Mana Shield (Classic)

For the Legion talent, see [Mana Shield].

Mana Shield
Mana Shield (6 ranks) Level 20 mage ability 40 Mana Instant Absorbs 120 physical damage, draining mana instead. Drains 2 mana per damage absorbed. Lasts 1 min.
Properties
Class	Mage
School	Arcane
Cooldown	None/Global Cooldown
Other information
Level learned	20
Improvements	[Improved Mana Shield]
Related buff
Magic Mana Shield Absorbs physical damage, draining mana instead. Duration: 1 minute

A mage can manipulate mana for defense as well as offense.

Mana Shield is a self-cast mage spell that shields the caster from all damage. It can be a mage's best friend or worst killer. When this shield is up, physical and magical damage will be absorbed at the cost of 1 mana per point of damage. The shield collapses after absorbing a set amount or 1 minute passes, whichever comes first.

Tips and tactics

After it absorbs the given damage (consuming equal that amount of mana) it will collapse, but no cooldown means you can recast immediately, or even while it's still partially up to "refresh" the absorption pool.

The [Incanter's Absorption] talent can make the mana used up worth the trade-off. 10/20% of the damage absorbed per hit will be added to your spell power. This effect lasts for 10 seconds but, it stacks on top of prior hits while refreshing the buff timer. This can make you keep the buff for the entire duration of the fight (as long as you get hit every 10 seconds) and the longer the fight goes, the more power you gain (up to 5% of your max health). A hit large enough to remove the Mana Shield in one hit (at level 85 with 8000 spell power) will increase spell power by 789/1577 for 10 seconds.

Patch changes

• Patch 5.0.4 (2012-08-28): Removed, replaced with [Incanter's Ward].
  
• Patch 4.0.1 (2010-10-12): Mana drained per damage reduced from 1.5 to 1. Now has a 12-second cooldown and no longer costs Mana to cast.
  
• Patch 3.0.2 (2008-10-14): Mana Shield now drains 1.5 mana per damage absorbed. Its spell power bonus was also increased to around 80%.
  
• Patch 2.4.0 (2008-03-25): This spell will now get a percentage of the Mage’s bonus to spell power as an additional effect. (Note : That's 50% of your spell damage)
  
• Patch 2.0.6 (2007-01-23): Magical damage absorption was added. Previously, the shield only absorbed physical damage.
  

See also

• Mana Shield, TCG card

Other versions

• BC Classic

  Mana Shield
  Mana Shield (7 ranks) Level 20 mage ability 40 Mana Instant Absorbs 120 damage, draining mana instead. Drains 2 mana per damage absorbed. Lasts 1 min.
  Properties
  Class	Mage
  School	Arcane
  Cooldown	None/Global Cooldown
  Other information
  Level learned	20
  Improvements	[Improved Mana Shield]
  Related buff
  Magic Mana Shield Absorbs damage, draining mana instead. Duration: 1 minute

• Wrath Classic

  Mana Shield
  Mana Shield (9 ranks) Level 20 mage ability 7% of base mana Instant Absorbs 120 damage, draining mana instead. Drains 1.5 mana per damage absorbed. Lasts 1 min.
  Properties
  Class	Mage
  School	Arcane
  Cooldown	None/Global Cooldown
  Other information
  Level learned	20
  Improvements	[Arcane Shielding], [Incanter's Absorption]
  Related buff
  Magic Mana Shield Absorbs damage, draining mana instead. Duration: 1 minute

• Cataclysm Classic

  Mana Shield
  Mana Shield Level 46 mage ability 12 seconds cooldown Instant Absorbs (1525 + 80.7% of Spell power) damage, draining mana instead. Drains 1 mana per damage absorbed. Lasts 1 min.
  Properties
  Class	Mage
  School	Arcane
  Cooldown	12 seconds
  Other information
  Level learned	46
  Improvements	[Incanter's Absorption]
  Glyphs	[Glyph of Mana Shield]
  Related buff
  Magic Mana Shield Absorbing up to X damage, draining mana instead. Duration: 1 minute

External links

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Rank 1	Rank 9
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• Wowhead
• WoWDB