Horde Grinding Spots:

• 0-15 - Questing fastest possible exp.
• 15-20 - The Barrens - Harpies *
• 15-20 - The Barrens - Bristleback(s) *
• 20-25 - The Barrens - Bael Dun Exavs *
• 20-25 - Hillsbrad - Hillsbrad Farmers (etc)
• 22-26 - Thousand Needles - Galak Scouts (etc) *
• 26-30 - Hillsbrad - Mud Gnolls *
• 25-30 - Thousand Needles - Grimtotems
• 30-38 - Shimmering Flats - All monsters. *
• 38-40 - Dustswallow Swamp - Very North East Islands, Murlock Warriors/Oracles.

Horde And Alliance Grinding Spots:

• 40-46 - Ferales - Woodpaws (stay away from the ones that disease for slow casting speeds) **
• 46-48 - Ferales - Frayfeather Skystormers *
• 48-50 - Ferales - Harpies
• 48-51 - Southwest of Gadgetzan - Thistleshrubs *
• 50-54 - Western Plaguelands - First ‘field’ to the left, assorted monsters.
• 54-60 - Western Plaguelands - Scarlet Lumberjacks

* = Recommended

EXP Rates:

• Levels 30-40 = 18-20k exp/hour
• Levels 40-60 = 20-30k exp/hour

Spell usage and order:

Typically, you don’t want to use spells such as Arcane Missiles, Frost Bolt, Cone of Code, and other horrible DPM/slow spells. Your basic spell order should be something similar to; Fireball, Fireball, Fireball, Frost Nova + Strafe Away, Fireball (Until low HP), Scorch (Until dead). Of course, this doesn’t work for everything, but you get the general idea.

Click here for a video example

Tip: Strafe SIDEWAYS away from monsters, instead of just backing up. Backing up is 70% movement, Strafing sideways = 100% Movement. I’ve seen LOTS of mages just back up. Getting optimal distance helps a lot - especially if you’re using intelligence gear.

Tip: Loot fast! Shift + Right click the body of the monster to auto-loot everything. So many people don’t know about this feature, it’s amazing. I admit, I didn’t even know about it for a very long time.

Knowing your mage:

Knowing how much damage your spells do helps A LOT. This doesn’t only help in grinding, but with PVP too. I would suggest getting a UI that displays the opponents (monster/player) HP as a percentage. This makes it easier to familiarize yourself with damage. I suggest using either Nurfed’s UI or CT Mod. Personally, I use CT Mod and some of the Nurfed add-ons together. The general point to knowing your mage’s damage, is optimizing your mana use. You don’t want to cast a fireball when the monster has only 10% health left - because your fireball’s normally do around 20%. Get the idea?

UIs and Add-ons:

As I just previously said, I personally use CT Mod with some of the Nurfed Add-ons. However, there are some other good UIs out there, such as Gypsy that lots of mages use.

As for add-ons, I also use the following:

• CastAway: Spell Sequencer with adjustable reset timer
• Spell Alert: Notifies you when an enemy monster/player starts casting, and includes what spell they’re casting.
• CoolDownHud: Displays transparent icons on screen of the spells that are on cooldown, along with how long is left on each.
• StatusBars: Displays your HP/MP at the bottom of the screen.
• Decursive: Lets you bind a hotkey to decursive, which will cast remove curse on you/your party/your raid, if they have a curse on them.

Mage Gear:

Initially, I would suggest all mages get any * of intelligence gear possible. Max your mana out as much as you can. If not, settle for Eagle/Owl gear. You don’t want to start having eagle gear equipped (as a priority) until 40+. Meaning, every time you go to AH, check out gear for levels 40+, because eagle gear gets harder to come by.

What about AOE leveling?

Lots of people claim AOE leveling is the best possible way to level at all times. I haven’t found this to be true. However, there are certain spots/levels when AOE grinding is the best and easiest way to level. I haven’t find many other AOE spots in which I consider viable. It’s important to note that dying decreases your exp/hour rate A LOT, so if there’s a good chance of you dying, it might not be worth the trouble at all. However, I must say that if you have a priest, then AOE leveling becomes a much better possibility. However, designing your talents around AOEing slows you down for obvious reasons; you always will need a priest to level at maximum speed, and it’s not solo.

Talents, what’s the best?!

I’ve leveled 3 mages past level 40, in retail. Two of them being 60, and the last one being 40. This doesn’t include any of the betas. I can safely tell you from what I’ve experienced, a pure fire build is the fastest way to level initially. This doesn’t mean being pure fire at level 60, however. As many know, talents such as clear casting are very good. I’ve toyed with this a bit. I’ve noticed clear casting doesn’t start making a good amount of difference until around 40-45. So, I would suggest picking a pure fire build (please stay away from some of the less-used fire talents, such as flame strike), and have it planned out in a way that when you hit 45, you’ll have 16 arcane and the rest into fire. Why? 16 arcane is IAM, Clear casting, Evocation, and IAE. All the necessary and supporting spells a mage needs.

Tips: Read Alcaras’s thread on talents in the official WoW board. Plan your build in a way that meets what I said, but conforms to one of the arcane/fire // fire/arcane builds. This might save you some cash in the long run, while giving you the opportunity to test out one of the best viable builds in the game.

Manage your time away from grinding:

WoW is a very easy place to waste time in. From constantly checking AH to doing professions, you can find yourself with a huge amount of wasted time on your hands if you don’t pay attention.

• When checking AH, check for gear for later (but not too far off) levels too. Doing this will save you AH trips in the long run.
• Know what spells you get every two levels. Typically, it isn’t worth interrupting your grinding if the spell you receive isn’t going to increase your grinding time. If, for example, you’re getting a new fireball spell, that’s definitely worth the trip.
• WoW is WoW. There is no getting around it. Traveling in WoW takes a huge amount of time. I’ve seen a huge amount of people go looking for better pits, for an extra 1-2k an hour, instead of just sticking it out and getting that 20k+ for that amount of time the other guy wasted LOOKING for a place to level. Even with teleports, don’t fool yourself, try to limit your traveling as much as you can.
• Professions. Professions are a very popular time waster. STOCK UP. Instead of turning clothe into bolts, and bolts into gear, every time you get materials, STOCK UP. Do it all in big bundles. Keep the materials in your bags if you don’t need the space (some spots don’t drop so much, some do), if not, stock it up in a local bank.
• Instances. Lower level instances are such a waste of time for a mage. The equipment received from doing them doesn’t increase your performance like melee classes. I suggest skipping the lower level instances and head straight for the ones that matter; the end-game ones.
• Dying. As I said earlier, if you’re dying a lot, it might be best to chose an alternative pit. Dying reduces your exp/hour rate a lot. It pretty much is equivalent to AH trips as a mage.

Best professions for a mage:

This is typically different for the type of server you’re on. The best options for a PVP mage are Alchemy and Engineering (I cant confirm Engineering myself, but there’s a large amount of mages that think so, so I’ll go with that for now). Other options would be Enchanting and Tailoring. I wouldn’t suggest tailoring, I consider it quite useless. I’ve had 260 tailoring on one of my mages, maxed tailoring on another. There’s very few items you can make that you’ll find useful, mainly bags. Tailoring is probably a lot more useful on a priest.