Mage PvP

Mages have many times been referred to as “Glass Cannons.” This may be true for some people, but with the right skill and spec a mage can be extremely powerful in PvP. Mages require A LOT of skill if you want to be a good PvPer. If you cannot think quickly and micro-manage many spells and abilities then you would be better off sticking to PvE or rolling an easier class to play. I’ve broken the guide down into the three types of PvP: duels, battlegrounds, and arena. No, I didn’t forget world PvP, but the item rewards for world PvP are garbage and not worth the time or effort to get.

Talents

Before you can ever be amazing in PvP you will need to have a good PvP spec. Here are some commonly use PvP specs (Remember the trees are in this order: Arcane/Fire/Frost): In order from strongest to weakest.

17/0/44

In my opinion this is the strongest all around PvP specs. You have HUGE burst damage with shatter combos and you get a big watery friend to aid you with his ranged frost nova ability (freeze). Ice Block is almost a must-have, it removes ALL debuffs and can be used to absorb certain spells/attacks that would do huge damage. Ice barrier also helps to add to your overall survivability. You also get Improved Counterspell, which is something you will almost have to have if you play arena and will aid you in duels and battlegrounds as well.

0/33/28

Ah yes. Elementalist, my personal favorite spec. This is the spec I use and will always use. The only reason I put it in second is because it is a bit lacking compared to 17/0/44 for arena but overall it is an extremely powerful PvP spec. If you need some motivation to try this spec go to warcraftmovies.com and search for Albis. Watch his world PvP TBC video.

40/0/21

Similar to the above build, but instead of Ice Barrier and Water Elemental you get Presence of Mind and Arcane Power. With this build you play the same as a normal frost mage except you use PoM/AP/Trinket/Frostbolt on people to do massive damage. This build is very viable in any type of PvP but because the combo is on a 3 min cooldown it is commonly used for arena purposes.

40/21/0

Same as the frost 3 minute mage except you get Pyroblast and Blastwave instead of Ice Block. You gain a little more burst with the PoM/AP/Trinket/Pyro + Blastwave combo but you loose the added survivability of ice block.

Heavy Fire

Many people live by this build but for PvP it is very lacking. If you want to resort to hiding in bushes and nuking people with fireballs until they realize where you are and kill you then by all means go for it, but if you ever want to be able to win a “You vs. Many” situation or achieve a rating above 1800 in arena then avoid this spec because it is too lacking in survivability.

Mage 1v1 Dueling Strategies

Duels: (in order from easiest to hardest)

Mage vs. Warrior: This should be a very simple fight if you are spec’d into frost, if not its still easy, just have rank 1 Frostbolt on your bar. Counterspell him at the start of the duel so that he cannot charge you (he will be put into combat). When he changes to Berserker Stance get ready to Blink because he is going to intercept. At this point just cast a rank 1 Frostbolt at him and proceed to kite him around and use combos like Nova+Frostbolt+Ice Lance (if you are frost) to burn him down. If you ever see him equip a shield it is because he used Spell Reflect, just shoot an Ice Lance at him to get rid of it. Doing 200 damage to yourself is no big deal. Be ready to trinket or Ice Block out of Hamstring if he gets it on you, he will do loads of damage to you if you don’t remove it quickly.

Mage vs. Paladin: If the paladin is anything except retribution this will be a very easy fight. If he is ret you will still win, you just have to be more careful. They always open with a stun, just Blink out of it and proceed to nuke them. After that they run around hitting you for minimal damage and healing constantly. The tricky part is knowing when to go in for the kill. MY rule of thumb is that if they are at, or below 35% health, to Counterspell his heal and finish him. If they are above that then there is a good chance the CS will run out before he is dead and he will heal to full, prolonging the battle another 24 seconds until CS is back up. If he heals at above 35% health, let him; just continue to cast Frostbolt/Fireball on him constantly as he heals. If he bubbles, run away for the duration. If you run out of mana sheep him and evocate. His health will regen but it’s not a problem.

Mage vs. Mage: This fight is all down to skill. Figure out what spec they are quickly and react to it. If he is a frost mage and you aren’t then spell steal his ice barrier, taking away his survivability and giving it to yourself and be sure to ALLWAYS blink out of nova or be prepared to take a load of dmg. If he is 3 minute mage be prepared to Ice Block his PoM/AP/Trinket/??. If you are quick enough you can Counterspell him as soon as you see AP go up, making him useless for 4 seconds, thus giving you time to spellsteal PoM/AP for yourself. Be smart, if he is frost use CS on a frost spell, if he is fire use it on a fire spell. ALWAYS have a ward up when the cooldown is up, this can make or break you. Another nifty trick is to Blink behind him at the last second of his spell cast; this brings you out of line of sight thus making his spell not go off.

Mage vs. Shaman: Against a shaman always remember that almost all of their spells are nature. So if you Counterspell a heal or a lightning bolt it will lock them out of almost everything for 8 seconds. Be aware of when they pop grounding totems and shoot a ice lance at it. If he is enhancement make sure you stay away at all costs…. All it takes is one wind fury crit and you are a dead mage. Against a resto shaman just spellsteal his Earth Shield and /lol him because you have won, all you have to do is time one good counterspell on his heal. Against elemental shamans do all you can to keep him from casting on you. This includes counterspell, blinking behind him, and ice blocking chain lightings. Don’t bother casting ice barrier/mana shield except at the start because it will just be purged. Shamans aren’t usually difficult but if you aren’t careful they can be nasty opponents.

Mage vs. Rogue: Ok, so now we’re getting into the hard fights. Rogues can either be a.) Fairly hard -or- b.) Really hard, depending on if they have they PvP gloves that give deadly throw a silence effect. A frost mage should be able to beat a rogue 95% of they time. A fire mage will be lucky to win 50%. Most rouges open with cheap shot because they are dumb. If they do then simply Blink away and start fighting as you always would. If they open with garrote it will silence you for quite some time and apply a nasty dot. You will need to Ice Block as soon as they garrote you to remove the dot and silence (if your fire just run and hope for the best while you’re silenced). After that kite them as well as you can while doing as much damage as you can pump out. MAKE SURE THEY STAY IN COMBAT. If they get out of combat they will re-stealth and you’re out of luck. If they do re-stealth, whether it be by vanish or because you let them get out of combat use rank 1 Blizzard over the area where they vanished and try to catch them before they get to you. If you’re a 3 minute mage use your cooldowns or you probably won’t win. If you are frost, the elemental will help you a lot. Keep your shield up all the time. When they use Cloak of Shadows I run away until they catch up to me and then I turn around and run straight back at them and Blink past them. This usually disorients them long enough for Cloak of Shadows to run out. If you simply Blink away in the direction you’re running they usually catch you with sprint.

Mage vs. Druid: Druids can be very hard if they know what they are doing. If they are feral do exactly what you did vs. a rogue except be ready to Counterspell them when they heal. Remember that you can’t sheep a druid and he can shape shift out of slowing effects. So when you nova him use Ice Lance IMMEDIATELY so that you get a bit of dmg of before he shifts out. Resto druids are a pain. Your best chance is to spellsteal their HoT’s and hope that you can burn them down before you run out of mana. They probably won’t kill you but it will be very hard for you to kill them too. It is pretty pointless to duel a resto druid so I would avoid them most of the time. Balance druids are easy all you have to do is Counterspell one spell and they are locked out of nearly all of their spells for 8 seconds. If they are Moon Fire spammers then keep your shield up and burn them down quickly. If you have to, use Ice Block to remove the dot.

Mage vs. Hunter: Hunters can be very annoying, especially BM spec'd hunters. The key to hunters is staying in their “Dead Zone.” This is the zone outside of melee range and inside bow/gun range. Inside melee range is not too bad because they have weak melee in most cases, but avoid being far enough away that they can shoot you at all costs. At the start of a duel the hunter will run as far away form you as he can get. You don’t have to play cheap and be on him right when the duel starts, but don’t be too far away. MM hunters usually open up with Silence Shot (3 sec silence), I would Ice Block out of this and then Blink inside his melee range. Get close to him as quickly as you can, use Blink for this if you need to. Nova him RIGHT AWAY once you get near him so that when he scatter shots you he cannot get his distance. Scatter and nova will run out at about the same time, at this point use CoC or Blastwave to keep him slowed. If you see him bend over to set a trap make sure you either run around it or Blink over it, if you get stuck in a trap you’re in trouble. Follow him around as closely as you can and use only instant casts until nova is up. At this time you can cast a spell or two on him while he is frozen. BM hunters are an entirely different story. BW makes them immune to slowing effects for 18 seconds. This is a LONG time. If you are a PoM/AP mage then you have a decent chance. If you get a massive crit off they will die quickly, they do not have a lot of health in general. If you are a heavy frost mage you will have a very tough fight on your hands but it is still possible to win.

Mage vs. Warlock: This is one of the hardest fights for a mage. You will need to play perfectly to beat a good warlock. Before the fight starts throw up Fire Ward and Mana Shield/Ice Barrier even though they may be eaten by the pet. At the start of the fight you will either be spell locked (felhunter) or charged (felguard) during which time the warlock will load you up with dots. At this point he will probably try to fear you. If he is aflic or demo, Counterspell the fear and he will be locked out of most of his spells for 8 seconds. If he is destruction Counterspell the first fire spell you see instead. Burst him down as quickly as you can. When you see him cast fear again Blink behind him. They will use Deathcoil, but when they will use it is anyone’s guess. Be ready for it and Ice Block BEFORE it hits you. This is very important because if it hits you it causes “terror” for 3 seconds and gives the warlock a very respectable amount of health back. The Ice Block will also remove all of the dots that were on you, taking away a lot of the warlock’s dps. If you have the battlegrounds trinket use it the next time he fears you. If you are undead it will be helpful, as you have Will of the Forsaken. Even the best mages will loose to a good warlock most of the time, but if you play your cards right you should be able to keep it 50/50.

Mage vs. Priest: Priests are the “Anti-mage.” It is extremely hard to beat a priest 1v1. Against shadow priests make sure to Ice Block out of their dots, if you leave Vampiric Embrace on for long the priest will be healing himself for ALOT while still damaging you. I usually Counterspell a shadow spell and hope that they aren’t quick enough to change forms and heal before I can kill them. Even holy priests are difficult. Against a holy priest spellsteal all of his buffs as soon as you can so that later on when he uses bubble/renew/prayer of mending you can take it for yourself. To win, you have to get a good Counterspell off on one of his heals and burst him down before he can heal again.

Battlegrounds

Battlegrounds should be called NOOBGrounds. 80% of the people who play in there are awful players. This is good news for the skilled ones =D. Basically, use the 1v1 skills you had just learned, but I’ll briefly describe some general strategies for each of the battlegrounds.

Warsong Gulch

To get the most honor you need to get a lot of honor kills, and win quickly. This means not dieing every 2 minutes, because when you’re dead you’re not getting any honor. Mages don't make very good flag runners, leave that to the druids and shaman. What mages can do well, is destroy people =D, so do that instead. As a fire mage try and stay with the zerg (big group of people on you’re team). Just hang back behind the lines and nuke people. As a frost mage you can venture out and engage in some 1vMany fights if you really want to. If I ever see 2, 3, even 4, melee classes together I usually go engage them, even if I’m alone. Being melee they will all have to get near you to attack you. Simply nova them and slow them with CoC while focusing 1 at a time to kill with other, single target, spells in between you’re AoE’s. Often times I kill all of them and survive, but even if I kill two or three and die I still get a good bit of honor since I was alone. When you kill something alone you get ALOT more honor than you would if you were with others. If you find that you cannot do this then stick with the group and help the flag carriers by nova’ing the people chasing him. If you are a 3-minute mage, killing the other team’s flag carrier is where you shine. You can burn him down with your cooldowns before he realizes what hit him.

Arathi Basin

Arathi is a very fun battleground, there are a lot of opportunities to get some good small sided fights in at flag points. Don’t be afraid to go take a flag if you see that you can safely do it, but beware, if you do not see anyone defending a flag point there is probably a stealthed rogue or druid there. AB is good because you can loose and still get a decent amount of honor since the honor ticks at every 300 resources. There is no real strategy for here except to kill people can win flags. *On a side note, a cool trick is to mount up and jump off of the cliff into the mine and Blink when you are about 10-15 yards off of the ground. It will teleport you to the ground and you won’t take any fall damage*

Alterac Valley and Eye of the Storm

The only real strategy I can give you here is to stay with the group, if you end up alone you will probably die. Since there are a lot of people on each team your chances of finding a good 1v1 fight are slim. Just stay with the group and nuke people, treat it almost as a pve raid situation.

Arena

Partners: to have a good arena team you first need to have a compatible team. For 2v2 some good classes to team with are: warlocks, paladins, priests. For 3v3, you will need at least 1 healer and for 5v5 you should have 2. Make sure you’re partners are good before you play or you will kill you’re rating very quickly. At 1800 rating, 1 loss requires almost 2 wins to make up for it.

Addons: Arena pointer: Simple addon that shows how many points you will receive for you’re current rating. Arena Live Frames: Great addon. It has a movable frame that will show your opponent’s health bars and class icons. Their frames will be added as soon as you mouse over them. This allows you to easily change targets. It also shows you who you’re teammates are targeting. General Strategy for 2v2: About 50% of the teams you fight will be a healer with a dps class. If the healing class is a druid, kill it first. Otherwise kill the dps class and Counterspell the healer when he tries to heal. Against a team with two dps classes they key is to burn one down as quickly as you can, and then deal with the other one 2v1. Use your PoM/AP on one of them right away if you have it, if not use anything you have in your arsenal. Once it’s a 2v1 fight you have won (usually).

3v3 and 5v5:If you have a good healer in your group you will do well. In these size matches your team needs to make sure that everyone kills the same person first. Split DPS is a very bad thing. Be aware of their healers and be prepared to Counterspell when you see them heal. Your Counterspell can make or break a game so make sure you time it well.

Some tricks: Mages can conjure their own food and water in arena. No other class can eat and drink in arena unless a mage gives them food/water. Use this to your advantage. If you area about to die run behind a pillar, invis, and go hide and eat/drink.

* After a certain amount of time in an arena tornadoes will start to appear. If you find yourself unable to escape from a melee class, jump into to one of them. They will shoot you about 30 yards in a random direction and do minimal damage, giving you valuable time to nuke.
* Don’t forget Ice Block. If you are about to die use it and hope that a healer notices and passes you a heal. Even if you don’t get a heal, usually the enemies will turn their attention to someone else rather than wait 8 seconds while they are being pounded by your teammates.
* Use every buff you can before arena starts. The more buffs you have, the more mana the shaman and priests have to waste to purge/dispel you.