Mage Talent Ratings

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 the threat generated by your offensive arcane spells by 10% plus 10% per point.
Limited use. Threat can be managed without thread reduction Talents. The late changes to Taunt may make these more useful but they are strictly for PvE.

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.

Improved Arcane Missiles
Gives you a 20% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while channeling Arcane Missiles.
Makes your most used AvH spell uninterruptible. Almost a must have. Also makes a good entry tier Talent.

Tier 2 - Wand Specialization/Arcane Concentration

Wand Specialization
Increases your damage with Wands by 5% per point.
Virtually useless. Wands have sub-optimal DPS due to a lack of autofire. Improving a sub-optimal ability is not so useful.

Arcane Concentration
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
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
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
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 Counterspell/Arcane Meditation

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

Cold Snap
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
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.