style="width: 565px; height: 88px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/64978">

At level 58 you can, with the purchase of the expansion pack, take the
Dark Portal into Outland. By that time you should have the ability to
turn someone into a living bomb, conjure a watery elemental, or barrage
your enemies with arcane might. You’ve fought through tons of
quests, maybe visited an instance or two, and are now looking towards a
brand new adventure. Well there is plenty of adventure waiting for you!



Kiting 3.0



One of the main principles of the Mage is kiting. I cannot
stress this enough. To conserve mana, health, prevent pushback, and
take on difficult enemies you have to kite. It’s troublesome
but you have to do it sometimes. During Outland it’ll become
more and more necessary in order to avoid dying or taking the majority
of your health and it’s crucial in Northrend.



There aren't any more tricks that I can give you for kiting.
It’s the same – href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/mage/spells#Frost_Nova_"
target="_blank">Frost Nova and then move, use href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/mage/spells#Cone_of_Cold_"
target="_blank">Cone of Cold or the frosty snares
to keep them slowed while you get distance. Playing with your camera
and using blink can really help.



So instead I’ll talk about a new problem: kiting multiple
enemies. You probably did this a good deal 1-60 but it’s not
as big of an issue as when you’re in Outland and one enemy is
enough to kill you if you don’t kill it first. When dealing
with two enemies remember it’s always better to href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/mage/spells#Polymorph"
target="_blank">Polymorph one and kill the other
if you can. If you can’t use Polymorph then using the
standard kiting procedures works well to keep them away from you. Frost
Nova and then run away and start casting then use Cone of Cold if they
can close to you. If you have an Ice Elemental it can take one easily.



Towards the Dark Portal
(Outland)



style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px; float: right;"
alt="" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/64977">Things
change once you make your first step into the Dark Portal. Your gear is
going to be insufficient for dealing with the enemies. You’re
going to be torn apart fairly easily and you no longer can just cast
Ice Barrier and easily just stand about. Kiting for the first few
quests until you can gear is essential if you’re going to
survive. Once you’ve gotten the new gear from the starting
quests you’ll find your spell power is massively beefed and
that you’re once again powering through enemies without any
trouble.



Once you start in Outland you’ll find a lot of enemies that
are immune to Frost, Fire, or Arcane. We’ll go into that in a
little bit.



Towards the Frozen North
(Northrend)



Arriving into Northrend is similar to your arrival to
Outland, except things are a little bit more severe. Kite all of the
start mobs and DO NOT try to take on multiples until you have your new
gear. The new gear can be kind of slow to come in so wait until your
stamina and spell power are high enough. There isn’t anything
different in Northrend that doesn’t really apply to Outland
so your experience there will serve you well except for Mage Hunters.



I often suggest going into zones before you can to get gear like in my
last guide but there is no reason to do that for Northrend. The gear is
A LOT better than what you’ll have in Outland but the jump
isn’t as severe and the difficulty is pretty high. Start
Northrend at 70 and save yourself a little bit of trouble.



Reflect and Immunities
– How you learn to hate Mage Hunters



In Azeroth there are some enemies who are immune to Frost,
Fire, or Arcane but they are few and far between. They’re
also usually weak and you’re probably above their level
anyway. In Outland and especially Northrend you’ll find a lot
of beefy elementals who know how to smash your face into the ground and
are oblivious to any of your attacks. This can be a major problem if
you’re trying to smash their faces in.



If you run into any of these use the opposite element. If
they’re immune to Frost you can forget kiting them and if
they’re Immune to Fire and you’re a Fire Mage then
you’re in trouble. The good news is that you’ll get
an ability known as href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/mage/spells#Arcane_Blast"
target="_blank">Arcane Blast which will shred
apart anything immune to Fire or Ice in short work. 
It’ll take a ton of mana but it’s better to drink
than to walk back.



style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px; float: left;"
alt="" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/64976">In
Northrend you’ll find Malygos’ Mage Hunters who
hate you. They really, really, really hate you. They hate you so much
that they’re more than ready to grab you and throw you off a
cliff. Some of them are even equipped with a reflect shield and
that’s where the trouble begins. If you hit them for 2,200 to
2,800 damage in a crit then it’ll be reflected right back to
you. That’s way more than most enemies are going to do and
it’ll rip you apart. If you’re a Fire Mage and you
throw a Fireball that crits and follow up with a Fireblast that crits
and their shield is up then you’ll probably be tasting dirt
and enjoy a luxurious trip back to your corpse.



There is a way to deal with this. The AI on enemies that use reflect
shields is pretty simplistic. They’ll use the shield on
whatever element they’re being hit with and it does have a
cooldown. The actual ability is a stealable buff with href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/mage/spells#Spellsteal"
target="_blank">Spellsteal so it’s not
like you can’t take it down. The various shields
don’t last long as well. So as soon as you see a shield being
cast, that’s your queue to move (to cancel your spell) and
then follow up with a Spellsteal. That’ll rip their buff off
allowing you to go back to pounding them with elemental or arcane
might. You can also rotate abilities or switch to a different school of
magic whenever the shield goes up.



Fine Dining in Foreign
Places



At level 60 you’ll find that your Food and Drink
that you summon is inadequate compared to the level 65 and 75 food and
drink. That’s the story of a Mage’s life and
you’ve got a few choices. You can either suck it up and drink
the lower value water or spend your gold on store bought water. I
highly suggest investing in the higher grade water to make leveling
move by faster.



New Abilities and Gimmicks



You’re going to get a few abilities that you
never knew about before. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/mage/spells#Molten_Armor"
target="_blank">Molten Armor will give you an
additional 3% to crit. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/mage/spells#Ice_Lance"
target="_blank">Ice Lance does triple damage
against frozen targets, otherwise it has a very low damage output. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/mage/spells#Frostfire_Bolt"
target="_blank">Frostfire Bolt does both Frost and
Fire damage. Spellsteal will steal a magical buff off an enemy. The
most important ability is Molten Armor which should replace your Ice
Armor unless you’re a Frost Mage. In which case
you’ll have to look at what you want. The 50% to
crit a frozen enemy if Frostbite or Finger’s of Frost procs
or would you rather have a passive 3% or 5% (with a Glyph) ability to
crit? One is probably better than the other but I say go with what
makes you happy.



Frosty Vengance



If you’ve been following this guide so far then
you know the routine and that’s not going to change. Your
rotation will remain Frostbolt, Frostbolt, Frostbolt, etc. until the
enemy is dead. You don’t get any new or exciting Frost spells
that makes the rotation any different. Put your Ice Barrier, summon
your Water Elemental, press CTRL-1 to start its attack, and then start
spamming Frostbolt. Use your Ice Elemental to freeze the target so that
you can gain the additional chance to crit from Shatter.



At around 60 you’ll want to branch out into another talent
tree. I suggest Arcane for Clearcasting to help with mana and for
Arcane Power which can be casted on your pet.

• Prepare – Ice Barrier and Summon Water Elemental
  if it’s up.
• Attack with Water Elemental and use the Water
  Elemental’s Freeze if available.
• Frostbolt
• Frostbolt
• Frostbolt
• Continue Frostbolt rotation until the enemy is near death
  and follow up with a Cone of Cold.
• If the enemy is frozen and near death use Ice Lance to
  finish it.

Fiery Wrath



The same can be said with Fire. Nothing is new here. Open
with Pyroblast, follow in with Fireballs until its near death and then
wand it to death or cast Fire Blast. Living Bomb can be applied if you
need a lot of damage fast, but the mana cost is rather high.



At around sixty you’ll want to start branching out into other
talent trees. I suggest Arcane for Clearcasting which will help with
Fire’s costly mana cost.

• Apply Combustion if it’s up.
• Pyroblast
• Fireball
• Fireball
• Fireball
• Continue with Fireball until the enemy is near death and
  then Fire Blast it.

Arcane Might



Arcane is viable for leveling at around 60 in a way.
You’re going to be less effective than Fire or Frost Mages
but Arcane is sometimes a popular raiding build and you may want to
level up with it to “learn” it for raiding. There
are a few key principles. You’re going to want to cast Arcane
Blast to increase your damage followed by Arcane Barrage until Missile
Barrage procs in which case you’ll cast Arcane Missiles.

• Arcane Blast
• Arcane Barrage
• Alternate based on the Arcane Blast debuff until Missile
  Barrage procs.
• Arcane Missiles (during proc)
• Repeat

Quests



Mage quests end until 72 when you’ll be given
the ability to teleport to Dalaran. It’s given from the image
of Aethas (Horde)/Modera (Alliance) in Agmar’s Hammer
(Horde)/Star’s Rest (Alliance). You have to go to 19,59 in
Dragonblight and use the item given. There is an enemy there called
Archanimus that’s for another quest that you can combine
together. There is even another quest to
“investigate” what’s above as well. This
lets you to into Dalaran as early as 72 instead of level 74!



Where to Adventure



Once you step foot into Outland you’re given a
near linear path to 80. There isn’t a lot of wiggle room but
we’ll go over the zones and see if we can’t give
some Mage specific help.



Outland

• Hellfire Peninsula (58-62): Hellfire is easy going for the
  Mage and should present no problems outside of the first few quests
  before you get your gear.
• Zangarmarsh (61-63): There are some elementals with the
  naga that are immune to Frost but otherwise an ok zone. Some enemies
  have a stun poison so time your casts against the poison so you
  don’t get stuck stunned midcast.
• Terrokar Forest (62-65): There is nothing of any interest
  to a Mage in Terrokar outside of the bird men. Watch out for them
  because they have fast attack speeds that can cause a good deal of
  pushback fast.
• Nagrand (64-68): Nagrand is heaven for Mages. Some of the
  elementals may be immune to your abilities but there isn’t a
  lot there that’ll mess with you.
• Blade’s Edge Mountains (65-70): By the time you
  hit Blade’s Edge if you have a lot of rested you’ll
  be nearing 70. If you don’t you’ll probably get
  through most of the zone before 69. Ogres like to use Fire based
  attacks so use your Fire shields. Outside of there isn’t much
  here.
• Shadowmoon Valley / Netherstorm (68-70): Pick Netherstorm
  because you’ll find more Humanoids than Elementals.
  You’ll probably only have to do a few quests if any at all
  but it’s easy going.

Northrend

• Howling Fjord/Borean Tundra (68-72): Both zones are
  excellent for Mages although Borean Tundra has a good few elemental
  quests that will frustrate you (Simmer loves to smash puny Fire
  Mages).  The Mage Hunters in these zones are weak and no
  concern.
• Dragonblight (71-74): Some of the elementals are immune to
  your abilities and the Mage Hunters are dangerous. Read what I wrote
  about spell reflect because from here on out the Mage Hunters are ready
  for you. Undead generally are not a threat.
• Grizzly Hills (73-75): Furbolgs present no problem and
  remember to use Frost/Fire shields to protect yourself against casters.
• Zul’Drak (74-77): Frost Shield is handy here and
  as usual the undead aren’t much of a problem.
• Scholzar Basin/Stormpeaks (76-80): In Scholozar pick
  Orcales if you want the crit trinket or Frenzyheart if you want the
  haste trinket. If you don’t care then there isn’t
  much of a different to Mages. But I’d pick the Oracles for
  the critical strike. Stormpeaks doesn’t have much to note.
• Icecrown (77-80): Icecrown is full of Undead which again
  are usually no problem for a Mage.

Happy hunting!