Mage Talent Ratings

This page should be updated post 1.11 Mage talent changes.

This page is formatted with Mage talents listed by skill and tier. Comments follow talents in italics.

Arcane

Tier 1 - Arcane Subtlety/Arcane Focus/Improved Arcane Missiles

Arcane Subtlety
Reduces your target's resistance to all your spells by 5 per point and reduces threat of Arcane spells by 20% per point.
Went from Limited use prior to 1.11 to almost a must have due to the 10 points of spell penetration.

Arcane Focus
Reduces the chance that the opponent can resist your arcane spells by 2% per point.
Limited use. Resists are not an issue in AvH play. May prove to be of marginal value in top end play. Often three points are spent here to get you up the tree.

Improved Arcane Missiles
Gives you a 20% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while channeling Arcane Missiles.
Arcane Missiles are rarely used and Mages are rarely hit while raiding. Not much use overall.

Tier 2 - Wand Specialization/Arcane Concentration

Wand Specialization
Prereq: 5 points Arcane

Increases your damage with Wands by 12.5% per point.
Not a great talent but not a horrendous one. Arcane Concentration is much better in this same tier.

Magic Absorption
Prereq: 5 points Arcane

Increases all resistances by 2 per point and causes all spells you resist to restore 1% per point of your total mana.
10 points of resistance for 5 Talent points. The mana return is virtually useless while raiding and doesn't equate to enough in PvP to matter.

Arcane Concentration
Prereq: 5 points Arcane

Gives you a 2% per point chance of entering a Clearcasting state after any damage spell hits a target. The Clearcasting state reduces the mana cost of your next damage spell by 100%.
This works out to about a 10% mana reduction for your spell casting in combat. Very nice to have.

Tier 3 - Evocation/Improved Arcane Explosion/Improved Dampen Magic

Evocation
Prereq: 10 points Arcane

While channeling this spell, your mana regeneration is active and increased by 1500%. Lasts 8 seconds.
This is a great ability to have for any Mage. It is basically a full mana heal. Keeps you going during long fights.

Improved Arcane Explosion
Prereq: 10 points Arcane

Reduces the casting time of your Arcane Explosion by 0.3 seconds per point.
5 points in this makes Arcane Explosion an instant cast spell. This is a great Talent to have.

Improved Dampen Magic
Prereq: 10 points Arcane

Increases the effect of your Dampen Magic spell by 25% per point.
This is useful if you are going to face a large number of offensive casters. In the grand scheme it is a moderately useful Talent.

Tier 4 - Improved Counterspell/Improved Mana Shield/Arcane Meditation

Improved Counterspell
Prereq: 15 points Arcane

Gives your Counterspell a 50% per point chance to silence the target for 4 seconds.
This is a great ability for fighting casters. A must have for an Arcane build.

Improved Mana Shield
Prereq: 15 points Arcane

Increases the damage absorbed by your Mana Shield by 50% per point.
Limited usefulness. You can already instantly recast Mana Shield at will this only lengthens the duration between casts it does not improve the efficiency of the skill.

Arcane Meditation
Prereq: 15 points Arcane, 1 point Evocation

Allows 3% per point of your Mana regeneration to continue while casting.
Maximum 15% of your mana regen rate during combat. This would make an Arcane Mage require slightly less down time. At level 60 this could be 15 mana per second when the Mage has around 7000 total mana. You do the math.

Tier 5 - Presence of Mind/Arcane Mind

Presence of Mind
Prereq: 20 points Arcane

When activated, your next Mage spell with a casting time less than 10 seconds becomes an instant cast spell.
This is a great Talent. Hard to get with comprehensive Fire or Frost builds however.

Arcane Mind
Increases your maximum Mana by 2% per point.
Prereq: 20 points Arcane, 1 point Evocation

Always nice to have more mana. Hard to get this far into the Arcane Tree for any but an Arcane Mage. At level 60 for a mage with 7000 mana this is can be a 560 mana boost.

Tier 6 - Arcane Instability

Arcane Instability
Prereq: 25 points Arcane, 1 point Presence of Mind

Increases your spell damage and critical strike chance by 1% per point.
Damage is a Mage's key attribute. More is good.

Tier 7 - Arcane Power

Arcane Power
Prereq: 30 points Arcane, 3 points Arcane Instability

When activated, your spells deal 35% more damage while costing 35% more mana to cast. This effect lasts 15 seconds.
More damage!

Frost Talents

Tier 1 - Improved Frostbolt/Permafrost

Improved Frostbolt
Reduces the casting time of your Frostbolt spell by 0.1 seconds per point.
Increases the DPS of your most used spell as a Frost Mage.

Permafrost
Increases the duration of your chill effects by 1 second per point.
Limited use as you will be rechilling before the original chill wears off in most cases.

Tier 2 - Ice Shards/Winter's Chill/Improved Frost Nova

Ice Shards
Prereqs: 5 points Frost

Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Frost spells by 20% per point.
Nice to see the big numbers. Increases your overall damage by about 1% per point invested.

Winter's Chill
Prereqs: 5 points Frost

Increases the power of your chill effects by slowing the target's movement by an additional 10%.
Very useful. The slower they move the longer you and your group mates live.

Improved Frost Nova
Prereqs: 5 points Frost

Reduces the cooldown of your Frost Nova spell by 2 seconds.
Improved CC. Moderate usefulness to a Frost mage as your target(s) will already be moving slowly and should be easily avoided.

Tier 3 - Piercing Ice/Cold Snap/Improved Blizzard

Piercing Ice
Prereqs: 10 points Frost

Increases the damage done by your frost spells by 2%.
More damage

Cold Snap
Prereqs: 10 points Frost

When activated, this spell finishes the cooldown on all of your cold spells.
Very useful. CoC, Frost Nova, Blizzard, Cold Snap, CoC, Frost Nova, Blizzard.

Improved Blizzard
Prereqs: 10 points Frost

Adds a chill effect to your Blizzard spell. This effect lowers the target's movement speed to 55% +5% per point of normal. Lasts 8.50 seconds.
Very nice Talent. Turns your AoE damage spell into an AoE damage/snare.

Tier 4 - Arctic Reach/Frost Channeling/Improved Frost Ward/Shatter

Arctic Reach
Prereqs: 15 points Frost

Increases the range of your Frostbolt spell and the radius of your Frost Nova and Cone of Cold spells by 10% per point.
This is a nice to have Talent.

Frost Channeling
Prereqs: 15 points Frost, 1 point Cold Snap

Reduces the mana cost of your frost spells by 5% per point.
Less mana cost means less downtime. Frost is about efficiency and this Talent helps your efficiency.

Improved Frost Ward
Prereqs: 15 points Frost

50% of the damage absorbed by your Frost Ward is added to your mana.
This is a low priority Talent. Limited experience with it as there always seem to be better places to put the points.

Shatter
Prereqs: 15 points Frost, 2 points Frost Nova

Increases the critical strike chance of your frost spells against frozen targets by 10% per point.
This is a nice to have Talent. Remember it only affects frozen targets so should be paired up with Frostbite.

Tier 5 - Ice Block/Improved Cone of Cold

Ice Block
Prereqs: 20 points Frost

You become encased in a block of ice, protecting you from all physical attacks and spells for 10 seconds, but during that time you cannot attack, move, or cast spells.
Defense. Pure defense.

Improved Cone of Cold
Prereqs: 20 points Frost

Increases the damage dealt by your Cone of Cold spell by 5% + 10% per point.
35% increased damage for an AoE spell. Nice. Get a crit with this and Ice Shards and you'll see some really big numbers. The only drawback to this is that it only affects one spell. It is a big boost tho. Also helps efficiency; by maxing this out, you turn a horrible damage to mana ratio against a single target with CoC to something much more usable.

Tier 6 - Frostbite

Frostbite
Prereqs: 25 points Frost

Gives your chill effects a 3% chance per point to freeze the target for 5 seconds.
More CC. Important to note that this affects *all* of your chill effects: e.g. Frost Bolt, Frost/Ice Armor, Cone of Cold. This is also very effective with Blizzard, as long as you have at least a point in the Improved Blizzard talent.

Tier 7 - Ice Barrier

Ice Barrier
Prereqs: 30 points Frost, 1 point Ice Block

Instantly shields you, absorbing 455 damage. Lasts 1 minute. While the shield holds, spells will not be interrupted.
Very nice to have. Very expensive to obtain.

Fire Talents

Tier 1 - Improved Fireball/Impact

Improved Fireball
Reduces the casting time of your Fireball by 0.1 seconds per point.
Increase the DPS of your most used spell by 2.5% per point. A must have Talent for a Fire Mage.

Impact
Gives your fire spells a 2% chance to stun the target per point for 2 seconds.
Adding a stun component to all of your spells! Awesome.

Tier 2 - Ignite/Improved Fire Blast/Flame Throwing

Ignite
Prereqs: 10 points Fire

Your critical strikes from fire damage spells cause the target to burn for an additional 8% of your spell's damage per point over 4 seconds.
More damage!

Improved Fire Blast
Prereqs: 10 points Fire

Reduces the cooldown of your Fire Blast spell by 0.5 seconds.
More frequent Fire Blasts are nice. Medium priority Talent.

Flame Throwing
Prereqs: 10 points Fire

Increases the range of your fire spells by 3 yards.
Nice to have since you have limited CC as a Fire Mage.

Tier 3 - Incinerate/Pyroblast/Improved Flamestrike/Burning Soul

Incinerate
Prereqs: 10 points Fire

Increases the critical strike chance of your Fire Blast and Scorch spells by 2% per point.
If you plan to use Scorch it can be quite useful. If you are more of a Fireball user you can give this one a pass.

Pyroblast
Prereqs: 10 points Fire, 5 points Improved Fireball

Hurls an immense fiery boulder that causes 148 to 195 fire damage and an additional 56 damage over 12 seconds.
Very very useful to have this spell as an opener.

Improved Flamestrike
Prereqs: 10 points Fire

Increases the critical strike chance of your Flamestrike spell by 5% per point. Nice to have Talent.

Burning Soul
Prereqs: 10 points Fire

Gives your fire spells a 25% chance to not lose casting time when you take damage. Very useful when you play up close and personal. Very useful in AvH.

Tier 4 - Improved Scorch/Improved Fire Ward

Improved Scorch
Prereqs: 15 points Fire

Burns the target for an additional 5% of your Scorch spell damage over 4 seconds.
Limited use. You chain cast Scorch spells once per 1.5 seconds. If you are chain casting you lose most of the benefits of this Talent. If you are not chain casting Scorch you lose the benefit of casting Scorch.

Improved Fire Ward
Prereqs: 15 points Fire

Causes your fire ward to reflect 20% per point of the damage absorbed back to the caster.
Useful against enemies that use Fire spells.

Tier 5 - Critical Mass/Blast Wave

Critical Mass
Prereqs: 20 points Fire

Increases the critical strike chance of your fire spells by 2% per point.
3% boost in average spell damage. Very nice to have.

Blast Wave
Prereqs: 20 points Fire, 3 points Improved Flamestrike

A wave of flame radiates outward from the caster, damaging all enemies caught within the blast for 160 to 192 fire damage, and dazing them for 6 seconds.
Great AoE spell. Big damage plus snare. With this you have Flamestrike, Blastwave, Cone of Cold, Blizzard and Arcane Explosion all available.

Tier 6 - Fire Power

Fire Power
Prereqs: 25 points Fire, 3 points Critical Mass

Increases the damage done by your fire spells by 2% per point.
10% more damage! Must have for a Fire Mage.

Tier 7 - Combustion

Combustion
Prereqs: 30 points Fire, 5 points Fire Power

When activated, this spell gives your next fire damage spell a 100% critical strike chance.
Ability to force a Critical strike. Great Talent.