How to get the stats right for your mage in world of warcraft

If you are just starting world of warcraft or a expert, you still may be wondering what stats are right for your mage. Well here is you world of warcraft guide. Feel free to click on my profile and check out the rest of my world of warcraft articles.

How important a stat is to your Mage truly depends on how you wish to play your Mage. It is the general understanding of the Mage community that Intellect and Stamina are the two top priority stats a Mage should focus on while leveling to 60, in outland gear with int, stam and +dmg on it becomes readily available.
Intellect impacts your Mages critical strike chance with spells and increases your available mana pool, intellect should be the stat you focus on most while leveling to 60, after 60 the gear available in outlands almost immediately has int, stam and +dmg on it, so obviously it would be a good idea to take this gear.
Stamina increases your Mages health points, although it is not as important as intellect for leveling be sure you don't neglect this stat otherwise you will be making many trips to the graveyard.
Spirit although the description states it regenerates your mana and health pools, is largely seen as insignificant by the Mage community simply because of its diminishing returns at higher stat levels and lack of effectiveness during spell casting.

Other important stats to a mage are +spell damage, spell critical rating, spell hit rating, spell penetration, and resilience. Spell damage is what it sounds like, an increase in either all spell damage, or the damage of a particular school. It is a passive bonus found on gear and will increase the spell damage up to a particular amount, how much +damage a spell receives depends on the spell. Spell critical and hit rating obviously increase your chance to crit or hit with spells which is good for a mage to have because if a spell crits, its more damage for the same amount of mana. Hit works kind of the same way, if you get resisted you basically just wasted mana on a spell that did no damage, increasing your spell hit will help negate that. Don't forget though that you can't have 100% to hit, refer to the chart later to find out how much +hit you need, as it will vary. Crit and hit generally aren't a focus for leveling, but they do help, so any gear you come across with hit and crit on it might be a good addition. Spell penetration lowers your targets resistance by x, which helps with partial resists, such as the ones mages see with fireball. Resilience is a stat new with BC and is a pvp stat. In a nutshell resilience reduces the chance of you being critically struck and reduces the damage done by criticals to you. +Damage, Crit, hit, penetration and resilience are discussed later.

What stats are important when leveling?
From 1-60 Intellect should be the primary stat you focus on, then stamina as a seconday stat. Basically if you look for "of the Eagle" gear you'll be fine. There are also a few tailoring pieces that you can make that are pretty good, my personal favorite is Robe of Power. From 60-70 it's a bit different, the first quests you get in outland reward green items with int, stam and spell damage on them. Some may even offer crit and/or hit. From 60-70 any item with int and/or spell damage, and/or crit would be a good choice.

-Brandon C. ; aka. Darksun22