I:Talent Specs

Fire spec is currently the top dps spec. While frost may theoretically exceed fire in a small number of cases, frost spec also depends on taking full advantage of the water elemental and cold snap to deliver its damage. It is also the only tree with no pushback resistance on the primary nuke. Because of these downsides, fire builds are much more likely to deliver their full payload of damage than a frost build. On the plus side, frost builds have immensely better options for mass snaring, slowing, and bursting on frozen targets. As such, frost may be the preferred spec for certain raid encounters (Illidan might be a good example).

Arcane spec offers the highest short duration burst damage of any spec through timers like Arcane Power and Presence of Mind, and can burn mana quickly into damage through Arcane Blast. Arcane talents also provide the highest possible AoE damage. However arcane damage spells have poor mana efficiency, and the tree is highly dependent on outside mana regeneration and encounter duration to sustain good dps. Sustained dps with Arcane Missiles lags a good 10-15% behind fire or frost dps, while Arcane Blast requires a restrictive gear setup to work. Because of these factors, Arcane builds are only recommended for expert mages whose particular raid situations allow them to employ good use of this spec.

Specific Builds:
2/48/11: Fire with Icy Veins. Best possible dps.

0/40/21: If you really need two Ice Blocks. This build is actually competitive for dps as well because it allows for two Icy Veins during Bloodlust.

10/48/3: Standard fire but no Icy Veins, Clearcasting instead. Used for better mana efficiency, but generally a poor choice compared to the first two fire options.

10/0/51: (or other frost variant): Deep Frost with winter's chill and Water Elemental. Very strong for guilds working on Kharazan or specific encounters that benefit from mage kiting skills. Scales poorly.

40/18/3: Arcane Blast with Fireball/Scorch.

40/0/21: Arcane Blast with Frostbolt, strongest ‘arcane build’ due to Icy Veins and Cold Snap.

48/0/13: Heavy Arcane with Icy Veins. This build benefits from itemization synergies because all spells used are Arcane spells, effectively lowering the effective hit cap by 7%. Unfortunately Arcane Missiles is poor dps, and while theorycraft has hinted at possible use for this spec, for the moment it is considered universally inferior to Arcane/Frost.

33/28: Arcane/Fire ‘huge crit’ build. This is a poor build that should never be used in raids.