Mage

How the trees work

• One talent point per level from 10, so 51 points at 60.
• Gold-medal 1-point talents sit at 11, 16, 21 and 31 points in a tree. The 16-point slot is New (earliest at level 25).
• Respec at a class trainer. Dual Spec unlocks at 40.
• New Hit is one stat for spells, melee and ranged. Crit is one stat too.
• New Down-ranking is penalised: low spell ranks get less spell damage and a lower proc chance. Frost Blast (24) was added as the cheap slow to replace rank 1 Frostbolt (! see TL;DR).
• New Class buff talents are baseline now, and Magic Attunement is baseline for Mage.
• Piercing Ice and Arcane Focus are gone from the trees.

Arcane (burst and mana)

• New Arcane Blast (11 pts): 1.5 s cast. Each cast gives 15% of your Intellect as spell damage and raises its own cost 175%. 4 stacks, 15 s from the first cast.
• New Arcane Wrath (16 pts): 3.5 s cast, 6 s cooldown. Gains spell damage equal to 5% of your max mana.
• New Missile Barrage (2 pts): Arcane Blast 40%, and Arcane Wrath, Fireball, Frostbolt, Frost Blast and Frostfire Bolt 20%, to make your next Arcane Missiles free and twice as fast.
• Presence of Mind (21 pts): next spell under 10 s cast is instant.
• Arcane Power (31 pts): +30% damage and +30% mana cost for 15 s, 3 min cooldown.
• Arcane Concentration 5: 10% Clearcasting (next damage spell free).
• Arcane Meditation 3: 50% of mana regen keeps going while casting.
• Improved Channeling 5: Missiles never lose cast time, Blast and Wrath 70% of the time.
• Arcane Mind 5: +10% Intellect. Arcane Instability 3: +3% damage, +3% crit.
• Improved Counterspell 2: adds a 4 s silence.

Fire (crits, Ignite, Pyroblast)

• Pyroblast (11 pts).
• New Heating Up (16 pts): non-periodic crits from Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Fire Blast and Scorch cut your next Pyroblast cast 25%. 3 stacks, 20 s. Fire Blast adds a stack every time it deals damage.
• Blast Wave (21 pts): 45 s cooldown, 50% Daze for 6 s.
• Combustion (31 pts): each Fire hit adds 10% Fire crit, ends after 3 non-periodic Fire crits.
• New Ignite 5: crits burn for 40% more over 4 s. Every Mage now has their own Ignite.
• New Fire Power 3: +3% Fire damage per Fire effect of yours on the target, up to 12%.
• New Incineration 5: +10% crit on Fire Blast, Ice Lance, Arcane Blast and Scorch.
• New Accelerant 5: Fireball, Frostfire Bolt and Arcane Wrath cast 0.5 s faster.
• Improved Fire Blast 2: 2 s off the cooldown, +15 yd range.
• Master of Elements 3: Fire and Frost crits refund 30% of base mana.
• Critical Mass 3: +6% Fire crit. The 28 Oct hotfix cut it from 5 points (10%), the value in Blizzard's 16 Oct notes.
• Improved Scorch 3: 3% Fire vulnerability per stack, 5 stacks.

Frost (control and shatter)

• New Ice Lance (11 pts): instant, 200% more damage to Frozen targets (was 300% earlier in beta).
• ! Since a 28 Oct datamined hotfix, rank 1 has an 8 s cooldown. Ranks 2-6 (trained from 28) show none. Not announced by Blizzard: recheck live.
• New Ice Block (16 pts): now the 16-point talent. 10 s immunity, 5 min cooldown.
• Cold Snap (21 pts): resets your Frost cooldowns, 10 min cooldown.
• Ice Barrier (31 pts): absorb shield, +3% Frost damage for 1 min, +3% more and no pushback while shielded. 30 s cooldown.
• New Fingers of Frost 2 (needs Ice Lance): Chill effects have 15% to make your next 2 spells act as if the target is Frozen, 15 s.
• New Winter's Chill 5: Frostbolt, Frost Blast and Fingers of Frost Ice Lances stack it. Your next Cone of Cold deals +5% damage and +7% of your spell damage per stack, 5 stacks.
• Shatter 3: +50% crit on Frozen targets. Frostbite 3: 15% chance Chill freezes for 5 s.
• Ice Shards 5: +100% Frost crit damage bonus. Improved Frostbolt 5: Frostbolt and Frost Blast 0.5 s faster.
• New Precision 3: +6% hit with all spells (28 Oct hotfix).
• Improved Blizzard tops out at a 40% slow.

Best levelling spec

• Arcane: Icy Veins says it "levels up very well". Zockify calls it the stronger early spec. Missile Barrage gives free Missiles and Arcane Meditation cuts drinking.
• Frost: Icy Veins calls it comfortable and consistent. Zockify suggests switching to Frost at 30+ on a PvP ruleset for open-world control.
• Fire: Icy Veins rates it decent but less reliable for levelling. ! One source.
• talentsforever counted 75,995 planned Mage builds (18 Sep to 16 Oct): 49.5% Frost, 30.5% Arcane, 20.1% Fire. That is popularity, not performance.

Roles

• All three specs are ranged damage. Mage has no tank or healer spec.
• Groups want you for water, food, buffs, crowd control and portals (Icy Veins).
• Arcane: big burst, can pull threat, weaker slows than Frost (Icy Veins).
• Frost: best control and the safest in dungeons. Fire: AoE burst with Blast Wave and Flamestrike.
• ! No raid ranking yet: the Icy Veins raid DPS tier list is still "TBD" (26 Oct). Raids open 9 Dec.

Rotations

Arcane solo (Icy Veins and Zockify)

The rotation as text

• Pull with Frostbolt (Frost Blast from 24 is the cheap snare, if it's still trainable !).
• Missile Barrage proc → Arcane Missiles right away.
• 2 to 3 Arcane Blasts (Zockify: up to 2), then spend the stacks.
• Icy Veins dumps stacks with Fire Blast; Zockify channels Arcane Missiles.
• Finish low targets with your wand so Spirit regen comes back.
• Stacks last 15 s: start the next fight with other spells if 2 are still up.

Arcane AoE (Icy Veins only !): gather, Frost Nova, Flamestrike, Cone of Cold, then kite with Arcane Explosion. If the tank holds them, spam Arcane Explosion.

Fire (Icy Veins only !)

The rotation as text

• Pyroblast opener, Fireball filler, Fire Blast to finish.
• Spend Heating Up stacks on a fast Pyroblast.
• Frostfire Bolt replaces Fireball from 40.

Frost (Icy Veins only !)

The rotation as text

• Frostbolt spam. A Frostbite freeze or Fingers of Frost proc → Ice Lance.
• Don't cancel a Frostbolt cast to Ice Lance a Frostbite freeze.
• Melee on you: Frost Nova, step back, keep casting.
• 3+ targets: Cone of Cold, Ice Lance the procs and frozen targets, Frost Nova for more.
• 5+ targets: Cone of Cold on cooldown, Blizzard in between.

• Raid rotations and every build as a tree: Mage builds.

Stats

• New Hit and crit each cover spells, melee and ranged now.
• Hit first at 60: a resist costs mana and does nothing (Icy Veins). ! The spell hit cap for Forever is not published.
• Precision (Frost tree row 1) gives 6% hit with all spells, so every spec can take it.
• Levelling: Spirit is worth more than people think, because downtime drinking sets your pace. Mage Armor (34) and Arcane Meditation boost regen while casting (Icy Veins).
• Frost gear: spell damage, Frost damage, crit, then Spirit (Icy Veins only !).
• New Wands no longer gain damage from spell damage, so a wand is only as good as its own DPS.
• ! Full level-60 stat weights: unconfirmed, the beta stopped at 30.

Armour and utility by level

• Frost Armor, then Ice Armor at 30, then Mage Armor at 34 for mana (Ice Armor when melee hurts).
• Blink at 20, Evocation at 20, Counterspell at 24, Cone of Cold at 26, Mana Agate at 28.

Changes vs Classic

• New Frost Blast (24): 1.5 s Frost spell with a 40% slow. It takes your Frostbolt talents. ! Gone from the trainer in the 28 Oct data.
• New Frostfire Bolt (40): 3 s cast, counts as Fire and Frost, higher spell damage scaling and lower resist chance. Ranks at 40, 50, 60.
• New Ice Lance, Fingers of Frost, Arcane Blast, Arcane Wrath, Missile Barrage and Heating Up are all talents.
• New Ice Block moved to the 16-point slot. Cold Snap cooldown is now 10 min.
• New Cone of Cold lasts less, to stop AoE farming. Its first 4 targets take more damage and stay slowed longer.
• New Arcane Missiles checks line of sight once, at cast.
• New Ignite is per Mage and can't double dip.
• New Winter's Chill now buffs Cone of Cold and no longer has a resist roll.
• New Frostbolt, Fireball and Arcane Missiles ranks were rebalanced. Arcane Concentration and Arcane Impact suffer the low-rank penalty.
• Wands still hit fine early (Lesser Magic Wand is about 11.4 DPS in beta data). They just don't scale with spell damage.
• New Mages learn Comprehension, which reads foreign and ancient texts.
• New Teleport: Dalaran at 50.

Race choice (Horde)

Mage races on Horde: Orc, Undead, Troll.

• New Orc (new combo): Blood Fury +10% attack and spell power for 15 s, 2 min. Shatter Curse removes curses, then -5% magic damage taken for 8 s, 3 min. Hardiness -20% stun time.
• Troll: Berserking +10% cast speed for 15 s, 3 min. Regeneration: +20% health regen, and 20% of it carries on in combat.
• Undead: Will of the Forsaken (fear, charm, sleep), 2 min. New Cannibalize now restores mana too. New Touch of the Grave: damaging spells have a 30% chance to drain up to 5% of your max health, 15 s internal cooldown.

Picks

• Icy Veins: Orc, Undead and Troll are all solid Horde picks.
• PvP ruleset: Icy Veins calls Orc's Shatter Curse and Hardiness "great additional defensives, particularly for PvP".
• ! Racial numbers moved on 26-27 Oct. Recheck in the live client.

Professions

• ! Icy Veins only: Frost guide says Tailoring + Enchanting; Arcane and Fire guides say Engineering first, Tailoring second.
• New Camp features help casters: Mana Well (Alchemy), Incense Candle (Herbalism), Faction Banner (Tailoring, Spirit).

Pre-raid / BiS

• Cut for now. The beta capped at 30, so no source has a sourced level-60 list. Check again after launch.

Sources Blizzard notes · Blizzard Mage deep dive · Blizzard panel · Icy Veins · Wowhead · Zockify · talentsforever · foreverchanges

Before you start

• One point per level from 10, 51 at 60. Each row needs 5 more points in that tree.
• Gold talents at 11, 16, 21, 31 points. The 16-point row is New (Arcane Wrath, Heating Up, Ice Block).
• Respec at a class trainer. Dual Spec at 40: keep a levelling or AoE spec beside your group spec.
• Calculators: Icy Veins (links below) · Wowhead (no share string checked).
• ! Each link was checked against Icy Veins' 29 Oct talent data. A live talent change can break a link, so reopen it on launch day.

Arcane levelling 10-60 → 32/8/11

Points 10-20 match the most planned Arcane start on talentsforever. The finished build is Icy Veins' Arcane build. The order in between is ours.

Point order as text

Level	Talent	Points
10–14	Improved Channeling	5
15–19	Arcane Concentration	5
20	Arcane Blast	1
21–22	Missile Barrage	2
23–24	Arcane Subtlety	2
25	Arcane Wrath	1
26–28	Arcane Meditation	3
29	Arcane Impact	1
30	Presence of Mind	1
31–35	Arcane Mind	5
36–38	Arcane Instability	3
39	Arcane Impact	2
40	Arcane Power	1
41	Arcane Impact	3
42–44	Precision Frost	3
45–49	Incineration Fire	5
50–52	Accelerant Fire	3
53–57	Improved Frostbolt Frost	5
58–60	Ice Shards Frost	3

• Open in calculator
• Precision comes early in the Frost tier because Arcane has no hit talent now (Arcane Focus is gone).
• Zockify opens with Wand Specialization instead, to save mana on early kills. Either works.

Frost levelling 10-60 → 13/0/38

Points 10-40 are the most planned Frost order on talentsforever. Piercing Ice is gone, so Precision fills 38-39. Those planners then go into the Arcane top rows. Points 54-60 are ours.

Point order as text

Level	Talent	Points
10–14	Improved Frostbolt	5
15–19	Ice Shards	5
20–22	Frostbite	3
23–24	Improved Frost Nova	2
25	Ice Lance	1
26–28	Shatter	3
29	Ice Block	1
30–32	Permafrost	3
33–34	Arctic Reach	2
35–36	Fingers of Frost	2
37	Cold Snap	1
38–39	Precision	2
40	Ice Barrier	1
41	Precision	3
42–46	Improved Channeling Arc	5
47–51	Arcane Concentration Arc	5
52–53	Missile Barrage Arc	2
54–56	Frost Channeling	3
57–59	Improved Cone of Cold	3
60	Arcane Subtlety Arc	1

• Open in calculator
• Ice Lance can come at 20 instead of 25 if you want it sooner. Most planners take Frostbite first.
• Missile Barrage procs from Frostbolt too, so free Arcane Missiles work in Frost.
• Improved Cone of Cold and Frost Channeling make this the AoE pick for dungeon pulls.

Dungeons

• Arcane 32/8/11: the levelling build above is also the dungeon build. Big burst, so let the tank get threat first.
• Frost 13/0/38: best for control and AoE packs (Cone of Cold, Blizzard, Frost Nova into Ice Lance).

Raid (level 60 theory, untested)

! Nobody has played past 30 in Forever and raids open 9 Dec. These are published plans, not proven builds. We recheck them in launch week.

Arcane 32/8/11 (Icy Veins Arcane guide)

Point order as text

• Arcane: Improved Channeling 5, Arcane Concentration 5, Missile Barrage 2, Arcane Subtlety 2, Arcane Blast, Arcane Wrath, Arcane Impact 3, Arcane Meditation 3, Arcane Mind 5, Presence of Mind, Arcane Instability 3, Arcane Power
• Fire: Incineration 5, Accelerant 3
• Frost: Precision 3, Improved Frostbolt 5, Ice Shards 3

Icy Veins link · wowtbc.gg variants: Arcane with Fire support 32/16/3 and Arcane with Frost support 32/10/9.

Fire 16/32/3 (Icy Veins Fire guide)

Point order as text

• Arcane: Improved Channeling 5, Arcane Subtlety 2, Arcane Concentration 5, Missile Barrage 2, Arcane Blast, Arcane Meditation 1
• Fire: Incineration 5, Accelerant 5, Ignite 5, Pyroblast, Improved Fire Blast 2, Heating Up, Master of Elements 3, Improved Scorch 3, Critical Mass 3, Fire Power 3, Combustion
• Frost: Precision 3

Icy Veins link · wowtbc.gg's Fireball 17/31/3 is one point away from it.

Frost 18/0/33 (wowtbc.gg Forever Frost guide, Standard Build)

• Source: wowtbc.gg, read 31 Oct 2026 (the page shows no update date). Legal on the launch client's tree; theory, untested.
• Icy Veins' Forever Frost calculator code uses an older tree layout and breaks the current tree, so we don't link it.
• No Frost raid rotation is published yet. Play it like the Frost rotation on the Guide tab: Frostbolt, Ice Lance on procs and frozen targets.

Frostfire 0/28/23 (wowtbc.gg Fire guide)

• Frostfire Bolt as the main spell, no Arcane points. The odd one out: worth a look if Fire immunity or Frost resistance bosses show up.

PvP (level 60 theory, untested)

Frost 17/0/34 (our theory)

• RankedBoost publishes a mage PvP build, but it uses talents that are no longer on the tree. No other Forever source has one, so this build is ours: deep Frost control with Ice Barrier, plus Improved Counterspell and Arcane Concentration.
• Treat it as a starting point. Zockify suggests Frost from 30 on a PvP ruleset (see the Levelling tab).

Classic Era for comparison

Long-standing Classic Era builds on the Classic tree, from Icy Veins' Classic guides (the PvP one read off its build image). They show where the Forever builds came from; don't copy them into Forever.

Show the 4 Classic Era builds

Macros

From Zockify. ! Not tested on live: try them on day one. One line per bullet.
Counterspell (mouseover, breaks Ice Block)

• #showtooltip Counterspell
• /stopcasting
• /cancelaura Ice Block
• /cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][harm,nodead] Counterspell

Polymorph (mouseover)

• #showtooltip Polymorph
• /cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][harm,nodead] Polymorph

Ice Block (put the cancel on its own button)

• /stopcasting then /cast !Ice Block
• Cancel: /cancelaura Ice Block

Arcane Blast or Wrath (won't clip Missiles)

• /cast [harm,nodead,nochanneling:Arcane Missiles] Arcane Blast
• Same line with Arcane Wrath for the Wrath button.

Blizzard at cursor: /cast [@cursor] Blizzard
Wand: #showtooltip 18 then /cast !Shoot

Cooldown Manager (our suggestion)

• New Built in, off by default. Turn it on in Options under Gameplay Enhancement.
• Supports every class, racials and trinkets. Consumables come later. All ranks of a spell show as one entry.
• ! Blizzard listed "Arcane Blast cannot be tracked" as a known issue on 24 Sep. Check whether stacks show.

Our layout, not a guide's:

• Racial slot: Blood Fury (Orc), Berserking (Troll), Will of the Forsaken (Undead).
• Only add the rows for your spec. Ice Barrier and Cold Snap are Frost-only, Combustion is Fire-only.

Sources Icy Veins calculator · Icy Veins Arcane · Icy Veins Fire · talentsforever · Zockify macros · Blizzard notes

New What changed for a levelling Mage

• Improved Blizzard tops out at a 40% slow (was 65%), cut to stop Frost Mages AoE farming instances Live
• Cone of Cold lasts less: 40% slow for 6 s, the first 4 targets get 10% more for 3 s more Beta
• Permafrost adds 11/22/33% Chill duration instead of flat seconds Live
• Only one Flamestrike per Mage can be active Beta
• Low spell ranks get less spell damage and a lower proc chance, so rank-1 kiting costs damage Beta
• Lower-level (green) mobs give less XP, more as the gap grows Beta
• Wands no longer scale with spell damage Beta
• Ice Lance and Arcane Blast come with your 11th point in their tree: level 20 at the earliest, 15 with the Legacy perk Talented Beta

Which spec, when

• Arcane 10-60: Icy Veins says it "levels up very well"; Zockify calls it the stronger early spec. Spikes: Arcane Blast (20), Arcane Wrath (25), Missile Barrage for free Missiles.
• Wowhead: Arcane takes more melee hits than Frost (fewer slows) and is weak in world PvP.
• Frost 10-60: the safe one. Spikes: Ice Lance (25 in our order, 20 if you want it), Shatter (26-28), Fingers of Frost (35-36). Icy Veins: Frost isn't fully online until Shatter.
• PvP ruleset (us): Zockify suggests switching to Frost from 30 for open-world control; Wowhead calls Frost "one of the most dominant casters in PvP against melee classes".
• Fire: Wowhead calls it "good but not amazing", with weak mana and weak AoE. Icy Veins: decent but less reliable. No Fire levelling order here.
• AoE packs: Frost, from 20 (Blizzard). See the next message.
• New Dual Spec at 40: keep a questing spec and a Frost AoE or dungeon spec.
• Our tier-list average puts Mage 3rd of 9 for levelling speed (4.2 of 5, 10 lists), behind Hunter and Warlock.

Frost AoE: does the blizzard pull still work?

In a smaller form. Every AoE spell is still trained, but Blizzard aimed two nerfs straight at it.

• Blizzard: Improved Blizzard went from 65% to 40% "to reduce the power of Frost Mages to AoE farm instances" Live
• Blizzard: Cone of Cold got shorter to stop players kiting "large numbers of creatures" for gold and XP Live
• Blizzard's Aggrend: dungeon cleaving to 60 must not be the best way to level Beta
• New Green mobs: beta reports 4-26% less XP per kill. AoE the mobs at your level, not the safe low ones ! player-measured
• Your AoE kit: Arcane Explosion 14, Flamestrike 16, Blizzard 20 (rank 1: 320 mana, 8 s channel), Cone of Cold 26 Beta
• Improved Blizzard 3/3 adds a 40% Chill for 1.5 s; with Permafrost 3/3 that's 50% for 2 s (our arithmetic on the tooltips)
• Icy Veins: Cone of Cold on cooldown keeps 4 mobs slowed 90% of the time, 100% with Permafrost
• One partner lets you pull bigger packs safely (Icy Veins). Party XP uses each member's own level, so keep levels close.

Frost AoE: how to play it

Icy Veins Frost (16 Oct)

The rotation as text

• 3+ targets: Cone of Cold for procs, Ice Lance the procs and frozen targets, Frost Nova for more frozen targets.
• 5+ targets: Cone of Cold on cooldown, Blizzard in between, Arcane Explosion if you have aggro and can't channel.

AoE costs a lot of mana: expect to drink after most pulls.

Other views

• Icy Veins Arcane: AoE grinding is "(mostly) a thing of the past". Don't AoE 3 or fewer mobs. Their Arcane pack method, if you try it:

• Wowhead Frost: AoE grinding still works "beyond normal capability", but "has been nerfed in Forever".
• RestedXP ships a Horde Mage AoE route for 12-21, but it is their Classic guide with new map coordinates, not a default, and its 21-30 part isn't out !
• No published AoE talent order fits the current tree. Our swap is under Frost talents.

Our verdict: quest as normal, AoE when 5+ same-level mobs stand together, and judge it on XP per hour after launch.

Talents: Arcane 32/8/11

Same order as Mage builds. Points 10-20 match the most planned Arcane start on talentsforever; the end build is Icy Veins'.

Point order as text

Level	Talent	Points
10–14	Improved Channeling	5
15–19	Arcane Concentration	5
20	Arcane Blast	1
21–22	Missile Barrage	2
23–24	Arcane Subtlety	2
25	Arcane Wrath	1
26–28	Arcane Meditation	3
29	Arcane Impact	1
30	Presence of Mind	1
31–35	Arcane Mind	5
36–38	Arcane Instability	3
39	Arcane Impact	2
40	Arcane Power	1
41	Arcane Impact	3
42–44	Precision Frost	3
45–49	Incineration Fire	5
50–52	Accelerant Fire	3
53–57	Improved Frostbolt Frost	5
58–60	Ice Shards Frost	3

• Zockify and Wowhead open with Wand Specialization 2 to save mana on early kills. Either works.
• New Arcane Wrath is the 16-point talent: it needs 15 points in Arcane, so 25 is the earliest without Talented.

Talents: Frost 13/0/38

Same order as Mage builds: talentsforever's top Frost order to 40 (Precision for the removed Piercing Ice), ours from 54.

Point order as text

Level	Talent	Points
10–14	Improved Frostbolt	5
15–19	Ice Shards	5
20–22	Frostbite	3
23–24	Improved Frost Nova	2
25	Ice Lance	1
26–28	Shatter	3
29	Ice Block	1
30–32	Permafrost	3
33–34	Arctic Reach	2
35–36	Fingers of Frost	2
37	Cold Snap	1
38–39	Precision	2
40	Ice Barrier	1
41	Precision	3
42–46	Improved Channeling Arc	5
47–51	Arcane Concentration Arc	5
52–53	Missile Barrage Arc	2
54–56	Frost Channeling	3
57–59	Improved Cone of Cold	3
60	Arcane Subtlety Arc	1

• AoE swap (our suggestion, not a published build): Improved Blizzard 3 at 20-22 instead of Frostbite 3. Same split, legal in the calculator. You lose Frostbite's random freezes; Blizzard gains a Chill.
• AoE a lot? Dual Spec at 40: a second Frost spec with Frost Channeling and Improved Cone of Cold earlier (our suggestion).
• New Ice Block is the 16-point talent (29 here).

Rotations

The rotation as text

1. Pull with Frostbolt for the slow.
2. Missile Barrage proc: Arcane Missiles at once.
3. No proc: up to 2 Arcane Blasts (Zockify; Icy Veins says 2-3), then Arcane Missiles.
4. From 25: Arcane Wrath on cooldown (Wowhead).
5. Finish low targets with the wand so regen restarts.

• Blast stacks last 15 s: if 2 are still up at the next pull, use other spells first.

The rotation as text

1. Frostbolt from max range.
2. Fingers of Frost proc: cancel the Frostbolt you just started, cast Ice Lance (Icy Veins).
3. Frostbite freeze: finish the Frostbolt, queue Ice Lance behind it.
4. In melee: Frost Nova, step back, Ice Lance the frozen target.
5. Low target: wand, or Fire Blast if it isn't frozen.

• ! 28 Oct datamined hotfix: Ice Lance rank 1 has an 8 s cooldown, ranks from 28 none. Not announced.

Trainer visits

New ranks every even level (beta client). The unlocks:

• Must train (Wowhead's core list): every rank of your nukes, Frost Nova, Conjure Water and Food, Blink, Evocation, Counterspell, Cone of Cold, Blizzard, Arcane Explosion, armours.
• Wowhead's skip list to save gold: Slow Fall, Dampen Magic, Amplify Magic, Mana Shield, Fire Ward, Frost Ward, Scorch.
• Wowhead's Arcane core list leaves out Fireball and Pyroblast. Don't buy ranks of a spell you won't press.
• New Keeping an old cheap rank to save mana now costs spell damage, so buy your nuke's new rank.
• New Frostfire Bolt 40. ! Frost Blast (24) is missing from the trainer in the 28 Oct datamined data.
• Training costs are not published for Forever.

Class quests (Horde)

Icy Veins: no Mage ability is locked behind a class quest. Do them for the items and XP.

• 10, Undead: Speak with Anastasia (Brill trainer) → The Balnir Farmstead (Undercity). Ley Orb or Ley Staff.
• 10, Orc/Troll ! Icy Veins only: Speak with Un'thuwa (Orgrimmar) → Ju-Ju Heaps (Durotar). Same reward.
• 15 ! Icy Veins only: Spellfire Robes chain, Undercity. Needs 10 Linen Cloth and 6 Dalaran Mana Gems from Ambermill, Silverpine. Lesser Spellfire Robes.
• 26 ! Icy Veins only: Nether-lace Garment chain (Undercity → Orgrimmar → Ashenvale → Crossroads). Robe or tunic, "pretty skippable".
• 30, Mage's Wand: from any capital Mage trainer to Tabetha, Dustwallow Marsh. Needs a book from Scarlet Monastery Library, a Jade and a trip to Arathi. Icefury, Nether Force or Ragefire Wand (Icy Veins, Zockify).
• 35 ! Icy Veins only: Celestial Power (Tabetha), with an elite demon and an Uldaman boss. Take the Celestial Orb.
• 50 and 60 ! Icy Veins lists Destroy Morphaz and Fragmented Magic. The beta stopped at 30: untested.

Gear and stats

• Spell damage first: Forever spells start weaker and scale harder with spell damage (Icy Veins, Wowhead).
• New Caster weapons now carry spell damage, so a weapon upgrade matters Live
• Then Intellect and Spirit: drinking time sets your pace (Icy Veins). Stamina for bad pulls.
• New Hit and crit are one stat each for spells, melee and ranged. Your hit comes from Precision (Arcane 42-44, Frost 38-41).
• Wands: Lesser Magic Wand (5) and Greater Magic Wand (13), Enchanting crafts or the AH. Then Gravestone Scepter from the Blackfathom Villainy quest (Icy Veins, Zockify), then the level 30 class quest wand.
• New Wands don't gain spell damage. Lesser Magic Wand is about 11.4 DPS in beta data. Stand still 0.5 s before it fires Beta
• Staffs from dungeon bosses: Coldspire Staff (Rath'mael, Ruins of Lordaeron), Rod of the Sleepwalker (Kelris, Blackfathom Deeps).
• ! Icy Veins only: Staff of Orgrimmar (Ragefire, Hidden Enemies follow-up), Crescent Staff (Wailing Caverns, Leaders of the Fang).
• Minor Wizard Oil adds cheap spell damage (Icy Veins, Wowhead).

Professions, food and travel

• Tailoring + Enchanting: Icy Veins Frost and Wowhead both pair them; you disenchant your own crafts. Enchanting makes your early wands and Wizard Oils.
• ! Icy Veins only: Tailoring makes Bind-on-Pickup rares from 10 (Novice Arcanist's Sash), and Silky Circlet at 20 is your first helm.
• New Camp: Faction Banner (Tailoring, Spirit) and Mana Well (Alchemy) help casters. Incense Candle (Herbalism) clashes with Arcane Intellect: skip it with a Mage in the group Live
• New Camp Tent (Leatherworking) tops rested XP up to 5% of a level Live
• New Crafted food adds +5% kill XP to Well Fed; eat 10 s Beta. ! No source says conjured food does.
• Conjure Water/Food new ranks: 4/6, 10/12, 20/22, 30/32, 40/42, 50/52, 60. Mana gems at 28, 38, 48, 58 Beta
• Teleports from 20 (Orgrimmar, Undercity), Thunder Bluff at 30. Icy Veins: don't set your hearth to a city you can teleport to.
• Portals at 40 and 50. Wowhead: you can sell them for more than they cost to learn.
• Legacy for alts: Talented (points up to 5 levels early) and Well Rested. See Legacy system.
• Macros (Blizzard at cursor, wand, Polymorph): Mage builds. ! Test at launch.

Fast route (Horde)

• Follow "Horde 1-22" in Levelling. Mages take the non-Hunter path:
  • Orc/Troll: Durotar 1-10, Tirisfal 10-12, Silverpine 12-14, The Barrens
  • Undead: Tirisfal 1-12, Silverpine 12-14, The Barrens
• Undead: take Speak with Anastasia from the Brill trainer at 10.
• Spellfire Robes (15) wants Ambermill mana gems: you pass Silverpine at 12-14 !
• RestedXP trains Teleport: Orgrimmar during its Barrens section.
• 22-60: no verified route. Use "22-60: zones by level" in Levelling.

Dungeons for a Mage

Full list: Dungeons. Blizzard says dungeon cleaving won't be the fastest way to level, so run each once with its quests.

• Ragefire Chasm 13-18: Robe of Evocation (Jergosh). See its post.
• Ruins of Lordaeron 15-20: Coldspire Staff (Rath'mael). See its post.
• Wailing Caverns 15-24: Firebelcher wand (Faerie Dragon).
• Blackfathom Deeps 24-32: Rod of the Sleepwalker (Kelris), Gravestone Scepter quest.
• City of Dalaran 28-33: Wowhead says almost every mob is immune to Arcane !. Go Frost or lean on Frostbolt.
• Scarlet Monastery Library: the book for the Mage's Wand chain.
• The Deadmines: no Horde quests, but needed for the 15-25 Legacy point.
• Threat: Arcane Subtlety and Frost Channeling each cut your threat 30% for their school. Let the tank gather before you AoE.

Common mistakes

• AoE on 3 or fewer mobs: Icy Veins says it usually isn't worth the mana.
• Farming green packs: they give less XP than same-level mobs now.
• Channelling Blizzard on a pack that reaches you: the slow is now 40-50% for 1.5-2 s, down from 65%.
• Kiting with rank-1 spells: low ranks lose spell damage now.
• Skipping a wand: early on it saves the most mana (Icy Veins, Wowhead).
• Setting your hearth to Orgrimmar or the Undercity once you can teleport there.

Unverified until launch

• XP per hour of Frost AoE in Forever (no measurements anywhere)
• Green-mob XP size, Ice Lance rank-1 cooldown, Frost Blast's removal
• Class quests past 30, and every talent number after the 28 Oct hotfix

Sources Blizzard Mage deep dive · Blizzard dev notes · Icy Veins Frost levelling · Icy Veins Arcane levelling · Icy Veins class quests · Wowhead Fire levelling · Wowhead Frost levelling · Wowhead Arcane levelling · Wowhead spell data · talentsforever · Zockify · RestedXP