What's a good spec for Dual Mages?

[Yixum]

Can anyone suggest a good spec for dual mages please? I was thinking Arcane because I really like Arcane Missiles and Arcane Explosion, but I want to get the most out of my talent points, so I'm willing to try other trees if necessary. I'm only 24 at the moment. I mostly just play by myself. Eventually I will be using one of the Mages to boost some other characters, but that's much later. For now, I need to get them to 60. Thoughts? (a specific build via wowhead or something like that would be awesome!)

Thanks!

[lans83]

right now my main mage is lvl 50 and my 3 new mages are only 15. I ran them around with my main hunter and grinded DMs, now will do Stocks for a bit. but anyway, when I ran my main mage, I always solo'ed him and I ran as Fire. wasn't till i hit 40 i think, that i switched to arcane. didn't like that much, so i tried frost for AoEing mobs. tag one, drag the rest and keep blizzard infront of them as they approach. once they get too close, hit frost nova, turn around and hit blink, turn and repeat till dead. i imagine if you run two as frost and use the ground targeting AoE script, you can probably go thru mobs without having to hit blink. the script for it is below. I'm gonna do this with my new group as well. still needing to figure out what i'm gonna run with them till they hit 50 to match my main mage, then gonna run the group. not worried about instances with them, cause they're gonna be one of my BG/Arena teams once they cap out at 80.


Here is the script. while playing, hit enter and type this in. Replace the - with what ever key you want to use for this. I use - cause I don't have that bound to anything. make sure you don't either before doing this. once you use the first line, type in the second line to save it.

/script SetBinding("-", "CAMERAORSELECTORMOVE")

/script SaveBindings(1)


if you want, you can also use this macro. some use it, i haven't gotten around to yet as i have my AoE spells set to 0 then i hit -

/script SetView(4);SetView(4)
/cast (insert AoE spell)

nice tip for this one, make sure you set your camera option in the interface options to always follow your character on your slaves. then switch to fast under that. position your cursor on your slaves where you want the AoE spell to land once you hit this and all is good.
refer to this link on how I do so: http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/in...351#post209351

keep in mind, that's my pally team, but i use that same setup for all my toons when i multibox

[an0mali]

I leveled my dual mages as frost for more survivability and very little downtime. That said, it really isn't going to make much of a difference, so just choose which tree you like most. You're going to two- or three-shot every normal mob with dual mages anyways. =)

For frost at level 24, I'd probably spec: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZZAc0co If you start at max range, nothing except elites will touch you, and if they do, pop Icy Veins to cast through the attacks or frost nova + blink away to rinse and repeat.

For frost at level 60, I'd probably spec: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZZAccIofu0fdMfox If you find yourself AoE'ing a lot, then I'd move some into Improved Blizzard. If you want to AoE grind a bit, go for Blizzard; if you just happen to get several mobs while questing, Arcane Explosion spam will suffice. Now that Blizzard can crit, having Frostbite is not really a big no-no anymore for AoE'ing. I would pass on Deep Freeze, although it can be handy in a few situations.

Keep in mind these talent builds are geared to how I remember playing frost mages while leveling. They may not be the best/optimal setup, but it worked for what I preferred (high survivabilty, low downtime, mostly single-target killing while questing). I did try AoE grinding for a while, and while it worked and was pretty cool, I just could not put up the XP/hour numbers that questing (while I had RAF bonus) could. Your results may vary though!

Also, remember with dual mages to stagger your Frost Nova casts. Make macros like these:
Main: /castsequence reset=24 Frost Nova,
Follow: /castsequence reset=24 ,Frost Nova
This way you can bind these macros to the same key. First time you hit it, the main novas, then the next time you hit it within the reset period (set this number to whatever your nova CD is) the secondary mage will nova. If you button mash, add more commas to the macros to account for that. Also, this set-up is useful for other spells like Counterspell or Deep Freeze as well.

Hope this helps if you end up going frost, but no matter what, just choose the playstyle you enjoy and tailor it to your personal preferences. Having dual mages is much more forgiving with weird talent builds and such because single-target mobs die quick anyways!

[Yixum]

Thanks for the advice lans83. Do you think you could post a link to an example WoWhead build for a Frost Mage? I am not sure which talents would be good to take.

Thanks!



Edit: Thanks to you as well an0mali. I didn't see your post till after I said the first thank you.

[Yixum]

For frost at level 24, I'd probably spec: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZZAc0co If you start at max range, nothing except elites will touch you, and if they do, pop Icy Veins to cast through the attacks or frost nova + blink away to rinse and repeat.

For this build (which i really like BTW), what would my cast sequence be? Should I only use FrostBolt (and maybe Fire Blast as finisher) or should I still use Fire Ball and Arcane Missiles?

[lans83]

i haven't had any experience with the changes to the mage past the 2.5 patch, so your best bet would be ask others with help on that topic. I'm gonna make an attempt at a build soon, but waiting till 3.2 patch comes out or i get my slave mages up to the same level range. sorry bout that

[an0mali]

For frost at level 24, I'd probably spec: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#oZZAc0co If you start at max range, nothing except elites will touch you, and if they do, pop Icy Veins to cast through the attacks or frost nova + blink away to rinse and repeat.

For this build (which i really like BTW), what would my cast sequence be? Should I only use FrostBolt (and maybe Fire Blast as finisher) or should I still use Fire Ball and Arcane Missiles?

You would only use Frostbolt, unless you wanted a quick pop to finish a mob closing in on you, then use Fire Blast. If the mob gets to you, frost nova and blink/run away and rinse and repeat with Frostbolt spam.

[Crel]

I currently have 4xmages at 74 talented arcane. For 2box I would go ice simply because most of the time your chill effects will freeze the target making them giant frozen targets . Stagger/Round robin your ice bolts to save a little mana from overkill.

[puppychow]

frost for multibox leveling and PVP - for multiboxing probably dump it all into frost, frost PVP has just 1-2 viable builds that combine arcane (TOTW/focus magic) plus frost
FFB or arcane (57/3/11 i believe) for starting solo raiding/heroics
fire (18+50/3 anywhere) for high end raiding (2k+ sp, 360 hit, 25%+ unbuffed crit minimum)