[Mage] Guide to Arcane!

[Meltoor]

Summary:
-Talent build
-Macro
-Gear guide
-Rotation & Gylph
-Interesting things to know


-At the current state, arcane is the best spec for PvE with the proper usage.

Introduction to Arcane:
Some fast things (For later use):
Arcane Missiles = AM
Arcane Barrage = Abarr
Arcane Blast = AB
Arcane Power = AP
Focus Magic = FM


Talent:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#obxVfz0IzxGuMxedcZbGc0o:zNicz0
This is the baseline how your talent should look like, but you can make minor changes, such as +1point to arcane hit and -1 point to Arcane Stability (In case you have the paladin's aura), but I see many mages with 0 points in Arcane Stability, and that's stupid, because we get damaged on almost every single fight, so I reccommend it!

Gear:
Ofcourse, the first thing to get is the hitcap.
You need 17% Hit overall.
-Precision +3% hit.
-If you have an SP/Moonkin, that's another +3% hit.
-If you spare some points on Arcane focus, that's 1-3%, but I wouldn't reccomend it.
So you need 11% unbuffed hit to be capped against a level 73 mob (Boss), which isn't really hard to obtain! I don't have a hit rating gem, nor a trinket and got 18% +hit even without the talents, so it should be a piece of cake.

The stats you need always depend on your current gear, but the primary stat you need is, clearly, spellpower!

Gems:
The meta socket (if you have one) should be Chatoic Skyflare Diamond.
That needs 2 blue gems, which should be: +spelldmg and +spirit.
The rest should be raw spell power or haste+spellpower for socket bonuses. As you can see, one spell power worths the twice of a crit rating.


Glyphs:
Since 3.0.9, you need the following ones for best results:
-Glyph of Arcane Missiles
-Glyph of Arcane Blast
-Glyph of Molten Armor
Since MB got buffed and now removes the mana cost of AM, Molten Armor is now a viable option for arcane mages.

Rotation:

You need to understand, that there is no "single" rotation.
Your goal is to burn ALL your mana to the end of the fight.
If you have supports like SP, and you have to nuke like hell, let's say a 6min Malygos, or 3D Sartharion, you do it like this:

¤Arcane Blast (x4)
¤If Missile Barrage procced, then AM, if not, Abarr.
-rinse and repeat.

It's this simple since 3.0.9!
Let's say you got the Missile Barrage procced on the 3nd AB and you're casting the 4rd one, you'll know that you use AM after the 4rd AB.
But if you didn't get a Missile Barrage proc on the 1-3 AB, don't cast the 4th and see if it procced, just do an Abarr.
And never do Abarr after AM, it doesn't worth the global cooldown.

Let's say you're on a longer fight, you cannot afford this mana cost, it's easy to switch into a less mana effiency rotation.

¤Arcane Blast (x2)or(x3)
¤If Missile Barrage procced, then AM, if not, Abarr.
-rinse and repeat.

Always remember, depending on your mana, if it's too low, you can always switch back to the 2-3stack AB rotation. This is the key concept in arcane. But mostly since the buff, you probably won't have mana issues.

Macros:
Your Macro should contain the following:

/use 13
/use 14
/cast Arcane Power
/cast Icy Veins
/cast Berserking (If you're a troll)

You see? PoM shouldn't be in the macro, you should use that ability separately from AP, when these are on cooldown, or after AP expired.

This "nuke" macro is even more effective under Bloodlust, keep that in mind.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BUT, if you're a decent geared mage, you will see that if you pop all your CDs with bloodlust, you will go below global CD, and waste that precious haste, so examine your casttime, and if they pop BL you should only pop CDs which don't bring you under 1.0sec casttime on AB/AM(with MB).
This is the main reason haste doesn't worth as much as spellpower.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Interesting things:
-At Malygos don't use your PoM, keep it until Vortex, where you can do the following for the best results and the least DPS lost due to the inability to cast: Abarr,PoM AB,Abarr,Fire Blast.
-Let's say the boss is at 10% HP, and you're at 90% Mana. The best way to burn your mana and do the best dps is to just spam AB until the boss is dead, but you should keep watching your mana, if you start it too early you can just go OOM before the boss is dead and that's ALOT of dps loss.
-You have the advantage of -40% threat, which makes this spec in most of the cases the best. You'll see other firemages struggling in aggro, loosing DPS with using invisibility, which you will never have to.
-You have a 2min Evocation CD, it's like that for a purpose, ALWAYS use it, it's your best friend.
-The T10 (2) and (4) setbonuses worth everything, if you see a ilvl264 hands or leggings better than the T10, don't switch them, these two setbonuses can give you shitloads of plus damage. (Like +18% with mirror image, combined with AP and other cds, I hit 30k AB-s)

-If your gear is good but your dps is low, the following problems could be happening:
-You pop your CDs at an inappropriate time.
-You take too much time to switch targets on a fight were are multiple mobs.
-You posision yourself on a bad place, eg. you stand on the other casters on Festergut and get the disorient.
-You move too much.



-Meltoor >:]

[holydevil33]

nice guide +2rep

[camicio]

What about PVP?
I just had a day to play on an arcane mage and didn't know anything about how to play one but to be honest all I was doing in BG's besides polymorphing one enemy if nobody was hitting him and using counterspell was using arcane barrage/fire blast/arcane barrage/slow/arcane barrage.

[Meltoor]

Don't bother with PvP, (this is a PvE guide btw). The 3.0.9 nerf aimed on PvP part, and now this spec lost the most important advantage in PvP, the burst damage, no Pom+AP, and AP is now 20% not 30%, Abarr got a nerf in damage, so I'd advise you frost to PvP.

[Canizzz]

I hoped this would have been pvp guide, but for pve :/ But, nice guide, but no reputation from me, sorry :P If you get the pvp part, I'll be sure to rep you

[Meltoor]

I hoped this would have been pvp guide, but for pve :/ But, nice guide, but no reputation from me, sorry :P If you get the pvp part, I'll be sure to rep you

Lol, spam Abarr. Satisfied?
I didn't write a PvP part because it's a very bad talent tree for PvP since 3.0.9

[Canizzz]

Well, I wish arcane would be that easy :P I mean, I play frost mage atm, and been testing arcanes on bg:s :P But, I still dont get it fully :P And, yes, it's my alt

[Remus]

we never asked if it was your alt [~_^]. and bribing something you can go to the wowforums for is stupid in general..

"oh nice work on the pve guide for which this topic is only written on.. but no rep because i want a pvp guide, your work means shit to me."

not a nice way to come off now huh?

sidenote: +3 for the pve guide and it would be nice sometime in the future if you did up a pvp one =)

[tom123h]

What about PVP?
I just had a day to play on an arcane mage and didn't know anything about how to play one but to be honest all I was doing in BG's besides polymorphing one enemy if nobody was hitting him and using counterspell was using arcane barrage/fire blast/arcane barrage/slow/arcane barrage.

Thats ALL you do seriously..

[btman]

nice
ty for this

[blackfang500]

Nice guide, well formatted, cant say I read the whole thing though. +Repx1.

[Mr Barbeque]

would like to see some comparision to the other mage specs to show the diffrences.

[Newtgod1]

• 1.39 spell power
• 0.89 int
• 0.72 haste
• 0.68 crit
• 0.46 spirit

this looks like a wrong configured rawr oO (combat time ~ 1 min or something)
normally haste > int

[Mr Barbeque]

haste > int

can confirm this, haste is a better stat then int normally for a arcane mage.

[frostmania]

they made me go frost for kitting lol i suck at it and my dps is like when i reach 2k i cry from happyness lol time to go back and now that i remember i still have arcane glyphs in frost spec lol xD +rep


EDIT: if you are horde and wanna test your dps go behind valey of strengh there is an alliance training doll with like 10mill hp and nuke and see your dps and if im wrong thats behing of the arena and bg np´s in org the ones that start it bah lost my words hope u get it :P and i want a game card badly poor me xD