Mage - Arcane

Purpose

Transform mana into damage. Arcane is the tree that can put more damage on a target on a fixed time given an unlimited amount of mana.
As mana is a limited resource, Arcane Mages require skill to manage converting their mana into damage in more creative ways than the other builds.

Talent Builds

57/3/11 - Pure single-target dps build. http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?mage#8LEIxJjl1vZMZ,-Y3,9551∞

53/18 - To maintain scorch if there are no fire/frostfire mage in raid.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=of0Vfz0IzxGu0xedfVczoh∞


Talent variations.

There are a number of talent points who can be easily customized for your likings/raid environment.

-Arcane Subtlety. The number of points here depends on your tank reliability when doing aggro. At least one point is advisable to allow initial mana dumping.

-Arcane stability. The number of points here depends from the quantity of raid wide damaga in the current raid environment.

-Magic attunement. This is a commodity for positioning, a number of users discard the two poins to other talents.

-Student of the mind.- As spirit now affects directly crit in molten armor some points here are not a waste

-Incanters absortion, This talent is useful in a number of encounters, most notably in Twin valkyrs, and to mages who has a dedicated shielding partner.

-Arcane Barrage.- As its usage its limited nowadays to movement instances a number of arcanist elect droping this point

Ability Rotation

Arcane rotation is necessarily flexible . You MUST adapt your rotation to the fight, the phase of it, the amount of mana you have available, and the possibilities of regaining mana.

These are your tools:
AB- Arcane Blast
AM- Arcane Missile
ABarr – Arcane Barrage
MBarr – Missile barrage (AM when it procs)

From 3.2 with reduced blast stacking cost Arcane Barrage is effectively OUT of normal sequences, its use limited only to keep some DPS while in movement.

Highest dps cycle :
- AB spam with MBArr on proc at 4+ stack.

Accelerated sequences. : AB Spam.

This should be used when main buffs are stacked.
Most Arcane users try to do this as soon as possible in the encounter, to try to repeat it
at least second time and even a third.

Arcane Blast spam until the end of you main cooldowns [Arcane Potency, Icy Veins -and/or Bloodlust/Heroism-, “On use” trinkets], using the MBarr proc at the last second of IV, and proceeding with a standard ABx4 MBarr rotation.

Alternative is to tag an Evocation at the end of IV/BL (using the MBarr sooner) for fights that do not have a period of time where you could Evocate without losing DPS time (more on this below).

Main cycle

- AB spam with MBArr on proc at 4+ stack.


Mana saving sequences:

Given a good raid composition (mana replenishment, Blessing of Wisdom) we should not be forced into this ones, barring an accident with our Evocate or excessive Mana dumping (AB spam) use.

Simply reduce the number of AB stacks you wait to use Mbarr, to 3 or even 2 in extreme moments. If Stacks reach 4 without proccing Mbarr remove stack with Abarr.

With Arcane is capital you manage your mana efficiently. You will be doing separate rounds during a fight, defined basically by your cooldowns availability (mainly Icy veins/ Evocation.).

Important:

Evocation should be used with Icy veins/Bloodlust . Depending on the nature of the fight there are two ways of accomplish these.


As 3.2 Evocation is NOT advisable each “round” (CD use), only when we are at least down 40% of total mana.

Allways have in mind that if the encounter has “dead times” (i.e. Beast in normal ToC) Evocation should be reserved to this times.

Key Cooldowns

Arcane Power.- 10% more damage AND mana cost for 15 secs.

Presence of mind. Next casting timed spell becomes instant.

Arcane Power and Presence of Mind now share a category cooldown. Arcane Power causes a 15 second cooldown. Presence of Mind, once consumed, causes a 1.5 second cooldown, so they are NOT stackable.

Icy Veins .- A frost spell, but used in virtually all arcane builds. Hastes a 20% your spellcasting AND 100% pushback protection. Combine it with with Arcane Power and you have your own Bloodlust. Used with Evocate in two ways (more on this above).

Evocate : Definitive mana regen ability. While channeling you aren't dpsing and therefore you have to strike a balance between using it to regen mana and maximizing your damage. Optimal use of evocation –on continous fights- is on the last tick of icy veins during a time in the boss fight when it won't be interrupted. Will benefit from icy veins if the buff is up when evocation starts. As arcane you must learn how to work with evocation in your “master sequence”.

Key Stats

Hit (until capped, be very aware of your 6% “free talent” hit and estra 3% from shadow priest misery/ Moonkin faery fire) --> Spell Dmg -> Haste
> Int --> Crit

---

> spi Mp/5
General strategy : Go for 1500 spelldamage, then go for hit cap , then keep adding spellpower to sufficient amounts (2300+) then haste to 600 and crit as you like.

Stat weightings (updated for the 3.1 spirit change)

• 2.70 spell hit
• 1.55 spell power
• 1.25 haste
• 0.83 int
• 0.80 crit
• 0.72 spirit

Mage Hit Cap

You need 17% hit to be able to never miss on a raid boss. You can see your current hit% by mousing-over your hit rating. At level 80, each 1% hit requires roughly 26.2 +hit rating. Therefore, to be fully capped, you would need about 446 +hit to be fully capped.

As arcane you are blessed by Arcane Focus giving 3% hit to your arcane spells. If you take the Icy way you will add another 3% hit from Precision, that “free” 6% puts you in a very good position to work with.

Other external sources of hit
Draenei Racial (Heroic Presence) = 1% hit
Shadow Priest Misery (debuff) = 3% hit
Smoked Salmon (buff food) = about 1.5% hit
TOTAL = +5.5% hit

GRAND TOTAL = 11.5% hit

If you're lucky to get all these buffs (which you have a good chance of in a 25-man raid), you'd only be 5.5% hit short (17% - 11.5% = 5.5%). Therefore you'd need about 180 +hit on your gear (and gems and enchants) to reach the cap.

For a 10-man raid, it's more likely that you won't have a shadow priest, nor a drenei if you are horde. So it's safe to assume that you'll have a bonus 7.5% (Arcane Focus, Elemental Precision, Smoked Salmon). Thus, you'd need 9.5% hit on your gear, or 250 +hit on gear/enchants/gems.

Stats are listed in order of importance. All these stats are useful, but look for gear with more stats from the top of the list.

Armor

Molten Armor.

Running Mage armor instead of Molten armor does not free up enough mana to be a DPS gain. Therefore, an Arcane mage should always be running Molten, adjusting the rotations if running OOM. If you need mana sustainability, run another spec.

Recommended Glyphs

Glyph of Arcane Blast
Glyph of Arcane Missiles
Glyph of Molten Armor
Glyph of Improved Scorch * (only subfire specs if thay cannot be avoided: i.e. no fire/frostfire mage in raid)

Recommended Enchants

Head: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries∞ (Kirin Tor, Revered)
Shoulder: Lesser Inscription of the Storm∞ (Sons of Hodir, Honored) or Greater Inscription of the Storm ∞ (Sons of Hodir, Exalted)
Back: Enchant Cloak - Speed∞, Enchant Cloak - Greater Speed∞ Lightweave Embroidery∞
Chest: Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats∞
Wrist: Enchant Bracers - Greater Spellpower∞, Enchant Bracers - Superior Spellpower∞
Hands: Enchant Gloves - Exceptional Spellpower∞
Legs: Brilliant Spellthread∞ (Tailor crafted)
Feet: Enchant Boots - Icewalker∞
Weapon: Enchant Weapon - Mighty Spellpower∞

Recommended Gems

Once you're hit capped, then you'll want to enchant for +spelldamage and/or +haste/crit (a few enchants do both, like head and shoulder enchants).

+Spelldamage enchants will go on head, shoulders, wrists, legs, weapon and rings (if you're an enchanter).

For gemming, Get to the hit cap first, then spelldamage, then haste/crit.

Meta = +21 crit, 3% crit bonus∞

Post hit cap gems :
Red = +19 Spell Power∞ +16 Spell Power∞
Yellow = +9 Spell Power, +8 Intellect∞ +9 Spell Power, +8 Crit∞
Blue = +9 Spell Power, +8 spirit∞

Pre-hit cap:
Red/Yellow = +9 spelldamage / +8 hit∞ can help to reach your modest hit necessities without compromise much of your equipment.

Remember to add a socket to your belt with an Eternal Belt Buckle. These sockets do not have a color, so you can easily add a +19 spelldamage and not disrupt any bonuses.

Recommended Consumables

Flasks:
Flask of the Frost Wyrm∞
Food:
Tender Shoveltusk Steak∞ +46 spellpower +40 stamina
Shoveltusk Steak∞ +35 spellpower +30 stamina
Snapper Extreme∞ +40 hit rating +40 stamina

Additional Tips

AOE: IV/blizzard + POM/flamestrike

Presence of Mind , optimal use: last AB of any rotation
As a general note, go for one extra AB on your rotation where you cast POM, in a case where you had planned to do some mana dumping at the end of the fight. It makes sense to use an extra 18% more damage on AB.

Begin of a Fight

Use images (for the agro froze) , scale AB attack to 4 and unleash all your CDs arcane power, use AB spam At 1 second remaining on your icy veins Evocate if mana < 40%. Depending on the state of your mana use a mana gem after your evocate has finished and then start your standart ABx 4 [mbarr] Rotation.

Sources and Other Resources

Elitist jerks http://elitistjerks.com/f75/t42876-arcane_thread/p7/∞
http://www.stratfu.com/strats/ArcaneMage∞
Rawr - http://www.codeplex.com/Rawr∞