WoW Mage Healer Class Guide - Season of Discovery
Mage Healer in the Season of Discovery Guide
Season of Discovery brings forth a peculiar revelation for Mages—stepping into the unexpected realm of healing. Known for their mastery over Fire, Frost, and Arcane magic, Mages now wield the Chronomantic energies, intertwining damage and healing. Let's explore the unique runes, spells, and scrolls that define the Mage Healer in this groundbreaking season of WoW.
In Season of Discovery, Mages assume a dual role, infusing their magical repertoire with healing capabilities. New runes and spells redefine their identity, allowing them to mend wounds while dishing out magical onslaughts. The introduction of Regeneration, Mass Regeneration, and Rewind Time opens the door to a healing style unlike any other.
Mage Healer Runes
Chest Rune
Legs Rune
Gloves Rune
Best Talents Builds for Mage Healer - Phase 1
Which runes you use will depend on if you want to be a tank healer or more of a Raid healer. Regeneration will be used regardless of your choice of gameplay. If you're aiming to be an overall healer, then you'd take the other healing spells, Mass Regeneration and Rewind Time. Whereas if you're more focused on burst healing, babysitting the tank or just trying to do as much damage as you can while healing, you'd just take Regeneration, Arcane Blast for the big damage to heal and either Mass Regeneration or Icy Veins.
To unlock the full potential of Mage Healing, aspiring healers must seek and master the runes outlined above. Each rune contributes to the Mage Healer's toolkit, providing a diverse set of abilities to enhance their effectiveness in the healing role.
Scrolls for Mages
Mages now possess scrolls scattered across Azeroth, adding a layer of versatility to their abilities. These scrolls serve dual purposes, functioning as runes and providing buffs. Notably, the Reintegration scroll stands out, granting Mages the power to resurrect fallen comrades. The scrolls, identified using a Comprehension Charm, bring new dynamics to Mage gameplay.
Tier 1 scrolls - Level 10
- Scroll: Lower ping whomever
- Scroll: Chap balk welles
- Scroll: Kwyjibo
- Scroll: cwal
What the scrolls can become
- Level 1 scrolls for all stats like scroll of intellect
- Scroll of reintegration
Tier 2 scrolls - level 20
- Scroll: wubba wubba
- Scroll: sthenic lunate
- Scroll: omit kesa
- Scroll: voce well
What the scrolls can become
- Level 2 scrolls for all stats like scroll of intellect II
- Scroll of arcane power I
- Scroll of arcane accuracy I
- Scroll of arcane recovery I
- Scroll of arcane protection - frost I
- Scroll of arcane protection - fire I
- Scroll of reintegration
Strengths and Weaknesses
Mage Healing introduces a captivating twist to the healer role. By applying Temporal Beacon and utilizing Arcane damage, Mages adopt a proactive approach, offering sustained healing to their allies. The role can vary—from focusing on tanks and unleashing damage to embracing the full healing toolkit. Mage healers become adept at foreseeing damage, creating a dynamic and engaging playstyle.
Strengths:
Proactive heals with Temporal Beacon
Strong damage output alongside healing
Rewind Time for reversing major damage
Versatility with Arcane Intellect, Blink, and scrolls
Utility spells like Polymorph and Resurrection
Weaknesses:
Squishy and vulnerable
Proactive healing complexity
Mana dependency
Lack of defensive options at level 25
How to Play Mage Healer
The rotations for healing as a Mage won't be fully figured out until launch, however the point of the healing is to apply Temporal Beacon to your targets that you want healed, then do Arcane damage via Arcane Blast and Arcane Explosion to burst up your targets. Rewind Time will be an interesting spell and on a pretty short cooldown you'll be able to reverse damage on your beacon targets frequently. The only bad thing about Rewind Time is that it's in the same rune slot as Arcane Blast, which will be the best way to burst your beacon targets back up. It's worth noting that Regeneration doesn't need to be fully channeled to apply Temporal Beacon. You just need to cast it and as soon as it touches the target, it will apply beacon.
Rotation
Mage Healing:
1. Use Regeneration and Mass Regeneration for healing and to apply Temporal Beacon, depending on if you need single target or AoE healing.
2. Use Arcane Blast and Arcane Explosion to deal damage and heal your targets.
3. Using Living Flame while at 3 or 4 stacks of Arcane Blast. This will be your main cooldown, so make sure to use it often.
4. Use Arcane Blast to heal targets with your Temporal Beacon, but make sure not to run out of mana. 2 stacks of Arcane Blast is a nice stack count, 3 stacks is okay if mana allows and 4 stacks should almost never be used.
5. Use Rewind Time if you're using the rune, the reverse damage on your beacon targets when needed and keep it on cooldown.
Stats and Gear for Mage Healer
Stat priority for Mages will change slightly throughout the phases and will slightly changed based on how you're healing.
Spell Hit is always the most important stat, however very difficult to obtain in Phase 1. Thankfully Mages have talents like Elemental Precision and Arcane Focus. Also there is a very good pair of Tailoring only boots that you should be aiming to get as soon as you can, Extraplanar Spidersilk Boots. There will also be a weapon oil, Blackfathom Mana Oil, that can only be used inside of the new Blackfathom Deeps raid.
- The spell Hit cap is 16%.
- Early game at LV 25 Intellect is king. This increases your mana and your critical strike chance. At the lower levels mana will be an issue due to not having too much Intellect in the game, so finding it anyway you can will be vital.
- 1 Intellect is 15 mana
- 60 Intellect is 1% increased Critical Strike
- Spirit will increase the rate at which your Health and Mana regenerate and your main healing spells are very expensive. Not only that, but you need to spend mana to do damage as well to heal up.
- Spell damage is another very strong stat that follows closely behind the other two stats solely because the more damage you do with your Arcane spells, the more you will heal.
- Stamina gives you more health. Mages don't need to stack Stamina, we just need to make sure we don't get one shot by mechanics.
- 1 stamina is 10 health
Stat Priority
1. Spell Hit
2. Intellect
3. Spell Power
4. Spirit
5. Critical Strike
6. Stamina
Gear Recommendations for Mage Healer - Phase 1
It will be hard to know what's Best in Slot until Season of Discovery launches and we see what gear drops in the raid. However for now, we'll list some pieces that we know are in the game that you will be wanting to get below.
These are some really strong pieces of gear that we KNOW will be in the game.
1. Magician's Mantle: This is a very good pair of shoulders with not only a chunk of Intellect, but also 5 Spell Damage. These are Bind on Equip, meaning you can pick them up from the Auction House.
2. Black Velvet Robes: This a very good robe with a LARGE amount of Intellect and some Stamina to go with it. These are Bind on Equip, meaning you can pick them up from the Auction House.
3. Mindthrust Bracers: This a strong pair of bracers with a chunk of Intellect. These are Bind on Equip, meaning you can pick them up from the Auction House
4. Twisted Chanter's Staff: This is an amazing Staff with a large amount of Intellect and some Stamina to go with it. These are Bind on Equip, meaning you can pick them up from the Auction House
5. Belt of Arugal: This is a really good belt with a large amount of Intellect and Stamina. This drops inside of Shadowfang Keep off of Archmage Arugal.
6. Lorekeeper's Ring: This is a nice ring with some stamina, but also 5 spell damage and some slight mana regeneration with 2 mP5. This is from being honored with Silverwing Sentinels.
Best Races for Mage Healer
Best Alliance Races
Mages can choose between two different Races on the Alliance side: Gnomes and Humans.
Gnomes
Gnomes are the best race for Mages, the Gnome Racials are far too good. Escape Artist is a racial ability that allows you to get out of ANY Immobilzation, roots, snares and slows. This can range from being Frost Nova, the Frostbolt slow, Entangling Roots, Wing Clip and just about everything that can hinder your movement. This is obviously insanely good in PvP and can be lifesaving as a tank or DPS. On a very short cast time of .5 sec and a very short cooldown of one minute, this is easily one of the best racials in the entire game.
Next up they have Expansive Mind. This is a flat out 5% increased Intellect. Intellect is great for casters since it increases your mana pool and your chance to crit with all your spells.
The last important racial Gnomes have is Engineering Specialization which gives us an extra 15 to our Engineering skill. This normally wouldn’t be that big of deal, but in Season of Discovery, we can only get to 225 on our professions. However with the 15 Engineering bonus, this allows only Gnomes to get to 240 Engineering skill, which allows them to make items that nobody else can make like the Gnomish Death Ray and Gnomish Mind Control Cap, both extremely powerful PvP items. Hi-Explosive Bomb, which are not only great for PvP, but very good for PvE, as it provides a ton of extra dmg and l lastly Deepdive Helmet, which is Best in Slot for Warlock tanks, as it provides the most Stamina out of any other Helmet.
Human
Humans are the only other option for Alliance Mages and they don’t bring anything to the table really. They have a PvP racial in Perception on a 3min cooldown, but that doesn’t help much, if at all in PvE. The increased Spirit from The Human Spirit is better than nothing and will slightly boost your mana regeneration, but it's not super helpful. Diplomacygives a 10% reputation gain bonus, however we don’t really have much rep to grind in Classic and lastly Sword Specialization gives us 5 increased skill with Swords and 2H swords, which does not matter at all for Mages.
Best Horde Races
Mages can choose between two different Races on the Horde side: Troll and Undead
Troll
The main reason for picking a Troll is Berserking. This passive provides a substantial damage boost, especially when low on health. This doesn’t happen very often, however, as you are liable to die quickly if left on low health, especially in raids.
Regeneration will give you some health regen, which can be nice since we want to stay as high on health as possible.
Beast Slaying can be helpful when fighting Beasts, otherwise not that helpful.
Bow Specialization and Throwing Specialization are worthless as a Mage
Undead
Undead have Will of the Forsaken, which will get you out of all Fear, Seduction and Sleeps. As you can imagine, this is extremely helpful in PvP. This can also be helpful in PvE, however much more niched, as there isn’t too many encounters where you can be Charmed, Fear or slept. Either way, its still nice to be able to get right out of it when it does happen.
Undead also have another niche racial in Shadow Resistance, which simply gives you some added Shadow resistance for those few encounters where it can be handy. Lastly they have Cannibalize, which allows you to feast on any human or Undead corpses around you, healing you for 7% of your total Health. This is just a nice quick heal that can come in handly in between pulls, or trash packs, or while out leveling.
Best Professions for Mage Healer
Engineering
Engineering has always been a strong profession in Classic and it will remain so in Season of Discovery. With the ability to do extra damage from all types of grenades and sappers and the ability to craft Engineering only items like Spellpower Goggles Xtreme.
Tailoring
Is very handy as it will help you craft tailoring only items like bags, spell power gear and the new boots Extraplanar Spidersilk Boots if they're in at launch!
Conclusion
The Season of Discovery introduces a paradigm shift for Mages, thrusting them into the uncharted territory of healing. With Temporal Beacon as their guiding light, Mage Healers dance between damage and restoration, offering a refreshing take on the traditional healer role. As the arcane energies intertwine with healing prowess, Mages stand poised to redefine raid dynamics and etch their mark in WoW history.
As we bid farewell to this exploration of Mage Healing in the Season of Discovery, the journey into the arcane unknown awaits. Embrace the unique challenges, revel in the versatility of scrolls, and let the Temporal Beacon guide your magical endeavors. Until next we meet, fellow adventurers, may your spells be potent, your healing resplendent, and your path in Azeroth be filled with wonder. Safe travels!