Arcane Mage DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

Note that these builds are generic recommendations for various content. For more specific recommendations for the Raid and Mythic+, check out the dedicated pages below.

2.

Best Talents for Arcane Mage

Sunfury Single Target Talents Sunfury Mythic+ Talents Sunfury (Raid) Cleave Talents Spellslinger Single Target Talents Spellslinger Mythic+ Talents Spellslinger (Raid) Cleave Talents Delve Talents

3.

Best Delve Talents for Arcane Mage

Sunfury Mythic+ Show Copy

C4DAFkdeDEHlEzd+IoSryV2nkNzgZZmZmFMzQzYGAAAGAwMzkNmBAiNAA2wMzMsZZmZmlBjZmZmZsxMmxMAADAAwAMzAmBAD

3.

Best Spellslinger Single-Target Talents for Arcane Mage

The Spellslinger build does less single-target damage than the Sunfury build, but especially on pre-patch, most specs are viable so you can still play it quite easily if you enjoy it more.

You can easily import the talent tree below into the game by using the "Export Talents" button below.

Spellslinger Single-target Show Copy

C4DAFkdeDEHlEzd+IoSryV2nkZGGLzMzswMzQzYGAAAGAAEwYmZhZiFAAwMzMzYzyMzMLDGjZmZGbMjZMDAwAAAMzsAAmBAD

3.

Best Sunfury Single-Target Talents for Arcane Mage

This is currently the best single-target build available.

You can easily import the talent tree below into the game by using the "Export Talents" button below.

Sunfury Single-Target Show Copy

C4DAFkdeDEHlEzd+IoSryV2nkZGGLzMzswMzQzYGAAAGAwMzkNmBAiNAAwMzMzYzyMzMLDGjZmZGbMjZMDAwAAAMAzMgZAwA

3.

Best Spellslinger AoE/Mythic+ Talents for Arcane Mage

The Spellslinger build does less AoE damage than the Sunfury build, but especially on pre-patch, most specs are viable so you can still play it quite easily if you enjoy it more.

You can easily import the talent trees below into the game by using the "Export Talents" button below.

Spellslinger Mythic+ Show Copy

C4DAFkdeDEHlEzd+IoSryV2nkNzgZZmZmFMzQzYGAAAGAAEwYmZhZiFAA2wMzMsZZmZmlBjZmZmZsxMmxMAADAAwMzCAYGAM

For more information on Mythic+ talents, you can check out our dedicated Mythic+ page below.

Arcane Mage Mythic+ Guide

3.

Best Sunfury AoE/Mythic+ Talents for Arcane Mage

This build is a heavy AoE focused build without losing too much single-target damage, providing a very well rounded build for Mythic+. If you want a build focused more on single-target damage while still doing decent AoE, you can use the cleave build instead.

You can easily import the talent trees below into the game by using the "Export Talents" button below.

Sunfury Mythic+ Show Copy

C4DAFkdeDEHlEzd+IoSryV2nkNzgZZmZmFMzQzYGAAAGAwMzkNmBAiNAA2wMzMsZZmZmlBjZmZmZsxMmxMAADAAwAMzAmBAD

For more information on Mythic+ talents, you can check out our dedicated Mythic+ page below.

Arcane Mage Mythic+ Guide

3.

Best Spellslinger Raid Cleave Talents for Arcane Mage

This tree is relatively close to the single-target build, making only some minor changes, allowing you to do cleave damage on primarily single-target fights, like raid bosses with adds.

You can easily import the talent tree below into the game by using the "Export Talents" button below.

Spellslinger Cleave Show Copy

C4DAFkdeDEHlEzd+IoSryV2nkZGGLzMzswMzQzYGAAAGAAEwYmZhZiFAAgZmZGbWmZmZZwYegZmZGbMjZMDAwAAAMzsAAmBAD

3.

Best Sunfury Raid Cleave Talents for Arcane Mage

This tree is relatively close to the single-target build, making only some minor changes, allowing you to do cleave damage on primarily single-target fights, like raid bosses with adds, or Mythic+ where you want to focus more on boss/priority target DPS.

You can easily import the talent tree below into the game by using the "Export Talents" button below.

Sunfury Cleave Show Copy

C4DAFkdeDEHlEzd+IoSryV2nkZGGLzMzswMzQzYGAAAGAwMzkNmBAiNAAgZmZGbWmZmZZwYegZmZGbMjZMDAwAAAMAzMgZAwA

Arcane has access to the Sunfury and Spellslinger Hero Talent trees.

Sunfury spawns an Arcane Phoenix alongside you during Arcane Surge, throwing out spells of its own providing damage and some utility. Gameplay wise, the primary change is that after Arcane Surge ends, you get the very powerful Arcane Soul buff, which makes Arcane Barrage grant Clearcasting, generate 4 Arcane Charges, generate 5 Arcane Salvo charges and casting it does not consume any Arcane Salvo charges. What this means in practice is that during Arcane Soul, you can simply spam very hard hitting Arcane Barrages.

Spellslinger is all about providing you lots of small passive bonuses to all your spells and applying many Arcane Splinters to your target. Gameplay wise, the tree is fairly passive, however, all of the passive effects together grant you quite a few extra Arcane Salvo stacks, which in turn enables you to cast more Arcane Barrages.

For the full details on how the Hero Talents impact your rotation, see the rotation page.

Note: With current tuning I generally recommend you play Sunfury in all content, as it is simply stronger in all content. However, if you enjoy Spellslinger a lot more, you can definitely try it out and practice it for Midnight, as balance is likely to be better during Midnight than in pre-patch.

Multiple talents require a change to your rotation to use them optimally. You can find more information on how your rotation will look after selecting your talents on our rotation page below.

If you are looking for in-depth explanations of what each talent does, we suggest reading through the spell summary page.

Since Battle for Azeroth, there is the option to enable "War Mode." Enabling War Mode grants the following benefits:

• PvP talents enabled in the outdoor world.
• 10% increase in World Quest rewards at max level.
• 10% more experience gained while leveling.
• Earn Conquest Points, which can reward gear every week.

With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended enabling the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at max level. However, doing so will enable PvP combat and the possibility of being attacked by members of the opposite faction while leveling or doing World Quests exists.

In this section, we will rank the War Mode talents for leveling and outdoor content.

1. Temporal Shield is off the Global Cooldown, so it can be used without sacrificing any damage and is very strong for when you know damage is incoming. You can simply tank the damage and heal back to full Health when the shield ends.
2. Ring of Fire is a great tool for AoE damage in the open world, especially on high-health targets.
3. Chrono Shift is an incredible open-world kiting and mobility tool.