Top Mage builds
Mage talents
Points left 0Required level 6020/0/31 split
Arcane20 / 51
0/2M
5/5C
0/5C
0/2C
0/2C
5/5
0/2C
1/2N
3/3C
1/1N
0/2C
1/2C
3/3C
1/1N
0/1
0/5C
0/3C
0/1C
Fire0 / 51
0/2C
0/3C
0/5C
0/5
0/2
0/3C
0/3C
0/3
0/1C
0/3C
0/2
0/1N
0/3C
0/3
0/1C
0/5
0/1C
Frost31 / 51
0/2C5/5
0/5C
5/5
1/3C
0/2
0/3
3/3
1/3M
1/1N
0/3C
1/2
1/1M
3/3C
1/3C
1/1C
2/2N
5/5C
1/1C1–10
11–20
21–30
31–40
41–50
51–51
- Add a point with a click. Take one back with a right-click or Shift+click.
- Tap a talent to read it, tap again to add a point, press and hold to take one back.
- Each row opens after 5 more points in that tree. An arrow means the talent it points from must be maxed first.
- Where the demo only showed one rank, the other ranks are estimated and say so in the tooltip.
- Press C to toggle the Classic diff.
Found a wrong number, arrow or rank? Report it with the class and talent name and it gets corrected.
Mage in WoW Forever — What Changed from Classic
54 talents6 new31 reworked3 relocated14 unchanged1 gone from the trees
Mage is the most conservative rework in WoW Forever. It has 54 talents, the joint-most of any class, but only six are new and fourteen are unchanged from Classic. Just one talent, Magic Attunement, was removed, and all three 31-point talents keep their names: Arcane Power, Combustion and Ice Barrier. What changed is that each tree received the one spell that Classic mages missed most: Arcane Blast, Hot Streak and Ice Lance, along with the passives that make them worth casting.
Two new baseline spells sit underneath. Frostfire Bolt is trained, and Improved Fireball, Missile Barrage and Hot Streak all list it, so a Fire or Frost build can cast it without spending points. Comprehend Scroll is a small new General ability. Ice Block moved from Arcane into Frost, and Wand Specialization moved from Fire into Arcane; toggle the Classic diff in the calculator to see where each talent used to sit.
Arcane
Arcane finally has a nuke. Arcane Blast is a one-point talent in row three whose damage rises with each consecutive cast. Arcane Geometry adds range to Arcane spells. Missile Barrage gives Arcane Blast a 40% chance, and Fireball, Frostbolt and Frostfire Bolt a 20% chance, to speed up your next Arcane Missiles. Improved Channeling (was Improved Arcane Missiles) protects channels and casts. Arcane Mind adds Arcane crit damage on top of Intellect, and Arcane Power now trades 30% more mana for 30% more damage over 15 seconds. Arcane Concentration, Presence of Mind and Arcane Meditation carry over.
Fire
Fire gets a single new talent, Hot Streak, and it is the right one: non-periodic crits with Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Fire Blast or Scorch build toward an instant Pyroblast. It requires Pyroblast. Wake of Fire replaces Improved Fire Blast and adds a kill bonus. Incineration (was Incinerate) covers Fire Blast, Scorch, Ice Lance and Arcane Blast. Master of Elements refunds mana on Fire and Frost crits, Improved Scorch keeps its Fire vulnerability debuff, and Combustion was rewritten but stays the capstone. Ignite, Critical Mass and Fire Power are unchanged.
Frost
Frost has 19 talents, the largest Mage tree, and two new ones. Ice Lance, one point in row three, deals triple damage to Frozen targets. Fingers of Frost, which requires it, lets Chill effects treat your next cast as if the target were Frozen. Winter's Chill was rewritten to feed Ice Lance rather than stack Frost crit for the raid, and Shatter gives 17% crit per rank against Frozen targets. Ice Block sits in row four now, Frost Channeling moved in from row one, and Ice Barrier absorbs and blocks interruption while it holds. Permafrost, Improved Blizzard and Cold Snap are all here.
Popular Mage builds
Three starting points at level 60. The link carries the placement order, so the leveling build doubles as a pickup order; open one, then change what you like.
- Leveling · 20/0/31Frost levelingImproved Frostbolt, Ice Shards, Ice Lance and Shatter, Ice Barrier at 40; Arcane for Arcane Concentration and Arcane Meditation.
- PvE · 20/31/0Fire raidIgnite, Improved Scorch, Hot Streak, Critical Mass, Fire Power and Combustion; Arcane for Clearcasting and Missile Barrage.
- PvP · 20/0/31Frost controlPermafrost, Improved Frost Nova, Ice Block, Fingers of Frost, Winter's Chill and Ice Barrier; Arcane for Improved Counterspell and Arcane Shielding.
Beyond the trees
6 of the 10 races can be a Mage; their racials are on the WoW Forever racials page. The baseline spells that changed, and the demo spellbook, are under class abilities, and the account-wide Legacy perks apply to every character. For the picture across all nine classes, read the guide to every talent change in WoW Forever.
Mage FAQ
- What's new for Mage in WoW Forever?
- Six new talents: Arcane Geometry, Arcane Blast and Missile Barrage in Arcane; Hot Streak in Fire; Ice Lance and Fingers of Frost in Frost. Frostfire Bolt is a trained baseline spell.
- What's the best Mage leveling spec?
- Frost. Improved Frostbolt, Ice Shards, Ice Lance and Shatter by 20 points, Ice Block for safety, Ice Barrier at 40. The leveling build above is in pickup order.
- Is Arcane Blast a talent or a trained spell?
- A talent. Arcane Blast and Presence of Mind are Arcane talents in Forever; the demo Mage had both talented, which is why they show in its spellbook.
- How many Mage talents are there?
- 54: 18 in Arcane, 17 in Fire and 19 in Frost.
- Did any Mage talents get removed?
- One: Magic Attunement. Every other Classic Mage talent is still in the trees, sometimes in a different place or with new text.
- Where did Ice Block go?
- Into Frost, row four. It was an Arcane talent in Classic. Wand Specialization moved the other way, from Fire into Arcane. Read the Forever vs Classic comparison.