The first topic I am going to go over mana management. This is one of the most critical skills in arena if the games will last longer duration. Mana is Mage’s lifeblood without it not only you will not do any damage but you will most likely die. Generally speaking unless I am completely dry on mana and I die, I am doing something wrong.

Spells and Abilities

Polymorph

This is fairly common knowledge between Mages but I am still surprised how many Mages still do this. Rank 1 polymorph has the same duration in PvP as Rank 4. Therefore, it is more beneficial to the Mage to always be casting Rank 1. Rank 1 mana cost is 60 and Rank 4 mana cost is 150. Over the duration of an arena fight this will save quite a bit of mana. It is highly possible that this luxury will be taken away from us in WoTLK.

Frost Nova

The same goes for Rank 1 frost nova. Rank 1 frost nova untalented costs 55 mana and Rank 5 is 185 mana. The difference between the two is damage. However, the mana you save from Rank 1 130, which is 2 polymorphs and 10 mana.

Evocation

Evocation is a fairly unreliable spell. However, with proper timing it can be the difference between winning and losing. First, you should communicate to your team when you are thinking about evocating. Your teammates should help you provide the proper time needed. Second, always do it out of LOS for obvious reasons. If you can not polymorph the pet you can use Icy Veins to pull off faster and uninterruptable evocation. Before, Icy Veins was in the game I used Ice Barrier for the same effect. With fel hunters it is a little trickier but fairly simple also. Preferably you want to evocate against them when their spell lock is on cool down or just try to be bold and hope you will not get spell locked. Before you evocate against fel hunters cast slow fall if you have feathers (40 mana) and/or rank 1 frost ward (85 mana untalented) then proceed to cast Ice Barrier. The buffs protect your Ice Barrier from being devoured allowing you to proceed with full evocation.

Ice Block

It can be beneficial to Ice Block if you are not too heavily focused. Do not be afraid to use Ice Block as a cleansing tool from mana drain or viper sting. This is a judgment call and you might get focused right after you Ice Block. However, in many scenarios this can prove to be extremely helpful.

Mana Emerald

There are 2 different ways you can use this effectively. The most common way if you do not have a health stone is to keep using it once you are missing more then 2500 mana. This starts the cool down and you can keep using it in later in the arena match.  Always keep in mind the amount of charges on your emerald. Also, if you are down to the last charge and are dry on mana it might be beneficial to use the charge and make a new Mana Emerald. Mana emerald costs less mana then the mana gained from one charge. If your mana is being constantly drained you can try saving your emerald charge. When the opportunity presents it’s self you can instantly gain 2340 to 2460 mana which is more then sufficient to provide considerable burst/damage.

Items

Amani Diving Staff (Zul’Aman)

First thing you might consider getting is evocation staff. Evocation got changed from spirit based ability to int/mana based ability. I recommend Amani Diving Staff (Timed Event, 1 boss), socket it with 30 int and enchant it with 30 int this staff will provide 107 int.  This will generally net about 500-600 mana per evocation. It might not seem like too much but mana is mana, the more you have the more you can do.

Rod of the Blazing Light (Heroic Magisters Terrace)

Once the evocation change has been made from spirit to intellect based ability. I have disenchanted my spirit staff. Later on I realized that this was a mistake. Spirit still provides good amount of mana regeneration. Therefore, when you are drinking or for some reason you can not drink spirit staff can provide you with fairly decent mana regeneration. I recommend Rod of The Blazing Light (Vexallus). Socket for 30 spirit and enchant with 20 spirit, this staff will provide 91 spirit.

Serpent Coil-Braid (Serpent Shrine Cavern)

Some teams will always try to drain the Mage. In some cases the Serpent Coil-Braid (Morogrim Tidewalker) proves to be a great trinket providing 25% mana per Mana Emerald charge. This provides roughly, 600 mana per each charge. The damage buff gained once the gem is used does not provide any graphic animation on your character. This makes it only to be detectable on your character buffs and can provide for extra burst damage.

Always know how much mana you have and how much mana you can use. Always keep your team informed when you will have to try to drink ahead of time. Take turn’s drinking and have rest of the team keep your opponents in combat. When it is your turn to keep your opponent in combat and if you are not doing damage, it is a good time for spirit staff. Hope you enjoyed.