Gnome is the clear winner thanks to its 5% increased intellect, which scales with WoW Classic 20th Anniversary Gold gear and translates into more mana and crit. Escape Artist is also extremely valuable in both PvE mechanics and PvP. Humans offer marginal PvP utility through Perception, but overall fall behind gnomes for raw performance.

Horde:

Trolls are the best PvE choice due to Berserking, which provides a powerful haste bonus. Undead excel in PvP thanks to Will of the Forsaken and Cannibalize, making them the preferred choice outside of strict raid optimization.

Bottom line: play what you enjoy-but if you want absolute top-tier DPS, gnome or troll is the answer.

Professions: Non-Negotiable Choices

For mages, Tailoring and Engineering are mandatory.

Tailoring unlocks powerful crafted gear like the Bloodvine set, which remains best-in-slot deep into Classic and even relevant in early TBC.

Engineering provides bombs, gadgets, and utilities that no other profession can compete with in raids or PvP.

No other professions come close in terms of performance impact.

Mage Talent Builds Explained

Thanks to dual spec, mages can fully optimize their builds depending on content.

Fire Raiding Spec

This is the go-to build for most Phase 4 raids. It focuses on deep Fire talents while dipping into Frost for hit chance and Arcane for mana efficiency and AoE power. Fire shines when bosses aren't immune and scales extremely well with gear.

Arcane Frost

The highest single-target DPS frost build, utilizing Arcane Power and Presence of Mind while spamming Frostbolt. This is the optimal frost DPS spec for PvE-focused players.

Frostfire Hybrid

A flexible option that performs well on both fire-immune bosses and standard encounters. You still parse as fire while having strong frost capabilities, making this a great "set and forget" raid spec.

Winter's Chill Support

Every raid needs one Winter's Chill mage. While personal DPS is lower, the debuff increases frost crit chance by up to 10% for the entire raid. Ideally, the least-geared frost mage fills this role.

Understanding Mage Stats

Spell damage remains king, but stats must be evaluated properly.

Approximate Phase 4 stat values:

1% Hit ≈ 11 spell damage

1% Crit ≈ 8 spell damage

1 Intellect ≈ 0.18 spell damage

Hit cap is 16%. Any hit above that provides no benefit, so gearing past cap requires swapping pieces intelligently. Always evaluate upgrades based on overall stat value, not just raw spell damage.

Gear and Best-in-Slot Philosophy

Bloodvine gear is central to both fire and frost builds due to its set bonuses. Trinkets like Briarwood Reed, Mind Quickening Gem, and Nefarian's Tear provide massive long-term value and should be high-priority raid targets.

ZG is especially important in Phase 4 due to buy WoW Classic 20th Anniversary Gold its short lockout and large number of relevant mage upgrades, making it one of the fastest gearing paths available.