Split-Screen :: The Game-Geek’s Daily Read

by Oreo

Most builds (also referred to as specs, or specializations) are identified by the names of the talent trees, with the tree with the most points named first. A “disc/holy” priest has 31 points in the discipline tree and 20 in the holy tree. Usually no more than 41 points are put in a single tree, because that’s the required number for reaching the highest talent. There are, or course, exceptions. The act of choosing such a path is referred to as speccing. Changing a character’s spec is called respeccing, or is referred to as a respec.

Starting at level 10, players receive one talent point for each level they attain. Players can spend these to enhance their character, making it better than a default, cookie-cutter example of their class. Often players will spend Talent Points in such a way to increase their enjoyment of playing their character’s class, especially by enhancing abilities that they find themselves using often or to give new abilities that are useful in the style of play they enjoy most.

Often a spec defines the role a character will play in a group. For example, a protection-spec Warrior or Paladin makes an ideal tank. A character’s spec can radically shift this role. A Holy or Discipline Priest will generally heal in an instance, while a Shadow-specced Priest will DPS and crowd control. Certain talent trees excel in PvE content, while others are especially useful for PvP content.

It should be clear at all times that there is no “best” solution for anything in this game. The greatness of WoW is that there are many approaches to any goal. Just as there is no “best” race for each class, there is never a “best” build for each class. Everything is a tradeoff - an increase in efficiency in PvP usually means a decrease in PvE or endgame instances, and vice versa.

Of course there are certain basic truths, such as “a mage is a DPS class”, “Hunters are good pullers”, etc. These are widely accepted while some talents are considered “bread and butter skills”. There are also simple and natural ways to achieve things - if you want to play your priest solo, it’s much easier if you skill him as Shadowpriest. By no means should this be taken as “Disc/Holy Priest cannot play solo” - of course he can, it’s just more difficult.

Druid

• Balance
• Feral Combat
• Restoration

Druids are a hybrid class that switch roles largely through shapeshifting. In their original humanoid form, they are similar to priests, able to damage their enemies with spells, buff themselves and their allies, and heal people. The restoration and balance trees enhance their healing and spell damage respectively. The cat form is geared toward stealth and melee DPS, while bear form allows them to tank. Those forms are enhanced by the Feral Combat tree, with a few special talents in restoration.

Druids can acquire specialized forms for balance and restoration, but many non-raiding druid will stop short of Tree of Life Form to get extra versatility from balance or feral combat.
Click on the given links to see the talent builds in a real time talent calculator (courtesy of www.wowhead.com)

Balance

Prior to the Burning Crusade expansion, Balance had traditionally been considered underpowered due to awkward talent design and poor itemisation. With the addition of Moonkin form in Patch 1.8, it gained a certain amount of PvP viability but was still considered unsuitable for PvE raiding. Since then, the addition of several powerful new talents to the Balance tree and a significant talent re-design to improve point efficiency has elevated the Balance Druid an even greater level of viability.

Patch 2.0 Moonkins can come close to matching the raw DPS of a Mage or Warlock, but can also fall short when it comes to the longevity of their mana pool (except for the huge bonuses provided by Dreamstate and Intensity), certain types of raid utility such as threat reduction (except for Subtlety), powerful debuffs (except for Insect Swarm and Improved Faerie Fire), and AoE damage dealing (except for Hurricane). These shortcomings can be at least partially fixed through proper gearing (the use of intellect and mana regeneration focused gear and trinkets which modify threat), and the use of certain talents and buffs, such as Subtlety, Dreamstate, Intensity, and Blessing of Salvation. In PvP, the Moonkin’s combination of roots, nukes, and good damage mitigation can make them dangerous opponents for certain classes.

Players need to evaluate their options for themselves, tuning their personal talent build to their own preferences and needs. As stated previously, there is no “best” build until you directly define the role you wish to play. Builds should also be re-evaluated as you progress through the game. A build that worked well for Karazhan may need to be adjusted for use in the Black Temple or Sunwell.

Full Balance (58/0/3, 56/0/5, 53/0/8)

When first choosing balance, it can be useful to maximise the number of points in the balance tree with one of the following talent builds. This lets you get a feel for how useful each of the talents can be, allowing a better informed choice of future talent builds, should you find the need to put points into either the feral or restoration trees.

58/0/3 - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0tjruiIsguAoZh
100% of the balance talents, but only 3/5 in Improved Mark of the Wild. Not strongly recommended, as full 5/5 Improved Mark of the Wild is more useful for instancing and raiding than 4/4 Improved Nature’s Grasp or 3/3 Brambles (since you become interchangeable with restoration druids and most feral druids when it comes to buffing the groups).

56/0/5 - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0tfruiIsguAoZx
Nearly 100% of the balance talents, with full 5/5 Improved Mark of the Wild. Improved Nature’s Grasp is reduced to 2/4, to allow the 5 points in the restoration tree. This build works well for soloing, instancing, Karazhan, and PvP. For instancing and raiding, it is essential to get a good amount of MP5 (after Intellect, which is still the most important stat) through gear, gems, consumables, and potions, as it is missing the mana regeneration from the Intensity restoration talent. For long fights, a large number of mana potions will be required, and must be taken back to back, as soon as the cooldown is up. In higher level raiding, mana regeneration and threat reduction may force you to move more points into the restoration tree, either towards, or completely onto one of the more traditional moonkin raiding builds below.

56/0/5 (alternative) - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0tjrkiIsguAoZx
As above, but with Brambles reduced to 1/3, to allow the 5 points in the restoration tree.

53/0/8 - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0xcruiIsguAoZx0h
Nearly all of the balance talents, as above, but sacrificing Nature’s Grasp for Natural Shapeshifter, reducing the penalty for shifting back into Moonkin Form after shifting out to heal or use Rebirth to resurrect someone. This also provides some utility in PvP, in that frequently shifting forms becomes more viable. Not the most popular of builds for PvE, but still quite viable for some situations.

Panzerkin A.K.A. Moonkin Tank (53/8/0)
This build is highly experimental and not for the faint of heart. Since moonkin form brings the same armor boost as dire bear form to the table, and moonkins have a long history of high-threat issues, even with 5/5 in subtlety, this is a build that was bound to emerge. However, gearing for this build is extremely difficult, as reaching crit immunity without Survival of the Fittest while wearing caster gear is extremely difficult.

However, post - 2.3, Arena Season 1 gear does a surprisingly good job at it, since it is laden with resilience (224 resilience is 5.6% crit reduction which is crit immunity versus boss-level mobs). However, there are virtually no PvE drops that offer any support to this build, though it has been used to great effect by a select few.

This build was essentially pioneered by Lithanial from Al’Akir-EU. His original thread on panzerkin speccing and tanking can be found here, on the WoW-EU forums, and a video if a panzerkin in action, main tanking Prince, Maulgar, and Gruul can be found here.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0xcruiIsguAox0h

Moonkin for solo & instancing (48/0/13)
This is a general purpose build for soloing and instancing. It may also be suitable for low level raiding (eg. Karazhan).
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0xcrkiIsguVoZxVc
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0tcrziIsguVoZxVc (alternative version with Nature’s Grasp, useful for soloing and PvP)

Utility Moonkin (47/0/14)
Same as the raiding moonkin below, but sacrifices points in Subtlety to take Improved Faerie Fire. This build has both advantages and disadvantages for end game raiding. First, managing your own threat can be an issue, as you lose most of the threat reduction points from Subtlety, and keeping Improved Faerie Fire up in boss fights will increase your threat generated while preventing feral druid tanks from casting their version of the spell, reducing the threat generated by the tank. That said, the 3% bonus to hit for tanks will help their threat generation, as +hit is hard to place in the itemization budget for most tanks. Whether this talent actually helps raid DPS significantly or not is debatable. If melee and ranged DPS know what they are doing, they can change up gear to sacrifice 3% of their Hit Rating for Attack Power and Crit while still maintaining hit cap. However, if the moonkin dies, then physical DPS will start missing a lot. Additionally, most physical damage dealers are not likely to count on the presence of a moonkin with this talent in their group and hence may not be able to benefit from the bonus to hit, while others may not even be aware that this talent exists at all. Either way, taking Improved Faerie Fire means you will likely have to sacrifice points in either threat reduction or mana regeneration.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0t0rdicsguAoZxMIo

Raiding Moonkin (46/0/15, 44/0/17, 43/0/18)
It is a common misconception that because druids are a “hybrid” class, they can approach, but cannot beat, the DPS of “pure” classes (e.g. mages and warlocks). Properly geared, and with a single-minded focus on increasing casting DPS, a Balance druid IS a pure caster, with excellent sustained DPS and truly standing out for burst damage capability, nuking adds with a vengeance. This build sacrifices certain talents useful for PVP and soloing - most notably Celestial Focus - to produce a strong raid DPS build that will give even the best mages and warlocks a run for their money on the DPS charts (even while they are benefiting from your 5% crit aura).

The key talents to take from the Resto tree are Intensity (3/3) and Subtlety (4/5). Since the changes in Patch 2.3, when max regeneration from Intensity was changed from 15% to 30%, it has become a powerful tool for producing mana regeneration in combat, even for druids whose gear does not stack very much Spirit. Taken together with Dreamstate from the Balance tree, a Balance druid can easily find themselves with upwards of 100 mana/5 while casting, producing a good chunk of longevity and allowing you to use your high DPS spells such as Moonfire in your rotation even in long boss fights.

If you go out of mana, it is probably because you had to battle rez some other fool and wasted over 2000 mana between Rebirth and shifting back to Moonkin Form. Threat reduction from Subtlety is very helpful in many encounters, although it is possible to forgo this talent if you wish to maximize your raiding utility (see Utility Moonkin (47/0/14) above).

46/0/15 - For Melee Heavy Groups and where Threat is not an issue - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0xzrdicsguAZZxxcb (Karazhan Build)
44/0/17 - Generic Raiding Moonkin - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0tMrzicsguVoZxVcL
44/0/17 - Generic Raiding Moonkin (alternative) - http://wowhead.com/?talent=0xcrzicsguVoZVxcL
43/0/18 - Maximum Threat Reduction - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0xzrdicsguVZZxxcx (SSC and above Build)
48/0/13 - Natureone’s RaidKin build - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0xzruicsguAoZxMI (Designed for raid utility when Threat isn’t an issue.)

PvP Moonkin (45/0/16, 45/11/5)

Passes on long term mana endurance, since fights are very short in PvP. Improves ability to fight under pressure with Celestial Focus and Nature’s Focus and ability shapeshift frequently to heal (or just to escape in travel form) with Natural Shapeshifter.

Frequently, there can be a notable lack of healers in PvP battlegrounds. Don’t be afraid to stand at the back throwing heals on all friendly players within range. It’s not quite as powerful as a restoration druid’s healing, but balance talents and gear can put out fairly good healing, with a little practice, and it’s generally very much appreciated by the other players in the battleground.

If things are hectic, stick to spamming lifebloom on many people, rejuvination on those that need a little more. If you are not taking too many hits yourself, or there are very few targets to heal, throw in some regrowths for a little more punch. Un-talented healing touch generally takes too long to cast, is too easy to get spell pushback, and consumes too much mana, so it is often best to avoid it in PvP, unless you are somehow being ignored by the enemy, and have loads of mana left.

45/0/16 - Generic PvP Moonkin - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0tcrziIsgzVoZxeh
45/0/16 - Generic PvP Moonkin (alternative) - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0tcrziIsgzVoZVVch
45/11/5 - Arena PvP Moonkin - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0tsr0iIRxuVoxMhoZV
45/11/5 - Arena PvP Moonkin (alternative) - http://wowhead.com/?talent=0tcrziIoguVoxMhoZV

Gearing

Moonkins with Lunar Guidance, Intensity and Dreamstate are excellent builds for raiding and instancing. As such, both Intellect and Stamina with some +dps gear is common. However, Spirit gear will give additional MP5 (with Intensity) that should not be ignored. A full Gladiator’s Wyrmhide set provides excellent Stamina, Intellect, resilience, +dps and MP5 in addition to other benefits. However, since it is only a 5-piece set, you should augment it with green items with the following properties (in order of preference) “of the Eagle” (Intellect and Stamina), “of the Owl” (Intellect and Spirit), or “of the Whale” (Stamina and Spirit).

With additional PvP reward purchases, the Vindicator’s Wyrmhide pieces are an excellent addition to Gladiator’s set. A good weapon, such as the Gladiator’s War Staff is also helpful (that particular staff is arguably the best balance druid weapon until tier 5 raiding or arena season 2).

Intellect is your most important stat in this case because it will supply you with Mana, +spell crit, MP5, and +dps all at the same time. Spirit when coupled with Intensity will greatly improve your MP5 to provide longevity during boss fights, and every Moonkin needs Stamina for longer survival. Without the Intensity talent from the restoration tree, Spirit is a largely wasted stat for balance druids.

Mage

• Arcane
• Fire
• Frost

Mages are used as a ranged DPS class. In groups, they deal high amounts of damage to their targets, while generating a great deal of threat from monsters. They excel at doing Area-of-Effect damage (doing damage to multiple mobs at once). Mages have the greatest AoE capability of any class currently in the game.

In addition, they are the weakest class at surviving having damage dealt against them. Because of this, it is advisable that another group member tanks while the mages do their thing. Mages have strong control mechanisms, such as snares, roots and crowd control. Frost mages enhance these control abilities, while fire mages specialize in sheer all-out DPS. The arcane tree remains a powerful utility tree providing strong burst DPS.

Personally I go for a fire spec as it can do a lot of burst damage leading to a nice PvP and PvE efficiency. A nice leveling build is a fire one as u need to grind a a lot for leveling and then its upto you actually to go for a frost + Arcane build or a Fire + Arcane build.

Three school

Mages typically determine their spec based on specific needs such Improved Scorch for vulnerability to hard hitting fire spells, or Shatter for high critical chance against frozen targets. For PvP, it is possible to incorporate the essential elements of each tree in a single, versatile template while including must haves like Improved Counterspell and Presence of Mind for silence and burst. Cold Snap adds to this builds survivability in the form of reset cooldowns for Ice Block and Frost.

Nova

Tri-spec - 21/18/22 [2] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=of0E00fzZVgMzcZVVG0o0xo

Cryomancer

Frost mages sacrifice the pure damage capabilities of Fire or Arcane mages for survivability and control. The survivability comes from spells such as Ice Block and Ice Barrier, which protect a Frost mage in PvP and PvE encounters. The control is gained from the debuffs of most Frost spells. Frost debuffs usually decrease an opponent’s attack and movement speed.

Frost was once the most predominant PvE/raid build for mages, due to fire-resistant end-game content in Molten Core and Blackwing Lair. New raid dungeons such as Ahn’Qiraj and Naxxramas did not have this limitation, and Fire builds became popular for raiding mages looking for maximum damage potential. Frost is still capable of respectable damage through Winter’s Chill, Piercing Ice, Ice Shards and Arctic Winds, while being fairly mana-efficient.

For burst damage, the 41-point Summon Water Elemental gives a significant DPS boost for 45 seconds (three minute cool-down).

Frost is very popular in PvP for the increased survivability, through talents such as Ice Block and Ice Barrier. Shatter combined with Frostbite gives excellent burst damage for a quick kill. The water elemental has a second freeze effect like Frost Nova that is cast at range for added control.
One of the more advanced techniques for frost mages is AoE grinding. Talents such as Improved Blizzard, Improved Cone of Cold, Permafrost and Ice Floes give the mage tools to kite and kill large groups of mobs for fast cash, loot and experience.

Frost examples

Deep Frost - 10/0/42 (9)[3] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=of0VZZVAMcof0siot

Deep Frost builds are good all-purpose builds. The mage gains the survivability of Frost and can easily handle two or three creatures. The survivability of deep Frost builds make it a solid choice for PvP, but its lack of damage capabilities make it a poor choice for raiding.

The build provided includes all of the core talents, and has nine points to be distributed at your discretion. Arcane Meditation is recommendable if you mostly do PvE content, but Shatter, Permafrost and Frostbite are best for PvP, in which case points should be removed from Winter’s Chill.

PvP Deep Frost - 17/0/44 [4] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oi0VbobZZVAGcobxsrot

Drops talents from frost to gain Improved Counterspell which helps to shutdown casters.

PvP Fire/Frost - 0/12/49 [5] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oZVMGZVVGcobxsiqt

This is an alternate PvP build for frost which focuses on maximising the power of Fireblast and to a lesser extent Molten Armor. Although the build lacks Improved Counterspell, the single spell school shutdown is still enough to cripple healers, and the 17 points spent in the Arcane tree can be redistributed to fill out the Frost tree a little and significantly increase the power of Fireblast. Note that points may also be removed from the Empowered Frostbolt to take Ignite, making Fireblast even more powerful.

The mentality behind this build focuses on allowing the mage to maintain high survivability whilst still CC’ing and outputting as much DPS as possible through instant casts, particularly fireblast.

Arena PVP Fire/Frost - 0/7/54 [6] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oZVMZVVGIofxswqt

Among arena mages this build is becoming fast recognized as one of the most efficient arena specs. By not opting for Improved Counterspell, the mage is able to instead pickup 17 points to be used elsewhere. Putting 5 in Impact and 2 in Flame Throwing means that you have the ability to stun melee and effectively net a 31 yard Fire Blast. The loss is minimal as the only real point of speccing 17 into arcane is to get Improved Counterspell and some contend Clearcasting as well. But Frost Channeling in the Frost tree more than makes up for the Clearcasting procs lost and the additional points in Winter’s Chill help with stopping quick dispels of CC effects. Overall, the spec just has more utility and longevity at the cost of a mere silence that is primarily used in 1v1 situations against healers.

Raid Frost - 40/0/21 [7] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oi0Vc0fzxIziZZVi0cor0o

This build maximizes damage with Frost with Spell Power and Arcane Instability. Spell Power will increase your damage by about ten percent alone. For this build to shine, however, you need one or more mages in the raid with Winter’s Chill to maximize your benefit from Spell Power.

Support Raid Frost - 18/0/43 [8] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oV0E00cZZVArcRf0oiot

This build will help the frost mage soloing and in 5 men but also’ll improve the damage output from the other frost mages with the old 40/0/21 construct in either raidiing or Alterac Valley enviroment giving them +10% spell crit with Winter’s Chill and doing a great job taking care of AOE mobs with Improved Blizzard + Frostbite.

AoE Grinding - 13/0/48 [9] [http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=of0VcZZVAMIsfxsbot

It is generally accepted that Frost is the better Tree for AoE grinding, due to its slow and root capabilities. To create a successful AoE build Arctic Reach, Permafrost and Improved Blizzard are essential. Frostbite is actually detrimental here and should be skipped over, as it has a tendency to split up your tight pack of mobs that is required for AoE grinding. Ice Barrier also helps you from taking any damage as you round up mobs (even hits from mobs below your level will start to add up).

PvP Frost - 0/10/51 [10] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oZVMhZVVGIobxswqt

This is a build I swear by most of the time on my frost mage. It’s a slight variant of the commonly used impact/flame throwing, where I took out points from frost channeling, since mana isn’t that big of an issue for me, and put them into improved fireblast for 1.5 seconds shaved off the cd. Note that a build posted above has points into incineration. I personaly prefer permafrost for kiting so i did not add points into that talent (this build is good vs melee and should be paired with another class that can shutdown casters eg. warlock+felhunter in arena).

Fireball/Frostbolt - 0/20/41 [11] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oZExzz0cZVVGcobxoaRt

This build, I’m certain, is best for group PvP (arena is an example.) It relies on the casting of frostbolt/fireball and is designed to fire and go whilst specing frost to allow for control of battle. Good if you like to use the environment to your advantage. Better for use of standing from afar and casting.

Winter’s Powerhouse - 0/0/61 [12] http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000535323313235013251551

If crowd control and survivability is your middle name, I recommend you to use this skill. While Blizzard has longer range, your Ice Barrier shields any damage that may interrupt the spell. If the team gets ganged up, Ice Block will protect you from sneaky ambushes from Rogues. This build will typically enhance critical chances and damage due to Frostbite and Winter’s Chill.

Pyromancer

Where Frost builds offer control and survivability, Fire builds are the ultimate in damage dealing. From Ignite, which burns your target for additional damage on crits, to Critical Mass and Fire Power which enhance your damage potential, Fire Mages are feared and respected opponents. Current as of patch 2.3.2 ice block is available to all mages, thus increasing the survivability of fire builds.

Typical fire

Heavy Fire - 10/48/3 [13] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=of0VZxgRzfcIoeRt0h

This is a well-balanced PvE and PvP build, with one point to distribute at your discretion. It can dish out large amounts of damage, and Dragon’s Breath and Blast Wave help massively in PvP. However, if your focus is on PvP, it is best to remove points from Playing With Fire and put them into Blazing Speed.

Fast Fire - 2/45/11 [14] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=obZxg0zfcIoeRtbhG0o

An extremely high DPS build with 3 points to distribute at your discretion. Linking Combustion and Icy Veins together with your Fireball spam will pile the damage (and threat) on fast. The mana burn rate of this build is some what mitigated by the change to the Mana Emerald giving it 3 charges justifying giving up the Clearcasting of Heavy Fire. Possible uses of the 3 remaining points are Improved Fire Blast x3, or 1 point in Improved Blizzard to take advantage of Frostbite during AOE, and 2 points in either Incineration or Blazing Speed for those “I’m outta here” moments.

Heavy Raid Fire - 18/40/3 [15] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oiMV0ocZxgM0fcc0eMx0h

This build is based on the Heavy Fire build mentioned above, except that it can keep you casting longer in raids (especially combined with Mage Armor) and gives you a slightly higher armour value but a slightly lower solo effectiveness. One variation on this build would be to put the points now in Molten Fury, in Combustion (and something else) instead, so that you can use this rotation:
Scorch (until stacked 5 times) -> Combustion -> Fireball/Pyroblast (until you had 3 crits)

Heavy Fire PvE - 15/41/5 [16] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=obgx0oZEg0zbccoxRtbh

This build is based on the above two Heavy Fire builds, except that it adds more defensive capabilities at the expense of a few fire abilities. This build is better for PvE rather than PvP as it leverages the defenses from Arcane Fortitude and Magic Absorption in the Arcane tree along with Frost Warding from the Frost tree to provide for improved defenses. Additionally, it grants uninterruptable Arcane Missiles while still being heavily focused on dealing massive Fire-based damage from Blast Wave and Dragon’s Breath.

Hybrid Arcane/Fire -33/28/0 [17] http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/mage/talents.html?2500050300230140320120050520001230303103000000000000000000000000000

An extremely devastating Arena PvP build which is only barely beaten by Heavy Fire in PvE environments. There are few enemies which cannot be buried by a critical hit of an instant-cast Pyroblast backed by Arcane Power. This build is also an excellent PvE build, which allows quick kills combined with mana efficiency, the combinations of Mage Armor, Arcane Meditation/Concentration and Master of Elements allows you to keep up substantial damage over a long period of time without exhausting your mana.

PvP Fire - 17/41/0 [18] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=of0VfobZVgrzfccReRz

Another PvP build. focuses on using scorch for quick criticals. magic attunement and improved counterspell for when you run into casters and arcane impact for when you get up close and personal.

Raid/Party Fire - 40/21/0 [19] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oV0Eb0czxIziZxgMzcc

This build is good for keeping up damage over long periods of time without exhausting your mana supply. The main concept here is to spam scorches until you proc clearcasting, then cast a fireball or PoM Pyroblast. There is a good chance that the spell will score a critical hit, and you will see free mana (Master of the Elements).

Solo Pyromancer - 18/42/0 [20] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oVxV00cZxgMzccI0eot

A spec for the soloing mage. Only 60 points were use because at 70 you should respec for raiding or PvP.

Arcanist

With the addition of several new talents in the Arcane tree, it is now viable to play as a heavily Arcane spec’d Mage. From Empowered Arcane Missiles, which offers a high damage output at the cost of increased mana, to Mind Mastery (Spell Damage increase) and Spell Power (Critical Strike Damage Bonus), the Arcane Mage has truly arrived. Current as of patch 2.3.2 ice block is available to all mages, thus increasing the survivability of arcane builds.

Arcane examples

Arcane Overload - 61/0/0 [21] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oixEfRfzgIuio

Sure to inspire heated debates, this exclusive Arcane build offers heavy damage and amazing utility. Mind Mastery and Spell Power provide more than enough fire power to your Arcane Missiles. In fact, despite the increased mana cost of Empowered Arcane Missiles, with good gear the normally draining Arcane Missiles will actually become considerably MORE mana efficient. Having Arcane Power is icing on the top.

Presence of Mind can also be used very creatively in this build to quickly sheep your foe, or to blast out a Fireball (handy for the DOT) or Frostbolt.

Typical PvE attack rotation for this would be Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles, scorch (using Arcane Missiles whenever Clearcasting procs). By the time you fire off the scorch, the Arcane Blast debuff will have almost disappeared, allowing a fast arcane blast cast at normal cost if timed so the debuff expires while casting.

With this rotation, combined with Arcane Meditation, Arcane Mind, and Mage Armor, it isn’t uncommon for the Arcane Mage to outlast the normally more efficient Fire and Frost Mages. The only major drawback is the lack of Flame Throwing, limiting your range to 20 yards if you intend to use Fireblast, which is very short for a ranged class.

Also, the three-minute mage talents, combined with Arcane Blast, make for the deadliest burst damage of any class, any build. Stack the Arcane Blast 3 times, fire off an AP/PoM Fireball, and then blast away with your Arcane Blast. This is, however, a sure way to run yourself out of mana, so try to use it only when necessary, or when already low on mana.

PvP Frost - 41/0/20 [22] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=of0qcofzxIzioZVVG000x

This build has been growing more and more popular among mages. With the combination of Shatter and Ice Shards in the frost tree, stacked with Arcane Power and Spell Power, this enables the mage to experience the maximization of all the critical strike bonus talents. While relying heavily on chance and burst damage, this build allows the mage to have close to 100% critical strike chance if used properly. While the target is frozen, you gain 50% critical strike. At level 70, your base critical strike will be around 15-20%. If you are clear casting, you gain 30% critical strike. 50% + 20% + 30% = 100%! Stack that with ZHC and Arcane Power and your enemies will be shattered to pieces!

Arena Frost - 33/0/28 [23] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oi0qbRbdrhzbZZVVGcobxk

This build is currently a very popular build among high rating mages. This build has maximum controlled burst damage with Shatter, Ice Shards, Spell Power and Arcane Power. Ice Block is included and is considered by many mages in arena as a necessity. This build has great burst damage.

Balanced Arcanist - 43/11/7 [24] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=o0xVsofzgIzioVG0zZMhM

All the bonus damage you can get from arcane tree, amazing utility and “3 Minute Mage” talents for those moments when you really need blow up something fast.

Variant 3 minute mage - 31/30/0 [25] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oi0Vc0fzLGzbZxg0zfMsoh

This varies from the normal 3 minute mage builds in that it tries to be viable for both PvP and PvE (arcane meditation). Few enemies can withstand the “arcane power - pyroblast - PoM - pyroblast - fireblast - blast wave” combo with enough HP left to be a threat. This for the Arenas.

Arcane Revolution - 49/12/0

Arcane Revolution is an unusual spec which uses primarily Scorch, Arcane Blast, and Arcane Missiles. Pyroblast is fit in where possible. The most common rotation used is:
Arcane Blast -> AB -> AB -> Arcane Missiles -> Scorch -> Repeat

PoM Pyro is used when able on clearcasts.

Raid Arcanist - 45/13/3 [26] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=obgVc0fzgIzioxx0zbZ0h

This spec is designed to keep you casting as long as possible, while still providing decent DPS. In most fights your attack pattern should mainly consist of mana-efficient moves such as Arcane Missiles or Scorch. Keep casting those until Arcane Concentration procs, in which case use Pyroblast. Against casters cast Slow as soon as possible to increase their casting time. When (or if) your mana runs out use Evocation or your wand if Evocation is on cooldown.

Arcane DPS

Basically Arcane Missles spec. I skipped 1 point in Arcane Subtlety because otherwise you couldn’t get that POM Pyro you’ll probably want to do if you ever pvp. Slow is also for pvp, and I got Magic Absorption so that Mage Armor becomes actually useful in pvp. DPSing is just pressing that missle button over and over unless you really need to bomb them down quick, in which case spam Arcane Blast. It’s less efficient but your damage skyrockets. Arcane is the highest DPS spec for mages, because most Fire and Frost Mages will use Arcane Missles for a quick burst of damage, because it does more damage than their normal move despite less efficiency. Arcane makes it do even more damage and makes it somewhat efficient.

Variant 3 minute mage - 34/24/3 [27] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=of0E00fzxI0bZxg0zfccZ0h

This is a pure PVE build made for farming. It revolves around mana efficiency, and if done with mage shield active can result in hours of farming for the mage with no down time. Elemental Precision is picked up to minimize resists.

Elementalist

Elementalist builds combine Fire and Frost talents, with few or no points in Arcane. These builds were very uncommon before the Patch 1.11 Mage talent review, due to abilities such as Evocation and Improved Arcane Explosion being must-have talents for many mages. Also, Fire and Frost trees didn’t have much synergy between the two.

With the talent review, talents in each tree were modified to provide this cross-tree synergy, such as Shatter affecting non-frost spells, and new talents Elemental Precision and Master of Elements improving both schools. Evocation was made trainable, and Arcane Explosion made instant, meaning many mages could viably drop the Arcane tree all together. These builds are very effective in PvP, and can see use in Raids as well.

Elementalists may want to inform their raid leaders of their build beforehand, since there are unique problems associated with this style in PvE.

Many Elementalists tend to focus on one element of the other, often using Fire for DPS and Frost for control and Shatter. A balanced approach offers more versatility, and similar damaging power. Elementalists claim the build requires more skill, especially since helpful abilities from the Arcane tree such as Improved Counterspell and Presence of Mind that see much use in PvP are never present in these builds.

Typical elementalists

Balanced - 0/24/27 [28] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oZVgrzc0coZVAM0obxs

This build mixes the survivability of Frost with the burst damage of Fire. A solid PVP or RAID build depending on your personal preference.

Fire ‘n’ Ice - 0/30/21 [29] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oZEgRz00coxZihMbo0xo

Whereas the build above aims to walk the line of surviving and dealing high damage, this build is a PVP machine. Frost is used mainly for Shatter to set up heavy damage via an array of AoE attacks. This template is supreme for burning down multiple foes in rapid fashion.

Frost Over Fire - 0/20/41 [http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oZVgMzbcZVVG0ofxoiot]

OR

0/21/40 http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oZVguz0c0oZVVGc0bxoikx

This build is less for mages who want maximum damage, but great for those who want more survival options. This build will give you the survival capabilities of frost, along with the high damage of pyroblast. This build is more for PvP, because it has a greater use for frostbite.

Shatter + Frostbite will make your spells crit a lot when used correctly, and with Master of Elements, that is a lot of mana regained. In 0/20/41 The extra frost nova from the water elemental only increases this, while in 0/21/40 The extra frost AoE + ignite + possable stun’s can be very useful in both PvE and PvP.

There are 4 extra points, two in frost and two in fire if you don’t need to increase your range(Flame Throwing and Arctic Reach), but for some end game raid bosses the extra 6 yards can take you out of some of their spells’ ranges.

NOTE: In both builds you can change things but your main goal should be ice barrier and pyro. Ice barrier, pyro and water ele if 0/20/41. Ice barrier, pyro and blastwave if 0/21/40. Keep in mind there are lot’s of combos you can make, just try and test things till you find what works best.