Mage

[Blynx]

I been respeccing like crazy lately testing and trying out all types of mages, atm i <3 arcane/fire and frost. I am about to spec back to frost but i am thinking of a different build then previous. I don't plan to get improved counterspell and am wondering what u guys think of this build.

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Arcane Talents (16 points)


Improved Arcane Missiles - 5/5 points
Gives you a 100% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while channeling Arcane Missiles.


Arcane Concentration - 5/5 points
Gives you a 10% chance of entering a Clearcasting state after any damage spell hits a target. The Clearcasting state reduces the mana cost of your next damage spell by 100%.


Evocation - 1/1 point
While channeling this spell, your mana regeneration is active and increased by 1500%. Lasts 8 seconds.


Improved Arcane Explosion - 5/5 points
Reduces the casting time of your Arcane Explosion by 1.5 seconds.




Frost Talents (35 points)


Improved Frostbolt - 5/5 points
Reduces the casting time of your Frostbolt spell by 0.5 seconds.


Permafrost - 4/5 points
Increases the duration of your chill effects by 2.5 seconds.


Ice Shards - 5/5 points
Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Frost spells by 100%.


Improved Frost Nova - 2/2 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Frost Nova spell by 4 seconds.


Cold Snap - 1/1 point
When activated, this spell finishes the cooldown on all of your cold spells.


Piercing Ice - 3/3 points
Increases the damage done by your frost spells by 6%.


Shatter - 5/5 points
Increases the critical strike chance of your frost spells against frozen targets by 50%.


Ice Block - 1/1 point
You become encased in a block of ice, protecting you from all physical attacks and spells for 10 seconds, but during that time you cannot attack, move, or cast spells.


Improved Cone of Cold - 3/3 points
Increases the damage dealt by your Cone of Cold spell by 35%.


Frostbite - 5/5 points
Gives your chill effects a 15% chance to freeze the target for 5 seconds.


Ice Barrier - 1/1 point
Instantly shields you, absorbing 455 damage. Lasts 1 minute. While the shield holds, spells will not be interrupted.




Fire Talents (0 points)


None

[Myth]

First i thought this was a PvE build because of the lack of imp. counterspell. But without the reduced mana cost for frost spells you're not gonna be awesome in that either. For the rest it's much like normal frost/arcane 33/18 which works pretty well.

[Rifel[m]an]

First i thought this was a PvE build because of the lack of imp. counterspell. But without the reduced mana cost for frost spells you're not gonna be awesome in that either. For the rest it's much like normal frost/arcane 33/18 which works pretty well.

agree with that ^^

[Lynk-]

I'm a level 24 mage right now and i was thinking of going arcane/frost. I noticed though that frost doesn't have nearly as many spells as fire (well at my level i noticed). There were so many fire spells and about 3 i believe ( Frost Nova, Blizzard and Frostbolt). Are there more spells later on?

[Blynx]

This is what i ended up going with, i basically can throw money around in regards to respecs or whatever so making mistakes is fine with me, just want to explore all types of mages.

-Improved Counterspell. Ok i ended up going against this, i believe that is incredibly useful spell and i plan to go back to it eventually, however atm not having it is helping my skills out a whole heap. I am learning how to time the CS, in a duel against a druid i got it off right before he his heal was about to cast and he commented to me after the duel with "good timing on the cs". I basically used to just get it off for the silence instead of waiting for the right time to use it. not having the improved i learnt quickly that i must time it right if it is going to be effective.

-Improved bliz i used to have but i dont group pvp whole lot so i am not to sure whether i will put 1 or 2 points back into it.

-I must say that not having Arctic reach is something that i am finding troublesome in both pve and pvp, i will definately be putting 2 points into this in my next respec.

Basically in my next respec i will be removing 2 points from permafrost and 2 from piercing ice. I will place 2 in improved CS and the other 2 into arctic reach. With these changes i should be quite happy.

http://wow.allakhazam.com/profile.html?29342

[Blynx]

http://wow.allakhazam.com/profile.html?29342

That is the final build i ended up going with, strong for group pvp(honor system) and good for MC.

[Vauteiner]

Doh..
Now im a mage lvl 36, and what i take is all the stuff that u talked about + counterspell 2/2 + The talent that makes ur magic defense skill better (dunno the name its a green icon) that cos i dont wanna take improved mana shield. and else i take the talent that makes ur next shot instant. And than i go fire with improved fireball + Ignite + Pyro and than might continue with arcane.
^_^

[Semoirethe]

Frost is nice and good...but it isn't* NEEDED for MC I do just fine in MC and Onyxia's Lair with 28/23 Arcane/Fire

[VVoLF]

How can you play on a PvP server without Imp CS. :p

[Semoirethe]

How can you play on a PvP server without Imp CS. :p
Yeah it is needed...No way to beat a Shaman or a Druid without it if they have NS.

[Sapphire]

does arcane meditation stack with mage armor regen? i havent done a full arcane build before

[The_Teleporter]

does arcane meditation stack with mage armor regen? i havent done a full arcane build before
It does. But I'd rather have Arc. Concentration, sheep duration is so bad without it T_T

[Sapphire]

It does. But I'd rather have Arc. Concentration, sheep duration is so bad without it T_T

you mean arcane focus, right?

[d-bos]

When I get my mage high enough I'm gonna get ballsy and see how I can do without using the arcane tree at all. Everyone seems to go fire+arcane or frost+arcane, but I'd like to try not using it at all. This is the spec I want to respec to when my lowbie mage eventually gets 60


Arcane Talents (0 points)

# None


Frost Talents (24 points)

# Improved Frostbolt - 5/5 points
Reduces the casting time of your Frostbolt spell by 0.5 seconds.

# Improved Frost Nova - 2/2 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Frost Nova spell by 4 seconds.

# Ice Shards - 5/5 points
Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Frost spells by 100%.

# Cold Snap - 1/1 point
When activated, this spell finishes the cooldown on all of your cold spells.

# Piercing Ice - 3/3 points
Increases the damage done by your frost spells by 6%.

# Improved Blizzard - 1/3 point
Adds a chill effect to your Blizzard spell. This effect lowers the target's movement speed to 70% of normal. Lasts 1.50 seconds.

# Shatter - 1/5 point
Increases the critical strike chance of your frost spells against frozen targets by 10%.

# Frost Channeling - 2/3 points
Reduces the mana cost of your frost spells by 10%.

# Improved Cone of Cold - 3/3 points
Increases the damage dealt by your Cone of Cold spell by 35%.

# Ice Block - 1/1 point
You become encased in a block of ice, protecting you from all physical attacks and spells for 10 seconds, but during that time you cannot attack, move, or cast spells.



Fire Talents (27 points)

# Improved Fireball - 5/5 points
Reduces the casting time of your Fireball by 0.5 seconds.

# Impact - 5/5 points
Gives your fire spells a 10% chance to stun the taget for 2 seconds.

# Ignite - 5/5 points
Your critical strikes from fire damage spells cause the target to burn for an additional 40% of your spell's damage over 4 seconds.

# Pyroblast - 1/1 point
Hurls an immense fiery boulder that causes 148 to 195 fire damage and an additional 56 damage over 12 seconds.

# Improved Flamestrike - 3/3 points
Increases the critical strike chance of your Flamestrike spell by 15%.

# Burning Soul - 1/3 point
Gives your fire spells a 25% chance to not lose casting time when you take damage.

# Incinerate - 2/2 points
Increases the critical strike chance of your Fire Blast and Scorch spells by 4%.

# Improved Scorch - 4/5 points
Your Scorch spells have a 80% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to Fire damage. This vulnerability increases the Fire damage dealt to your target by 2% and lasts 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.

# Blast Wave - 1/1 point
A wave of flame radiates outward from the caster, damaging all enemies caught within the blast for 160 to 192 fire damage, and dazing them for 6 seconds.


It's not that I don't like the arcane tree, it's that when deciding a spec I find it really important to consider what it is that people expect from you in whatever aspect of the game you intend on engaging in.

For my shaman, I spend 90% of my time either in Molten Core or in large scale PvP. I spec'ed accordingly, and decided that going further than 10 points in enhancement isn't suitable for those two aspects of the game. Similarly, the Arcane tree is mostly wasted in raid PvE (so far), and in large scale PvP this spec would afford me the best talents that people REALLY feel; which are the shatter damage/imp CoC and most importantly Ice Block in frost as well as blast wave in Fire in addition to terrific solo talents there as well (at the expense of instant arcane explosion and counterspell, which of course is the sacrifice which had to be made).

I see a lot of parallels between the arcane tree and the restoration tree (fairly obscure similarities in most cases, but very real) and I've never liked my shaman more since dropping that tree even though I miss a couple of talents there. I know people discuss talents at length on forums and there are the "popular" builds that are pretty cookie cutter, but I really think as long as completely useless talents aren't picked anything goes as long as you match it with your playstyle. I could see myself losing those arcane talents even if people will think I'm a jackass for doing it.


spoken like someone who doesn't have a 60 mage yet ?

[Myth]

For my shaman, I spend 90% of my time either in Molten Core or in large scale PvP. I spec'ed accordingly, and decided that going further than 10 points in enhancement isn't suitable for those two aspects of the game. Similarly, the Arcane tree is mostly wasted in raid PvE (so far), and in large scale PvP this spec would afford me the best talents that people REALLY feel; which are the shatter damage/imp CoC and most importantly Ice Block in frost as well as blast wave in Fire in addition to terrific solo talents there as well (at the expense of instant arcane explosion and counterspell, which of course is the sacrifice which had to be made).

I must say i kinda agree here. Evocation and clearcasting are pretty much PvE talents and aren't very useful in PvP. Arcane explosion can be substituted with blastwave, which leaves imp counterspell. Extremely useful in 1v1, but less important in group PvP.

I might respec to something like this when BG comes out, think i might wanna get my hands on an Elemental Mage Staff, would own with this build.

[The_Teleporter]

you mean arcane focus, right?
ya >_<

And evocation is an excellent PvP talent that I know has saved asses many times over.

[Sapphire]

dbos you get one nice utility spell (ice block) out of the frost tree but otherwise what you are doing just isnt worth it without frostbite and shatter. I think you will find the frost side of your spec sorely lacking.

[d-bos]

err, i posted it wrong, i was screwing around with it too much. i had 5/5 shatter on the one i liked. the 1/3 imp blizzard was for frostbite to proc when i had that, but i took it out. that one i posted is all messed up, i was tired ;_;

[Blynx]

I couldnt play mage without arcane concentration and evocation ;[

[The_Teleporter]

I couldnt play mage without arcane concentration and evocation ;[
signed >_<

[d-bos]

I personally think its iae and imp cs that are missing most, but to each his own

[Bluebamboom]

IMO only real reason Most go arcane is for IAE and ICS. Mainly its because when you use up all your instant cast, you have to rely on your scorches or Bolt spells for a while. Not saying those are weak or something but using a 3 sec channeling spell when the enemy is right in your face is bound for failure simply because every class has an interupting move, and your gonna get interupted.

With IEA you use all your instants then just spam IAE until you can fire blast and CoC again.

thats always how ive seen it, i never liked evocation to begin with and regular CS is just as good if you time it.