#0 - Aug. 25, 2006, 1:59 p.m.
2006.08.25: Slight updates for 1.12 and several small corrections.
Contents
I. Introduction
II. Arcane Talents
III. Fire Talents
IV. Frost Talents
V. Talent Builds
VI. Specs for Levelling
VII. Version History
I. Introduction
This post analyzes and discusses mage talents. It also serves as an introduction to the art of crafting a personal talent spec.
As this thread is broken, I've set up for further discussion of talents and specs here:
http://subcreation.net/mage/
Talents in General
Once you reach level 10, you receive a talent point each level until level 60, amounting to a total of 51 talent points. These talents provide you with a way to customize your character to suit your playstyle and preferences. You can choose your talents by pressing the 'N' key and allocating your points by clicking. Note the three tabs at the bottom of the window: Arcane, Fire and Frost. These are referenced as 'talent trees' and are set up in tiers. You'll have to spend points in the shallow tiers before you can access the talents in the deeper tiers. Certain talents also require specific prerequisites before you can train in them.
A talent calculator is available here:
http://subcreation.net/mage111/
Resetting Talents
For a fee, you can reset talents by speaking to any Mage class trainer. You pay to reset all of your talents at once, there is no way to undo one or two talents. The first time you reset your talents, it costs 1 gold. The next time it will be 5 gold, then 10 gold, then every time thereafter 5 more gold, e.g. 15, 20, 25, etc., all the way up to a maximum of 50 gold. However, the cost of resetting talents decays over time. This cost reduces by a rate of 5 gold per month to a minimum of 10 gold.
Note: If you have trained any talent-given spells such as Blast Wave, Pyroblast or Ice Barrier, you will have to rebuy Rank 2 and above when you retrain your talents.
There is no right way or wrong way to spec, and above all your spec should be tailored to the way you play. Enhance the aspects of the Mage that you most enjoy and take everything said in this guide with a grain of salt.
Talent Evaluation Methodology
I evaluate talents according to a five point methodology:
Damage -- Does this talent offer improvements to the damage potential of a mage?
Efficiency -- Does this talent help a mage be more mana efficient or have better threat reduction?
Survivability -- Will this talent make it easier for a mage to stay alive?
Control -- Does this talent influence the crowd control capabilities of the mage?
Equivalence (=) -- Can this talent be replaced via gear or does the talent add something unique and different that isn't available by other means?
Also, if there are powerful talent synergies worth mentioning, they are listed under "Use With:" for the particular talents involved.
Finally, I offer a five star rating for the talent in three areas: PvP, Raiding (Raid) and Levelling (Level).
The five star rating translates thus:
* Not useful, no impact at all on this area
** Slightly useful, but doesn't affect a core aspect of this area
*** Moderately useful, good in certain situations
**** Useful, a solid talent for this area
***** Very useful, one of the best talents for this area
