Quote:I would like to add in my own experience as to the validity of Arcane/Fire levelling. Frost'll get you higher survivability and some good AoE grinding, but when it comes to straight up single target going to town on some mob, the mana efficiency talents in Arcane and the damage increasing talents in fire make for a good combination for good, fast grinding.
I would like to ask you to reconsider passing the 33 point mark in Arcane, though. It seems you're not going to be high enough level to make such a decision for a while now, but when you do, I would like you to consider exactly what you'd be losing out on to gain Mind Mastery and Slow. Blast Wave, of course, is the one you'd think of (and it seems you have, from your earlier post), but do not discount Critical Mass, or Blazing Speed. 25 percent of your int really isn't likely to be a very substantial number until you're hitting end game gear, anyway--not in comparison to the DPS increase of Critical Mass.
The combination or Arcane Instability, Spell Power, and Critical Mass makes for some very impressive numbers, and allows you to maintain a very effective crit rate with even minimal gear. Really, if you're going to have Spell Power at all, I would suggest getting all the crit you can. It is very effective.
I don't know if you PvP much? You seem to be on Stormrage, so forgive me if I make the assumption that you're probably not going to have to defend yourself very much as you level. It is amazing for fending off rogues and warriors and such, whether you're going to be need it for that or not--10 percent proc rate is very good when you're taking several hits. Even in PvE, though, it's a life saver, for when things go wrong and you have one too many mobs, and you're not sure you're going to make it, and BAM, outpace them easily.
All that, and Blast Wave is just very, very useful. An extra snare right when you need it, as well as very effective AoE damage.
The spec I was building into as I levelled from 60 to 70 was this one: 33/28/0
This build has food for thought. I had not considered Blazing Speed before but it might be fun, even though I can't see Roquefort doing much PvP. Though you never know. Baguette, my priest, led the Stormrage PvP chart once, although lately I have been doing PvP mostly with my shaman. If I were making a PvP mage I think I would take all the damage reduction talents that I could.
I played around with the calculator again and came up with this:
Edit: The build I originally cut and pasted here was from the wrong window, and my thinking has changed anyhow.
I went with Critical Mass and used Playing with Fire as a bridge point to get Blazing Speed and one point in Fire Power. Roquefort has been using Blast Wave. My arcane choices were different from yours in that I did not want to give up Improved Arcane Missiles. I thought all mages had that! I also did not want to pass up Arcane Potency after putting points in Arcane Concentration. I am still undecided about the number of points in Arcane Focus, as was discussed above.
You used the past tense in the sentence about your build. What spec do you use now?
Edit: Technically I believe the tense in question is past progressive, but the implication is that it is the build no longer used.
"I may be old, but I'm not dead."