I am an arcane mage, and I always thought it was really cool. Recently, though, I checked these forums and my mind began to open up to many more possibilities. I need to know if I should stick with arcane, erase all my arcane and go for something completely different, or if I should get a strong combonation of two or even all three. Please give me your suggestion and your reason for why I should pick it.

Arcane
Arcane Subtlety Rank 2
Improved Arcane Missiles Rank 4
Arcane Concentration Rank 5
Arcane Impact Rank 3
Arcane Fortitude Rank 1
Improved Counterspell Rank 2
Arcane Meditation Rank 3
Arcane Total: 20
Fire
Impact Rank 5
Ignite Rank 5
Incineration Rank 2
Improved Flamestrike Rank 3
Improved Scorch Rank 3
Improved Fire Ward Rank 2
Fire Total: 20
Frost
Frost Warding Rank 2
Elemental Precision Rank 3
Ice Shards Rank 2
Improved Frost Nova Rank 2
Permafrost Rank 3
Improved Blizzard Rank 3
Arctic Reach Rank 2
Frost Channeling Rank 3
Ice Block Rank 1
Frost Total: 21
Total
Total Points Spent: 61
Level Required: 70

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Thanks for the list. I will read it carefully and see if it works for me.

Okay, I'm back and I am having a horrible head ache. I keep looking all over these forums, but I want a sure fire setup that can kick ass, but also keeps me alive. I like the setup someone sent me (second post) but it seems like I would be a jack of all trades, but a master of none. It makes me feel kind of weak. If someone could walk me through the process of how to select a perfect talent setup for my gameplay style, that would be awesome.

One more thing. Iceblade, do you think you could give me the order to choose all the talents, like, first go for ice, then arcane, and finally fire. Thanks.

I think i will try the setup you told me, Iceblade, and in the order I mentioned. I will test it, see how it works. It sounds okay, but i might want to make some future changes to it. By the way, I mentioned the order of submitting my talent points because, if I haven't already mentioned this, I'm only level 34 right now.

I have just decided that before I pay to reset all my talents, I want to know what other people think of this setup. Tell me whether I should take this build, if I should try something completely different (please include list), or if I should just tweak a few talent.

if you plan to do heroics slow in the arcane tree is a good choice(life saver for a group in heroic shattered halls when on the 7 mob pulls, sheep+slow/kite keeps 2 mobs occupied can usually kill the kited one before the sheep breaks)41/20/0.

Hmmmm...

Hey, I’ve got a 65 BE mage. Atm I'm full frost. I've been having a hard time deciding whether or not I want to stay with frost, or go Arcane/Fire. Here are my links for both Frost spec, and Arcane/Fire....

Frost:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/mage/talents.html?2000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000535323313235013051551

Arcane/Fire:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/mage/talents.html?0050550312230150333125105500001000000000000000000000000000000000000

Hope it helps anyone interested in either spec, and hopefully someone can help me make up my mind.

lol coltums... frost at lvl 70 is much better than fire in pvp thats a fact. and why not wsg?? lol frost mage is one of the best wsg  players. ranged frost nova from your pet coc slowing effects big instant nukes.. not to mention cold snap. l2p plz

nah im fire, but ill share some info. bein an arcane mage is fun to play and gives u higher mana, i wouldnt seriously spec in it, no offense to any arcane mages :)

Thanks for all the tips, guys. I am level 39 now a have been following that exact layout that he gave me, first completing frost and I am almost half done with arcane. I will probably re-spec at level 70, but for now, that talent tree is okay.

hey man so, basically arcane is good when combined with something. preferably frost for me. because as a pvp spec mage if thats what you want slowing your enemies is key, also as a arcane mage you get the power of arcane missiles which are heavily underrated as a form of dps.. and you get the slowing effects of ice. spec 41 arcane based mostly around your gear and whether you want mana, and the rest benefitting slowing effects in the frost build, because even tho frostbolt level 1 may do lil to no damage the casting time is minimal, yet the slowing effects are still there so drop a lvl 1 frostbolt here and there and rogues and warriors become a lil easier. you also have slow in your arsenal and nova, which keep your targets away which is what you want against melee attackers since a buffed counter spell is useless unless they are magic (buffed counterspell silences a  caster for 4 secs enough for you to do some serious damage) and while you keep melee away you can arcane missile them to shits, leave fireblast on your bar for sure as it is an instant cast and does its fair share of quick damage i often use as a finishing move... and dont forget as a arcane mage you get presence of mind so you will get another instant cast fireball which does its damage... so dont give up on arcane.. spec arcane to your preference but 40-41 pts pending on whether you want slow or not (i say go for it) then the rest of the 20 or 21 in frost on slowing attacks. that will make for a pretty strong pvp specced mage.. now all you'll have to worry about is gear :) and just go for glads at first, then after your set on that you can upgrade to merciless and vindicators :)

p.s. k51 i agree tho fire is great dps its good pve because you have a tank taking pressure but as a cloth wearer in pvp they know who is going to dps the shit out of them and they will take you out as a cloth wearer right away so upgrade stamina!! and go arcane frost :)

Yes, generally speaking frost is better for pvp and fire, for pve, BUT as a firemage, i kick some a$$ in bg's.. i just spam scorch which leaves no trail and stacks up to 5x increasing your fire damage on a target, and the fire blast which is an instant cast (also no trail) and mine crits 2.5k (not a lot in the scheme of things, but is very nice instant cast..leaving no trail is nice too because as a gnomie i can hide in a bush and tick off some serious dps with no one knowing what is going on...very good in av) I havent really arena-d very much as fire but id have to guess that fire wouldnt be too great in 2's but be kicka$$ in 5's..so im summary, fire is awesome in pve but shouldnt be overlooked for pvp, you just have to know how to play it!

Hope that helps!

p.s. scorch also has a good chance of stunning the target, which, when spammed, is a huge pain in the a$$ if you are on the receiving end!

scorch is the most mana efficient dps cast aswell, with a low cast time it is a great cast for pvp if you do go fire, but to strengthen my previous argument throwing your points in all of the arcane like my comment above 40-41 is still beneficial yet instead of going frost which genreally keeps you a live a little bit longer you can go for the other side of the mage attacking and try and kill your enemy faster with fire. this allows you to scorch and eny till they are 5 scorched up and pom pyro meaning presence of mind (which allows for you to instant cast your next attack) and pyroblast them to shits, this damage is incredible and usually they are done but before you can even get to the pom pyro to take them out, your going to have to have scorched them 5x which takes some time, so havin the arcane spell slow to slow up an incoming melee attacker helps tenfold, and having your buffed counterspell which will help to annihilate any casting class as it will silence them, you can get some scorchs off to drop your bomb pom pyro, i personally would say go frost cuz as far as multi enemy's go you have a much higher chance of living, im not saying go and try to take down a group of 5 if your frost but say you are taking down 3 players with widdeled health or even 2 with full health, fire is not going to allow you to take these all on you cant control all of them as far as how fast tehy are coming at you, frost you get better slowing effects and have a much higher chance of keeping the melee classes off you, and the casting classes annoyed :).. you cant go wrong either fire or frost, but spec 41 arcane then 20 either elemental.. fire if your going for the crude damage trying to kill em fast.. frost if you wanna survive and control your enemies movement while dropping slightly less dps (but still getting the job done) good luck i certainly hope this advice helps you :)

Yeah, arcane has a TON of advantages, especially for solo'ing and PvP: mana regen as you cast, the Presence of Mind for instant cast, reducing resistances and raising intellect, along with uninterrupted arcane missiles and Improved Counterspell.  I put my other points in frost for CC and survivability.  Icy Veins is very nice, you just have to remember to use it.  I think arcane is very underrated, I love it!

Im an arcane mage currently in SSC TK and soon Hyjal. I am usually 1 or 2 on dps list depending on wat im doing. Arcane i find is better than fire for a number of reasons. 1. +10% hit rating talents 2. 40% reduced threat as apossed to 10. These are brilliant radi talents and allow you to change ur gear as you only need 76 hit rating to be at the cap. I spam arcane missiles on mobs cos its easy lol. Bosses is 2x Arcane Blast 1xArcane Missiles and repeat.
Advantages over fire i dont go oom i am cinstanly regening over 250 mana while casting i have over 14k mana. Arcane is acutally rather efficent surprisingly. 50% increase in crit damage is handy. As is arcane power. This is where my build really opens up. When u throw on a trinket (icon say) +arcane power + icy viens and spam arcane blast you gain +30% damage+trinket 30%faster for 15 or so seconds. i have toped over 70k damage over this amount of time which is about 4666 dps lol it does take half my mana to do so just pop a inovate.
I usually get this in twice on a boos like say gruul or lurker.
So to all you up and coming arcane mages have a look at my build try it and u wont look bak


http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oixVc0czxIuioZVV0co

so is your spec like, 50/0/11?

Mmmm yes, I recently went arc/frost and Im loving it. ^_^

true, but with fire you can down them fast and master of elements refunds % base mana cost of crits with fire or frost