are getting pummeled by frostbolts,
throw up a frost ward to reduce some damage. Make sure you are buffed up at
all times. I prefer Dampen Magic, Arcane Intellect, and Mage Armor when
fighting other mages. The damage reduction, intellect boost, and resistance
improvement really help. 


Paladin	    Difficulty: Medium

Paladins can prove to be a somewhat easy fight. Most people get the feeling 
that Paladins don't die, and that they are the most difficult things to beat.
While this is very true for a warrior, it's definitely not true for a mage.

As always, start off with Polymorph, then let fly as many spells as possible.
By the time they reach you, they'll most likely be down to 1/3 of their health
and they'll have to shield and heal. Gain some range as they patch themselves
up. Then turn around, and when their shield drops, Fireblast them and start 
shooting. Don't worry about taking a few hits, even if they have an 
Arcanite Reaper and their Seal of Command procs, you're not going to die 
instantly. 

Other things to remember are that they can despell DoT's, snares,
and roots. They also have something called Blessing of Freedom that makes
them immune to roots and snares. This can be problematic, so I like to slap
detect magic on them. When I see the blessing wear off (it has a cooldown),
I would attempt to snare/root them, but that's after I silence them first so
that they can't cleanse.


Priest	    Difficulty: Medium/Hard (Depending on their spec)

Priests may seem easy, fragile beings, but they're not. They're Mind Blast 
does some bad damage, and they also have a shield as well as numerous 
healing powers. Holy priests are cakewalks; they don't deal enough damage 
and while they have some impressive healing, their damage can almost be 
ignored. Just concentrate on stopping them from healing and that's really 
all you have to worry about. Discipline priests are hard. They'll 
continuously shield themselves, and will mana burn you dry. Don't let fights 
against Disc. priests last too long, although that's quite inevitable. 

Shadow priests are tough cookies as well. They swap around between mind blast
and mind flay and deal a heck of a lot of damage. Don't waste your 
counterspell on their shadow spells. The damage might be threatening, but if
they manage to heal themselves, then you're in for the worse.

Probably the most important thing is to not get close to them. That allows
them to set off their fear which will send you running for up to 8 seconds
during which time they are free to throw some damage at you. You'll also
typically see priests rush you in an attempt to fear. If they do so, 
run away and throw instants at them.

Rogue	    Difficulty: Easy/Medium-Hard

The difficulty of a rogue is quite varying. If they're the type that uses 
Cheap Shot to open up the fight, they generally won't pose too much of a 
threat as you can just blink away to cancel the stun. If they are the Ambush
kind, then things will be tougher. Their Ambush, when used will most likely
drain 1/2 of your health, even with mana shield. 

Your best bet is to try and reveal them with rank 1 Arcane Explosion. 
I like to use this against rogues so that I may get a chance to detect 
them while stealthed. Once they are revealed, get some distance and 
polymorph them. If they chose to vanish, try to find them again, or use 
bandages to regain any lost health. After they come out of their second 
stealth, get distance, polymorph, and start firing. Just don't let them 
get close enough to Gouge/Blind you and you should be fine

Shaman	   -Hard

Shaman are nearly impossible to beat, which leads to the saying that they are
"overpowered". Don't even bother to try and duel one. Run and come back with
friends. If in the event that you have to fight one, there are some things to
know. 

Most shaman will have Windfury Weapon up. This shaman buff 
gives them a chance to gain two extra attacks that have extra attack power. 
If their Windfury procs, be ready to face some major damage. It's a bit hard 
to stay away from a shaman because most of the time, they will use Frost Shock 
to slow you down then move in for the kill, so it is imperative to slow them 
down as well. 

Another big hassle with Shaman is their grounding totem. This totem sucks up
whatever spell you throw at the Shaman. If you used a damage spell, the
totem will be destroyed. If you didn't the totem will remain active. This
makes the totem very problematic, although once the expansion hits and
mages get Ice Lance, this totem shouldn't pose as large of a problem.

Save up your counterspell as well. When you see them heal up, 
Counterspell to prevent their healing. Watch for their purging as well, they
can use it to strip you of buffs and can even remove your wards and shields.


Warlock	      -Medium/Near Impossible

Warlocks will be, by far, your toughest fight. While they probably won't pose
much of a threat if they have an imp or Voidwalker out (just polymorph caster
and kill the pet), it will be near impossible to kill a warlock with a 
Felhunter. The Felhunter can counterspell you somewhat like how you can
counterspell a warlock, and they can also eat your buffs.

Some warlocks also use the Succubus. What they will do is make the Succubus
seduce you, then they fear you and use Soul Fire or Shadowbolt. If they get 
lucky, you'll still be feared and they can fire some more spells at you
before it breaks, but by then, you'll probably be down to 1/2 health and you
won't survive much longer. So whether you're fighting against a warlock
using Felhunter, or one using Succubus, be ready to face a heap of trouble.

In large scale PvP, warlocks generally won't be using Felhunters because it is
a far to specialized pet. In this case, you'll probably have a leg up them and
they will most likely prove to be a medium-hard fight.


Warrior	       -Medium

You can almost be sure that they'll start off with Charge. After the stun you
receive wears away, Frost Nova them. Polymorph them so that they can't shoot
you with ranged weapons and hit them hard. After this, you can be sure they'll
intercept you. If they don't have enough range, they'll scooch back a bit
to get their range. Note that Intercept also has a 3 second stun attached to 
it, so blink away immediately after they pull off this ability on you. Throw
some more spells at them, then when they close the range, Cone of Cold or 
Blast Wave them. 

Afterwards, start walking backwards or sideways (whichever
way to get a bit of range) and spam Arcane Explosion. If they don't have
adequate resistances or health, they'll go down fairly quickly. However, if
they have around 5k health and have modest resistances, then they'll be able
to close the range eventually, and give you a nice Mortal Strike. If you
don't have enough health, you can be certain that you will die.



8.c. Large-scale PvP

So far, I think PvPing with a raid party is the most fun. There are so many
people, and it is very chaotic and quite exciting. 

When PvPing in a group, the first thing to remember is to keep your range. 
Stay inside large crowds, or hide behind obstructions so that enemies will 
have a hard time getting at you. Use AoE's whenever enemies are clumped 
together in one spot. Oftentimes, if you use ranged AoE's such as Blizzard,
enemies won't really know who's casting it. If you use stuff like Arcane
Explosion, the enemy players will generally be able to home in on you. If you
get sighted, don't panic, try to dish out as much damage as possible before
you die. Frost mages and mages who take Alchemy and Herbalism have an upper
hand here. They can use an Invulnerability Potion, or an Ice Block to stop any
incoming damage. This buys them plenty of time, and by the time the effects
wear off, the enemy players will probably have lost interest on you and would
have gone after other targets.

There really isn't a right or wrong target to fight, so long as it is not 
labeled as "Civilian". However, you should consider which targets to take 
down first depending on their role in the battlefield.

Priests in the enemy group should be taken down first, or taken out of action
by polymorphing them. Priests not only can heal, but their AoE Fear can be
devastating. Once the priests are down, or put out of action, go after other
targets. Take out mages and rogues first to prevent them from doing their 
damage. In addition, take out Warlocks so that they can't start fearing when
their priest is gone.

Targets that can't deal much damage, but have high survivability can be put at 
the back end of the list since they won't pose much threat to your group. One
example would be the paladin, and being on the Alliance side, it is a pain to
see a paladin mindlessly beat on horde in an attempt to bring them down while
the horde almost completely ignore them and go after the softies, like me.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

8. Recommended Mods


For information on where to DL these mods, go to the Helpful Sites section.


-Cryolysis

This mod keeps things neat and tidy by removing the need to put nearly as
many buttons on your hotbars.

-Bartender (or some other bar mod)

I find that sometimes it's hard to locate my buttons, but bar mods are
capable of putting the buttons closer together. This is more of preference
really.

-Mobhealth

The name of the mod says it all. Displays a fairly accurate estimate of the
amount of HP that the mob has. As you encounter more mobs, it adds
their HP to the mod's database and remembers it the next time you meet
that same mob again.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9. Disclaimer

Copyright (c)2005 Josh Gregs.
All rights reserved.

This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal,
private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed
publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other
web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a
violation of copyright.

I will grant www.gamefaqs.com, www.neoseeker.com, www.gamerstemple.com,
www.supercheats.com, and http://www.onlinegametrader.net to post a copy of s
this guide.

If you have suggestions, e-mail me at: [email protected]. Currently, I am
no longer looking to post this on new sites since have to constantly update my
guide on various sites is too much of a pain. Sorry =(

I am open to any suggestions you have, because in order to create a perfect
guide, I must have opinion from readers! In addition, I might be able to 
learn something from others too.

Thanks go to:

-Noah Parquette for pointing out Blink can get you out of stuns. (Wish I had
known that earlier.)

-Valjiin who had a ton of suggestions.

-Craig Henderson and me Kender for giving extra suggestions on pvping 
against hunters and warriors.

-Ryan Thiessen for helping me with some warlock and shaman pvp tips.

-Joe Blow and Xalrath for more Warlock tips.

-tim hodges for additional Druid stuff.

-Bob Scheller for pointing out a missing component and for bringing blizzard
to me in a new light.

-Chris Lam for some suggestions. 

-A bunch of people who told me there was something wrong with my 
template builds, which caused me to realize that I haven't updated my talents
for 1.11. (woops)

-And more people that I've lost track of, thanks for the tips folks!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10. Helpful Sites

For additional information on mages, as well as information about the
wonderful World of Warcraft, here are some pages that you may wish to visit:

http://www.thottbot.com
(World of Warcraft information database)

http://wow.allakhazam.com
(Another World of Warcraft database, slightly different information)

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com
(Official World of Warcraft website)

http://wow.curse-gaming.com
(Tons of UI mods. Probably the best site for them as it's fast and it's 
HUGE. Not to mention, there are some other goodies in the site that you
can check out.)