Starting a Mage WoW

A Mage's primary mode of damage is through magic, meaning that they avoid melee combat at all costs so as to be able to cast magical spells. They can do direct damage, but truly shine with their ability to inflict various types of AoE damage, buff groups, control crowds, conjure water and food and open portals to capital cities for themselves and party members. However, they cannot heal and are unlikely to stay alive very long under fire.

Mage Class Best Race

Based on Base stats, Racial Traits and viability in PVP and PVE content we consider Gnome for Alliance and Undead for Horde to be the Mage Class Best Race. Humans and Trolls are also a good second choice if you prefer those racial traits.

Grouping

A mage's strategy for grouping isn't all that different from soloing. Since your spells ignore a target's armor rating, even a low level mage can do more damage than a Warrior of the same level. The drawback is that this means you have a greater chance of drawing aggro so be sure to give your party's tank a chance to get the monster's attention before you cast. Try not to single out targets for yourself. Instead, pick the target everyone's attacking. You can do this by selecting another player and hitting the "F" key to select that player's target. And pass around Arcane Intellect! Even classes that do not have mana can benefit from higher Intellect stat as it is the stat used to increase weapon skills.

The Primary spells you will be using in a group is either a Direct Damage (DD) Spell (like  [Arcane Missiles] or  [Scorch]) and an Area of Effect (AoE) spell (like  [Arcane Explosion] or  [Flamestrike]). The DD spell will be used to focus on a single creature - usually the one "pulled" to the group - since the usual group tactic is to focus on one creature and take it down fast. Your AoE spell is for when the pull goes bad or your healer picked up Aggro and has a creature pounding on him. This is the time to step in and take one for the team - spam your AoE spell to get as much Aggro for the creatures directed to yourself - freeing up the healer to focus their healing attention on you. Be careful about this tactic though. Your tank will need a few seconds to draw the monster's attention and it usually only takes one critical hit to kill you.

The last "must have" spell for the mage, and which makes them unique in a group, is the crowd control spell  [Polymorph] (or "sheeping" as it is known). Sheeping causes a creature to wander around as a harmless sheep for a time giving the party time to deal with other creatures. Once the spell ends, or if someone attacks the polymorphed target before the duration ends, the target will angrily come to you. Also keep in mind that a polymorphed target will regenerate hit points at three times the standard rate. Polymorphing a damaged target is a very bad thing. And finally, Polymorph only works on Humanoid, Beast or Critter type targets.