Mage Talent Points

We different talent builds for mages for World of Warcraft. Many of these mage builds come from forums, wowwiki or even myself. I hope you find the following builds useful.

I will be updating this page a lot over the coming months as 3.0 and the WOTLK. If some of the builds become invalid I apologize and I will try to remove expired builds as soon as I can. If you notice any build that is expired please email me.

Finding the right mage build that has been tested and work can save you a lot of gold and save you a lot of time figuring out a mage build that works for you.

PvE

Raiding mages generally want high single target DPS and/or lots of AOE power. Depending on your gear, length of the fight, movement, trash clearing, and interruptions, there's no real "perfect" raiding build. These are the standard builds for each school and how casting works to maximize DPS. Core talents are contained in the builds, extra talent points are available in some cases.

Frost

• (18/0/53) Deep Frost + Focus Magic
  • This build consists of spamming Frostbolt at all times while using the Water Elemental on every cooldown and stacking Icy Veins with damage trinkets and raid buffs like Bloodlust/Heroism. It invests into Arcane for Focus Magic for an increase in DPS and raid utility and takes mana-efficiency talents as well. It is the most mana-efficient Frost Mage spec. Points can be removed from all talents taken after Focus Magic for customisation, but it is imperative that the talent itself be in the spec.

• (0/18/53) Deep Frost + Ignite
  • This build has the same Frost core as the one above, but goes into Fire for Ignite and Master of Elements to streamline single-target DPS. It provides higher single-target damage, but lacks the raid utility of Focus Magic and provides less mana-efficiency overall than its Arcane alternative. Points can be removed from all talents taken after Ignite for utility such as Improved Blizzard and Ice Barrier, but Ignite itself is the core of the Fire offspec.

Fire

• (18/51/0 +2) Fireball build
  • This tree invests into Arcane for Spell Impact and Focus Magic. Its rotation is highly interactive, consisting of spamming Fireball at all possible times, using Scorch every 30 seconds to maintain the Improved Scorch debuff and casting Pyroblast when Hot Streak happens. Mage Armor should be used, and if the player finds themselves with manageable mana Living Bomb should be kept up on the target. Two points can be put in either Burning Soul or Flame Throwing, or into Dragon's Breath and Blast Wave. If the player has need of any other talents, World in Flames is a good place to remove points from, as its DPS impact is minimal.

• (0/51/18 +2) Frostfire build
  • Theorycraft has shown this to be the top Fire raiding build because of the early Frost DPS talents and the powerful crit modifier it gives to Frostfire Bolt. This build is based on Frostfire Bolt, and is classified as Fire rather than Elementalist for its steep expenditure into the Fire tree, while the Frost investment is puny in comparison, making it in reality a Deep Fire build. The rotation in this tree is exactly like the one in the above Fireball build, except replacing Fireball with Frostfire Bolt and using Living Bomb at all times. Frostfire Bolt is highly mana-efficient and has been shown to compete excellently with the Fireball build above in terms of DPS. Although Frostfire Bolt normally hits for less than Fireball, it crits hit much harder due to the number of modifiers and talents which activate on a critical hit: Burnout, Ice Shards and Ignite.

Arcane

• (53/18/0) Arcane Barrage + Ignite + Imp. Scorch
  • For optimal single-target DPS performance, alternate Arcane Barrage and Fireball. Scorch five times at the beginning of the fight and once every 5 seconds to keep up the Improved Scorch debuff. If the debuff is already present via a Fire Mage or Frost Mage (Winter's Chill), drop Improved Scorch for Master of Elements. Use Pyroblast on every Presence of Mind cooldown. .

PVP

Frost

• (20/0/51) Frost + TTW
  • An Arena standard, this Frost build has the most burst potential Frost can achieve through Deep Freeze and Brain Freeze, boosted by Torment the Weak. Improved Counterspell is also obtained, as are most utility Frost talents.When customizing this build, it is imperative that Arcane be kept at least so far as Magic Absorption, as it's a powerful defense against the unsnareable casters.

• (28/0/43) Frost w/Prismatic Cloak
  • The 'Frismatic' build combines the survivability and utility of Frost with Prismatic Cloak and Presence of Mind.The Frost part of the build can be customized as necessary to obtain specific talents such as Permafrost.

Arcane

• (58/13/0) Arcane Barrage, POM/Arcane Blast spec
  • this spec is meant for those who have more experience with the arcane tree. you will rely more on your arcane spells, more importantly not [pom + pyroblast] but more on [pom + arcane blast] its a spec i have been using heavily for pvp. great vs. retadins. also keep in mind some people seem to not have noticed that impact is not only for fire. it works globally now.

• (55/16/0)Arcane Barrage + POM + Pyroblast

• Combines the power of the 3 minute mage spec, and adds impact for a stun, and world in flames for a better crit chance.