I need help with a Mage build please.

Reason

Reason

New Member
As I have been playing the class for a while now, I'm not really new to it. However, I am new to the Frost tree as I have never put 1 point into it. I've always been a Fire/Arc spec Mage. After patch 1.11, I'm considering going Fire/Frost as an elemental build. This is hard to go through though because I'm not sure on exactly where to put points. This is what I came up with so far.

http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?RZEg0z0cutVVMc0bh

Everyone says Shatter is one of the best talents, however I don't know what exactly classisfies as a "frozen target" since I never cast frost spells.

Feel free to move some talent points around and repost a new link for assistance.

Take care all and have a great Sunday!

Chris
 
I would assume (seeing as the talent branches out from Frost Nova) that it means any target that is immobilized by ice... aka frozen by a Frost Nova.
 
Frost Nova is the only spell that by default can freeze a target. If you put talents into frostbite, any spell that has a chill component can freeze the target. This includes: frost/ice armor, frostbolt, cone of cold, improved blizzard (if you put talents into blizzard it gets a chill component, and hence a chance to freeze). I would max out shatter, as it helps you to increase your chance for crits. Perhaps something like this, which is close to your current build:

31 fire/20 frost

I would also take a look dropping combustion for ice block as an alternative (not necessarily better, just an idea):

30 fire /21 frost

Just to throw in something extra, this is almost completely frost build I am considering for any 1.11 mage I make:

41 frost / 10 arcane

I like the fire and and frost trees the best in 1.11, but this build gives me an extra 10% mana efficiency (really complements the mana effeciency of the frost tree well), my polymorphs are less likely to be resisted (arcane focus), and my frost spells are slightly less likely to be resisted (arcane subtlety).

If I were to do a fire/frost combo I would most likely do something fairly close to what you are doing.
 
Magic Absorption is an interesting talent. The increase to magic resistance is nice. The effect that allows to to regenerate 5% of your mana when you resist a spell is a tricky. It could work fabulously when solo (mainly from lvls 1-59), but at 60 when you will spend the majority of your non-aoe farming time in groups, it won't be all that useful. If you are taking spell damage in general I think your mana pool is the least of your worries. :)

I prefer arcane concentration because when it procs you can use your higher mana cost spells for free. :) In some situations that may mean a free blizzard, fire blast, or it could be a free arcane missles (which for many levels is higher dps than your other spells, until you get some improved +fire/+frost gear). Or if you are just spamming frost/fire bolt it acts as a straight up 10% mana reduction.
 
Just bear in mind your crits aren't as big as they could be since you didn't hike ice shards to 5/5, but this should give you a feel for just about everything the ice tree has to offer. Keep in mind that ice block is absolute damage mitigation, and can save your bacon if well timed. If you have the reflexes (and you aren't experiencing much lag), a bolt spell in transit won't hurt you if you manage to put up ice block before it hits you. I suspect you already know, but frost nova will give you a controlled means of increasing your crit chance. If you time things well you can pull off a double shatter: FN -> FB + CoC.
 
Ice block has been incredible for saving my rear in Molten Core. Boss on you? Baron Geddon turn you into a living bomb? No problem! Ice Block to safety!

Ice block will also prevent falling damage - I jump down to the entrance to MC from Searing Gorge all the time... just aim for the little platform, and iceblock right before you hit.

There's been several times I've used it in places like uBRS, Scholo, etc... get too many mobs on you and too low on life...just ice block and wait for a heal before cancelling it (or give the tank time to take agro back so you can bandie up)

<3 ice block!
 
faust said:
Just bear in mind your crits aren't as big as they could be since you didn't hike ice shards to 5/5, but this should give you a feel for just about everything the ice tree has to offer. Keep in mind that ice block is absolute damage mitigation, and can save your bacon if well timed. If you have the reflexes (and you aren't experiencing much lag), a bolt spell in transit won't hurt you if you manage to put up ice block before it hits you. I suspect you already know, but frost nova will give you a controlled means of increasing your crit chance. If you time things well you can pull off a double shatter: FN -> FB + CoC.
Click to expand...


I went ahead and took your advice. I did end up putting 5/5 in Ice Shards. I didn't get a chance to mess around with the build to much last night as I got home late and was extremely tired. This is the build I went with. http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info...000000000000000000000000000005050231323501331

I did get a few crits in before I logged and I had almost the same amount of damage that I did with my fire spec. My max fire crit I believe was 828 and I had a crit with frost last night of 790 or so. Don't remember the exact number though but it was in the high 780's or low 790's.

I used to have a perfect combo of spells down for my fire spec and had them set up perfectly in my action bars. Changing specs changes that up a bit as I don't have an instant cast AoE at the moment since my Blast Wave is gone. :( However, once I get that done, I do believe I'm going to like this, especially once I get a couple more points into the tree to max out frost bite. This will change though when the new patch comes out (Tuesday I believe), but so far so good.

Btw, do any of you have screen shots of your mages and how you have your spells set up on your action bars? I'm just interested in how yours differ from mine. :)

ttyl,

Chris
 
most of my stuff is just crammed into bars... randomly. actually, i just added spells to my bar as i got new abilities while i leveled... the most important stuff is on the mainbar (so i can cast using my keyboard) and everything else is just kinda grouped by function....or association. Some of my associations won't make sense to anybody...but it's how I remember where stuff is :)
 
If I can remember, I'll post a SS of mine tonight. I have just recently assigned key bindings to my left hotbar, which contains my arcane/frost spells (I'm fire spec'd). Doing this was a HUGE improvement. Example: Fireball is '3' and Frostbolt is 'Ctrl-3.' Since mages don't have to move around much, this allows me to click targets with the mouse and select all my offensive spells by pushing buttons.
 
For all my characters I tend to lay out my buttons so that the spells I use most often go on the left. If I tend to have an order to how I cast my spells, I tend to arrange them from left to right so that my fingers can just walk down the keyboard as I continue my attack. For example with my shadow priest I cast the following spells on most mobs:

mind blast -> SW:p -> mind flay -> wand

So my spell layout is:

#1 Mind Blast
#2 SW:p (Shadow Word: Pain)
#3 Mind Flay
#4 Wand

Beyond that I like to have the utility, or "oh my goodness" spells right after #4 (typically 5-7) so I can reach those keys quickly. For example things like my priest bubble, renew (for use when out of shadow form), flash heal, heal (or greater heal). For my mages in times past that has been things like frost nova, blink, ice block/blast wave, etc...

Edit: I also tend to put my buffs on equal sign. That way I can buff people as I walk through town.
 
Well, it's patch day and I don't have a clue what to do with my free respec. Is a Fire mage viable in the end-game instances? I understand that lots of mobs in MC are resistant, but what about the other places? Would I serve my fellow party members better if I went frost? And lastly, is an elementalist build viable now?

I think I can figure out a build once I know where to focus my talents. I enjoy fire, but haven't played as a frost spec so I can't compare them fairly. Also, if fire mages are "shunned" in end-game, I may as well go frost now and practice, practice, practice. Can any of you level 60 mages give me some insight, please?
 
I'm not a 60 mage, but I do read the mage forums a fair amount.

Most people feel that if you are going to do an elementalist build, fire should be the emphasis. The frost side of things the key talent to get is shatter, getting cold snap and improved frost bolt along the way is a good idea. Many prefer to get ice block over combustion for 1.11 (at least on paper), and I would agree. If you are going to be an elementalist, I think the key thing to keep in mind is that you are centered around getting frozen targets that you can crit with your uber powerful fire spells, which is where putting 30 points into fire, most notably fire power is key. Something like this would be a template to play around with, though there are a lot of talents that you may wish to shift around to taste: 30 Fire/ 21 Frost

Most mages state that while there are some parts of MC, and a few other mobs in other instances, most late game mobs don't have a ton of fire resist, and that fire is quite viable overall. I suspect that forst is superior to fire though end game wise in 1.11, because of talents like frost chanelling (-30% aggro on frost spells), ice block, and the new ice barrier (smaller cooldown). I think the reduced aggro alone will allow frost mages to not have to throttle back dps for fear of getting aggro, and if they do get aggro they have ice block to fall back on, which is a temporary aggro dump (you don't actually loose aggro, but mobs will go elsewhere, allowing warriors time to regain aggro).

I am sure more experienced mages here can correct and add their comments.
 
Molten core is about the only place that a Fire Mage has any trouble at all... and still then, several fire mages are setup with crit builds and can still do a decent amount of damage using frost/arcane spells. I don't know if this will change in the patch.

I have noticed that in the end-game instances such as MC, mobs can't be trapped in ice, so those points are rather wasted. However, in instances such as ZG, AQ20, Strat/Scholo/DM/uBRS/lBRS, everything except the bosses can be trapped, so it is still largely beneficial.

All-in-all, frost and fire are both viable specs, and you just have to tailor your spec to your playstyle. But be adaptive - you may need to alter your gameplay a bit in MC, BWL, etc.
 
I am a crit arcane/fire build and I can tell you fire in MC works fine. On the mobs (or Rag) fire doesn't work well on, I will spam arcane missiles. On bosses, I spam imp scorch. My new build will capitalize on more crit with less threat but it will be arcane and fire again.
 
Last edited:
Ragnaros is immune to fire, it is true, but bear in mind as well that just because you are specced fire doesn't mean you can't cast ice spells :)
 
....as long as your gear isn't {+fire damage} :) {+spell damage} works great tho.

obviously being spec'd fire and casting arcane/frost does less damage, but it still can pump it out at an very acceptable rate :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top