WoW Mage Fire Talent Tree
Current for Patch 3.3

The Fire Mage is the second highest DPS among Mages, right behind the Arcane magic spitters. The spec is very raid viable, just not quite as popular as its Arcane counterpart. The following Talent Tree for Fire Mages is current as of Patch 3.3:

• 18/53/0

Arcane Talents

Going 18 points into the Arcane tree as a Fire Mage gives you several benefits. Here are the main ones you will be focusing on:

• Arcane Concentration
• Focus Magic
• Student of the Mind

Fire Talents

Before we start with the Fire Talents, it is important to understand the Fire Spell Rotation, because it is prioritization based. Check out my Fire Spell Rotation post for further details.
Fireball is your bread and butter, with Scorch, Living Bomb, and Pyroblast thrown into the mix as priorities. Most of the talents used in the Fire tree will help strengthen these spells.

Here are the main Fire Talents to pay attention to. Get to know them, because the better you understand your spells, talents, and how they work with each other, the better your DPS and raiding skill will be.

• Ignite
• Pyroblast
• Improved Scorch
• Fire Power
• Combustion
• Hot Streak
• Living Bomb

Those I have not listed are pretty self-explanatory. These are the ones I want to focus on. Scroll over the spells to view their details.

Ignite - When a fire spell hits, Ignite will deal 40% of that spell's damage over 4 seconds. Including crits. Frostfire Bolt will be get the largest benefit from this Talent.

Pyroblast - Your titanic fire spell. Hot Streak will make this instant. Not usually used unless Hot Streak has procced.

Improved Scorch - Opening a fight with Scorch is a must. Keeping this up at all times on a boss fight is also a must.

Fire Power - A given FrostfireMage need. This will boost your Fire spell damage above Frost and Arcane.

Combustion - Increases crit damage by 50% and gives 10% increase chance to hit, lasting until you score 3 non-DoT (damage over time) hits. You'll be using this as soon as it's up, and can often be coordinated with a Shaman's Heroism.

Hot Streak - A key element in determining Frostfire spell rotation. When 2 spells crit in a row, the next Pyroblast will be instant. This is a must-use when it is up.

Living Bomb - Apply to as many targets as you need, and keep it refreshed. Will take priority over Fireball spamming.

WoW Mage Frostfire Talent Tree
Current for Patch 3.3

The Frostfire Mage is the Third highest DPS among Mages, right behind the Arcanea nd Fire magic spitters. The spec is very raid viable, just not quite as popular as its counterparts. The following Talent Tree for Frostfire Mages is current as of Patch 3.3:

• 0/53/18

Frostfire Mages are really aiming for Icy Veins, but also for Frost Channeling, which reduces mana cost of all spells by 10%. They also benefit from Piercing Ice, which adds more speeldamage on top of the already impressive fire damage buffs.

Frostfire Talents

Before we start with the Fire Talents, it is important to understand the Frostfire Spell Rotation, because it is prioritization based. Check out my Frostfire Spell Rotation post for further details. Frostfire Bolt is your bread and butter, with Scorch, Living Bomb, and Pyroblast thrown into the mix as priorities. Most of the talents used in the Fire tree will help strengthen these spells.

Here are the main Fire Talents to pay attention to. Get to know them, because the better you understand your spells, talents, and how they work with each other, the better your DPS and raiding skill will be.

• Ignite
• Pyroblast
• Improved Scorch
• Fire Power
• Combustion
• Hot Streak
• Living Bomb

Those I have not listed are pretty self-explanatory. These are the ones I want to focus on. Scroll over the spells to view their details.

Ignite - When a fire spell hits, Ignite will deal 40% of that spell's damage over 4 seconds. Including crits. Frostfire Bolt will be get the largest benefit from this Talent.

Pyroblast - Your titanic fire spell. Hot Streak will make this instant. Not usually used unless Hot Streak has procced.

Improved Scorch - Opening a fight with Scorch is a must. Keeping this up at all times on a boss fight is also a must.

Fire Power - A given FrostfireMage need. This will boost your Fire spell damage above Frost and Arcane.

Combustion - Increases crit damage by 50% and gives 10% increase chance to hit, lasting until you score 3 non-DoT (damage over time) hits. You'll be using this as soon as it's up, and can often be coordinated with a Shaman's Heroism.

Hot Streak - A key element in determining Frostfire spell rotation. When 2 spells crit in a row, the next Pyroblast will be instant. This is a must-use when it is up.

Living Bomb - Apply to as many targets as you need, and keep it refreshed. Will take priority over Fireball spamming.

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.

Mage Stats
Rank of Importance

The stats you will be aiming for as a Mage follow similar structures that many other classes do in WoW. As DPS, we are there for the sole purpose of punching massive holes in bosses, and laying down heavy AoE damage. We are crowd cotnrol, and to a lesser degree, decursers.

Since we rely on mana, and Blizz knows this, we tend to have deep mana pools to dip into. Though with lengthy boss fights, using all our available resources is not a nuncommon occurence.
If you are serious about end game WoW content as a mage, you will be focusing on gear and how to optimize your DPS output. For that to happen, a Mage needs to understand their basic stat priorities.

1. Hit - Hit Rating is the most important stat because it determines if your spells punch a hole through the boss, or completely miss and splatter harmlessly into the wall, scattering rocks and dust. Hit Rating should be prioritized to reach the hit cap, which is 17% under normal circumstances. Arcane Mages have to talents that knock that required hit to 11%. Being hit capped can mean the difference between solid DPS, and pathetic, /kick from the raid DPS.
   
2. Spellpower - Spellpower is going to be your main focus after hit cap is reached. The more spellpower a Mage has, the stronger their spells will be, also increasing the strength of critical hits.
   
3. Haste - Haste is often a confusing stat, but to simplify it, let's look at it this way...Haste can speed up the casting/channeling of your spells, and also can decrease the global cooldown of spells as well. Haste will allow you to cast spells quicker, adding more damage to the overall time spent in combat. Haste = DPS.
   
4. Critical Strike Rating - Critcal Strike Rating is important, but falls into 4th place here due to the heavy impact that hit, spellpower, and haste have. It is still a strong stat, and most gear will accomodate this. You shouldn't be gemming for crit at this point. Focus on gemming hit or spellpower, depending on your current gear needs.
   
5. Intellect - Contributes to your mana pool and also adds crit. Plenty of this on Mage gear.
   
6. Spirit - Regenerates HP and mana, but also is converted into crit.
   
7. Stamina - Not realyl worth mentioning, but Stamina is everywhere. be happy with what is on your gear.

Mage Frost Spell Rotation
Current for Patch 3.3

First, let's start off by saying Frost is the worst DPS spec for end game raiding and PvE. It rocks in PvP, but since I tend to focus more towards the PvE side of things, that's what I will discuss here.

Frost Spells

• Frostbolt
• Icy Veins
• Ice Lance

If you decide to go Frost for end game content as a Mage, the spell rotation is ridiculously simple.

Here is the challenging Mage Frost rotation:

• Frostbolt -> Frostbolt -> Frostbolt -> Frostbolt -> Repeat

You will be popping Icy Veins whenever it is up, but for the most part, your entire DPS arsenal will be Frostbolt. Ice lance does nothing really, unless you are on the move and need to throw in some instant DPS.

My advice is to stay away from this tree if you are raiding. If you are farming, PvPing, or levleing, then you're golden...but for DPS stick with Arcane or Fire.

Mage Frostfire Spell Rotation
Current for Patch 3.3

A Frostfire Mage, just like the Fire Mage, doesn't have a specific set spell rotation. It's a constant monitoring of what buffs and spells are currently active on the target. Primarily, you will be casting Frostfire Bolt, and will be tossing other spells in as priority necessitates. Frostfire Mages will follow the same general priority list as Fire Mages, the only real difference being the use of Frostfire Bolt.

Frostfire & Fire Spells:

• Frostfire Bolt
• Scorch
• Living Bomb
• Pyroblast
• Hot Streak
• Improved Scorch

Prioritizing your active buffs and spells is crucial, but it is easy to manage once you get into the fight. Frostfire is not quite as mana consuming as Fire spec, but mana should still be watched to help maximize DPS.

Here is the current Frostfire rotation prioritization for Mages:

• Scorch -> Living Bomb -> Hot Streak buff? Pyroblast -> Frostfire Bolt

A Frostfire mage will want to stack Scorch for the Improved Scorch buff, and keep it active for the duration of the fight. One Scorch will refresh it. Living Bomb should stay up as well. If Hot Streak is up, then Pyroblast is next, followed by a plethora of Frostfire Bolts until you hit one of the above three priorities again.

Mage Fire Spell Rotation
Current for Patch 3.3

A Fire Mage doesn't have a specific set spell rotation. It's a constnat monitoring of what buffs and spells are currently active on the target. Primarily, you will be casting Fireball, and will be tossing other spells in as priority necessitates.

Fire Spells:

• Fireball
• Scorch
• Living Bomb
• Pyroblast
• Hot Streak
• Improved Scorch

Prioritizing your active buffs and spells is crucial, but it is easy to manage once you get into the fight. Fire has the ability to be quite mana consuming, so using mana gems, potions, and Evocation is also an important factor to successful DPS in any dungeon or raid encounter.

Here is the current Fire rotation prioritization for Mages:

• Scorch -> Living Bomb -> Hot Streak buff? Pyroblast -> Fireball

A Fire mage will want to stack Scorch for the Improved Scorch buff, and keep it active for the duration of the fight. One Scorch will refresh it. Living Bomb should stay up as well. If Hot Streak is up, then Pyroblast is next, followed by a plethora of Fireballs until you hit one of the above three priorities again.

Mage Arcane Spell Rotation
Current for Patch 3.3

Arcane spell rotations for Mages can be a tricky thing. There is no set rotation, and what happens next is purely situational and ultimately up to the player's personal DPS desires. Arcane still edges out Fire in DPS, so many Mages have specced this route.

The key to mastering Arcane spell rotations is to manage your mana. This will include fully utilizing Missile Barrage, Arcane Missiles, and Arcane Barrage.

The first Arcane rotation can punch out a ton of damage, but can drain mana very quickly. My recommendation is to practice on the target dummies in the major cities before attempting this in a dungeon or raid.

Arcane Spells:

• Arcane Missiles
• Arcane Blast
• Arcane Barrage
• Missile Barrage

The first possible Arcane rotation:

• Arcane Blast (until Missile Barrage procs) -> Arcane Missiles -> Repeat

The idea here is to let Arcane blast punch a massive hole in the target, and hopefully Missile Barrage will proc, allowing you to cast a free Arcane Missiles, and thus resetting Arcane Blast to be used again.

The second Arcane rotation, which I believe is the current preferred rotation, is as follows:

• Arcane Blast -> Arcane Blast -> (Arcane Blast) -> Arcane Missiles (when Missile Barrage procs)

The third Arcane Blast may or may not be necessary. It completely depends on the missile Barrage proc.

If Missile Barrage does not proc by the 4th Arcane Blast, then:

• Arcane Blast -> Arcane Blast -> Arcane Blast -> Arcane Blast -> Arcane Barrage -> Repeat

For situations where mana conservation is essential:

• Arcane Blast -> Arcane Blast -> Arcane Missiles -> Arcane Blast -> Arcane Blast -> Arcane Missiles

Any further input here is very welcome. From my experience and research, these are the most current for WotlK. Any other help or tips is appreciated!