Playing a Mage is discouraging before level 12, because you die a lot. And it's hard to do damage.

After level 12, the butt-kicking sets in.

There are three talent specializations for mages in World of Warcraft: Fire, Frost, and Arcane. All of them are fun to play, but Frost is the easiest because its spells focus on control. You control how close an enemy gets, how much damage they give you, and how fast they move.

Fire spec is about dealing massive amounts of damage. This is fun in raids and leveling, but not so good for Player vs. Player. You don't have as many defenses as a Frost Mage, and PVPers often laugh about how easy Fire Mages are to kill.

Arcane spec pumps up all of your spell damage, and also beefs up Wands. Arcane also pumps up the oddball spells like Blink and Counterspell, which is useful in dungeons.

A good attack combo is to charge up a Frostbolt and hit an enemy. This will slow down the monster as it moves toward you. You have time to hit it with a fireball or arcane missiles. When it's almost within striking distance, you use Frost Nova, which freezes the enemy in place for a few seconds. Then pummel the monster with arcane missiles. When the Frost Nova wears off, the monster is usually down to twenty percent health, and you can finish it off with your wand.

If you are running away from enemies and need an extra burst of speed, use Blink. You train Blink at level 20, and it teleports you a short distance forward, depending on terrain. Blink is also very handy in PVP (not to mention annoying to other players).

Mages also have a funny little spell called Sheep, which turns a person into a sheep. While the enemy is sheeped, they just wander around and can't attack anything. It sounds funny, but it turns into serious strategy in dungeons, when there are too many monsters to fight at once. Eliminate one temporarily by sheeping it ... problem solved.

At levels 20, 30, 40 and 60 you can train in teleports to major cities. You can warp all over the world for the cost of a cheap reagent. Once you reach level 40, you learn the ability to make portals, so you can move entire groups to main cities. Mages are often in demand to portal people to different places.

Another thing Mages are good at is conjuring food and water. People joke that all they need in game is a water cooler, and the Mage would be obsolete. People love conjured food and water while running dungeons, because Mage refreshments are often better than food and water obtained from vendors.

A Mage is a versatile, high-damage class, and they get cool-looking robes and pointy hats. If you want to throw fireballs at your foes, try a Mage! They are useful in dungeons and raids, and often deal the highest damage in the game. The higher you level a Mage, the more awesome they become.

Learn more about this author, Kessie Carroll.
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