In order to help all the WoW players know their mages better, to get the maximum of potential in PvP battlegrounds and arena, a friend of mine advised me to write this mage PvP guide.
The mage is a class difficult to play in PvP.
Different from the PvE where your gameplay resumes at pressing 2-3 buttons, just for the damage dealing, in PvP you must use all the tricks in the book to reach the top.
In this article I will show what a mage must do to dominate the PvP.
The basics of playing a mage in PvP The first aspect that I will cover in this mage PvP guide, makes a reference to the basic rules that a mage should know for PvP.
The first thing to know is that the mage is a heavy DPS class.
No matter what class you're grouping with, you are the one that must do the highest amount of damage.
Also, the mage has quite a some crowd control which must be used at maximum, by communicating with the others in your group (especially when in arena).
The best specs for PvP are frost (you have better defenses but less damage) or arcane (less defenses, higher damage).
The spells you need to manage and use very wisely are: Blink, Ice Block and Invisibility.
Basically there is no guide that teaches you how to use these, you will need to practice-practice-practice to use them at maximum efficiency.
Once you have mastered these, you are one step closer to invincibility.
The mage must learn as well how to kite an enemy, especially the melee ones, to be always out of their melee range being able to land spells on them at the same time.
Also, as a mage, you must use quite a few addons for PvP, especially one that shows the cooldowns.
These are about all the basics that I figured I should review in this mage PvP guide.
The importance of mages in PvP battlegrounds This section of my mage PvP guide focuses on the role of mages in battlegrounds.
As heavy DPSers, mages are "assault machines".
If an attack on a certain point of interest has a mage, it usually succeeds.
Having the sheep single crowd control, mages can keep a character out of combat for a few seconds, enough to kill the target.
Most of a mage attacks being ranged, he has the advantage of choosing the target, this way he becomes the main-assist (the one who's target is attacked by the other DPSers).
In defense of a base, a mage is important as well, again because of the single target crowd control.
Mages are not such good flag carriers in battlegrounds, but they sure make excellent defendes of flag runners.
The frost AoE spells slow the enemies, therefore the flag carrier reaches the base safely.
The importance of mages in PvP arena The third aspect that I will cover in this mage PvP guide concentrates on the role of mages in arena.
Just as playing in battlegrounds, in arena, mages must deal high amounts of damage in short time.
As I said at the basics section of this mage PvP guide, the mage must use especially Blink, Ice Block and Invisibility at maximum potential to dominate and win an arena match.
Also, kiting the melee enemies damaging them at the same time.
The mage is the one that picks up the target, being assisted by the other team mates.
He must use a multitude of macros and quickbinds to release the all the damaging spells as fast as possible, to "cold" an enemy in the first damage exchange.
As gear for arena, mages can use DPS PvE gear as well as gear based on resistance, with a high amount of resilience.
They have, though, enough resistance especially to melee in their frost shields.
On my mage I aim for the PvE equipment to maximize my damage.
In the end of this mage PvP guide, I conclude saying that the mage is a powerful class for arena and battlegrounds.
Along with the hunters as pure damage dealers, they are the ones who make the killing, taking the team to victory.