Arcane Mage PvP Talents and Builds (Dragonflight 10.2.6)

Last updated on Jan 15, 2024 at 15:00 by Pherix 13 comments

Choosing the right talents is a prerequisite to proper performance in PvP. This guide goes through the various talent choices available to you as an Arcane Mage and gives you the best combinations you can take.

This page is part of our Arcane Mage PvP Guide.

1.

Talent Choices for Arcane Mages

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.

2.

Talents Summary

2.1.

Mage Tree Talent Highlights

  • Dragon's Breath Icon 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 Icon Dragon's Breath to Polymorph Icon Polymorph.
  • Slow Icon 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 Icon Mass Slow talent, it applies as an AoE slow as well.
  • Blast Wave Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon Time Anomaly is another new talent, allowing for either Time Warp Icon Time Warp for 6 seconds, Icy Veins Icon Icy Veins for 8 seconds, or a Fingers of Frost Icon Fingers of Frost proc. This talent is quite strong due to how much Mage benefits from Haste.
2.2.

Arcane Mage Tree Talent Highlights

  • Arcane Surge Icon Arcane Surge. This is the replacement for Arcane Power Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon Arcane Bombardment. A strong execute effect, making Arcane Barrage Icon Arcane Barrage deal significantly higher damage to targets below 35% health.
  • Orb Barrage Icon Orb Barrage. This talent allows for more Arcane Orb Icon Arcane Orbs to be cast, and with each target orb hits, more Arcane Charges are granted.
  • Arcane Harmony Icon Arcane Harmony. A previous Legendary that is a stacking buff to your next Arcane Barrage Icon Arcane Barrage, based on how many times Arcane Missiles Icon Arcane Missiles hits an enemy.
2.3.

Specific 10.1.5 Mage Talent Highlights

  • Ice Cold Icon Ice Cold, a new talent replacing Ice Block Icon 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 Icon Orb Barrage, an old talent now reworked, allowing for Arcane Barrage Icon Arcane Barrage to have a chance to grant free Arcane Orb Icon Arcane Orbs. This talent, combined with no cooldown on Arcane Barrage, allows for heavy sustained damage without having to cast.
  • Arcane Surge Icon Arcane Surge now increases damage done by a significantly more amount, allowing for a larger burst period.
2.4.

Mandatory PvP Talents

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

Master Shepherd Icon 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 Icon Polymorph not heal your enemies to full health.

Improved Mass Invisibility Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon 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.

2.5.

Situational PvP Talents

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

The new talent for Arcane Mages in Shadowlands, Arcanosphere Icon 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 Icon Arcane Empowerment or Mass Invisibility Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon Alter Time if purged, receives no value.

3.

Changelog

  • 18 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
  • 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2
  • 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5
  • 09 May 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.1.
  • 21 Mar. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
  • 30 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
  • 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Pre-patch.
  • 31 May 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
  • 28 Feb. 2022: Paged reviewed and approved for Patch 9.2.
  • 17 Nov. 2021: Page updated for Patch 9.1.5.
  • 04 Jul. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1 of Shadowlands.
  • 19 Mar. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
  • 12 Dec. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands release.
  • 17 Oct. 2020: Updated Talent Table.
    • Updated Tiers 4, 6, and 7 Regular Talents.
    • Updated PvP Talents.
  • 20 Jan. 2020: This page was checked for Patch 8.3 and no update was deemed necessary.
  • 26 Dec. 2019: Page added.
Show more
Show less