WoW Classic 19 Twink Mage Guide

Wow Classic 19 Twink Mage Guide

Mages are one of the most popular classes to play in World of Warcraft (WoW).  Their main contribution to a group, or in combat is DPS, but they also have multiple Crowd Control (CC) abilities that make them slightly more versatile than your average Glass Canon.  (That’s an old D&D joke, don’t feel bad if you don’t get it) They also have a number of utility spells and abilities that make them very helpful as a class in general.

Between abilities like Arcane Intellect (Which you should ALWAYS have on) that increases your and your allied caster’s damage, Dampen Magic and Amplify Magic to weaken foes and protect allies, Polymorph to just “Nope Button” an enemy for a short time and Slow Fall for when you have a…misstep, there is a lot of utility here.  Mages can also conjure their own food and drink, which doesn’t seem like much, but when you’re stuck behind enemy lines with low health and no healer, a mage with free food will look like a Holy speced Priest.

The most important ability that mages offer, in and out of Player vs. Player (PvP), is the decided advantage a Frost Mage offers with respect to CC.  With the right talents, a Mage’s Frostbolt spell will slow enemies and has a chance to freeze them.  Not to mention Frost Nova‘s ability to simply do this on command.  At the end of the day, Mages are not only amongst the best at DPS (Damage Per Second), but also the unmatched masters of CC.

Contents

  • Races:  Which races are the most complimentary for a Twink Mage?
  • Professions:  What Professions should you choose for your level 19 Twink Mage?
  • Spells and Abilities:  Which Spells are available to a level 19 Mage and which are the best for Twinking?
  • Talents:  Which talents should you choose to get the most out of your level 19 Twink Mage?
  • Gear:  What is the Best in Slot (BiS) gear for a Mage of level 19 and where can you get it?
  • Buffs:  Which consumables, party and world buffs should you acquire for your Mage before heading off to a Battleground (BG), or the Arena?

Races

Whether one is trying to maximize one’s potential, or it comes down simply to a question of aesthetics, race is a pretty important choice for most players.  Fortunately, your choice of race for a Twink Mage is somewhat limited. There are only four races available to Mages in WoW, with two races per faction. So, even if you agonize over this choice for hours, it’ll still take a little less time for a mage.

Alliance

  • Gnome:  Unlike any of the other races that the Mage class is available to, all of the Gnome’s racial traits are in some way beneficial to that class.  Arcane Resistance is a valuable ability to any character, let alone a Mage, but it is also specifically useful to them, as they are often the targets of other Mages.  Every player that’s ever made a Twink benefits from Engineering Specialization, but more on that later.  Escape Artist is an invaluable escape from CC and really important in PvP.  Finally, no Mage – no caster – has ever been the worse for a higher intellect.  That’s why Expansive Mind might be the best racial trait to be had for a Mage.  More intellect, more damage.
  • Human:  Human Mages, especially those only interested in PvP, will get limited benefit from their racial traits, all told.  Diplomacy is indirectly useful for getting some of your BiS items from Battleground vendors more swiftly.  There is a slight situational benefit from Perception, as it helps to spot Rogues and Druids more easily.  Finally, likely the most directly beneficial to regular play, The Human Spirit offers a good boost for health and mana regen.

Horde

  • Troll:  Trolls probably have the least to offer a Mage in the way of direct racial benefits.  Beast Slaying offers a situational benefit against Hunter’s pets and will likely aid you in leveling, but that’s it.  The only other racial trait useful to a Mage, is also a potent one. Regeneration will give you that edge in a prolonged battle that other Mages don’t have.  You’ll be heartier than other Mages and will likely last longer.
  • Undead:  Cannibalize is a decent “extra bandage” that lets you quickly heal a bit between fights.  Use it carefully though, as it leaves you slightly vulnerable. Shadow Resistance is good for everyone, but especially you and Will of the Forsaken allows you to shrug off most of the more potent CC effects.

For sheer cost/benefit, the Gnome is clearly the way to go.  That being said, if you are Horde, you might want to try the Undead.  If you’d like to find out more about Races, including a bit of lore, check out the Races page here.

Professions

The fact that Professions do not offer stat boosts is a large reason why Engineering is the Profession of choice for anyone wanting to Twink.  The fact that it offers the best caster DPS head slot item for a level 19, is why it is a necessity for the Mage in particular.  There are also a lot of other head slot items leading up to your BiS that will aid in leveling both your character and Engineering itself.  Couple this with all of the many unique and extremely useful gadgets that the Profession provides and it is easy to see that Engineering is the clear choice for a Twink.

Your second choice for a Profession should not be a frivolous one, though.  It will largely depend on both your source of income, and your play style, and will influence the latter.  So think carefully on which Profession you choose to compliment your Twink, cause it sucks to have to start from scratch a second time.

  • Engineering:  For a level 19 Twink Mage, the most important reason to take Engineering is for the Shadow Goggles.  Unlike most of the other classes, the BiS item for your head slot item is from Engineering.  The beauty of this is while everyone else is running around fishing like a murloc with a hole in its belly, you’ll be stylin’ with your shades and already in possession of the best item you can get.
    Engineering also offers a lot of other benefits, like bombs and the Minor Recombobulator, which can help if an enemy Mage sheeps your Tank.  The damage bombs do, is small compared to what Mages can produce on their own, and are only going to be useful for their minor CC effects, or if you’re just plain out of mana and it’s all you have.  Gnomes will have a slight edge here, as with their racial trait, they will be able to produce the Discombobulator Ray, which is a nice bonus CC that doesn’t affect your Polymorph cooldown.  .
  • Alchemy:  This is a solid choice of second Profession, especially if your Main, or Alt has Herbalism and is providing the materials for it.  There are a lot of buff consumables that are helpful in PvP that Alchemy provides and being able to craft your own Lesser Mana Potions is awesome.
  • Enchanting:  Enchanting is another good choice for second Profession for a number of reasons.  You can enchant your Pre BiS gear to make leveling a bit easier. Disenchanting all those greens that are useless to you is sometimes more lucrative than selling them is.  Not to mention that you can trade the enchanting gear you get to an enchanter for your BiS gear’s enchantments later on.
  • Other Professions:  Tailoring has obvious benefits to any clothie, but those benefits are lost on a level 19 Twink Mage whose BiS gear is mostly vendor items, quest rewards or World Drops.  It can’t hurt, but there are other, better options. The only other profession worth considering is Mining and then only as a means to support Engineering.  All other professions are useless.

Secondary Skills:  Unlike Professions, secondary skills can be leveled all the way to 255.  Because of this, there are a lot of benefits to reap and a lot of advantages to be exploited here.

  • Cooking: Yes, yes – the Mage can conjure food and that’s great, but none of the conjured food comes with the Well Fed buff, which is why all Twinks should level their cooking as quickly as possible.  You need your cooking high to be able to make the Curiously Tasty Omelet, which is the easiest to acquire and make food that offers the best Well Fed buff at level 19.  You can get the recipe for it from Kendor Kabonka in Stormwind and Nerrist at the Grom’ gol Outpost.
  • First Aid:  Mages should always have some bandages on them, for they are a squishy bunch with very little stamina.  For this reason, you will want to raise your First Aid Skill. To do this, you will want to acquire Expert First Aid – Under Wraps, Manual: Heavy Silk Bandage and Manual: Mageweave Bandage.  Once you do this, you will be able to make and use the Mageweave Bandage.  Better though, if you have a friend to make them for you, once you’ve maxed First Aid to 225, you can use, but not make the Heavy Runecloth Bandage.  If an Alt/Main/Friend can’t get them for you, you can also always but the Heavy Runecloth Bandage off of the AH, if it is available.
  • Fishing:  Unlike almost all other classes attempting Twinkdom at this level, Fishing isn’t actually that important to a Mage.  Sure, you could waste time getting the Lucky Fishing Hat and Nat Pagle’s Extreme Anglin’ Boots to meet that ridiculous man’s unrealistic expectations, but wouldn’t you rather just have a higher Intellect?  Sure you would. So get that Engineering up, make those Shadow Goggles and live your life by the standards you set for yourself and not by those set by someone who literally spends all day fishing.  

When it’s all said and done, you’re going to want to focus mostly on Engineering and First Aid the most, to get the best advantages for your Twink.  That being said, if you want to waste your time throwing lines into the water and hanging out with the poor, that is your business.

Nat Paggle is a filthy hobo.

Spells and Abilities

The Mage has a large repertoire of very useful spells at their disposal.  All of these abilities can be easily broken down into three categories. Arcane, Fire, and Frost.  Frost and Fire spells are largely damage dealing abilities, with some very rare exceptions. Arcane spells are where all of a Mage’s more practical, or utilitarian spells can be found.  The following is a breakdown of all of the abilities available to a Mage of level 19.

Arcane Spells

  • Arcane Explosion:  This is a great spell for when you get surrounded, but doesn’t have much use outside of that.  Still, it’s better than trying to melee enemies
  • Arcane Intellect:  Arguably the best buff for casters and definitely the best one that the Mage can produce.  Always have this on.  There is really no reason, or excuse not to.
  • Arcane Missiles:  This is actually your most damaging spell at this level.  So even though it isn’t Frostbolt and can’t give you any CC benefits, it is not to be ignored.
  • Amplify Magic:  This one should really only be used on a party member who is not taking much damage, but still needs a lot of healing.  Like a Rogue whose just had threat pulled off of him, or a Druid in Bear form that’s just finished Off Tanking for the moment.  Use it sparingly and when the situation calls for it.
  • Conjure Food/Conjure Water:  These two are awesome in a pinch.  No Well Fed bonus here, but always having mana and health restoring food and water is an amazing boon.
  • Dampen Magic:  Another oddball buff, only use this spell on an ally when they haven’t taken any damage at all and never use this on the healer.  Ever.
  • Detect Magic:  Allows you to see what buffs an opponent has.  Somewhat situational, but any insight into your enemies is never a bad thing.
  • Remove Lesser Curse:  Good for countering some of the abilities of the Priest and Warlock. Pretty straight forward.
  • Polymorph:  Maybe the best and most useful spell in the Arcane category next to Arcane Intellect and your most important CC effect.  SHEEPED!
  • Slow Fall:  This is a great spell for when you’ve had a misstep.  Make sure to carry a Light Feather!

Fire Spells

  • Fireball:  One of your two mainstays, Fireball is one of your most damaging spells.  When not casting Frostbolt, be casting this spell, or Arcane Missiles.
  • Fire Blast:  Pretty good damage, but kind of a mana hog if you could have been casting Fire, or Frost bolts.  A good one to throw out after either of those, since it is instant cast.
  • Flamestrike:  This one is fantastic for setting people on fire…way over there!  Great against groups, but not much else.  Most other spells at your disposal do more damage.

Frost Spells

  • Frost Armor:  This is another spell that it is foolish to not almost always have active if you can.  It’s also really handy if you happen to be running away from someone who is attacking you in melee.
  • Frostbolt:  This is your absolute go-to, work horse spell.  When you are not actively casting any other spells, be casting this.  With the increased efficacy from talents, this spell will be responsible for most of the CC effects your produce.  Even if they aren’t the best one.
  • Frost Nova:  The second of your best CC abilities, Frost Nova can trap multiple enemies at once, allowing your comrades to move in for the kill.  With talents, the length of your freezing can be increased, leaving a longer window of opportunity for you and your allies to seize the day.

Playing a mage effectively, especially in PvP, is all about doing as much damage as possible in the shortest amount of time.  Time it so that your instant cast spells go off right at the end of spells that take a few seconds to cast, to save on the global cooldown.  Watch your mana and when you are low, or think you will be low soon, switch to a wand for awhile. Don’t forget to keep drink on hand, conjured or otherwise, to make sure you can quickly restore mana between fights, even if you can’t get your health to full.

Remember that you can use Polymorph anytime you like, not just before a fight breaks out.  If there’s an opponent that has been dealing damage, but isn’t being engaged right then, sheep them, even if it is only to piss them off.  An angry enemy is an off balance enemy.

Talents

There are a lot of schools of thought about which talents to take for a Mage and outside of PvP, they are all valid.  For a level 19 Twink Mage however, there is only one talent tree one should be looking at. Frost. There are only four talents that you’ll even need to be worried about at this level at all, actually and they are as follows.

  • Elemental Precision:  Max this out, as it effects both your fire and frost spells, ensuring that more of the spells that you cast actually do damage.
  • Improved Frostbolt:  You can either max this all the way out, or just put the two points necessary into it to get to the next tier.  Either way you are increasing the speed at which you cast the Frostbolt spell, which is only a good thing.
  • Permafrost:  This is how you maintain control over an entire battlefield.  By increasing the duration and speed reduction of all of your frost spells, and making sure to attack multiple opponents, you can keep a fight moving in the direction you want it to.  Very slowly.
  • Frostbite:  The chance for your Frostbolt to simply freeze a target, is almost better than the benefits of Permafrost, but the fact that Frostbite also has a chance to do absolutely nothing makes that still an almost.

You may wish to tweak these suggested numbers, perhaps you do want a higher chance to freeze your foes and so will swap the points from Permafrost with Frostbite, or perhaps you just want to be able to cast Frostbolt as swiftly as possible and want to forsake Elemental Precision altogether.  Go for it. It’s your character, right?

Furthermore, while it is strongly advised that you stay in the Frost talent tree if you want to do PvP, you can really do as you like.  If you want to see what the other trees have to offer, try out the mage talent calculator and don’t take the good advice that’s been carefully and thoughtfully provided for you.  That’s your choice, because it’s your character.  No one thinks that you’re being ungrateful.

BiS Gear

Mages have the least troublesome gear requirements of almost all of the other classes.  The biggest reason for this is that they are not themselves are not destitute, usually, and so do not need to acquire their clothing from filthy beggar fishermen in Booty Bay.  Most of their gear is either a World Drop, quest reward, or is purchasable and in the case of the World Drops, is also likely purchasable from the AH.

The only other item on the list that can’t be gotten from the previously mentioned methods are the sweet shades that you will be wearing, because you are a mage…and not a hobo.

* These items, while not necessarily the BiS for this slot, are much easier to acquire than the actual BiS item and are almost as good and might actually be preferable, depending on your preferences.

Enchantments

You are definitely going to want to get the absolute best enchantments available for your Twink, as many of the best ones for a Mage focus on increasing your spell damage and Mages are all about DPS.  Make sure your Main/Alt is an enchanter, or that you’ve done some favors for some enchanters, because getting these enchantments isn’t going to be cheap.

The following is a list of the absolute best enchantments for a mage and the item slot they are for.  Some slots may have more than one enchant. In these cases the decision is a matter of preference and nothing more.

Buffs

Some consumables are better than others, but there are a lot available at level 19 that are should be of extreme interest to a Twink Mage.  You might have to hunt or pay dearly for some of these, but they are worth it for sure.

Elixirs

  • Elixir of Firepower:  The only battle elixir available to you worth mentioning, this will increase your fire spell power.  Since none of the other ones are useful to a Mage, if you can get this one, use it.  At least it helps solve the issue of which Battle Elixir to have active.
  • Elixir of Defense:  Again, helping you to answer the question of which Elixir to use, EoD is the only Guardian Elixir worth mentioning for a Mage.  The Elixir of Wisdom might sound good, but it will not stack with your Arcane Intellect, which gives a higher bonus.

Potions

  • Healing Potion:  While not an absolute necessity, having one of these on you is a great way to stave off disaster if the healer bites it, or to delightfully surprise your healer when you pop one and make their job easier.  Their also great for when you’re on your own.
  • Lesser Mana Potion:  You will need these.  So keep as many as you can carry, but be sparing in their use.
  • Minor Rejuvenation Potion:  Why not have your cake and eat it too?  Everyone needs a little healing and comfort now and then, so get you some of both.
  • Minor Magic Resistance Potion:  Use these when you have other casters throwing around their multicolored doom to mitigate the damage they do.  After all, how dare they throw around more colorful light than you do?  You’re a Mage!
  • Swiftness Potion:  Great for tactical retreats and chasing down annoying stragglers as they flee from your arcane might!  For the former, sheep the Hunter, pop one of these and book it. For the latter, pop the potion, dart past your allies and drop the pesky runner like a Stormtrooper dropping a Jawa running from a Sandcrawler.

Scrolls

  • Scroll of Protection II:  If you don’t have an Elixir of Defense, then use this.  Otherwise, it’s useless.
  • Scroll of Spirit II:  This may be the far more useful scroll to a Mage in particular.  Mages focus very heavily on increasing Intellect and oft times, Spirit is left by the wayside.  This means that health and more importantly, mana regeneration is not as high as some other classes.

Team Buffs

  • Power Word: Fortitude:  This is the only team buff to even talk about, because you can cast Arcane Intellect yourself, which you knew, because of course you have it active all the time, right?  The only other buff you could have up would cancel AI and take away your increased Intellect, so why would you want to do that?  Take the extra Stamina…you’ll live longer.

Other Consumables

  • Minor Wizard Oil:  This stacks with whatever enchantment you have on your weapon, so if you can have this…do have this.  You want all the extra spell power you can get.
  • Rumsey Rum Black Label:  Drunken spell slinging is not usually advisable, but the Stamina bonus you get from this stacks with just about all the rest of them.
  • Curiously Tasty Omelet:  Mentioned previously, this is a recipe that offers the best Well Fed bonus for level 19, while also being easy to get.

Now you know all that you can about building the most epic level 19 Twink Mage.  Use this knowledge to encase your friends in solid blocks of ice and then slowly ebb away their life, or simply set them ablaze in a glorious gout of fulmination!  Don’t forget to watch your mana, and stay away from hobos! Have fun!

 

About the Author

Furious

If I'm not working or spending time with the family I'm probably gaming. Some of my favorite recent games I've played are Far Cry 5, World of Warcraft Classic, and 7 Days to Die.
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