Arcane Mage DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Dragonflight 10.2
On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Arcane Mage in World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2. We also have default talent lists for various types of content, such as raiding or Mythic+. If you play with Warmode on, we have your PvP talents covered as well.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Arcane Mage talents.
Best Dragonflight Talents for Arcane Mage
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.
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. Keep in mind you can freely change your talents as long as you are out of combat without requiring any consumables, so it is highly suggested to pick talents specifically for the content you are doing.
Best Talents for Arcane Mage
Best Single-Target Talents for Arcane Mage
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.
Best AoE Talents for Arcane Mage
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.
Picking Mage Class Talents
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.
Tier 1 (Rows 1-4) Mage Class Talents For Arcane Mage
Talents for all situations
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
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A large DPS boost. |
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A large DPS boost. |
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A large DPS boost. |
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One of the best defensives in the entire game. |
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A great defensive tool useful in all content. |
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A very strong defensive and mobility tool in one, useful in all content. |
Optional / flexible talents
Talent | Reason for taking |
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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. |
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A good pick if there are curses you can dispel. |
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Can be useful if you need the reduced cooldown
to be able to solo soak a specific raid mechanic. If combined with ![]() ![]() |
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Can be useful for skipping content, like trash packs in dungeons, or open-world enemies |
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A minor defensive tool useful in all content. |
Tier 2 (Rows 5-7) Mage Class Talents For Arcane Mage
The tier 2 talents contain almost entirely utility/mobility talents.
Talents for all situations
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
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A straight up DPS boost |
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A straight up DPS boost |
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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 ![]() ![]() |
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A great survivability tool useful in all content. |
Optional / flexible talents
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
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A decent survivability and mobility tool useful in all content. |
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A good pickup in content where you need the reduced interrupt cooldown, like Mythic+ in a low interrupt group. |
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A good pickup to assist in kiting, especially when solo. Generally not too much usage in group content, though. |
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A very good self-healing tool when playing solo or a very strong defensive
in all content when combined with ![]() |
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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. |
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Adds a relatively useful self-heal onto Mirror Image, but usually hard to proc this. |
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Great crowd control that can be extremely useful in Mythic+ and open-world content, for its ability to AoE interrupt enemy spellcasts |
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Used to further increase the ability to kite with ![]() |
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Can be used to kite packs of mobs in Mythic+, in some cases, or good for open-world content. |
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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 ![]() ![]() |
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For even more crowd control. |
Tier 3 (Rows 8-10) Mage Class Talents For Arcane Mage
In this tier, we unlock some of the strong final nodes as a priority, whereas the rest is flexible.
Talents for all situations
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
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The strongest of the final nodes. We usually suggest picking Temporal Warp.
However, if you are doing group content where you are unable to use
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One of the best defensive tools in the game. |
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A single-point talent (assuming you took ![]() ![]() |
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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. |
Optional / flexible talents
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
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Turns ![]() ![]() |
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Very good crowd-control ability, especially useful in Mythic+ to interrupt spell casts. |
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A minor boost to your survivability that works in all content. |
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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. |
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These nodes give you even more kiting power. Not very useful in most group
content, but strong when solo and on the way to ![]() |
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Can be useful if you are doing content where you really need the extra crowd control. |
Arcane Mage Talents
In this section, we will go over the Arcane Mage Talents. The focus of this section will be PvE content.
Tier 1 (Rows 1-3) Arcane Mage Talents
Talents for all situations
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
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Required to pick up many of the other nodes and decent DPS increase. |
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Required to pick up many of the other nodes and decent DPS increase. |
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Required to pick up many of the other nodes and decent DPS increase. |
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Incredibly powerful offensive cooldown for all situations. |
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Very strong DPS boost. |
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Very strong DPS boost. |
Optional / flexible talents
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
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Strong DPS boost, but only for multi-target encounters where you can be in melee range. Worth taking if you want to focus heavily on AoE damage. |
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Good single-target DPS boost. At least 1 point should generally be taken if you want to focus on single-target damage, both if you want to maximize single target damage at the cost of some meaningful cleave. |
Tier 2 (Rows 4-6) Arcane Mage Talents
Talents for all situations
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
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Better than ![]() |
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Strong DPS boost in all situations. |
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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. |
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Very large single-target DPS boost. Technically, it can be skipped on pure AoE, but this does not exist, and as long as there is any priority damage needed at any point, this talent is mandatory. |
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Reasonable DPS boost, but also good for mobility. However, the primary
reason
is to unlock ![]() |
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Strong DPS boost. Primarily taken because every hit procs 2 ticks of
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String DPS boost. |
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Strong DPS boost, but also allows you to save ![]() ![]() |
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Very strong DPS boost. |
Optional / flexible talents
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
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Should be taken for cleave/AoE. |
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Should be taken for single-target. Although, in theory, it looks like it might be good for AoE as well; you generally cannot go out of mana in AoE, so it does not provide any value for AoE. |
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Should be taken for cleave/AoE. |
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Very strong mobility tool, but kind of awkward position in the tree, making
it's hard to pick up without giving up too much DPS.
Not as useful in AoE content as you will mostly be using instants in AoE,
but the only path to get it is via the AoE talent ![]() |
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Decent crowd control, especially when used as an AoE interrupt. However, very difficult to reach talent because it requires picking up multiple very low-value talents. |
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Great for solo play to kite enemies. |
Tier 3 (Rows 7-9) Arcane Mage Talents
The final section is pretty much cookie cutter with one small choice depending on whether you want more single target or more AoE DPS.
Talents For All Situations
Below, we list the talents you should always take, regardless of whether
you go Arcane Harmony or
Mana Gem build.
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
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Very strong DPS boost. |
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Very strong DPS boost. |
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Very strong DPS boost. |
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Very strong DPS boost. |
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Very strong DPS boost. |
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Very strong DPS boost. |
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Very strong DPS boost. |
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Very strong DPS boost. |
Optional / flexible talents
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
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Very strong for AoE / cleave but provides almost no value on a single target. |
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Decent for both single target and AoE / cleave. Taken if you want to focus on single target damage. |
How To Use Arcane Mage Talents
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.
PvP Talents (War Mode)
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.
Arcane Mage War Mode Talents
In this section, we will rank the War Mode talents for leveling and outdoor content.
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.
Ring of Fire is a great tool for AoE damage in the open world, especially on high-health targets.
Ethereal Blink gives you a lot more
Blink or
Shimmer uses and also helps with kiting.
Changelog
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated optimal talents for 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Changed talent layout to be easier to navigate.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated suggested talents for after the 10.1.5 Arcane rework.
- 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 16 Jan. 2022: Added information about the mana gem build and when to pick Harmony or Mana gem builds.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Minor change to the suggested talent trees to split them more into raiding vs dungeons instead of single target vs aoe.
- 30 Nov. 2022: Updated Temporal Warp vs Time Anomaly description to be more informative.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Mage Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Dutchmagoz. Dutchmagoz is a Mythic raider in one of the top raiding guilds, Turtles and the owner of the Mage Discord server, Altered Time, where he is involved in all things Mage, and you can reach out to him directly for feedback or questions about the guide.
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