How to: Arcane Mage PVP (3.0.2)

[Christina]

Arcane, The new PVP spec for mages!

But HOW do you PVP as arcane?

Three time Glad mage here, hopefully I'll help you out a bit. Going to write a brief guide while I'm temp banned for treat exploiting!
It'll be brief because, well, it's really not that complicated.

Please feel free to post any questions you may have!

Rotation:
Your rotation should take full advantage of your Arcane Barrages 3 second cooldown. Remember that you can use any ability and then Arcane Barrage will be up again. You'll want to use it every time possible.

Here's an example of a good rotation.
Arcane Barrage (0) -> Slow (1.5) -> Arcane Barrage (3.0) -> Fireblast (4.5) -> Arcane Barrage (6) -> Frost Nova (7.5) -> Arcane Barrage (9.0) -> Fireblast (10.5) -> (start over)

NOTE: Frost Nova can be replaced with almost any instant and is a great time to cast a polymorph.

Make sure to have a macro for Presense of Mind as follows and weave it in between Arcane Barrages when going for a kill. (You WILL kill someone if you do!)

#Showtooltip Presence of Mind
/cast [trinket name]
/cast Arcane Power
/cast Presence of Mind
/cast Fireball(Rank 14)

Spec:
In this spec your basically boosting all your instants, it's pretty much the cookie-cutter spec for Arcane PVP. Although I'm sure there's people who have tweaked it slightly, for example I've seen people pull 3/3 Arcane Fortitude and go with 3/3 Ice Flows.

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

Gear:
Accessorys:
Go with the silk guardians for the extra crit (it really adds up)
Guardian's Pendant of Conquest
Guardian's Silk Cuffs
Guardian's Silk Belt
Guardian's Silk Footguards
Cloak of Subjugated Power
Guardian's Band of Dominance
Vindicator's Band of Dominance

Armor:
Obviously your going to go with whatever you have access to here, but ideally full Brutal Gladiator armor.

Trinkets:
Your going to want to go with a "burn" trinket, what this is a trinket with a use that gives more additional spell damage for on demand extra damage to get that kill.

If your not human go with Medallion of the Alliance/Horde and Hex Shrunken Head
If you don't have access to Hex Shrunken Head or Serpant-Coil Braid the badge trinkets Icon of the Silver Crescent or Essence of the Martyr from Badges of Justice

If your human I would highly recommend going with Serpant-Coil Braid and Hex Shrunken Head. This is to take advantage of the fact that you can stack Serpant-Coil Braid with a burn trinket, if you use the Mana Emerald just before Hex Shrunken Head or any similar trinket you will stack the damage for insane burst.

Gemming:
Your going to want to go maximum damage here.

Go with Runed Crimson Spinel in every slot and 2 Glowing Shadowsong Amethyst to get your meta bonus on Chaotic Skyfire Diamond.

Enchants and Armor Kits:
Helm: Glyph of Arcane Power although Arcanum of the Gladiator is a good alternative.
Shoulder: Greater Inscription of Discipline (Aldor) or Greater Inscription of the Orb (Scryer)
Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Spell Penetration
Chest: Enchant Chest - Exceptional Health or Enchant Chest - Major Resilience (This is really personal preference here)
Bracer: Enchant Bracer - Superior Healing (Same damage as Enchant Bracer - Spellpower but this costs significantly less!)
Gloves: Enchant Gloves - Major Spellpower
Pants: Runic Spellthread
Boots: Boar's Speed
Rings: Enchant Ring - Spellpower (If your an enchanter only)

Screenshots of Arcane PVP:

Here's a few screenshots of what I've done so far with this spec. These are all pugs (pick up groups) and I had no assistance from other players.

http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/8477/arcanepvpgm6.png
http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/5...anepvp2mv1.png
http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/2...anepvp3ma1.png

NOTICE:
This is my first guide and is original, I wrote from scratch, it is not a re-post from another site. All constructive criticism and comments are welcome!

[Ginchy]

Wow, thank you for this. +3 rep when my CD is over.

[Decester]

Get Missile barrage it's insane^^

[Yo Dawg]

Nice Guide, thanks.

[vlada111]

Nice guide, ty

[Quickfix]

Frost is best.

[urbanmiff]

Where is the find central spot on keyboard, slam down face, and roll side to side in a frantic manner, while jump turning?

[Rohi]

I got better and faster guide:

Arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane missiles procced use it arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage

[agni]

missile barrage and arcane stability would be good?

[Christina]

Wow, thank you for this. +3 rep when my CD is over.

Nice Guide, thanks.

Nice guide, ty

Thank you very much, Glad you enjoyed it!

Where is the find central spot on keyboard, slam down face, and roll side to side in a frantic manner, while jump turning?

I got better and faster guide:

Arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane missiles procced use it arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage arcane barrage

Both very good suggestions, thank you. >.>

Frost is best.

Unfortunately Frost can't compete with Arcane.

As Arcane Mages can even beat their counter class, Warlocks with ease.

missile barrage and arcane stability would be good?

Missile Barrage - Is a decent talent but unfortunately it isn't worth the talent points at level 70, possibly at level 80. We aren't relying on RNG to kill people and that's 5 talent points we can't afford. With this setup the only time you should be casting is sheep. You don't even need to cast Arcane Missiles when someones circling a pillar anymore, you can keep your full DPS on them by merely chasing them. Of course there are a few exceptions to this rule, sometimes you just look cool killing someone through a pillar, which by all means go ahead and cast it!

Arcane Stability - This talent should never be picked up, Mages aren't tanks. If you need push back resistance your doing it wrong.

[Cooldude]

Missile Barrage - Is a decent talent but unfortunately it isn't worth the talent points at level 70, possibly at level 80. We aren't relying on RNG to kill people and that's 5 talent points we can't afford. With this setup the only time you should be casting is sheep. You don't even need to cast Arcane Missiles when someones circling a pillar anymore, you can keep your full DPS on them by merely chasing them. Of course there are a few exceptions to this rule, sometimes you just look cool killing someone through a pillar, which by all means go ahead and cast it!

I disagree. I'm a glad mage and rogue, and i have a UI that tells me when missile barrage pops. WoW has become so much RNG related that not picking up a really good RNG ability would not be smart. Look at the mages in the 2200+ brackets that are arcane, they all have it.
BTW: chasing a ret pally around a pillar is great if you are planning on being 2 shot.

[Christina]

I disagree. I'm a glad mage and rogue, and i have a UI that tells me when missile barrage pops. WoW has become so much RNG related that not picking up a really good RNG ability would not be smart. Look at the mages in the 2200+ brackets that are arcane, they all have it.
BTW: chasing a ret pally around a pillar is great if you are planning on being 2 shot.

MSBT is great for telling you when your ability's proc.

I have seen no good mages with Missile Barrage. It's a mana sink and does barely more damage then Arcane Barrage. Missile Barrage is Personal Preference really, it's 50/50 on this. It would be a completely different build if you did spec it though.

Thanks for your input.

BTW: Since when do ret pallys run away? You should never be in range of him hitting you, whether your chasing him or not there's always room to kite.

[Tankotron]

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

Imo this is probably the best spec for arcane.. includes everything in the arcane tree you need but arcane mind.. you also get ignite in the fire tree for the extra damage for when your fireball crits.

MSBT is great for telling you when your ability's proc.

I have seen no good mages with Missile Barrage. It's a mana sink and does barely more damage then Arcane Barrage. Missile Barrage is Personal Preference really, it's 50/50 on this. It would be a completely different build if you did spec it though.

Thanks for your input.

BTW: Since when do ret pallys run away? =\

When missile barrage procs and I use it thats rougly 2.5k-4k damage right there in a couple of seconds for me.. its definitely worth it.

[Christina]

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

Imo this is probably the best spec for arcane.. includes everything in the arcane tree you need but arcane mind.. you also get ignite in the fire tree for the extra damage for when your fireball crits.

If your going to be specing Missile Barrage you should be putting your talents into Arcane Empowerment, not Ignite. That will cost you allot of damage.

This is a completely different play style then the one I listed though.

When missile barrage procs and I use it thats rougly 2.5k-4k damage right there in a couple of seconds for me.. its definitely worth it.

Arcane Barrage hits for 2.5k to 4k, instantly.

Difference of opinions though.

[CollapseD]

christinia3d you never played a mage or never played arena @ highrating