Cataclysm Arcane Mage Guide

[Christon]

Arcane – Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
A spec which focuses on mobility and reduced raid damage. There are a number of optional talents dependant on your specific raid or role requirements and these are covered in the table above.

Arcane was the best DPS spec in 4.0.6 but the current Dragon Soul recounts clearly show that Fire Mages are dominating the DPS charts. Anyway Arcane mages are less mobile than fire mages but have slightly bigger single target dps but its not always the case. Also arcane mages have higher burst dmg than fire mages.

Stat priority for Arcane Mages

Intellect is by far the strongest stat. This stat should always be your priority.
Hit Cap - As I said its harder to achieve in Cataclysm but try doing so without sacrificing much of the other stats.
Haste - Arcane Mages without haste is like a warrior without weapon.
Crit – Not that valuable as arcane mage but still required.
Mastery - Also a good stat for arcane mage as it increases dmg done depending on your mana unspent.

Arcane Cycles


The basic premise behind Arcane DPS is divided into two main phases, the Burn Phase and the Conservation Phase.

Burn Phase

As the name suggests, this is the primary DPS phase of the Arcane spec and is initiated when Evocation will be off CD when the burn phase is completed and ideally, when at full mana with a 4 stack AB present. A typical scenario would be to AB spam until your mana level is such that a Mana Gem will take you to 100% mana, then pop all CDs and continue to spam AB until you reach 35% mana. This phase ends with an Evocation.
Dependant on encounter mechanics, the burn phase need not necessarily be initiated at the start of the encounter as was somewhat traditional with Arcane. If periods exist were a specific high RDPS is needed, or the boss enters a phase were they take vastly increased damage, then the burn phase can be aligned to that. Flame Orb can also be used to regenerate mana as in some cases it can initiate a high number of AM procs. This could allow for a secondary limited burn phase after Evocation using every available AM proc to regenerate mana. PoM can also be introduced into the burn phase once AP fades as with the Arcane Potency proc being active, a 4 stack AB is preferable. PoM can also be used at a suitable point prior to the pull, such as conjuring a mana gem and the two Arcane Potency buff charges will be present for the pull itself.

Conservation Phase

This is a mana-neutral rotation designed to keep your mana near 100% until such time as Evocation will soon be off CD. The exact rotation is heavily dependant on gear and raid buffs and is probably the phase affected the most by the coming Arcane changes. The primary focus of this phase is maintaining as close to 100% mana as possible whilst ensuring that no mana is wasted. There will be some variation in your chosen mana neutral cycle as you take advantage of procs such as Clearcasting and Arcane Potency.

Enchants
Head – Arcanum of Hyjal
Shoulders – Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone OR Felfire Inscription (only for Scribes)
Back – 50 Intellect OR Lightweave Embrodiery rank 2 (Tailors)
Chest – 20 to all stats
Wrists – 50 Intellect OR Draconic Embossment ( Leatherworkers)
Gloves – 50 haste, 65 mastery OR Synapse Springs (Engineers)
Waist – 1 bonus socket
Legs – Powerfull Enchanted Spellthread (made by tailors)
Feet – 50 mastery/hit/haste
Rings – Intellect (enchanters only)
Weapon – Power Torrent
Off Hand - Supperior Intellect

Gemming


Brilliant inferno Ruby – 40 intellect
Reckless Ember Topaz – 20 haste, 20 intellect
Veiled Demonseye – 20 intellect, 20 Hit
Burning Shadowspirit Diamond – Meta gem

Glyphs


Prime Glyphs :

- Mage Armor
- Arcane Blast
- Arcane Missiles
Glyph of Arcane Barrage can become viable dependant on further mana changes.

Major Glyphs:

- Arcane Power
- Evocation
- Polymorph

Minor Glyphs:

- Mirror Image
- Conjuring
- Armors

[sed-]

also how to pvp as an arcane,
In-depth arcane pvp tutorial - YouTube

[TehVoyager]

Arcane mage playguide.


11112111112111121111121111211111211112111112 (mana gem) 11112111112111121111121111211111211112111112 (evocation) 11112111112111121111121111211111211112111112 get loot.


All jesting aside, thanks for the guide Christon

[x40xcalx]

Arcane mage playguide.


11112111112111121111121111211111211112111112 (mana gem) 11112111112111121111121111211111211112111112 (evocation) 11112111112111121111121111211111211112111112 get loot.

close, too many 2's tho.

- A mage who played Arcane.

[Christon]

Arcane mage playguide.


11112111112111121111121111211111211112111112 (mana gem) 11112111112111121111121111211111211112111112 (evocation) 11112111112111121111121111211111211112111112 get loot.


All jesting aside, thanks for the guide Christon

I just want to share my experience to others

[Brainmanager]

so you are not using arcane power, flame orb or presence of mind? 8-)

[sed-]

lol arcane is for the no skilled lazy kids who can get away with pulling good dps with no skill at all and spam 1 button, i feel same for arcane pvp,

[Cruven123]

lol arcane is for the no skilled lazy kids who can get away with pulling good dps with no skill at all and spam 1 button, i feel same for arcane pvp,

Haha are you serius ?
Its so much more than 1 button.. its 2!

[Meltoor]

http://elitistjerks.com/f75/t118084-cataclysm_arcane_mage_compendium/
You did a very good job copypasting!

[Confucius]

http://elitistjerks.com/f75/t118084-cataclysm_arcane_mage_compendium/
You did a very good job copypasting!

Actually it's a direct copy and paste from [Guide] Cataclysm Arcane Mage Guide - Molten Community Forums, which also has some copy and pasted elements from the guide you linked.

[Mephistroth]

lol arcane is for the no skilled lazy kids who can get away with pulling good dps with no skill at all and spam 1 button, i feel same for arcane pvp,

I´d like to see you play an arcane mage, you know their job is to stay at 95-100% mana while everything is on cd?

[Nyarly]

http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/worl...spec-mage.html guide with no links, obviously a copy/paste
http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/diab...iablo-iii.html best thread ever
http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/worl...45884-wow.html second best thread ever

http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/diab...expecting.html this
http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/diab...ii-vs-wow.html x vs x
http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/mmo/...agon-nest.html another x vs x

Seriously who are you and what are you doing here ?

He does not look like a bot or a spammer but i really don't understand why he's making threads like theses (copy/paste or totally useless)..

[Christon]

http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/worl...spec-mage.html guide with no links, obviously a copy/paste
http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/diab...iablo-iii.html best thread ever
http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/worl...45884-wow.html second best thread ever

http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/diab...expecting.html this
http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/diab...ii-vs-wow.html x vs x
http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/mmo/...agon-nest.html another x vs x

Seriously who are you and what are you doing here ?

He does not look like a bot or a spammer but i really don't understand why he's making threads like theses (copy/paste or totally useless)..

I just want to share with u

[Christon]

Actually it's a direct copy and paste from [Guide] Cataclysm Arcane Mage Guide - Molten Community Forums, which also has some copy and pasted elements from the guide you linked.

just want to share