by KostadaSo, you just hit 80. You’re in greens and quest blues, and you’re wondering…what next? Heroics, of course! This guide will not only show you how to gear, but will also recommend glyphs, talents, and gems/enchants. Please note I will be uploading these in Chapters.
Table of Contents
1.Gear – RELEASED Guide
2.Talents – RELEASED
3.Rotations RELEASED Guide
4.Glyphs E.T.A. December 18th, 2008
5.Add-ons E.T.A. December 19th, 2008
Context
Enchant
Gem
Glyph
Talent
2. Talents
Now we are on too talent specs. Now, what are talent specs? Talent specs means you are specializing for a certain role, such as PvP, PvE, healing, tanking, etc. Now, why choose the right spec? you might ask. The reasoning for this is so that you can be most effective also. The three talent specs for a mage are Arcane, Fire, and Frost.
Since I cannot force anyone to play how someone says, I have devised four specs that I think will be effective not only in heroics, but also in raids.
Arcane
I made a change of plan about this. Follow this spec here. Thanks to Jame for it!
Fire
Improved Fireball 5/5
Improved Fire Blast 1/2
Ignite 5/5
Flame Throwing 2/2
Pyroblast 1/1
Burning Soul 2/2
Improved Scorch 3/3
Master of Elements 3/3
Critical Mass 3/3
Playing with Fire 3/3
Fire Power 5/5
Pyromaniac 3/3
Combustion 1/1
Empowered Fire 3/3 Hot Streak 3/3
Dragon’s Breath 1/1
Firestarter 2/2
Burnout 5/5
(Now we are going to the Arcane tree)
Arcane Focus 3/3
Arcane Subtlety 2/2
Magic Absorption 2/2
Arcane Concentration 5/5
Student of the Mind 3/3
Focus Magic 1/1
Arcane Shielding 2/2
Arcane Meditation 2/3
Final Spec 20/51/0
Frost
Improved Frostbolt 5/5
Ice Shards 3/3
Elemental Precision 3/3
Icy Veins 1/1
Piercing Ice 3/3
Arctic Reach 2/2
Frost Channeling 3/3
Shatter 3/3
Cold Snap 1/1
Improved Cone of Cold 1/3 (I had to add this because I forgot it was in the original spec, and while going through the talent calculator it didn’t unlock the second to last tier)
Improved Blizzard 1/3 Again, sorry, this is from the 3rd tier)
Cold as Ice 2/2
Winter’s Chill 3/3
Ice Barrier 1/1
Arctic Winds 5/5
Empowered Frostbolt 2/2
Fingers of Frost 2/2
Summon Water Elemental 1/1
Improved Water Elemental 3/3
Chilled to the Bone 5/5
Deep Freeze 1/1
Now we are going to the Arcane tree.
Arcane Focus 3/3
Arcane Subtlety 2/2
Arcane Concentration 5/5
Student of the Mind 3/3
Focus Magic 1/1
Spell Impact 1/3
Arcane Meditation 3/3
Improved Counterspell 2/2
Final Spec – 20/0/51
FrostFire
Frostfire – Now, you may be asking, “This isn’t a talent build.” but it is a whole new breed of mages, to be truthful. This is the best single target spec, and is great for heroics. Follow this spec here. Thanks again to Jame for it!
–End of Chapter 2–
Please post feedback on this guide!
-Kostada
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Arcane Raidinghttp://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Trollbane&n=Danthaya
this is the spec i use on my mage. I have been raiding on my mage at 80 for over 4 months and raided for 60% of BC as arcane. you will find i enjoy placing the spirit on my gear as with mage armor +glyph and 30% regen from talents raid buffed i will sit at around 800 MP5 while casting therefor with the correct use of evocate and mana gems you may go oom for 5sec out of every 180 and atm while my gear is not top notch i am still pushing 4-4.5k dps in OS+2,
you will notice i focus on haste while keeping crit above 20% as i find haste a better DPS as it is constant and rather easy to stack.
if you have any questions or wish to theory craft (i am always open for a mind to pick) i play on the Trollbane (US) server and if i am not on my mage Danthaya i am on my DK Lillyette
Hope this helps 🙂
Frost SpecWhat about doing fire after finishing frost like this?
Also doing the shattered barrier talent allows for shatter when it is broken. When AOE farming, this would be very helpful.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oZf0fck0hZVccckfuofdgbst
Arcan Spec RevampI personally would go more along the lines of being pure arcane if arcane is your goal. I took another look at the spec Jame gave. It decreases mana cost and has some frost benefits, but the damage and mana regen effects of pure arcane surpass Jame’s due to decreased PoM and AP cooldown as well as higher spirit, mana regen, and crit chance. Crit chance from focus magic helps a lot! Using this spec might help, but I’d have to see the two compared in game to see the consequences of the changes. There are just too many variables to mathematically prove this properly.
But anyway, here you go:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=ofeVfubIdxGuMted
Jenkins isn’t a title, it’s a way of life.
Arcane Revamp PleaseI have a small issue with the arcane spec. As an arcane mage you either kill the target(s) quickly, or run out of mana with this spec. I would be tempted to make the talents include mana regen, increased spirit, and longer range. It sacrifices some frost points, but even those will not be needed if you can outlast the target. Using increased spirit, mana regen, and mage armor allows you to almost literally keep mana shield up indefinately for solo grinding and farming as well as not making you worthless between evocation and potion cooldowns during dungeons and raids.
You did a great job, don’t get me wrong, but I think more of a arcane talent spending would help.
I will post the spec I have been working towards on my low levelled mage, which is the one I am mentioning above.
Jenkins isn’t a title, it’s a way of life.
Would suggest moving the 2Would suggest moving the 2 points in “Flame Throwing” and Put them in “World in Flames”.
Since you get 4% increased crit with all AoE abilitys and your pyroblast and I never had the need to stand so far away from the boss that I couldn’t use “Schorch” and “Living Bomb” (almost done in Normal Naxxramas)
(sorry for spelling here)
Wise things get said,
but Few get understood
IWhile writing this guide I wasn’t worrying too much about frostfire build, but if that is how some mages would like it too be I can easily add it. 😉
-Edit- Thank you Jame, I will not only add that spec to this but also the rotation for it on my rotations guide.
Comment me on my blog. http://kostada.blogspot.com/
There is also a much betterThere is also a much better option for the arcane spec, which makes you a true arcane mage. By true arcane mage I mean that you’ll actually use your arcane spells and forget stuff like spamming frostbolt.
Frostbolt spamming belongs in a deep frost build, not in an arcane spec.
Here is a good arcane spec:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=ocxVcz0czxGu0tedzZhfc0sc
It is especially good if you are gearing up for heroics, because you’ll mostly be fighting targets vulnerable to the full effect of your slow. Thus increasing your damage by 12% with torment the weak.
Rotation:
Arcane Blast -> Slow -> Arcane Barrage -> Arcane Blast -> Arcane Barrage -> Arcane Blast -> Arcane Barrage -> Arcane Blast -> etc etc.
Whenever Missle Barrage procs, use Arcane Missile.
Keep refreshing slow.
The reason I put 3/3 in blizzard is for farming purposes. Nothing else would be useful anyway in the frost tree up to frost channeling and icy veins, since with this arcane build you won’t be using frostbolt ever.
Well you should kinda worryWell you should kinda worry about a frostfire spec, because results have shown that it is currently the highest single target dps spec 😛
Using this talent spec:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oZfVzbRhIuVubhstbIccoc
Using this rotation:
– Scorch 5 times
– Combustion
– Frostfire Bolt until you get a hot streak –> Pyroblast
– Living Bomb as soon as all combustion charges are used
– Refresh Scorch
– Spam Frostfire Bolt until next combustion, then restart the hot streak
– Recast Living Bomb whenever the dot wears off
Don’t forget to refresh scorch, and pyroblast whenever you get a hot streak.
I didn’t worry aboutI didn’t worry about frostfire spec. I was doing more of an all talent trees in mind.
Comment me on my blog. http://kostada.blogspot.com/
frostfireu forgot frostfire spec
Alright, off for a bit. SeeAlright, off for a bit. See everyone later where I will be adding tooltips to the talents.
II will get on that. Pretty boring day right now.
About the frost build, I was somewhat in a rush so I did not get to that.
You add wowhead tooltips toYou should add wowhead tooltips to all the skills listed, it makes for a much better guide.
You forgot to post the linkYou forgot to post the link for the frost build at the end 😛
Also, you should write some info about each spec, saying why one is better or why the other is worse 🙂 I’m not a mage expert, so it would be useful to know more about each spec.