Arcane Mage Talents Guide

Recommended Talents For Raid

• Vexie and the Geargrinders: Sunfury
• Cauldron of Carnage: Sunfury
• Rik Reverb: Sunfury
• Stix Bunkerjunker: Spellslinger Aoe
• Sprocketmonger Lockenstock : Sunfury
• The One-Armed Bandit: Spellslinger Aoe
• Mug’zee Head of Security: Sunfury
• Chrome King Gallywix: Sunfury

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The class talent tree received a major overhaul, removing most defensive talents and replacing them with mostly weak utility options. Spells like Mirror Image and Greater Invisibility are still present, but since their defensive components were removed, they are largely situational and mainly useful in specific Mythic+ scenarios. There are three talents that revolve around Mirror Image and four talents that revolve around Greater Invisibility, which you are more or less forced to pick since there are no better alternatives.

In Midnight, there are two new notable choice nodes. One is a choice between Time Walk and Temporal Realignment. Time Walk may seem familiar, as it is essentially a renamed version of Master of Time from The War Within. Temporal Realignment, on the other hand, functions as a budget cheat death that automatically triggers Alter Time if you drop below 25% health and heals you back to 50%. I would still recommend picking Time Walk in almost every situation, but there is a strong possibility that Temporal Realignment will see some play.

The second new choice node is between Spatial Manipulation and Reflection. In most cases, you will want to pick Spatial Manipulation for the extra Shimmer charge, but Reflection may be worth considering in certain niche situations.

The spec tree also received a major overhaul and is now largely split between Arcane Orb and Arcane Missiles Clearcasting spenders, depending on your build. Talents like Overpowered Missiles, Aether Attunement, and High Voltage heavily buff your missile output and add extra functionality, such as Arcane Missiles granting Arcane Charges. On the other hand, talents like Orb Barrage and Orb Mastery focus on increasing Arcane Orb throughput and allow Arcane Orb to consume Clearcasting procs.

With Midnight, Blizzard introduced a brand new ability for Arcane Mage called Arcane Pulse, which you can talent into. In its current state, the spell feels very awkward to use, and from my experience it sees little to no value in Mythic+. Evocation is now a talent, but it no longer provides the Siphon Storm intellect buff. As a result, no current builds pick it, and it functions purely as a mana recovery tool.

As mentioned earlier, Arcane Mage lost many of its Arcane Charge refund buffs and talents, such as Intuition and Glorious Incandescence. Because of this, the gameplay loop now revolves around spending Arcane Charges and rebuilding them through Arcane Orb, Arcane Blast, Arcane Pulse, or Arcane Missiles if you are talented into High Voltage.

Spellslinger

This hero talent, as the name suggests, focuses on slinging as many spells as possible. The entire hero talent tree revolves around Arcane Splinters, which make up a decent portion of your damage, and nearly every talent contributes to their generation.

Important Spellslinger Hero Talents

Splintering Sorcery: Casting Arcane Blast or Arcane Pulse conjures an Arcane Splinter.

Splintering Orbs: Whenever your Arcane Orb deals damage, you summon 1 Arcane Splinter, up to 2. Additionally, Arcane Orb damage is increased by 25%. This is one of the most important Spellslinger talents, making Arcane Orb a strong Arcane Splinter generator.

Augury Abounds: Conjuring one or more Arcane Splinters has a 10% chance to conjure a burst of 8 Arcane Splinters.

Infused Splinters: Direct damage from Arcane Splinters has a 25% chance to grant 1 stack of Arcane Salvo. This talent gives significantly more value to Arcane Splinter generation. When generating many splinters at once, you can rapidly gain Arcane Salvo stacks, so you must actively track your current stack count to not overcap.

Polished Focus: Casting Arcane Barrage at 20 or more Arcane Salvo stacks refunds 5 Arcane Salvo stacks and increases Arcane Barrage damage by 15%. This is the most important talent in the Spellslinger hero tree and completely changes how Arcane is played compared to Sunfury. When playing Spellslinger, Arcane Barrage should only be cast at 20 Arcane Salvo stacks, and almost never before.

Spellfrost Teachings: Direct damage from Arcane Splinters reduces the cooldown of Arcane Orb by 0.25 seconds. This talent heavily alters gameplay, as you need to constantly monitor when Arcane Orb becomes available.

Splinter Storm: Whenever you have 8 or more active Arcane Splinters, you automatically cast Splinter Storm at your target, instantly shattering all embedded splinters and dealing their damage upfront instead of over time. Splinter Storm has a 10% chance to grant Clearcasting. This talent is fully passive and does not require any gameplay adjustments.

Defensive Spellslinger talents

Reactive Barrier: Prismatic Barrier can absorb up to 25% more damage based on your missing health, reaching maximum effectiveness when you are below 25% health.

Phantasmal Image: Your Mirror Image summons one extra clone.

You should by default always pick Reactive Barrier, since Mirror Image doesn’t have a damage reduction attached to it anymore.

Sunfury

This hero talent revolves around your Arcane Phoenix pet, which is automatically summoned during Arcane Surge, and a variety of Fire themed passive effects. It also features an extremely powerful burst window through Arcane Soul, which turns Arcane into a fast paced Arcane Barrage spam machine and is one of the most fun buffs in the kit.

Important Sunfury Hero Talents

Glorious Incandesence: Arcane Barrage summons 1 Meteor for every 5 Arcane Salvo stacks consumed.

Pyrocosm: Each wave of Arcane Missiles has a 10% chance to summon a Meteorite. When a Meteorite lands, you have a 5% chance to gain Clearcasting.

Spellfire Salvo: Arcane Salvo can stack 5 additional times. Meteorite damage is increased by 15%.

Memory of Al’ar: During Arcane Surge, you gain twice as many stacks of Mana Cascade. When your Arcane Phoenix expires, it empowers you, granting Arcane Soul for 6 sec.

Arcane Soul: Arcane Barrage grants Clearcasting and generates 4 Arcane Charges. Each cast of Arcane Barrage grants 5 stacks of Arcane Salvo and casting Arcane Barrage does not consume Arcane Salvo. This effectively makes your Soul window a Barrage spam. Your aim is to get 25 Arcane Salvo stacks before you get into Arcane Salvo, and then spam Arcane Barrage throughout the entire Arcane Soul window.

Sunfury Execution / Savor the Moment (choice node): Arcane Barrage deals 15% increased damage to enemies affected by Touch of the Magi. When you cast Arcane Surge, its duration is extended by 0.4 sec for each Spellfire Sphere you have, up to 2.0 sec.