Mage Class Overview

Mages in The Burning Crusade are strong because they offer high burst and sustained DPS, especially with the Arcane build. They bring valuable utility like crowd control (Polymorph), food/water conjuring, and group portals. Mages also excel at AoE damage (if played right, best AoE damage in the game), making them vital for clearing trash mobs in dungeons and raids. Their ability to kite enemies with slows and roots gives them strong survivability, especially in solo content. Additionally, they offer group-wide buffs like Arcane Intellect. In PvP, Frost Mages dominate with control and survivability, making them top-tier in arenas. Their damage scales very well with gear, making them increasingly powerful over time.

From Vanilla to The Burning Crusade, the three Mage specializations Arcane, Fire and Frost got a rework and some nice additions, giving each spec a more distinct role in PvE and PvP content. Especially the Arcane specialization saw a huge overhaul, making it the most viable PvE spec for Mages by far. The strenghts of Fire and Frost were enhanced and their basic core play-style still remains with Frost building around crowd-control, freezing and shattering enemies, and Fire burning their enemies with the infamous Ignite.

• Arcane Spec: While in Vanilla Arcane was basically untouched, in TBC it is now the best PvE spec, offering controllable burst, good sustained single-target damage, and the best AoE damage of all three Mage specs. Mana and cooldown management now plays a fundamental role. Their gearing process is also far less demanding, when comparing Arcane to other specs, as they now hugely benefit from Intellect, a stat present on nearly every caster item. For PvP, overall Arcane is not so viable, because it is weak to interrupts and can do nothing when the mana pool is empty.
• Frost as PvP king: Frost Mages are now the unrivalled king of all Mage PvP specs. In Vanilla they were already strong with Shatter combos, but now they can control enemies even better and even got their own new Water Elemental pet, that can also make life really hard for enemy players.
• Fire in between seats: Undoubtedly Fire is the second best Mage PvE spec, and also the second best PvP spec. In end-game gear, with a lot of support, it can reach the damage and versatility Arcane has, but it is impractical. In PvP it can be very strong as well, if you build your group around it. Five Mages in an Arena match with massive Presence of Mind Pyroblast single-target, and Blast Wave + Dragon's Breath AoE bursts can decimate an enemy team quickly. However, this requires good coordination and after the initial lethal burst, Fire Mage is much more vulnerable than Frost Mage.

Mage are able to choose from three specializations: Arcane, Fire, and Frost.

Very Mana-hungry, high burst damage, good sustained damage, best AoE damage, low threat, can turn Mana cooldowns into DPS cooldowns. The best Mage PvE spec in the game.

Also Mana-hungry but not as much as Arcane. Fire can do decent damage and does more damage the longer a fight goes on.

Overall decent PvE spec, unrivalled crowd-control, has best PvP potential and can also burst really well in short fights. Very mana efficient.

Mages in TBC are absolute DPS machines and the reworked Arcane and Frost tree add a lot to the gameplay, ensuring that there is much more to it than simply pressing one button the whole night. There is a myth that they need slightly more raid support than other classes. For example, Warlocks require an Elemental Shaman and a Moonkin if they want to shine, which have to be brought exclusively for them because 'the Meta says so'. The raid support for Arcane Mages is usually a Shadow Priest and a Restoration Shaman, which are brought to raids anyways. Mages can turn Innervates from Druids into DPS, if healers do not need them, but it is in no way required to perform well. So it will be no problem to play your Mage to its full extent. In PvP they also rule Outland's Arenas with their mighty Frost tree.

Under normal circumstances, Arcane is the best damage spec during all of TBC. If you give it Shadow Priest, or a Innervate and a Mana Tide Totem, it will perform even better. If you have very long fights, Fire can be slightly better. Frost is the best PvP and farming spec.

There are optimal raid setups that require 14 Arcane Mages designed to AoE down groups of enemies very quickly, used to progress through raids as fast as possible. However, in most cases you will play in a 'balanced Meta raid comp', with the focus on boss damage performance, a good mix of support classes stacked to enhance the performance of Warriors, Hunters and Warlocks. In such a raid composition 1-3 Mages are optimal. Especially in raids with a lot of trash mobs that can be AoE'd down, it can be very beneficial to bring more Mages. You usually raid with 5-6 decent AoE classes (3 Warlocks and 2-3 Mages). Bringing only one more Mage would mean a 17-20% increase in high sustained AoE damage from AoE classes like Warlocks and Mages, making groups of mandatory trash mobs melt down much quicker. So be open minded about your raid setup.

In The Burning Crusade, Mages can be played as Humans, Gnomes, and Draenei for the Alliance and as Undead, Trolls, and Blood Elves for the Horde.

Just as they were in Classic, Gnomes are considered overall to be the best race for Alliance. Their 5% Intellect boost from Expansive Mind is good for all three Mage specs. If you plan to respec to Arcane at some point: Since Intellect is such a strong stat for Arcane Mages, this racial is especially good for the Arcane spec. Escape Artist is the best Mage racial trait for PvP, as it is instant in TBC on a low 1.75-minute cooldown and sometimes even useful in PvE. The extra Arcane Resistance has little to no use for PvP and PvE content. The bonus to Engineering from Engineering Specialization is handy for leveling Engineering but serves no further purpose. Draenei is not considered a worthwile race for Mages, as the Inspiring Presence talent is the only relevant racial ability, but you usually get it from a Shaman in your group.

Trolls are the best PvE Horde race for Mages. The passive damage increase to beasts from Beast Slaying is nice to have while leveling and for fighting beasts, but the real deal is the increased cast speed from Berserking. The more Health you have lost, the more Haste you will gain from this ability for 10 seconds. Further, with Regeneration, Troll Mages are able to generate small amounts of Health during combat, an ability no other race has.

Blood Elves and Undead are not considered especially strong in PvE, but they can be strong in PvP. Blood Elves can silence with Arcane Torrent, and Undead can make themselves immune to Fear, Charm and Sleep effects for 5 seconds with Will of the Forsaken. Cannibalize is the other relevant PvP ability for Undead Mages, restoring 35% of your total health over 10 seconds, eating from a nearby undead or humanoid corpse. The 10 Shadow Resistance for Undead and 5 Magic Resistance also helps slightly versus other casters in PvP.

Mages are limited to wearing Cloth armor and can equip Daggers, one-handed Swords, Staves and Wands. While a one-handed weapon paired with an off-hand is commonly used, it is also quite common to see Mages wielding a Staff depending on the situation or gear available.

All three Mage specializations prioritize similar stats (Spell Damage, Hit, Haste, and Crit), while Arcane can also benefit a lot from Intellect and Spirit. Each spec has their own hit cap (see gear guides below) to ensure that your spells do not miss.

Addons and macros are beneficial to Mages in The Burning Crusade, because they enhance gameplay efficiency by automating complex sequences of actions and providing crucial real-time information, such as cooldown timers and enemy debuffs. This allows Mages to maximize their damage output and responsiveness in both PvE and PvP scenarios.