Killer Guides’ Mage Guide
 - 8/10

Guide last updated: Updated for Wrath of the Lich King patch 3.3
Review last updated: January 21, 2010
Guide suitable for: Everyone except hardcore players in my opinion

This 227 page ebook is a detaild guide to mastering the mage in any situation in the game.

I think this guide is well rounded and covers all the basics, and a lot of intermediate and some advanced stuff. The class-defining chapters are the strongest, and the further you get from those the weaker it gets (for example, the leveling guide and the gold making guide are weaker than the talents guide).

The guide teaches you how to play, by going through your roles in PvP, Battlegrounds, groups, raids, instances, solo play and so on. And it also does a good job of covering talents and gear all the way to level 80.

You’ll want to re-read these sections after testing and playing a bit. I’ve returned to many chapters over and over again, and I always get some new piece of advice I can try out, and I have a level 80 mage. This guide will be especially useful if you want to try out another aspect of the mage. Always been fire and wanna try frost? Always a raider but wanna try PvP? You’ll get all the guidance from this guide.

The chapter on talents is very thorough. Though when it comes to talent builds there are 13 to choose from, which is too many in my opinion (many are variations on the same theme). Sometimes less is more. A significant plus here, though, for recommendations on glyphs that go well with each talent build.

Another really useful chapter discusses mage gear. Everything is linked to database sites which is handy. It is also updated with lvl 70-80 gear now. Not to mention the addons and macros chapter that has some valuable tips. 

The chapters on making gold and leveling I view more as a bonus than anything else. Don’t expect super detailed gold and leveling tips here, and why would you? It’s a class guide, not something else. That said, there are gold tips for every level range, although they are pretty minimalistic. As for the chapter on leveling, well… the chapter is 20 pages long for 80 levels so you can’t expect it to be like a dedicated leveling guide. Nevertheless there are some good tips on areas and talents for leveling, and where to find quests.

As for updates, they are free for life and the guide has been updated 11 times in the last 3 years so the author is definitely committed to keeping it up to date. A big plus. In my opinion, though, you shouldn’t worry too much if another patch comes out and tweaks the mage somewhat and the guide isn’t updated; such changes are mostly small and the majority of the guide would still be useful.

If I had to complain…

Too many talent builds — in my opinion — make it a bit confusing for newbies. There are no specific battleground tactics for SotA. But these are very minor complaints.

Conclusion

Overall this is a very good guide. An extra plus for the timely updates.

A strong 8/10 in my opinion. Click here for more information.

If you’re interested in this guide you may also be interested in Killer Guides complete guide package