Mages are the masters of offensive magic. While Priests may understand the Light and Shadow, Warlocks understand deeply into the Shadow and Fire, and Shamans understand the elements… the Mage understands the Arcane along with the Fire and Frost elements.

The majority of the spells available to a Mage are of the offensive variety with a good deal of them containing snare components to allow the Mage to control the battle. The non-offensive spells generally allow the Mage to conjure various food and drinks, mana stones for their self use, or to teleport around the world.

Understanding each and every Mage ability can lead to a better understanding of the class. Below is a list of every spell along with what it does in simple terms and some recommended ways to utilize the various abilities.

Arcane

Amplify Magic: A buff that increases both healing and magical damage taken. It lasts a short period of time and is useful when there is no magic damage involved or where any magic damage is done in long bursts.

Arcane Blast: A 2.5 second cast time spell that does around 700-720 damage and applies a debuff that increases manage cost and decreases cast time per cast. First cast has a 2.5 second cast time and costs 195 mana. Second cast has a 2.17 second cast time and costs 341 mana. Third cast has a 1.83 second cast time with a 487 mana cost. The fourth time it is casted (and until the debuff wears off after 8 seconds) it will have a 1.5 second cast time and cost 633 mana. This skill is useful as a high damage/low mana cost skill the first time you cast it. After its cast, consider letting the debuff wear off before using it again.

Arcane Brilliance: Similar to Arcane Intellect, the Arcane Brilliance spell will buff the entire party with Arcane Intellect. In parties heavy with Warriors it may be better to cast Arcane Intellect on a person by person basis due to the high mana cost. See Arcane Intellect for more details on the actual buff.

Arcane Explosion: A point blank area of effect damage spell that is instant. The best use is for when multiple enemies have surrounded the caster. Since it is instant there can be no cast time interruptions meaning that it’s a lot easier to cast than any of the other AoE spells, especially if the mobs are close. Its mana cost has to be looked out for though.

Arcane Power (Talent): An instant spell that makes the next spell that you cast have 30% more damage and cost 30% more mana. It is useful in PvP or where you need to frontload a lot of damage as fast as possible. Pyroblast is a good spell to combine with this one.

Arcane Missiles: Channeled damage spell. Does decent damage but is very mana inefficient especially considering that the mana is spent once the spell has been casted and it can be easily interrupted. Some players use it to interrupt players in PvP since the missiles attack at a very high rate.

Blink: Teleports the caster forward and removes any stuns or roots. It’s useful in escaping situations in both PvP and PvE, removing any roots or stuns, or gaining distance to continue to kite a mob around. It’s also useful just to get around the world faster, although caution should be used on any rocky area since it may not teleport you as far as on a clear straight path.

Conjure Food: Creates temporary food that can be eaten to restore health out of combat. The food can be traded to other players but will disappear after 15 minutes of being logged out of the game.

Conjure Mana Stone: Creates a soulbound item that can restore the caster’s mana.

Conjure Water: Creates temporary water that can be dranked for mana out of combat. Much like Conjure Food, the water can be traded to other players but will disappear after 15 minutes of being logged out of the game.

Counterspell: Instantly stops any spell the enemy is casting and blocks any spells from that school for a short period of time. For instance if you use Counterspell on another Mage who is casting Fireball then they could not use Fire spells for a very short period of time.

Dampen Magic: Much like Amplify Magic, Dampen Magic is a buff that will reduce all incoming healing and magic damage. It’s useful in solo situations where there is no healing and lots of magic damage or in party situations where magic damage comes in quick succession.

Evocation: Restores 60% of the caster’s mana over 8 seconds. It’s a channeled spell that’s on a 5 minute cooldown and is best used when below the caster’s mana is below 40% and nothing is in range to interrupt the spell.

Invisibility: For 5 seconds the Mage begins to fade into becoming invisible slowly losing threat. After 5 seconds (assuming no hostile action is done or any damage is taken) the Mage is removed from combat and turned completely invisible for 20 seconds. During that time the Mage can only see those that are either invisible (not stealthed but invisible) or those that can see invisible. It’s great as an escape tool or as method to lose threat.

Mage Armor: A buff that increases all resistances and allows some mana to regenerate during spell casting. Mage Armor is useful in situations where the Mage doesn’t take any direct physical hits and needs to conserve as much mana as possible.

Mana Shield: Damage taken will be drawn from the caster’s mana instead of their hit points while it lasts.

Polymorph: Removes an enemy from combat while quickly healing them. Any damage will break the effect.

Portal [City]: Opens a portal to a city like Silvermoon City, Stormwind, Ironforge, Thunder Bluff, Shattrath, etc. Anyone in the Mage’s party can enter the portal until the portal expires or the Mage enters the portal.

Presence of Mind (Talent): Once this buff is applied, the next spell with a cast time of less than 10 seconds will be instant.

Remove Lesser Curse: Removes a curse from yourself or a party member.

Ritual of Refreshment: Requires the assistance of two other players. Summons a table where up to 50 stacks of Conjured Manna Biscuits can be obtained from.

Slow (Talent): Reduces target’s movement speed by 50%, ranged speed by 50%, and casting time by 50% for 15 seconds. Useful mostly in PvP.

Spellsteal: Steals a beneficial magic buff from any enemy, removing it from that enemy and placing it on the caster for up to 2 minutes. Useful in PvP or in any encounter where there is a positive magic buff on an enemy that you want off.

Teleport [City]: Teleports the caster to the selected city (like Silvermoon City or Thunder Bluff)

Fire

Blast Wave (Talent): Instant point blank area of effect spell that does damage and snares enemies. Useful for escaping, as a little extra damage, or just as an overall decent ability.

Combustion (Talent): Each time a fire spell is cast Combustion adds a 10% ability to gain a critical strike with fire spells until 3 critical strikes happen. This spell is useful to use whenever it’s up (since it has a short cooldown) or on tougher enemies/bosses/anytime in PvP.

Dragon’s Breath: Deals damage in an AoE in front of the caster and disorients the enemies (making them run around dazed). Excellent escape ability and since it’s instant it’s another good way to finish off a few enemies grouped together. Any damage will break the disorient effect though.

Fire Blast: Instant direct damage spell. Primary damage spell for a Mage. Useful in most every situation imaginable. Deals good damage instantly and is often used as a way to either finish enemies or just deal more damage to them.

Fire Ward: A buff that absorbs some fire damage.

Fireball: The caster will throw a fiery ball of well fire at a single target dealing great damage with a small damage over time effect afterwards. A primary damage spell used by both fire mages and any mages. In PvE it’s a great way to lead off a fight.

Flamestrike: A casted area of effect direct damage spell with a small damage over time added. A staple of AoE spells.

Molten Armor: Increases caster’s spell critical strike chance, reduces the chance to get critically hit, and deals a small amount of fire damage to attacks. Useful in a variety of situations where the additional armor from Ice Armor isn’t needed and the additional critical strike chance is.

Pyroblast (talent): Exactly like Fireball (see above) but with more damage and a longer cast time. A staple ability of any Fire Mage as a great way to lead into battle.

Scorch: A direct damage spell with a short cast time. It’s strange in that there aren’t many uses for it, but it does have a quick cast time. In raiding some Mages will use it as a primary attack spell, casting Scorch until they attain “Clearcasting” at which time they’ll use a higher mana cast spell.

Frost

Blizzard: A channeled damage over time area of effect spell. Using Frost Nova to secure enemies into place and following through with Blizzard is one of the many uses.

Cold Snap (Talent): When activated it refreshes the cooldown on all frost spells. Useful for when the cooldown on Ice Barrier/Block/Water Elemental is down.

Cone of Cold: Instantly casts an area of effect direct damage spell in a cone in front of the caster followed by a snare.

Frost/Ice Armor: A buff that adds additional armor along with snaring and then slowing the attack speed of any attackers. The one Mage armor that should be up most of the time.

Frost Nova: A point blank area of effect root that is casted instantly. It does very minimal damage but is great in stopping enemies so you can gain distance to cast spells, as a way to escape enemies, or as a way to bunch enemies together and then cast an AoE spell such as Flamestrike or Blizzard.

Frost Ward: A buff that absorbs some frost damage.

Frostbolt: Similar to Fireball in that it hurls an icy ball of ice at a single target doing damage. Instead of a damage over time effect, it snares the target. Great primary spell for frost mages who do not have Fireball powered up or as a way to snare a target and slow it from a distance.

Ice Barrier (Talent): Ice Barrier is an instant cast spell that absorbs damage and makes your spells uninterruptable while it’s up. The shield will hold for sixty seconds or until it absorbs x amount of damage. At level 70 it absorbs 1,075 damage which is a decent amount. Useful to cast through high attack speed enemies and as an additional health buffer. 10% of your spell damage is added on to how much damage it aborbs.

Ice Block: Forms a block of ice around the caster making them invulnerable to damage for 10 seconds. It can break through various debuffs like polymorph and stuns and can be clicked off so that the caster can use Ice Block then click it off to escape Polymorph.

Ice Lance: A low damage instant cast no recharge direct damage spell that’s useful for attacking something on the run. It does triple damage to anything frozen.

Summon Water Element (Talent): Summons a powerful water elemental 45 seconds. The water elemtn has a few spells like Waterbolt and Freeze.

Icy Veins (Talent): Hasten your spellcasting. Increases spell casting speed by 20% and gives you 100% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting. Last 20 seconds. Useful to get that extra DPS out and avoid interruption.

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