Playing mage for your team involves important decision making, as you need to use your spells to clear waves/camps and also to follow-up with damage for your team. Doing both at the same time makes you a god!



Below, I will go over the strengths and weaknesses of each mage as well as some important tips to know when playing them.







She is the most PvP oriented out of these four, with having high burst damage from her combo especially post 7 and 10 after Calamity and Wave of Force are picked up. Be careful when you use your orb, as not having it for a follow-up combo from your team is most of her damage out the window. When going for wave clear, make sure you are perpendicular to the wave, so your orb hits all the minions, typically it is easiest aiming from the top or bottom of the wave and aiming for the caster minion in the middle of the wave. When going for Heroes, be sure there are no minions or summons in your way. Save Wave of Force for either a last hit or for interrupting channeled abilities (like Mosh Pit).





Li-Ming : Typical Li-Ming Power Hungry Regeneration Globes restore 100% more Mana and grant 10% Ability Power for 20 seconds. Dominance Takedowns restore 30% of your maximum Health. Calamity Teleport does 300 damage to enemies near your destination. Wave of Force Knock away all enemies from an area and deal 160 damage. Illusionist Increases Teleport range by 50%, and if you lose more than 20% of your Health at once, its cooldown is instantly refreshed. This cannot happen more than once every 4 seconds. Mirrorball Magic Missiles fires an additional 2 missiles, but its Mana cost is increased by 5. Repulsion Increases Wave of Force knockback distance by 150% and increases its cast range by 100%.

Gul'dan : E build Gul'dan Echoed Corruption Quest: Hit 40 enemy Heroes with Corruption. Reward: After the third strike, Corruption strikes 3 times in the opposite direction. Consume Soul Instantly kill an enemy Minion and heal for 380 (+4% per level) Health. Hunger for Power Increases Ability Power by 15% but reduces healing received from allies by 25%. Horrify After a short delay, deal 263 (125 + 4% per level) damage and fear enemy Heroes in the area for 2 seconds. Healthstone Activate to heal for 25% of your maximum Health. Ruinous Affliction Corruption deals an additional 82 (+4% per level) damage on impact. If the enemy is hit by all three strikes, the third strike deals 243 (+4% per level) damage. Haunt Increases the duration of Horrify by 1 second, and while Feared, enemies lose 20 Armor, causing them to take 20% increased damage.

The most PvE oriented out of the group, Gul'dan has the best wave clear of any mage or even character, you must be smart about use of your life tap and drain life spells, however, or you will open yourself up to the enemy. Make sure your Q hits all minions so you do not have to use more mana than necessary. Go E build against an enemy composition with a lot of ranged squishier characters, go Q build when the enemy comp is more frontline heavy with tanks or bruisers. Horrify is a wonderful team fight turning ability, best used when an ally gets jumped on into a horrify to turn around the engagement. With healthstone/consume soul you are surprisingly tanky and can bait engagements by saving 2 charges and being near minions.

Chromie is the most interesting to play out of the 4, and is a good mix of PvE and PvP damage. Requires a bit of team coordination to land your combos and collect globes safely early, you mostly want to W waves and try to get Q stacks in the early game. Later, transition into just trying to poke. Both her heroics are good options, Loop being good against a team comp with few counters to it (ex: ice block, Tassadar’s E) or Cleanse. Slowing Sands is always good, but if you know how to combo with Loop go for it. Be sure to stay out of vision as much as possible so enemies don't know where you are initially casting your Q and W to. Always keep traps in choke points and areas where the enemy will commonly rotate. Late game play next to your traps so that anyone who goes on you will trigger them.





Chromie : Standard Chromie Timewalker's Pursuit Activate to reveal the targeted area for 2 seconds. Enemies seen are revealed for 4 seconds. Quest: Gathering a Regeneration Globe increases your Mana Regeneration by 0.1, up to 1.5. Reward: After gathering 15 Globes you also gain 5% Ability Power. Bronze Talons Increases your Basic Attack range by 35%. Using Sand Blast increases the damage of your next Basic Attack by 250%. Mobius Loop Reduces Dragon's Breath's Mana cost and cooldown by 50%, but also reduces its damage by 25%. Slowing Sands Place a sand vortex that greatly slows enemies inside it. The longer it is active the more it slows, up to 60% after 3 seconds. Time Out Activate to place yourself in Stasis and gain Invulnerability for up to 7 seconds. Can be reactivated to end the effect early. Shifting Sands Hitting an enemy Hero with Sand Blast increases your Ability Power by 10% for the next 10 seconds. This bonus can be stacked up to 50%, and the duration is refreshed whenever you damage enemy Heroes with Sand Blast. Andorhal Anomaly Time Trap gains 2 charges, and when the cooldown finishes, Chromie gains all charges at once. Maximum 3 active Time Traps.

Chromie : Timeloop chromie Timewalker's Pursuit Activate to reveal the targeted area for 2 seconds. Enemies seen are revealed for 4 seconds. Quest: Gathering a Regeneration Globe increases your Mana Regeneration by 0.1, up to 1.5. Reward: After gathering 15 Globes you also gain 5% Ability Power. Bronze Talons Increases your Basic Attack range by 35%. Using Sand Blast increases the damage of your next Basic Attack by 250%. Dragon's Eye Dragon's Breath does 25% more damage to enemies in the center. Temporal Loop Choose an enemy Hero. After 3 seconds, they will teleport back to the location where you cast Temporal Loop on them. Basic Abilities recharge 500% faster for 3 seconds after casting Temporal Loop. Time Out Activate to place yourself in Stasis and gain Invulnerability for up to 7 seconds. Can be reactivated to end the effect early. Quantum Overdrive Activate to increase Ability Power by 25% for 10 seconds. Piercing Sands Sand Blast will now hit all Heroes in its path. Additional hits do not grant bonus damage or Quest progress.





Kael'thas is the most well-rounded Hero, but sees less play as he is only good on certain maps and with other heroes. Early on, try to spam your Trait+W as much as possible and try to make your smaller Q circle hit as much as it can. Save your Trait+E for when you need follow-up engage, only use W if nothing else will happen for those 6 seconds.



Kael does a lot of damage post-16 and can easily one-shot squisher backline Heroes if he lands his full combo. Kael'thas’ 16 power spike (and the bonus at 20) is one of the larger power spikes of any mage, if you can get to 16 in even experience, you are in a very good spot as Kael.



There is only really one build KT uses at the moment, but don't let that stop you from pyroblasting on kids:





Kael'thas : Standard Kael Mana Addict Quest: Gathering a Regeneration Globe increases Kael'thas's maximum Mana by 15. Reward: After gathering 20 Globes, Kael'thas can activate Arcane Barrier to gain a Shield equal to 100% of his maximum Mana for 4 seconds. Nether Wind Increases Gravity Lapse's range by 30%. When Gravity Lapse hits an enemy Hero, refund 80 Mana. Burned Flesh When Flamestrike damages 2 or more Heroes, they take additional damage to 8% of their maximum Health. Phoenix Launch a Phoenix to an area, dealing 171 damage to enemies along the way. The Phoenix persists for 7 seconds, attacking enemies for 171 damage and splashing for 50%. Pyromaniac Each time Living Bomb deals periodic damage, Kael'thas's Basic Ability cooldowns are reduced by 0.5 seconds. Fury of the Sunwell Flamestrike will explode a second time 1.5 seconds later. Flamethrower Increases the cast range of Flamestrike by 40%. If you hit 2 or more Heroes, Flamestrike's cooldown is reduced by 4 seconds.

Jaina : Standard Jaina Fingers of Frost Quest: Gathering Regeneration Globes increases Jaina's Mana Regeneration by 0.1 per second, up to 2 per second. Reward: After gathering 20 Globes, the damage bonus from Frostbite is increased by 10%. Frost Shards Frostbolt will now pierce the first target to hit an additional target behind them. Ice Lance When Frostbolt hits a Chilled target its cooldown is reduced by 1.5 seconds and you regain 10 Mana. Ring of Frost After a 1.5 second delay, create a Ring of Frost in an area that deals 310 damage and roots enemies for 3 seconds. The ring persists for 3 seconds afterward, Chilling any enemies who touch it. Icy Veins Activate to make your Basic Abilities' cooldowns recharge three times as fast and reduce their Mana cost by 50% for 5 seconds. Numbing Blast Cone of Cold also roots Chilled targets for 1 second. Ice Blink Activate to teleport a short distance and Chill all nearby enemies.

Jaina is the best early game mage for PvP and PvE and is the fastest mercenary camper out of the five I have discussed. A single combo of Blizzard and Cone of Cold takes out waves early, and in the late-game, she deals a lot of damage in a team fight. Water Elemental and Ring of Frost are both good, RoF being better with any setup (void zone/mosh pit) while water ele is good in general. Q-build is the most popular for her, as 2 second Qs makes sieging good with her as well as more team fight damage. The thing to note about Jaina is her low cast ranges, meaning you are usually in danger if you are applying pressure to the enemy, be wary of when to go in and unload your spells.