Mage Builds Guide

Cryomancer

Frost mages sacrifice the pure damage capabilities of a Fire or Arcane mages for survivability and control. The survivability comes from spells such as Ice Block and Ice Barrier, which protect a Frost mage in PvP and PvE encounters. The control is gained from the debuffs of most Frost spells. Frost debuffs usually decrease an opponents attack and movement speed.

Example Frost Builds

Deep Frost - 10/0/42 [1] Deep Frost builds are good all-purpose builds. The mage gains the survivability of Frost and can easily handle two or three creatures. The survivability of deep Frost builds make it a solid choice for PvP, but its lack of damage capabilities make it a poor choice for raiding. The build provided includes all of the core talents, and has nine points to be distributed at your discretion. Arcane Meditation is recommendable if you mostly do PvE content, but Shatter, Permafrost and Frostbite are best for PvP, in which case points should be removed from Winter's Chill.

PvP Deep Frost - 17/0/44 [2]

Drops talents from frost to gain Improved Counterspell which helps to shutdown casters.

Raid Frost - [3]

This build maximizes damage with Frost with Spell Power and Arcane Instability. Spell Power will increase your damage by about ten percent alone. For this build to shine, however, you need one or more mages in the raid with Winter's Chill to maximize your benefit from Spell Power.

AoE Grinding - [4]

It is generally accepted that Frost is the better Tree for AoE grinding, due to its slow and root capabilities. To create a successful AoE build Artic Reach, Permafrost and Improved Blizzard are essential. Frostbite is actually detrimental here and should be skipped over, as it has a tendency to split up your tight pack of mobs that is required for AoE grinding. Ice Barrier also helps you from taking any damage as you round up mobs (even hits from mobs below your level will start to add up).

Pyromancer

Where Frost builds offer control and survivability, Fire builds are the ultimate in damage dealing. From Ignite, which burns your target for additional damage on crits, to Critical Mass and Fire Power which enhance your damage potential, Fire Mages are feared and respected the world (of Warcraft) over.


Typical Fire Builds

Heavy Fire - 10/48/3 [5]

This is a well-balanced PvE and PvP build, with one point to distribute at your discretion. It can dish out large amounts of damage, and Dragon's Breath and Blast Wave help massively in PvP. However, if your focus is on PvP, it is best to remove points from Playing With Fire and put them into Blazing Speed.


Hybrid Arcane/Fire - 33/28/0 [6]

An extremely devastating Arena PvP build which is only barely beaten by Heavy Fire in PvE environments. There are few enemies which cannot be buried by a critical hit of an instant-cast Pyroblast backed by Arcane Power.


PvP Fire - 17/41/3 [7]

Another PvP build. focuses on using scorch for quick criticals. magic attunement and improved counterspell for when you run into casters and arcane impact for when you get up close and personal.
[edit] Arcanist

With the addition of several new talents in the Arcane tree, it is now viable to play as a heavily Arcane spec'd Mage. From Empowered Arcane Missiles, which offers a high damage output at the cost of increased mana, to Mind Mastery (Spell Damage increase) and Spell Power (Critical Strike Damage Bonus), the Arcane Mage has truly arrived.

Typical Arcane Builds

Arcane Overload - 61/0/0 [8]

Sure to inspire heated debates, this exclusive Arcane build offers heavy damage and amazing utility. Mind Mastery and Spell Power provide more than enough fire power to your Arcane Missiles, having Arcane Power is icing on the top. Presence of Mind can also be used very creatively in this build to quickly sheep your foe, or to blast out a Fireball (handy for the DOT) or Frostbolt.

PvP Frost - 41/0/20 [9]

This build has been growing more and more popular among mages. With the combination of Shatter and Ice Shards in the frost tree, stacked with Arcane Power and Spell Power, this enables the mage to experience the maximization of all the critical strike bonus talents. While relying heavily on chance and burst damage, this build allows the mage to have close to 100% critical strike chance if used properly. While the target is frozen, you gain 50% critical strike. At level 70, your base critical strike will be around 15-20%. If you are clear casting, you gain 30% critical strike. 50% + 20% + 30% = 100%! Stack that with ZHC and Arcane Power and your enemies will be shattered to pieces!

Arena Frost - 33/0/28 [10]

This build is currently a very popular build among high rating mages. This build has maximum controlled burst damage with Shatter, Ice Shards, Spell Power and Arcane Power. Ice Block is included and is considered by many mages in arena as required.

Balanced Arcanist - 43/11/7 [11]

All the bonus damage you can get from arcane tree, amazing utility and "3 Minute Mage" talents for those moments when you really need blow up something fast.

Variant 3 minute mage - 31/30/0 [12]

This varies from the normal 3 minute mage builds in that it tries to be viable for both PvP and PvE (arcane meditation). Few enemies can withstand the "arcane power - pyroblast - PoM - pyroblast - fireblast - blast wave" combo with enough HP left to be a threat.

Elementalist

Very uncommon before the 1.11 Mage Talent review. Several mages abandoned the (element)/Arcane builds and began using Fire/Frost builds that utilized the synergy between the two trees. These builds are very effective in PvP, and can see use in Raids as well. Elementalists may want to inform the raids leader of their build beforehand, since there are unique problems associated with this style in PvE.

Many Elementalists tend to focus on one element of the other, often using Fire for DPS and Frost for control and Shatter. A balanced approach offers more versatility, and similar damaging power. It’s also alluded to by its users as requiring more skill, since the “crutches” from the Arcane tree (usually Imp. Counterspell and PoM that see much use in PvP builds) are never present in these builds.


Typical Elemental Builds

Balanced - 0/24/27 [13]

This build mixes the survivability of Frost with the burst damage of Fire. A solid PVP or RAID build depending on your personal preference.


Fire n Ice - 0/30/21[14]

Whereas the build above aims to walk the line of surviving and dealing high damage, this build is a PVP machine. Frost is used mainly for Shatter to set up heavy damage via an array of AoE attacks. This template is supreme for burning down multiple foes in rapid fashion.

Frost Over Fire - 0/20/41[15]

This build is less for mage who want the high max damage, but want more survival options. This build will give you the survival capabilities of frost, with the high damage with pyroblast. This build is more for PvP, because of the higher use for frostbite. Shatter+Frostbite will make your spells crit a lot when used correctly, and with Master of Elements, that is a lot of mana regained. The extra frost nova from the water element only increase this, plus the extra DPS never hurts. There are 4 extra points, two in frost and two in fire if you don't like to increase your range,(Flame Throwing and Arctic Reach) but for some end game raid bosses the extra 6 feet can take you out of some of their spell ranges.