MYTHICSIMBeta
Mage crest

WoW Forever Mage

Arcane, Fire, Frost · Alliance and Horde

Mage changed the least of any class in the demo build, with six new talents and one removed. It was already the most complete of the Classic casters, so the changes mostly add options.

Specs simmed
4
New spells
2
New talents
1
Removed
0
Playable races
6

What changes for Mage

Each tree gains a signature later-expansion spell, while the three capstones (Arcane Power, Combustion, Ice Barrier) stay where Classic left them. Arcane Blast raises the damage of all your other spells by 10% per cast with an escalating mana cost. Hot Streak is a talent: non-periodic crits with Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Fire Blast and Scorch grant a stack that cuts Pyroblast cast time by 25%, up to three stacks. Ice Lance is an instant that deals 300% more damage to Frozen targets, so Frostbite and Frost Nova shatters finally have a payoff spell.

Orc Mages are new to the Horde and the Skyborne can be Mages on the Alliance. With the unified hit stat as well, the best race for a raiding Mage now comes down to the sim.

Demo build census: 6 new talents, 1 removed.

Specs

  • Arcane MageDPS

    Arcane Blast is a stacking nuke and now the main reason to go Arcane, a job the Arcane Missiles channel used to do.

    Capstone: Arcane Power

  • Fire MageDPS

    Hot Streak brings instant Pyroblast procs to the Fire rotation.

    Capstone: Combustion

  • Frost MageDPS

    Ice Lance adds a shatter-combo finisher to the tree that carried most of Classic's raid Mages.

    Capstone: Ice Barrier

Simmed reference builds

Each saved board sims a fixed Mage reference character at level 60, against a raid-boss target for two minutes, full raid buffs and consumables, no world buffs. The DPS is the spec's trinket board baseline (both trinket slots empty) and the rank is its place on the Forever DPS tier list.

  • Arcane Mage540dps

    35/11/5 talents · Curated dungeon and crafted gear · Undead · #18 of 23 DPS specs

    Trinket boardSim your own Mage
    Show talents
    Talents 35/11/5View tree

    Arcane 35

    • Arcane Focus 5/5
    • Improved Channeling 5/5
    • Arcane Subtlety 2/2
    • Arcane Concentration 5/5
    • Arcane Impact 3/3
    • Arcane Blast 1/1
    • Arcane Meditation 3/3
    • Missile Barrage 1/1
    • Presence of Mind 1/1
    • Arcane Mind 5/5
    • Arcane Instability 3/3
    • Arcane Power 1/1

    Fire 11

    • Wake of Fire 2/2
    • Incineration 3/3
    • Ignite 5/5
    • Pyroblast 1/1

    Frost 5

    • Elemental Precision 5/5

    055205003100311531-230500001-005

  • Fire Mage · Fire Missile Barrage build599dps

    16/31/4 talents · Curated dungeon and crafted gear · Gnome · #11 of 23 DPS specs

    Trinket boardSim your own Mage
    Show talents
    Talents 16/31/4View tree

    Arcane 16

    • Arcane Focus 5/5
    • Arcane Subtlety 2/2
    • Arcane Concentration 5/5
    • Arcane Impact 3/3
    • Missile Barrage 1/1

    Fire 31

    • Wake of Fire 1/2
    • Incineration 3/3
    • Improved Fireball 5/5
    • Ignite 5/5
    • Pyroblast 1/1
    • Improved Scorch 3/3
    • Hot Streak 1/1
    • Master of Elements 3/3
    • Critical Mass 3/3
    • Fire Power 5/5
    • Combustion 1/1

    Frost 4

    • Elemental Precision 4/5

    05020500300001-13550000130133051-004

  • Frost Mage · Missile Barrage build591dps

    16/3/32 talents · Curated dungeon and crafted gear · Human · #13 of 23 DPS specs

    Trinket boardSim your own Mage
    Show talents
    Talents 16/3/32View tree

    Arcane 16

    • Arcane Focus 5/5
    • Arcane Subtlety 2/2
    • Arcane Concentration 5/5
    • Arcane Impact 3/3
    • Missile Barrage 1/1

    Fire 3

    • Incineration 3/3

    Frost 32

    • Improved Frostbolt 5/5
    • Elemental Precision 5/5
    • Ice Shards 5/5
    • Piercing Ice 3/3
    • Ice Lance 1/1
    • Ice Block 1/1
    • Shatter 3/3
    • Cold Snap 1/1
    • Fingers of Frost 2/2
    • Winter's Chill 5/5
    • Ice Barrier 1/1

    05020500300001-03-0555000301001301251

  • Frostfire Mage · Frostfire hybrid (Experimental) build597dps

    0/29/22 talents · Curated dungeon and crafted gear · Gnome · #12 of 23 DPS specs

    Trinket boardSim your own Mage
    Show talents
    Talents 0/29/22View tree

    Arcane 0

    No points

    Fire 29

    • Wake of Fire 1/2
    • Incineration 3/3
    • Improved Fireball 5/5
    • Ignite 5/5
    • Pyroblast 1/1
    • Improved Scorch 3/3
    • Hot Streak 1/1
    • Master of Elements 3/3
    • Critical Mass 3/3
    • Fire Power 4/5

    Frost 22

    • Elemental Precision 5/5
    • Ice Shards 5/5
    • Piercing Ice 3/3
    • Frost Channeling 2/3
    • Ice Lance 1/1
    • Ice Block 1/1
    • Shatter 3/3
    • Fingers of Frost 2/2

    -1355000013013304-00550003210013002

Engine build 931ae38, simmed 1 October 2026. Boards are re-simmed after engine updates.

Reference builds are a work in progress and will keep improving through the beta (see the changelog). Got a build you want simmed? Post it in the MythicSim Discord and we'll sim it. Any feedback is much appreciated.

New spells and talents

New spells

  • Arcane Blast
  • Ice Lance

New talents

  • Hot Streak

Removed

No removals confirmed in the demo build.

From the BlizzCon 2026 demo build via the community talent calculators. Beta will change some of this; the page is updated as it does.

Races

  • Human
  • Gnome
  • OrcNew
  • Undead
  • Troll
  • Skyborne (Alliance)New

Human, Gnome, Orc, Undead, Troll, Skyborne (Alliance). Orc Mage is new to Forever. The Skyborne can be Mages on the Alliance side. Racials are rebuilt so no two races share a passive, and weapon skill racials are gone. Race choice now changes your DPS in the sim.

Mage race tier list

What the Mage sim has to model

Beyond the engine-wide changes (unified hit and crit, Expertise, bonus healing as spell damage, periodic crits), these are the Mage-specific pieces the Forever engine has to get right.

  • Arcane Blast stacking and its mana ramp for Arcane.
  • Hot Streak proc tracking for Fire, and Ice Lance shatter windows for Frost.
  • Unified spell hit and crit, which changes the hit cap conversation against a level 63 boss.

Mage trinket boards

One board per spec, ranking every trinket a Mage can equip at 60 by simmed DPS gain, with where each one drops.

Other Forever classes

Common questions

Is there a WoW Forever Mage sim?

Yes, at /wow-forever/sim. Export your character with the MythicSim addon, paste it and you get a DPS number for your Mage on the new talent trees. It runs on a MythicSim-maintained fork of ElliotWood/Forever, built on wowsims/classic (both MIT licensed).

What new spells does Mage get in WoW Forever?

Arcane Blast, Ice Lance. New talents include Hot Streak.

Which races can be a Mage in WoW Forever?

Mage can be played by Human, Gnome, Orc, Undead, Troll, Skyborne (Alliance) in World of Warcraft: Forever. Orc Mage is new in Forever. The new Skyborne race can be a Mage on the Alliance side only.

What are the Mage specs in WoW Forever?

Arcane (DPS), Fire (DPS), Frost (DPS). Forever keeps the three Classic trees for every class and reworks their contents; there are no new specs.

Do I need a /simc string to sim a Forever Mage?

No. Install MythicSim addon 0.3.0 or newer in Forever, click its minimap button or type /msim, then paste the JSON on the Forever sim page. Retail /simc strings use a different format.