Help with Mage Stats

[gismodog]

So I'm still playing my first character.
I'm now at lvl 25 (Mage).
And had some questions about stats.

How useless is Spirit at the point I am at in the game? I can't max out on it like people do later to get through high end raids. How much of it do I need?
I've got 2 staffs (say of equal DPS), One has +9 Stamina, The other has +5 Stamina and +12 Spirit. Which do I use?

Is Agility worth getting just for the bonus to Crits? Anyone know how much it increases crits exactly?

What should be my general distribution ratio at this point or in general with Intellect, Spirit, and Stamina (and maybe Agility)?

[The_Teleporter]

So I'm still playing my first character.
I'm now at lvl 25 (Mage).
And had some questions about stats.

How useless is Spirit at the point I am at in the game? I can't max out on it like people do later to get through high end raids. How much of it do I need?
I've got 2 staffs (say of equal DPS), One has +9 Stamina, The other has +5 Stamina and +12 Spirit. Which do I use?

Is Agility worth getting just for the bonus to Crits? Anyone know how much it increases crits exactly?

What should be my general distribution ratio at this point or in general with Intellect, Spirit, and Stamina (and maybe Agility)?
Spirit is virtually useless before lev 60 instances where u will die in 3 hits anyway. Before that Stam>Spirit, always for a mage. Agility's only good point is the extra dodge chance but you shouldnt be getting hit on by melee anyway and you shouldn't be meleeing much except vs mobs in non-contested areas (PvP servers), and even then its just to finish them off which u can do with your wand most of the time. On the staff one, use the one with +9 sta. At lev 25 for a mage 40 HP is still something.
Int
Stam
Spi
Agi/Str
is the order of which you should choose your items. Of the Eagle (equal Int/Sta) items are usually good.

[Blynx]

As a mage Int is the most important thing to me.

100int = 1% chance to crit.
1mana = around 10-15mana.

Basically if you have mana you won't die. Generally when i died it was due to running out of mana, If i can i get Int/Sta favouring Int.

Frostmages have icebarrier/iceblock/mana shield and fire/arcane types have mana shield also so yah... I do not find spirit very important.

There is a few other mages that would be able to insight you more as i am not such a crash hot player ;p

As far as i am concerned INT > STA > SPI

[d-bos]

ive wondered for a while but havent tested it, anyway, 100int isn't necessarily 1% crit chance afaik, it's some non-linear formula that isn't documented anywhere that I can see.

1int=15mana.

[LOVE AND PEACE]

for a mage int is good, stam is good, spirit is meh, and the others are totally not useful.

100 int = 1% spell crit, for mages at least

[d-bos]

im not doubting it, but I'd really like to see any official word on int v spell crit. I've looked all over and have never seen any indication of that short of pure speculation.

[Sapphire]

I have a 60 mage. While I was leveling I found that int/stam items were most useful. If you choose to get the talent Evocation, you will want to have enough spirit to fill your mana bar when you use that spell. I think a pretty modest amount will do the job. You'll get much more bang for your buck with Of the Eagle items that raise your int/stam.

Now that I spend a lot of my time in Molten Core and Onyxya's den, I'm happy that my set has a decent amount of spirit on it. I'm even happier when a priest puts Divine Spirit on me (+35 spirit) and a paladin gives me Blessing of Wisdom, because mana regen is a necessity for long boss fights in the 40-man raids.

[Myth]

For pvp you'll want stam/int for sure, spirit is next to useless there. For solo-ing spirit is slightly useful as it will decrease the downtime, but stam and int are still better.

I don't have alot of experience with high lvl raids (ubrs or higher) but i guess when it comes to molten core (as sapphire said) you will want spirit over stamina as mages die in like 2 hits anyway vs that kind of mobs.

[d-bos]

for high level raid instances you'll want to be able to tank around 4200 damage buffed (fire blossom/living bomb crits in MC). You could get away with only being able to tank 3200, but you'd be 1shotted on occassion. You don't have to tank more than one hit, because some mobs have a random targetted attack that they use sometimes, but you never have agro unless you or your tank is doing something horribly wrong.

I'd like to say that especially with the addition of mage armor, spirit is somewhat useful for a mage, but most of the mages I'm raiding with prefer regen gear over spirit gear instead of picking spirit as a secondary attribute to intellect. A good bit of regen gear can add up to considerably more regen than mage armor affords in combat, and can also be equivalent to a considerable amount of spirit when "spiriting". Basically, items like padre's trousers and the mana-channeling wand outregen spirit overall. There are many other good pieces like this but I forget what they are called as I don't use any; best of all these pieces aren't gimp like prepatch gear with those bonuses were.


For healing classes spirit/+healing/int are generally the priorities for raid content, but mages don't operate in a rotation like healers do; sustained dps is appreciated by the rest of the raid, both to accurately approximate how a fight is going and also because some encounters are scripted to wipe parties or become more difficult if dps isn't kept up or the mob doesnt die fast enough (kazzak, onyxia, garr).

[The_Teleporter]

Isn't it the mages that do the most dmg vs the small dragonspawns that come from the sides in the Onyxia raid (AoE spam)?

[gismodog]

Well thanks guys, I'd say you guys have answered my question pretty completely. =)