Arcane (WoW Talent Tree)  

The arcane tree has two uses in the mages repertoire. At low levels of gear at level 70 the arcane tree can be used to artificially buff up another tree (either fire or frost) in which case you would use the increased spell damage and clearcasting bonuses from arcane but still cast primarily Fireballs or Frostbolts. At higher gear levels, especially with two pieces of tier 5 armor, using a spell rotation involving 3 arcane blasts, a round of arcane missiles and 1 filler spell can be very damaging... if your mana can survive it. For more in depth comments about the usage of arcane talent builds refer to the mage talent build wiki. See Mage Talent Builds

Tier 1

• Arcane Subtelty (2) - Reduces your target's resistance to all your spells by 5/10 and reduces the threat caused by your Arcane spells by 20/40%.
• This talent is one of the major benefits to a full arcane build due to the 40% threat reduction, its also a good point dump for getting higher in the tree due to the small amount of penetration.

• Arcane Focus (5) - Reduces the chance that targets can resist your Arcane spells by 2/4/6/8/10%.
• This talent is huge for a pure arcane spec because it allows you to stack much less spell hit than would otherwise be necessary. For support specs... I usually take this 3 points in this talent just to get to the next tier.

• Improved Arcane Missiles (5) - Gives you a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while channeling Arcane Missiles.
• This talent is kinda meh. For some specific circumstances it might be useful (like during the soul discharge thing on Hex Lord) but in most cases its a waste of talents. Good talent to skip.

Tier 2

• Wand Specialization (2) - Increases damage you deal with Wands by 13/25%.
• Skip it. Just... no.

• Magic Absorption (5) - Increases all resistances by 2/4/6/8/10 and causes all spells you fully resist to restore 5% of your total mana. 1 sec. cooldown.
• This is an interesting talent. Under most circumstances it will be wasted talent points. However, one of my friends is actually building a set of resistance gear to see if he can get a spec that will give him unlimited mana. Still, in most cases you're better off skipping this talent.

• Arcane Concentration (5) - Gives you a 2/4/6/8/10% chance of entering a Clearcasting state after any damage spell hits the target. The Clearcasting state reduces the mana cost of your next damage spell by 100%.
• Get this, if you're in 10 points to Arcane this talent is awesome, do not skip it.

Tier 3

• Magic Attunement (2) - Increases the effect of your Amplify Magic and Dampen Magic spells by 25/50%.
• Another skip talent most of the time, though you may want to use this as filler, up to you.

• Arcane Impact (3) - Increases the critical strike chance of your Arcane Explosion and Arcane Blast spells by 2/4/6%.
• This talent is a must if you plan on going full arcane. If not, I usually find this as a nice filler talent to progress to the next tier anyways.

• Arcane Fortitude (1) - Increases your armor by an amount equal to 100% of your Intellect.
• This talent is a useful filler talent and there's not much else to get you up to the next tiers.

Tier 4

• Improved Mana Shield (2) - Decreases the mana lost per point of damage when Mana Shield is active by 10/20%.
• Up to you whether you take this talent or Improved Counterspell. I prefer the silence effect.

• Improved Counterspell (2) - Gives your Counterspell a 50/100% chance to silence your target for 4 sec.
• A preference talent, I prefer this one. For raiding its not terribly useful, most mobs are immune to the silence effect.

• Arcane Meditation (3) - Allows 10/20/30% of your mana regeneration to continue while casting.
• Great talent, if you're this far into Arcane pick this up.

Tier 5

• Improved Blink (2) - For 4 sec. after casting Blink, your chance to be hit by all attacks and spells is reduced by 13/25%.
• Somewhat useful for PVP, not very useful for PVE, up to you.

• Presence of Mind - When activated, your next Mage spell with a casting time less than 10 sec. becomes an instant cast spell.
• This is a fun ability, while not actually super useful. When paired with Pyroblast you can do a lot of damage on the run. That said, if you're going farther into the arcane tree it is pretty much required, so that you can get the better talents later.

• Arcane Mind (5) - Increases your total Intellect by 3/6/9/12/15%.
• Get it, its great. Especially when paired with a certain talent later on >.>

Tier 6

• Prismatic Cloak (2) - Reduces all damage taken by 2/4%.
• Useful for PVP I suppose, but in PVE you shouldn't be taking damage and there are better talents out there to increase your damage.

• Arcane Instability (3) - Increases your spell damage and critical strike chance by 1/2/3%.
• Get it. No excuses.

• Arcane Potency (3) - Increases the critical strike chance of any spell cast while Clearcasting by 10/20/30%.
• Again, great talent, more crits = more damage.

Tier 7

• Empowered Arcane Missiles (3) - Your Arcane Missiles spell gains an additional 15/30/45% of your bonus spell damage effects, but mana cost is increased by 2/4/6%.
• Great talent, especially when you pair it with Clearcasting.

• Arcane Power (1) - When activated, your spells deal 30% more damage, while costing 30% more mana to cast. This effect lasts 15 sec.
• Awesome talent, its like a trinket you can use at the same time as your trinket. Get it, watch your mana disappear.

• Spell Power (2) - Increases critical strike damage bonus of all spells by 25/50%.
• More damage = more damage, get it.

Tier 8

• Mind Mastery (5) - Increases spell damage by up to 5/10/15/20/25% of your total intellect.
• One of the best talents in the Arcane tree. This talent allows you to artificially boost your spell damage by a very large amount, especially if you stack intellect. This talent has great synergy with Arcane Mind which you should have picked up.

Tier 9

• Slow (1) - Reduces target's movement speed by 50%, increases the time between ranged attacks by 50%, and increases casting time by 50%. Lasts 15 sec. Slow can only affect one target at a time.
• If you're going for a pure damage spec for raids, unfortunately you'll probably want to skip this talent because it does not increase your damage. However, whenever I spec this far into arcane I always pick this talent up for the utility of having the spell, as well as having fun. And besides... its only 1 talent.

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