Arcane Mage

[Bob the Beholder]

I've been looking at more of a balance spec taking advantage of some parts of three trees, thus;

Arcane Talents -  18 points
# Improved Arcane Missiles - rank 5/5
# Arcane Concentration - rank 5/5
# Improved Arcane Explosion - rank 5/5
# Evocation - rank 1/1
# Improved Counterspell - rank 2/2

Fire Talents -  20 points
# Improved Fireball - rank 5/5
# Impact - rank 5/5
# Ignite - rank 5/5
# Flame Throwing - rank 2/2
# Incinerate - rank 2/2
# Pyroblast - rank 1/1

Frost Talents -  13 points
# Permafrost - rank 5/5
# Ice Shards - rank 5/5
# Winter's Chill - rank 3/3

But, I'm afraid this build will lack firepower at the top end.

Or, going with a Fire/Arcane oriented build;

Arcane Talents -  20 points
# Improved Arcane Missiles - rank 5/5
# Arcane Concentration - rank 5/5
# Improved Arcane Explosion - rank 5/5
# Evocation - rank 1/1
# Improved Counterspell - rank 2/2
# Arcane Meditation - rank 2/5

Fire Talents -  31 points
# Improved Fireball - rank 5/5
# Impact - rank 5/5
# Ignite - rank 5/5
# Flame Throwing - rank 2/2
# Incinerate - rank 2/2
# Pyroblast - rank 1/1
# Improved Scorch - rank 2/5
# Critical Mass - rank 3/3
# Fire Power - rank 5/5
# Combustion - rank 1/1
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First build is pretty solid, although I'd avoid using it in a PvP setting. It lacks a lot of the useful PvP talents that are deeper in the frost and fire trees (critical mass, fire power, ice block, frostbite, etc.).

Also, it is my opinion that you ought to re-think skipping Improved Frostbolt in the frost tree. Because, if you are using your beefed up frost spells for any form of single target damage, frostbolt is probably gonna be your best bet. Given that, I'd rather give up a few extra seconds of chill time to increase its speed. Permafrost would mesh quite nicely with Improved Blizzard, but then, the build in question doesn't have Improved Blizzard.

As to the second build, it is my opinion that if you're going past 18 points in Arcane, then there is not a reason in the world to stop at 20. For one, the couple points in Arcane Meditation you chose does not stack with Mage Armor, except for certain really annoying to reproduce settings (only the first casting of Mage Armor... and not again unless you re-log, right?). And past that, there isn't much desirable between 18 and 20. So the logical choice would either be to stop at 18 and throw another couple of points in fire, or move on past 20.

Given that, the build comes down to choosing between Combustion and Presence of Mind. Which is any easy victory to PoM in most cases. With fire talents and a modicum of equipment, your fire spells are already gonna have a decent chance to crit. So using, for example, two fireballs (normal + PoMfireball), which could both crit, is going to be better than using one fireball that is guaranteed to crit.

The only situation I can come up with in which Combustion comes out on top is in AoE. Blast Wave in particular, since Flamestrike can be talented to crit pretty often already. If the Blast Wave hits several enemies, and all hits crit, then it's a pretty big damage bonus. Especially useful if you're one for going into AV with a mind to do some suicide runs.

Also, in the second build, I would like to suggest removing the two points in Improved Scorch. Improved Scorch is a negligible bonus (unless for some reason most of your damage is dealt after five scorches and inside a window of 15 seconds)--especially when you only have two points in there. As a better home for those two points I would like to suggest Burning Soul, which I have found some use for. Casting while under fire happens (mostly in PvP, admittedly), and it really helps that out. Or perhaps Improved Flamestrike, for use as an opener before AoE pulls.