Arcane Mage DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1.5

1. Talent Choices for Arcane Mage

Level	Choices
15	✗ Amplification	✓ Rule of Threes	✓ Arcane Familiar
30	✗ Mana Shield	✓ Shimmer	✓ Slipstream
45	✓ Incanter's Flow	✗ Mirror Image	✓ Rune of Power
60	? Resonance	✓ Charged Up	✗ Supernova
75	✓ Chrono Shift	✗ Ice Ward	? Ring of Frost
90	? Reverberate	✓ Touch of the Magi	? Nether Tempest
100	✓ Overpowered	✓ Time Anomaly	? Arcane Orb

Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area (such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, Tome of the Tranquil Mind and Codex of the Tranquil Mind can be used to temporarily allow players to change talents anywhere, as long as they are out of combat.

2. Talent Cheat Sheets for Arcane Mage

While optimizing talents on a contextual basis is the highly recommended method of setting up your build, the talent builds listed below work great for specific purposes.

2.1. Single Target

• Level 15: Rule of Threes
• Level 30: Shimmer
• Level 45: Rune of Power
• Level 60: Charged Up
• Level 75: Chrono Shift
• Level 90: Touch of the Magi
• Level 100: Overpowered

2.2. Heavy Cleave/AoE

• Level 15: Arcane Familiar
• Level 30: Shimmer
• Level 45: Rune of Power
• Level 60: Resonance
• Level 75: Chrono Shift
• Level 90: Reverberate or Nether Tempest if you cannot be in melee range
• Level 100: Arcane Orb

2.3. For General Use

This build is an excellent starting point for questing and general purpose usage.

• Level 15: Rule of Threes
• Level 30: Shimmer
• Level 45: Incanter's Flow
• Level 60: Charged Up
• Level 75: Chrono Shift
• Level 90: Touch of the Magi
• Level 100: Overpowered

3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents for Arcane Mage

✘ Amplification

✔ Rule of Threes

✔ Arcane Familiar

Tier 1 talents offer a minor boost to sustained damage.

• Amplification makes Arcane Missiles do more damage by shooting an extra missile when used with Clearcasting.
• Rule of Threes makes your next Arcane Blast or Arcane Missiles free after getting a third Arcane Charge. You will also get this effect if you instantly go to 4 Arcane Charges, via the use of, for example, Charged Up or Arcane Orb.
• Arcane Familiar lets you summon a pet that does minor damage to enemies, and increases your maximum Mana by 10%.

Rule of Threes is the best single-target choice. It is also the best choice on most AoE situations. It being the best on AoE may seem counterintuitive at first, since there is no direct component to Rule of Threes that boosts its AoE damage, however, after reaching 3 Arcane Charges, you can cast 1 Arcane Blast for free, which allows you to get more Arcane Barrages out.

Arcane Familiar is the best choice on very heavy AoE (10+ targets).

4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents for Arcane Mage

✘ Mana Shield

✔ Shimmer

✔ Slipstream

Tier 2 talents offer a boost in mobility and defensive utility.

• Mana Shield grants Prismatic Barrier no cooldown, but your Mana is drained by 20% of the damage it absorbs.
• Shimmer replaces your Blink ability. It functions exactly the same as Blink, except it is off the Global Cooldown, is a 20-second cooldown instead of 15, does not interrupt spellcasting, and it does not break stuns. This spell has 2 charges.
• Slipstream allows Arcane Missiles and Evocation to be channeled while moving.

This talent tier is largely a matter of preference between Shimmer and Slipstream. Slipstream guarantees that Evocation cannot be cancelled by movement, and improves the caster's ability to reposition while channeling Arcane Missiles. Shimmer greatly improves mobility, and by extension, survivability. This tier is largely a matter of preference between these 2 talents and the ideal choice almost certainly varies by encounter. Slipstream is recommended on fights where you can plan your movement ahead of time, whereas Shimmer is recommended on fights where you have to react to sudden mechanics. It is also worth noting that Shimmer has 2 charges, as opposed to Blink's single charge.

5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents for Arcane Mage

✔ Incanter's Flow

✘ Mirror Image

✔ Rune of Power

Tier 3 talents are focused on providing the player a consistent damage increase.

• Incanter's Flow increases your damage between 4% and 20%, cycling every 10 seconds.
• Mirror Image creates 3 copies of yourself which damage enemies and last 40 seconds.
• Rune of Power places a small zone which increases the damage you do by 40% for 10 seconds. This ability has a 40-second cooldown, with 2 charges.

Rune of Power is the best theoretical DPS choice for any amount of targets. However, Incanter's Flow is very close, and Rune of Power is quite restrictive, so it may not be practical for all encounters. Below, we have listed some reasons which may cause you to not pick Rune of Power, but instead go with Incanter's Flow:

• There are raid mechanics which you can not plan for in advance that may cause you to have to move out of your Rune of Power.
• There is a lot of movement required on the fight in general.
• It is also worth noting that Rune of Power is a lot harder to play with than Incanter's Flow, so it should not be used when you are not very comfortable with the spec and fight.

Mirror Image is not used.

6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents for Arcane Mage

? Resonance

✔ Charged Up

✘ Supernova

Tier 4 talents are focused on providing unique damage utility.

• Resonance empowers Arcane Barrage to deal 10% extra damage for each additional target struck.
• Charged Up instantly grants 4 Arcane Charges
• Supernova gives you a new spell that deals low damage that cleaves everything within 8 yards of the target, and knocks them in the air.

Charged Up is the best option for single target.

Resonance is the best option cleave/AoE.

Supernova is a mostly a crowd-control option, if you need to improve your control in dungeons via the knock up effect.

7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents for Arcane Mage

✔ Chrono Shift

✘ Ice Ward

? Ring of Frost

Tier 5 talents focus primarily on providing utility.

• Chrono Shift causes Arcane Barrage to slow enemies by 50% and increase your movement speed by 50% for 8 sec.
• Ice Ward gives Frost Nova 2 charges.
• Ring of Frost places a ring that can freeze up to 10 targets for 10 seconds at the targeted location, broken by damage.

Chrono Shift is the only talent with a benefit for raiding and Mythic+.

8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents for Arcane Mage

? Reverberate

✔ Touch of the Magi

? Nether Tempest

Tier 6 talents add extra cleave and sustained damage options to your kit.

• Reverberate gives Arcane Explosion a chance to generate an additional Arcane Charge, as long as it hits at least 3 targets.
• Touch of the Magi gives Arcane Blast a 10% chance to apply a debuff, which stores 15% of the damage you do to that target for 8 seconds, and then after 8 seconds, deals the built up damage to the target and all nearby enemies.
• Nether Tempest can be applied to one target, and deals damage over time to the target and all other targets within 10-yards.

Touch of the Magi is the best single target option.

Reverberate is the best option for cleave/AoE as long as you can be in melee range to cast Arcane Explosion. Otherwise Nether Tempest should be used in cleave/AoE situations. Nether Tempest is also quite close to Touch of the Magi on single-target, so it is a good choice on hybrid fights.

9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents for Arcane Mage

✔ Overpowered

✔ Time Anomaly

? Arcane Orb

Tier 7 talents boost your damage greatly.

• Overpowered causes Arcane Power to now increase damage by 60% and reduce Mana costs by 60%.
• Time Anomaly has 3 random procs that can appear at any given time, even when you are not in combat.
  • Firstly, there is a chance to get Arcane Power.
  • The second random proc is a chance to give you 1 second of Evocation, which regenerates a decent portion of Mana. This can occur even when you already are at a 100% Mana.
  • The third effect is a chance to get 4 Arcane Charges. This can occur even if you already have Arcane Charges. If you have Rule of Threes talented, and you get the 4 Arcane Charges proc from Time Anomaly, you will also get Rule of Threes, as long as you have less than 3 Arcane Charges when the proc occurs.
• Arcane Orb travels in a line and deals AoE damage to everything it hits. It generates 1 Arcane Charge on cast and 1 every time it deals damage.

Overpowered is the best single-target DPS option.

Time Anomaly is not very far behind on single-target, so if you enjoy the talent a lot, it will not be a huge DPS-loss to pick it.

Arcane Orb is the best option for AoE / cleave.

10. PvP Talents (War Mode)

In Battle for Azeroth, there will be 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 to enable 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.

10.1. Arcane Mage War Mode Talents

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. Master of Escape allows you to use Greater Invisibility very often. This can be very useful for quests that require you to pick up certain items, as Greater Invisibility allows you to drop combat and quickly mount up after looting the required item, without having to kill off any enemies you have have aggrod while getting to the item.
3. Mass Invisibility is good for the same reasons as Master of Escape is.

11. Changelog