Talent Progression GuideFollow

The following is a talent progression guide I put together in the hope to address the many threads that regularly popup on this forum asking for talent advice, level-by-level talent guides, etc.

Please note that the following talent progressions are what I personally view as the most efficient distribution of talent points according to the playstyle being addressed. It is by no means "THE" talent progression that everyone should follow but simply a guide to point you in the right direction.

Due to limited talent points there are often places where you can easily swap talent points from one talent to another depending on which one you favor more. (E.g. 2/2 Flame Throwing or added points into Pyromaniac for +crit and decreased mana cost). Please remember that the following is meant as a guide only and it is the reader's perogative to choose how to distribute talent points according to personal preference. Constructive criticism and corrections are of course always welcome but please refrain from lengthy debates and/or arguments and flaming.

FROST AOE GRINDING PROGRESSION

Grinding focuses on maximizing xp/hour. There are two approaches to grinding; single target and AoE. Single target grinding focuses on maximizing damage output while minimizing downtime (time required to replenish HP and mana). When AoE grinding you will be stopping to replenish hp and mana more often but is offset by being able to kill 8+ mobs each cycle. Personally, I took the AoE approach and averaged 40,000 xp/hour (unrested) from level 40 t0 60. Regardless of which approach you choose, that is a good xp/hour rate to aim for.

Solo Grinding (Levels 10 to 32): Fire 0/23/0
5/5 Improved Fireball
5/5 Ignite
1/1 Pyroblast
2/2 Flame Throwing
2/2 Incinerate
3/3 Improved Scorch
3/3 Master of Elements
2/2 Burning Soul

Frost AoE Grinding (Level 32): Respec Frost 0/0/23

3/3 Elemental Precision
2/5 Improved Frostbolt
2/2 Improved Frost Nova
3/3 Permafrost
3/3 Improved Blizzard
3/3 Piercing Ice
1/1 Cold Snap
3/3 Frost Channeling
2/2 Arctic Reach
1/1 Ice Block

NOTE: You should respec into the above build instead of putting points into it from level 10 as you will suffer decreased effectiveness both in solo and group play unless you have all of the above talents at once.

Frost AoE Grinding (Levels 32 to 40): Frost 0/0/31

3/3 Improved Cone of Cold
2/2 Ice Floes
2/5 Ice Shards
1/1 Ice Barrier

You now have Ice Barrier. Continue to fill out Frost tree or move to Arcane for improved mana efficiency. From level 40 to 59 you can put points into whatever you feel will benefit you the most and work towards the build linked below.

Frost/Arcane AoE build at level 59: Frost/Arcane 18/0/33: LINK


Edited, Dec 11th 2006 6:34pm by echou

PvE GROUP INSTANCE PROGRESSIONS

The following progressions focuses on dps and mana efficiency in PvE group instances. These talent progressions differ from grinding builds primarily in the areas of threat reduction, mana regeneration, mana cost reduction, and +hit with spells.

Prior to Patch 2.0.1 it was common to see 18/X/X PvE builds that made use of the mana efficiency talents Arcane Concentration and Arcane Meditation. With the attractive higher tier talents in the Fire and Frost trees 10/X/X PvE builds are becoming more commonplace.

Fire/Arcane PvE Group Play (Levels 10 to 60): 10/41/0

5/5 Improved Fireball
5/5 Ignite
1/1 Pyroblast
2/2 Burning Soul
2/2 Incinerate
3/3 Improved Scorch
3/3 Master of Elements
3/3 Critical Mass
1/2 Flame Throwing
5/5 Fire Power
1/1 Combustion
3/3 Pyromaniac
1/2 Molten Fury
5/5 Empowered Fireball
+1 Flame Throwing

2/2 Arcane Subtlety
3/5 Arcane Focus
5/5 Arcane Concentration

Fire/Arcane PvE Group Play (Levels 10 to 60): 18/33/0

5/5 Improved Fireball
5/5 Ignite
1/1 Pyroblast
2/2 Burning Soul
2/2 Incinerate
3/3 Improved Scorch
3/3 Master of Elements
3/3 Critical Mass
1/2 Flame Throwing
5/5 Fire Power
1/1 Combustion
2/3 Pyromaniac

2/2 Arcane Subtlety
3/5 Arcane Focus
5/5 Arcane Concentration
5/5 Arcane Absorption
3/3 Arcane Meditation

Fire/Arcane PvE/PvP Hybrid (Levels 10 to 60): 21/30/0

5/5 Improved Fireball
5/5 Ignite
1/1 Pyroblast

2/2 Arcane Subtlety
3/5 Arcane Focus
5/5 Arcane Concentration
3/3 Improved Arcane Explosion
1/1 Arcane Fortitude
+1 Arcane Focus
3/3 Arcane Meditation
2/2 Improved Counterspell
1/1 Presence of Mind

2/2 Incinerate
2/2 Burning Soul
3/3 Improved Scorch
2/3 Improved Fireblast
1/1 Blastwave
3/3 Critical Mass
+1 Improved Fireblast
5/5 Fire Power


Edited, Dec 11th 2006 6:37pm by echou

Looks good, Echou.

Updated with 0/0/51 Pure Frost PvP progression and build.

This may be a stupid question...but in your fire grinding build, what is the benefit for putting 2 pts in arcane subtelty and 3 in arcane focus if arcane subtelty only affects arcane spells?

Bump

A quick question: I notice that there is no solo grinding Frost spec from 10-32 - why is this? I just started a mage and have put my first 5 points in Imp FB and I do intend to solo this character til about 40. Bad Idea? should I respec?

I was gonna go with this build:

Improved Frostbolt Rank 5
Frostbite Rank 3
Improved Frost Nova Rank 2
Cold Snap Rank 1
Piercing Ice Rank 1
Improved Blizzard Rank 3
Shatter Rank 5
Ice Block Rank 1

As you can see Ive only planned til level 30 Good build? Bad build? Average? I don't know about Ice shards but i dont seem to crit a lot so I was going to leave it until later. :P I dont know which talents are the most effective so I'm at a bit of a loss.

Interesting there are no elemental builds here. I rather like mine for AB, AV and PvE. I'll get Cold Snap next. :-)

Thank you Poldaran and Echou - If I knew how to rate up (I don't even know if I'm able to) I would ^_^ Thanks for all the advice. I will be going with Echou's build (I also read the thread on AoE grinding and it sounds like so much fun) - is that viable for AoE grinding?

This is a helpful post! thanks!

Sorry... but I am not following on this one. Are you saying without shatter and frostbite or permafrost... a mage is weak?

/clap very nice. I used one of your frost builds, and added a little more to it. Changed a little around. i posted it up there. I just liked the looks of shatter so went for it. But other than that I spent some time looking at this and it helped a lot. Thanks.