[Rough Draft Guide] Arcane Mage Guide

Forum Ninja Joined: Mar 09, 2008 Posts: 1062

Intro >
Description of Arcane Spec - Arcane is the new standard of raiding mage builds. It has the highest consistent dps you can get. FFB may sometimes go higher, but it's very proccy. Arcane will also result in higher overall damage, sometimes lower dps, but the damage should often times put you at the top of the meters. This spec doesn't have the 10% crit utility that frost and fire have. It does grant you one person to give an extra 3% crit to though.

Who Am I? Well I'm Farad. I've been playing this mage for 4 years so I know the ins and outs of the class. I also try to explain specs in a way that anybody can understand. Not some complex algorithm to show the damage coefficient of an extra talent point in some obscure place.

Why I wrote this guide? As just mentioned, layman’s terms for how to play arcane.

Role>
SPARTANS! What is your profession? Any combination of JC, Inscription, Alchy, or Enchanting. JC/Chanting/Scribe all provide good stat boosts, but Alchy will allow you to chain mana pots if needed.

How much DPS should I be doing? A Naxx 25 geared arc mage should pull 4.5k +, if not way higher.

Role in Groups - Lay down dps, Slow casting mobs, Possibly Kite mobs via slow, Sheep stuff.
*For non-ae packs just kill the main target.

*For AE packs give the tank some time to get threat on all mobs then do your thing.

*Keep an eye on healer type mobs, counterspell them as needed. Good to have a focus macro here.

*Some bosses and mobs have spells that need to be interrupted and you can’t always do it. Slow the mob to slow the casting to give the guys who are stopping the casting some breathing room.

*If you don’t have CS up, just sheep the mob to stop casting, if it’s the main target it’ll get broken instantly so it won’t have any healing from poly. Some mobs chain cast nasty spells, you’ll be chain sheeping it to prevent it.

*If you have to kite something, hit it with slow, then with instant attacks to get some agro. Get some distance and hold agro as needed. If you have to freeze the mob, don’t do it next to a healer, the closest person gets agro.

Role in Raids - Make water, Give Intel buff, DPS. Possibly mage tank or Sheep.
*Same stuff from above accept now you’ll have to AE and watch multiple tanks agro.

*Missing a interrupt or sheep here can result in people dying moreso than in 5 mans.

*You will spend more time AEing in raids since most pulls are 5-6 mobs.

*Learn to avoid damage in boss fights. Healers are dealing with healing lots of people here.
Try not to be one of them. Avoid aura’s, “fire”, and agro.

*Arcane spec has 40% less agro through talents. You should have too many issues with agro on
single target fights.

*Mage tanking will happen if a mob has some buff that makes it hard to kill. These mobs are
usually other casters. You’ll spell steal whatever buff it has and do enough dps to hold agro off
of your healer(s). The normal dpser’s will eventually get to your mob to kill it. You’ll likely be
stacking stamina gear here, and chain healthstone and healing potting.

Talents>
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/mage/talents.html?tal=23300503010033015032310251532103000000000000000000000000002032030010000000000000000000
Required Talents:
Arcane Subtlety – 40% threat reduction.

Arcane Focus – 3% hit that stacks with precision.

Spell Impact and Incineration – Both give 6% more crit to arcane blast.

Focus Magic – Give somebody 3% more crit, when they crit, you get 3% more crit.

Arcane Concentration – 10% chance for clearcasting, you gain 30% crit while clearcasting.

Torment of the weak – 12% dmg to snared/slowed/stunned mobs. At any given time a boss will have one of those effects up.

Arcane Meditation – More mana regen, and you’ll need it.

Arcane Mind – More intel, so more spell power, regen, and crit.

POM – Not too useful, just use it to gain a little extra burst. It gives you arcane potency. So use it with arcane missles for the crit, then send an instant blast after that. Very fun in pvp.

Arcane Potency – Gives 30% crit while clearcasting or POM’d.

Arcane Power – Duh, more dmg.

Mind Mastery – Converts 15% of your mana into SP.

Arcane Empowerment – Adds dmg to your Missiles and Blast.

Missile Barrage – The only proc you have to look for. Only use missiles when this is proced.

Spell Power – 50% more crit dmg.

Netherwing Presence – 6% base haste increase.

Arcane Barrage – Your “finishing move” after stacking 3 arcane blasts.

Precision – Another 3% hit.

Icy Veins – Mini-bloodlust.

Other Talents include ones I'm using, but not listed because the benefit is obvious.

The Future Of Talents - There are no listed arcane talent buffs as the spec is very buffed as it is.

Glyphs>
No Argument Glyphs:
Glyph of Arcane Blast – increases dmg buff from the spell by 3% (was 5%) for a total extra dmg buff of 12%, this spell is your main spell, so this is a must have glyph, you’re only cheating yourself if you don’t have it.

Argument Glyphs:
Glyph of Mage Armor – 20% more regen with Mage Armor up. I personally use this one for regen purposes, but if you know a druid who’ll help you out you can pass it up.
Glyph of Molten Armor – 2% more crit from molten armor for a total of 5%. Better for overall dps than Mage Armor, but not worth it if you can’t go the whole fight without stopping.
Glyph of Arcane Power – 4 more seconds on arcane power. The spell is on a 1 min cooldown now. So you may get one more spell off before the effect wears. Not as beneficial.
Glyph of Arcane Missiles – 25% more crit damage on arcane missiles. When arcane missiles crit, they crit hard as it is. A properly timed missles with missile barrage and arcane potency means you’re gonna crit almost all of the missiles for some serious damage. I use this glyph.
Glyph of Mana Gem – 40% more mana from mana gems. Makes your top gem give you about 6k mana back. I had mana issues using this over Mage Armor. Prefer Mage armor more.

Garbage Glyphs
Frost and Fire glyphs (Aside from Molten Armor) aren’t going to benefit this spec much in PVE. Don’t waste your time with them.

Minor Glyphs:
Poly Penguin – it’s cute, why not?
Arcane Intel – costs less mana to cast AB and AI, makes recovering from wipes faster.
Glyph of Slow Fall – You don’t wanna be falling some where to take a short cut only to realize you don’t have a feather. Iceblock is great, but sometimes you don’t wanna waste it.

Professions>
Professions breakdown
I prefer JC and Inscription. Both are very easy and cheap to level, and both provide a good source of income. Both require gathered mats, but the mats are very cheap.
Alternatives are Enchanting and Alchemy. Enchanting is pricey to level and the SP boost from Chanter only chants is the same as JC and Scribe. Alchy gives you the ability to chain potion, and buffs the effects of potions.

Gearing Up>
The thing about gear: You're going to want to stack crit and haste. 500 crit and 500 - 600 haste is a good bet. Too much crit is too much aggro. Too much haste burns your mana.
Slot By Slot Gear Chat: You want 4/5 Valorous if possible. 5/5 is good as well. There are lots of combinations of gear in 25's so it's hard to say 1 item is the best aside from: Turning Tide from heroic KT, and the ring from KT, and the Cloak from either KT - or - 2 drake Sarth.

Stats
Hit Rating - 210 is hit cap for arcane mages.
Spell Power - The more the merrier.
Crit – 400+
Haste – 500+
Spirit - A few T7.5 pieces have it. Then get some from Valor Badge ring and bracers from Sarth 2 drakes. Spirit is important for you.

This is the current optimal gear set. This is from Manly from EJ.

Spec: 57.3.11 Arcane
Crit Rate: 402 - 47.66%
Hit Rate: 219 - 11.35%
Haste: 669 (/32.789 = 20.40%)
Casting Speed: 1.381458
Spell Power: 3055
DPS: 6202,04
Damage breakdown:
Arcane Blast: 51,46%
Arcane Missiles 28,99%
Arcane Barrage 19,55%
Mana Regen:
MP5: 196
Mana Regen in 5SR: 1066
Set Bonus DPS:
2-piece: 112.89
4-piece: 59.99
Consumables/Cooldowns:
Mana Gem, Icy Veins, Bloodlust/Heroism, Potion of Speed, Mirror Image

[Hood of Rationality]: [Chaotic Skyflare Diamond], [Runed Dragon's Eye], [Arcanum of Burning Mysteries]
(It’s hard to warrant the hood because it has MP5 as the socket bonus, but is still best in slot.)

[Wyrmrest Necklace of Power](Maly quest turn in for heroic mode): [Runed Dragon's Eye]
[Valorous Frostfire Shoulderpads]: [Reckless Monarch Topaz], [Greater Inscription of the Storm ]
[Pennant Cloak]: [Runed Dragon's Eye], Greater Speed
[Valorous Frostfire Robe]: [Runed Scarlet Ruby], [Reckless Monarch Topaz], Powerful Stats
[Unsullied Cuffs]: [Runed Scarlet Ruby], Superior Spellpower
[Valorous Frostfire Gloves]: [Runed Scarlet Ruby], Exceptional Spellpower
[Leash of Heedless Magic]: [Runed Scarlet Ruby], [Eternal Belt Buckle]
[Valorous Frostfire Leggings]: [Runed Scarlet Ruby], [Reckless Monarch Topaz], [Sapphire Spellthread]
[Boots of Impetuous Ideals]: Icewalker
[Signet of Manifested Pain]: [Band of Channeled Magic]
[Embrace of the Spider], [Illustration of the Dragon Soul] (200 SP)
[The Turning Tide]: Mighty Spellpower
[Surplus Limb], [Gemmed Wand of the Nerubians]

Gems>
Runed Scarlet Ruby, this is a bread and butter SP gem. It goes in red sockets.

Recklace Monarch Topaz, this is a spellpower/haste gem. He goes in your yellow sockets.

Runed Dragon’s Eye, JC only gem. 32 SP is hard to pass up. It also counts as blue gems.

Chaotic Skyflare. So you got to put two blues somewhere. If you have JC you have no issue with this.

Enchants>

If spell power can go there, spell power will go there.
Icewalker on boots (crit and hit).
Korin Tor helm enchant.
Hodir Shoulder Chant or Scribe Shoulder Chant.

While leveling, you’ll start out using intel chants and stat chants. Once you get to a level when you can use/afford spellpower enchants start using them. It’s not advise to use expensive enchants while leveling simply because you’re gonna swap that gear soon.

Rotation>
Standard DPS rotation:
ABlast, ABlast, ABlast, ArcBar –or- Ablast, Ablast, Ablask, ArcMissiles if missile barrage is proced. Don’t hit your 3 blasts and wait to see if you procced a missile barrage. If you proc one on the 3rd blast just use it the next time. You’re going to lose dps by waiting that time to see if you get a proc.

Trash versus Boss:
Most trash comes in packs and it's save to AE. So just Flamestrike, Blizzard, repeat.

Cool downs:
Icy Veins and Arcane Power are you main cool downs. Macro them together.

The problem with global cool downs:
If counterspell is required it's very easy to miss it.

Consumables>
Potions choices: Mana and Wild Magic/Potion of Speed
Food Chart: Either Feast, or Haste/Crit depending on what you want.
Flasks and Elixir Choices: Frost Wyrm Flask

Macros>
This is my bread and butter macro, it pops all cool downs at all possible times. 9/10 before a boss you pause so your CD's will be back up then. This macro will boost your dps like crazy.

#showtooltip (insert spell name)
/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX","0")
/cast (insert cooldown)
/cast (insert cooldown)
/use (insert trinket if needed)
/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX","1")
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/cast (insert spell name)

Polymorph Macro

#showtooltip polymorph
/focus
/castrandom [harm] polymorph(Rank 4), polymorph(Pig), polymorph(Turtle), polymorph(Black Cat)
/stopmacro [noharm]

/run SetCVar and /script UIErrorsFrame just get rid of the messages saying your trinket/ability isn’t ready.

PVP >
This specific spec is OK in pvp. The main thing you're missing is pyroblast. You can easily hold your own in BG's, but arena may not be as easy.
The best rotation I’ve found for this spec in pvp is. ArcBar, Ablast, ArcBar, Ablast (tossing in missiles if they proc and fireblasts for extra instant damage).
SpellSteal the shit out of other mages. Take their POM, Arc Power, Ice Barrier, etc In fact, most classes have some sort of buff that's worth stealing.

Raid Tips >
Don't be a bitch about making a table and buffing the group.
This may be the top dps spec, but if there's not scorch mage, be prepared to go FFB spec for the benefit of the raid.

FAQ >
Why can't I pull 5k dps too? Likely your gear isn't up to par with the regen requirements of the spec. So you spend lots of time evoking and waiting for mana to come back.
Why worry about missiles? Don't, just use them when barrage is proced, it's alot of dmg for a 2~sec spell.
Why did I get beat by a FFB mage? 1). You're not doing something right - or - 2).They got lucky. That spec is proccy and can in some cases produce very high numbers.

Closing>
The future of arcane mages is nothing. They're not going to buff us anymore. They'll likely bring the other specs closer to what arcane can do.
The future of arcane in pvp. Arcane takes advantage of players with low hps and resil. As people gear up those two stats are going to increase. I have currently 904 resil. That's 26% less crit dmg, and about 13% less chance to be crit. How effective is a POM pyro arcbar gonna do on me if you can't crit me? Most people do BG's normal/mixed gear so it'll be effective there, but serious arena players are going to have lots of resil, and you'll be useless once everybody has high resil. You'll still get lucky from time to time, but it won't be as powerful as it currently is.

Forum Ninja Joined: Mar 09, 2008 Posts: 1062

i'm gonna work on this some tonight, lemme know what you're looking for specifically

Forum Ninja Joined: Mar 09, 2008 Posts: 1062

i'm currently working to include the latest 3.09 changes, also going to add the optimal gear set list

Forum Ninja Joined: Mar 09, 2008 Posts: 1062

i'll work on what i can

and for the record, icy veins doesn't stack with blood lust, and the other cooldowns will be back when blood lust is used, they're all on 1 min CD except for the ones that dn't stack with BL now

Forum Ninja Joined: Mar 09, 2008 Posts: 1062

i have an idea to appease some of your wants

i'm gonna make a mage primer guide, basically a how to play mage in general, what specs to level as, what specs to pvp as, and what raid/group/guild leaders need to look for in mages

then from there link to the two raid specs, they're geared for people who already know what's in the first guide and want to improve themselves