WoW Forever Mage Guide

Blizzard has not published a Mage deep dive. These are the Mage changes from the September 13 deep dive recap and the beta development notes (September 24 and October 1 updates). Each line links to its source.

• Arcane Missiles checks line of sight once when you start the cast, not for every missile. [Blizzard blue post, September 24, 2026]
• Fire: Wake of Fire lasts 30 seconds (was 20), the Hot Streak buff lasts 20 seconds (was 15), and Ignite no longer double dips on percentage damage bonuses. [Blizzard blue post, September 24, 2026]
• Fire: Hot Streak was renamed Heating Up, Combustion is back to 3 charges (was 4), and Improved Scorch's Fire Vulnerability no longer rolls a second resist. [Blizzard blue post, October 1, 2026]
• Frost: Winter's Chill no longer rolls to be resisted. [Blizzard blue post, October 1, 2026]
• Mage scrolls from the Comprehension skill can no longer be cast while moving. [Blizzard blue post, October 1, 2026]
• Orcs can be Mages in Forever. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]

What the beta client shows

Our own read of the client tables. Blizzard has not posted these, so treat them as beta data that can change.

• Frostfire Bolt is a trainer spell from level 40. Its tooltip deals Frostfire damage, slows, adds damage over time, and checks against the lower of the target's Frost and Fire resistance. Teleport: Dalaran is new at 50. Blizzard has not posted either one.
• Arcane Blast and Ice Lance both show up from level 20 as talent spells (the 11-point picks in Arcane and Frost).
• Detect Magic is no longer in the class spell list.

The Mage has three trees and 51 talent points at level 60, one per level from 10. Each tree opens a new row every 5 points. The 1-point picks behind the 10, 15, 20 and 30 point gates are the milestones Blizzard talks about: the 11, 16, 21 and 31 point talents. [Blizzard, September 30, 2026] The text below is the client's own tooltip at full rank, from build 1.60.1.70205. Plan a build in the Mage talent calculator.

Arcane

The burst and mana tree. Its milestones are Arcane Blast (a stacking nuke learned at 11 points), Missile Barrage, Presence of Mind and Arcane Power. The tree has 18 talents worth 47 ranks; the first row is Wand Specialization, Arcane Focus, Improved Channeling.

Point	Milestone talent	What it does (client text)
11	Arcane Blast	Blasts the target with energy, dealing 54 Arcane damage. Each time you cast Arcane Blast, the damage of all your other spells is increased by 10% and the mana cost of Arcane Blast is increased by 175%.
16	Missile Barrage	Gives your Arcane Blast spell a 40% chance, and your Fireball, Frostbolt, and Frostfire Bolt spells a 20% chance to reduce the channeled duration of your next Arcane Missiles spell by 50%, reduce the Mana cost by 100%, and missiles fire...
21	Presence of Mind	When activated, your next Mage spell with a casting time less than 10 sec becomes an instant cast spell.
31	Arcane Power	For the next 15 sec, your spells deal 30% more damage while costing 30% more mana to cast.

Fire

The critical strike tree. Its milestones are Pyroblast, Heating Up (fire crits shorten your next Pyroblast), Blast Wave and Combustion. The tree has 17 talents worth 46 ranks; the first row is Wake of Fire, Incineration, Improved Fireball.

Point	Milestone talent	What it does (client text)
11	Pyroblast	Hurls an immense fiery boulder that causes 110 Fire damage and an additional 44 Fire damage over 12 sec.
16	Heating Up	Non-periodic critical strikes with Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Fire Blast, and Scorch reduce the cast time of your next Pyroblast cast within 20 sec by 25%, stacking up to 3 times.
21	Blast Wave	A wave of flame radiates outward from the caster, damaging all enemies caught within the blast for 163 Fire damage, and Dazing them for 50% reduced movement speed for 6 sec.
31	Combustion	When activated, this spell causes each of your Fire damage spell hits to increase your critical strike chance with Fire damage spells by 10%. This effect lasts until you have caused 3 non-periodic critical strikes with Fire spells.

Frost

The control and defense tree. Its milestones are Ice Lance (much more damage on frozen targets), Ice Block, Cold Snap and Ice Barrier. The tree has 19 talents worth 53 ranks; the first row is Frost Warding, Improved Frostbolt, Elemental Precision.

Point	Milestone talent	What it does (client text)
11	Ice Lance	Deals 28 Frost damage to an enemy target. Deals 300% increased damage to Frozen targets.
16	Ice Block	You become encased in a block of ice, protecting you from all physical attacks and spells for 10 sec, but during that time you cannot attack, move, or cast spells.
21	Cold Snap	Finishes the remaining cooldown on all your other Frost spells.
31	Ice Barrier	Instantly shields you, absorbing 431 damage. Lasts 1 min. While the shield holds, your spellcasts will not be interrupted or delayed from taking damage.

Changed between beta builds

We hold 5 snapshots of the Mage trees (70009, 70058, 70124, 70170, 70205). These are the differences, oldest first. Wording-only fixes are left out.

• 70124 to 70170: added Heating Up (Fire); removed Hot Streak (Fire); Combustion (Fire) changed from "When activated, this spell causes each of your Fire damage spell hits to increase your critical strike chance with Fire damage spells by 10%." to "When activated, this spell causes each of your Fire damage spell hits to increase your critical strike chance with Fire damage spells by 10%.".

These apply to every class, so they change how you play a Mage too.

• Talents open at level 10 and use the same number of rows as Classic. The 1-point milestone talents at 11, 21 and 31 points in a tree are joined by a new 16-point milestone. [Blizzard, September 30, 2026]
• Dual Specialization unlocks at level 40. Talents, including Legacy talents, are changed at a class trainer in a major city. [Blizzard, September 30, 2026]
• Talents that used to hand out a key group buff are now baseline: Divine Spirit (Priest), Blessing of Kings (Paladin) and Improved Mark of the Wild (Druid). [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Spell, melee and ranged hit chance are one stat now, and so are spell, melee and ranged critical strike chance. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Bonus healing also gives one third as much bonus damage, so healers are not stuck when questing. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Weapon skill works as before, but items give less of it per item. Some items add a new stat that lowers the chance for your attacks to be dodged or parried, and caster weapons carry spell damage and healing. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Riding follows the Burning Crusade model: the cost moves into riding training and you get a mount when you learn the skill. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Each race now has two active and two passive racial abilities, tuned to give a similar amount of offensive power. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]

Every Mage spell rank the beta client (1.60.1.70205) lists from level 1 to 30, the level cap of the beta. Read from the client's SkillLineAbility and SpellLevels tables on the class skill lines. Spells marked talent need the talent first; the level is the level the client requires. Training costs are set on the server and are not in the client.

Level	Spells and ranks
1	Arcane Intellect (Rank 1), Fireball (Rank 1), Frost Armor (Rank 1)
4	Conjure Water (Rank 1), Frostbolt (Rank 1), Ice Block (talent)
6	Conjure Food (Rank 1), Fire Blast (Rank 1), Fireball (Rank 2)
8	Arcane Missiles (Rank 1), Frostbolt (Rank 2), Polymorph (Rank 1)
10	Conjure Water (Rank 2), Frost Armor (Rank 2), Frost Nova (Rank 1), Frostbite (talent), Impact (talent)
12	Conjure Food (Rank 2), Dampen Magic (Rank 1), Fireball (Rank 3), Slow Fall
14	Arcane Explosion (Rank 1), Arcane Intellect (Rank 2), Fire Blast (Rank 2), Frostbolt (Rank 3)
16	Arcane Missiles (Rank 2), Flamestrike (Rank 1)
18	Amplify Magic (Rank 1), Fireball (Rank 4), Remove Lesser Curse
20	Arcane Blast (Rank 1) (talent), Blink, Blizzard (Rank 1), Conjure Water (Rank 3), Evocation, Fire Ward (Rank 1), Frost Armor (Rank 3), Frostbolt (Rank 4), Ice Lance (Rank 1) (talent), Mana Shield (Rank 1), Polymorph (Rank 2), Pyroblast (Rank 1) (talent), Teleport: Ironforge, Teleport: Orgrimmar, Teleport: Stormwind, Teleport: Undercity
22	Arcane Explosion (Rank 2), Conjure Food (Rank 3), Fire Blast (Rank 3), Frost Ward (Rank 1), Scorch (Rank 1)
24	Arcane Missiles (Rank 3), Counterspell, Dampen Magic (Rank 2), Fireball (Rank 5), Flamestrike (Rank 2), Pyroblast (Rank 2) (talent)
26	Cone of Cold (Rank 1), Frost Nova (Rank 2), Frostbolt (Rank 5)
28	Arcane Intellect (Rank 3), Blizzard (Rank 2), Conjure Mana Agate, Ice Lance (Rank 2) (talent), Mana Shield (Rank 2), Scorch (Rank 2)
30	Amplify Magic (Rank 2), Arcane Blast (Rank 2) (talent), Arcane Explosion (Rank 3), Blast Wave (Rank 1) (talent), Conjure Water (Rank 4), Fire Blast (Rank 4), Fire Ward (Rank 2), Fireball (Rank 6), Ice Armor (Rank 1), Pyroblast (Rank 3) (talent), Teleport: Darnassus, Teleport: Thunder Bluff

The beta class spell list (1.60.1.70205) compared with Classic Era (1.15.9.70003), levels 2 to 60, matched by spell name. A renamed spell shows up once as removed and once as new. Passive form auras and helper records are left out.

New in Forever

Spell	First level	Ranks	Type
Arcane Blast	20	5	Talent
Ice Lance	20	6	Talent
Frostfire Bolt	40	3	Trainer
Teleport: Dalaran	50	1	Trainer

No longer in the class spell list

Field by field changes to every Mage spell (damage, costs, cooldowns) are on the Mage spell changes page.

The beta client (1.60.1.70170) allows 6 races to be a Mage. "New" means the pair is not in the Classic Era client (1.15.9.69722). Blizzard can still switch a pair off on its servers. All pairs are on the races and classes page.

Racial notes from Blizzard

Every race has two active and two passive racials in Forever. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026] Blizzard has described these so far:

• Gnome: Eureka became a 10% discount on Mana, Rage or Energy abilities. [Blizzard blue post, September 24, 2026]
• Gnome: Eureka no longer applies to periodic effects; channeled spells do not count as periodic. [Blizzard blue post, October 1, 2026]
• Human: Will to Survive got a new visual, matching Dispel Magic. [Blizzard blue post, September 24, 2026]
• Undead: Will of the Forsaken still removes Charm, Fear and Sleep but no longer grants immunity. Cannibalize restores Mana as well as Health. Touch of the Grave is a new damage racial. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Undead: Touch of the Grave no longer breaks crowd control and no longer fires from spells without a damage part. [Blizzard blue post, September 24, 2026]
• Undead: Cannibalize cannot be used while you are immune to Physical damage. [Blizzard blue post, October 1, 2026]

We do not publish guesses. These wait for launch or for Blizzard to say more:

• Stat priorities. Itemization is still moving in the beta, and Blizzard has posted no stat weights.
• Best in slot lists. The two new raids in the client (Hyjal Summit and Barrow Deeps) have encounter names but no loot data yet.
• Raid roles and group makeup at 60. The beta stops at level 30.
• Training costs. Trainer prices are set on the server and are not in the client files.
• How Frostfire Bolt fits a Fire or Frost rotation. No tuning has been posted.

Blizzard

• Blizzard: WoW Forever launches November 4, September 12, 2026
• Blizzard: World of Warcraft: Forever deep dive panel recap, September 13, 2026
• Blizzard: Class Deep Dives, Priest and Warrior, September 30, 2026
• Blizzard: The WoW Forever beta is live, September 17, 2026
• Blizzard blue post: Beta development notes, September 24 update, September 24, 2026
• Blizzard blue post: Beta development notes, October 1 update, October 1, 2026

Beta client data

• Talent trees: the beta client's Trait tables, build 1.60.1.70205, decoded into our talent snapshots (beta builds compared: 70009, 70058, 70124, 70170, 70205).
• Spells by level and the Classic Era comparison: SkillLineAbility, Spell and SpellLevels for build 1.60.1.70205 against Classic Era 1.15.9.70003, read from our datamine on October 5, 2026.
• Races: the client's character creation table, build 1.60.1.70170, against Classic Era 1.15.9.69722.

How we work: Blizzard statements are quoted in our own words and linked with their date. Client data is shown as the client stores it, with its build number, and is not a promise about the live game. Press reports and datamining rumors are not used on this page.