Mage Class Overview

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.

Yes! 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. While they need slightly more raid support than other classes, the support classes needed are in most of the raid setups anyways, 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.

If you have Mana support, which means a Shadow Priest and maybe a few Innervates and Mana Tide Totems, Arcane is the best damage spec for the majority of the expansion. If not, or if you have very long fights, Fire is better. Right at the start of the expansion, when nobody has good gear, Frost is the most Mana efficient and also does decent damage.

With Hunters and Warlocks fitting very well into raid setups, you should aim to bring 1-3 Mages to your raid team. However, since the content is not very hard, you can add more Mages to your raid setup, if you are less hardcore-minded.

• For PvE
  • Alliance — Gnome if casual, Human if speedrunning
  • Horde — Troll
• For PvP
  • Alliance — Gnome
  • Horde — Undead

The talent trees you already know from Classic have been extended and refined. These specializations are commonly also referred to as "specs", and they are as follows.

• Arcane — Very Mana-hungry, high burst damage, low threat, can turn Mana cooldowns into DPS cooldowns. The best spec for the majority of the game.
• Fire — Also Mana-hungry but not as much as Arcane, can do decent damage and does more damage the longer a fight goes on.
• Frost — Overall decent PvE spec, has best PvP potential and can also burst really well in short fights. Incredibly Mana efficient.

Mages wear Cloth armor.

Mages can use use Staves, Wands, Daggers, and One-Handed Swords.

If you play a Mage, you will cast spells. Most of these spells can be learned from trainers, however most of these trainers are located in Azeroth.

• Bink — Ironforge
• Dink — Ironforge
• Elsharin — Stormwind City
• Jennea Cannon — Stormwind City
• Juli Stormkettle — Ironforge
• Khelden Bremen — Elwynn Forest
• Magis Sparkmantle — Dun Morogh
• Marryk Nurribit — Dun Morogh
• Nittlebur Sparkfizzle — Ironforge
• Zaldimar Wefhellt — Elwynn Forest
• Harnan — The Exodar

• Anastasia Hartwell — Undercity
• Archmage Shymm — Thunder Bluff
• Cain Firesong — Tirisfal Glades
• Deino — Orgrimmar
• Enyo — Orgrimmar
• Isabella — Tirisfal Glades
• Kaelystia Hatebringer — Undercity
• Mai'ah — Durotar
• Pephredo — Orgrimmar
• Pierce Shackleton — Undercity
• Thurston Xane — Thunder Bluff
• Un'Thuwa — Durotar
• Ursyn Ghull — Thunder Bluff
• Uthel'nay — Orgrimmar
• Zaedana — Silvermoon City

If the rest of the page caught your attention, make sure to check out our in-depth guides for leveling a Mage by specialization in the links below!

• Mage Leveling Guide
• Arcane Mage Leveling Guide
• Arcane Mage Level 58 Boost Guide
• Fire Mage Leveling Guide
• Fire Mage Level 58 Boost Guide
• Frost Single-Target Mage Leveling Guide
• Frost Mage Level 58 Boost Guide

Beyond leveling or trying out your boosted character, you may also be interested in our full guides for Level 70 Mages as you explore all that TBC Classic has to offer:

• Arcane Mage PvE Guide
• Fire Mage PvE Guide
• Frost Mage PvE Guide