Here you will find all of the information that could be found in the old stickies. As Blizzard gave us the order to clean up, or stickies will simply be removed. i decided to collect the stickies in one thread.


Nothing of this is made by me, all credits go to previus authors.


Navigation:
1. Mage Links (IRC, Wiki, etc.). Made by Sebastian.
(http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=202910352&postId=2027620996&sid=1#0)

2. Scribbles' awesome talent trees. Made by Scribbles.
(http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=202910352&postId=2027620997&sid=1#1)

3. Mage Spell Damage Co-Efficients. Made by Coin.
(http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=202910352&postId=2027621004&sid=1#2)

4. Mage talents guide . Made by Cncfanatics.
(http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=202910352&postId=2027621006&sid=1#3)

5. A Mage Leveling and Level 70 Builds Guide. Made by Ahine.
(http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=173227419&sid=1)

6. Bangy's little guide to Blizz Mage AoE grind. Made by Bangy.
(http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=107621534&sid=1)

7. Water Elemental - A guide. Made by Wage.
(http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=202910352&postId=2027621114&sid=1#24)

8. Mage Macros 2.0. Made by Flight
(http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=202910352&postId=2027621116&sid=1#25)



1. Mage Links (IRC, Wiki, etc.). Made by Sebastian.


Mage IRC

For chat about anything mage related, do not hesitate to join:
#eu-mage on Quakenet IRC server - irc.quakenet.org

Enjoy your stay and try to keep it civilized.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

M A G E W I K I

As a result of cleaning up the main page of Mage Forums, most of the stickies are de-stickied. Therefore we've created a new European Mage Wiki website due to popular demand. it contains useful information about Mages, including past but updated stickies. If you want to know more about Wikis, please visit this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

Anyways, the URL of Mage Wiki is:

http://magewiki.wikispaces.com/

You can also change or add anything you feel to the Wiki page, but please keep your constructive behaviour while editing or adding to the page. :)

You need to be a member to edit or add pages to Mage Wiki. All you need to do is to join Mage Wiki here: http://www.wikispaces.com/user/join?goto=:magewiki:%2F

The membership is free. Also viewing Mage Wiki does not require membership.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

T A L E N T S / S P E L L S
Credits to: Zefiris, EU-Ravenholdt

Mage Talent calculator
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/mages/talents.html

Mage talent
http://www.wowwiki.com/Mage_talent

Thottbot mage page
http://www.thottbot.com/?c=Mage

OGaming mage description
http://wow.ogaming.com/data/2816~MageStrategy.php

G E A R S

Master loot list
http://www.wow-loot.com/mage.htm

G U I D E S

Mage Tactics
http://www.wowwiki.com/Mage_tactic

Starting a mage
http://www.wowwiki.com/Starting_a_Mage

Proxy guide to grind
http://www.curse-gaming.com/en/article-130-1-mage-grinding-guide.html

WoWvault mage page
http://wowvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Classes.Detail&id=3

Be a good fire mage
http://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Good-Fire-Mage-in-World-of-Warcraft
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DISCUSSION FORUMS

Intelligent Mage Discussion
http://forums.subcreation.net/viewforum.php?f=21

2. Scribbles' awesome talent trees. Made by Scribbles.


Natureclaw released his talent tree creator site mathingey a few days ago, and I've spent some time to create some cool new talent trees for the mages. :)

Personally I find our current trees to be a bit lacking. Frost is the best tree, then comes Arcane, and Fire, once the backbone of the mageclass, now simply sucks. Such is my opinion, so I've taken it upon myself to take each talent tree, remove or alter the talents that I personally found lacking, and then added several new talents, of the otiginal kind (AKA not "ORANGE FLAMES OF PAINFUL BURNING - INCREASES FIRE DAMAGE BY 3% LOLZ").

These trees are very much a work in progress, my main goal was not to make powerfull talents, but to make fun talents, that made you want to spec them just to play around with the possibilities. Each tree now has 4 active talents, one at each ten talent point mark (AKA Blastwave, Iceblock, etc).

I've spent alot of time on these, so I would love it if I would get some serious feedback. :)

Link:
An up to date version of my talent trees can be found here
- http://talents.unleashedgaming.net/?p=vt&i=3250

Older versions of these trees can be found at the bottom of this post.


Talent redux:
Arcane:
- Wand Specialisation removed Arcane Influence Added (increase range for arcane spells)
- Arcane Impact removed Spell Ward added (magic shield)
- Arcane Fortitude removed Spell Weaving added (ability to move while channeling)
- Arcane Meditation removed Improved Mage Armor added (extra resists)
- Improved Blink changed (now reduces cooldown)
- Arcane Mind changed (exciting new icon!)
- Prismatic Cloak removed
- Mind Mastery changed (put lower in tree and changed name into Mastermind)
- Empowered Arcane Missiles changed (put higher in tree)
- Spell Breaker added (arcane damage spells have a chance to silence target)
- Slow removed Maelstrom added (AoE effect snare/silence)

Fire:
- Master of Elements changed (lower in tree, to compete with Elemental Precision)
- Improved Flamestrike removed
- Pyroblast changed (major change, now is an AoE fireball of sorts)
- Improved Fire Ward removed
- Improved Scorch changed (new name "Scorching Heat")
- Smoke Screen added (defensive talent, procs on being crit).
- Ignite Mana added (Ignite now also burns some mana if target is a caster)
- Ashes to Ashes added (killing blows get you a spell power bonus)
- Empowered Fireball changed (from 5 talent points to 3)
- Meltdown added (chance to get a free instant flamestrike, Nightfall knockoff :P )

Frost:
- Frozen Core removed Heart of Ice added (extra resistances based on total int).
- Arctic Winds removed Splinter added (followup of Shatter, frozen crits do AoE damage).
- Hypothermia added (your snares also slow attack and casting speed)



December 17th Changes:

Arcane:
- Spell Ward now also states only one type of Ward can be active at a time.
- Spellweaving has been reduced from 70/80/90% to 50/65/80%.
- Spell Breaker and Mastermind switched places.
- Maelstrom had it's radius slightly reduced from 15 to 12 yards.

Fire:
- Ignite Mana changed from a fixed amount to a percentage of your total spellpower. It now scales.
- Burning Soul fixed an error where the second rank would not properly show the threat reduction bonus.
- Meltdown now reduces the mana cost to 0% as well as the cast time. Duration of the effect lasts 6 seconds, or until you cast flamestrike.

Frost:
- Frost Warding replaced by Improved Warding (increases damage absorbed by Frost/Fire wards and gives them a chance to reflect).
- Splinter had it's wording changed a little. Enemies cannot be affected by splinter damage more than once every 1.5 seconds (to avoid instant AoE kills). Also, splinter damage is dealt as Frost type damage.
- Hypothermia had it's slowing ratios reduced from 5/10/15% and 7/14/20% to 4/7/10% and 5/10/15%.



First version:
http://talents.unleashedgaming.net/?p=vt&i=215&link=yes

3. Mage Spell Damage Co-Efficients. Made by Coin.


Hi guys,

After the helpful input throughout this thread these seem to be the up to date co-efficients;



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
Mage spells - thanks Eylirria, Kelith & co

Fireball - 100% / 0% (3.5/3.5)
Frostbolt - 81,4% (3/3.5 * 0.95 - snare)
Fire blast - 42,9% (1.5/3.5)
Arcane missiles - 143% (5/3.5)
Blizzard - 94,9% (8/3.5 * 1/2 * 0.83 - aoe, 8 secs)
Scorch - 42,9% (1.5/3.5)
Cone of Cold - 20,4% (1.5/3.5 * 1/2 * 0.95 - aoe & snare)
Arcane explosion - 21,4% (1.5/3.5 * 1/2 - aoe)
Pyroblast - 115% / 20% (custom as of 2.0.3 - 25,02% * 12/15)
Flamestrike - 23,6% / 9,9% (417/757 * 3/3.5 * 1/2 - 340/757 * 8/15 * 1/2 * 0.83 - aoe, dot 8 secs)
Blast wave - 19,3% (1.5/3.5 * 1/2 * 0.9 - aoe & special snare)
Frost nova - 2,79% (1.5/3.5 * 1/2 * 0.13 - aoe & immobilization - custom)
Dragon's Breath - 19,3% (1.5/3.5 * 1/2 * 0.9 - aoe & "snare")
Ice Barrier - 10% (custom)
Molten armor - 0%
Arcane blast - 71,4% (2.5/3.5)
Ice lance - 14,2% (1.5/3.5 * 1/3 - normal damage against frozen; one third against non-frozen)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Thanks to Maxi for linking to this list and an apparently up to date explanation of the mechanics. See about 5 posts down for the link =)

4. Mage talents guide . Made by Cncfanatics.


As the old sticky got unstickied I decided to write a completely new, updated and improved talent guide. Its currently under construction, so don't reply yet please :)
Enjoy !

Note on raiding builds: I did not include Arcane-Based builds as currently Arcane is still not mana efficient enough to be used on its own for raiding purpose imo. Arcane-based builds can all be found in the non raid talent builds listing.

Other note: I'd appreciate any replies with other oppinions, talent specs, etc., I'm sure I missed a lot of specs and there are lots of good mages around that can come up with them :)

Note on individual talent ratings: I had to shorten some descriptions and comments a bit, the post was too long and wouldn't fit.

List of contributors:

Cairo

Cinondra

Faxmonkey (indirectly)





Raid talent builds

Fire-based builds

Fireball - AoE

9 Arcane - 42 Fire

This build focusses on heavy fireball and AoE damage while keeping decent mana efficiency, it is primarly aimed at AQ40 raiding as it would not last nearly long enough for most Naxx fights. This build is one of my favorites, as it can deal high bursts in a short amount of time when needed. Even more during the last 20% thanks to molten fury. (thanks to Cinondra for additional variants)

Possible variations

No Dragon's breath, so Arcane Concentration can be maxed out.
No points in Pyroblast and Blastwave to max out Incinerate.
No points in Arcane concentration and Dragon's breath to max out Incinerate and Playing with fire. (focus on pure nuking)
No points in Arcane Focus to max out Elemental Precision (you'll have to dorp Concentration too for that)

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300040000000000000000050520001230303105312510000000000000000000000



Fireball - Scorch - Efficiency

18 Arcane - 31 Fire - 2 Frost (OldSchool !)

Build focussed on Scorching, keeping mana at a decent level and Fireball. This build *would* be very effective if Ignite was still in its old state. If my guild was raiding Naxxramas, this would probably be what I would take as a horde mage as mana should be less of an issue with this build then with the Fireball - Aoe one.

Possible variations

Only 2/3 Arcane Meditation to max out Elemental Precision.
Points in Magic Attunement and Arcane Impact instead of Magic Absorbtion.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300550000030000000000050520200230303005010000020000000000000000000



Crit - Extreme efficiency - Fireball

34 Arcane - 14 Fire - 3 Frost

Build aiming at *very* high Fireball crits and extreme mana efficiency with Arcane. This build can stand Fireball (or scorch) spamming for quite a while. But lacks Improved Scorch from the deep fire build, thus you will need another mage to apply it for you in a raid situation. This build is also decent for PvP if you're not being attacked, you can kill someone with only a crit or two.

Possible variations

One point out of Arcane Mind or Arcane Potency to get Arcane Power, for the occasional PvP burst or when something needs to die fast. I didn't take it in the base build as it does nothing to increase DPM.
Improved Counterspell instead of Magic Attunement for PvP.
Points out of Magic Absorbtion and in Improved Counterspell and Arcane Impact instead.
Incinerate instead of Burning Soul (more Crit !)
Improved Fireblast instead of Elemental Precision if you are near the hit cap or want the talent for PvP purpose.
Points out of elemental precision to get Arcane Power and Pyroblast (PvP !)

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300552000030150330020050520000200000000000000030000000000000000000





Frost-based builds

Frostbolt - Water elemental - Efficiency - CoC - Extreme survability

41 Frost - 10 Arcane

Build focussed on Frostbolt for damage (duh !) and very good mana efficiency (in fact, as an Alliance mage you should never have any problems, Horde mages is something else though).

Possible variations

Points out of Winter's Chill and Improved CoC to get Shatter.
Points out of Elemental Precision to get Frostbite (PvP!)

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300050000000000000000000000000000000000000000535000311230013251051



Frostbolt - Efficiency - Minor burst - Survability (Cookiecutter!)

28 Arcane - 23 Frost

The good old Frost cookiecutter build. Has very high Mana Efficiency as well as Minor burst damage or utility with PoM.

Possible variations

Points in Arcane Potency instead of Arcane Instability (I didnt try that out, but Arcane Instability looks nice too)
Arcane Impact and Improved Counterspell instead of Magic Absorbtion.
No points in Arcane Mind but in Prismatic Cloak and Improved Blink (I didnt like those 2 particular talents, but some may)

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300552000030140300000000000000000000000000000535000310230010000000



Crit - Extreme effiency - Frostbolt

34 Arcane - 17 Frost

Aims at very high frostbolt crits and extreme mana efficiency using the arcane tree the most.

Possible variations

Arcane Impact and Improved Counterspell instead of Magic Absorbtion.
No points in Arcane Mind but in Prismatic Cloak, Improved Blink (I didnt like those 2 particular talents, but some may) and Arcane Power.
2/3 Frost channeling instead of Artic Reach.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300552000030150330020000000000000000000000000525000300200000000000





Arcane-based builds


Arcane Missiles - (Arcane Blast [TBC]) - Extreme damage with decent efficiency - Burst (backing fire)

40 Arcane - 11 Fire

Modified version of faxmonkey's arcane build focussed on heavy damage and decent mana efficiency by using the various synergies in the Arcane tree (thanks faxmonkey !). For more details please see faxmonkey's threat that I took the liberty to copy in this sticky.

Possible variations

Less points in Magic Absorbtion to get Improved Counterspell or Magic attunement
One point of Mind mastery into Empowered Arcane Missiles (or the reverse).
Less points in fire to max out arcane even more.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2500550000030140332124050023001000000000000000000000000000000000000



Arcane Missiles - (Arcane Blast [TBC]) - Extreme damage with decent efficiency - Burst (backing frost)


40 Arcane - 11 Fire

Same build as the above, but with frost as backup instead of Fire. (Fire seems to be more effective, as pyroblast can be used with PoM instead of Frostbolt/Fireball)

Possible variations

Less points in Magic Absorbtion to get Improved Counterspell or Magic attunement
One point of Mind mastery into Empowered Arcane Missiles (or the reverse).
Less points in frost to max out arcane even more.
Less points in Mind Mastery and Empowered Arcane Missiles to max out Ice Shards (increase in burst on frostcrits, decrease in overal damage ==> not recommended)
Points from Ice Shards in Permafrost.
Points out of Frostbolt/Elemental precision to max out Ice Shards.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2500550000030140332124000000000000000000000000533000000000000000000

Non-raid talent builds



Fire-based builds



Shatter - Scorch - Fireblast - Survability (Iceblock)



30 Fire - 21 Frost

An updated version of the old 0/30/21 build, its nearly the same, but I prefer to get only 3/5 Firepower and max out Blazing speed (its *very* nice against those nasty hunters).

Possible variations



Points out of Blazing speed to max out Firepower.
Points out of Improved Fireblast, Flamethrowing or Incinerate to max out Improved Scorch (probably for PvE purpose).
Points out of Permafrost and Improved Blizzard to get Iceshards or Improved Frostbolt.
Points out of Frost Warding and Elemental precision to max out Improved Frostbolt.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000005523201210003123000002030322003005010000000



Arcane Power - PoM - Pyro



40 Arcane - 11 Fire

The updated version of the mage's most hated spec. Now even deadlyer then it used to be :) Best combined with trinkets and graveyard runs.

Possible variations

Points out of Improved Arcane Missiles to get Arcane Subtely and/or Arcane Focus.
Points in Improved Fireball instead of Impact.
Points in Ignite instead of Flamethrowing and Improved Fireblast.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0050052302232101330125005023001000000000000000000000000000000000000



Frostbite - Scorch - Survability (PvP)



43 Fire - 8 Frost

All in all a very high burst DPS build, concentrating on PvP where HP is the issue not MP but getting frostbite to go along with the Ice Armor procs for added survability. (Recommended 4000hp to off set lack of frost talants) (thanks to Cairo for this build)

Possible variations

Points out of Master of Elements to max out Improved Fireblast.
Points out of Improved Fireward to take Improved Frost Nova.
Points out of Incinerate, Improved Scorch & Impact to take Improved FB and Empowered FB (Depending on preference of fire nuke).
Points out of Frost Warding and Elemental precision to max out Improved Frostbolt. (I wouldn't recommend this as the only Frostbolt you'll ever cast is probably rank 1 anyway)

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000005520201232303125312012030300000000000000000





Frost-based builds



Full Frost



51 Frost

Full frost build, nice for both PvE and PvP purpose. Very nice Survability, mana efficiency, damage and pretty much everything :) Best possible all-around build

Possible variations

Points out of Frostbite for AoE grinding purpose.
Some points out of Permafrost and Improved blizzard to max out Winter's Chill.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000535323313235013201051



Shatter - Burst - Survability



21 Arcane - 30 Frost

An improved version of the old PoM - Frost PvP build. I added Ice Floes to it and changed some other talents around a bit.

Possible variations

Points out of Frostbite to get Improved blizzard and/or Permafrost (AoE grinding purpose).
Points out of Frostbite and/or Improved CoC to get Frost Channeling, Artic Reach and/or Elemental Precision.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300052300230100000000000000000000000000000000505320310005013200000





Arcane-based builds



Full Arcane



Best DPS build ever made for mages, yet. But it lacks mana efficiency. With this build you should focus mainly on Intellect and then on Spell Damage. Attention should also be paid to not get the arcane tree locked out. A locked out arcane tree means death for full arcane mages.

Possible variations

Improved Arcane Missiles instead of Arcane Focus.
Points out of Prismatic Cloak and/or Magic Attunement to get Improved Blink and/or Improved Mana shield instead.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0500552300230152333125100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Note: I took the liberty to copy faxmonkey's post as its not in a sticky on the US boards. If there are problems with that please contact me on the mage europe IRC channel

Introduction
-------------------------------------------------------------

Arcane missiles is a quirky spell. It operates under mechanics unique to itself that no other spell in the game seems to adhere to. In many ways it’s treated as a channeled spell -- it gains two specific benefits unique to channeled spells. But, yet, it doesn’t suffer the one downside suffered by every single other channeled spell in the game: it can crit.

There are several specific synergies created by this fact, and a few other odds and ends in the arcane tree, that I think has caused its raid usefulness to be underestimated by many.
In case anyone is wondering, the build I’m currently leaning towards is something along the lines of http://www.wowhead.com/?talent-bc=oi0A00fzLIdwZxx0z. You might want to take a quick look at that before you read on so that you can get a feel for what I’m talking about later. The basic method of raid DPS will be arcane missiles, followed by a fireball, repeating over and over with fireballs on clearcasts. The reasons for this will be explained later. For PvP, this build obviously could be played as any other pew-pew Arcane Power PoM pyroblast build.


The Always Active 66% Mana Regeneration
--------------------------------------------------------------

So everybody knows that this spec will have 45% mana regeneration, right? Wrong. One of the first quirks of a channeled spell is how it interacts with the 5-second rule for Mana regeneration vs a regular spell. With either sort of spell, the 5 second rule (the rule which determines whether you get your full spirit regen or your in-combat spirit regen) applies when the mana cost is removed from your mana pool. With regular spells, this occurs when the spell finishes casting but with channeled spells this occurs when the spell starts casting (so the last 7 seconds of a blizzard actually give you 100% mana regeneration). This means that with normal frostbolt/fireball spam you never get more than you’re in combat mana regen, but if you alternate in the arcane missiles in there as every other spell, the whole equation changes. As far as the game is concerned, when you start casting your fireball, you’ve already gone 5 seconds without casting (the 5 seconds you spent channeling arcane missiles) anything and thus you’re entitled to 100% mana regen until that spell finishes its casting.

If you get 100% mana regen rate for 3/8 of the fight, and 45% for 5/8 of the fight, your total mana regeneration rate is 65.625% mana regeneration. This goes a long way towards off-setting the fact that arcane is notorious for mana inefficiency.

Arcane Power and Arcane Potency
-------------------------------------------------------------

A little bit more obvious synergy here, saving your arcane power for a Clearcast proc works nicely in two ways. Firstly, having an extra boost to your crit rate on your arcane powered fireball is always nice and will help you get your spell power crit bonus to stack with arcane power for a really nice crit. But beyond that, the secondary effect is that you effectively, at least partially, eliminate arcane power’s downside of increase mana cost by 35%. By using it on a clearcast, you not only get the extra crit bonus to stack with that, but save yourself some mana. Again, this is an important thing with a build that uses the arcane tree.

Arcane Missiles and Arcane Potency
---------------------------------------------------------

I hate to include this one yet because I haven’t 100% confirmed it and really should do some more solid testing so I can be 100% sure, but my play-testing experience STRONGLY indicates to me that a volley of arcane missiles that proc a clearcast will get the benefit of the arcane potency crit bonus as the clearcasting procs at the start of the spells channeling and the clearcast buff remains active throughout the spells casting duration.

If this is true, and I would stress that I need to do more comprehensive testing to be 100% sure, then this means that you can “Double dip” on the bonus from arcane potency when it’s procced by arcane missiles. When arcane missiles procs it, it receives the bonus and then the clearcast can by consumed by a fireball which in turn will also receive the bonus. Pretty nifty, eh?

Arcane Power and Arcane Missiles
------------------------------------------------------------

Arcane Power will last long enough for roughly 4 fireballs and then leave you with roughly 1-2 seconds left depending on your latency. Bummer! But wait, there’s another quirk of channeled spells I forgot to mention. If you START casting one while a percentage-based damage modifier is in effect, it will have that bonus for the entire duration of its cast even if that modifying buff expires before the end of the channeled cast. By casting an arcane missiles on your last second arcane powered casting, you are effectively extending the duration of arcane power from 15 to 20 seconds! Hurray!

Conclusion
---------------------------------------------------------------

I’m definitely not trying to claim that this will be by all means the only raiding option, or even the most popular – simply that its an option. It will deliver good damage for low threat while exploiting certain synergies to offset the increased mana costs which are intended to limit the effectiveness of the arcane tree – thus allowing you, to some extent, to enjoy the benefits of all 3 worlds. The build, of course, will also work just fine if you want to spam scorch on fights that demand extra attention to your mana management – but comes with the somewhat significant downside that no matter what you cast, you’ll effectively be leeching improved scorch the entire fight.

At any rate, it’s just another option for everyone to consider. Enjoy (or don’t)!

Individual talent rating



Arcane

Tier 1

Arcane Subtely

Very nice and well thought talent, good place in the beginning of the Arcane tree for the 10 Penetration. Also very nice to use Arcane Missiles as a low threat spell in instances now Burning Soul and Frost Channeling were nerfed. The talent cost is not too high, increasing its usefullness.

Rating

Position in the tree: 5/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 4/5


Arcane Focus

Not a bad talent, it increased the hit rating of all arcane spells, including damage spells. 10% hit is unvalueable for an Arcane Mage in instances. Though its PvP usefullness is limited as Polymorph will break early anyway (max 12 secs duration). The talent is a bit expensive, but it being a starter talent makes up for that.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 3/5
Usefullness: 5/5


Improved Arcane Missiles

Makes Improved Arcane Missiles virtualy uninterruptable. Too bad it only affects Arcane Missiles. I'd like this talent to be changed to affect all arcane spells (or even only Arcane Blast in TBC if all arcane spells is judged overpowered). The talent is also a bit expensive at its current state, I can't see the use of spending talent points in it except for some more mana conservation.

Rating
Position in the tree: 3/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 2/5
Usefullness: 2/5


Tier 2

Wand Specialization

No comment, still useless. Not even worth its points as a filler.

Rating
Position in the tree: 0/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 0/5
Usefullness: 0/5


Magic Absorbtion

A very nice and usefull talent in raid situations. Not too deep in the arcane tree so heavy fire or frost builds can still get it. Grants virtualy unlimited mana on heavy resistance based fights, but stays occasional.

Rating
Positio in the tree: 5/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 3/5

Arcane Concentration

Very nice and effective talent for all builds, I don't see any arcane builds having more then 10 points in Arcane not max'ing out this talent.

Rating
Position in the tree: 5/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 5/5


Tier 3

Magic Attunement

A tad occasional. But the fact its cheap to get makes up for that. Handy for PvP, and only one mage in the raid really has to get it if used in PvE.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 3/5


Arcane Impact

Hard to comment or rate yet. As Arcane Blast is not accessable at level 60. . Not worth 3 talent points currently, except as a filler. Should be worth it for mages focussing on Arcane Blast in TBC

Rating
Position in the tree: 3/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 2/5
Usefullness: 2/5


Arcane Fortitude.

GIEF ARMOR (like it'll help anyway)

Rating
Position in the tree: -10/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: -10/5
Usefullness: -10/5


Tier 4

Improved Mana shield

This talent is not really bad. But other talents in the arcane tree are more worthwhile. Making mana shield absorb magic damage as well as melee would help (one can dream :))

Rating
Position in the tree: 3/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 3/5
Usefullness: 2/5


Improved Counterspell

An absolute must if you PvP and go this deep in the arcane tree. Changing it to one talent point would be nice, but is not really needed at all. Deep enough in the tree so not all can get it, but not deep enough to lock out nice builds in other trees.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 5/5


Arcane Meditation

Very nice raiding talent, this increase is very noticable. Gets even nicer as you get more spirit. Combined with the priest's new spirit buff talent it makes spirit a very worthwile stat.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 5/5


Tier 5
Improved Blink

The talent itself is not bad. But it is much too deep in the tree to be able to concurate with the other arcane talents. It should either be improved or put in a lower tier or a blink cooldown reduction should be added to make it worthwhile.

Rating
Position in the tree: 2/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 3/5
Usefullness: 2/5


Presence of Mind

One of the most solid and usefull arcane talents. Nice position in the arcane tree so it doesn't lock out other talents in other trees it mainly is usefull with.

Rating
Position in the tree: 5/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 5/5


Arcane Mind

Nice talent. But I think its a bit too expensive. It would be nice to change it to 3 talent points for the same effect instead of 5

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 3/5
Usefullness: 4/5



Tier 6

Prismatic Cloak

Well thought talent. Apart that it would have its place more in the frost then in the arcane tree. It would be nice to be able to spend 5 points into it for a total of 10% damage decrease

Rating
Position in the tree: 2/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 2/5
Usefullness: 4/5


Arcane Instability

Very nice talent, the fact that some builds go into arcane just to this talent and PoM proves that its usefull, well thought and is in the right place in the tree.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 4/5


Arcane Potency

Nice and occasionaly usefull talent for bursting. Though it seems to be buggy with Arcane Missiles. Maybe a bit too deep in the tree.

Rating
Position in the tree: 3/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 4/5



Tier 7


Empowered Arcane Missiles

Nice talent, but I don't really understand why it increased mana cost of the spell as well as damage. Making it effect Arcane Blast when TBC comes out would make it worthwhile in TBC too.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 4/5


Arcane Power

The mage's most powerfull burst ability. Removing the extra mana cost would make it usefull for raiding where efficiency is needed as well.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 5/5


Spell Power

Except for the boring name, this is a very good talent. It allows for huge fire/frost crits and it improves the Arcane tree's crit as well. It may be nice to change this talent to a one-pointer.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 3/5
Usefullness: 5/5



Tier 8


Mind Mastery

One of the nicest talents in the Arcane tree, one mages were asking for since months. Its deep in the arcane tree so it can't be used in fire or frost based builds. But its still very nice for Arcane Missiles now its scaling got upped (and also will be for Arcane Blast). Maybe a bit expensive, would be nice if the cost was reduced to 3 points.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 3/5
Usefullness: 5/5



Tier 9

Slow

Like all our 41 pointers. This lacks power, I expected slow to be a base ability and not a 41 talent pointer even though its not bad in PvP against classes that can not dispell it. (untested in PvE)

Rating
Position in the tree: 2/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 2/5

Fire


Tier 1

Improved Fireball

Classic starter talent, its nice and usefull. But it would be nice for it to have a casting time reducement on pyroblast too.

Rating
Position in the tree: 5/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 4/5


Impact

Very usefull PvP talent. Though similar talents from other classes stun longer.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 4/5



Tier 2

Ignite

Used to be the reason to go fire spec. Now its just yet another boring crit booster. Give it back in its old state please.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 3/5


Flame Throwing

Very nice talent for both PvP and raiding. It would be nice if it affected the range of fire AoE spells as well.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 4/5


Improved Fireblast

Not a bad PvP talent, but its a bit usefull outside of PvP, as 8 seconds cooldown is already perfect to put between 2 fireballs.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 3/5



Tier 3

Incinerate

Used to be nice for PvE, now I only think its a worthy PvP talent now ignite got nerfed.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 3/5
Usefullness: 3/5


Improved Flamestrike

This is a pointless talent noone every takes. It would be nice if it reduced casting time instead of increasing crit chance.

Rating
Position in the tree: 3/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 0/5



Pyroblast

Pyroblast is not really usefull and very occasional. Improved fireball should be changed to affect it.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 2/5



Burning Soul

One of the must-take talents in the fire tree, even now it got nerfed. (for PvE)

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 4/5


Tier 4

Improved Scorch

This is one of our nicest talents in the fire tree, nothing to say.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 5/5



Improved Fireward

No real point in taking this talent except as a filler. It should also increase the amount of damage absorbed by Fireward. Should be as deep in the fire tree is Frost warding is in the frost tree and should improve 'Molten armor' in TBC.

Rating
Position in the tree: 0/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 3/5
Usefullness: 2/5


Master of the Elements

Usefull and well thought raiding talent. It could use a PvP boost though and may be a little deep in the tree for a talent affecting frost too.

Rating
Position in the tree: 3/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 3/5


Tier 5

Playing with fire

Why is the mage the only class that gets talents that actualy DECREASE our survability?

Rating
Position in the tree: 0/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 0/5
Usefullness: 0/5


Critical Mass

Must have talent if you go that deep in the fire tree. (for Fireball mainly, with scorch there is a risk to not have all ignites counted if they crit too often [probably a bug])

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 4/5


Blastwave

One of the most powerfull AoE spells around, especialy with its cooldown reduced :)

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 4/5


Tier 6

Blazing Speed

Very nice talent against those pesky hunters, definatly a must have for PvP but maybe a bit too deep in fire.

Rating
Position in the tree: 3/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 4/5


Fire Power

Nice and well positioned talent. Must have if over 25 points are spent in fire.

Rating
Position in the tree: 5/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 5/5


Tier 7

Pyromaniac

Its a very nice talent, but not on par with Critical Mass even though its deeper in the tree. It would be nicer if it would have 5% crit and 3% mana cost reducement.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 4/5


Combustion

The talent itself is nice, but its a bit pointless now Ignite got nerfed.

Rating
Position in the tree: 5/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 2/5


Molten Fury

Very nice talent, gives a huge dps boost at the end of raid encounters where its the most needed.

Rating
Position in the tree: 5/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 5/5


Tier 8

Empowered Fireball

Usefull talent that makes Fireball scale better with gear and thus be more DPS and be more efficient. Could use some crit to be on par with Empowered Frostbolt

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 3/5
Usefullness: 3/5


Tier 9

Dragon's Breath

This talent is a very handy PvP talent, but its small cone makes it hard to aim (I think its half the size of the CoC cone). Not really worth 41 points.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 3/5

Frost



Tier 1

Frost Warding

Bad talent, I can't see any reason to take it over Improved Frostbolt and Elemental Precision on the same tier. Should be changed to make Frost Ward absorb more damage.

Rating
Position in the tree: 5/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 2/5
Usefullness: 1/5


Improved Frostbolt

Nice and handy talent. Nothing to say about it.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 4/5


Elemental Precision

Handy talent for all builds to get, even in its nerfed state (though less worth it then it used to be, I wouldn't take it over some deep fire talents anymore)

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 4/5



Tier 2

Ice Shards

The reason Frost has such high direct crits, nice and usefull talent.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 4/5


Frostbite
One of the best PvP Frost talents around. But should be changed to be an aura that we can activate or deactivate so that AoE grinders can get it too.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 3/5


Improved Frostnova

This talent is a bit useless, noone would take it if it wasn't needed to get shatter. Should be changed to affect the range of frost nova, not the cooldown.

Rating
Position in the tree: 3/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 3/5
Usefullness: 2/5


Permafrost

Usefull talent for AoE grinding or PvP when combined with Improved Blizzard. A bit useless standalone though.

Rating
Position in the tree: 3/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 3/5



Tier 3

Piercing Ice

One of the only talent directly affecting Frost DPS. Its good that its put this low in the tree so it can be used by many builds.

Rating
Position in the tree: 5/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 4/5


Cold Snap

Very nice and powerfull talent, but it doesn't really have its place in the tree as its only usefull when taking Iceblock and/or Water Elemental.

Rating
Position in the tree: 2/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 5/5



Improved Blizzard

The talent that makes blizzard truly usefull for AoE grinding and PvP. Though its a bit occasional.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 4/5



Tier 4

Artic Reach

Very nice talent, especialy since the patch it was changed to affect CoC and Frost Nova too.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 4/5


Frost Channeling

One of the must have frost talents for raiders, especialy with threat reduction as well as mana cost reduction.

Rating
Position in the tree: 5/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 5/5


Shatter

One of our most powerfull, but also most easely counterable talents. (Note: there seems to be a bug that prevents shatter from working at the moment according to the US forums)

Rating
Position in the tree: 5/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 3/5
Usefullness: 4/5



Tier 5

Frozen Core

This talent doesn't do nearly enough for our survability, not worth taking at all, especialy with all other nice frost talents around.

Rating
Position in the tree: 2/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 0/5
Usefullness: 0/5


Ice Block

Seen as a must have for most PvP'ers as it acts as a debuff remover and 'oh @*!@' button.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 5/5



Improved CoC

Nice, usefull and effective talent.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 4/5



Tier 6

Ice Floes

I like this talent a lot, its pretty cheap and boosts our survability a lot.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 5/5


Winter's Chill

Must have talent for at least one raider per guild. Very nice, but should be changed to 3 talent points for full effect to be on par with Improved Scorch.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 3/5
Usefullness: 4/5


Tier 7

Ice Barrier

Usefull talent that dramaticly boosts survability even though its not concidered as powerfull as iceblock, which is a bit weird.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 5/5


Artic Winds

Doesn't help nearly enough to be usefull, should be changed to at least 10%

Rating
Position in the tree: 2/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 3/5
Usefullness: 2/5


Tier 8

Empowered Frostbolt

Our most powerfull 'Empowered' talent, it adds DPS, mana efficiency and crit chance.

Rating
Position in the tree: 4/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 4/5
Usefullness: 4/5



Tier 9

Summon Water Elemental

Very handy threat-free damage, nice in raids if the boss doesn't do too much non-frost based AoE's (its immune to frost). Needs more health to be really usefull in PvP.

Rating
Position in the tree: 3/5
Number of talent points needed to spend: 5/5
Usefullness: 3/5

5. A Mage Leveling and Level 70 Builds Guide. Made by Ahine.


Hail to my fellow mages,

So as noone did it yet, I decided to make a compilation of the most current mage builds at level 70. This is not meant to be a static guide but on the contrary an interactive one. So I need your help : post me your builds, your advices, your experiences and we can together contribute to make this a clear and usable guide of good mage builds for everyone.

But to answer many questions on this forum, I will start by describing the main leveling builds.

I. Leveling Builds :

1-70 is a long way to go and most players are worried about the fact they could make the wrong choice that would slow their leveling : this feeling is of course totally natural. But dont worry here, no big mistake can be done and there is no "imba leveling build" which owns all the others. The main different ways to go have almost been perfectly balanced by Blizzard.

The first question coming here again and again is : should I go for frost or fire to level my mage ? The answer is simple : both are fine. It's two different playstyles and I would rather advise you to try both of them, as soon as you feel the opportunity for a respec.

Knowing your mage deeply costs many and many respecs and nothing is better than "your own" experience as a true guide and master to follow.

Fire is about high sustained dps on a single target (before you get Blast Wave and Dragon Breath two excellent aoe skills). Frost is more about control and huge dps on frozen targets. You kill faster with fire, but you run out of mana a bit faster too. You have a bit more mana efficiency and more control against one or several mobs with frost, but you're more dependant on your nova/shatter for killing them, and on your cooldowns for survival.

If as a mage you like to burst your damages very fast on your ennemies, trying to get them down the fastest you can at all costs, then Fire is made for you. If on the contrary you enjoy controlling your ennemies, freezing them, slowing them, and to have a few defense and survival tricks at hand, then you should go frost. Remember that you wont be able to fully enjoy the fire or frost way before level 40-50, when you finally get enough points to take the main talents in each tree. Some will still ask here : but which one is best ? Which one will I prefer to play ? There I can only answer : only you may know. Fire/frost is really a personnal choice and noone can say, but you, which way should be yours as a mage. I'd rather advise you to choose one at the beginning following your intuition, stick with it until the level 40, then go for a respec and see by yourself which one you prefer to level your character.

The second question here is : should I go for a AoE grinding build or not ? If you want to do alot of AoE grinding then you need mainly to go frost and take the suitable talents. However this guide is not meant to be a AoE grinding guide, and I will redirect you to Bangy's guide on this forum if you're interested. I'll just mention later the talents you need as a frost AoE Frost mage. Notice that many mage builds may work well for AoE and not only the pure frost way (Elemental ones with shatter, or even fire mages using Flamestrike for example). But the pure AoE grinding from level 40+ is mostly done with Improved Blizzard and Cone of Cold.

I'll give here five examples of leveling builds, if you want to go : 1. fire, 2.a frost, 2.b frost aoe, 3. elemental, 4. Arcane. Leveling with arcane is a bit more tricky to my mind, but if this is really your choice and your dream tree, then go for it. Remember : nothing is impossible for a mage !

Those talent builds are intended for pure solo pve/questing. Pvp is meant to be balanced (*cough*) only at level 70, so if pvp is your choice I can just advise you to grind to level 70 faster as you can.

1. Fire leveling talent build.

I'll give here just an example of talent picking order until the level 50. After the level 50 you can refer to the level 70 builds in this same guide, and should start to think which one you're going to play. That will mainly answer to the question about what talents to pick between levels 50 and 70.

Lvl 10-14 : Improve Fireball 5/5
Lvl 15-16 : Flame Throwing 2/2
Lvl 17-19 : Ignite 3/5
Lvl 20 : Pyroblast 1/1
Lvl 21-22 : Ignite 5/5
Lvl 23-24 : Burning Soul 2/2
Lvl 25-29 : Impact 5/5
Lvl 30 : Blast Wave 1/1
Lvl 31-33 : Critical Mass 3/3
Lvl 34 : Improve Fire Blast 1/3
Lvl 35-39 : Fire Power 5/5
Lvl 40 : Combustion 1/1
Lvl 41-43 : Pyromaniac 3/3
Lvl 44-45 : Molten Fury 2/2
No there is no need to take Empowered Fireball as your +sd gear should not be that high.
Lvl 46-47 : Improve Fire Blast 3/3
Lvl 48-49 : Incinerate 2/2
Lvl 50 : Dragon Breath 1/1 ! Grats you got one of the best fire talent/skill in whole game, that's an achievement and now enjoy ! Then you can keep on with the fire tree and pick among : Improved Scorch, Master of Elements, Blazing Speed...

At level 50 your fire tree should look like this one : http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000055523201200003105312010000000000000000000000

Of course there are many alternatives to the way i just described. You can choose to skip Impact to get Master of Elements for more mana efficiency. Improve Fireblast is very good to be put at max soon if you occasionnally do some pvp or use it alot in pve. But I like Impact and even in pve it has many procs that brings the whole process a bit more fun.


2. Frost leveling talent guide

2.a non-aoe frost leveling

Lvl 10-14 : Improve Frostbolt 5/5
Lvl 15-19 : Ice Shards 5/5
Lvl 20-22 : Frostbite 3/3
Lvl 23-24 : Improved Frost Nova 2/2
Lvl 25-29 : Shatter 5/5. Done ! This one will make your whole frost leveling faster and funnier ! 5/5
(As an alternative some ppl even advise to go fire before being level 27-29, then respec to get shatter and going full frost. To my mind that's not really necessary, but it's up to you)
Lvl 30 : Ice Block 1/1 (a good life savier)
Lvl 31 : Cold Snap 1/1 (a second life saving chance, variant : you can get this one higher if you think you dont need it yet).
Lvl 32-33 : Artic Reach 2/2
Lvl 34-36 : Piercing Ice 3/3
Lvl 37-39 : Frost Channeling 3/3
Lvl 40 : Ice Barrier 1/1
Lvl 41-42 : Ice Floes 2/2
Lvl 43-45 : Improve Cone of Cold 3/3
Lvl 46-48 : Permafrost 3/3
Lvl 49 : Elemental Precision 1/3 (variant : you can take Elemental Precision to 3 and Permafrost to 1, as you prefer. Permafrost gives you a good kiting tool, mobs will reach you later. On the other hand Elemental Precision avoids you "annoying" resists)
Lvl 50 : Summon Water Elemental 1/1 ! Congrats !

At level 50 your frost tree should look like this one : http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000515323310235013201001

2.b Frost aoe grinding talent build.

For more details about aoe grinding, refer to the suitable guilds, Bangy's one on this forum and many others on wowiki and other world of warcraft forums. I'll give just an example of build that can be suitable for aoe grinding. The build is intended mainly for blizzard and coc aoeing.

Lvl 10-14 : Improve Frostbolt 5/5
Lvl 15-19 : Ice Shard 5/5
Lvl 20-22 : Permafrost 3/3 (or skip this one and get Piercing Ice instead if you're very confident in your blizzard skills, it very depends on your own choice now)
Just know that frosbite is a very bad idea when you aoe grind cause it will mess up all your pulls by letting mobs frozen behind while others are still running to you. And as frostbite being a great frost talent that's mainly where the main choice between aoe/non-aoe lies.
Lvl 23-24 : Improved Frost Nova 2/2
Lvl 25-29 : Shatter 5/5
Lvl 30-31 : Ice Block 1/1 Cold Snap 1/1
Lvl 32-33 : Artic Reach 2/2
Lvl 34-36 : Improved Cone of Cold 3/3
Now there are several possibilities : are you confident in your mana pool ? Go to Piercing Ice 3/3, or do you want a larger security not to feel short of mana during an aoe killing then go Frost Channeling 3/3. Ice Floes 2/2 is also very useful to give you better cool downs, mainly on your coc.

Now one thing is sure you'll take the Ice Barrier 1/1 at level 40 and you're ready to start some aoe grinding. Then you'll take among Piercing Ice, Frost Channeling, Ice Floes (what you've not taken already) for the next levels. For more details about the whole process, please refer to suitable aoe grinding guides. That's a whole topic I've not been so deep in, and I prefer to let you take advice to the field's specialists.

At level 40 your frost tree should be close to this one : http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000505023010235013001000

(Note : for pure aoe grinding some specialists will advise you to drop Improved Frostbolt to 2/5 and get Elemental Precision at 3/3, and actually if you only AOE that's the way to go. Anyway if you mix AoE and single target dps mobs, improved frostbolt 5/5 will make you earn some time on your nukes. Then to take this decision you should know by first how you will proceed during your leveling)

3. Elemental leveling talent guide.

The underlying idea is to get shatter as soon as possible then go in the fire tree. During your pve, you alternate between fire and frost spells to kill your opponents with the most suitable spells, according to each situation, having huge bursts of damage against your frozen targets. That's a very good alternative to the previous 2 builds. To try it, is to love it. Only drawback : when you're level 30 you have to forget some excellent frost things that come at hand to start to work on the fire tree again from the beginning. That's a bit frustrating, and probably the main reason why people prefer to go either pure frost or pure fire. But if you can endure this relative "pain", you'll love the elemental way to level your mage.

Lvl 10-14 : Improved Frost Bolt 5/5
Lvl 15-19 : Ice Shards 5/5
Lvl 20-22 : Frostbite 3/3
Lvl 23-24 : Improved Frost Nova 2/2
Lvl 25-29 : Shatter 5/5

Now you have one alternative according you decide to go fire directly or you prefer to take Ice Block 1/1 and delay your fire leveling by one point (or 2 points if you want also Cold Snap 1/1). No good or bad choice here, just a matter of what you prefer. Assuming you wanna get Dragon Breath at 70 and go to a classic 0/41/20 Elemental Build without any respec I'll describe here only the first way to proceed.

Lvl 30-34 : Improved Fireball 5/5 (Impact 5/5 is another very good way to go here, depends on what you prefer)
Lvl 35-39 : Ignite 5/5
Lvl 40-41 : Flame Throwing 2/2
Lvl 42 : Pyroblast 1/1 (not so useful for that build, but still nice to have in case)
Lvl 43-44 : Burning Soul 2/2
Lvl 45-47 : Improved Scorch 3/3
Llv 48-49 : Improve Fire Blast 2/3
Lvl 50 : Blast Wave 1/1
Lvl 51-53 : Critical Mass 3/3
Lvl 54 : Improve Fire Blast 3/3
Lvl 55-59 : Fire Power 5/5
Lvl 60 : Combustion 1/1

At level 60 your fire and frost trees should look like this :
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000050523001230003105010000505320000005000000000

Then you'll go through Pyromaniac, Molten Core, Impact... all your way to level 70. Consult the 0/41/20 Elemental talent build for more informations (the only difference being that pvp elementalists dont take Improved Fireball).

But whatever happens that should end with :
Lvl 70 : Dragon Breath 1/1 ! Big congrats !

4. Arcane leveling talent guide :

This is a really tricky way to go to my mind, but nothing impossible. But just know that you may be less effective than pure frost of fire mages during the first two thirds of your leveling. Therefore if you are not sure about your "arcane infinite motivation" I would rather suggest you to skip this way and go for one of the three main possibilities described above. If Arcane is really the tree you always dreamt about, then dont hesitate, go for it.

Lvl 10-14 : Improved Arcane Missiles 5/5 (variant : Arcane Subtlety 2/2 and Arcane Focus 3/5 if you dont like AM)
Lvl 15-19 : Arcane Concentration 5/5
Lvl 20-21 : Arcane Subtlety 2/2
Lvl 22-24 : Arcane Focus 3/3 (Arcane Impact 3/3 Magic Absorption 2/5 in the variant where you didnt take Improved AM. You can ever go to Wand Specialisation 2/2 instead of Magic Absorption 2/5 as you may use wands alot in lower levels. Anyway if you do this you'll have to respec later to drop it cause wands are not so useful at higher levels. If you go for it, then change the order and take it at level 15-16 as you need it the sooner for the lower levels)
Lvl 25-27 : Arcane Meditation 3/3
Lvl 28-29 : Improved Mana Shield 2/2 (I know it's a shame not to take Improved CS here, but it's mainly a pvp talent even if it's one of the best. Personnally I would take it anyway, up to you^^)
Lvl 30 : Presence of Mind 1/1
Lvl 31-34 : Arcane Mind 4/5 (here is an alternative if you love to blink alot, go for Improved Blink 2/2 and put only 2/5 on Arcane Mind for the moment. Just count how many blinks you cast in a whole mana pool and see it isnt more interesting for you in terms of mana economy. Blink becomes very expansive at higher levels : 630 mana at level 70)
Lvl 35-37 : Arcane Instability 3/3
Lvl 38-39 : Arcane Potency 2/3
Lvl 40 : Arcane Power 1/1
Lvl 41-42 : Spell Power 2/2 ... now you're going to truely love your Arcane build ! But that was a long way to get there !
Lvl 43 : Arcane Potency 3/3
Lvl 44 : Arcane Mind 5/5

At level 44 your arcane tree should look like this one :
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2350050002030150330120000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Now you have several ways to go. More probably you still dont have the gear to trully benefit now from Mind Mastery, but if you plan to spend money on level 40-50 gear to get as much +sd as you can, it's doable, then go for :
Lvl 45-49 Mind Mastery 5/5
Lvl 50 : Slow 1/1 ! Congrats for your pure arcane leveling ! And enjoy slow which is a great talent to my mind (for pve it's indeed dicussable, but you'll love it in pvp anyway).

Otherwise you may want to spend points to get :
lvl 45-49 : Improved Fireball 5/5 (or Impact 5/5 if you dont mind 3.5 sec fireballs and wanna be prepared for pvp the sooner)
Lvl 50-54 : Ignite 5/5
Lvl 55 Pyroblast 1/1 to use with your pom/AP.
Then after back to Arcane with :
Lvl 56-60 Mind Mastery 5/5 (now you'll start to get some nice spell damage to enjoy it fully)
Lvl 61 Slow 1/1 ! Grats !

And dont forget to take back Improved Counterspell 2/2 on the way as soon as you gonna start to pvp ! Those two points have been the reason why so many pvp mages went into arcane for ages.

...

Now let's go to the second part and main purpose of this guide :

II. Mage Builds at level 70

1. The Pure Frost Mage

Let's start by the pure frost mage. Frost 0/5/56 : this build has everything good in the frost tree, it leaves you with 5 points. Then here I suggest Impact for pvp, for the procs on fireblast. You can also go 5/0/56 getting Improved Arcane Missile as an alternative if you like to use it sometime. Or 5/0/56 with Arcane Subtlety 2/2 and Arcane Focus 3/5.

The pure frost mage combines a very good survivability with huge bursts of dps on frozen targets (ice lance is a great tool for frost mages). The Water Elemental is a very nice tool you get every 3 mins that can be useful in many situations, both pve and pvp. As a friend of mine used to say "The pure frost mage has an answer to every situation". On the other hand, in solo pve and pvp he depends alot on his nova and frostbite procs to burst damages, and on his cooldowns to survive in battlegrounds.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000005000000000000000000000535323313235013251051
or
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0050000000000000000000000000000000000000000000535323313235013251051
or
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300000000000000000000000000000000000000000000535323313235013251051

Solo pve : 5/5*
Group pve : 4/5
Raid pve : 3.5/5
Duel : 4.5/5
Battlegrounds : 4/5
Arena : 4/5

(Note : what i call arena is more 2vs2 or 3vs3 fights. 5vs5 would require its own category, and therefore more knowledge and experience before being rated here. I will just give a few elements about the 5vs5 when we're dealing with a very suitable build for it)

(* : 1/5 against immune frost mobs)

Alternatives :
The two things a pure frost mage may drop are : Improved Blizzard (some people dont use it alot) and Winter Chill (mainly pvp players used to drop it, even if now it's a good stacking debuff on your target against dispellers). The points coming from Winter Chill can be used to take Flame Throwing 2/2 and Improved Fire Blast 3/3 on the fire tree then we have a 0/10/51. Or Ignite 5/5 + Improved Fire Blast 3/3 if you drop the Improved Blizzard too : 0/13/48. Ignite is just useful here if you cast scorch alot, otherwise it may not be worth it just for one skill, Fire Blast, furthermore non-improved. Here we go on more pvp oriented builds, but they are still very good for pve.

Now pve players and raiders may try to drop some frost tools to get clearcasting 5/5. 1/3 Permafrost and 0/3 Improved Blizzard is a way to go.

Then we get the 10/0/51:

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300050000000000000000000000000000000000000000535321310235013251051

Solo pve : 5/5*
Group pve : 4/5
Raid pve : 4/5
Duel : 3.5/5
Battlegrounds : 3.5/5
Arena : 3.5/5

Improved Counterspell is an awesome tool to get in pvp for any mage, be it frost or fire, therefore naturally comes the 17/0/44 : Improved CS/Water Elemental build. You keep the main frost goodies and level Arcane up to 17 to get Improved CS. The 17/0/44 is probably the more complete and balanced build for frost pvp. This one seems to be the mages favorite at the moment in the 5vs5 arena, while Arcane/Frost builds like the excellent 34/0/27 should be prefered for 2vs2 and 3vs3. The WE is a great dps add in 5vs5 fights and can be doubled with the help of Cold Snap. It's also a very good companion in Battlegrounds, and the more solid one in duels facing any class, deadly rogues and warlocks included. Furthermore it still does very nice in pve environments like solo farm or instances.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300052300200000000000000000000000000000000000535320310225013201051

An alternative is to drop Arcane Impact and 2 points in Arcane Focus to get Improved Arcane Missiles for those who like to use it. For long 5vs5 fights where the limited mana may become an issue it's also recommended to drop 1 point somewhere (in Improved CoC for example) to get 3/3 in Frost Channeling.

Solo pve : 4.5/5*
Group pve : 4/5
Raid pve : 3.5/5
Duel : 5/5
Battlegrounds : 4.5/5
Arena : 4.5/5 (5/5 for 5vs5)

2. The Arcane/Frost Mage

The Arcane/Frost mage is based on a three talents combination : Spell Power, Ice Shards, and Shatter. At level 70 you can get huge dps burst on frozen targets with very high crit rates. Ice Lance may hit for 2k+, and frostbolt up to 3k very regularly, not depending on any cooldown other than nova procs. With Arcane Power you can reach 4k+ frostbolts easily. Adding to this the high survivability of frost mages with double Ice Block, and chill effects. Those are mainly pvp intended builds, which work very fine in pve too.

Let's start with the main two builds here : 34/0/27 and 40/0/21. I suggest rather the first one as being the best choice. You drop a bit +spell damage from mind mastery to get the very useful Artic Reach. This drop is partially compensated by the +6% damage from Piercing Ice. But 40/0/21 is also a very good way to go.

34/0/27 : http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300052302210140330120000000000000000000000000505320310205010000000
or
40/0/21 : http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300052302210150330125000000000000000000000000505220010005010000000

Without any doubt those are the "Arena" builds. (for 2vs2 and 3vs3, in 5vs5 it may be a different matter)

Solo pve : 4.5/5* (4/5 only for the 40/0/21 cause you miss Artic Reach 2/2)
Group pve : 3.5/5
Raid pve : 3/5
Duel : 5/5 (if pom/AP is up, 4/5 otherwise)
Battlegrounds : 4/5
Arena : 5/5 ! (for 2vs2 and 3vs3)

As a variant we can consider the 21/0/40 pom/frost build. You drop the huge boost coming from spellpower to get more frost goodies. To my mind this build is a bit inferior to the 34/027, but this is still debatable. Here you miss the Water Elemental to go up to Presence of Mind in the Arcane Tree. Frost purists may prefer the classic 17/0/44 mostly because of the huge boost the Water Elemental can give in many pve and pvp situations.

You can end with a build looking like this one : http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300052302210100000000000000000000000000000000535321310235013201000

For a mainly pve/mana efficiency Frost/Arcane build we can deal with something like 18/0/43. This is purely dps/mana efficiency in instance environnements intented. You'll miss frostbite and improve coc for pvp and pve solo. So I wouldnt advise you to go such, only if you're sure you will only raid/instance pve.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300550000030000000000000000000000000000000000535020310235010151051

Solo pve : 3.5/5*
Group pve : 4.5/5
Raid pve : 4.5/5
Duel : 3/5
Battlegrounds : 3.5/5
Arena : 3/5

As an alternative Frost raiders may also skip Shatter. Mainly because a boss is always immune to freeze effects and therefore shatter will never help when dpsing a raid or instance boss. However I wouldnt recommand this to any non-experienced raiding mage if he's not sure he will mainly instance/raid nuke all his playtime. As soon as you go in solo pve, pvp and even 5-men instance, shatter is an awesome dps tool for a frost build.

Now thanks to Worth to propose this build for pure Arcane/Frost raiders :

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300550000230150330125000000000000000000000000515000310230010000000

Here, from a classic 40/0/21 more pvp and solo pve oriented, you skip Shatter, Improved Frost Nova and Frostbite which are indeed useless in a pure boss nuking environment. Then you can get instead Piercing Ice for damages, Artic Reach for range and Frost Channeling for mana efficiency and threat reduction. This build has everything for a pure mana conservation, raiders should love it.

Solo pve : 3/5*
Group pve : 5/5
Raid pve : 5/5 !
Duel : 2/5
Battlegrounds : 2.5/5
Arena : 2/5

This build has an other alternative, as Slammer suggested it (thanks to him !), which is to remove the 5 points in Arcane Impact to get Magic Attunement 2/2 and Arcane Impact 3/3. I agree with him that Arcane Blast is at the moment an underrated skill. In it's primary form (without the buff) it deals very good dps at low mana cost, and its use can be improved by combos where you get the last AB nuke at reduced casting time and at the lowest cost.

Magic Attunement is a great talent in pvp, but still in raid pve instances. Iyf ou dont expect to be the primary target of healers it mayreduce alot in some situations the damages taken.

There you go for this alternative: http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300052300230150330125000000000000000000000000515000310230010000000

Solo pve : 3/5*
Group pve : 5/5
Raid pve : 5/5 !
Duel : 2/5
Battlegrounds : 2.5/5
Arena : 2/5

3. The Pure Fire Mage

Fire has for long been considered as the king way to go for a mage, be it for pve or pvp. But since the Ignite talent has been nerfed, and even bugged, fire is not anymore "THE" way to go, but still one of the very nice ways to go. Pure fire has a great versatility being as good for pve or pvp. And it's maybe the one tree that will bring you the more fun in this game, as being a mage. In solo pve you will see many mobs dieing before they can even reach you and in group pve you will often be at top of the dps meters. In pvp it will depend alot about your placement, whether you manage get the opening or not on your opponent, whether you manage to keep range from you and your ennemies. Your great instants, being Fire Blast, Blast Wave and Dragon Breath should be used only to finish your ennemies, or to get some range and place a few scorchs, but can never burn your opponent from 100% down to 0% health.

Let's start by the pure fire mage : 0/59/2.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000055523201232333125312510020000000000000000000

Some people will argue that you'll get a better result by mixing Arcane tricks in your Fire, and they're right. But it's still really doable and a great way to go to learn all about fire. This build has the great advantage to offer everything fire has both for pve and for pvp. Most of the other fire builds, taking a few arcane talents, will ask you to choose between both.

Solo pve : 4.5/5**
Group pve : 4.5/5
Raid pve : 4/5
Duel : 3.5/5
Battlegrounds : 4/5
Arena : 3.5/5

(** : 1/5 against fire immune mobs)

Here is an alternative with Clearcasting instead of Master of Elements : 10/51/0

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0050050000000000000000055523201230003125312510000000000000000000000

As a variant, looking for more mana efficiency for pve you can go for both Clearcasting and Master of Elements, just replacing Improve Fireblast with Master of Elements in the previous one.

A very good fire pve build is also the 10/48/3 with botch Clearcasting for the mana efficiency and Elemental Precision to avoid annoying resists (and for the 3% mana economy too).

Here you go for this build :
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300050000000000000000050521201230333105312510030000000000000000000

Solo pve : 4.5/5**
Group pve : 5/5
Raid pve : 5/5
Duel pve : 3/5
Battlegrounds : 3.5/5
Arena : 2.5/5

Now for fire raiders It's possible to get more Arcane goodies up to Arcane Meditation and go with a 18/43/0.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300250300030000000000050520201230303105312500000000000000000000000

(It's still possible here to drop one point somewhere to get Dragon Breath as it is a bit a shame to get to up to 43 in fire and not to get this amazing talent)

Solo pve : 4/5**
Group pve : 5/5
Raid pve : 5/5
Duel pve : 2.5/5
Battlegrounds : 3/5
Arena : 2.5/5

And for the fire raider purists who wont do anything else in game and avoid any pvp situation, Wrion suggests you this build, thanks to him. It gives the best you can have to nuke down a boss toping a dps meter, with great mana efficiency. From the previous build you improve the raiding side by dropping Pyroblast and Blast Wave to go Elemental Precision 3/3. Not for pvp !!

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300550000020000000000050520200230303005312500030000000000000000000

Solo pve : 3/5**
Group pve : 5/5
Raid pve : 5/5 !
Duel pve : 2/5
Battlegrounds : 2/5
Arena : 2/5

Now let's see the Counterspell/Fire mage build, a pvp one mainly. You'll drop some fire goodies to get Improved Counterspell from Arcane. 17/44/0 is the way you go then. You can even get 19/42/0 to take Improved Mana Shield for more survivability and dropping 2 fire points and go only 1/3 Playing with Fire.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300052300200000000000005523201230033125312010000000000000000000000

Solo pve : 3.5/5*
Group pve : 3.5/5
Raid pve : 3/5
Duel : 4/5
Battlegrounds : 4.5/5
Arena : 4/5

4. The Arcane/Fire Mage

One of the main purpose of the arcane/fire mage is to get Spell Power for huge critics. If you love big numbers, if you love them so much than you even keep records of how high you can get, then it's purely the way for you to go. The several variants here depends mainly on whether you wanna go up to Mind Mastery in the Arcane Tree and drop some fire goodies for that, or not. Some people will call you a "3-minute" mage, but nothing is much wrong than stating this mage cant do anything the next 2min45sec. It's an excellent overall build, with a huge boost every 3 mins (mainly for pvp). Now in TBC the Arcane/Fire mage is much more about Spell Power than Pom/AP even if Pom/AP remains a good trick to have in your arsenal : try it, you'll love it.

First we have the excellent 33/28/0 :

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300052300230140320120005523001230003103000000000000000000000000000

Variant : if you're more pvp oriented you drop 2 points in Arcane Meditation to get Improved Mana Shield 2/2.

Solo pve : 4/5**
Group pve : 4/5
Raid pve : 4/5
Duel : 4/5 (considering your Pom/AP is up of course)
Battlegrounds : 4.5/5
Arena : 4/5

And here of course we get to the most beloved Arcane/Fire build, the very classic 40/21/0, Mind Mastery/Blast Wave. (Some people may change this into 41/20/0 just to get Slow for pvp instead of Blast Wave, but it's more rare. The first one is the more popular). Here you basically drop +6% fire crit and +6% fire damage from the 33/28/0 to get a very nice boost in your spelldamage (Mind Mastery should give you between +100 and +150 spell damage bonus at level 70 according to your int !).

To anwser the main question here if you wanna choose between both : it's overall balanced. With 40/21/0 you'll get bigger crit numbers (and that's the reason mainly why 40/21/0 is the most popular), but you'll get a few less crits than with the 33/28/0. The both choices are good, it's according your own personal preference.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2300052300230150330125005522001230000100000000000000000000000000000

Solo pve : 4/5**
Group pve : 4/5
Raid pve : 4/5
Duel : 4/5 (considering your PoM/AP is up of course)
Battelgrounds : 4.5/5
Arena : 4/5

Variant : you can drop some 2 points from Burning Soul to get Incinerate if you wanna go more for pvp instead of pve (burning soul otherwise is intended for the 10% threat reduction because in pve you'll be more a scorch spammer here and wont get interrupted alot).
Another variant for a more pve/raid oriented build is to drop the 2 points in Improved Fireblast to get Incinerate, then having both Incinerate 2/2 and Burning Soul 2/2 for scorch critics with a 10% threat reduction.

5. The Pure Arcane Mage

The Pure Arcane Mage is most often not so far from the hybrid Arcane/Fire mage we just discussed. The only difference is that the Pure Arcane Mage goes for Arcane Missiles while the Arcane/Fire one doesnt.

Arcane is not only about mana efficiency as many people think. It's still about huge sustained dps, and big crit numbers. You'll be surprised to see that your fireballs and scorchs deal much damage most of the time being an arcane mage than being a pure fire mage ! And Arcane Missile becomes simply the highest dps skill in the game when it is spammed in instances. On the other hand the arcane tree is maybe the one which offers the lowest survivability of the three ones (fire being not far). There comes Slow that you need to practice a bit, but which is a great tool in pvp, and still very enjoyable in many pve situations. And also Improved Mana Shield, that became much better since the recent Mana Shield boost.

However if you want to go this way you must know about the Arcane Missile (AM) bug. AM sometimes (and this sometime is often) fires only 4 missiles on 5. Some player experienced this bug on up to 50% of their casts, and I have confirmed this by testing it myself... That's a 10% dps loss !! On the other hand the clearcasting/AM bug compensates a bit, but not fully the dps loss (this bugs make Clearcasting proc for the AM you're casting as it is still usable for the next spell you cast, so you get a double clearcasting and double critical boost from Arcane Potency therefore).

Here we find such builds as the 43/18/0 Empowered Arcane Missiles/Scorch. Now if you wanna spam only AM taking improved scorch is a bit debatable. For pure AM raid spam, you may want to skip this one to take 5/5 Arcane Mind. Then you go 44/17/0. But beware : AM spam can become quickly repetitive and boring ! Not counting that the AM bug might make you mad as soon as you start noticing how often it procs.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2350050000230140333125105520001230000000000000000000000000000000000
or
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?2350050000230150333125105522001200000000000000000000000000000000000

Solo pve : 3.5/5 (with a good spell damage bonus you can kill mobs with 2 arcane missiles at level 70)
Group pve : 4.5/5 (gonna be a 5/5 when Blizzard will fix the AM bug)
Raid pve : 4.5/5 (gonna be a 5/5 when Blizzard will fix the AM bug)
Duel : 4/5 if pom/AP is up, rather 2.5/5 otherwise
Battelgrounds : 3.5/5
Arena : 3/5

Another alternative is to skip totally fire and take only arcane talents. This is a bit more tricky but still totally playable. Remember nothing is impossible for a mage ! However I would not recommand it, because depending almost only on Arcane Blast and Arcane Missiles to kill your opponent is a bit weird and fast boring. But to complete the guide let's mention the 61/0/0 !! where you take all arcane talents but Wand Specialisation. I just mention it as a theorical curiosity, more than an advice to go in it.

However in the case you wanted the purest Arcane build, i'd rather suggest you the 50/11/0. It's still a classic build which has almost all the Arcane goodies, and the instant Pyroblast to use with Pom/AP.This is as you go :

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?235005031223015033312510550000

Solo pve : 3/5 (with a good spell damage bonus you can kill mobs with 2 arcane missiles at level 70)
Group pve : 4.5/5 (gonna be a 5/5 when Blizzard will fix the AM bug)
Raid pve : 4.5/5 (gonna be a 5/5 when Blizzard will fix the AM bug)
Duel : 3.5/5 if pom/AP is up
Battelgrounds : 3/5 (you miss the range from Flame Throwing here)
Arena : 3/5

6. The Elemental Mage

The elemental mage try to combine the best of fire and frost trees to get huge damage bursts and alot of versatility. Elemental is not the easy way to go for a mage and asks alot of knowledge, fast reaction and experience. But it's a very rewarding one when you start to master it. You have both the fire tricks to play long range and the frost efficiency and dps burst against frozen targets at close range. This is a king way for many pvp mages, but once again it's not the easiest to master.

Here again we have two main possibilities, and alot of variants.

The most classic one is the 41/20/0, Dragon Breath / Shatter build :

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000005523201230003125312010505320000005000000000

This one skipping both fireball talents is more a pvp one but can still do very well in pve.

Solo pve : 4/5
Group pve : 4/5
Raid pve : 3/5
Duel : 4.5/5
Battelgrounds : 4.5/5
Arena : 4/5

As a variant you can drop one point in Frostbite to get Cold Snap to recast your nova in emergency cases. Another variant consists in skipping Improved Frostbolt to get 3/3 in Elemental Precision and complete it with the not so useful Improved Frost Ward 2/2. You'll get less annoying "resists" on your spells but no fast "big" nukes. It's a more "pvp oriented" build.

Now you can choose another alternative with the very good 0/34/27. Basically here you drop Dragon Breath to get double Ice Block, max range on frost, and piercing Ice. This is once more a very good one to go for pvp. You loose a bit dps and crit rate from fire to get the high survivability from frost. It's an excellent build for most elemental mages ! It offers the great tools both from fire and frost. You just miss Dragon Breath here, and of course if you're a fire lover you'll miss it a lot !

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000005523001230003105310000505320310205010000000

Solo pve : 4/5
Group pve: 4/5
Raid pve : 3/5
Duel : 4.5/5
Battlegrounds : 4/5
Arena : 4/5

Another classic and played build is the 0/30/31. You drop Pyromaniac 3/3 and Combustion to get mainly Ice Barrier 1/1. No with the 3 remaining points you have several possibilities : 1. get Ice Floes 2/2 and Improve CoC 1/3, 2. Improve CoC 3/3 , 3. Frost Channeling 3/3, 4 Ice Floes 2/2 and Frost Channeling 1/3.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?0000000000000000000000005523001230003105000000505320310205011201000

This build is a bit more defense oriented than the 0/34/27. I would at the moment rather advise to go 0/34/27 because I think Ice Barrier is a bit overrated. It was an awesome talent before TBC, but it didnt scale with our hps and the damages our opponents deal to us. Now when you can easily get 7k hps as a mage, Ice Barrier is no more what it was before even at his last rank. Anyway the 0/30/31 is still a solid build.

Solo pve : 4/5
Group pve: 3.5/5
Raid pve : 3/5
Duel : 4.5/5
Battlegrounds : 4/5
Arena : 3.5/5

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THIS GUIDE IS NEITHER PERFECT NOR COMPLETE but aspires to become complete. That's why I'm waiting for YOUR ideas to get it at top. There sure are some mistakes and things I still ignore or missed (mostly on the pve/raid side), so dont hesitate to post me your comments and to help me to modify it for the best of all.

Of course thanks in advance to report it for sticky if you think it deserves it.

Thanks and enjoy.

Ahine ;)

...

6. Bangy's little guide to Blizz Mage AoE grind. Made by Bangy.


After the stickies were deleted, there weren’t any guides to Mage AoE grinding, which is a very big part of the class. A lot of people have been asking questions about AoE grinding, so I thought I might write my own little guide, sticky or not. This guide does not have technical analysis or big calculations, but is what I hope to be a friendly guide to those new mages who have no idea in what the heck AoE grinding is, or how to do it.

If you like it, please request for some gloo!

Edit: Yay, I'm a sticky! Thanks all for your great support!
My views are over 9000!


AoE grinding

In case you’ve been living in a hole, AoE grinding is a very famous type of grinding only available to mages, and sometimes good protection paladins.
It’s famous due to its insanely fast xp gained, as you can kill 10+ mobs in almost the time it takes to kill 1, so you get 10x the xp.
It’s also incredibly fun – the sight of seeing your ungodly destruction on 10 mobs, or watching other people’s reactions when you utterly omgwtfpwn them is amazing.
However, it’s not easy, and it does require fast reactions, quick thinking and lots of training.


Here is what's in my little guide.

1) Pros and cons of AoE grinding, why it's good or bad.
2) What kind of talents you need!
3) How to do it.
4) Notes on (3)
5) Some good places to try it out!
6) Other things, such as gear.
7) Tauren meat.

So I’ll start with the pros and cons.

Advantages:
- It’s fun, and fast, boosting you through the horrible grind between 55-60, or if you want, your entire journey between 1-60. I haven’t tried doing 55-60 as fast as I can, but I’ve seen friends level ridiculously fast.
- Much better than normal single-target grinding.
- Gives a lot of gold, and cloth (you’ll be generally grinding on humanoids or undead)
- Also the advantages of grinding, as opposed to questing.

Disadvantages
- It’s hard, and you’ll often die, especially in the beginning. You’ll look like an idiot, rounding 10 mobs and then just dying >.<
- You need to spec to a certain AoE spec, which essentially wipes out your single-target DPS.
- You might have to miss out talents which you may really like.
- Also the disadvantages of grinding, as opposed to questing.

So firstly, we come to the talents. Generally we pick the frost tree due to Blizzard and CoC.
Flamestrike and Blast Wave IS possible, but that’s IMO harder to do, so I’ll focus on the frost spells.

I also prefer Blizzard AoEing than CoC kiting AoEing, as it’s easier to do. However, if you do want to do CoC kiting, these talents are still more or less valid, but you’ll want more +crit, and less imp blizzard.

Here is my recommended talent spec - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent-bc=RZZMhMIsf0sro
You can either fill in the rest of the frost tree, or spec somewhere in arcane.


Essential talents to take there are:



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
-Imp Blizzard, 3/3 –
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


You need 3/3 to fit in 2 blizzards when firing at max range before the mobs reach you. If you spec 1/3, you can only fit in 1, and 1.5 if 2/3.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
-Arctic Reach, 2/3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Like Imp Blizzard, you need this to obtain the max 36 yards of your blizzard. Otherwise you can’t fit in 2.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
-Imp CoC, 3/3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


You’ll be using CoC a lot, with your blizzard, and more damage (+35%) is good.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
-Ice Barrier 1/1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


You need this during the pulling part. If you use mana shield you’ll have half your mana burned before you even start killing.

Note the above are the absolute ‘must’. You simply have to take them.



Here are the recommended talents. (Not just talents which could be helpful, but should be taken unless you really want another talent) These are in no particular order.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
-Elemental Precision 3/3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Nothing is worse than 1 out of the 10 mobs resisting that frost nova and then whacking you as you perform blizzard.
Less resistance, thus, is good, and so is the reduced mana cost as you will be burning up your entire mana bar during the killing process (blizzard x3 or 4 + CoC + frost nova + ice barrier is quite a lot of mana).



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
-Cold Snap 1/1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Useful if you really need to pop a frost nova or ice barrier.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
-Improved Frost Nova 2/2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Frost nova is used a lot, and 4 secs left of cooldown is always good. However this is not vital.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
-Permafrost 3/3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Reducing the mobs’ speed by +10% gives you more time to think and react, but this is once again not essential.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
-Ice block 1/1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


This is actually a very important spell, and is on the border of being a ‘must’ talent. This can be used during the pulling process – pop up the ice block and allow them to you, so they become clustered into a group. Also useful in emergencies.

Lastly,

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
Frost Channeling, 3/3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Less mana usage is always good, as explained in Elemental Precision.



Talents NOT to take – these aren’t talents which aren’t good (some of them are amazing), they just wreck your AoE grind if you take them.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
-Frostbite
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Yuck. Having some mobs frozen and left behind and some not means the group is not together and clustered.
Absolutely horrible, because you can’t perform AoE on them if one is ahead and the other is 50 yards behind. Go take Wand Specialization, if you’re going to take this. Absolutely horrible for AoE grinding. Note this is actually pretty good if you’re single-targetting DPS.

-

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
Any +crit % or +crit damage (ice shards, shatter)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


These don’t wreck your AoE grinding, but you need to save these talents for others. Blizzard doesn’t crit, so it’s quite pointless, and you don’t want to rely on critting for this type of grinding process in case it doesn’t crit. Then you’re dead.

OK. Enough of talents. That was quite boring.