[Rho]

Class Introduction:

Mages wield the elements of fire, frost, and the arcane to destroy or neutralize their enemies. They are a robed class that excels at dealing massive damage from afar, casting elemental bolts at a single target, or raining destruction down upon their enemies in a wide area of effect. Mages can also augment their allies' spell-casting powers, summon food or drink to restore their friends, and even travel across the world in an instant by opening arcane portals to distant lands. When seeking someone to introduce monsters to a world of pain, the Mage is a good choice. With their elemental and arcane attacks, it's a safe bet something they can do won't be resisted by your chosen enemy. Damage is the name of the Mage game, and they do it well. Their arsenal includes some powerful crowd control spells, also, giving them the ability to keep hordes at bay -- in fact, these abilities can be used on the most common creatures in the game, thus making them extremely valuable for this purpose.

Class Overview:

Blizzard has done a very good job at balancing all the classes for both PvP and PvE encounters. Class balance isn’t perfect, but it’s well done. According to Blizzard, the Mage is one of the better balanced classes, and as such, it has received little change since beta. There is good news for those interested in rolling a mage: it is a great class for both solo and group game play. Depending on the server and its relative mage population, you will almost always find a group who has need for a mage. Should that fail, you can always take to the wilderness and clear out some of your quest logs, gain faction, farm for gear or join a PvP battleground. The role of the mage is quite diverse and rewarding. Let’s explore a bit further.

What is the role of a Mage, you ask? This is a tough one, as it depends upon the interest at hand and the number of people with whom you are able to join in the interest. Many of the things to do in World of Warcraft can be done solo, with a party, or with a raid group. In addition, the things to do are further divided into PvE and PvP categories. As a mage, you will find that you have few limitations. With a little creativity and a few friends, you’ll find it very hard to not locate a role that interests you.

The mage is one of the few classes that can solo rather effectively. They have an array of ranged offensive spells encompassing three schools of magic, Arcane, Frost and Fire, as well as having the most powerful area of effect (AOE) damage spells of any class. Knowledgeable mages can solo many NPCs that other classes can only dream of soloing. Elite well-geared mages can even solo multiple high level NPCs and a few of the high level elites that populate the world.

Within party game play, the mage is invaluable for most groups. In many encounters, the mage can use their sheep spell to crowd control humanoid NPCs for a short duration, thereby evening the odds or knocking out a critical NPC for a time. Additionally, the mage is the only class that can provide free sustenance in the form of conjured water and bread for other party members, a popular but tedious task. Finally, mages can single target or group buff everyone’s intelligence, a helpful tool for the mana users.

While mages are effective in solo and party game play its in the raid group where the mage truly shines. In 20 and 40 person raid groups, mages form a backbone of support and offensive capabilities. In addition to the crowd control mages in raid groups provide substantial ranged and AOE damage potential, invaluable for many of the ultra-elite end-game encounters. When combined with talent or gear based aggro-reduction and a Paladin or Shaman’s aggro reduction buff, mages can inflict great damage across three important schools of magic, with greatly reduced threat of "pulling aggro".

Alliance Mage Races & Racial Traits:

Gnome:

The gnome is by far the most popular PvP mage class in game and arguably the best overall PvE mage. All of the gnome’s racial traits help in PvP, many help in PvE. Not only that, but the small size of the gnome makes it ideal for hiding behind the smallest of objects. Unless you are looking for the gnome, it is very easy to overlook a diminutive gnome standing behind a rock. Out of sight, out of mind is a highly desirable, undocumented PvP talent that is exclusive to the Gnome.

Escape Artist - active trait
Activate to break out of a Root or Snare effect - 1.5 sec cast - 1 min cooldown

Expansive Mind - passive trait
Increase Intelligence by 5%

Arcane Resistance - passive trait
+10 Arcane Resistance

Engineering Specialization - passive trait
+15 skill bonus to Engineering

Human:

Humans are by far the most lackluster of all the mage classes. Few racial traits help the mage. The spirit attribute presently only contributes to mana regeneration. When compared to the gnome’s racial traits and the formula for calculating mana regeneration based on spirit, the +5 % spirit bonus pales in comparison. I would personally avoid a mage human for game play reasons. Now for aesthetics, the human classes are by far the most attractive.

Perception - active trait
Activate to dramatically increase stealth detection - Lasts 20 sec - 3 min cooldown

The Human Spirit - passive trait
Increase Spirit by 5%

Diplomacy - passive trait
+10% bonus to faction point gain

Sword Specialization - passive trait
+5 to Sword skill

Mace Specialization - passive trait
+5 to Mace skill

Horde Mage Races & Racial Traits:

Trolls:

Trolls were once a greatly avoided race. Lackluster racial traits, ugly characters and no large city to call home plagued the Troll, driving many players away from the class. However, since patch 1.09, Trolls are unloved no more! Trolls now have one of the most effective Mage racial traits, Berserking. They’re still ugly, but we can hit faster and on cue.

Berserking - active trait
Activate to increase your melee, ranged, and casting speed by 10% to 30%.
The value scales upwards towards 30% depending how low your health is when
you activate the ability. Requires a small amount of mana, rage, or energy
(depending on your class) to activate. Lasts 10 seconds - 3 min cooldown

Regeneration - passive trait
+10% health regeneration bonus, 10% active in combat

Beast Slaying - passive trait
+5% damage bonus to Beasts

Throwing Specialization - passive trait +5 to Bows and Throwing Weapon skills

Undead:

Undead are a humanoid type class. In game they are effectively “humans” with different Racial Traits. You will start in Tirisfal Glades on the Eastern Kingdoms continent as one of the “Forsaken”.

Undead have very effective racial traits for all the applicable classes, and with respect to the mage class, the Will of the Forsaken and Shadow Resistance traits are the most important traits.

Will of the Forsaken - active trait
Activate to become immune to Fear, Sleep, and Charm effects. Can also be used while already afflicted by Fear or Sleep - lasts 5 sec - 2 min cooldown

Cannibalize active trait
Activate to regenerate 7% of total health every 2 sec. by consuming Humanoid or Undead corpses within 5 yards lasts 10 sec 2 min cooldown

Underwater Breathing passive trait
Underwater breath lasts 300% longer than normal

Shadow Resistance passive trait
+10 Shadow Resistance