1. Introduction 2. Spells and Abilities 3. Talents 4. Rotation 5. AOE Rotation 6. Stats 7. Consumables 8. Racials 9. Macros 10. Advanced 11. FAQ


Arcane Guide [11.1.0]

1. Introduction

This guide will cover everything you need to know about playing Arcane in PvE content. Arcane is a spec that revolves around burst damage and mana management. The spec remains unique in that it’s the only DPS spec left in the game that still cares about mana; however it’s mana functions much closer to slow moving energy than it does to traditional mana like healers.

Mage continues to have a desirable progression spot due to a raid buff & immunity.

Strengths:

Strong burst damage profile.

Good Mobility.

Arcane Barrage talents provide funnel and execute.

Strong defensive kit.

Time Warp, Arcane Intellect, & the class tree provide a wide range of dungeon utility.

Drawbacks:

No spread AOE or cleave.

Competes with the other mage specs for similar strengths.

Main raid utility is Arcane Intellect which does not make stacking the class appealing.

Extremely low passive tankiness. Defensive kit is all proactive which requires spec comfort or encounter knowledge.

2. Spells

Damage Spells:
  • Arcane Blast Filler ability. Damage and mana cost are increased per Arcane Charge. Unlike other filler abilities our resources mean this also works as our primary damage source with Arcane Charge.
  • Arcane Missiles Medium damage channel with a high mana cost. Ticks an additional time and costs no mana with Clearcasting.
  • Arcane Barrage High damage ability that deals additional damage per Arcane Charge and resets our Arcane Charge to 0. With talents, hits an additional target per Arcane Charge . Restores 1.5% mana per Arcane Charge used.
  • Touch Of The Magi 12 second debuff that stores a percentage of the damage we do to the target over the duration; at the end the damage is released to deal damage to the target and all nearby enemies.
  • Arcane Surge Primary DPS cooldown. Depletes our mana bar and deals damage based on percent mana spent. Drastically increases mana regeneration and spell damage for 12 seconds.
  • Evocation Channelled ability that regenerates our mana over the duration.
Defensive Spells:
  • Prismatic Barrier - Small shield for 60 seconds.
  • Mirror Image - Creates 3 copies of your character for 40 seconds. While an image is active your damage taken is reduced by 20%, and taking direct damage causes an image to dissipate.
  • Alter Time - Snapshots your current location and health. The spell can be reactivated again within 10 seconds to return you to said location and health.
  • Ice Block - Immunity that prevents all damage and debuffs but renders you unable to perform other actions while its active.
  • Greater Invisibility - Turns us invisible immediately and provides a 60% damage reduction. Can be used to fizzle several targeted boss abilities.
Other Utility Spells:
  • Shifting Power - Channeled spell that deals very low AoE damage and reduces all your remaining cooldowns by 12 seconds.
  • Arcane Intellect - Increases your raids/groups Intellect by 3% for 1 hour.
  • Blink - Teleports you 20 yards forwards. Our main mobility tool.
  • Spellsteal - Steals or purges 1 beneficial magic buff from an enemy target.
  • Remove Curse - Dispels all curses from a friendly target.
  • Cone Of Cold - Frontal cone AoE that damages and slows all targets hit.
  • Dragon's Breath - Frontal cone AoE that damages and disorientates all targets hit.
  • Blast Wave - Knocks back, slows and damages all nearby enemies.
  • Frost Nova - Freezes, roots and damages all nearby enemies.

3. Talents


Talent Import String: C4DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYGMbzCmhxs5BYmZGGTzMmBAAAAAgBAABMzstssMzELAAAAAAAgFGmZWmlxMjZmZMzMzMjhxYA


Talent Import String: C4DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYGMbzCmhxs5BYmZGGTzMmBAAAAAgBAABMzstssMzELAAAAAAAglxwMzysMMMzMDzMzMzMmxYA


Talent Import String: C4DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMjZxsNLYmxMzG8AmHYGjp5BGzAAAAAAwAAgAmZ2WWWmZiFAAAAAA2AYZMMzsMLDDzMzwMzMzMjZMG

4. Rotation

4.1 Rotation Overview

As an Arcane mage you always want to cast Touch Of The Magi and Arcane Surge on cooldown. As Arcane Surge has twice the cooldown, you will cast it every second Touch Of The Magi.

Touch Of The Magi casts with Arcane Surge will be referred to as the Arcane Surge burn or big burn, and casts without Arcane Surge will be referred to as the mini burn.

These timings are not exact as you will end up delaying certain spells for a second or two for one reason or another. It should however give you a good idea of the cycles you’re supposed to go through. Note that Shifting Power usage may vary these timers slightly.

Arcane Mage Priority:

  1. Cast Arcane Barrage with a 18 stacks of Arcane Harmony and less than 2 Nether Precision
  2. Cast Arcane Missiles with Clearcasting IF:
  3. Cast Arcane Orb with less than 3 Arcane Charge
  4. Cast Arcane Barrage at 4 charges IF:
  5. Cast Arcane Blast

Ideally we never want to Arcane Barrage at 2 charges of Nether Precision. This is because we don't want to spend Nether Precision on low charge Arcane Blast. This means you will often spend multiple Clearcasting and their associated Nether Precision before clearing charges with Arcane Barrage.

Clipping Arcane Missiles means interrupting the channel by casting another spell.

With Nether Precision do not full channel Arcane Missiles. Cancel and cast Arcane Blast as soon as the global cooldown allows you. You can do this by just spam pressing Arcane Blast while Arcane Missiles is channeling.

The exception is with Aether Attunement active you should always full channel Arcane Missiles.

Hyperthread

You can use this image for remembering Arcane Barrage conditions:

4.2 Cooldown Phases

4.2.1 Arcane Surge

Enter the burn phase whenever Evocation, Arcane Surge, and Touch Of The Magi are off cooldown. When possible you should have x4 Arcane Charge and Nether Precision before entering the burn.

Entering the Burn Phase:

  1. Cast Arcane Surge
  2. Cast Arcane Barrage
  3. Cast Touch Of The Magi (Before Arcane Barrage lands)

Touch Of The Magi is off the global cooldown. By casting Touch Of The Magi immediately after Arcane Barrage, we immediately regenerate our 4 Arcane Charge and the Arcane Barrage cast prior will land during Touch Of The Magi due to the spell's travel time. Note that on pull you will not have 4 Arcane Charge; in this situation you should skip the Arcane Barrage.

Casting Arcane Barrage with Glorious Incandescence will consume both Glorious Incandescence and Glorious Incandescence. Therefore, there is no real difference between which buff you queue the barrage with.

When Arcane Surge ends we will gain Arcane Soul - during this buff:

  1. Spam Arcane Barrage until you reach x3 Clearcasting.
  2. Alternate between Arcane Barrage and Arcane Missiles.
  3. Attempt to finish on an Arcane Barrage.

After Arcane Soul ends cast Shifting Power.

4.2.2 Mini Burn

The mini burn is similar but we don't cast Arcane Surge prior.

Entering the Mini-Burn Phase:

  1. Cast Arcane Barrage
  2. Cast Touch Of The Magi (Before Arcane Barrage lands)

If Presence Of Mind is not being used for movement, it can be used to squeeze some damage into Touch Of The Magi.

Presence of Mind

4.3 Opener

The opener involves entering the burn phase immediately. This plays out just like a normal burn phase except we won't have 4 Arcane Charge to Arcane Barrage.

  1. Cast Mirror Image prepull
  2. Cast Evocation prepull
  3. Cast Arcane Missiles
  4. Cast Arcane Orb
  5. Cast Arcane Surge
  6. Cast Arcane Barrage with 4 Arcane Charge
  7. Cast Touch Of The Magi

Opener

If you have Nether Precision but not Aether Attunement, do not full channel Arcane Missiles. Instead, cancel and cast Arcane Blast as soon as the global cooldown allows you.

5. AOE Rotation

5.1 AOE Rotation Overview

To maximise AOE damage, it mostly comes down to casting Arcane Barrage at x4 Arcane Charge. While unintuitive, Arcane Blast is preferred over Arcane Explosion due to high funnel damage and enhanced Clearcasting proc rate. On AOE we can generate Arcane Charge with Arcane Missiles due to High Voltage.

On AOE you open and enter Arcane Surge and Touch Of The Magi the same way you do on single target.

AOE Priority:

  1. Cast 1 Arcane Blast during Touch Of The Magi
  2. Cast Arcane Missiles with Clearcasting IF:
  3. Cast Arcane Orb with less than 2 Arcane Charge
  4. Cast Arcane Barrage IF:
  5. Arcane Explosion with 0 Arcane Charge
  6. Arcane Blast

5.2 Funnel Rotation Overview

The funnel rotation adds more conditionals to casting Arcane Barrage so we can stay at x4 Arcane Charge for longer

  1. Cast Arcane Barrage with a 18 stacks of Arcane Harmony and less than 2 Nether Precision
  2. Cast Arcane Missiles with Clearcasting IF:
  3. Cast Arcane Orb with less than 3 Arcane Charge
  4. Cast Arcane Barrage with Intuition
  5. Cast Arcane Barrage at 4 charges IF:
  6. Arcane Explosion with 0 or 1 Arcane Charge
  7. Arcane Blast

6. Stats

6.1 Stats

Due to the large Intellect stat budget on items, item level will usually be an upgrade. Stat weights vary depending on your current gear and talents. To produce an accurate stat priority or to accurately compare items you must sim yourself. Remember that haste value increases on AOE due to the AOE rotation spending less mana.

  • Critical Strike increases the critical strike rate of our abilities.
  • Haste reduces the cast time of our spells, our global cooldown, and therefore increases the rate at which we spend mana.
  • Versatility provides a flat damage increase and damage taken reduction.
  • Mastery - Increases our mana and mana regeneration. Increases the damage bonus provided by Arcane Charge, and provides a flat damage increase to all Arcane damage done.

Generally prioritise stats like so:

  1. Intellect
  2. Haste
  3. Versatility
  4. Critical Strike
  5. Mastery

6.2 Trinkets

Because active trinkets share a cooldown, we generally want to pick up one active trinket and one passive trinket. For up to date trinket data please refer to the sims page of the site. Notably, Nueral Synapse Enhancer is in this season's loot pool, and shares a cooldown with on-use trinkets.

6.3 Crafting & Embellishments

Recommended Embellishments:

  • Duskthread Lining is currently the most powerful embellishment if you can maintain uptime, however this is not always possible. The best slots to craft this in are Bracers, Belt, and Feet.
  • Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension paired with a Writing Armor Band is a very strong choice for raid and single target.
  • Elemental Focusing Lense is also a good choice when a weapon craft is not optimal for you.
  • Which of these you choose as your early crafts will vary based on your loot luck, sim yourself for best results.

7. Consumables

8. Racials

Horde:

  • Troll/Orc/Mag'har Orc - Berserking/Blood Fury, cooldown based stat boosts synergise with Arcane's burst and make them the best races for Arcane.
  • Goblin - Rocket Jump is one of the few useful utility racials while Time is Money keeps the race somewhat competitive for DPS.

Alliance:

9. Macros

This macro makes it easier to sequence Arcane Barrage and Touch Of The Magi. You can spam this macro and Touch Of The Magi will never be cast before Arcane Barrage.

#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=10 Arcane Barrage, Touch of the Magi

The macro below can be used to automatically cancel Ice Block if you try to cast a spell while blocked; and automatically targets something if you try to cast a spell with no target. [nochanneling] will also allow you to spam the key without cancelling Shifting Power:

#showtooltip
/cancelaura Ice Block
/cast [nochanneling:Shifting Power] Arcane Blast
/targetenemy [noexists][dead]

Can be used to cancel Ice Block and immediately Blink. Useful when Ice Blocked in a void zone as you'll Blink out and take no damage. Also works with Shimmer:

#showtooltip
/cancelaura Ice Block
/cast Blink

Counterspell. Prioritizes Mouseover > Focus > Target:

#showtooltip Counterspell
/cast [@mouseover,harm][@focus,harm][harm] Counterspell

Spellsteal. Prioritizes Mouseover > Focus > Target:

#showtooltip Spellsteal
/cast [@mouseover,harm][@focus,harm][harm] Spellsteal

Mouseover Remove Curse:

#showtooltip Remove Curse
/cast [@mouseover]Remove Curse

10. Advanced

10.1 Cancelling Alter Time

Alter Time snapshots our current location and health. The spell can then be reactivated within 10 seconds to return us to said location and health. However if the buff expires we will be returned regardless, which sometimes we may not want to do.

If we cancel the Alter Time buff, it will not automatically be activated at the end of the duration, allowing us to stay where we are.

/cancelaura Alter Time

11. FAQ

Q:

How do I sim Mythic+?

A:

There is no single sim that will represent a Mythic+ dungeon. Looking at the results of multiple Patchwerk sims with different numbers of targets and various settings can help you understand what is good in different situations. Note that very short sim durations and fight styles other than Patchwerk can be misleading and are therefore NOT recommended.

Q:

What stat percentages should I aim for?

A:

Nothing, you don't aim for specific percentages of stats. There are very few stat breakpoints in the game that are of utmost importance, and any that are will be reflected in sims. You equip the gear that gives you the most DPS with almost no thought on what stat percentages that leaves you at.

Q:

Should I use Pawn?

A:

No, it's an outdated addon, based on an outdated way of thinking about the game. It relies too heavily on stat weights being an accurate method of comparing gear, which they aren't. Just use top gear and never think about stat weights ever.

Q:

What should I set my Spell Queue Window to?

A:

If you don't know why you're changing it leave it at the default (400). You can print out your current Spell Queue Window by entering this command /dump GetCVar("SpellQueueWindow") ingame.

Q:

Should I use Arcane Momentum?

A:

Generally I would advise against it as it's more error prone and currently has multiple different bugs.

Q:

My sim says this thing gives X stat, but in game I get Y?

A:

Raidbots takes it's tooltips from Wowhead. They may not necessarily lineup with the values being used by the sim. Always check the HTML report.