Mages do one (primary) thing quite well: ranged, spell-based damage. Mages cannot heal themselves with their own spells, and they cannot take much physical abuse. This is not to suggest that they are a weak class of character; rather, those starting a mage should be aware of the relative lack of versatility of this class.

Dwarves, Night Elves, Orcs, and Tauren may not be Mages. All other races have access to the mage class.

Customizing your mage

The three talent trees change the flavor of ranged, spell-based damage your mage will do. While each of the three trees have some spells and effects that may only be accessed with considerable talent investment, their differences may not be fully appreciated until late-game quests, instances, and raids, where specific gearing is essential to defeat enemies.

• Arcane enhances the effect of not only your arcane spells, but also of the speed and strength of your other spells as well. This is a good tree to mix with one of the other two.
• Fire spells are heavy-hitting and deal considerable damage. When DPS is your goal, this talent tree is important (either as a mix with one of the other two, or as an exclusive investment).
• Frost specialization deals damage similarly to its Fire counterpart, but it sacrifices some DPS for chilling and slowing effects. This skill tree is especially effective at manipulating enemy movement, which is helpful in solo as well as group situations.

Physically, mages are weak. When soloing, a mage wants to fire off as many spells as possible from as great a distance as possible before the enemy is within melee range. Because of this, frost spells are particularly helpful: when a slowing-effect spell is the first to hit, it increases the number of follow-up spells that can be fired off before the enemy has a chance to retaliate.

Gear that benefits spell damage, spell critical rating, and intellect should be chosen over others. Spirit is nice because it increases the refresh rate of mana and health over time (outside of battle). Stamina is also quite helpful, especially since some of the heavy-hitting spells will inevitably generate threat, making the mage the target of damage.

Choose your buffs wisely (and keep them)

Mages have a number of self-castable buffs that they may have active at any time. Some of these benefits include increased intellect, armor, or triggered effects when attacked. These are very important for the survivability of your mage; make sure to keep them active at all times. (Note: there is an option in the interface menu to display "timers" next to each buff, which count down until it is exhausted. This can be a helpful way to keep track of buffs that need re-casting.)

Food and water

Your mage can create his/her own food and water, which can be consumed to replenish health and mana. This will come in handy especially when grinding in solo play, but arguably more so in group play. Be prepared for other players to ask you for favors when they're hungry!

More mage resources

To learn more about various aspects of mage characters, check out the following links.

• WoW Wiki Mage Guide
• The Mage Talent Guide
• Arcane Brilliance (a mage blog)