im a level 20 mage and dont know wot to go.... fire or frost?
info would b gr8.

I am a min/maxer by heart.  In most RPG's I won't play something unless I can make it cool on some statistical level.  But in WoW I gudgingling find myself aggreeing with the "choose what's fun" statement.

I am a fire mage.  I wholey agree that at for party purposes and other reasons, the Frost Mage is the best option statistically.  But blowing the crap out of mobs with pyroblast is too much fun for me to pass up.

All in all, Fire Mage battle can be shorter (under optimal conditions).  But your likely to be resting/healing after as well.

My Fire routine usualy consists of:
If the mob is close, I Polymorph it and run to max range for Pyroblast.  Then I follow up with a Fireball.  The Fire Blast. At that point the mob is in melee.  Ice Blast to freeze it.  Back up just out of melee.  Fire balle x2. Fire blast.  If it is still alive, I may use my bombs from engineering or go into the Ice Block to allow my Ice blast to cool down.  Rince / Repeat.

If I get in danger, I will mana shield and use evocation.  Then I wll Ice blast followed by a Silk Bandage.  This is likely to bring you up to 75% Health and Mana.  Then dig in and keep blasting.



Frost people do it completely differently.

i agree that fire mages deal alot of damage off fire spell but there slow cast. im a frost mage and i think there better cuz sure your spell do less damage but, you slow your target which alows more time to cast more spells. plus you can freeze them in place

My advice would be to go with one for awhile and try it out, then respec and try the other. Worst case scenario you gotta respec twice and it'll cost you a few gold, but at least your gettin first hand exp. at both and not just taking the word of other. Now having said that my favorite is frost. Yes fire has more damage but you OOM so much faster and I have out dps'd fire mages of same level in group instances although I will say i think they were noobs. BTW I play a 64 mage on my alt. Plus you get the water elemental which can make the difference between the group wiping or not if played correctly. I love throwin a frost bolt at an elite target and with the 25% chance to freeze in place, pulling out water friend to tank em, meanwhile i keep throwin frost bolts and pyro blase on each cooldown and before ya know it the big fella's dead before he even has a chance to touch you. And at the end still have mana left. A fire mage will never touch that.

Fire = kill things really fast.  If they don't die, then you probably will.
Frost = kill things slower, but they will never kill you.

Frost controls mobs so much better than fire, which is why a lot of people love it.  You don't die as much at the lower levels.  Plus, you can AOE.  Killing 10-15 mobs at once is fun :)

Fire burns mobs down faster, which is why people like it.  Seeing a mob's health drop to 50% in one hit is...well, "satisfying".

Both are fun.  You will probably re-spec a bunch of times until you find what you truly like.  There is no "better" spec.  Both are tons of fun.

What about arcane? i have a lvl 11 mage alt, and was wondering if arcane talents are worth it at all.

I don't know much about frost mages as I am a lvl 60 Fire/Arcane mage which has worked nicely for me. The reason I am Fire/Arcane is for the mere reason of PoM or Presence of Mind found under the Arcane talent build. With this sweet little spell I can use my POM and then Pyroblast my enemy with 0, yes 0 cast time.

This is what I like to do if I am not in a PVP situation.
1. Pyroblast from a far distance
2. POM
3. Pyro again :)

Usually the thing is dead or almost dead. If not I frost nova run back and hurl something else at him like fireball or scorch or whatever.

How come Fire Mages don't have a shield??

cause frost is aimed more at pvp. and blizzard decided to make it that way.

its true. every time i see a fire mage or a POM pyro mage in BGs, i stop whatever im doin, give them a nice /rofl followed by a /pat. then i proceed to beat up on em.

ive defended fire b4, but i can not and will not say that it is a good spec for BGs or arenas. y? because it has no defense.

burst dmg is great, but with resilience, mage armor, molten armor, ice barrier, counter spell, PW:S, the burst dmg is lost VERY quickly.

had an arena match where the opposing mage had popped his POM b4 the match even started. he tartgeted me right off the bat (hes an ally n im horde, go figure). 1 firewarded ice barrier later, he was dead.

but then again, i have raided as both fire and frost. while u will pull A LOT less aggro as frost n keep sustained dmg through out, the DoTs from fire n the sheer dmg u can do wont be there. and that little bit of extra power often times means the difference between downing a raid boss or wiping.

PvP= 17/0/44

PvE= 10/48/3

hope that helps



P.S. fire mages do get a shield after 2.4 comes out, enjoy

I aggre.If you said fire.Fire is good.I might not know though becuase i do play just i'm a 8 year old girl.

ARCANE FTW
frost can kill nothing without help @pvp

? are you retarded. go look on armoury at all of the top mages they are all 17/0/44 or full frost. arcane SUX at pvp i dont care what anyone says.

I got a 68 arcane/fire mage atm for the pom-pyro but at lv 70 im going frost/arcane for pvp as a pom mage i can deal up to 10k damage in 6 sec but as frost i can take alot more and usually the one im fighting cant even get to me.but personally id fo with fire till 40 switch to frost till 60 then go fire/arcane till 70 then go back frost/arcane if you wannt look me up on the armoy my 68 mage is darkangelgrl

It all comes down to what you like to do in the game.
If you love Battlegrounds and Arenas, then Frost can be the better spec. I personally don't like either and would rather spend time in instances, raiding, or hunting down little hordies in SS. (Paybacks a bitch!!) :)

I'm an Arcane/Fire Mage with 21 in Arcane for POM (Presence of Mind) and the rest in Fire.

When I am fighting in instances or just killing hordes while questing, I am usually the last one standing. Having POM can give you that winning edge and when you combine that with combustion and having points in Pyromaniac (I think thats what its called), you are a killing machine!

Now I don't know much about being a frost mage so I'm not going to sit here and say that I do, but from what I have observed is that when I am raiding or instancing with a frost mage we both do a lot of damage, but from damage reports, it is I the arcane fire mage who rules over the other mage. And when it comes down to it you want a mage that can kill fast and give a lot of direct damage/damage over time. Sure, frost can deal out tons of damage, but not like me.

The upside of going frost is that you can slow down your enemies, which makes it easier for you to kill them. But why slow them down when you can kill them in 2 shots with fire. :D

"a pom mage i can deal up to 10k damage in 6 sec"

If you're a frost mage and can't deal 10k dmg in 6 sec then you should /uninstall.

:pet out
:IV
:any combination of novas/bolts/lances

10k+dmg easy

cos fire mages use more mana pick up a shammy freind if ur goin fire cus of the mana spring totem. :



undead mage tortheldrin

My best freind is a frost mage and m a fire mage. They r both great but heres the stats.


Fire= fast dmg(fire blast and scorch)
      Insane one hit crits.
      uses more mana
      (better for groups)

Frost= Good defensive skills (ice block, ice barrier, etc)
      Good buffs
      uses less mana
      (better for soloing)

ps: im not a 70 on my mage yet but my best freind is so if theirs something i should no plz tell me. help appreciated :)

why can't you just mix it up and do both???

If you ever encounter a PoM pyro mage, use an iceblock when he fires it (unless he silenced you first). After that the match is pretty much over.

Come out, get water ele, shield up, coldsnap to have another iceblock/water ele ready.

if u do both u wont be strong enuf. especially at low levels. neway fire fights are shorter but now at lvl 40 i can kill a mob before he reaches me. my pyro crits 800 at lvl 38 with 30 greens. then fireball and fireblast.

now im lvl 40 im prob strong enuf to go frost and aoe but im in stv so i think ill wait for an area with less ganking.

ive tried both. one hit as fire spec is harder than a hit as frost spec but when im fire i kill em off alot faster and its jus a matter of killing them before they kill you.
as frost mobs always reached me even with nova but that was at low levels


ps im at uni and im bored

With the new improvements to the molten shield in teh fire talent tree, and with ice block being available to all, fire is more viable in pvp. 

I have played both specs for significant time, and although I have a full fire build right now, I still use frost nova and ice lance for the easy hits.

Lately, I've been having a lot more success in beating frost mages 1v1 in battlegrounds.  I think the 100 damage to them for every one of their instant casts from the molten shield really starts to add up and has made the difference.

I would go fire right now.  It has been buffed lately and is absolutely better for instances.  Its better than frost until lvl 66 in pvp even.  But if pvp is your main thing, frost is best at high levels.

frost i prefer for soloing multiple mobs
though pyroblast 1 crit kills are fun :)
arcane/fire i like for insanely high crits but not much else
arcane/frost the same thing with more cc but i prefer deep fire or frost to all out arcane - i find it burns too much mana (though arcane blast might be the most dps of any mage spell once it gets going) and arcane missiles are up there for damage per second too
i've seen pom pyro mages mess stuff up but they dont have much if you ice block thier pom pyro and use all your freezes (so they cant blink from them) and teach them what a few high damage crits will do as opposed to one insanely high attack

I would go Frost/Arcane, which is what I've done. I have the 41 points to get my elemental in frost, but the rest are in arcane and boy do they help! I get clear spellcasting which is great for raids and soloing.

When I'm in a 5man raid, im there to sheep, provide the much loved table, and do CC. Hence the need for the frost spec.  The only time I really need fire is when i'm going up against a bigger boss and we need all the hits we can, and our tank is actually working.

Other than that, I need the CC for the raid's.

Just my 2cents

similar to what i tried for raids once
it worked alright, the lowest i normally would go for frost and still get the elemental for cc
unfortunately no permafrost and frostbite so i woudlnt want it for soloing (and obviously not pvp) so i only kept the spec for one raid

Mage Talents
Minimum Required Level: 70
Required Talent Points: 61

Arcane Talents -  18 point(s)

# Arcane Subtlety - rank 2/2
# Arcane Focus - rank 3/5
# Wand Specialization - rank 2/2
# Arcane Concentration - rank 5/5
# Magic Attunement - rank 2/2
# Arcane Fortitude - rank 1/1
# Arcane Meditation - rank 3/3

Frost Talents -  43 point(s)

# Improved Frostbolt - rank 5/5
# Elemental Precision - rank 3/3
# Ice Shards - rank 5/5
# Improved Frost Nova - rank 2/2
# Permafrost - rank 1/3
# Piercing Ice - rank 3/3
# Icy Veins - rank 1/1
# Frost Channeling - rank 3/3
# Shatter - rank 5/5
# Cold Snap - rank 1/1
# Winter's Chill - rank 2/5
# Ice Barrier - rank 1/1
# Arctic Winds - rank 5/5
# Empowered Frostbolt - rank 5/5
# Summon Water Elemental - rank 1/1

ok I have the best advice you'll  ever get right here: don't listen to these peeps and don't let them persuade u one way or another. listen to the non biased ones though. I've read so many debates on different mage types and now I cannot choose a spec, or stick to a certain class. if u really want help ask urself these questions: would I rather see red oe blue all the time? do I like summer or winter? 

although u would be my hero if uu went down arcane fully. lol don't though cuz you'd be sterotyped

i admire both but i dont have patience. so i chose fire.
im lvl 40 now so i can pyro, fireball and fireblast them and they usually die before they get to me.

ARCANE FTW BITCH

I believe its the persons preference, choose what you like best.  However, I have been fire, frost, and hybrid.  I have fought several BGs and arenas. For me, in PvE, arcane/fire with 40/21/0 build is the highest DPS I have had, and I have respeced probably 15 times to get what I wanted. However, that spec does not leave much for survivability in BGs.  I went frost, but hated it... yeah, I see a lot of advantage to it, and nothing is better for survivability, but I just didnt like the lower DPS, No way with all epic PvP gear, am I doing as much damage as arcane/fire. Now I am still speced at arcane/fire but now running a 31/30/0 build, for the POM and Pyro combo.  Yeah, I had one toon laugh at first, until I saved his miserable butt.  Typically I only use that combo after I have stacked a couple of scorches, and have a macro to do both at the same time. after I knock an ally on his butt with a 5k shot, and a 3K blast no one says a thing about it anymore.