Leveling a Mage

[tommyzetecs]

ive just come back to wow after leaving at the end of cata, in LK and Cata i always played plate dps but since ive been in back in my old guild everyone else seems to play plate dps too! so its time for a change but as ive never touched a cloth class before i wondered what spec i should be running while leveling as a mage? in cata days arcane looked very boring so if its still that way then i would rather leave it well alone. so fire or frost?

[ZG Support 1]

I guess it depends on what you would consider to be boring, but arcane is still primarily a 3 spell class. I see a lot of mages leveling with frost. I'm not sure if it's better or if they do it just so they can have a pet to help soak up some damage.

If you're looking for something ranged that has a lot of different abilities in it's rotation you could always try out a beastmaster hunter. With that pick the Dire Beast and Barrage talents and twist them into your rotation. You could also do Murder of Crows or Stampede and have that talent tier in your rotation as well. Most hunters also currently out damage a mage and with the hunter pet you're about as safe as a paladin when leveling. And you can solo most of the open world rares and elites.

[Cartman]

The easiest leveling classes are destruction warlock, hunter and retribution paladin (my personal opinion).
The Warlock has the advantage of good pets, especially the Voidwalker can tank enemies.
This is also the advantage of the hunter in general and especially the beastmaster hunter, he relies much on his pet. But I prefer marksmanship hunter, it's a bit more fun when you can instantly kill enemies with one shot.
The paladin is the class of choice for beginners who want to be right in the middle of the action. Apart from his currently very good damage output you have the advantage of good self healing capabilities and plate armor.

About the mage, I always played arcane and fire mage but I find those not very easy to level. Running around alone you take too much damage and therefore have to spend a lot of time eating and drinking to recover health and mana (but you create food with a spell so it does not cost you anything).
I recently started a frost mage and this one is pretty easy to play. My guildmembers also play their mages as frost and even those who only occasionally play their mage have no big problems.

Another good caster class is the elemental shaman. Not very complicated but causes a lot of pain to the enemy.

The advantage of some classes like paladin and shaman is that you can use the dual spec feature to play different roles, paladin can cover damage dealer, healer and tank, shaman is a good healer and damage dealer.
And with the changes to the loot system you don't even need to collect completely different item sets in the level 90 to 100 content as on the main armor pieces the stats fit for all roles, you have for example strength and intelligence on plate pieces for the paladin.
With hunter, mage and warlock you are only damage dealer, if you want to try something different you need to level another character. But I'm sure you will anyway

If you want to know more about how to play the classes I recommend looking into class guides, for example at Icy Veins:
http://www.icy-veins.com/wow/class-guides

[mzanker]

I'm currently levelling a destruction warlock (in Deepholm at the moment) and have found it a breeze, especially with a voidwalker to tank for you. I've also got a mage halfway through Draenor, for which I switched to Arcane for a bit of variety (he was Frost through Pandaria). I haven't had any problems so far - mobs nearly always die before they get to me and mana isn't a problem. The only time I take significant damage is with the more powerful "boss" mobs that you come across while levelling, but if you keep on your toes it's not usually a problem. I've definitely found it more interesting than Frost (which everybody seems to play).

[tommyzetecs]

Thanks for the replys, ill give the warlock a go the more i look into them the better they seem.

[campbell]

if you die playing a bm hunter your not playing right (joking) i was killing silver eliters 2 -3 levels higher than me great fun. and my destruction lock levels even faster but i find my pets dont last as long as bm hunter pets but i think thats my be just me

[AussieEevee]

I've leveled a few mages over the years. I generally go with fire (BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURN) but frost has the advantage of slowing attackers, as well as the elemental. I don't think arcane is a good leveling spec.

[Cartman]

At least in WotLK, Cata and MoP fire and arcane mage were pretty similar to level regarding the level of difficulty. I often switched between those two specs.
Frost is easier because you keep mobs at distance longer and therefore are not that often in danger of tanking damage.

But normally with all class changes with a new addon the older content gets much easier. So at least until level 90 every class should be able to level by just putting the core abilities into the action bar and facerolling across the keyboard.

[gizmoitus]

I have a level 100 Frost mage, that is fairly well geared at this point, and I can tell you that right now Frost is not really the best leveling spec, nor a good spec at 100 for instance runs. I bring up the rear in DPS most of the time, with the exception of the times I pop my CD's and even then there are wonky situations where Frozen orb misses the Prismatic Crystal, which you have to place in the middle of a mob pile, and can easily be rendered useless by a tank who decides to drag the group away from where you planted it.

While not lethal in PvP so far I've had some decent results, especially swapping out WoD PvP gear which now gets a big iLevel boost in PvP instances.

Basically you have to depend on Frozen Orb which is on a 1 minute cooldown, so there's a lot of time where you are just chain casting frostbolt hoping for a brain freeze proc that never seems to come.

Right now my recommendation would be to level as fire, which has a lot more reliable burst DPS. With that said, Zygor's spec choices seem to be right for Fire.

[coldfusion10]

Mages...none are good for leveling. Need a friend to group with, preferably a tank.
** frost mages stiill have to deal with the horrors of gorgrond and spires, where everything that attacks is up close and personal, and frost still does not do enough damage or rooting before mobs get up to you and play whack-a-mole with you. My first toon was a mage before I left shortly after cata (now back) with /played = 250 days.

Warlocks ... see above.

Priests...level discipline spec, raid shadow (currently 12-14k dps in ilevel 630). *hardly anyone plays them (don't know why). I am the only Spriest in a 30 person raid group.

Druid...level boomkin spec & raid with it