So you’ve recently hit 85, done a couple of bg’s or tol barad, and your getting a bit pwned. What spec do i choose?

Yeah this happened to me today, I know you cant ding 85 and be super leet straight away, well im my case i may never be, but hey i can dream (or practice). Went to the Auction house and bought up all the PVP Craftable Blues ended up with about 900 res and butt all spell power. So now im hitting like a wet sponge and getting wtfpwned quite often. Also the dam mobs are kicking my ass, even in tol. what the hell am i doing wrong? I think it all comes down to gear and maybe spec

I have found two frost specs that are quite decent. but really you need the gear to back it up, and you have two options really, get pwned in battle grounds for about a week or two, or alternatively fall asleep playing all the PVE content to get the DPS gear, and lets face it resiliance for a mage, really? i guess it all helps, but we are squishy and should really be playing keep away for most of the time anyway, not like we can just stand there and take it for long .

Here are the Specs:

Frost Spec 1

WoWHead Link

Frost Spec 2

WoWHead Link

Few things about these specs, you can choose between fast running when hit, or fast running after blinking, now for me i prefer the fast blinking run, i think you get to use it more often but some may prefer the latter. Anyway check them out.

As Always i have found some handy guides, Heres one from a post by Trixzy on Arena Junkies:

Alright, I’ll just start this out by saying, I’m not a glad,I’m not an Exceptional player but I’m here just to help out
I also want to Emphasize on that this guide is from MY point of view and has alot of MY opinions, if you disagree feel free to comment but please do not flame (:

Content
1. Spec
2. Gearing
3. Macros & Keybindings
4. Teams & Setups
5. Races
6. My Two Cents

1. Spec, where to put those extra talent points?

Spec:
http://www.wowhead.c…hsdMo:MkmMqkzmM

This is what I am using, I’ll start by saying there is ALOT of different spec choises you should consider when specing you mage.
I’ve chosen to take [Enduring Winter] to my build due to our 3v3, you can take that talent point and put it in [Improved Freeze] wich is the norm.
The 2 extra talent points I have in fire [Burning Soul] can also be placed in many different ways, some take [Invocation]from arcane to get that extra bit of damage boost. Others use them on [Ice Shards] in the frost tree.

There is also another choise to go wich looks like this:

http://www.wowhead.c…hsdMo:kMmMqkz0m
Thats basically the “norm” WITH impact.
So you can mess around with the 7 “extra” talent points, you can go [Blazing Speed] if you enjoy the dispel of all roots etc.

Thats basically covered, choose the extra 7 talent points(that is in the fire spec in this one) with your playstyle, what you usually do and wich one of them benefits your setup.

Glyphs
Prime:
Glyph of Ice Lance, surprise Ice Lance has changed from shatterfiller or omg instants I cannot cast to the most powerful spell we have.

Rest of these are situational, you can choose them according your playstyle or setup.

Glyph of Cone of Cold, Situational
Glyph of Frostbolt,Choose frostbolt if your setup allows you to cast alot e.g (you are not the tunneltarget usually)
Glyph of Frostfire, Frostfire if you want more dots and dispellable stuff on the target (e.g playing with an affliction warlock).
Glyph of Mage Armor,Situational do you end up ooming?

Major:
I have to say again, change glyphs according your setup. Ice Barrier glyph doesn’t increase the absorb with big amounts you could swap it with Glyph of Icy Veins due to the fact it removes Necrotic Strike, but again, if you feel like you are getting trained in your comp then you probably should stick with Glyph of Ice Barrier.
Glyph of Polymorph
Glyph of Ice Barrier
Glyph of Evocation

Minor:
These 2 are VERY good, if you don’t want to carry Light Feathers with you, get the slow fall glyph. Conjuring is good because it reduces the manacost of managem aswell, so if you are having long matches where you might even end up using all of your charges, this one is very good.
Glyph of Slow Fall
Glyph of Conjuring

2. Gearing up, gemming, what to choose?

Hit.
The most important stat for you to choose is HIT.
The PvP hitcap for a mage is 4% in cataclysm. With one exception, Night Elf racial [Quickness] this gives you 2% more needed hit to hit Night Elf’s so try going for just a tiny bit more than 4%. I suggest somewhere around 5% without sacrificing too much of other stats.
It should be easy to obtain, if you are under the hitcap don’t forget Reforging will always help you out (:

Spell Penetration.
Secondary and very close up on the list is Spell Penetration, you will need about 195 Spell Penetration since this is what the resistance auras, totems etc. give out max.
Against other Mages, they will be running with Mage Armor wich increases their resistances by 45 so with buffs and Mage Armor they can reach up to 240 resistance to your spells. 
Trying to get 240 is overkill, you won’t need that much against almost anything else (Felhunter is an exception) so get the spell penetration cloak, if you only have the Bloodthirsty version available you can enchant it with +70Spell pen or you can gem to reach ~~200.
I prefer running with the Vicious Cloak since it gives straight up 201 Spell Penetration. You can also choose Vicious Neckwhich gives the same amount.
But take in consideration, You cannot get a Haste Cloak, but you can get a Haste Neck.

Now we go into the part wich is kinda blurry for most people atm.

Haste/Crit/Mastery, what to choose?
Why would you gem for crit when you have [Shatter]? Because it multiplies your crit chance by 3. So lets say you are running with 15% crit, if the target is frozen you will have 3×15% wich is 45%, thats very low thinking you want to crit with each Ice Lance or Frostbolt on frozen targets. So best to get is 33.3% crit wich will then put your shatters up to 100% crit chanse (well almost). Crit is the most powerful stat atm, gemming until you reach a reasonable amount is suggested.
You will be low on crit at lower level gear (Bloodthirsty) but as you get more Vicious items your crit will increase by a significant amount. Just remember don’t reforge the crit away.

Haste is not nearly as powerful as it used to be, you wont be able to cast many frostbolts now that mages are tunneled hard so at this point, Crit and Mastery are much more stronger than haste.

As for mastery, without ANY mastery in your gear you will have 8.00 Mastery rating, that is 20% Increased damage against frozen targets. The Mage mainset items (shoulder and head) have mastery already in the item, 340rating to be exact. Which will give you about 4% increased damage, so gemming Intellect/Mastery gems, will give you 20 each yellow socket that will maybe get you up to 4,30% increased damage against frozen targets. So is it really worth gemming for? 
My Opinion, no. Take the mastery you can get from items but crit until certain levels and then mastery after that.

Gearing, how much resilience do I need?
(my armory; http://eu.battle.net…t/trixzy/simple)

Resilience for a Frostmage is starting to be key, try to aim for about 3k resilience, dont take those pve pieces since vicious has resil on it

More about gemming:
Yellow; Intellect / Haste
Red; Intellect
Meta; Chaotic (Critical strike and increased crit dmg.)they are updating the gem requirements.
Blue; Intellect / Hit if the socketbonus is worth taking.
Prismatic; Intellect.
Cogwheels; Mastery and Crit.

Enchants:
Head, Guardians of Hyjal Revered; 60Int 35Crit
Shoulder, Therazane Exalted; 50Int 25Haste
Cloak, Enchanter; 50Intellect
Chest, Enchanter; 40Resilience
Wrist, Enchanter; 50Crit
Mh Weapon, Enchanter; Hurricane unless you can afford Power Torrent
Oh, Enchanter; 100Int
Gloves, Enchanter; 50Mastery
Legs, Tailor; 95Int 85Stam
Feet, Enchanter; Movement Speed and 35 Mastery

That means offsets + 2mainsets of vicious will bring you up to the “now my resilience is fine” level. But unless you have a raiding guild to get you some nice pve gear to use with your pvpset, just stick with the pvp one. It’s really not that bad!

Now you have your gear and spec set up time to get into action.

3. Macros and Keybindings, how will I become better by using these?

Keybindings
Starting off, I suggest you bind almost all your abilites to some key in your keyboard. Most common bindings are 1-5,(since your fingers probably are not long enough to reach the 0 button while your right hand is on the mouse, yes you need to keep your right hand on the mouse.)Shift+1-5 keys, Control+1-5keys and Alt+1-5 keys. You can add such bindings as E,S+E,C+E,Q,S+Q,C+Q,F(with S+C),V(with S+C),§(with S+C),F1-5,<(with S+C),Shift+Space etc. there is over 60bindings you can put into your keyboard that you can reach with your left hand alone, not even including the keybindings you can add to your mouse Mousewheelup, mousewheel down, mousewheel button with modifiers. If you have additional buttons on your mouse them aswell.

Keybinding is essential if you keep your actionbar looking like (1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0-+) with important spells on those, you will have to move your right hand from your mouse to your keyboard or stop moving with your character. Removing your right hand from the mouse will limit your view in arena, you cannot see what is happening if you are looking at a wall and have your right hand on the keyboard, so keep it on the mouse.

Macros
Focus target counterspells and sheeps are essential in the arena for a mage, you will need to set up a focus target (usually the healer) and while targeting your nuke target you can click on a macro to do something to your focus target without switching targets.

CS
Counterspells your target, if you click on shift modifier Counterspells your focus target.

#showtooltip Counterspell
/stopcasting
/cast [modifier:shift, target=focus] Counterspell
/cast [nomodifier:shift] Counterspell

Sheep
Sheeps your target, if you click on shift modifier Sheeps your focus target.

#showtooltip Polymorph
/stopcasting
/cast [modifier:shift, target=focus] Polymorph
/cast [nomodifier:shift] Polymorph

Ice Block
#showtooltip Ice block
/stopcasting
/cancelaura Invisibility
/cast Ice Block

Quick Invis
#showtooltip Invisibility
/Stopcasting
/cast Invisibility

Decurse
This will decurse your mouseover target if you have one, if not it decurses yourself

/cast [target=mouseover,exists] Remove Curse
/cast [target=player] Remove Curse

Armors
This is a onebutton all armors kind of thing. Puts on Molten Armor without modifiers, with shift modifier Mage Armor, with control modifier Frost Armor. Molten Armor tho is mostly for PvE, you probably wont use it in arena so if you like you can replace it with Mage/Frost Armor and remove the ability from the macro

/cast [nomod:ctrl, nomod:shift] Molten Armor
/cast [mod:ctrl] Frost Armor
/cast [mod:shift] Mage Armor

You can find guides on other sites and AJ aswell to mage macros and how to macro stuff, this is just the basics.

4. Teams Setups and Strategies

This Section is not to tell you every comp out there you can play, and neither is this guide about what setup to run so you can get “free” glad. This guide is to help out and here is only the most “popular” comps.

Teams
Mages are highly wanted is many different setups due to our high crowd control, damage and survivability.

2v2;
:mage:/:rogue: a very common setup that relies on CC to survive and get a kill. These two players will need good communication and synergy to be able to survive.
:mage:/:warlock: not as common as magerogue but also a very viable setup this team aswell relies on CC and communication.
:mage:/healer works just aswell as any mage dps teams, this team will require the mage to be able to CC a target by himself (with a few exceptions of short and limited CC from healers)
You can try with any dps class it will work, just aslong as you two have great synergy and know what you are doing and what you need to do.

3v3;
:rogue:/:mage:/:priest: one of the strongest comps out there (atleast will be again after patch) known as the famous RMP.
:mage:/:warrior:/h:paladin: again in this setup you are the CC’er, don’t try to tunnel too much damage since the warrior will do that, you focus mostly on interrupting keeping people locked(sheeped/RoF’ed etc.) but help with your damage, coordinate a warriorfear/sheep/hoj and you can have a person locked out of the game for a very long time.
:mage:/feral:druid:/:paladin: this team has high amounts of CC, Sheep, Cyclone, HoJ, Roots and Hibernate(for druids) You will mostly have to line up a LONG CC chain on a healer (or the dps while tunneling the healer) to land a kill, but both of the dps has amazing damage so if played right you can probably drop a target within a counterspell.
:mage:/shadow:priest:/r:shaman: Not so much CC yet amazing dps, shaman totems will buff you and the priest and you can probably drop a target in a couple seconds if lined up so that both of the dps can deal damage.
:mage:/:warlock:/r:druid: this team has the most CC ingame, every class has a spammable CC so spam them on a healer will land you kills very fast.

As for 5v5, theres no “very good mage setup” unless going 4Mages and a Rogue(A JOKE).

These are just the most popular setups in arena, not the “best” ones.
You can make any setup “best” for you if you play with people you enjoy playing with and train hard (:

5. Races and Racials

Blood Elf; Arcane Torrent, Arcane Resistance and Arcane Affinity. A good class for a mage due to Arcane Torrent the other racials are kind of a waste. Arcane Resistance does help with resisting CS but Mage Armor exist.

Draenei; Heroic Presence, Gift of the Naaru, Shadow Resistance and Gemcutting. 1% Hit from Heroic Presence is good, less hitgear you need to take. Gift of the Naaru again a good racial since you do not have alot of selfhealing (Evocation with glyphs and bandages!) Shadow Resistance and Gemcutting are kind of a waste, here I say it again, Mage Armor exist.

Dwarf; Explorer, Frost Resistance, Gun & Mace Spec, Stoneform. Most of these are useless (Mage Armor) but with the new changes to Stoneform it will be AWESOME. a VERY good race to pick for a mage.

Gnome; Arcane Resistance, Engineering Specialization, Escape Artist, Expansive Mind, Shortblade Specialization. Yet again a very good alliance race due to Expansive Mind and Escape artist but IMO it doesn’t compete.

Goblin; Best Deals Anywhere, Better Living Through Chemistry, Pack Hobgoblin, Rocket Barrage, Rocket Jump and Time is Money. This is probably one of the best Horde races there is for a mage due to Rocket Jump and Time is Money.

Human; Diplomacy, Every Man for Himself, Mace and Sword Spec, The Human Spirit. A good race to choose due to EMFHS but the rest of these are useless in pvp. Still the use of this one racial is better than almost anything else you can get.

Night Elf; Nature Resistance, Quickness, Shadowmeld, Wisp Spirit. Quickness and Shadowmeld are okay racials but not that helpful IMO.

Orc; Blood Fury, Axe Specialization, Command, Hardiness. Blood Fury is a good racial rest of them, not so good. You wont spend time in stuns anyway and there is no certainty that Command affects Water Elemental (I think it does but nobody knows for sure).

Troll; Beast Slaying, Berserking, Bow Specialization, Da Voodoo Shuffle, Regeneration, Throwing Specialization. This competes with Goblins for Horde, very high on the list due to Berserking.

Undead; Cannibalize, Shadow Resistance, Underwater Breathing, Will of the Forsaken. Not a bad race but definetly not good either. WotF shares a 45second cooldown with pvp-trinket.

Worgen; Aberration, Darkflight, Enable Worgen Altered Form, Flayer, Running Wild, Transform: Worgen, Two Forms,Viciousness. Not a very bad race due to sprint and crit but doesn’t compete with other racials IMO.

I’ll sort by order in which I(emphasize on this word) think is best.

Horde; 1. Goblin/Troll 2. Blood Elf 3. Orc 4. Undead
Alliance; 1. Human/Dwarf 2. Draenei 3. Night Elf 4. Worgen 5. Gnome

6. My Two Cents.
But ofcourse you shouldn’t pick your class by racials pick the one you think looks awesome and stick with it.

Happy Arenaing & GL!

Check out the full post here

Related Videos for

Here is another good movie, Jilrock 4. Great Mage PVPing, couldnt find an embed linkage tho:
Jilrock 4 – Class: Mage | Category: PvP | Server : EU – Ashenvale ( Flurry )

Edit: Umm the video above is actually of an 80 mage not 85, ah well.

Edit 2: I found a good list of Mage Pre-Raiding Gear on Elitest Jerks, listed for your (and my) convenience below. Mage BiS Pre-Rading Gear.

ITEMS PER HEROIC DUNGEON

7 – Halls of Origination
6 – Deadmines
5 – Throne of the Tides, Blackrock Caverns, Lost City of the Tol’vir
4 – Shadowfang Keep, Grim Batol, Stonecore
3 – Vortex Pinnacle

ITEMS PER REPUTATION

2 – Earthen Ring, Hellscream’s Reach, Therazane, Dragonmaw Clan, Ramkahen
1 – Guardians of Hyjal

HEAD

359 [Lightweight Bio-Optic Killshades] – 525 Engineering
346 [Cowl of Pleasant Gloom] – Hit/Crit – 2,200 Justice Points
346 [Helm of the Typhonic Beast] – Hit/Mastery – Halls of Origination
346 [Crown of Enfeebled Bodies] – Crit/Haste – Grim Batol
346 [Blinders of the Follower] – Crit/Mastery – Shadowfang Keep
ENC [Arcanum of Hyjal] – Guardians of Hyjal (Revered)

NECK

359 [Yellow Smoke Pendant] – Crit/Mastery – Dragonmaw Clan (Exalted)
346 [Eye of Many Deaths] – Haste/Mastery – 525 Jewelcrafting (BOE)
346 [String of Beaded Bubbles] – Hit/Mastery – 1,250 Justice Points
346 [Charm of the Muse] – Hit/Crit – Halls of Origination
346 [Tauntka's Necklace] – Crit/Haste – Lost City of the Tol’vir
346 [Pipefish Cord] – Haste/Mastery – Throne of the Tides
346 [Pendant of the Keep] – Crit/Mastery – Shadowfang Keep

SHOULDERS

346 [Meadow Mantle] – Crit/Mastery – 1,650 Justice Points
346 [Mantle of the Eastern Lords] – Hit/Mastery – Shadowfang Keep
346 [Mantle of Master Cho] – Crit/Haste – Lost City of the Tol’vir
ENC [Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone] – Therazane (Exalted)
ENC [Lesser Inscription of Charged Lodestone] – Therazane (Honored)

BACK

346 [Cloak of Ancient Wisdom] – Crit/Haste – Earthen Ring (Revered)
346 [Shadow of Perfect Bliss] – Hit/Crit – Vortex Pinnacle
346 [Periwinkle Cloak] – Haste/Mastery – Throne of the Tides

CHEST

346 [Robes of Orsis] – Hit/Crit – Ramkahen (Revered)
346 [Robes of Embalmed Darkness] – Haste/Mastery – 2,200 Justice Points
346 [Corsair's Overshirt] – Crit/Mastery – Deadmines
346 [Inquisition Robes] – Hit/Mastery – Blackrock Caverns
346 [Robes of Arugal] – Crit/Mastery – Shadowfang Keep
346 [Robes of Rampant Growth] – Crit/Haste – Halls of Origination

WRISTS

346 [Armbands of Exiled Architects] – Crit/Mastery – Deadmines
346 [Sand Silk Wristband] – Hit/Crit – Lost City of the Tol’vir

HANDS

359 [Flamebloom Gloves] – Haste/Mastery – Earthen Ring (Exalted)
346 [Gloves of the Painless Midnight] – Haste/Mastery – 1,650 Justice Points
346 [Mnemiopsis Gloves] – Hit/Crit – Throne of the Tides

WAIST

359 [Dreamless Belt] – Hit/Mastery – 525 Tailoring (BOE)
346 [Incense Infused Cumberbund] – Crit/Mastery – 1,650 Justice Points
346 [Stratosphere Belt] – Hit/Mastery – Vortex Pinnacle
346 [Beauty's Silken Ribbon] – Crit/Haste – Blackrock Caverns
346 [Girdle of Nobility] – Crit/Haste – UNKNOWN, possibly Deadmines

LEGS

359 [Breeches of Mended Nightmares] – Crit/Haste – 525 Tailoring (BOE)
359 [Flame-Ascended Pantaloons] – Crit/Mastery – 525 Tailoring (BOE)
346 [Pensive Legwraps] – Crit/Haste – 2,200 Justice Points
346 [Legwraps of Astral Rain] – Crit/Mastery – Halls of Origination

FEET

359 [Desert Walker Sandals] – Hit/Haste – Ramkahen (Exalted)
346 [Slippers of the Twilight Prophet] – Hit/Mastery – Stonecore
346 [Corpse Rompers] – Crit/Haste – Unknown

FINGERS

359 [Ring of the Boy Emperor] – Haste/Mastery – Archaeology
359 [Signet of High Arcanist Savor] – Hit/Crit – BOE World Drop
346 [Ring of Warring Elements] – Crit/Mastery – 525 Jewelcrafting (BOE)
346 [Band of Lamentation] – Hit/Mastery – Dragonmaw Clan (Revered)
346 [Diamant's Ring of Temperance] – Crit/Haste – Therazane (Revered)
346 [Abandoned Dark Iron Ring] – Crit/Haste – Grim Batol
346 [Anthia's Ring] – Hit/Mastery – Throne of the Tides
346 [Band of Rays] – Hit/Crit – Halls of Origination
346 [Lavishly Jeweled Ring] – Hit/Mastery – Deadmines
346 [Rose Quartz Band] – Crit/Haste – Stonecore
346 [Spirit Creeper Ring] – Crit/Mastery – Lost City of the Tol’vir

TRINKETS

359 [Darkmoon Card: Volcano] – 525 Inscription (BOE)
359 [Stump of Time] – Hellscream’s Reach (Exalted)
359 [Tyrande's Favorite Doll] – Archaeology
346 [Figurine - Jeweled Serpent] – 475 Jewelcrafting (BOP)
346 [Anhuur's Hymnal] – Halls of Origination
346 [Gale of Shadows] – Grim Batol
346 [Sorrowsong] – Lost City of the Tol’vir
346 [Tendrils of Burrowing Dark] – The Stonecore
346 [Witching Hourglass] – Blackrock Caverns

STAFF

359 [Staff of Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan] – Crit/Haste – Archaeology
346 [Insidious Staff] – Haste/Mastery – Hellscream’s Reach (Revered)
346 [Cerith Spire Staff] – Hit/Haste – Thone of the Tides
346 [Emberstone Staff] – Crit/Mastery – Deadmines
346 [Staff of Siphoned Essences] – Crit/Mastery – Grim Batol

MAIN HAND

346 [Elementium Spellblade] – Hit/Crit – 520 Blacksmithing (BOE)
346 [Beak of Julak-Doom] – Hit/Mastery – Julak-Doom (world boss, Twilight Highlands)
346 [Modgud's Blade] – Hit/Crit – Grim Batol
346 [Blade of the Burning Sun] – Crit/Haste – Halls of Origination
346 [Biting Wind] – Crit/Haste – Vortex Pinnacle

OFF HAND

346 [Dungeoneering Guide] – Hit/Mastery – 520 Inscription (BOE)
346 [Hermit's Lamp] – Hit/Haste – 950 Justice Points
346 [Beauty's Favorite Bone] – Hit/Crit – Blackrock Caverns

RANGED

346 [Corla's Baton] – Hit/Mastery – Blackrock Caverns
346 [Cookie's Stirring Rod] – Crit/Mastery – Deadmines
346 [Wand of Dark Worship] – Crit/Haste – Stonecore

Via Elitist Jerks / Valaran / Here