- A simple Mage arena guide -

Speccs:
Arcane 60/0/11 - Should look something like Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Glyphs - Arcane Missile, Icy Veins and Evocation. As minor:Frost Ward, Fire Ward and Slow Fall.

Frost 51/0/20 - Should look something like Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Glyphs - Ice Barrier, Evocation, Icy Veins. As minor: Frost Ward, Slow Fall and Fire Ward


Most common setups in arena:
2v2 partners - Rogue, Retri Paladin, Disc Priest and possibly in rare cases Balance Druid and Warlocks.

3v3 setups - Rogue/Mage/Disc Priest (RPM) is the absolute most popular, but the Mage/Resto Shaman/Hunter setup have started to grow aswell!

5v5 setups - Mage/Rogue/Elemental Shaman/Disc Priest/Holy Paladin seems to be the absolute best setup right now


2v2 in general:
In 2v2 it's mostly a free choice if you want to play as Arcane or Frost. It's mostly about wich playstyle you want to choose. Most including myself ranks frost being the specc with the highest skillcap, but demand some skillful playing to be worth it above arcane in most cases. If you're playing with a partner who knows how to play defensive will you find lots of joy facerolling in arcane specc. With some gear is it easily possible to faceroll alot longer then most other teams, wich is great for most people who don't have time to learn frost on elite level. As a mage in this bracket, you'll find yourself being main target most of the time; wich demands you to play pretty defensive in most cases to not go straight into a instant loss.

3v3 in general:
Your role here will mostly be to CC and support on the dps when needed. Most will find it hard to be arcane here, wich will demand you to go frost. This is since you'll be crushed in seconds by 2 other dps on you if not careful. It's your main task to keep sheep up most of the time and also to throw a silence on the healer when trying to burn down someone (There will be several times when silence will be crucial to keep up a teammember, so don't be afraid using it defensive aswell).



5v5 in general:
This bracket is seen by many as "broke", since the matches isn't close looking like each others depending on setups and playstyles. Right now do most teams go for a quick burn down, where they hope that they get the first kill. This mostly only involves quick CC like blind, silence etc. As a mage you most often have to stand for alot of the CC in a 5v5, wich means your sheep and silence most likely will be crucial for the match outcome! In most setups frost is the absolute best, but in rare cases arcane can be useful; for example in extremly offensive setups. It still lives setups where the mage gets buffed up and are ment to be the main dpser and burndown the others before getting burned self.


Playstyle as Arcane:
As arcane there's usually two completely different ways you'll be forced to play wich differs quite a lot; wich is offensive and defensive. If you'll have someone standing on you, it will be hard getting out your casts etc, wich will force you to try get out some sheeps if possible, but most of all throwing instants. Your arcane barrage will while playing defensive being the most used ability wich deals great numbers. If you're meeting a team who focus your teamember and gives you oppertunity to go offensive it's only in some cases it's even worth to sheep any. Try to avoid interupts as good as possible, feigncast if you know that they wait for a cast. When not being focused try throw as many arcane blasts as possible when it's not to risky. Stacking the debuffs will make the nuke unhealable! After getting up at 3 debuffs it's hitting so hard that it outheals every healer in game so far from my experiences. For example, in my Arcane Mage/Rogue setup we usually on lay a silence on the priest and go allout rogue without giving a shit what the priest do. The priest wont be able to heal up his rogue anyways even tho the rogue from my team only plays defensive and tries to keep the other in stunlock as long as possible.

DONT forget, feigncast! Not very good to stand there without possibility using sheep, blink, slow and most of your offensive powers

Frost playstyle:
As frost you've got more space to "fail". You'll be far more superior defensivly, but instead, the dmg is harder to throw out. This specc is much more about CCing and timing your spells. The main dmg giver of frost is shatter-combos etc. Getting people trapped in your novas is far superior to frostbolt spamming in most cases. Use your deep freeze whise and don't waste it! Getting a full duration deep freeze will most likely result in time to do above 10k dmg! If you're meeting someone with pvp trinket, mage with blink or paladin with hand of freedom, make sure they have these abilities on cd before you start to cast frostbolt in a try to do a shattercombo onto the deep freeze. If they are able to get out through trinket or blink etc, it's most often better to try Ice Lance spam. It still results in a huge number of damage and you'll risk to loose lesser damage. To reach optimal dmg while target is in a full deep freeze is usually Frostbolt->Ice Lance->Ice Lance -> Ice Lance for most. This is very depending on your own haste rating.

Make sure you always keep Ice Barrier up!!


Stats to reach for in order from my opinion:
1. 100+ spell penetration (Stop whining about sheep didn't work etc, start gearing!)
2. 4-6% hit (Most should reach this without even aiming for it)
3. 440+ haste (Crucial!! Give give give, haste is worth more then most know. Many likes to have a trinket with haste use effect, wich makes it possible for them to get an on demand speedincrease)
4. 450-500 res (Yes, indeed, resilience stacks badly for mages. Still, even now before the 3.2 patch will it be important reaching for at least some resilience to not get 2 shotted)
5. Start collecting SP! After gaining the other stats described, is the damage most likely to be most depending on how much spell power you actually have!



And remember all, keep your Wards up all the time!

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