Arcane Mage Talents

WoW Mage Arcane Tree Talents
Current for Patch 3.3

Wondering how to spec into the Arcane Tree for PvE raiding in WoW? Look no further. The current optimal spec for Arcane Mages is as follows:

• 57/3/11

First, let's explain the small dips into Fire and Frost. Fire only gets 3 points into Incineration to help boost the crit chance of Arcane Blast by 6%. Frost you are going for Icy Veins.

Arcane Tree

There are several key talents here that will help optimize your DPS. It's unfortunate, but the Arcane tree has several useless talents for end game raiding. Personalyl, I wish there were a few moreviable options, but nonetheless, here are the big talents to pay attention to:

• Arcane Concentration
• Focus Magic
• Arcane Mind
• Arcane Power
• Mind Mastery
• Missile Barrage
• Spell Power
• Arcane Barrage

If you aren't familiar with WoW related sites yet (shame on you!), most of us have code implemented to display wowhead or other item database information when you scroll over a name of a spell or certain gear. Scroll over the talents above to view the details!

I probably won't go over each of the other talents I didn't list because they are fairly self explanatory.

Arcane Concentration - Basically results in a free spell cast. Huge for Mages given the amount of mana we have the potential to spend on Arcane Blast.

Focus Magic - Is basically a 3% crit buff to another party or raid member. Slap it on another Mage or other caster with high crit rates. Healers can work too, especialyl in 5-mans where there may be no other caster options. When they crit, you gain a 10 second buff increasing your own crit by 3%.

Arcane Mind - Boosts intellect by 15%. If you're a Gnome Mage, that's a total of 20% combined with the 5% racial increase. Additional spell damage and crit % with this as well.

Arcane Power - 20% more damage at the cost of 20% mana increase. Watch for exploding crits. In bare level 200 gear, I was popping off 14k crits. It only goes up from there.

Mind Mastery - Spell power increased by 15% of total intellect. Since spell power is our number one prioritized stat, this is huge.

Missile Barrage - Without a doubt the most important part of Arcane DPS and spell rotation. Missile Barrage gives you a free Arcane Missiles at a very low cast rate. This is the ideal route to take when resetting Arcane Blast after 3 or 4 casts.

Spell Power - Creative name, huh? Spell crit damage increased by 50% is a must-have.

Arcane Barrage - The Arcane version of Ice Lance. Instant cast for a mediocre mana cost, and is used to reset Arcane Blast when Missile Barrage does not proc.