World of Warcraft - Classes / Mages

Mages
Wielders of powerful magic, mages through history have concerned themselves with their lust for power. This great power led the mage Kel'thuzad toward being the catalyst for starting the plague that took over Lordaeron. However, not all power corrupts, as the remaining members of the mage city of Dalaran would like to uphold.

Of the three "caster" classes, mages place their combat focus on destruction. Ice Bolts and Fire Balls freeze and sear opponents into oblivion. But being general overall spellcasters, mages do have slightly more than just blowing stuff up...like, um...polymorph, to disable an opponent so they can better blow them up.

In fairness, mages also can cast teleport spells and conjure some supplies. A few of their spells also have a significant amount of utility usage. Mages may be a bit fragile, but they are also very capable.

In instance groups, mages are excellent at dealing damage, and specialize in area effect (AE) damage. They also use Polymorph, Frost Nova and Counterspell to try to take their opponents out of the fight. On a raid, the crowd control aspect of the class is often stifled, but mages are always called upon to do damage. Mages can be very potent in PvP, casting single-target and area damage spells.

Tanking: poor
Healing: none
Damage: high, highest for AE
Utility and support: high

Strengths:

•     Able to destroy many opponents before they can lay a finger on the mage
•     Can harm many opponents at once
•     Able to remove a target from combat with Polymorph
•     Teleportation spells and conjuring their own food/drink

Drawbacks:

•     Low survivability rate, when their magic fails them
•     Limited equipment choices from having only cloth to use
•     Heavy dependence on mana, and total reliance on being able to stand still long enough to cast their spells

Available races: Human, Gnome, Draenei, Troll, Undead, Blood Elf
Usable armor: Cloth
Usable weapons: Staves (starting weapon), Daggers, Swords, Wands
Talent trees: Frost (longevity), Arcane (general enhancement), Fire (rapid destruction)