PvE Mages

The PvE mages' guide to Equipment from non-epic encounters
Not all mages have the luxury or the patience to do Molten core, Onyxia and other epic encounters regurlarly. However, this should not prevent you from obtaining a lot of the good equipment that is found outside of these challenges and being smart about your farming. This guide describes helps you optimize your gear and obtain the items you need to be the best possible mage in PvE encounters. PvP is a different story and you should look for appropriate guides on allakhazam for this.

The goals of the PvE mage
As a PvE mage your primary contributions to the group in combat are:

Crowd control through your polymorph and frostnova spell

Dealing massive amounts of burst damage - both to single and multiple targets

Sustaining this damage output even through long encounters.

Staying alive, so you can deal more damage

Outside of Molten Core, there is not much you can do to optimize your crowd control and staying alive, except through practising your skills and agro management (if you get agro in MC you are dead anyway). Hence, the rest of this guide is about optimizing 2 and 3.

Optimizing Damage output
You can modify your damage output in three ways:

Allocating talent points

Using +Crit gear

Using +Damage gear

Allocation of talent points are discussed in great detail in the forums. Lets talk about crit and damage gear instead

Crit vs. damage gear
This section gets into the details of what is best - crit or damage gear. Those who do not like the math behind it can skip directly to the conclusion.

Lets say your favourite bolt spell does an average of [Base Damage] damage each hit and you cast 100 bolts. Your average damage output will be:

[Avg. Damage] (base)
= ([Base Damage] * 100) / 100 = [Base Damage]
In the optimal spec. as a frost mage your crits do double the normal amount of damage. Hence, +x point of crit gear will give you x extra crits out of 100 casts:

[Avg. Damage] (crit)
= ([Base Damage] * 100 + x * [Base Damage] ) / 100
= [Avg. Damage] (base) + x * [Base Damage] / 100

Lets assume you use +y damage gear instead. Your avg. damage output will be:

[Avg. Damage] (Damgear)
= (([Base Damage] + y) * 100) / 100
= [Avg. Damage] (base) + (100 * y) / 100
= [Avg. Damage] (base) + y

Doing the math. You get:

y = x * [Base Damage] / 100
From the above calculations we can conclude that:

1 point of damage gear = [Base Damage] / 100 * points of crit gear
For a fire mage ([Base Damage] roughly 640) we have:

1 point of crit gear = 7 point of damage gear (fire mage)
...And for a frost mage (Base damage roughly 450) we have:

1 point of crit gear = 5 points of damage gear (frost mage)
Since fire mages don't crit for more than about 90% ekstra damage (with incinerate) these number are not quite right. But a good rule of thumb is that around 1 point of crit gear equals 6 points of damage gear

Damage Output Conclusion
Since most +damage gear outperforms the +crit gear in damage output we can conclude that damage gear gives you the best bang for your bucks in PvE. Of course, the higher you boost your base damage the better the crits get. But generally +damage gear is preferable from +crit gear

Optimzing Mana Regeneration
Mana regeneration will allow you to sustain your damage output in long fights. There are two ways to increase your mana regen:

+Spirit gear
+Mana / 5 sec gear
Outside of combat 4 points of spirit gives you 1 mana regen / tick which is rougly 2,5 seconds. In combat, however, your mana regeneration will only continue if you have mage armor on or have the talent Arcane Meditation. If both are active, your mana regen in combat will be 45% of your "out of combat" regen. Therefore, in the optimal situation (both mage armor and Arcane Meditation) we have:

[Mana Regen] (spirit) / 5 sec = 2 * Spirit / 4 * 0.45
This is rougly:

[Mana Regen] (sprit) / 5 sec = spirit / 4
Mana Regeneration Conclusion
While in combat with mage armor and full spec in Arcane meditation

One point of +mana/5 sec gear = 4 spirit (with full Arc. Meditation)
Keep in mind that your spirit will also increase the power of your evocation spell. Even taking this into account - almost all +mana/5 sec gear gives you much better regen than spirit. So mana/5 sec gear is the way to go.

The best gear to farm
From the calculations above in the previous section, we can conclude:

To be the best PvE mage you need:

+Damage gear
+Mana/5 sec gear
The rest of this guide describes where such gear may be obtained - outside of the epic encounters. For a guide to pure +crit gear (which gives less damage in PvE but is more useful in PvP) see elsewhere on allakhazam.

To provide you with an overview, the best gear to farm is marked with bold. This gear is the "best of breed". Optional, "nice to have while you wait" gear is marked in normal typeface. The bold items are all very similar in power - once you have obtained a bold item for a slot, move on the farm for an item in another slot.

A note on mana regen gear: Be aware that you often share your requirements for mana gear with priests. Priests depend even more on mana regen than you do. Be nice to them when you roll (or do not roll) on mana regen drops. Priests are, after all, the ones keeping you alive in your AoE damage feasts - you need them as friends!

Blackrock Depth
Damage gear:
Sash of the burning Hearth (Fire mages - Bael'Gar)
Boreal Mantle (Frost mages - Warder Stilgiss)
Blackrock Spire
Damage gear:
Hands of Power (Quartermaster Zigris, LBRS)
Robe of the Archmage (Pattern, From pyromancers, LBRS)
Skyshroud Leggings (Highlord Omokk, LBRS)
Dragonrider boots (Rend Blackhand, UBRS)
Flaming Band (Fire mages - Pyrogurd Emberseers, UBRS)
Briarwood Reed (Jed Runewatcher, UBRS - rare)
Eye of the Beast (Quest: General Drakkisaths Demise)
Regen Gear:
Band of Rumination (Rend Blackhand, UBRS) (5mana/5 sec) - Also adds +1 to crits
Dire Maul
Damage gear
Robe of Everlasting Night (Immol'thar, West)
Rod of the Ogre Magi (King Gordok and the Tribute, North)
Oddly Magical Belt (King Gordok and Cho'Rush the observer, North)
Tempest Talisman (Hydrospawn, East)
Cyclone Spaulders (King Gordok and Cho'Rush the observer, North)
Denwatcher's Shoulders (Guards, North)
Riptide Shoes (Hydrospawn, East)
Sublime Wristguards (Guards, North)
Royal Seal of Eldre'Thalas (Item quest drop: Arcanist Cookbook)
Amplifying Cloak (Magister Kalendris, ) West
Heliotrope Cloeak (Frost mages - guards, North)
Regen gear
Mindsurge Robe (King Gordok and Cho'Rush the observer, North) (10 mana/5sec)
Whipwine Cord (Alzzin the Wildshaper, East) (6 mana/5sec)
Diablic Mantle (Lord Hel'Nurath) (8 mana/5sec)
Quel'Dorai Channeling Rod (Lethendris) (8mana/5sec)
Ring of Demonic Guile (Alzzin the Wildshaper, East) (6 mana/5sec)
Strathholme
Damage gear:
Crimsom felt hat (Magistrate Barthilas, UD side)
Thuzadin Sash (Nerub'enkan, UD side)
Sacred Cloth Leggings (From various monsters - very rare)
Fire Striders (Fire mages - Balnazzar, Scarlet side)
Regen Gear:
Archivist Cape of Concentration (Archivist Galford, Scarlet side) (4 mana/5sec)
Shadowy Laced Handwraps (Baroness Anastari) (5 mana/5sec)
Scholomance
Damage gear:
Freezing Lich Robes (Ras Frostwhisper)
Shivery Handwraps (Ras Frostwhisper)
Burial Shawl (Doctor Theolen Krastinov)
Witchblade (Darkmaster Gandling)
Tailored items
Damage gear :
Robe of the Archmage - (BoP, drops from LBRS)
Robe of Winter night (Frost mages - Drops in Winterspring)
Brightcloth Cloak
Dreamweave Gloves - May actually be better than the gloves of power, since they provide some nice bonuses
Runecloth Gloves
Cindercloth gear (Fire mages)
Frostweave gear (Frost mages)
Inferno Gloves (Fire mages)
Regen gear:
Ghostweave gear
Wisdom of the Timbermaw (4 mana/5sec)
Quests items
The following quest rewards may be worth obtaining:

Scorching Sash (Fire mages - Akiris by the Bundle)
Orb of Darkmoon (1200 tickets in darkmoon faire - very long quest)
Crown of the Penitent (Quest: Houses of the Holy) (6mana/sec)
Songstone of Ironforge (Quest: Saving the Princess)
Battlegrounds
You generally need to gain a certain amount of reputation to buy the gear available from here. Damage gear:
Sage Cloak (+14 dam) (Requires Honored in Alterac Valley)
Cloth Girdle (+18 dam) (Requires Honered in Alterac Valley)
Tome of the Ice Lord (+33 frost dam) (Requires Exalted in Alterac Valley)
Tome of Fiery Arcana (+40 fire dam) (Requires Exalted in Alterac Valley)
Lorekeepers Ring (+14 dam, +4mana/5sec) (Requires Honored in Warsong Gulch)
Dryad Wrist Bindings (+20 dam) (Requires Exalted in Warsong Gulch)
Sage Claw (+30 dam, +1 crit) (Requires Exalted in Arathi Bassin)
Highlanders Epaulets (+12 dam, +4mana/5sec) (Requires Exalted in Arathi Bassin)
Regen gear:
Sage Pendant (4mana/5sec) (Requires Honored in Alterac Valley)
Lorekeepers Staff (8mana/5sec) (Requires Revered in Warsong Gulch)
Misc.
The following world drops are worth obtaining through the auction house:

Eye of Flame (Fire mages)
Elemental Mage Staff
Freezing Band (Frost mages)
Mageflame Cloak (Fire Mages)
Coldstone Slippers (4 mana/5sec)
Gracius Cape (6mana/5sec)
Arena Bands (+1 crit) (often sells cheap)
A word about wands:

If you are not using your wand to deal damage (which you shouldn't as a mage) your should look for bonuses on the wand. Your best choice of wands are the "Of Frozen Wrath", "Of Fiery Wrath" and "Of Concentration" wands available as world drops. These wands are most easily obtainable from the auction house where they sell for only a few gold.

Things to do before the late 50ies
Before you have the level to do the above instances you can do zul'Farrak for experience and these nice items:

Spellshock Leggings
Zum'Rah's Vexing Cane
Other instances worth doing for good, early, mage drops is the Scarlet Monastary.

Generelly, until you start farming high-end - just go with tailored items. Tailored items are almost as good as the farmable gear and will last well into the late 50ies. Since you are going to switch to the best gear later anyway there is no reason to farm for gear before you can get the best available

Strategy Conclusions
As a mage hunting for the best gear outside of molten core you can conclude:

Focus most of your efforts on doing Dire Maul and UBRS for good drop chances on the best gear.
Strathholme provides you with some very easy to aquire drops (and quests). A few runs here will be enough to obtain what you need. After you get the 3 items and the quest worth having - don't bother going there again.
Unless you wanna do quests for reputation or fun - Scholomance is a waste of time.
BRD has a few good drops and quests. It is worth farming early (ie. before you reach 60)
You should probably be a tailor yourself - or know someone who is.
There are very few quests worth doing for high-end items.
Apart from the Darkmoon Faire quest - the quests worth doing are located near your farm spots. Obtain them before you go there.
There are quite a few world drops worth buying - save your money for purchasing these when you see them on the auction house.