Arcane (talent tree)
From WoWWiki
Overview
Arcane is one of the Mage's talent trees that focuses on a mage's ability to generate high burst damage as well as increase his or her utility. Mages who mainly invest into this tree are referred to as arcane mages. Kings of burst damage and often referred to as "3 Minute Mages", they can dish out incredible damage in the shortest time possible through combinations of spells like Presence of Mind and Pyroblast. For what they lack in kiting or the survival abilities as a frost mage, or the mana efficiency or sustained DPS of fire mages, they compensate with talents that increase the mages mana pool but also increase the total damage output from spells from all trees. Many mages looking to maximize their crit damage will also invest in the Spell Power talent within the arcane tree. Talents like Improved Arcane Missiles, give mages the ability to stand and deliver damage without interruption. Arcane Blast while capable of quickly dealing a large amount of damage, becomes very expensive as the debuffs stack. This is counterbalanced by Clearcasting, which gives the arcane mage mana durability. In terms of AoE grinding, while not as effective as a Frost build, can be done with a mix of Frost Nova and Arcane Explosion.
In PvP, arcane mages are to be both respected and feared on the battlefield. While not having the survivability of a frost mage, they are capable of felling foes in as little as one or two spells in addition to annoying melee, ranged and spell casters alike with Slow.
Arcane mages are considered to be consistent damage-dealers with deep mana pools and, for PvE, major threat reduction. With Presence of Mind they are capable of converting any spell with less than a 10 second cast into an instant-cast spell, greatly increasing the pace of DPS. In addition, very few enemies display significant resistance to arcane magic. This damage neutrality has made the arcane mage a viable build for end-game raiding.
A complete list of possible Mage's Talent Builds can be found here.
Tips
- Unlike Frostbolt, Slow can be cast on a target no matter what direction you're facing, even while on the move.
- Clearcasting Arcane Missiles is not only a great way to increase your mana efficiency but when combined with talents like Arcane Potency, each missile gains an extra 30% chance to crit creating the possibility of very big damage at no mana cost.
- Clever use of Arcane Blast can not only greatly increase your DPS but can also make it less costly. For example, when the AB debuff is stacked to a max of 3 times, time your last AB cast so that the debuff wears off before you're finished casting the spell; effectively giving you a 1.5 second Arcane Blast but for only the original cost of 195 mana. For example: Arcane Blast, Arcane Blast, Arcane Blast, Fireball, Scorch, Arcane Blast.
