Mage Class Changes for Shadowlands (Patch 9.0.2)

• New Ability: Teleport: Oribos is learned at level 52.
• New Ability: Portal: Oribos is learned at level 58.
• Mirror Image is no longer a Talent and is learned by all Mages at level 44. Mirror Images damage has been greatly reduced, and Frostbolt was added to all Mirror Images. While your images are active, your damage taken is reduced by 20%. Taking direct damage will cause one of your images to dissipate.
• All Mages now have access to the following abilities:
  • Arcane Explosion — Causes an explosion of magic around the caster, dealing Arcane damage to all enemies within 10 yards.
  • Frostbolt — Launches a bolt of frost at the enemy, causing Frost damage and slowing movement speed by 50% for 8 seconds.
  • Fire Blast — Blasts the enemy for Fire damage.

• New Talent: Focus Magic — Increases the target's chance to critically hit with spells by 5% for 30 minutes.
• Shimmer cooldown increased to 25 seconds (was 20 seconds).
• Rune of Power now places a Rune of Power on the ground for 15 seconds (was 10 seconds) and has an additional effect — Casting Arcane Power, Combustion, or Icy Veins will also create a Rune of Power at your location.
• Ring of Frost Incapacitate duration in PvE increased by 50% and has an additional effect — When the incapacitate expires, enemies are slowed by 65% for 4 seconds.

Arcane Mages get the most changes out of the three Mage specs in Shadowlands. Although there is not a single very large individual change, all of the smaller changes make Arcane quite different from 8.3. Below we have listed some of the key ones that impact your core rotation.

• Touch of the Magi is now an active ability, and gets the effect from Charged Up built into it. This reduces setup time for Arcane's burst.
• Although not an Arcane specific change, Rune of Power now automatically activates when you use Arcane Power. This is especially big for Arcane, as Arcane struggled with setup time, and this further reduces the large setup time that Arcane had.
• Mastery: Savant now not only boosts the damage of spells benefitted by Arcane Charges, but also all other spells. This is especially big for Arcane Missiles, as this will now be an actual hard hitting ability that is a big damage boost to cast when Clearcasting procs.
• Clearcasting has been changed to stack an additional time, allowing Arcane Mages to hold onto procs for specific situations, like a high priority target, or damage buffs.
• The new Covenant system, especially Night Fae with its class ability of Shifting Power, has a meaningful impact on Arcane's rotation. On the Covenants, Soulbinds and Conduits page, we go in-depth into this new system and what to pick.
• Additionally, Legendaries were introduced, which have various gameplay altering effects. On our Legendaries page, we go into what Legendary to pick for what situation. To be able to create these new Legendaries, you will have to do Torghast. On our Torghast page, we guide you on picking the best Anima Powers and how to play optimally in Torghast.

• New Ability: Alter Time — Alters the fabric of time, returning you to your current location and health when cast a second time, or after 10 seconds. Effect negated by long distance or death.
• Mastery: Savant now has an additional effect — Increases all other Arcane damage.
• Clearcasting now has additional effects — Stacks up to 3 times and causes your Arcane Missiles to fire 1 additional missile.
• Arcane Power cooldown reduced to 2 minutes (was 3 minutes).
• Touch of the Magi is no longer a Talent and is learned by all Arcane Mages at level 33. Touch of the Magi has been redesigned — Applies Touch of the Magi to your current target, accumulating 25% of the damage you deal to the target for 8 seconds, and then exploding for that amount of Arcane to the target and reduced damage to all nearby enemies. Generates 4 Arcane Charges on cast and has a 45-second cooldown.
• Arcane Power no longer has a global cooldown.

• Arcane Barrage (Level 52) — Arcane Barrage grants you 2% of your maximum mana per Arcane Charge spent.
• Presence of Mind (Level 54) — Arcane Blast can be cast instantly 1 additional time.
• Arcane Power (Level 56) — Duration increased by 5 seconds.

• New Talent: Master of Time (replaces Mana Shield) — Reduces the cooldown of Alter Time by 30 seconds. Alter Time resets the cooldown of Blink when you return to your original location.
• New Talent: Arcane Echo (replaces Charged Up) — Direct damage you deal to enemies affected by Touch of the Magi causes an explosion that deals Arcane damage to 8 nearby enemies.
• Amplification causes Arcane Missiles to fire 2 additional missiles when Clearcasting (was 1).
• Resonance damage per target hit with Arcane Barrage increased to 15% (was 10%).
• Time Anomaly now grants Time Warp for 6 seconds and no longer grants 4 Arcane Charges.
• Nether Tempest now deals reduced damage on secondary targets.
• Rewind Time (PvP Talent) has been removed.

Below is the current talent tree for Arcane Mages.

• Level 15 Talents: Amplification / Rule of Threes / Arcane Familiar;
• Level 25 Talents: Master of Time / Shimmer / Slipstream;
• Level 30 Talents: Incanter's Flow / Focus Magic / Rune of Power;
• Level 35 Talents: Resonance / Arcane Echo / Nether Tempest;
• Level 40 Talents: Chrono Shift / Ice Ward / Ring of Frost;
• Level 45 Talents: Reverberate / Arcane Orb / Supernova;
• Level 50 Talents: Overpowered / Time Anomaly / Enlightened.

The biggest change for Fire is around the new Covenant system. The Night Fae and their class ability Shifting Power has an especially large impact on how Fire plays and changes it from a relatively long-cooldown, high-burst spec into a lower-cooldown, more consistent damage spec. On the Covenants, Soulbinds and Conduits page, we go in-depth into this new system and what to pick.

Additionally, Legendaries were introduced, which have various gameplay altering effects. On our Legendaries page, we go into which Legendary to pick for each situation. To be able to create these new Legendaries, you will have to do Torghast. On our Torghast page, we guide you on picking the best Anima Powers and how to play optimally in Torghast.

• Mastery: Ignite now causes your Phoenix Flames to spread your Ignites to 8 nearby enemies. Ignite no longer spreads to a nearby enemy every 2 seconds.
• Phoenix Flames is now baseline, learned by all Fire Mages at level 19. The spel now has a 25-second recharge time (was 30), damage increased by 15%, and no longer guarantees a critical strike. The ability deals reduced damage on secondary targets.
• Enhanced Pyrotechnics is now Fireball (Rank 2).

• Flamestrike (Level 52) — Damage increased by 15%.
• Pyroblast (Level 54) — Deals additional Fire damage over 6 seconds.
• Combustion (Level 56) — Duration increased by 2 seconds.
• Alter Time (Level 58) — Alters the fabric of time, returning you to your current locationa and health when cast a second time, or after 10 seconds. Effect negated by long distance or death. Costs 100 Mana, instant-cast, 1-minute cooldown.

• New Talent: From the Ashes — Increases Mastery by 2% for each charge of Phoenix Flames off cooldown and your direct-damage critical strikes reduce its cooldown by 1 second.
• Blast Wave damage increased by 5% and duration increased to 6 seconds (was 4 seconds).
• Alexstrasza's Fury now always critically strikes for 50% increased critical strike damage and has an additional effect — Damage done by your next Pyroblast or Flamestrike is increased by 35%.
• Kindling now reduces the remaining cooldown on Combustion by 1.5 seconds (was 1 second).
• Pyroclasm now increases Pyroblast bonus damage by 250% (was 225%).
• Living Bomb now deals reduced damage on secondary targets.

Below is the current talent tree for Fire Mages.

• Level 15 Talents: Firestarter / Pyromaniac / Searing Touch;
• Level 25 Talents: Blazing Soul / Shimmer / Blast Wave;
• Level 30 Talents: Incanter's Flow / Focus Magic / Rune of Power;
• Level 35 Talents: Flame On / Alexstrasza's Fury / From the Ashes;
• Level 40 Talents: Frenetic Speed / Ice Ward / Ring of Frost;
• Level 45 Talents: Flame Patch / Conflagration / Living Bomb;
• Level 50 Talents: Kindling / Pyroclasm / Meteor.

Frost, while receiving just one spec-specific change in Shadowlands, has changed how the spec plays to nearly the complete opposite of BfA's predominant playstyle almost entirely because of that single change.

Winter's Chill now instead of being a small window of opportunity, generates 2 charges of Winter's Chill, each consumed upon spell impact. While this does not sound like much, it increased the amount of Ice Lances cast into each window by double, meaning that Thermal Void gained significantly over Glacial Spike. Combined with the removal of Corruption, this means Frost has pivoted entirely towards an Ice Lance-centric playstyle.

Shadowlands itself has brought many new systems to all players. Torghast is a randomly generated dungeon that can be attempted with 1-5 people, and will have a variety of powers available to earn and play with. It rewards the currency to craft legendary items. Legendaries are the newly craftable legendary items. Covenants are a new expansion-level system that allows you to improve your character's power outside of the constraints of your spec.

• Flurry now reduces the target's movement speed by 80% (was 70%).
• Icy Veins no longer has a global cooldown.
• Frozen Orb is now capped at 8 targets.

• Blizzard (Level 52) — Damage increased by 15%.
• Cold Snap (Level 54) — Cooldown reduced by 30 seconds.
• Icy Veins (Level 56) — Duration increased by 3 seconds.
• Alter Time (Level 58) — Alters the fabric of time, returning you to your current locationa and health when cast a second time, or after 10 seconds. Effect negated by long distance or death. Costs 100 Mana, instant-cast, on a 1-minute cooldown.

• Frigid Winds additional movement speed reduction is now 10% (was 15%).
• Ice Nova now deals reduced damage on secondary targets.

Below is the current talent tree for Frost Mages.

• Level 15 Talents: Bone Chilling / Lonely Winter / Ice Nova;
• Level 25 Talents: Glacial Insulation / Shimmer / Ice Floes;
• Level 30 Talents: Incanter's Flow / Focus Magic / Rune of Power;
• Level 35 Talents: Frozen Touch / Chain Reaction / Ebonbolt;
• Level 40 Talents: Frigid Winds / Ice Ward / Ring of Frost;
• Level 45 Talents: Freezing Rain / Splitting Ice / Comet Storm;
• Level 50 Talents: Thermal Void / Ray of Frost / Glacial Spike;

You can find other Patch 9.0.1 class changes linked below.