Grim Views

I don't main a mage, but I've fallen in love with the class XD so Le'sara is gonna start teaching mages! With the new expansion, a few mechanics have changed, but I've studied up, and most of the playstyles are basically the same.

I'm not sure if i should mention talents, because they're mostly your choice. I will however name one in each spec, just because!

FIRE
The bursting spec. Fire mages are monstrous once they get going. The main trick is to stack crits to proc "Hot Streak". To crits in a row will unlock a free Pyroblast, which is your bread and butter burst spell, as the damage is obscene, but it takes forever to cast normally. BUT WAIT! In Legion, they allowed Hot Streak to proc free Flamestrike too! Flamestrike is an AoE that is also slow to cast, but packs quite the punch!

Talent recommendation: Living Bomb, a targetted ability that does DoT damage over 4 seconds, and then a massive explosion. Targets hit by the explosion also get Living Bomb debuff!

FROST
The crowd control spec. Frost mages are unparalleled masters of crowd control. While they aren't any slouches for damage, they primarily work with a pet to deal their tricks. They also have strong AoE with abilities like Blizzard to damage and slow, and Frost Bomb. But for single target spells, ooh boy! Ice Lance is an ability that hurls one of your Fingers of Ice (which you get through spells) at an enemy, and can also proc the "Splitting Ice" effect, hitting another person. It does triple damage to "frozen" targets too!

Talent recommendation: Ring of Frost, exactly what it says. for 10 seconds, a ring gets placed on the ground, freezing anyone who steps into it for 2 seconds, up to ten people! This also procs Ice Lance's bonus damage!

ARCANE
The mitigated damage spec. Arcane mages are constant damage dealers, spicing things up with the occasional nuke. using Arcane Power to increase your spell power by 30% (and make your spells cost 30% less) really brings some punch to your abilities like Arcane Barrage (an over time channeled attack) and Arcane Explosion (a massive explosion that hits all enemies in 10 yards) and Arcane Blast.

Talent recommendation: Supernova. Whether you target an ally or enemy with it, it will do 190% spell power (!) to all enemies in an area, and knocks them up!

ALL SPECS
The following are spells that all mage specs can use, not counting talents!
Refreshments: food. moving on.
Polymorph: turning a target into an animal, making them lose all control of their character
Ice Block: Make yourself untargetable while you sit in a block of ice
Counterspell: your dime-a-dozen interrupt
Spell Steal: a real nasty trick, you can steal the targt's beneficial spell effect AS YOUR OWN.

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If anyone wants in-depth for any one spec, let me know!

I am going to recommend that you play Fire Spec with us in PVP.

Good work. I would also suggest that you add a talents section in the comments, just to show us your reasoning, favorites, and tricks others may not have thought about doing.

So the Hot streak comes in two phases. On your first Crit, you get what's called heating up. That let's you k kw you got a Crit and your next one will proc Hotstreak.

When I get heating up, I tend to follow it with Fire Blast or Phoenix Flames, which are auto Crit (and hit for a fair bit of damage). Then I have my Pyroblast, which 8/10 will Crit when it hits as well, letting me do a barrage of instant casts.

I'll have to copy my talents, but I have Flame On, which allows me to instantly refresh the cool down of Fire Blast, so I can continue my Crit chain should I need it.

I also have, I think it's the new Cold Snap talent. Basic lt I have 2 charges of Ice Block, and while I'm frozen it heals me for 3% of my total health every second I'm frozen, which helps ALOT.

The other tips and tricks I uses is Rune of Power, which increases my spell damage by 50% whIle I'm standing there, and combustion which always makes every spell I can't 100% crit.

Currently working on managing using fireball and scorch, for when I'm moving/stationary, as well as remembering to use rune of power and Combusting on cooldowns. But yea, I've always played a mage, love the class!

And now they gave me the ability to speak all horde languages and transform into any player for 2 minutes, the RP potential just got better!

How do you get the other languages back? Before Legion it was a glyph, but now it's been taken out.

Its a 110 Spell Tomb found in Old Dalaran, in The Scorcerus Sisters Shop. cost like...500g I think? It sadly does not include Pandaran and Demonic (Yet, but im sending a ticket, *fingers crossed*)

You can get the Illusion Tomb there too, any character you click, you can transform into for 2min. No spell range on that either, which I think it cool. Doesn't work on NPC's though.