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A Guide to Mage Talent Specs
By: Alcaras
Contents
I. Introduction
II. Arcane Talents
III. Fire Talents
IV. Frost Talents
V. Talent Builds
VI. What to Spec First
VII. Version History
I. Introduction
This post attempts to provide an overview of talent spec options available
to mages, coupled with some guidance and opinion. I was a level 60 Troll
Mage on Closed PvP in Beta and now have a level 60 Undead Mage on
Archimonde in retail.
Thanks to all those who have contributed with builds, ideas, and
suggestions. It is you who have made the mage community one of the
strongest among the class boards. The positive changes and feedback we've
received from the devs is a testament to this.
If you're looking for an introduction to the mage class in general and not
specifically a talent guide, please see Nether's thread here:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-mage&t=33152
If you're interested in top-end equipment options for a Mage, please see A
Guide to Mage Equipment here:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-mage&t=12046
If you're just looking for crit items, check out Aydenpyon's thread for a
useful overview:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-mage&t=110627
If you're looking for places to AE level with your mage, please see
Fizzlepop's thread here:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-mage&t=48467
If you are interested in non-Arcane builds, see Kuwa's thread here:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-mage&t=109627
If you want more information about building a Frost Mage, see Lanky's
thread here:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-mage&t=183565
Talents in General
Once you reach level 10, you receive a talent point each level until level
60, amounting to a total of 51 talent points. These talents provide you
with a way to customize your character to suit your playstyle and
preferences. You can choose your talents by pressing the 'N' key and
allocating your points by clicking. Note the three tabs at the bottom of
the window: Arcane, Fire and Frost. These are referenced as 'talent trees'
and are set up in tiers. You'll have to spend points in the shallow tiers
before you can access the talents in the deeper tiers. Certain talents
also require specific prerequisites before you can train in them.
You can explore talents here:
http://wowvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Talents.View&category_select_id=4
Resetting Talents
You can reset talents by speaking to any Mage class trainer. The first
time you reset your talents, it costs 1 gold. The next time it will be 5
gold, then 10 gold, then every time there after 5 more gold, e.g. 15, 20,
25, etc., all the way up to 50 gold, where it is capped. You pay to reset
all of your talents at once, there is no way to undo one or two talents.
Note: If you have trained any talent-given spells such as Blast Wave,
Pyroblast or Ice Barrier, you will have to rebuy Rank 2 and above when you
retrain your talents.
There is no right way or wrong way to spec, and above all your spec should
be tailored to the way you play. Enhance the aspects of the Mage that you
most enjoy and take everything said in this guide with a grain of salt.
II. Arcane Talents
All talent descriptions refer to fully speccing in that talent.
Arcane Subtlety
Reduces the threat generated by your offensive arcane spells by 40%.
Since this talent only applies to arcane spells, it's of limited utility.
Most of the time you won't be casting exclusively arcane spells, however,
there are a few notable exceptions to this. Higher level instances
typically have mobs immune to Fire which means that if you're not Frost,
then Arcane Missiles is the spell to use. Reducing your threat by 40% will
let the warriors hold aggro easier. Another application for this talent is
when you're AEing. The threat reduction comes through and makes keeping
elites off of you easier. All that said, this is very much a PvE only
talent (threat doesn't matter in PvP); however, it can allow you to
unleash more DPS in PvE without getting aggro, making you that much more
effective in a group.
Arcane Focus
Reduces the chance that the opponent can resist your arcane spells by
10%.
This is useful in both PvP and PvE, but I can't say that I've noticed a
tremendous difference on high level raid mobs with or without this talent.
(Molten Core or Onxyia's level 63 raid elites resisted quite a bit whether
or not I had the talent, and there wasn't a statistically significant
difference from the data I collected). Also, the Warlock's Curse of
Shadow, see
http://www.thottbot.com/index.cgi?k=828,
which also reduces Arcane resist, has far more noticeable effects on
Arcane damage. Still, if you're going for 31+ Arcane build, this talent
offers a viable place to drop spare points to unlock the deeper tiers.
Also, preliminary testing indicates that Arcane Focus may make Polymorph's
duration more consistent and longer in PvP.
Improved Arcane Missiles
Gives you a 100% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while
channeling Arcane Missiles.
This allows you to do damage while getting beat on. Note that it only
prevents to interruption from damage -- this talent does nothing against
Silence, Shield Bash, Pummel, Kick, Earth Shock or any of the other
spell-interrupting abilities. It's worth getting no matter what your mage
will turn out to be as it has applications across the board. That said,
you can safely delay getting this talent if you're interested in pursuing
a different tree. Some people feel that it's a coin flip whether want to
put 5 into this or 5 in Arcane Focus to get to the next tier, however,
having an uninterruptable damage spell is very nice.
Wand Specialization
Increases your damage with Wands by 25%.
Mages don't use wands enough to justify this talent's cost.
Arcane Concentration
Gives you a 10% chance of entering a Clearcasting state after any
damage spell hits a target. The Clearcasting state reduces the mana cost
of your next damage spell by 100%.
Any time you cast a damage spell -- which is most of the time for a mage,
you have a chance to proc Clearcasting and get your next damage spell
free. Note that the Clearcasting effect fades after about 15 seconds so
this talent isn't quite a 10% mana cost reduction because you might proc
on your killing spell with no new target in sight (or yourself low on mana).
You can also cast low mana cost/high efficiency spells (such as Scorch or
Frostbolt) until you get a clearcast and then use a high mana cost spell
(such as Arcane Missiles, Flamestrike or Blizzard) thus boosting your net
mana efficiency. Many mages spec this talent.
Improved Dampen Magic
Increases the effect of your Dampen Magic spell by 50%.
Dampen Magic itself is a spell with rather limited utility -- I only use
it when I'm fighting casters without a healer, in other words, when I'm
soloing. The talent probably isn't worth investing the points unless for
some reason you're fighting a lot of low damage caster mobs. Without the
talent dampen magic at its highest rank reduces spell damage by 50 and
reduces healing by 100. With the talent it goes to 75 and 150,
respectively. Note that for periodic effects, such as Shadow Word: Pain or
other DoTs, dampen magic only applies to the total damage not to each
period, thus greatly lessening its utility against DoTs.
Improved Arcane Explosion
Reduces the casting time of your Arcane Explosion by 1.5 seconds.
Astute readers will note that Arcane Explosion's casting time itself only
1.5 seconds... which means that 5 points in this talent makes Arcane
Explosion in effect instant, allowing you to cast it while moving and
making it uninterruptable. This talent is invaluable for AEing (whether
solo or grouped) since it means you can always put out damage, even when
mobs are beating on you. It might even be called a 'must have' talent,
since almost all groups will assume you have it for higher level instances
(the Lyceum in Blackrock Depths comes to mind). Improved Arcane Explosion
is a wonderful talent that no mage should honestly be without, aside from
perhaps some very deep Frost builds that rely on Improved Blizzard to AE.
Evocation
While channeling this spell, your mana regeneration is active and
increased by 1500%. Lasts 8 seconds.
Essentially this is a manaheal on a 10 minute timer. Since it acts on your
mana regeneration, you'll want to keep up a decent amount of Spirit before
using Evocation. At lower levels (before equipment makes mana pools grow
substantially) it'll often be a full mana heal. At level 60 it can range
from 40% to 75%, depending on how much Spirit gear you're wearing. Because
it's on a 10 minute timer, it's best to save this ability for when you
really need it -- e.g. you get an unexpected add right after killing a mob
and you only have enough mana for a Polymorph -- cast your Polymorph,
Evocation, then take out the add. It's also very useful for prolonged boss
fights or raid encounters where you won't be able to get out of combat to
drink.
Improved Mana Shield
Decreases the mana lost per point of damage taken when Mana Shield is
active by 20%.
This makes mana shield more efficient. It might be worth the points,
depending on how often you find yourself using Mana Shield. You might also
want to pick up the PvP gloves, which have a bonus of +285 absorb on Mana
Shield.
Improved Counterspell
Gives your Counterspell a 100% chance to silence the target for 4
seconds.
A very useful talent for PvP, since four seconds can oftentimes be an
eternity. Certain classes (priests come to mind) can be completely undone
with a well timed Counterspell: Silence -- an interrupted heal, no healing
for 10 seconds and no casting at all for 4 seconds. You can also cast it
before any spells are cast as a blanket silence; this is useful when
you're frontloading on a target (presumably sheeped) and want to take away
any opportunities they might have for counterplay. Paladin's immunity
works through silence at this point in time, so keep that in mind if you
find yourself fighting them. Silence complements an Arc/Fire or Fire/Arc
build quite nicely. It's still nice to have in a Frost build, but isn't
quite as necessary since Frost doesn't frontload as much.
Arcane Meditation
Allows 15% of your Mana regeneration to continue while casting.
On my level 60 mage, this talent translates to about 10 mana a tick while
casting... moderately useful, and it could be more useful if I invested
more into Spirit gear. It's also worth considering this talent if you're
going to be spamming Frostbolt in Molten Core -- combined with Mage Armor,
you'll be able to get 45% mana regen while casting which begins to be
somewhat substantial.
Presence of Mind
When activated, your next Mage spell with a casting time less than 10
seconds becomes an instant cast spell.
This gem of a talent is on a three minute timer, so be sure to use it
often if you have it. I commonly use it with Polymorph, Frostbolt,
Flamestrike and Pyroblast, depending on the situation.
Arcane Mind
Increases your maximum Mana by 8%.
If you're going for Arcane Power, it's worth putting points into getting
more mana (there also aren't that many viable alternative places to put
points). 8% of a 6000 mana pool is about 480 mana, not that much but also
nothing to sneeze at.
Arcane Instability
Increases your spell damage and critical strike chance by 3%.
Since there are only a handful of ways for mages to raise critical strike
chance (100 int = 1% crit, and 100 int is hard to come by), this talent is
a gem. It's further bettered by the fact that it works across all your
spells, regardless of line. A very useful talent.
Arcane Power
When activated, your spells deal 35% more damage while costing 35% more
mana to cast. This effect lasts 15 seconds.
If you've put at least 30 points in Arcane, be sure to get this talent.
Note, however, it is dispellable. Still, it is a 35% increase to damage
for 15 seconds -- excellent for upping your burst damage.
III. Fire Talents
All talent descriptions refer to fully speccing in that talent. For
talent-based spells (e.g. Pyroblast), descriptions refer to the highest
rank.
Improved Fireball
Reduces the casting time of your Fireball by 0.5 seconds.
This is a decent dps upgrade to Fireball. It's more notable at lower
levels. In PvP, battles tend to use instants and not casted spells but
since it's a requirement for Pyroblast (and thus the AP PoM Pyro insta-combo
for Arc/Fire mages), it's worth getting it. It's probably the best place
to first put points for mages since it at levels 10-14 it has a greater
utility than any of the other first tier talents.
Impact
Gives your fire spells a 10% chance to stun the taget for 2 seconds.
Useful in PvE, it truly shines in PvP where a stun will interrupt casting
and also generally break players' rhythm. It procs off of all fire spells,
making it a wise investment. A Flamestrike opener when AEing that stuns
several of the mobs/players is very handy. Combusted Blastwave with this
talent is absolutely devastating, especially if stacked with other mages.
You'll sometimes get lucky with it and proc a stun at the perfect moment
-- e.g. right before an enemy finishes casting a heal.
Ignite
Your critical strikes from fire damage spells cause the target to burn
for an additional 40% of your spell's damage over 4 seconds.
It's 40% more damage to your crits, but since a crit is already 50% more
damage, in effect this means that your crits are 110% damage. A nice way
to increase your dps if you're focused around crits (and since our mana
stat, Int, is our crit stat as well...). A good place to put points. Note
that it applies its damage as a DoT and thus can be dispelled.
Improved Fire Blast
Reduces the cooldown of your Fire Blast spell by 1.5 seconds.
This talent has its uses, but I'm not a fan of cooldown reduction talents
personally. It can take your cooldown from 8 seconds to 6.5 seconds, which
is noticable (primarily in PvP) but the question then becomes what you
have to get up to get those 5 points for this Talent, and I'd rather have
Impact or Ignite. Also, it isn't as if you can't cast other things while
waiting for Fire Blast's timer (e.g. Instant Arcane Explosion). Still,
this talent is personal preference and may work for your particular
playstyle. Some people swear by it.
Flame Throwing
Increases the range of your fire spells by 6 yards.
This lets Fireballs and Pyroblasts have 41 yd range, the longest range in
game aside from Marksmanship specced Hunters. Useful in PvP (especially
stand off situations) and those 6 yards can be handy in PvE in terms of
getting another spell off or just more reaction time when soloing. Also in
instances, the extra reach on Fire Blast is handy for taking our runners.
Incinerate
Increases the critical strike chance of your Fire Blast and Scorch
spells by 4%.
Fire Blast is a core PvP spell and Scorch can be a core PvE spell (because
of its fast casting time you'll proc more clearcasts per fight) and thus
increasing the chance to crit on both these spells is generally a good
thing.
Pyroblast
Hurls an immense fiery boulder that causes 716 to 890 fire damage and
an additional 268 damage over 12 seconds.
Don't get Pyroblast unless you get Presence of Mind. With sheep lasting at
most 15 seconds in PvP and very often much less, you often will not be
able to sheep, back up, and get off a full 6 second Pyroblast cast before
your target is unsheeped. It's moderately useful in PvE if you're purely
focused on mana efficiency (as an opener), but it truly shines with PoM.
Since the additional damage is a DoT, it can be dispelled. If you're a
Fire Mage, a Combusted Pyroblast is a thing to be feared and is useful
when fighting especially tough mobs, but in all honesty, rarely will you
have opportunity to successfully land a 6 second casting time spell in PvP.
A crit AP PoM Pyroblast is the best burst damage in the game and can be
cast while chasing a target (Blinking towards a fleeing enemy then
unleashing a fiery ball of death is a fun thing to do, and one of the
reasons I love my mage ;).
Improved Flamestrike
Increases the critical strike chance of your Flamestrike spell by 15%.
Required for Blast Wave. Useful if you're doing a PoM/Blast wave build,
since you can PoM FS, then follow with a Blast Wave and front load AoE
damage.
Burning Soul
Gives your fire spells a 65% chance to not lose casting time when you
take damage.
A good mage doesn't need this talent, in my opinion. If for some reason
you're trying to cast while getting hit, Improved Arcane Missiles offers a
100% chance to cast without interruption. In PvP, spell interrupts like
Silence/Pummel/Kick aren't prevented with either Burning Soul or Improved
Arcane Missiles... and thus Burning Soul becomes relegated to casting when
a mob is hitting on you and you don't have Arcane Missiles. Note that it
isn't that useful with Scorch since you can often time your Scorches to
cast and land between a mob's hits on you... and you can almost always
Nova and step back or CoC and blink away... I suppose Burning Soul could
be useful to a pure Fire mage fighting archer mobs, but even in that
situation I'd recommend 100% uninterruptablity with Arcane Missiles. To
summarize, it isn't a bad talent, but just one I find unnecessary for my
particular playstyle. If it fits your playstyle, then by all means take it
and enjoy it.
Improved Scorch
Your Scorch spells have a 100% chance to cause your target to be
vulnerable to Fire damage. This vulnerability increases the Fire damage
dealt to your target by 2% and lasts 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
Probably only useful in PvE, as it is unlikely you will be able to cast 5
scorches on the same target in PvP -- in short, there are better places to
spend your points in Fire for a PvP mage.
Improved Fire Ward
Causes your fire ward to reflect 35% of the damage absorbed back to the
caster.
At first glance this seems cool -- I can reflect 35% of damage at an enemy
mage! But if we look a little deeper... top Rank 5 Fire Ward costs 320
mana and absorbs 585 Fire Damage. This means that at most you'll reflect
~204 Fire Damage, often at the cost of 320 mana. Not the most efficient...
there are better places to drop a point in the Fire Tree.
Critical Mass
Increases the critical strike chance of your fire spells by 6%.
More critical strikes (and thus more Ignites) on your fire spells. All
around damage increase and useful for a deep Fire Mage.
Blast Wave
A wave of flame radiates outward from the caster, damaging all enemies
caught within the blast for 462 to 544 fire damage, and dazing them for 6
seconds.
The daze is essentially a 50% snare. This spell might shine in
Battlegrounds, but it's very situational and since it has a 45 second
cooldown timer, you'll pretty much only get to use it once a fight. Still,
another instant is always handy and the snare is useful for getting away
from melee, even in 1v1 confrontations. Do note however, that if you get
Blast Wave, you won't be able to get Arcane Power and thus an Arc/Fire
Mage can out burst DPS a Fire/Arc mage... that said, a Combusted Blast
Wave is very very painful.
Fire Power
Increases the damage done by your fire spells by 10%.
More damage, all the time. Not much more to say than that.
Combustion
When activated, this spell gives your next fire damage spell a 100%
critical strike chance.
Useful for PvE as an opener with Pyroblast or Flamestrike/Blast Wave and
useful in PvP in conjunction with Blast Wave or (to a lesser extent) Fire
Blast.
IV. Frost Talents
All talent descriptions refer to fully speccing in that talent. For
talent-based spells (e.g. Ice Barrier), descriptions refer to the highest
rank.
Improved Frostbolt
Reduces the casting time of your Frostbolt spell by 0.5 seconds.
Much like Improved Fireball, a DPS upgrade, letting you get a 2.5 second
frostbolt at its highest rank... and also allowing for a 1 second Rank 1
Frostbolt, handy for snaring runners in PvE and PvP.
Permafrost
Increases the duration of your chill effects by 3 seconds.
Typically frost mages will be chain casting Frostbolt, which means they'll
always reapply the snare, making Permafrost not really do anything in that
situation. With the changes to Improved Blizzard in the March 2005 patch,
Permafrost may not be worth it since the chill is reapplied each wave.
However, since Blizzard is now resistable, it might be worth it. The patch
isn't out at the time of this writing and my character isn't on the test
server so I can't test.
Ice Shards
Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Frost spells by
100%.
This makes Frost spells crit for 100% instead of 50%. E.g. a untalented
Frostbolt that normally hits for 100 would crit for 150, but with this
talent it would crit for 200. A core talent of a Frost build.
Winter's Chill
Increases the power of your chill effects by slowing the target's
movement by an additional 10%.
An extra 10% snare... shines in combination with a Frostbiting Improved
Blizzard to essentially immobilize enemy armies. For 1v1 PvE, not really
worth the points since you want the mob to get close to you so you can
drop Nova, back up and have a chance to Shatter (especially before you get
Frostbite). It's handy when solo AEing as frost.
Improved Frost Nova
Reduces the cooldown of your Frost Nova spell by 4 seconds.
A prereq for Shatter, useful in its own right since it lets you unleash
the Nova+CoC combo more often.
Piercing Ice
Increases the damage done by your frost spells by 6%.
Depending on your particular build and playstyle, may or may not be
useful. Frost is much more about control than damage. Does offer a very
slight efficiency bonus.
Cold Snap
When activated, this spell finishes the cooldown on all of your cold
spells.
Incredibly useful ability that lets you get off two Frost Novas, or two
Cone of Colds right after each other. Also refreshes your Ice Block and
Ice Barrier timers. Not to be passed up if you're a Frost Mage.
Improved Blizzard
Adds a chill effect to your Blizzard spell. This effect lowers the
target's movement speed to 35% of normal. Lasts 1.5 seconds (4.5 seconds
with full Permafrost).
The ultimate zerg CC. Blizzard is not intended to crit (according to
Kalgan, Blue poster) -- however, as of the March 2005 patch, the chill is
reapplied each wave (conceivably this means Frostbite will also have a
chance to be reapplied each wave, but I'm not on the test server and
aren't able to test at the time of this writing).
Arctic Reach
Increases the range of your Frostbolt spell and the radius of your
Frost Nova and Cone of Cold spells by 20%.
More range on Frostbolt (to 36 yds) and a wider CoC and Nova. Debatable,
and not as much of a must have as Flame Throwing is for fire, simply
because the Frost playstyle is different. Once you get Frostbite, for
example, you won't mind mobs hitting you so much since they might freeze
themselves by doing so, enabling you to step back and get a Shattered
Frostbolt on them. For PvP, however, more range is almost always good.
This talent is also very useful in Molten Core, since you can stand just
outside the 30 yd AE range and nuke at your pleasure.
Frost Channeling
Reduces the mana cost of your frost spells by 15%.
An efficiency upgrade for Frost. You might want to drop these three points
in Improved Cone of Cold instead.
Shatter
Increases the critical strike chance of your frost spells against
frozen targets by 50%.
Another core Frost Mage talent. What this talent means is that if you have
chance to crit of 5%, then against frozen targets (e.g. Frostbitten or
Frost Nova'd targets) you will have a 55% chance to crit. A well-played
Frost mage milks Shatter for all its worth.
Improved Frost Ward
50% of the damage absorbed by your Frost Ward is added to your mana.
First off, very few enemies will even use Frost magic on you. And
secondly, Rank 4 Frost Ward absorbs 430 damage at the cost of 255 mana to
cast it initially. That means you'll get back 215 mana... not even as much
as you put into the spell. There are better places to drop a point in the
Frost tree.
Ice Block
You become encased in a block of ice, protecting you from all physical
attacks and spells for 10 seconds, but during that time you cannot attack,
move, or cast spells.
This spell shines when AEing or in group PvP. It cannot be dispelled so
essentially you can prolong your life for 10 seconds. If a pull goes bad
while AEing or a healer is stunned, you can hit Ice Block and buy time. A
small note: there's about a 1 second 'casting animation lag' between
hitting the button and actually getting Ice Blocked, so don't wait too
late to hit it. I play with ~50 ms to WoW and have seen the Ice Block
animation go up and found myself dead anyway b/c of latency, so keep that
in mind. Probably the most valuable talent in Frost for group PvP, simply
because you make yourself unkillable (granted, you can't do anything
during those 10 seconds, but you stay alive and continue to pose a
threat). Also, you can cancel Ice Block by hitting the button again... be
aware of this and don't spam the button because you might turn it on only
to turn it right off afterwards...
Improved Cone of Cold
Increases the damage dealt by your Cone of Cold spell by 35%.
A useful upgrade to Cone of Cold. For PvP I'd choose this over Frost
Channeling and for PvE I would as well, if I found myself AEing a lot. At
60, this lets your crit CoCs hit for ~1000. A nice combo with Nova CoC.
Sometimes you can even, Nova, Frostbolt, and CoC quickly and get both to
crit using the Shatter off the Nova.
Frostbite
Gives your chill effects a 15% chance to freeze the target for 5
seconds.A chance to proc a root off of any chill effect (including
your Ice Shield!) which you can then Shatter off of. Another core talent
of the Frost line. Incredibly fun to have this proc on a melee that
attacks you, since they essentially freeze themselves, allowing you to
step back, cast on them, etc. Can be mildly annoying if you're solo PvE AE
farming since it'll randomly proc on some mobs but on others, but this
talent shines in PvP.
Ice Barrier
Instantly shields you, absorbing 818 damage. Lasts 1 minute. While the
shield holds, spells will not be interrupted.
A rather disappointing top tier talent to Frost, but handy for soloing.
It's on a funky two minute timer, can be overwritten by Power Word: Shield
and can be dispelled. However, when solo AoEing, it's very useful since it
gives you an ability you otherwise wouldn't have available.
V. Talent Builds
These are by no means the only builds possible, but are some of the most
popular.
31/20 Arcane/Fire
The cookie-cutter mage spec. Arguably the strongest for general 1v1 combat
thanks to the highest burst damage in the game. My personal choice, that
I've come back to time and time again.
Core Talents: Improved Arcane Explosion, Presence of Mind, Arcane Power,
Pyroblast, Ignite, Impact
Customize: 4/5 Arcane Focus into Improved Mana Shield, Improved Dampen
Magic and/or Arcane Meditation
Q u o t e:
Arcane Talents (31 points)
# Improved Arcane Missiles - 5/5 points
# Arcane Focus - 4/5 points
# Arcane Concentration - 5/5 points
# Evocation - 1/1 point
# Improved Arcane Explosion - 5/5 points
# Improved Counterspell - 2/2 points
# Arcane Mind - 4/4 points
# Presence of Mind - 1/1 point
# Arcane Instability - 3/3 points
# Arcane Power - 1/1 point
Fire Talents (20 points)
# Improved Fireball - 5/5 points
# Impact - 5/5 points
# Ignite - 5/5 points
# Flame Throwing - 2/2 points
# Pyroblast - 1/1 point
# Incinerate - 2/2 points
31/20 Arcane/Frost
Needs a lot of +dmg gear to work, but can be devastating when pulled off.
Q u o t e:
Arcane Talents (31 points)
# Improved Arcane Missiles - 5/5 points
# Arcane Focus - 4/5 points
# Arcane Concentration - 5/5 points
# Evocation - 1/1 point
# Improved Arcane Explosion - 5/5 points
# Improved Counterspell - 2/2 points
# Presence of Mind - 1/1 point
# Arcane Mind - 4/4 points
# Arcane Instability - 3/3 points
# Arcane Power - 1/1 point
Frost Talents (20 points)
# Improved Frostbolt - 5/5 points
# Ice Shards - 5/5 points
# Improved Frost Nova - 2/2 points
# Cold Snap - 1/1 point
# Piercing Ice - 3/3 points
# Arctic Reach - 2/2 points
# Shatter - 2/5 points
33/18 Frost/Arcane
Control, AE damage and snares and survivablity. The other side of the
coin, so to speak. Probably the strongest mage spec that isn't the 31/20
Arcane/Fire spec, this spec has the potential to truly shine in
Battlegrounds (depending on how they shape up).
Core Talents: Improved Arcane Explosion, Shatter, Frostbite, Improved
Blizzard, Ice Block, Cold Snap
Customize: 3/3 Improved Cone of Cold into Piercing Ice, Winter's Chill or
Frost Channeling. 2/2 Improved Counterspell into Arctic Reach.
Q u o t e:
Arcane Talents (18 points)
# Improved Arcane Missiles - 5/5 points
# Arcane Concentration - 5/5 points
# Evocation - 1/1 point
# Improved Arcane Explosion - 5/5 points
# Improved Counterspell - 2/2 points
Frost Talents (33 points)
# Improved Frostbolt - 5/5 points
# Improved Frost Nova - 2/2 points
# Ice Shards - 5/5 points
# Improved Blizzard - 3/3 points
# Cold Snap - 1/1 point
# Shatter - 5/5 points
# Arctic Reach - 2/2 points
# Improved Cone of Cold - 3/3 points
# Ice Block - 1/1 point
# Frostbite - 5/5 points
# Ice Barrier - 1/1 point
33/18 Fire/Arcane
More consistent damage, plus the dreaded Combusted Blast Wave.
Core Talents: Improved Arcane Explosion, Blast Wave, Fire Power
Q u o t e:
Arcane Talents (18 points)
# Improved Arcane Missiles - 5/5 points
# Arcane Concentration - 5/5 points
# Evocation - 1/1 point
# Improved Arcane Explosion - 5/5 points
# Improved Counterspell - 2/2 points
Fire Talents (33 points)
# Impact - 5/5 points
# Improved Fireball - 5/5 points
# Flame Throwing - 2/2 points
# Ignite - 5/5 points
# Pyroblast - 1/1 point
# Improved Flamestrike - 3/3 points
# Incinerate - 2/2 points
# Blast Wave - 1/1 point
# Critical Mass - 3/3 points
# Fire Power - 5/5 points
# Combustion - 1/1 point
30/21 Fire/Arcane
Gives up combustion for PoM. Offers more flexibility and burst.
Q u o t e:
Arcane Talents (21 points)
# Improved Arcane Missiles - 5/5 points
# Arcane Concentration - 5/5 points
# Arcane Focus - 2/5 points
# Evocation - 1/1 point
# Improved Arcane Explosion - 5/5 points
# Improved Counterspell - 2/2 points
# Presence of Mind - 1/1 point
Fire Talents (30 points)
# Impact - 5/5 points
# Improved Fireball - 5/5 points
# Flame Throwing - 2/2 points
# Ignite - 5/5 points
# Pyroblast - 1/1 point
# Burning Soul - 2/3 points
# Incinerate - 2/2 points
# Critical Mass - 3/3 points
# Fire Power - 5/5 points
30/21 Frost/Arcane
Needs a lot of +dmg gear to be truly effective; also requires quite a bit
of finesse and timing. My personal choice, once I get 8 pc Netherwind (to
take advantage of the fact that frostbolt is fastest casting 8 pc
Netherwind set bonus trigger spell).
Q u o t e:
Arcane Talents (21 points)
# Improved Arcane Missiles - 5/5 points
# Arcane Focus - 2/5 points
# Arcane Concentration - 5/5 points
# Evocation - 1/1 point
# Improved Arcane Explosion - 5/5 points
# Improved Counterspell - 2/2 points
# Presence of Mind - 1/1 point
Frost Talents (30 points)
# Improved Frostbolt - 5/5 points
# Ice Shards - 5/5 points
# Improved Frost Nova - 2/2 points
# Cold Snap - 1/1 point
# Piercing Ice - 2/3 points
# Arctic Reach - 2/2 points
# Shatter - 5/5 points
# Ice Block - 1/1 point
# Improved Cone of Cold - 3/3 points
# Frostbite - 4/5 points
Raid PvE 26 Frost/25 Arcane Efficiency
A PvE build built around efficiency. Use with Mage Armor and Frostbolt.
Good for raiding.
Core Talents: Arcane Mind, Arcane Meditation, Arctic Reach, Ice Block,
Frost Channeling.
Q u o t e:
Arcane Talents (25 points)
# Improved Arcane Missiles - 5/5 points
# Arcane Concentration - 5/5 points
# Evocation - 1/1 point
# Improved Arcane Explosion - 5/5 points
# Arcane Meditation - 5/5 points
# Arcane Mind - 4/4 points
Frost Talents (26 points)
# Improved Frostbolt - 5/5 points
# Ice Shards - 5/5 points
# Improved Frost Nova - 2/2 points
# Winter's Chill - 2/3 points
# Cold Snap - 1/1 point
# Shatter - 5/5 points
# Frost Channeling - 3/3 points
# Arctic Reach - 2/2 points
# Ice Block - 1/1 point
Crit Build 28 Arcane/23 Fire
Built around getting lots of crits thanks to Critical Mass and Arcane
Instability. For use with ample +spell crit gear mostly introduced in the
March 2005 patch.
Q u o t e:
Arcane Talents (28 points)
Improved Arcane Missiles - 5/5 points
Arcane Focus - 2/5 points
Arcane Concentration - 5/5 points
Evocation - 1/1 point
Improved Arcane Explosion - 5/5 points
Improved Counterspell - 2/2 points
Arcane Mind - 4/4 points
Presence of Mind - 1/1 point
Arcane Instability - 3/3 points
Fire Talents (23 points)
Improved Fireball - 5/5 points
Impact - 5/5 points
Flame Throwing - 2/2 points
Ignite - 5/5 points
Pyroblast - 1/1 point
Incinerate - 2/2 points
Critical Mass - 3/3 points
VI. What to Spec
First
There are several possible paths up, the one presented below is for a mage
who mostly solos and occasionally does instances. If you're running in a
set group and know you're going to be AE exping, it's worth going straight
to Improved Arcane Explosion and then branching to which tree your prefer.
The progression below is probably the simplest and easiest for new mages
to acquaint themselves with the class and gain levels rapidly.
End-game PvP builds are great for level 60s, but of limited utility for a
level 10 mage, freshly talented, whose main focus is getting levels. In
that regard, I present what I believe to be an excellent PvE talent
progression. Remember, you can respec your talents for merely 1 gold,
making levelling up with one set of talents and then switching at high
levels very practical.
Fire is simply better dps and Frost's mana efficency doesn't kick in until
high levels (even then, it still kills slower than Frost on net, based on
my testing). Thus Fire is best for PvE. Arcane's Presence of Mind and
Arcane Power are of limited utility in PvE, making deep focus in Fire a
key to a successful mage.
Without further ado, a Mage PvE Talent progression for levels 10-40,
listed in order:
Levels 10-14: Improved Fireball the best dps increase you can get at this
level, since your Rank 3 Fireball has a base 2.5s casting time, this lets
you get them off at 2.0s each.
Levels 15-16: Flame Throwing is nice because range is convenient and lets
you get in more fireballs when fighting mobs. Also, Ignite can be put off
since your Intellect (and thus crit rate) is still pathetically low.
Levels 17-21: Ignite is a raw damage increase for when you crit.
Levels 22-26: Improved Arcane Missiles because it's time to build Arcane
to get Instant Arcane Explosion for use in instances.
Levels 27-31: Arcane Concentration to get clearcasts.
Level 32: Evocation for mana regen once every 10 minutes... at this level
it's going to be around 100% of your mana pool, which is very nice. Be
warned, it starts fading away from there around level 40ish and at level
60 you can expect about 50% of your mana pool back from Evoc.
Level 33-37: Improved Arcane Explosion is very good for the instances
you'll be doing at around this level and up -- Gnomeregan, Razorfen Downs,
Uldaman, Temple and on up really appreciate it.
Level 38-39: Incinerate to make Scorch more useful in Instances, since
you'll now be able to scorch for a clearcast to fire Arcane Missiles on.
At this point you can continue building in Fire or Arcane or you can spend
a gold and respec to whichever combination of talents you prefer.
VII. Version History
2005.07.21: Some slight corrections and several new talent builds.
2005.05.11: Corrections, tweaks, updates to account for the talents that
changed last patch (Imp Scorch, Imp Mana Shield).
2005.03.17: Minor edits and updates; a few new talent builds.
2005.01.16: Massive revision and reworking.
2004.11.23: Initial post. Original post available at: http://www.nurfed.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=387
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