PvE Arcane Mage Talents & Builds – WoW Classic

Find the best raid and dungeon single-target build for Arcane Mage, along with an AoE build that can be used for AoE dungeon-spamming. Arcane Mages have only one standard viable build that can be used throughout WoW Classic, with the build having a few possible variations while keeping most of the key talents.

PvE Arcane Mage

Stat Priority

Best Professions

Talents & Builds

Rotation & Cooldowns

Pre-Raid & Best in Slot (BiS)

Enchants & Consumables

Standard Build

The Standard Arcane/Frost Mage build is commonly known as the best Single-Target damage output throughout the majority of the game. It consistently performs the best as long as it is paired with a Winter’s Chill build in the same group, showcasing an amazing display until the later parts when the Fire Specialization takes over.

The build only takes a few talents in the Frost Tree, however, it primarily uses Frostbolt as its main damage source. From the Frost Tree, only a few talents are extremely important such as Improved Frostbolt, Elemental Precision, Ice Shards, Piercing Ice, and Frost Channeling. Frost Channeling in particular is very important since u will consume a lot of Mana with this build. Cold Snap is subjective, yet very useful in case you need to double Frost Nova.

Meanwhile, in the Arcane Talent Tree, you have multiple mandatory talents such as Arcane Focus, Arcane Subtlety, Arcane Concentration, Arcane MeditationPresence of Mind, Arcane Mind, Arcane Instability, and lastly, Arcane Power. The rest of the talents from the Arcane Tree are somewhat subjective, meaning that you can experiment with the build for a bit of variation. An example of a variation for this build would be to replace the Magic Absorption talent with both the Wand Specialization and Magic Attunement talents.

You will always want to reach Arcane Power and Arcane Instability since they are your biggest damage modifiers. However, be careful with how you use Presence of Mind, as it can lead to some dangerous situations where you pick up too much Threat if you use it right at the beginning before the Tank picks up aggro.

AoE Build

This variation of the Arcane Standard build keeps all the Arcane Tree intact while changing some of the vital talents from the Frost Tree. The idea behind the build is to maintain Single-Target damage capabilities while also accessing the Shatter talent. The major downside of this build is that it doesn’t have Frost Channeling, meaning that it’s not sustainable for high-end raiding, even with Mana consumables.

This build is specifically tailored for Dungeons, yet it doesn’t perform as well as a full Deep Frost AoE build in terms of AoE Damage Output, aiming to be a hybrid between Single-Target/AoE.