Cendro's
Burning Crusade Talent Specialization Guide (posted on the forums in Feb 2007)
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Purpose:This guide is designed to help mages pick a new build or get ideas about how to refine a current one. All the Specs here are ideas, they are not intended to be followed 100% by everybody. Like everthing else in life cookie-cutter specs have room to manuver, and I encorage all of you to tweek these specs if you feel that you are better off spending certain points differently. To that end I recomend you take a look at Deseis' excelent Mage Talent guide. It explains every mage talent and rates its usefulness in different aspect of play:
Deseis Excellent Mage Talent
All constructive criticism is welcome, and if you repost any part of this please give me credit, it is all original work:
Temporary Note: If you like this guide please post, I'd like to get it stickied to help all the mages out there who are having throuble determining how to spec. If you beleave that this guide is worth of a sticky, you can click the bio hazard sign above this post and select "sticky request."
Notes: All Specs have been flagged PvP, Raid, PvE or Omni (all). This flag refers to the spec's main intention, and does not mean that the spec is unfit for other aspects of the game. Omni specs are those that are specificly ment for people who both do it all, they are a compimise. Also you will notice that there is no Leveling flag, that is because this guide is only inteded for end-game Mages; there are already great lvling guides elsewhere. Also know that while most bulds will be useful for PvE, but some are more useful than others, and those are flagged PvE. Builds flagged with two aspects (eg. PvP-PvE) are great for both but they should probably be tuned a little if you plan on just doing one of the two.
Heavy arcane:
These builds gereraly work well in all rolls, The first two rely on AM as their main DPS spell, while the later two rely on Fireball and Frost bolt respectively. All have the famous/infamous timers "Presence of Mind" and "Arcane Power" for those times when you need that quick DPS boost.
(Pure Arcane 61/0/0)///Raid-PvE
Pure builds are great because they maximize the potential of a single tree, and are actually very viable in most situations. It also takes advantage of gear that give bonuses to specific schools, which will maximize your +spell damage options. However they suffer from a complete lack of variety. While you will find yourself using spells such as fire blast and Frost Nova often, you will be at a huge disadvantage if you face arcane resistant mobs/bosses/Players, and you are very vulnerable to spell locks. This Particular build gives you all that arcane has to offer: Huge damage arcane missiles, some damage mitigation (imp MS, Prismatic cloak) huge burst damage (AP/Spell Power), and plenty of raid viability (Aggro reduction, larger mana pool, more mana regen). A great Spec if you like the arcane tree and useful for all aspects of the game. However it is a little lacking in PvP, that's where the other Arcane builds come in.
(Heavy arcane with PoM Pyroblast 48/13/0)///PvP
This build takes a few points away from the arcane tree (minimum of 11, but I opted to take flame throwing for that extra range) and gives you the infamous PoM/Pyroblast combination (or sheep/AP/pyro/pom/pyro). You still get to enjoy most of the arcane tree's talents, but you will have to sacrifice a few raid talents for this. This build however is still quite viable for raiding, but more specialized for PvP.
(Arcane/Fire 41/20/0)///PvP-PvE
This is the first Hybrid build. Although it has most of its points in Arcane, your main nuking spell is now Fireball rather than arcane missiles since it does not include imp. AM or empower AM. However Arcane Blast and Arcane Explosion remain very useful (thanks to arcane impact and mind mastery). This build combines the power of fire with the burst potential of Arcane. Spell power combined with Ignite make your fire crits 245% base damage. While AP and PoM Offer a 15 second "panic button" you can use when you are in trouble or need that extra on-demand DPS. Pumping your Crit rating is a must with this build, as is relies on crits for its massive damage. While less consistent and less raid viable than the other arcane specs this is a great PvP and PvE build.
(Spell Power/Fire 33/28/0)///PvP-PvE
Although the point allocations may look sloppy, this is another strong arcane/fire build. Here you lose the great Mind mastery and slow, but you gain some raw fire DPS and crit as well as PvP great Blast wave. All the while you maintain the massive crits provided by Spell power. The extra 6% to crit with fire spells takes full advantage of Spell Power making sure you see those huge fire crits more often. The trade off is that your arcane and frost spell will take a bit of a DPS hit since you specialized in fire.
(Arcane/Frost 36/0/25)///PvP-PvE
This is the other main Arcane Hybrid build. This spreads out the points more evenly than arcane fire, so you will lose the direct damage boost of mind mastery and slow, but you gain much more survivability and huge crits. The main difference between choosing frost over fire to complement the arcane tree it that your will be hitting for less damage, but you will have much higher survivability and you will crit more often (thanks to shatter). Also unlike the fire tree where you will not have to wait 4 seconds before your total crit damage is realized. If you like the frost tree and don't mind giving up the elemental this is possibly the best PvP build you can get. There is some room for adjustment here, giving up Arcane fortitude and 1-2 points in Arcane potency for Imp. CoC, ice floes, or even arctic reach.
Fire Heavy:
The fire tree represents pure power. All but 4 of the fire tree's talents are purely offensive in nature; most of those directly increase DPS (increase crit/damage or lower CDs). It has always been the Go-to tree for maximizing raid DPS (except for fire Res dungeons), and has incredible power in PvE and PvP as well. There is much debate about weather fire or frost is better for PvP, but the truth is it all depends on play style. Fire is much more offensive, lacking the survivability of frost, but it is capable of putting up truly awesome number consistently (can't say that about arcane or frost). In short: in Raids fire is all about Massive DPS, while in PvP it is all about consistency (no dependence on shatter or AP/PoM).
(Pure fire 0/58/3)///omni
Another pure build, subject to the same strengths and pigeon holes as the others. This build has unmatched power and is equally viable in PvE, PvP and Raiding. However there are a few variations that will specialize this build PvP or PvE
(Heavy fire with imp CS 17/44/0)///PvP
Same as the pure fire build, but it sacrifices some less important talent for one of the mage's PvP gems Improved Counter Spell. If you plan on PvPing more than raiding or PvEing, you may want to consider this build.
(Heavy fire with PoM 21/40/0)///PvP
You sacrifice even more fire talents and Dragon's Breath for the massive burst DPS of PoM. You also get imp CS. Another great PvP spec.
(Fire Heavy Raid 17/41/3)///raid
Yet another variable of the Pure fire Build that removes talents that are completely useless in raids. It maximizes sustained DPS while giving you some arcane talents that give you more raid viability. There is some room for adjustments if you wish to move around a few talents, but remember that in raids efficient is very important. This spec is intended ONLY for raiders, as it sacrifices almost all PvP viability in favor of efficiency.
(Fire Raider-PvPer 10/48/3)///omni
This is a popular raiding build that bridges the gap between pure fire and the Fire Pure raider. It gets rid of some of the less important fire talents to make way for 3 arcane talents which increase efficiency and reliability (the most important no doubt is arcane concentration). The fire talents you lose are useful however, so to maximize the potential of the fire tree I still recomend pure fire. Even so this is a great option for those fire lovers who raid and do not want to handicap themselves in PvP.
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