Mages have always been associated exclusively with damage dealing, but that’s no longer the case in World of Warcraft Classic: Season of Discovery. The new season brought with it a host of interesting changes to the game, including some unexpected class/role combinations. Among other things, players can expect to be able to take on the role of a Mage healer provided they take full advantage of the new Rune Carving system. Mages aren’t among thebest healers in Season of Discovery, but they are a pretty solid choice for the role nevertheless.
Similar to other classes, Mages are able to unlocka wide variety of Runes in WoW Classic: Season of Discovery, however, a handful of them immediately stand out from the crowd. These new Runes allow Mages to convert Arcane magic into healing energy and, for the very first time, enable Mage players to become healers. Join us as we take a look at this exciting new class/role combo and break down everything you need to know about playing as a Mage healer in World of Warcraft Classic: Season of Discovery.
This guide presents a full overview of Mage healers, but feel free to click the links below to jump straight to the sections that interest you the most.
RacesRunesRotationStat PriorityProfessionsTalentsBIS GearConsumables
Best Races For Mage Healers In Season Of Discovery
Gnomes have always been the preferred choice for Mages on the Alliance side, and that doesn’t change in Season of Discovery. The 5% Intelligence you get from Expansive Mind gives you extra mana and Critical Strike chance with spells while Escape Artist provides you with a means of dispelling movement impairing effects. Historically, this came in handy more for PvP than PvE, but if you’re playing a Mage healer you’ll also see the benefits of being more mobile in raids and dungeons.
Humans are the second-best pick for Alliance players thanks to The Human Spirit, a Racial that increases your character’s Spirit by 5%. Humans are often the go-to pick for Priests, but now they’re a very solid choice for Mages as well. None of the other Racials benefit Mages, in particular, but it’s hard to say no to Diplomacy, which increases all Reputation gains by 10%, regardless of which class or role you’re playing.
On the Horde side, your best bet for playing a Mage healer is definitely Troll. Most of their Racials are more suitable for Hunters or Warriors, but Berserking is a fantastic ability for any class, Mage included. Being able to cast spells up to 30% faster is never a bad thing while the Regeneration ability will help you stay alive long enough to heal your allies during tense situations.
Undead is the only other Horde race that can become a Mage in WoW Classic: Season of Discovery. The only Undead Racial that’s useful to Mages is Will of the Forsaken, and that’s typically only used for PvP. That said, you may run into situations where you can get some use out of it while playing as a healer. Shadow Resistance is another noteworthy Racial here, but it won’t really come into play until the later phases of Season of Discovery.
Table of Contents
Best Runes For Mage Healers In Season Of Discovery
You’ll only have to worry about three Runes if you’re looking to heal as a Mage in Season of Discovery. Healing is strongly tied to the Arcane tree, so any Rune that affects Arcane spells with end up having some impact on your healing capabilities. However, only three Runes listed below are absolutely mandatory for playing a Mage healer, with the other ones being useful but not necessarily essential.
Your bread and butter as a Mage healer is Temporal Beacon, a spell that converts 40% of all damage done by the caster into healing. Multiple targets can be affected by Temporal Beacon at the same time, however, the caveat is that the healing will be split among all of them.
You can use Regeneration to apply Temporal Beacon to a single target (usually the tank) or Mass Regeneration to apply it to your entire party. In either case, you will suffer from a debuff called Tangled Causality when doing so. The debuff greatly reduces your Fire and Frost damage, essentially encouraging you to focus almost exclusively on Arcane.
Rewind Time is more of a situational Rune that can reverse all the damage taken by the target. It’s not technically a healing spell, but it pretty much achieves the same purpose. This is another spell you’ll want to use primarily on the tank, but timing is essential with this one since it only reverts damage taken by the target over the last 5 seconds.
PvE Rotation For Mage Healers In Season Of Discovery
Your basic rotation as a Mage healer revolves around Regeneration, Mass Regeneration, and either Rewind Time or Arcane Blast. In addition, you’ll also want to make use of staple Arcane spells in your rotation, such as Arcane Missiles and Arcane Explosion.
Stat Priority For Mage Healers In Season Of Discovery
Spell Hit Chance
Importance:Spell Hit Chance is your most important stat as a Mage healer and it’s easy to see why. While your direct healing spells will always hit their mark, your damage spells can sometimes miss. Needless to say, less damage also means less healing.
Notes:Unfortunately, there are only a handful of items that increase your Spell Hit Chance in Phase 1. You can use the Blackfathom Mana Oil to get a +2% Spell Hit Chance, but only while you’re running the raid. In addition, you can get a significant 10% boost by maxing out Arcane Focus. Spell Hit cap in Phase 1 of Season of Discovery is 16%.
Importance:Intellect increases your total mana pool and has always been an essential stat for all spellcasters, including Mages. The stat also increases your Spell Critical Strike chance.
Notes:Most pieces of Mage gear will increase your Intellect and there are various ways of getting even more of the stat, such as the Arcane Intellect spell. You’ll get 15 mana for every point of Intellect you have and every 59.5 Intellect increases your Critical Strike chance with spells by 1%.
Spell Power
Importance:This one is pretty self-explanatory. Also known as Spell Damage, Spell Power increases the potency of all spells, both those designed for damage and those designed for healing.
Notes:There are few ways of acquiring extra Spell Power during Phase 1, but you can always rely on certain pieces of gear and the Minor Wizard Oil to give you a little boost.
Importance:Spirit increases both health and mana regeneration, however, this only works outside of combat. Health isn’t too much of an issue while you’re playing as a healer, but the mana regen will definitely come in handy.
Notes:Since you can’t benefit from Spirit during combat, the stat will only come into play in between fights. Mostly. The one exception is Evocation, which is affected by Spirt and can be used at any time, albeit the spell has a very long cooldown. Mage Armor benefits from Spirit even more, however, this spell won’t be available until Phase 2.
Spell Critical Strike
Importance:This stat does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. The higher the stat, the more likely you are to deal Critical Strikes with your spells. A Critical Strike deals 150% of a spell’s usual damage.
Notes:The most reliable way of gaining extra Crit is to simply increase your Intellect. That said, there are certain pieces of gear in the game that can contribute as well.
Importance:Stamina increases your total health pool. The stat is important for tanks and melee classes, but isn’t all that useful for Mages. Having more health is always helpful, but it’s not a priority. Every point of Stamina increases your health pool by 10 points.
Notes:Pretty much every piece of gear you’ll come across will give you some Stamina. There’s no need to go out of your way to gain more Stamina.
Best Professions For Mage Healers In Season Of Discovery
Tailoring and Enchanting have traditionally been the go-to professions for Mages in World of Warcraft Classic, but Alchemy and Herbalism might be a better combo throughout Season of Discovery. If you may manage to gather all the mats you need without having to farm them yourself, we strongly recommend going with Alchemy and one of the other two aforementioned crafting professions. Here are just some of the benefits you can expect from each of them:
Enchanting
Best Talent Specializations For Mage Healers In Season Of Discovery
Phase 1 of World of Warcraft Classic: Season of Discovery caps players at level 25. In other words, you’ll only have 16 Talent points to work with. And since healing is tied to the Arcane tree, that’s where you’ll want to dump all of them, at least during Phase 1. Check out our recommended build down below.
Despite being a healer, you’ll still want to focus a lot of your efforts on dealing damage. The more Arcane damage you deal, the more you’ll be able to heal your allies at the same time. This build is designed for group content where you won’t have to worry too much about defense, hence why we’re not focusing on things like Arcane Resilience or Magic Absorption. The build is all about reducing the enemy’s magic resistance to ensure our spells hit their mark while enabling our allies to receive more healing.
Best In Slot Gear For Mage Healers In Season Of Discovery
We are currently working on BiS lists for all classes and specializations in Phase 1 of Season of Discovery. Stay tuned as we will provide a link here when we have it complete.
Best Raid Consumables For Mage Healers
The only raid players can participate in during Season of Discovery Phase 1 is Blackfathom Deeps. The classic dungeon has been turned into a 10-man raid, with Blizzard announcing during Blizzcon that players can expect other dungeons to follow suit in the near future. Before you decide to decide to jump into the reworked BFD, make sure to bring along the consumables listed below.
