I’m sure everyone has gone by or seen a frost mage who is aoe grinding, you’ve even probably tried to help him out and maybe killed him in the process by throwing off his method. Mages have the ability to pull as many melee mobs as they can gather and the only limitation to how many they can kill is based on a mobs anchor radius. It is argued that Frost Mages can level faster grinding on mobs then by questing, whether or not this is true is insignificant, because either way it is fun. This frost mage guide will give you an overview about aoe grinding as a mage and tell you how to do it. First let’s start with some basics.
What is a mob anchor radius?
World of Warcraft introduced this new concept of mobs having essentially a tether attached to their leg, just like a kid on probation or house arrest, if they stray too far from the house they are forced to return by the police. The difference is Blizzard implemented an automated system to make the game more friendly to noobs. Traditionally in games like Everquest mobs that were aggroed could chase you all the way to the zone line and then take their time walking back if they wanted. In addition to that, after that person zoned out or died, mobs would be able to aggro anyone else in there aggro radius from where they were currently standing.
Sounds rough right? Well you don’t have to worry about that because Blizzard is good at making noob friendly games. In World of Warcraft all world mobs are anchored to a point, usually their spawn point, or if it’s a wandering mob its the point you aggroed it from. A mob can only stray so far from their point before they will deaggro and return back to their tether point. This is good when trying to run and save your life, but it is bad for mages who are intentionally trying to pull 30 mobs at a time but can’t because the mobs keep deaggroing and running away. Needless to say, mages need to find areas of mobs that are very close and densely populated if they want to make a good aoe grind.
For this example I picked just 3 mobs out of a group in Hellfire Peninsula, referred to as A, B, and C. You may not be able to see them but they are there. Next I drew the radius each mob can run from its tether or anchor point before it has to deaggro you, turn around, and run back to this point. I did this for each of the 3 mobs. The resulting area, in yellow, is the kill zone or safe spot where you MUST have all three of those mobs in if you wish to fight all three at once, which is what we want to do as an AoE Mage. You will not be able to fight all three at once without keeping them in that kill zone area. The radius I choose for the 3 mobs is arbitrary and their ranges are perhaps a little bigger in the game but this example was used to explain anchor points to you, one of the vital pieces of information to make big pulls.
What is a melee mob?
A melee mob is an enemy in World of Warcraft that is very similiar to a Rogue or a Warrior. They don’t hit from range or cast spells on you which means they have to chase you around and be within melee striking distance. Mages need to fight these type of mobs because they can gather them in a small area, root them, and not have to worry about being hit.
How come mages can kill 20 mobs in a single pull but I can’t even kill 1?
Mages are able to kill a vast amount of mobs because they have the ability to root, blink to gain distance, and cast an unlimited area of effect direct damage spell on their targets. They can hit as many targets that they can fit into essentially a circle on the ground. Now you may be thinking, I’m a hunter I have Volley, so can I!! While this is true, Volley does not do a lot of damage and it has a long cool down. Mage spells like Blizzard and Arcane explosion have no cooldown except the global cooldown of 1 second.
Picking the right race for your Mage
Now that I’ve given you a brief overview of the mechanics of AoE Grinding, let’s take a look at choosing the race that is right for you based solely off racial traits. Racial traits are innate abilities that you start the game with specific to the race you choose.
Alliance Races
Race
Innate Abilities
Comments
Gnome
Expansive Mind (5% increased intellect), Escape Artist (Ability to remove snares and roots)
You will get an increased mana pool and crit chance with expansive mind. While a bigger mana pool is good crit chance is not necessary because the main spell you will be using during your AoE Grind (Blizzard) cannot crit. Escape Artist will let you get out of tough situations in PvE or PvP.
Human
The Human Spirit (10% increase in spirit), Perception (Increased Stealth Detection), Diplomacy (10% increase in reputation gain, see WoW Reputation for more info on reputation)
You will get an Increased mana and health regeneration rate from the spirit boost and be able to see rogues or druids sneaking up on you if you use Perception. The bonus to reputation is more useful when grinding reputation in Outlands for rewards.
Draenei
Gift of Naaru (Heal yourself), Inspiring Presence (1% increased hit chance with spells
With the Gift of Naruu you will be able to heal yourself and others for 35+15 per level over 15 seconds every 3 minutes. With heroic presence you will have another 1% chance to hit mobs with your spells.
Personally I always choose Gnome for the increased intellect and Human may be second with spirit. I don’t recommend using the Draenei if you are looking for a starting bonus pertinent to the Mage class.
Horde Races
Race
Innate Abilities
Comments
Troll
Berserking (10% increased casting speed), Regeneration (10% health regeneration bonus, works during combat), Beast Slaying (5% increased damage to all beasts)
Berserking will allow you to get off some of your longer casting abilities quicker and you can’t lose with beast slaying since you will likely encounter those in your aoe grinding. Health regeneration bonus can help you during combat if you take too many hits.
Undead
Will of the Forsaken (activate to become immune to fear, sleep, and charm), Cannibalize (regenerates 7% of total health every 2 seconds for 10 seconds, must use on humanoid or undead corpse)
It’s not often that mages are in a PvP match where they are the main target of fear, sleeps, or charm and they are usually not in range for these type of things in instances since they use range, but it could come in handy someday. Cannibalize is better for melee classes, you will probably be drinking your conjured food and water after the fight instead of cannibalizing.
Blood Elf
Mana Tap (reduce targets mana by 50+your level and gives you arcane energy which stacks up to 3x on yourself), Arcane Torrent (Silences all enemies in 8 yards for 2 seconds and gives you 10 mana or 5 mana + your level for each charge of Mana Tap that you have on you)
This is a gerat ability for PvP and also a great ability to get some extra mana in PvE. They have to be used in conjuction with each other to get the max effect.
I personally would recommend Blood Elf because their innate abilities give you more utility.
What type of gear should I go after?
Before I get started with the guide let’s go over what type of gear you will want to focus on. The main thing you will want is Intellect, Stamina, and +spell damage for now, at the later levels you may get increased spell hit rating and things that restore mana every 5 seconds. The intellect is for increasing your mana pool, you may run out of mana during your AoE pull which makes the entire pull useless if you can’t finish. If you are new to this or not very good at moving around fast you will want to have a lot of stamina so you can take a few extra hits. The +spell damage is to increase your damage from your Blizzard AoE, please note that +spell critical strike rating will not improve your Blizzarding abilities. Pre Burning Crusade gear with stamina and intellect on it is called “xxx of the eagle” after Burning Crusade you will want to get “xxx of the sorcerer” which has intellect, stamina, and spell damage on it.
Where you should place your talents from level 10-20
You’re final build will look like this 18/0/43 Frost mage Build We will start in the frost tree and finish it and then proceed into the arcane tree. Here is a list of talents you will want to choose from level 10-20.
Level
Talent
10-14
Improved Frost Bolt 5/5
15-17
Permafrost
18-19
Improved Frost Nova
20
Icy Veins
Leveling from 1-20
This is a Frost Mage AoE Grinding guide. From levels 1-20 you will not have your main spell “Blizzard” and there won’t be much AoE going on except Arcane Explosion. I’m afraid that you are on your own for this part. Please note if you see an area appearing in two level ranges, say, 20-25 and 25-30 you can assume the mobs are mid level and it might not be a viable spot for a lower level 20 to go but you will have to check out the spot yourself.
Leveling from 20-30
Talent Tree Level 20-30
Level
Talent
21-23
Improved Blizzard
24
Piercing Ice
25-26
Arctic Reach
27-28
Piercing Ice
29
Elemental Precision
30
Cold Snap
Grinding Spots Levels 20-30
Recommended Grinding Areas
I realize most of these areas may be easier to get to as Alliance but they are my recommended areas that I’ve tested. Horde has the option of running from Arathi to Wetlands and taking the blimp to Grom’Gul and running into Duskwood to get to these two spots below, if not, I’ve included some hold only areas below.
Horde Specific Areas
Other Grinding Areas
Level 20-25
Duskwood – Raven Hill Cemetery – Skeletons
Wetlands – Gnoll Camps near Loch Modan – Mosshide Gnolls
