LEVELING
1-10 | 11-20 | 21-30 | 31-57 | 58-70
1-10
Leveling through early levels as a mage can be a bit frustrating because your spells are not extremely powerful. Where you start off leveling is determined by what race you have chosen for your mage. You start off with Fireball, a basic damaging spell, and Frost Armor, a self buff.
Level 2
You learn Arcane Intellect, which can be cast on any friendly target. While leveling, make sure you always keep up the Intellect buff and your frost armor.
Level 4
You will learn Frostbolt which has a slowing effect when you hit the enemy, making it a great spell for kiting. You also learn how to Conjure Water, which means you'll never have to buy water to regenerate mana.
Level 6
Now you'll learn Fire blast, which is an instant cast and can be useful if many ways great for when your enemy is close to you. You also learn the ability to Conjure Food, again saving you money over your character's lifetime. By this time you should be getting familiar with your mage and developing spell rotation that work best for you. At this point, a good way to kill enemies is to start out with Frostbolt to do damage plus slow them down. Next use Fireball for more damage, then Arcane Missiles and lastly Fire Blast when the target is close to you to finish it off.
Level 8
Polymorph is a powerful crowd control spell. If you get one too many enemies attacking, you can sheep it and it won't be able to hurt you. You also learn Arcane Missiles, which is a great addition to doing damage. This is a channeled spell which means its cast starts immediately, but it will only do full damage if it is not interrupted.
Level 10
Frost Nova holds crowds in place and allows you to stop enemies should they get too close to you. At this point you can also be thinking about which talent tree you want to build your mage around.
11-20
Level 12
Dampen Magic is a good buff to use when fighting anyone that can cast spells at you. It is good to keep up while soloing since you won't be healing yourself. You can always click it off if you are a Dranei healing yourself. Slow Fall takes a light feather to cast, but will protect you from fall damage.
Level 14
Arcane Explosion is an instant AOE spell with a short range centered on you. It is good to keep rank 1 ready to flush out invisible or stealthed enemies.
Level 15
You can start a simple quest line in Stormwind, Undercity, or Tranquillien to collect materials for a decent robe. It isn't too important, but it is good to do with other quests in the area.
Level 16
Flamestrike is a ranged fire based AOE spell for your use. This one is targetable, unlike Arcane Explosion.
Level 18
You learn Amplify Magic, which is good to use in a group with a healer when fighting enemies who don't do any magic damage. Remove Lesser Curse is used often in groups, where you may be asked to keep the party curse free.
Level 20
A lot of new abilities come with level 20. Another ranged AOE spell Blizzard becomes available. Fire Ward is helpful when fighting enemies who have fire based abilities, whether it be a mob or another player. Evocation is a handy spell to have if you run low on mana. Mana Shield is a very useful, mainly in PvP, as it protects you at the cost of your Mana. You'll also learn Blink, which is useful in an array of situations. It is often used to escape from enemies, especially after a frost nova. You can also travel to the capital city of any race that has mages and learn teleport spells, which allows you to instantly travel to any of those cities.
21-30
Level 22
Scorch is an important spell for Fire Mages, as the improved version increases all fire damage done on the target. You also learn Frost Ward, helpful against frost creatures and Frost mages.
Level 24
Counterspell is the next new ability, this is helpful by stopping the casting of spells and preventing them from casting. You will find this useful especially against enemies who heal themselves.
Level 26
Cone of Cold is a useful instant cast spell slows and does frost damage to anyone in a cone in front of you.
Level 28
Here you will learn your first mana gem, which will give you some mana back when you use it. Remember that it shares a cooldown with your healthstone, if you are in a group with a warlock.
Level 30
Ice Block is very useful in both PvP and PvE. This lets you become encased in a block of ice and immune to attacks and damage. It will also remove many debuffs, even ones that are not normally removable. You'll also get Ice Armor, an upgrade from Frost Armor. It is also possible to go to the non-mage capital city for your faction (Thunder Bluff or Darnassus) to learn another teleport spell.
You can also learn your 21 point talent at this point. In the Frost Tree, Cold Snap finishes all the cooldowns on your frost spells, allowing you to use all of your cooldowns twice in rapid succession. Presence of Mind in the Arcane Tree makes your next spell cast that is under 10 seconds an instant cast, often combined with the fire talent Pyroblast. Blast Wave in the Fire Tree is a nice close range AOE.
Quest
At level 30 you can start a quest for one of three different wands. You may have trouble completing it until level 40, however.
Start at Tabetha in Dustwallow Marsh (46,57). Then, go to the Raceway in the Shimmering Flats in Thousand Needles. Find Magus Tirth at (78,75) and turn in the quest.
Next, find Plucky, a chicken, east of Magus. When you see him type "/beckon Plucky" wait for him to tell you the password then return to Magus turn in and get follow-up.
Get the book from the Scarlet Monetary Library. This is an instance so you will need help. The book is located on a bookshelf south of Doan's Chamber. Return to Tabetha for your reward.
31-57
Level 34
Mage Armor is useful in fights where you might need a boost to your resists or your mana regeneration.
Level 35
You can now start another quest from Tabetha in Dustwallow Marsh. It will reward you with a choice of two items. The rewards are nothing special, so if you would rather not go to Uldaman, you can skip it.
Level 40
Now you can learn your mage capital city portals. You'll again have to travel to each city, but It shouldn't be a problem if you already have the teleport spells. This is extremely useful for after instance runs to allow the entire group to return home.
You can also learn 31 point talents at this point. Arcane Power in the Arcane Tree allows you to deal a ton more damage while using up more of your Mana pool. Combustion in the Fire Tree allows you to increase your critical strike damage of your fire spells. Ice Barrier in the Frost Tree which is great for absorbing damage and also protecting you from getting your spells interrupted while casting.
Level 50
Now you can learn your faction's non-mage capital city portal spell, Thunder Bluff or Darnassus.
You'll have 41 talent points and be able to spend a point in the last spell on your Talent tree if you want. In the Arcane Tree you get Slow, which slows down the Targets movement speed and also attack and casting speed. This is mostly useful in PvP. Dragon's Breath in the Fire Tree is a close range AOE attack similar to Cone of Cold. It does a lot of fire damage and puts the targets into a daze for a few seconds. In the frost tree, you get Summon Water Elemental, which basically gives you a temporary combat pet and is a great reason to spec frost.
At level 50 you can start a quest line in Azshara that ends up in the Sunken Temple. You can then choose from three rare items as a reward. These are again replaceable, so if you don't plan on going to Sunken Temple, feel free to skip it.
Level 56
Arcane Brilliance is a group version of Arcane Intellect, buffing everyone in your party with Intellect at the same time.
58-70
Now you should head to Outlands for improved quest rewards and much more concentrated quests.
Level 60
You can learn Teleport: Shattrath, which will help you get around to do your Outlands quests more quickly. There are also portals to the other major cities in Shattrath, making it a sort of all in one teleport spell.
Quest
Polymorph (Pig)
Fun to have as an alternative to sheep. It will not allow you to polymorph more than one enemy.
Start at Archmage Xylem in Azshara (28, 50) Go to around (41, 52) to find the Warlord and kill him get the Prismatic Shell. Return to Archmage Xylem.
Go find any Spitelash Nagas. A good area is near (36, 55). Sheep the Spitelash and then wait till it breaks and then AOE all the mini sheep that appear. Continue this process until you have killed 50 mini sheep. Return to Archmage Xylem for Pig Polymorph!
Level 62
You will receive a new armor to use, Molten Armor. This will be your new favorite armor for increasing your DPS.
Level 64
Arcane Blast can help you as a fire or arcane mage to do more damage.
Level 65
Now you can pick up Portal: Shattrath
Level 66
Ice Lance is an instant cast spell and does more damage when cast at frozen targets. This is great for Frost mages.
Level 68
Invisibility! The main use for Invisibility in groups is that it will completely wipe your threat level to zero. You can also use it for sneaking around, but you won't be able to see anyone except for other invisible units or people who have the ability to see you.
Level 70
Spellsteal takes a buff from your target and gives it to you. It is very fun to take unique buffs that only NPCs can cast. Arcane Brilliance Rank 2 can only be learned from a book which is an instance drop. Conjure Food Rank 8 and Conjure Water Rank 9 are also learned through books, so keep an eye out in the Auction house or guild bank for them. You max rank of food and water to learn Ritual of Refreshment, which is a must have in instances and raids, since it combines food and water into one item and allows you to make many at one time.
PROFESSIONS
Alchemy is a good skill for any class, but nothing particularly useful for mages that can't be purchased.
No reason to take blacksmithing as a mage.
This is a very good second profession to take up as a mage because of the ring enchants (+12 spell damage) you can get at 375. It also allows you to disenchant, which is useful if you choose tailoring. Enchanting is also a good moneymaker as well.
Engineering will give you the ability to make yourself one of the best helms in the game. You will also be able to use some fun utility items like Goblin Jumper Cables to recover from a wipe should you use invisibility to avoid death.
Take herbalism if you want to make money or if you have alchemy.
An expensive profession to level, especially without mining. There are a few useful crafted items, but there are usually better choices for a mage.
The only reason to take this as a mage would be the group buffs that drums offer.
Pair mining with jewelcrafting, engineering, or blacksmithing. Also a useful profession with which to make money.
Skinning is another good money making skill and will give you some materials for tailoring.
This is the most useful profession a mage can have up to 70 and beyond. It will let you craft your first epics that you won't be replacing until high level raids. Fire and Arcane mages should specialize in Spellfire Tailoring, while frost mages should do Shadoweave, each for their respective sets.
