Arcane Mage DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents - The War Within Pre-Patch (2024)

Single Target TalentsAoE/Mythic+ TalentsCleave TalentsPicking Arcane Mage Talents

The build below is great for pure (or almost pure) single-target content,like a large number of raid bosses. However, a lot of changes can be made,especially in the Mage tree, to tune for specific encounters or damage types,so we strongly suggest reading Talent Choices section for more information.

You can easily import the talent tree below into the game by using the "copyexport string" button below.

The tree below is a tree focused more on doing cleave and AoE damage.Although the tree below is a good starting point for doing multi-target damage,there are many small tweaks you can make to further focus on cleave and AoE damageor less, depending on what type of damage you want to do.we strongly suggest reading Talent Choices section for more information.

You can easily import the talent tree below into the game by using the "copyexport string" button below.

The build below is perfect for fights where you want to primarily focus onsingle-target damage, but has occasional secondary targets you also want to hit.For true AoE situations, this build is worse than the pure AoEbuild, but for raid bosses with occasional adds this is the perfect build.However, a lot of changes can be made,especially in the Mage tree, to tune for specific encounters or damage types,so we strongly suggest reading Talent Choices section for more information.

You can easily import the talent tree below into the game by using the "copyexport string" button below.

The general Mage tree is extremely flexible. It is almost entirelypersonal preference, apart from a couple of key DPS nodes. You have many morepoints available than you need to get all of the DPS nodes, leaving you with manyoptions in terms of survivability, crowd control, and utility. Below, we will highlightsome of the key nodes that are important for DPS and suggest some of the bestnon-DPS nodes. However, even after that, you can assign a bunch of points as yousee fit.

Talent	Reason for taking
Overflowing Energy	A large DPS boost.
Incanter's Flow	A large DPS boost.
Shifting Power	A large DPS boost.
Ice Block	One of the best defensives in the entire game.
Mirror Image	A great defensive tool useful in all content.
Alter Time	A very strong defensive and mobility tool in one, useful in all content.

Talent	Reason for taking
Spellsteal	A good pick if there are buffs you can steal that are either beneficial toyou, or make the content easier by removing it from the target.
Remove Curse	A good pick if there are curses you can dispel.
Winter's Protection	Can be useful if you need the reduced cooldownto be able to solo soak a specific raid mechanic. If combined with Ice Coldand Cryo-Freeze it also becomes a very strong damage reduction tool.
Incantation of Swiftness	Can be useful for skipping content, liketrash packs in dungeons, or open-world enemies
Tempest Barrier	A minor defensive tool useful in all content.
Arcane Warding	A minor defensive tool useful in almost all content.

The tier 2 talents contain almost entirely utility/mobility talents.

Talent	Reason for taking
Tome of Rhonin	A straight up DPS boost
Tome of Antonidas	A straight up DPS boost
Shimmer or Ice Floes	Both are extremely strong mobility tools. This choice is largely a personalpreference. Ice Floes ultimately allows for more movement without losing DPS,but it comes at the cost of losing out on the burst movement(without having to give up a global cooldown like Blink does) that Shimmerprovides. Generally, Shimmer is preferred because you can already cast multipleabilities while moving due to Slipstream.

Talent	Reason for taking
Supernova	Very good crowd-control ability, especially useful in Mythic+ tointerrupt spell casts.
Diverted Energy	A decent survivability tool useful in all content.
Master of Time	A decent survivability and mobility tool useful in all content.
Quick Witted	A good pickup in content where you need the reduced interrupt cooldown,like Mythic+ in a low interrupt group.
Slow	A good pickup to assist in kiting, especially when solo. Generally nottoo much usage in group content, though.
Cryo-Freeze	A very good self-healing tool when playing solo or a very strong defensivein all content when combined with Ice Cold.
Reduplication	Can be useful if it would give you an additional usage of Mirror Imagefor a specific high-hitting ability, but usually hard toproc this.
Reabsorption	Adds a relatively useful self-heal onto MirrorImage, but usually hard to proc this.
Blast Wave	Great crowd control that can be extremely useful in Mythic+ and open-worldcontent, for its ability to AoE interrupt enemy spellcasts
Volatile Detonation	Used to further increase the ability to kite with Blast Wave,but should be careful in grouped content to not knock enemies into additionalenemies and pull more than planned.
Mass Slow	Can be used to kite packs of mobs inMythic+, in some cases, or good for open-world content.
Ice Nova	For even more crowd control. Also, technically a minor DPS increase when movingas it can be used when on the move if you have no Ice Floes / Shimmerready and no other instants.
Ring of Frost	For even more crowd control.

In this tier, we unlock some of the strong final nodes as a priority, whereasthe rest is flexible.

Talent	Reason for taking
Time Anomaly / Inspired Intellect	The strongest of the final nodes. We usually suggest picking Time Anomaly.However, if you do not like the randomness of Time Anomaly, you can pick Inspired Intellect for a minor DPS loss.
Greater Invisibility	One of the best defensive tools in the game.
Mass Barrier / Mass Invisibility	Provides quite a lot of defensive power for your group if you take Mass Barrier.Since the cooldown is not shared with Prismatic Barrier, it is a usefuldefensive tool even when solo. Mass Invisibility can be a very strong toolfor Mythic+ to skip packs.
Temporal Velocity	A decent mobility tool. It is not that great of a talent on its own, but it ison the path to some very strong other nodes, so it's pretty much always taken.

Talent	Reason for taking
Ice Cold	Turns Ice Block into a very strong defensive cooldown that doesnot come at the cost of any DPS but removes the immunity aspect from it.Generally, we suggest taking this if you do not need the immunity aspect of Ice Block,as it lasts 6 seconds, and you are unlikely to sit in Ice Block for that long.Additionally, when combined with Cryo-Freeze, it also becomesa very strong self heal that you do not need to sit in Ice Block for to getthe benefit of.
Displacement	Provides mobility, but is usually pretty difficult to pick up without giving upone of the major nodes.
Barrier Diffusion	A minor boost to your survivability that works in all content.
Accumulative Shielding	A minor boost to your survivability that works in all content.
Displacement	A decent mobility and defensive tool. Difficult to take without giving up one of the capstonenodes, but if you are skipping a capstone node, a very useful mobility + defensive tool.
Frigid Winds + Ice Ward	These nodes give you even more kiting power. Not very useful in most groupcontent, but strong when solo and on the way to Ice Cold. If you are nottaking Ice Cold, these two talents should be skipped for most group play.
Time Manipulation	Can be useful if you are doing content where you really need the extra crowdcontrol.

In this section, we will go over the Arcane MageTalents. The focus of this section will be PvE content.

Talent	Reason for taking
Nether Precision	Very strong DPS boost and interacts with many other talents deeper in the tree.
Amplification	Required to pick up many of the other nodes and strong DPS increase.
Concentrated Power	Required to pick up many of the other nodes and decent DPS increase.
Arcane Tempo	Required to pick up many of the other nodes and decent DPS increase.
Arcane Surge	Incredibly powerful offensive cooldown for all situations.
Improved Clearcasting	Decent DPS increase and required to pick up Resonance, which is used in allbuilds.

Talent	Reason for taking
Arcing Cleave	Very strong DPS increase on cleave and AoE situations, but provides no valueon pure single-target. Should always be taken outside of pure single-target.
Charged Orb	Provides minimal value on single-target, but very strong in AoE scenarios,especially dungeons where you can enter packs with 2 stacks of Arcane Orband do very high burst.

Talent	Reason for taking
Arcane Familiar	Strong DPS boost both on single-target and AoE.
Resonance	Strong DPS boost in all situations.
Slipstream	Very strong mobility tool. It can be skipped for more DPS talents, butgenerally, we recommend picking it due to its incredible quality of life.
Evocation	Large DPS boost.
Energized Familiar	Good DPS boost for both single-target and AoE.
Touch of the Magi	Very strong DPS boost.
Dematerialize	Strong DPS boost on both single-target and AoE. Also required to unlockvarious other important nodes.

Talent	Reason for taking
Big Brained	Decent overall DPS boost, however, for AoE situations there are betteroptions.
Static Cloud	Strong dps boost in AoE situations, but zero value on single-target.Should be picked in situations where you will be using Arcane Explosion a lot.
Impetus	Good DPS boost on single-target. Should not be picked on AoE.
Eureka	Should be taken on single-target, but in AoE scenarios there are better options.
Reverberate	Should be taken for AoE.
Presence of Mind	Reasonable DPS boost, but also good for mobility. It is a small dps losscompared to other talents, but if you want the extra mobility, it is nota large dps loss.

The final section is pretty much cookie-cutter with very limited flexibility.

Below, we list the talents you should always take, regardless of whetheryou go Arcane Harmony or Mana Gem build.

Talent	Reason for taking
Arcane Debilitation (2x)	Strong DPS increase on single-target, while also taken in AoE due to beingrequired for Aether Attunement.
Arcane Echo	Srong DPS boost in all situations.
Aether Attunement	Srong DPS boost in all situations.
Enlightened	Very strong DPS boost.
Arcane Bombardment	Very strong DPS boost.
High Voltage	Srong DPS boost in all situations.
Arcane Harmony	Strong DPS boost.
Magi's Spark	Strong DPS boost.

Talent	Reason for taking
Orb Barrage	Strong both on single-target and AoE. However, some people really dislike therandom chance to shoot out Arcane Orb in front of you, as it can easilycause unintended pulls, in which case it can be skipped for any of the othertalents from any of the other tiers, at the cost of a little bit of DPS.