Arcane Mage DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — The War Within Pre-Patch

The build below is great for pure (or almost pure) single-target content, like a large number of raid bosses. However, a lot of changes can be made, especially in the Mage tree, to tune for specific encounters or damage types, so we strongly suggest reading Talent Choices section for more information.

You can easily import the talent tree below into the game by using the "copy export string" button below.

The tree below is a tree focused more on doing cleave and AoE damage. Although the tree below is a good starting point for doing multi-target damage, there are many small tweaks you can make to further focus on cleave and AoE damage or less, depending on what type of damage you want to do. we strongly suggest reading Talent Choices section for more information.

You can easily import the talent tree below into the game by using the "copy export string" button below.

This tree is very close to the single-target build, only swapping Consortium's Bauble for Arcing Cleave.

The build below is perfect for fights where you want to primarily focus on single-target damage, but has occasional secondary targets you also want to hit. For true AoE situations, this build is worse than the pure AoE build, but for raid bosses with occasional adds this is the perfect build. However, a lot of changes can be made, especially in the Mage tree, to tune for specific encounters or damage types, so we strongly suggest reading Talent Choices section for more information.

You can easily import the talent tree below into the game by using the "copy export string" button below.

The general Mage tree is extremely flexible. It is almost entirely personal preference, apart from a couple of key DPS nodes. You have many more points available than you need to get all of the DPS nodes, leaving you with many options in terms of survivability, crowd control, and utility. Below, we will highlight some of the key nodes that are important for DPS and suggest some of the best non-DPS nodes. However, even after that, you can assign a bunch of points as you see fit.

Talent	Reason for taking
Overflowing Energy	A large DPS boost.
Incanter's Flow	A large DPS boost.
Shifting Power	A large DPS boost.
Ice Block	One of the best defensives in the entire game.
Mirror Image	A great defensive tool useful in all content.
Alter Time	A very strong defensive and mobility tool in one, useful in all content.

Talent	Reason for taking
Spellsteal	A good pick if there are buffs you can steal that are either beneficial to you, or make the content easier by removing it from the target.
Remove Curse	A good pick if there are curses you can dispel.
Winter's Protection	Can be useful if you need the reduced cooldown to be able to solo soak a specific raid mechanic. If combined with Ice Cold and Cryo-Freeze it also becomes a very strong damage reduction tool.
Incantation of Swiftness	Can be useful for skipping content, like trash packs in dungeons, or open-world enemies
Tempest Barrier	A minor defensive tool useful in all content.
Arcane Warding	A minor defensive tool useful in almost all content.

The tier 2 talents contain almost entirely utility/mobility talents.

Talent	Reason for taking
Tome of Rhonin	A straight up DPS boost
Tome of Antonidas	A straight up DPS boost
Shimmer or Ice Floes	Both are extremely strong mobility tools. This choice is largely a personal preference. Ice Floes ultimately allows for more movement without losing DPS, but it comes at the cost of losing out on the burst movement (without having to give up a global cooldown like Blink does) that Shimmer provides. Generally, Shimmer is preferred because you can already cast multiple abilities while moving due to Slipstream.

Talent	Reason for taking
Supernova	Very good crowd-control ability, especially useful in Mythic+ to interrupt spell casts.
Diverted Energy	A decent survivability tool useful in all content.
Master of Time	A decent survivability and mobility tool useful in all content.
Quick Witted	A good pickup in content where you need the reduced interrupt cooldown, like Mythic+ in a low interrupt group.
Slow	A good pickup to assist in kiting, especially when solo. Generally not too much usage in group content, though.
Cryo-Freeze	A very good self-healing tool when playing solo or a very strong defensive in all content when combined with Ice Cold.
Reduplication	Can be useful if it would give you an additional usage of Mirror Image for a specific high-hitting ability, but usually hard to proc this.
Reabsorption	Adds a relatively useful self-heal onto Mirror Image, but usually hard to proc this.
Blast Wave	Great crowd control that can be extremely useful in Mythic+ and open-world content, for its ability to AoE interrupt enemy spellcasts
Volatile Detonation	Used to further increase the ability to kite with Blast Wave, but should be careful in grouped content to not knock enemies into additional enemies and pull more than planned.
Mass Slow	Can be used to kite packs of mobs in Mythic+, in some cases, or good for open-world content.
Ice Nova	For even more crowd control. Also, technically a minor DPS increase when moving as it can be used when on the move if you have no Ice Floes / Shimmer ready and no other instants.
Ring of Frost	For even more crowd control.

In this tier, we unlock some of the strong final nodes as a priority, whereas the rest is flexible.

Talent	Reason for taking
Time Anomaly / Inspired Intellect	The strongest of the final nodes. We usually suggest picking Time Anomaly. However, if you do not like the randomness of Time Anomaly, you can pick Inspired Intellect for a minor DPS loss.
Greater Invisibility	One of the best defensive tools in the game.
Mass Barrier / Mass Invisibility	Provides quite a lot of defensive power for your group if you take Mass Barrier. Since the cooldown is not shared with Prismatic Barrier, it is a useful defensive tool even when solo. Mass Invisibility can be a very strong tool for Mythic+ to skip packs.
Temporal Velocity	A decent mobility tool. It is not that great of a talent on its own, but it is on the path to some very strong other nodes, so it's pretty much always taken.

Talent	Reason for taking
Ice Cold	Turns Ice Block into a very strong defensive cooldown that does not come at the cost of any DPS but removes the immunity aspect from it. Generally, we suggest taking this if you do not need the immunity aspect of Ice Block, as it lasts 6 seconds, and you are unlikely to sit in Ice Block for that long. Additionally, when combined with Cryo-Freeze, it also becomes a very strong self heal that you do not need to sit in Ice Block for to get the benefit of.
Displacement	Provides mobility, but is usually pretty difficult to pick up without giving up one of the major nodes.
Barrier Diffusion	A minor boost to your survivability that works in all content.
Accumulative Shielding	A minor boost to your survivability that works in all content.
Displacement	A decent mobility and defensive tool. Difficult to take without giving up one of the capstone nodes, but if you are skipping a capstone node, a very useful mobility + defensive tool.
Frigid Winds + Ice Ward	These nodes give you even more kiting power. Not very useful in most group content, but strong when solo and on the way to Ice Cold. If you are not taking Ice Cold, these two talents should be skipped for most group play.
Time Manipulation	Can be useful if you are doing content where you really need the extra crowd control.

In this section, we will go over the Arcane Mage Talents. The focus of this section will be PvE content.

Talent	Reason for taking
Nether Precision	Very strong DPS boost and interacts with many other talents deeper in the tree.
Amplification	Required to pick up many of the other nodes and strong DPS increase.
Concentrated Power	Required to pick up many of the other nodes and decent DPS increase.
Arcane Tempo	Required to pick up many of the other nodes and decent DPS increase.
Arcane Surge	Incredibly powerful offensive cooldown for all situations.
Improved Clearcasting	Decent DPS increase and required to pick up Resonance, which is used in all builds.

Talent	Reason for taking
Arcing Cleave	Very strong DPS increase on cleave and AoE situations, but provides no value on pure single-target. Should always be taken outside of pure single-target.
Consortium's Bauble	A relatively small DPS increase on single-target, but an increase nontheless. Should be taken instead of Arcing Cleave on pure single target, however, if there is ever any cleave at all, we suggest Arcing Cleave still.
Charged Orb	Provides relatively minimal DPS on sustained fights, even on AoE. However, when running content with a lot of downtime, for example, a Mythic+ dungeon where you spend a lot of time walking between packs, it provides significant value as you can enter packs with 2 stacks of Arcane Orb often.

Talent	Reason for taking
Arcane Familiar	Strong DPS boost both on single-target and AoE.
Resonance	Strong DPS boost in all situations.
Slipstream	Very strong mobility tool. It can be skipped for more DPS talents, but generally, we recommend picking it due to its incredible quality of life.
Evocation	Large DPS boost.
Energized Familiar	Good DPS boost for both single-target and AoE.
Touch of the Magi	Very strong DPS boost.
Dematerialize	Strong DPS boost on both single-target and AoE. Also required to unlock various other important nodes.
Impetus	Decent boost for single-target, and smaller for AoE. On its own a relatively good node, but generally always taken because it is required to pick Illuminated Thoughts.
Illuminated Thoughts	Strong DPS boost on both single-target and AoE.

Talent	Reason for taking
Eureka / Reverberate	Eureka is better on single-target, whereas Reverberate is better in pure AoE. Reverberate provides no value on cleave or single-target at all, whereas Eureka does provide some value to AoE and cleave. Generally, we suggest Eureka unless you plan to focus on AoE above all else.
Presence of Mind	Does not really provide any DPS at all, and if used incorrectly can even be a DPS loss. However, it is good for mobility. If you feel like you are moving too much with nothing good to cast, you can take Presence of Mind to help with this.

The final section is pretty much cookie-cutter with very limited flexibility.

Below, we list the talents you should always take, regardless of whether you go Arcane Harmony or Mana Gem build.

Talent	Reason for taking
Arcane Debilitation (2x)	Strong DPS increase on single-target, while also taken in AoE due to being required for Aether Attunement.
Arcane Echo	Srong DPS boost in all situations.
Aether Attunement	Srong DPS boost in all situations.
Enlightened	Very strong DPS boost.
Arcane Bombardment	Very strong DPS boost.
High Voltage	Srong DPS boost in all situations.
Arcane Harmony	Strong DPS boost.
Magi's Spark	Strong DPS boost.

Talent	Reason for taking
Orb Barrage	Strong both on single-target and AoE. However, some people really dislike the random chance to shoot out Arcane Orb in front of you, as it can easily cause unintended pulls, in which case it can be skipped for any of the other talents from any of the other tiers, at the cost of a little bit of DPS.