Being a caster class, your primary talent trees focus on Fire, Frost and Arcane. These house Mage talents that can obliterate as well as neutralize opponents depending on whether burst damage or AoE spells are used. Mages, as they level up, also acquire talents for crowd control, damage dealing, curse removal, and spell casting.

The class truly shines though with their impressive AoE and solid single target damage spells. They are not the same with other magic-wielding classes in WoW in that they are not DoT damage dealers, nor are they a pet class, or other things associated with magic classes. They are a class that specializes in nuking their enemies with Arcane-, Frost- and Fire-based spells. Because of these, they are by tradition, the owners of the moniker, ‘glass cannons’.

Arcane Arcane magic roots from the life-restoring, life-giving power that once flowed from the Wall of Eternity in Kalimdor. With the passing of time, the Mages became the first to use this power. As the primary wielders of Arcane magic in Azeroth, the Mages have come to become intimate with the magic.

Arcane tree is the talent tree that focuses on damage dealing through the damage spells called the Arcane Blast and Missiles. Both talents are known to deliver solid direct arcane hits that can easily swipe off enemies. The Arcane tree also offers the Slow spell which can slow enemies down to a halt and the instant-damage ranged attack called the Arcane Barrage. Burst damage-wise, the tree also presents the Arcane Power and the Presence of Mind.

Although the Arcane tree can deliver pretty impressive damage, this isn’t the tree that’s fit for leveling. Most of the signature skills under this tree are too demanding that only higher level characters can practice them.

Fire A Mage specializing in the Fire talents can inflict massive sustained damage with quite good mana regeneration. A deep Fire Mage can dish out not only sustained damage capabilities but also high burst damage as well.

Playing a Fire Mage comes with a price though. Although this Mage can manage his mana well, it is often the case that the talents require so much more than what they can usually dish out. As a Fire Mage, you should always be mindful of your mana.

Frost Frost Mages manage to combine the talents of the Arcane and Fire Mages. Frost Mages can burst out better damage than Arcane Mages although not as good as Fire Mages. In addition, they can also regenerate mana better than Fire Mages although definitely not as fast as Arcane Mages can do it.

Mage talents from one talent tree are, on their own, enough to create a powerful character. While it is often advisable to combine the talents from all trees to make the most out of the Mage’s capabilities.

You could tell how Mage talents work by knowing the talent trees from where they were taken. Talents that deal with fire obviously come from Fire talent trees. The same is true with Arcane and Frost talents.