Mage Basics. Part One.

As I posted yesterday, I have decided to give what I hope to be a primer on the mage class. So let's get started, shall we? According to the World of Warcraft info page, a mage is all about the following.

"Mages wield the elements of fire, frost and the arcane to destroy or neutralize their enemies. They are a robed class that excels at dealing massive damage from afar, casting elemental bolts at a single target, or raining destruction down upon their enemies in a wide area of effect. Mages can also augment their allies spell-casting powers, summon food or drink to restore their friends, and even travel across the world in an instant by opening arcane portals to distant lands....

"Damage is the name of the Mage game, and they do it well. Their arsenal includes some powerful crowd control spells, also, giving them the ability to keep hordes at bay -- in fact, these abilities can be used on the most common creatures in the game, thus making them extremely valuable for this purpose."

Seems pretty simple, yes? Especially when compared to other hybrid classes like shamans or paladins. Blizzard says you blow things up and provide crowd control. You, the mage, are uniquely suited to both tasks.

So you want to create a mage. Your first major choice is race.

For the Alliance:
-Human - Increased stealth detection, Spirit increased by 10%, increased reputation gains, +5 to sword and mace skills.
-Gnome - "Escape Artist" (break out of roots and snares), Intelligence increased by 5%, +10 Arcane resistance, +15 to Engineering.
-Draenei - +5 to Jewelcrafting, Gift of the Naaru (free heals!), Inspiring Presence (1% +spell hit for you and party members), +5 Shadow resistance.

For the Horde:
-Troll - Berserking (decreased spellcasting time when hurt), 10% health regen, 5% damage bonus to Beasts, +5 to throwing weapons and bows.
-Forsaken - Will of the Forsaken (immune to fear effects for 5 seconds), Cannibalize (eat bodies to regain health), underwater breathing, +10 Shadow resistance.
-Blood elf - +10 to Enchanting, Arcane Torrent (AoE silence and mana regeneration), +5 to all resistances, Mana Tap (suck mana to power Arcane Torrent).

That's it. Of the six races, there are four good choices. The other two, well, you can do it if you want.

Gnomes. These are good for both PvP and PvE. The Intellect bonus means you have a deeper mana pool, which means that you can cast more and have less downtime between mobs. The racial ability "Escape Artist" is another way to get out of movement impairing effects. Combine it with the spell Blink (and your PvP trinket) and you are going to be quite a hard target for one so squishy.

Draenei. Pretty decent overall. Having a free Heal over Time (HoT) effect can get you out of many jams and keep your clothie self alive longer. Living longer means more grinding and less time graveyard running. If you mainly solo, this might be the class for you. The "Inspiring Presence" racial is also good for instances and raiding, as it reduces the resists you and your spellcasting party members see.

Forsaken. Nearly undisputed PvP kings (and queens). The "Will of the Forsaken" racial is incredibly powerful, which makes taking down warlocks much easier. Your bonus to Shadow resistance will also serve you well when you fight warlocks and mobs who cast shadow spells. Cannibalize is not quite as effective, since you can make your own food and water, but it can come in handy.

Blood Elf. Bonus to spell resistances. Mana sucking. An Area of Effect (AoE) silence. Blood elves appear to be tailor- made for PvP. Killing healers? No problem. Burst damage then silence and interrupt their heals. (My 19 twink hunter has killed plenty of casters this way before, as has any blood elf player who even sometimes PvPs.)

That's the basics. The rest on the character creation page is fluff. You want a mage? Go out and make one. Don't let crazy folks like me tell you not to roll a troll mage simply because their racial abilities are laughable. I'll just be happy to see another mage running around and blowing things up.