Arcane Mage PvP Talents and Builds (Dragonflight 10.2)

While the above table provides a generally accurate overview of the viability of talents, some finer points are discussed in the sections that follow, and we recommend you read those for a deeper understanding.

• Dragon's Breath. One of the strongest offensive Crowd Control abilities in the game, with all specializations of Mage being able to have access to this talent, you can easily chain Dragon's Breath to Polymorph.
• Slow. This talent is returning for Dragonflight, being very helpful with the mobility creep. With this talent, you can instantly apply Slow, and with the Mass Slow talent, it applies as an AoE slow as well.
• Blast Wave. A favorite from previous expansions, Blast Wave, returns in Dragonflight acting as it once did, giving an explosion effect around the caster and slowing enemies after. This is extremely strong to use when enemies are using heavy offensive cooldowns.
• Greater Invisibility often breaks quite rapidly; however, it provides a 60% damage reduction for 3 seconds after Invisibility; use this before heavy incoming damage to negate the effect.
• Time Anomaly is another new talent, allowing for either Time Warp for 6 seconds, Icy Veins for 8 seconds, or a Fingers of Frost proc. This talent is quite strong due to how much Mage benefits from Haste.

• Arcane Surge. This is the replacement for Arcane Power which changes the way Arcane deals damage. This ability has a long cooldown and is a heavy burst spell based on mana spent. After the cast, you spend all mana but regenerate it rapidly and have increased Spell Damage.
• Touch of the Magi. A strong 10-second bomb effect that accumulates all damage dealt during the time and explodes for 20% of total damage.
• Arcane Bombardment. A strong execute effect, making Arcane Barrage deal significantly higher damage to targets below 35% health.
• Orb Barrage. This talent allows for more Arcane Orbs to be cast, and with each target orb hits, more Arcane Charges are granted.
• Arcane Harmony. A previous Legendary that is a stacking buff to your next Arcane Barrage, based on how many times Arcane Missiles hits an enemy.

• Ice Cold, a new talent replacing Ice Block, that acts as a sizeable damage reduction that is not on the Global Cooldown. With the cooldown still being 4 minutes, it is unlikely that this talent will be used often.
• Orb Barrage, an old talent now reworked, allowing for Arcane Barrage to have a chance to grant free Arcane Orbs. This talent, combined with no cooldown on Arcane Barrage, allows for heavy sustained damage without having to cast.
• Arcane Surge now increases damage done by a significantly more amount, allowing for a larger burst period.

With Patch 10.1, there have been a few new PvP talents added to the Mage talent trees. Master Shepherd and Ethereal Blink are two new talents for the Arcane Mage trees.

Master Shepherd is a new talent allowing Polymorph to no longer heal enemies, as well as grant Versatility and Speed bonuses. This talent will highly be opted for, making Polymorph not heal your enemies to full health.

Improved Mass Invisibility is a new talent as of 10.1.5 that allows you to utilize Mass Invisibility in combat and reduce the cooldown significantly. This talent is absolutely mandatory if you wish to take Mass Invisibility in any PvP Scenario, or else it will be borderline useless. This talent is a hard choice to take, as you often want the three talents listed above.

Ring of Fire is a new PvP Talent for all specializations of Mages. It can provide serious, sustained damage if enemies are stuck in it. Typically, pairing this ability with a stun to get maximum value is where this ability shines.

If you want to have more peels for your teammates or need help getting crowd control, Master of Escape is an excellent talent to take. This should be used versus teams that have multiple ways to stop your Polymorphs or to help peel for your teammates/healer.

The new talent for Arcane Mages in Shadowlands, Arcanosphere is a compelling talent that requires a lot of setup but will pay off if the 4-second channel fully finishes. This ability goes through all walls and barriers and can seriously damage unsuspecting players. Replace Arcane Empowerment or Mass Invisibility for Arcanosphere. This talent likely should be a talent to keep on almost always, with the insane burst it provides being so powerful.

Ice Wall is a talent added in Shadowlands that allows you to place a wall of ice in a specific area for 15 seconds with 40% of your maximum health. This wall obstructs the line of sight and can be used to block enemies from running away or block a line of sight from a healer to a damage class. This could be good in Arena or Rated Battlegrounds. This ability has a lot of creativity, and you can use it in many different ways.

Temporal Shield is one of the classic Arcane Mage abilities, which allows the caster to take significant amounts of damage and heal it back within 4 seconds. The potent side to this talent is that even though it can be purged, you will still receive the damage taken up to the point it was purged. Alter Time if purged, receives no value.