Level 15
Amplification and Rule of Threes are great. Arcane Familiar is bland.
- Amplification - Makes clearcasting arcane missiles feel extra awesome, and clearcasting happens often enough that you feel a genuine benefit from the talent.
- Rule of Threes - Predictable mana efficiency with options. Pairs well with Enlightened (Level 50 talent). Feels good because it occurs often and can be controlled.
- Arcane Familiar - Even if its attack and mana boost were buffed to make it “sim” comparably to the other two talents in this row, it’s a pretty boring option. If the familiar also brought something else to the table (like increased mana regeneration or increasing the range at which you can interact with objects by 20 yards because the familiar interacts with the object on your behalf), it could be a more interesting pick.
Level 25
This whole row is full of powerful, fun, and useful options.
- Master of Time - Halving the cooldown of Alter Time feels awesome, and the added benefit of resetting Blink’s cooldown is a huge plus. Rotating between the mage barrier and alter time to fight hard mobs is fun.
- Shimmer - All around fun and useful.
- Slipstream - Mobility during channeled spells is incredibly useful.
Level 30
Healthy variety for “powerup” talents. Well done Blizzard.
- Incanter’s Flow - More interesting than a regular “increase thing by %” talent because of its ebb and flow nature. But it gives a solid option for those who don’t wanna have to worry about managing more buttons than they need to.
- Focus Magic - MY FAVORITE. I wish there were more talents/options/abilities like this across the classes. Encourage benefiting others. It feels fun and dynamic to make other people stronger.
- Rune of Power - Appropriately more powerful than Incanter’s Flow because it requires some effort to use well.
Level 35
Resonance and Arcane Echo offer variety of ways to enhance your multi-target damaging abilities. Nether Tempest just competes with using an already good baseline ability.
- Resonance - Easier to use than the other two options because it doesn’t require a particular target to stay alive for the duration of the desired effect, but still requires you to “aim” at a primary target that will cause the desired cleaving effect to nearby enemies.
- Arcane Echo - I like that it encourages a slight shift in gameplay (spam arcane missiles) when it’s on a target. Pairs well with Amplification (level 15 talent).
- Nether Tempest - Feels underwhelming as an option because it competes with casting Arcane Barrage under identical circumstances. Even the way its damage behaves is similar to Arcane Barrage (but over time instead of instant, and without a target cap). It’d feel better to use if it behaved more like the Monk’s Rushing Jade Wind talent centered on you.
Level 40
Chrono Shift is phenomenally useful and fun. The other two options are useful, but they don’t feel as fun or unique because they’re not themed around the arcane specialization (which is in contrast to most other talent rows).
- Chrono Shift - ZOOM! Naturally, this is my favorite option and I’m benefiting from it almost all the time. Love it.
- Ice Ward - Useful? Sure, but it feels weird to mix an ice spell in with all my arcane magicky goodness. If anything, the nature of “arcane” feels the most like the “base” of the mage class, not fire or frost.
- Ring of Frost - (Same comments as Ice Ward).
Level 45
Reverberate and Arcane Orb follow the multi-target theme of the level 35 talents. Supernova is fun but feels out of place.
- Reverberate - Makes for a quicker rotation between Arcane Explosion and Arcane Barrage for multi-target scenarios (which is fun). Pairs well with Resonance (level 35 talent).
- Arcane Orb - Often sims the best on its talent row because of its benefits outside multi-target scenarios while still being useful for multi-target scenarios (even if its damage were nerfed). An interesting and fun option.
- Supernova - An interesting talent bearing a very different purpose than others on its same row. The CC effect is fun and feels unique, but it’s tough to choose between “extra damage” and “CC” on a talent row. Personally, it’d make more sense to see this talent instead add an option for Arcane Explosion to consume 4 arcane charges (when used at 4 arcane charges) to increase its damage and/or radius as well as perhaps add a CC effect on top of it (I vote for a knockback, like the Elemental Shaman’s Thunderstorm ability, though the knockback would be lessened the further away the enemy is from the mage).
Level 50
Great variety and fun factor, but Enlightened needs tweaking even if its numbers made it competitive with the other two options.
- Overpowered - Straightforward and often (currently) simming the best because of how radically different the DPS output is on an arcane mage when comparing their “burst” phase with their “conserve” phase.
- Time Anomaly - By far my favorite Arcane Talent. Unpredictable but occurs often enough you constantly feel its benefits. It’s possible to gain Time Warp, Arcane Power, and Innervate at the same time (sort of like Outlaw Rogue’s Roll the Bones ability), and I’ve once had the Innervate mechanic proc three times during one of my burn phases. Impossible to sim yet impactful and fun despite the RNG. Well done Blizzard.
- Enlightened - A very interesting option which aims to dramatically change the overall gameplay of the arcane mage (no more “burn” vs. “conserve” phases). Personally, this talent would be much easier to use if its benefits were automatically dynamic (example: 100% mana = +10% damage and +0% mana regeneration, 50% mana = +5% damage and +15% mana regeneration, 0% mana = +0% damage and +30% mana regeneration, and so forth) instead of trying to float above a “70%” line somewhere.
