Best Mage loadout for WoW SoD Phase 3: Talents, runes, and gear

The Mage - specifically Fire Mage - is one of the best DPS in WoW SoD Phase 3. Their unrelenting, non-stop damage is desirable in any raid group. Whether you’re going to farm Gnomeregan for some of its trinkets, or diving into the new Sunken Temple raid, this is easily one of the best DPS classes in the game. In this article, we will focus on one build, and that’s what it does best.

While I like mage healing well enough, the best way to play a Mage in WoW SoD Phase 3 is the Fire Mage. Frost Mages are sitting on the bottom of the pile - no matter how safe they are to play, they lack the enemy-stopping power Fire builds have.

Best talents for Mage in WoW SoD Phase 3

Fire Mage talents for Phase 3 courtesy of Wowhead's talent calculator (Image via Wowhead.com)

Since this is a Fire build for Mages in WoW SoD Phase 3, we’re going all the way down the Fire tree, taking the most powerful, most useful abilities we can.

Ignite (crits from Fire cause additional damage), Fire Power (increase damage done by Fire spells), and Critical Mass (Increases critical strike of Fire Spells) are among them. Of course, it also uses the capstone Combustion, a remarkably strong cooldown.

When activated, each Fire spell hits to increase the critical strike chance with Fire damage spells by 10%, until you’ve crit three times. There are so many great Fire abilities for Mages on the Season of Discovery servers, so it’s time to make them hit harder.

Fire Talents

Impact: 5/5
Ignite: 5/5
Incinerate: 2/2
Pyroblast: 1/1
Burning Soul: 2/2
Improved Scorch: 3/3
Master of Elements: 3/3
Blast Wave: 1/1
Critical Mass: 3/3
Fire Power: 5/5
Combustion: 1/1

Frost Talents

Frost Warding: 2/2
Elemental Precision: 3/3
Ice Shards: 3/3

Best Runes for Mage in WoW SoD Phase 3

Ideal runes for Fire Mage courtesy of Wowhead (Image via Wowhead.com)

What I love about this WoW SoD Phase 3 Mage build is almost all of it builds towards one purpose: being as damaging as possible. The only exception is Molten Armor, one of the new Phase 3 runes. That still hits things, but you don’t want to be in a position where it does. It’s great for soloing though.

Living Bomb and Living Flame make you the star of any AOE fights, that’s for sure. Detonating constant damage on every target is so satisfying. Below are all the Runes you should consider in this build:

Ideal Runes

Gloves: Living Bomb
Pants: Living Flame (AOE fights) / Icy Veins (Single-Target fights)
Chest: Burnout
Waist: Frostfire Bolt
Boots: Spell Power
Helmet: Advanced Warding
Bracers: Molten Armor

BiS equipment in WoW SoD Phase 3 for Mages

When it comes to Mages in WoW SoD Phase 3, you must prioritize a few stats over any other. You need Spell Hit, Spell Critical Hit, Spell Damage, Intellect, and Stamina, in that order.

Below, you’ll see the BiS (Best in Slot) for being level 50 as a WoW SoD Phase 3 Mage. Many of these will drop from the current raid, The Temple of Atal’Hakkar (Sunken Temple), but others will show up elsewhere. Here’s the gear you should be sporting if you want to top meters.

BiS gear

Head: Eye of Flame (World Drop)
Neck: Piston Pendant (Gnomeregan)
Shoulders: Fractured Mind Pauldrons (Tailoring)
Back: Bloodrot Cloak (2x Silver Coins from Blood Moon PVP)
Chest: Malevolent Prophet’s Vest (Temple of Atal’Hakkar)
Wrist: Void-Powered Invoker’s Vambraces (Engineering)
Hands: Atal’ai Hexxer’s Gloves (Temple of Atal’Hakkar)
Waist: Cord of the Untamed (Temple of Atal’Hakkar)
Legs: Malevolent Prophet’s Leggings (Temple of Atal’Hakkar)
Boots: Malevolent Prophet’s Sandals (Temple of Atal’Hakkar)
Ring: Songstone of Ironforge (Alliance) (Quest: The Princess’s Surprise - Blackrock Depths) // Eye of Orgrimmar (Horde) (Quest: The Princess Saved - Blackrock Depths)
Ring: Band of Boiling Blood (5x Silver Coins from Blood Moon PVP)
Trinket: Breadth of the Beast (Temple of Atal’Hakkar)
Trinket: Miniaturized Combustion Chamber (Gnomeregan)
Weapon: Spire of Hakkari Worship (Temple of Atal’Hakkar)
Ranged Weapon: Pyric Cadeuceus (Blackrock Depths)

WoW SoD Phase 3 will take players from levels 40-50, culminating in the challenging new raid The Temple of Atal’Hakkar, down in the Swamp of Sorrows.