An Overview of Mage Class Changes in the War Within Pre-Patch

If you are looking for Mage class guides, please visit one of the guides linked below.

• All talent trees have had many talents move locations or have had their pathing updated.
• New Talent: Barrier Diffusion — Whenever one of your Barriers is removed, reduce its cooldown by 4 seconds. Located in Dragon's Breath previous location.
• New Talent: Inspired Intellect — Arcane Intellect grants you an additional 3% Intellect. Choice node with Time Anomaly.
• Time Anomaly has been updated — Now grants Brain Freeze instead of Fingers of Frost.
• Supernova added to Mage class tree (was Arcane tree) and now has a 45 second cooldown (was 25 seconds).
• Mass Polymorph now polymorphs targets for 15 seconds (was 60 seconds).
• Mass Slow has been removed.

• New Talent: Energized Familiar — During Arcane Surge, your Arcane Familiar fires 4 bolts instead of 1. Damage from your Arcane Familiar has a small chance to grant you up to 2% of your maximum mana.
• New Talent: Eureka — When a spell consumes Clearcasting, its damage is increased by 25%.
• New Talent: Time Loop — When you apply a stack of Arcane Debilitation, you have a 10% chance to apply another stack of Arcane Debilitation. This effect can trigger off of itself.
• New Talent: Arcane Debilitation — Damaging a target with Arcane Missiles increases the damage they take from Arcane Missiles, Arcane Barrage, and Arcane Blast by 1%.
• New Talent: Aether Attunement — Every 3 times you consume Clearcasting, gain Aether Attunement. Aether Attunement: Your next Arcane Missiles deals 150% increased damage to your primary target and fires at up to 4 nearby enemies dealing 100% increased damage.
• New Talent: Leysight — Nether Precision damage bonus increased to 30%.
• New Talent: Leydrinker — Consuming Nether Precision has a 20% chance to make your next Arcane Blast or Arcane Barrage echo, repeating its damage at 60% effectiveness to the primary target and up to four nearby enemies.
• New Talent: Improved Touch of the Magi — Your Touch of the Magi now accumulates 25% of the damage you deal.
• New Talent: Magi's Spark — Your Touch of the Magi now also conjures a spark, increasing the damage your target receives from your next Arcane Barrage, Arcane Blast, and Arcane Missiles by 25%. Upon receiving damage from all three spells, the spark explodes, dealing Arcane damage to all nearby enemies.
• New Talent: Nether Munitions — When your Touch of the Magi detonates, it increases the damage all affected targets take from you by 8% for 12 seconds.
• New Talent: Surging Urge — Arcane Surge damage increased by 5% per Arcane Charge.
• New Talent: Consortium's Bauble — Reduces Arcane Blast’s mana cost by 3% and increases its damage by 3%.
• New Talent: Resonant Orbs — Arcane Orb damage increased by 10%.
• New Talent: Dematerialize — Spells empowered by Nether Precision cause their target to suffer an additional 8% of the damage dealt over 6 seconds.
• New Talent: Energy Reconstitution — Damage from Dematerialize has a small chance to conjure an Arcane Explosion at 50% effectiveness at its target’s location. Arcane Explosions conjured this way do not generate Arcane Charges.
• New Talent: Big Brained — Gaining Clearcasting increases your Intellect by 1% for 8 seconds. Multiple instances may overlap.
• New Talent: Static Cloud — Each time you cast Arcane Explosion, its damage is increased by 25%. Bonus resets upon reaching 100% damage.
• New Talent: High Voltage — Damage from Arcane Missiles has a 20% chance to grant you 1 Arcane Charge. Chance is increased by 5% every time your Arcane Missiles fails to grant an Arcane Charge.
• Arcane Missiles has been redesigned — Can now only be cast when you have Clearcasting. The wording of talents that are associated with Arcane Missiles have been updated to reflect this change.
• Nether Precision has been redesigned — Consuming Clearcasting increases the damage of your next 2 Arcane Blasts by 20% or your next 2 Arcane Barrages by 20%.
• Arcane Familiar has been redesigned — Casting Arcane Intelligence also summons you a Familiar that attacks your enemies and increases your maximum mana by 10% for 1 hour. Now passive.
• Illuminated Thoughts has been redesigned — Clearcasting has a 5% increased chance to trigger and spells that consume Clearcasting deal 5% more damage.
• Concentration has been redesigned — Casting Arcane Blast has a small chance to make your next cast of Arcane Blast free.
• Evocation has been updated — Increases your mana regeneration by 1500% for 2.8 seconds and grants Clearcasting. While channeling Evocation, your Intellect is increased by 2% every 0.5 seconds. Lasts 20 seconds.
• Improved Prismatic Barrier is now learned automatically when specializing in Arcane (was a talent).
• Mana Adept is now learned automatically when specializing in Arcane (was a talent).
• Arcane Orb is now learned at level 45 (was a talent).
• Arcane Orb damage reduced by 15%.
• Arcane Blast damage increased by 8%.
• Arcane Barrage damage reduced by 10%.
• Arcane Missiles damage increased by 25%.
• Clearcasting's chance to trigger is no longer tied to mana spent, and now has an 8% chance of triggering when casting any damaging spell.
• Clearcasting now utilizes bad luck protection instead of true randomness.
• You can no longer trigger Clearcasting by casting damaging spells while out of combat.
• Arcane Surge is now guaranteed to generate Clearcasting.
• Arcane Blast now has a 5% increased chance to generate Clearcasting.
• Supernova moved to Mage class tree and now has a 45 second cooldown (was 25 seconds).
• Mastery: Savant now properly increases the damage dealt by Arcane Surge.
• Dragonflight Season 4 class set bonuses have been updated to the Dragonflight Season 1 class set bonuses:
• 2 Set Bonus — For each Arcane Charge, Arcane Blast critical strike chance is increased by 3% and Arcane Explosion critical strike chance is increased by 3%.
• 4 Set Bonus — When Arcane Blast or Arcane Explosion critically strikes at least one target, the critical strike chance of your next Arcane Barrage is increased by 10%, stacking up to 4 times.
• The following talents have been removed:
• Foresight
• Nether Tempest
• Reverberate
• Mana Gem
• Radiant Spark
• Harmonic Echo
• Cascading Power
• Rule of Threes
• Chrono Shift
• Crackling Energy
• Siphon Storm
• Improved Arcane Missiles

• New Talent: Lit Fuse — Consuming Hot Streak has a 15% chance to grant you Lit Fuse. Lit Fuse: Your next Fire Blast turns up to 1 nearby target into a Living Bomb that explodes after 2 seconds, dealing Fire damage to the target and reduced damage to all other enemies within 10 yards. Up to 3 enemies hit by this explosion also become a Living Bomb, but this effect cannot spread further.
• New Talent: Explosive Ingenuity — Your chance of gaining Lit Fuse when consuming Hot Streak is increased to 20%. Living Bomb damage increased by 25%.
• New Talent: Down in Flames — Scorch deals 300% damage to targets below 30% health.
• New Talent: Quickflame — Flamestrike damage increased by 20%.
• New Talent: Focused Fury — Living Bomb deals more damage the fewer targets it hits, up to 300% at 1 target.
• New Talent: Mark of the Fire Lord — Flamestrike and Living Bomb apply Mastery: Ignite at 100% increased effectiveness.
• New Talent: Spontaneous Combustion — Casting Combustion refreshes up to 3 charges of Fire Blast and up to 3 charges of Phoenix Flames.
• New Talent: Fire's Ire — When you are not under the effect of Combustion, your critical strike chance is increased by 2.5%. When you're under the effects of Combustion, your critical strike damage is increased by 2.5%. 2-point talent.
• New Talent: Explosivo — Casting Combustion grants Lit Fuse and Living Bomb's damage is increased by 50% while under the effects of Combustion. Your chance of gaining Lit Fuse is increased by 30% while under the effects of Combustion.
• New Talent: Blast Zone — Lit Fuse now turns up to 3 targets into Living Bombs. Living Bombs can now spread to 5 enemies.
• New Talent: Ashen Feather — If Phoenix Flames hits only one target, it deals 25% increased damage and applies Ignite at 150% effectiveness.
• New Talent: Majesty of the Phoenix — When Phoenix Flames damages 3 or more targets, your next 2 Flamestrikes have their cast time reduced by 1.5 seconds and their damage is increased by 20%.
• New Talent: Molten Fury — Damage dealt to targets below 35% health is increased by 7%.
• New Talent: Heat Shimmer — Damage from Ignite has a 5% chance to make your next Scorch instant cast and deal damage as though your target was below 30% health.
• New Talent: Sparking Cinders — Living Bomb explosions have a small chance to increase the damage of your next Pyroblast by 10% or Flamestrike by 20%.
• Fervent Flickering has been redesigned — Now reduces the cooldown of Fire Blast by 2 seconds.
• Controlled Destruction has been redesigned — Damaging a target with Pyroblast increases the damage it receives from Ignite by 0.5%. This effect stacks up to 50 times.
• Improved Scorch has been redesigned — Casting Scorch on targets below 30% health increases the damage the target takes from you by 6% for 12 seconds. This effect stacks up to 2 times.
• Flame Accelerant has been redesigned — Every 12 seconds, your next Fireball, Flamestrike, or Pyroblast has a 40% reduced cast time.
• Unleashed Inferno has been redesigned — While Combustion is active your Fireball, Pyroblast, Fire Blast, Scorch, and Phoenix Flames deal 50% increased damage and reduce the cooldown of Combustion by 1.25 seconds. While Combustion is active, Flamestrike deals 25% increased damage and reduces the cooldown of Combustion by 0.25 seconds for each critical strike, up to 1.25 seconds.
• Convection has been redesigned — When a Living Bomb expires, if it did not spread to another target, it refreshes its duration. A Living Bomb can only benefit from this effect once.
• Pyromaniac has been redesigned — Casting Pyroblast or Flamestrike while Hot Streak is active has a 6% chance to repeat the spell cast at 50% effectiveness. This effect counts as consuming Hot Streak.
• Phoenix Reborn has been redesigned — When your direct damage spells hit an enemy 25 times the damage of your next 2 Phoenix Flames is increased by 100% and they refund a charge on use.
• From the Ashes has been redesigned — Phoenix Flames damage increased by 15% and your direct-damage spells reduce the cooldown of Phoenix Flames by 1 second.
• Deep Impact has been redesigned — Meteor now turns one target hit into a Living Bomb. Additionally, its cooldown is reduced by 15 seconds.
• Kindling now benefits from Flamestrike — Flamestrike critical strikes reduce the remaining cooldown of Combustion by 0.2 seconds for each critical strike, up to 1 second.
• Fuel the Fire is now learned automatically when specializing Fire.
• Searing Touch's critical strike threshold functionality is now baseline to Scorch.
• Improved Scorch's movement speed increase is now baseline to Scorch.
• Living Bomb damage increased by 70%.
• Living Bomb now applies Ignite.
• Living Bomb now spreads to 3 targets (was 5).
• Living Bomb applications are slightly desynced to minimize overlapping.
• Phoenix Flames damage reduced by 10%.
• Pyroblast damage reduced by 5%.
• Intensifying Flame Ignite damage bonus reduced to 20% (was 25%).
• Sun King's Blessing now grants Sun King's Fury after consuming 10 Hot Streaks.
• Flame On no longer reduces the cooldown of Fire Blast.
• Unleashed Inferno's non-Flamestrike damage bonus increased to 60%. Flamestrike damage bonus increased to 35%.
• Fevered Incantation now grants 1% increased critical strike damage per point (was 2%).
• Call of the Sun King no longer grants 15% increased Phoenix Flames damage and instead makes Phoenix Flames always critically strike.
• Alexstrasza's Fury no longer makes Phoenix Flames always critically strike.
• Hyperthermia now has an activation overlay.
• Dragonflight Season 4 class set bonuses have been updated to the Dragonflight Season 1 class set bonuses:
• 2 Set Bonus — Pyroblasts and Flamestrikes cast with Hot Streak deal 10% increased damage.
• 4 Set Bonus — Fire Blast, Phoenix Flames, and Fireball deal 10% increased damage and their chance to critically strike is increased by 10%.
• The following talents are now 1 point:
• Critical Mass
• Wildfire
• Flame On
• Fevered Incantation is now 2 points.
• The following talents have been removed:
• Incendiary Eruptions
• Firemind
• Tempered Flames
• Conflagration
• Searing Touch

• New Talent: Death's Chill — While Icy Veins is active, damaging an enemy with Frostbolt increases spell damage by 2%. Stacks up to 10 times.
• New Talent: Permafrost Lances — Frozen Orb increases Ice Lance's damage by 15% for 15 seconds.
• Fractured Frost has been redesigned — While Icy Veins is active, your Frostbolts hit up to 2 additional targets and deal 15% increased damage.
• Ice Lanceß damage increased by 22%.
• Flurry damage increased by 10%.
• Frostbolt damage increased by 10%.
• Ice Barrier's absorb increased to 24% of maximum health (was 22%).
• Hailstones is now a 1-point talent.
• Snowstorm has been removed.

• New PvP Talent: Fireheart — Blazing Barrier's damage is increased by 500%.
• Flamecannon (PvP Talent) has been removed.
• Blazing Barrier’s effectiveness is no longer reduced in PvP combat (was 75% effective).
• Unleashed Inferno is now 30% effective in PvP combat (was 20%).

You can find other War Within Pre-Patch class changes linked below.