Fire Stance: Long cast high damage, Moderate aoe capabilities This is the mage default stance, because of it's high single target damage and quick aoe cast, swapping out of fire stance will net you a 20% buff to critical strike also will consume 1000 fire on next fire critting skill to apply fiery curse to a target

Inside the fire stance we have a few combos to consider
Magic shot (1) : Should be specced into mana regen to gain 4% per cast following Magic(Mana) Shot you can go into a quick aoe meteor by going incineration into Meteor Combo: 1 Y Y
You can go into a slower aoe chain Fireball into Aoe Fireball Combo: 1 T T
Or full mana regen if you specc both magic shot and magic absorption into mana regen Combo: 1 R R

Next ability is Kindle (2), applies a small dot to the target Which can go into some solid Aoe
Kindle Aoe Fireball Ignition. This combo will take burn and spread to all targets in 6m Combo 2 R R
Kindle Single target burst, Kindle, Incineration, Fiery Explosion, Combo: 1 T T (our biggest damage single target ability is Fiery explosion without modifiers)
Kindle Aoe CC, Kindle, Fiery Meteor, Incandescence, this ability chain applies a snare affect to a single enemy for 2 seconds (Very common in pvp since both abilities are instant) combo 2 Y Y

Fiery Eruption (3) Has mostly aoe uses but if all targets die before you need to aoe
Fiery Eruption, Fireball, Fiery Explosion (go to for single target damage highest base damage of 3 set fire chain) Combo: 3 R R
Quick AOE Eruption: Fiery Eruption, Flame Shot, Fiery Meteor Another full instant cast aoe chain, difference is this one is 2 single target then a quick aoe that snares the target of flame shot Combo: 3 T T
BIG AOE: Fiery Eruption, Ignition, Flamestrike (typical long casted mage firebomb) Ignition when applied here affects all targets within 6m with Burn following up with Flamestrike which deals massive aoe damage over a set time in an area and additional damage to enemies who stay in the zone
Ice Stance:Swapping out of ice will net you 8 seconds of 20% damage increase to any skills will consume 1000 Ice element to freeze the target (full CC)
Ice has it's biggest uses in CC and Aoe, it's single target falls behind fire, but is still there

Magic Shot (1)
First combo is the same for Ice Air and Fire.. Mana regen Combo 1 R R
Filler Ice generation, moderate damage but hi ice affinity charge (+80) Combo: 1 T T
Instant ice opener filler: Not much here just two instant cast Combo: 1 Y Y

Biting Cold (2) 22222222222222 (RIP SPAM) instant cast moderate damage opener
BIG AOE, Biting cold, Chill Shot Icy Wave (Radical broooo) Frontal cone wave of ice, massive aoe damage Unbuffed biggest AOE ability mage has Combo 2 R R(charges)
CC Chain, Biting Cold, Frostbite, Freezing (applies a slow for 8 seconds then freezes for 3 (full stun)) Combo: 2 T T
Filler Ice Rotation instacast, Biting cold Ice arrow, frostbite. Medium/Low damage combo, quick to get off Combo: 2 Y Y

Frozen Ground (3) CC ability/Aoe with low damage snares targets within 5 meters for 4 seconds
Single Target ish?: Frozen ground, Ice Blast, Frigid Spear 2 High Damage single target after an aoe doesn't make much practical sense but here it is Combo 3 R R
Moderate Single Target Frozen Ground, Frostbite, Biting Cold (more aoe into single? Neowiz pls)
Channeled AOE: Frozen ground, Chill Shot, Blizzard Pretty low damage for time spent...Not currently seeing much use

Air/Electric Type : Swapping from this just like ice will net you 20% skill damage for 8 seconds as well as consume 1000 air element to instantly cast a spell with less than 5 seconds
The lowest damage, but most fun of the specs (IMO) It has it's niche uses, mostly for its spamable aoe.

Magic Shot (1)
Same mana combo: 1 R R
Air Gen/Moderate Single target: Simple Single target electricity combo: 1 T T
Mana Regen/Aoe?: This one feels clunky, 2 mana regens into Chain Lightning? Chain lightning does moderate damage to first target but is reduced by 10% for each additional target up to 5 Combo: 1 Y Y

Thunderbolt (2) Frost Snap but worse
Ramping Damage Chain: Thunderbolt, electric Shock, bladestorm (cool animation but low/moderate damage) combo: 2 R R
Single Target finishes aoe. thunderbolt Lightning Arrow, Thunder and Lightning. Enemies just spawn? No worries this combo does it all Combo: 2 T T
Weird utility/pvp?: Thunderbolt, Along the wind, Chian lightning, Along the wind. along the wind teleports you the same distance as blink and does high damage to the area you land in, follow it with chain lightning and deal some crazy aoe damage, recast along the wind, to return to original spot, (also immune to cc during dash) Combo: 2 Y Y

Lightning Explosion (3) UNLIMITED POWAAAAAAAA
Aoe then channel single?: Lightning Explosion Lightning Arrow, Piercing Wind. (ray gun animation) Cool concept, silly pvp damage when combined with fire crit chance (channels for 6.5 Seconds) Otherwise not many practical uses3 R R
ZapZapAoe: Lightning Explosion, Lightning Explosion, Lightning explosion Do I gotta explain this one? (Zaps everything in 4 meters 3 times) Combo 3 T T
The Avatar!: Lightning Explosion, Typhoon, Gust Cool animations, less cool practical uses. silly pvp stuff, drags enemies in during begining middle and end of tornado(doesnt appear to work currently) finishes combo by pushing everyone away combo: 3 Y Y
Tri Stance (Mixed Stance A) The master of all elements swapping from this stance nets you 100% increased damage on the next ability, additionally will consume 1000 element of the next cast to recover mana. (at 45 with just greens and a +10 weapon mana regen is roughly 2k)
This stance takes some of the best from all of them, and spices them up

Ice Flame (1)
Single Target Burst: Ice Flame, Fire Ball, Fiery Eruption (at 6 chain massive damage) Combo 1 R R
Quick Throw Ice!: Ice Flame, Ice Arrow, Ice Blast (not really worth using in this stance) Combo 1 T T
ZipZopZap: Ice Flame, Lightning Arrow Bladestorm (again fairly low damage) Combo 1 Y Y

Static Charge (2) We heard ya like AOE (Is a 30% slow on enemies 30% speed up on allies)
Quick Burn them!: Static Charge, Incineration, Fiery Meteor all instant, get that aoe! Combo: 2 R R
Meant Single Target! Static Charge Frostbite Frigid Spear (Ice Ice save me!) Combo 2 T T
Lightning Aoe: Static Charge, Static Strike(Has to be done on the target with Static Charge), Thunder And lightning. Fast cast aoe, for good damage. Combo 2 Y Y

Chilling wind (3), Knocks everything in front of you back, giving you valuable time!
Big ♥♥♥♥ AOE: Chilling Wind, AOE Fireball Flamestrike (Mother of AOE!) Combo 3 R R
Pretty Good Aoe: Chilling wind, Chill Shot, Icy Wave (Wish Ice shot was frozen Ground!) Combo 3 T T
Get away! Chilling wind, Thunderbolt, Gust (pushback insta damage, pushback again!)
Mage Utilities!
Blink (You teleport forward)
Disenchant (Removes burn, Curse, and Wound)
Elemental Discharge (gives ya the energies)
Mana Shield: ( Turns mana into sheild)
Counterspell: (How to ♥♥♥♥ a mage 101 silences target )
Sleep: Pve CC for up to 30 Seconds as log as it's not
Elemental Armor: Defensive cooldown 15% Damage reduction if you lose 25% health with it up it instead blocks 30% of incoming damage

Elemental Gain/Charge!
Ever Wonder what those three bars to the left of the item hotbar were? well look no further! these are the charge or element gains you get for casting abilities of a certain type Fire/Ice/Air and you store up to 2000 at a time! This charge further impacts your stances when swapping

Let's talk about the numbers
at base with no gear just on a 45 these abilities do the following without any stance buffs.



Fire
Fireball: 70
Aoe Fireball: 70 to all within it's radius
Incineration: 57
Fiery Meteor: 44 Damage to it's radius
Kindle: 22 + Burn
Ignition: Dot 19 Spreads if Burn was applied by Kindle
Fiery Explosion: 162
Incandescence : 33
Fiery Eruption: 25
Flamestrike: 65+ dot in area of effect
You can see based on just the flat numbers anything with a longer cast is more rewarding, even more so if it's at the end of a 6 Chain and doing 80% more damage


Ice
Ice Arrow: 57
Frostbite: 39
Ice Blast: 44
Freezing: 11 for 4 seconds (44 total)
Biting Cold: 48
Icy Wave: 114 (not as good as fire, but bigger area it affects)
Frozen Ground: 23
Frigid Spear: 94 (highest single target after Fiery Explosion)
Blizzard: 12 per Tick


Air
Lightning Arrow: 58
Chain Lightning: 69, 62, 56, 51, 46
Bladestorm: 75
Along the wind: 274
Lightning Explosion: 19
Thunderbolt: 32
Piercing wind: 21 per second for 6 seconds (126)
Typhoon: 14 per tick (aoe)
Gust: 42 to each target


Mixed Stance
Ice Flame: 37
Static Strike: 63
Chilling Wind: 24(edited)
Now Lets Talk about rotations that make sense (we'll be ignoring magic shot because those rotations are for mana purposes)


Fire
Single Target:
2 R R Value: 113
2 T T Value 243
2 Y Y Value 101
3 R R Value 192
3 T T Value: 112
3 Y Y Value: 109 Initial (after 4 seconds) 185
So it's pretty clear the highest value for single Target out of fire stance, Lets look at two target cleave
2 R R Value: 202
2 T T Value: 243
2 Y Y Value: 145
3 R R Value: 192
3 T T Value: 156
3 Y Y Value : 193 (after 4 Seconds ) 344
Let's say 3 Targets
2 R R Value: 291
2 T T Value: 243
2 Y Y Value: 237
3 R R Value:192
3 T T Value: 200
3 Y Y value: 277 (After 4 Seconds) 505
At this point We can see Nothing Here out does 2 T T in raw single target damage
And even at 2 targets it's better to single target one down or swap between them
At 3 targets we can see 2 R R and 3 Y Y clearly make leaps and bounds over the others, with 3 R R only looking like less due to FlameStrikes having dot damage and less upfront damage

Ice
Single Target:
2 R R Value: 208
2 T T Value 131
2 Y Y Value: 144
3 R R Value 161
3 T T Value: 110
3 Y Y Value: 81 Initial (117 after 4 seconds)
So it's a little misleading here, AOE does best single target? and up front that's correct but factor in time to cast into the abilities as well
2 Targets
2 R R Value: 322
2 T T Value: 131
2 Y Y Value: 144
3 R R Value: 184
3 T T Value: 133
3 Y Y Value : 116
Let's say 3 Targets
2 R R Value: 436
2 T T Value: 131
2 Y Y Value: 144
3 R R Value: 207
3 T T Value: 155
3 Y Y value: 151
again the choices are pretty clear
Air
Single Target
2 R R Value: 153
2 T T Value 155
2 Y Y Value: 375
3 R R Value 98 (After 6.5 Seconds) 329
3 T T Value: 57
3 Y Y Value: 75 Initial (after 7.5 seconds) 285
So it's a little misleading here, AOE does best single target? and up front that's correct but factor in time to cast into the abilities as well and for air Along the wind is a skill shot, if you miss, it does no damage at all
2 Targets
2 R R Value: 153
2 T T Value: 220
2 Y Y Value: 711
3 R R Value: 117 (after 6.5 Seconds) 348
3 T T Value: 133
3 Y Y Value : 150 (after 7.5 Seconds) 752
Let's say 3 Targets
2 R R Value: 153
2 T T Value: 285
2 Y Y Value: 1041
3 R R Value: 138 (after 6.5 Seonds) 367
3 T T Value: 171
3 Y Y Value: 225 (after 7.5 seconds) 813
Now you might be saying "Erzath with these high number why isn't Air the number 1 for PVE Aoe! These numbers are crazy" and you'd normally be right, however because of the nature of it, Along the wind has to hit perfectly or it does 0 damage ( 2 Y Y ) and Tornado ( 3 Y Y) has to be channeled on the enemy for the full duration, meaning no other spells can be cast. With fire you can already have stance swapped and gotten through 2 more spell sequences

Mixed Stance A
Single Target
1 R R Value: 269
1 T T Value: 138
1 Y Y Value: 170
2 R R Value: 101
2 T T Value: 133
2 Y Y Value: 128
3 R R Value: 159 (after 4 seconds) 239
3 T T Value: 184
3 Y Y Value: 98
2 Target
1 R R Value: 269
1 T T Value: 138
1 Y Y Value: 170
2 R R Value: 145
2 T T Value: 133
2 Y Y Value: 256
3 R R Value: 318 (after 4 seconds) 478
3 T T Value: 322
3 Y Y Value: 164
3 Targets
1 R R Value: 269
1 T T Value: 138
1 Y Y Value: 170
2 R R Value: 189
2 T T Value: 133
2 Y Y Value: 384
3 R R Value: 477 (after 4 seconds) 717
3 T T Value: 460
3 Y Y Value: 230

Again you see fire spells pull ahead in almost every aspect even from Mixed Stance A
Boss Rotation
Fire Stance
2 T T Stance Swap Mixed Tactic A 1 R R (While cooldown of stance swap is still going start next spell chain)
1 Y Y Stance Swap to Fire 2 T T
3 R R Stance Swap to Mixed Tactic A 1 R R
Rinse and Repeat
2 Target Prolonged fight
If the targets are Stacked and Stationary
Fire Stance 3 Y Y Stance Swap to Mixed Tactic A 3 R R (while waiting on stance cooldown begin next sequence)
2 Y Y Stance Swap to Fire Stance 3 Y Y
2 T T Stance Swap to Mixed Tactic A 3 R R
Rinse repeat
For 2 Target Spread, Check if Mixed Stance A 3 T T will hit or Ice 2 R R are in range if not Single Target as Normal

Non-chain skills
Disenchant Upgraded to 30% Ability Power (Talk about a stat Steroid)

Blink Upgrade(In PVE Mana regen godsend, pvp CC breaker)

Sleep Vs Counterspell (Sleep In pve fights where an add needs to be CC'd for 30 seconds Silence the rest of the time for pvp and pve, interrupt some boss mechanics, or make a mage cry)
vs
Element discharge, If you are relying on this to build element. Lol. Stop

Elemental Armor vs Mana Shield vs
Personally I find Elemental armor to be all around better, 15% damage reduction for 30 seconds Upgraded to stun melee attackers for 3 seconds is a godsend in pvp and pve if you rip aggro however if you know you need to soak a massive damage take Mana shield with enhancement that removes mana drain and makes it flat 75% for 5 seconds

Distortion reduces threat by 30% and can be upgraded to make immune to Magic and keep moving, physical and keep moving, or all damage and not be able to move. Not bad but unable to keep moving

Ability tree,
This is situational, each direction has it's benefits, Crit, Hit, Intelligence, resistance increases to pvp or dungeon points, a lot can be said. I have one set up for pvp points, one for dungeon and one for solo pve content.
It really is hard for me to pick a "most optimal route...I can show you exmaples of ones I just use to test stats but this is still very much in testing

Playstyle and Builds

Currently there are two builds in both the pvp and pve scenario which perform roughly on par with each other. Fire pulls slightly ahead because of the nature of crits and higher hitting abilities, but ice's consistent damage buff has it's place too. All of these builds take their elemental stance of choice and Mixed Stance A

PVE EEEXXXXXXPLOSSSIOOOONNNNNSSSSS
This is your standard fire type mage casting and hurling massive balls of fire at the enemy or enemies

PVE ICE ICE Baby
This is a faster paced build focused on getting more sustained damage with quick casting to fire through a rotation and get to that 6 chain more frequently although mana is more of an issue here

PVP Fire Spam
Tired of enemies running out of your long cast spells? Or getting cc'd before you can get that juicy explosion? This build utilizes the instant cast fire abilities to limit downtime of abilities from being cc'd or outranged

PVP Ice snap (now with 50% less spam!)
So the glory days of ice spam are gone, but Ice still has plenty of use in PVP, solid damage and the ability to slow, freeze and kite your enemies makes you that much more useful


Weapon: Farm your Staff from Mammoth/Rhino You want to have cooldown on Blink at all cost, it operates as our mana sustain in PVE

Runes: With a 37 set you should only need 3 Owl Runes, If you are doing Ice Build prioritize Eagle runes, If Fire is your build prioritize Crow although Eagle may pull ahead with further testing

Stances: Fire + Mixed A or Ice + Mixed A

PVE Fire +Mixed/Ice +Mixed

Fire Role
Long Cast, Big Crits, Bigger Damage

Skills
Blink with Mana Enhancements

Disenchant with Ability power Enhancements

Counterspell/sleep Interchangeable based on the fight/Mechanics

Elemental Armor if you need consistant damage reduction
Mana Shield for A burst defensive enhanced to block 75% of damage
Distortion as a Quasi cheat death

Rotation Single Target or Spread out Two Targets
Kindle/Incinerations/Fiery Explosion (Stance Swap) Ice Flame/Fireball/Fiery Explosions/Ice Flame/Lightning Arrow/Bladestorm (Swap Stances) Kindle/Incinerations/Fiery Explosion/Fiery Eruption/Fireball/Fiery Explosion (Swap Stance, iceflame and rinse and repeat)
Rotations stacked multitarget
Fiery eruption/ignition/Flamestrike (stance swap) Chilling Wind/AoEfireball/Flamestrike/static Charge/Static Strike/Thunder & Lightning (stance swap) Fiery eruption/ignition/Flamestrike/Kindle/AoE Fireball/Ignition (stance swap)

Upgrades:
this build focuses on getting as many crits on the hardest hitting abilities we have, upgrade Flametactic conversion effect for a total of 36% crit chance when swapping, upgrade Mixed Stance A conversion bonus to % damage for a total of 180% increased damage from swapping fiery Explosions being our hardest hitting spell, reducing cast time helps move through the rotation
Secondary upgrades to consider:Upgrading magic shot to restore mana, if you do not have a blink staff, ice flame damage, fireball damage

Ice
Role
Quick Cast consistent damage

Skills
Blink with Mana Enhancements

Disenchant with Ability power Enhancements

Counterspell/sleep Interchangeable based on the fight/Mechanics

Elemental Armor if you need consistent damage reduction
Mana Sheild for A burst defensive enhanced to block 75% of damage
Distortion as a Quasi cheat death

Rotation Single Target
Biting Cold/frostbite/Freezing (Swap stance) Ice Flame/Fireball/Fiery Explosions/Ice Flame/Ice Arrow/Ice Blast (Swap Stance)
Biting Cold/frostbite/Freezing/(if in melee range)FrozenGround/Ice Blast/Frigid Spear (if not replace with)/Magic shot/frostbite/ice blast

Rotation stacked multitarget
Biting Cold/Ice Shot/Icy wave (Swap Stances) Chilling Wind/Icy Shot/Icy Wave/Static Charge/Static Strike/ Thunder and Lightning (Swap Stance) Biting Cold/Ice Shot/Icy wave/(if in melee range)FrozenGround/Ice Blast/Frigid Spear (if not replace with)/Magic shot/frostbite/ice blast

Upgrades:
This build focuses on pushing through to the 6 chain bonus damage and maintaining steady % damage increase through cold tactic, upgrade Cold tactic conversion % increase as well as mixed tactic A % increase to next skill, Biting cold damage, frigid spear damage, frostbite damage
Secondary upgrades to consider ice blast, ice flame, icy wave for aoe, Upgrade magic shot for mana regen

PVP Fire +Mixed/Ice +Mixed

role quick burst of aoe to nuke down your target

Skills

Blink with CC break

Disenchant with Ability power Enhancements

Counterspell with duration increase

Elemental Armor if you need consistent damage reduction
Mana Shield for A burst defensive enhanced to block 75% of damage
Distortion as a Quasi cheat death

Rotation? It's pvp!
Honestly there is no set rotation, if there was one in an ideal world (which pvp never is) you'd do something like
Fiery Eruption/Flame Shot/Fiery Meteor (stance swap) Static Charge/Incineration/Fiery Meteor/Ice Flame/Fireball/Fiery Explosion (stance swap) Fiery Eruption/Flame Shot/Fiery Meteor/Magic Shot/Incineration/Fiery Meteor

Upgrades: Again we want both stances conversion effect increase, after that fiery meteor, fiery eruption, or incineration are all good choices
Secondary upgrades: Magic shot mana, (if they fix the stun from incandescence) Ice Flame or static charge

Ice
Blink with CC break

Disenchant with Ability power Enhancements

Counterspell with duration increase

Elemental Armor if you need consistent damage reduction
Mana Sheild for A burst defensive enhanced to block 75% of damage
Distortion as a Quasi cheat death

Same as above really...Pvp is crazy, often times you aren't able to think of a clear rotation, but in an ideal world
Biting Cold/frostbite/Freezing (Swap stance) Ice Flame/Fireball/Fiery Explosions/Ice Flame/Ice Arrow/Ice Blast (Swap Stance)
Biting Cold/frostbite/Freezing/(if in melee range)FrozenGround/Ice Blast/Frigid Spear (if not replace with)/Magic shot/frostbite/ice blast

Upgrades again same as pve
This build focuses on pushing through to the 6 chain bonus damage and maintaining steady % damage increase through cold tactic, upgrade Cold tactic conversion % increase as well as mixed tactic A % increase to next skill, Biting cold damage, frigid spear damage, frostbite damage
Secondary upgrades to consider ice blast, ice flame, icy wave for aoe, Upgrade magic shot for mana regen

Fun PVP Test build (Keep this secret it works really well)

Ice/Fire this build uses the crit buff from fire to make ice hit that much harder!

Blink with Mana (yes in pvp you will run out)

Disenchant with Ability power Enhancements

Counterspell with duration increase

Elemental Armor if you need consistent damage reduction
Mana Sheild for A burst defensive enhanced to block 75% of damage
Distortion as a Quasi cheat death

Ideal rotation
Fiery Eruption/Flame Shot/Fiery Meteor (stance swap) Biting Cold/Frostbite/Freezing(if melee) FrozenGround/Ice Blast/Frigid Spear (if not) Magic shot/frostbite/ice blast (stance swap) Fiery Eruption/Flame Shot/Fiery Meteor/Mana Shot incineration/Fiery Meteor

Upgrades: Both stances % conversion effect, Fiery Meteor, Frigid Spear, Biting Cold, Feezing(for instant stun) Frostbite/Freezing
Secondary Upgrades: Magic Shot mana, Frozen ground, ice blast incinceration

This guide is still a WIP but I plan to update it as testing and new things are brought to my attention. Thanks for your time and I hope you enjoyed!

Erzath