Let’s take a closer look at the weakest and the strongest aspects of this specialization:
Advantages:
Extremely potent burst damage;
Nice damage on a single target;
Nice damage into 3-4 targets;
High mobility.
Disadvantages:
The major portion of damaging is done during bursts. Out-of-burst DPS is extremely low;
Dependency on procs;
Strong dependency on Legendaries;
Almost no DoT mechanics.
Basic information on the spec:
Like all Mages, Arcane uses Mana as their key resource, and, unlike other specs, spends a lot more of it. There is also an additional resource – Arcane Charge which empowers particular spells and increases the mana-cost on some of them.
(Area of Effect) is basically the area where this of that effect is actuated regardless of whether its damage or healing. This command is usually used to act in a team/raid on several targets. It is also used to describe any ability of a Boss with the aforementioned effect.
Buff stands for any positive effect. Always reflected to the left of the mini-map, by its upper edge.
Burst is an ability to do – in multiple ways – massive damage within a short period of time.
Gear is what it is.
GCD (Global Cooldown) is the overall ability recovery time.
Debuff stands for negative effect. By default, it’ reflected to the left of the mini-map by its lower edge.
DoT stands for Damage over Time.
DPS (Damage per Second) is a measure that reflects the damage done within one second.
Cleave is an ability to damage secondary targets through damaging the main one with no (or minor) loss in the damage done to the main target.
Cooldown (often CD) primarily refers to the ability recovery time. Can be often applied to bursts and various protective abilities.
Melee and Range. Melee is the close-range combat zone, also used in the titles of all the classes and specs that do effective damage in this zone. Range usually refers to a zone that is not a close-range one and is used, respectfully, in the titles of all classes and specs that do effective damage remotely.
Trait is a name for the ‘talents’ your artifact has.
Arcane Blast casts 2.25 secs; in its base form, spends a small amount of Mana. Deals Arcane damage and generates 1 Arcane Charge. The damage grows by 60% + Mastery per each Arcane Charge, and Mana spending grows by 125% per charge.
Arcane Missiles is a channeled 2-sec spell releasing 5 Arcane missile shots and dealing the respective type of damage to your target. Generates 1 Arcane Charge. Costs no Mana. The damage grows by 60% + Mastery per each Arcane Charge. The spell can be cast only via proc Arcane Missiles! which can be received through delivering damage in various manners with probability of 15% (for Arcane Blast, the percentage is double). You can stack that buff no more than 3 times.
Arcane Barrage has an instant cast and deals medium Arcane damage to your target. The damage grows by 60% + Mastery per each Arcane Charge. It also absorbs all the Arcane Charges stacked. Each Arcane Charge consumed his way allows you to deal 50% of the initial damage to one additional target per charge. CD 4.5 secs.
The trait Arcane Rebound allow you to deal additional Arcane damage to your main target and all the targets within the range of 10 m of it if your Arcane Barrage hits at least 3 targets.
Arcane Explosion costs a small amount of Mana and deals Arcane damage to all the enemies within the 10-m range. Hitting at least 1 target, it generates 1 Arcane Charge. For each Arcane Charge, damage dealing grows by 60% + Mastery, and the Mana cost grows by 125%.
Mark of Aluneth creates a rune under your target. The rune deals Arcane damage to all your enemies within the 6-m range of it for 6 secs, after which it explodes and deals more Arcane damage equal to 20% of your max Mana stock.
The trait Aluneth’s Avarice restores you 20% of your max Mana upon detonation.
Bursts, important CDs and passive effects
Arcane Power increases damage dealing by all your spells by 30% as well as reduces Mana spending by 30% for 10 secs. CD 1.5 min.
Presence of Mind allows you to cast the following 2 Arcane Blasts instantly. Does not depend on GCD, has instant action. CD 1 min, starts after the second Arcane Blast.
Evocation is a channel spell restoring 100% of your Mana over 6 secs. CD 1.5 min.
Time Warp CD 5 min; but those receiving Time Warp get a 10-min debuff which prevents them from triggering similar effects over the debuff’s action time.
Mastery: Savant increases the Mana restoration speed and increases max Mana stock by 9.6% + Mastery. It also makes Arcane Charges empower their spells by additional 4.8%.
Deffensive abilities
Greater Invisibility allows you to instantly go to the state of invisibility for 20 secs. In this condition, you are undetectable. After using it, your danger level towards all the targets equals 0. While in that state, and 3 secs after it, you receive 60% less damage. Any actions – apart from moving – cancel the invisibility effect. CD 2 min
Ice Block makes you immune to damage of any type for 10 secs, but it also prevents you from taking any actions over that period. It also touches you with the effect Hypothermia which keeps you from entering Ice Block again for the next 30 secs. CD 4 min.
Prismatic Barrier activates a shield absorbing a small portion of damage and reducing the taken magic damage by 15%. The action time of all negative effects cast on you shrinks by 25%. The shield acts for 1 min or until the damage is completely absorbed. CD 25 secs.
The trait Force Barrier increases the portion of the absorbed damage by 80%, provided 4/4.
Utility abilities
Counterspell interrupts spell casting by your enemy and prevents them from using a spell of the same school for 6 more secs. CD 24 secs.
Slow instantly reduces your target’s moving speed by 50% for 15 secs.
The trait Sloooow Down allows you to slow all your enemies within the 5-m range of the direct target.
Slow Fall helps you reduce an ally’s falling speed for 30 secs.
Frost Nova makes your enemies within the 12-m range freeze for 8 secs and deal tiny Frost damage. Any damage received by the enemies can cancel the effect.
Blink moves you 20 m forward or to the nearest barrier and cancels any stunning or movement impairing-effects on you. CD 15 secs.
Portal allows you to open a portal for your group/raid-mates leading into one of your fraction’s major cities or big-scale general Sanctums.
Polymorph turns your enemy into a sheep that wanders near its initial location for 50 secs. In this shape, you enemy can take no actions but does restore Health rapidly. Any received damage cancels the effect on the target. This transformation can only be applied to one enemy at a time. Applicable to humanoids and beasts only.
Displacement allows you, for 10 secs after utilizing Blink , to return to the initial location you were at before casting Blink . It also finishes Blink‘s restoring time instantly.
Conjure Refreshment creates food that restores Health and Mana. The generated items disappear from your inventory if you leave the game for over 15 min.
Teleport allows you to teleport into your fraction’s major cities as well as to other key locations.
Spellsteal costs quite a lot Mana, and allows you to steal one positive magic effect off your enemy. The effect’s max duration is 2 min.
General information. On achieving several new levels you’ll get access to new talent ‘Tiers’. Talents may have different effect on abilities: add new features, replace old ones, modify passively different effects and spells. Talents can be changed in Sanctuaries or any recreational zones. However, if you don’t have any of those places nearby you can use the Codex of the Tranquil Mind which allows you to switch channels within a minute. You can’t change talents in combat. You can’t change a talent if the talent you’ve picked in the last Tier is on Cooldown. You’ll have to wait until it’s restored first.
Tier 1. Lvl 15.
Arcane Familiar. For 1 hour, summons a Familiar that attacks your enemies. It also increases your max Mana by 10%. CD for summoning 10 secs.
Mana Shield. Prismatic Barrier now demands no restoring time, but it takes away Mana as of 20% of the damage absorbed by it.
* With frequent short runs, Slipstream is your best option. Shimmer goes well for encounters that demand less frequent but longer distance relocations. Mana Shield is never used.
Tier 3. Lvl 45.
Mirror Image. Summons 3 copies of yours which attack your enemies. Copies live for 40 secs. CD 2 min
Rune of Power. Within 1.5 secs, you generate a rune of power in the selected area. The rune lives for 10 secs. As long as you’re within an 8-m range of your Rune, your spells deliver 40% more damage. At least 2 charges. CD 40 secs.
Incanter’s Flow. During combat the damage dealt by you grow by 4 to 20%. The factor increases or decreases in cycles. The duration of a cycle is 10 secs.
* In most cases, Rune of Power should be talented, provided you have the capacity to use its full duration. Best pick for both single target and AoE. Incanter’s Flow is a backup option used in case you can’t stand up within the Rune completely. It is also your choice for Dungeons and the Open World. Mirror Image is not used.
Tier 4. Lvl 60.
Supernova. Can be applied to your ally as well as to your enemy. Supernova deals Arcane damage to all the enemies within the range of 8 m of the selected target, and throws them up. The key enemy target receives 100% more damage. CD 25 secs.
Charged Up. Gives you 4 Arcane Charges instantly. CD 40 secs.
* Resonance is your default choice without 4T21. Charged Up becomes a default choise with 4T21. Supernova is an occasional choice in case you need the throw-away effect.
Tier 5. Lvl 75.
Chrono Shift. Arcane Barrage slows your enemies down by 50% and increases your moving speed by 50% for 5 secs.
Ring of Frost. Select an area and generate a Ring of Frost there for 10 secs. Enemies to enter its action area get paralyzed for 10 secs. Max target count: 10. CD 45 secs.
* Chrono Shift is your best default choice as is gives you great mobility. Ring of Frost and Ice Ward are extremely occasional. Just keep them in mind in case you ever need them.
Tier 6. Lvl 90.
Nether Tempest. Tags the target with a DoT which deals periodic damage to the main target as well as all the enemies within the 10-m range of it. Can be kept on no more than 1 target. The damage grows by 60% + Mastery per each Arcane Charge.
Unstable Magic. Arcane Blast has 20% probability of delivering additional 50% of damage to the main target as well as to every enemy withint the 8-m range of it.
Erosion. Your attacks increase the damage delivered by your spells to those targets by 1%. Stacks up, up to 8 times. In case you restrain from attacking for 3 secs, the stack count on the target starts going down, 1 stack per second.
* Erosion is your best talent for most situations. Unstable Magic may turn up best in situations demanding frequent switching. The talent is also more convenient for Open World. Nether Tempest loses to both talents.
Tier 7. Lvl 100.
Overpowered. Arcane Power now increases the damage you deal by 60% and reduces Mana spending by 60%.
Arcane Orb. Launches an Arcane Orb that flies a straight trajectory, 40 m forward from your current position, and deals major Arcane damage to all the enemies hit. Utilizing this ability brings you an Arcane Charge, and one more Arcane Charge per each enemy hit along the way.
* Overpowered is your best pal for absolutely any situation. Arcane Orb can be good for really quick AoE on huge packs which can happen in low-level Mythic+. Temporal Flux is not used at the moment.
So, we can boil it all down to the following builds:
Unlike talents, in the weapons branch there is no choice of what you can and what you can’t take. With the current Artifact Knowledge, the order of artifact acquisition is insignificant as to open all the traits, you only need to earn 2.23 billion artifact power which is extremely easy to do just over the first few minutes after you’ve reached level 110.
Relics
An Arcane Mage uses 2 Arcane and 1 Frost relics.
In most cases, the relic ilvl – which, in its turn, increases the weapon ilvl – would have more value than the traits. Here is the list of traits with their weapon ilvl equivalents, based on single target simulations:
If you face situations where you’re not sure, we recommend you use the raidbots.com web-site which has a convenient interface for figuring out if it’s worth replacing Relic A with Relic B.
Tier 1 of any relic allows you to increase your weapon’s ilvl by 5 points.
Tier 2. This is where you face the first important choice between Light and Shadow as the result of your choice deprives you of one of the traits on Tier 3. Your objective is to pick the optimal way providing the highest weapon ilvl equivalent sum on Tiers 2 and 3.
An Arcane Mage has access to the total of 14 Legendaries.
The best are:
Mystic Kilt of the Rune Master restores 3% of your Mana per each Arcane Charge spent on Arcane Barrage. The strongest Legendary for any combat type as it restores tons of Mana. If you are using 4T21 + 2T20 it is better to pay attention on 2 rings below.
Shard of the Exodar allows you to receive an additional effect of Bloodlust / Heroism / Time Warp once in 5 min. Can turn out to be an extremely potent Legendary in combats with certain duration.
Kil’jaeden’s Burning Wish has a huge number of stats; active utilizing of this accessory allows you to deal massive AoE damage. A good Legendary.
Prydaz, Xavaric’s Magnum Opus provides a huge list of stats and grants a damage absorbing shield for 25% of max HP once every 30 secs. In terms of DPS, it’s no worse than other Legendaries; the defensive effect, however, can come in handy while exploring new bosses or on high Mythic+ when you have Survival > DPS.
Gravity Spiral. Your Evocation now has 2 charges. In general, this is a weak Legendary, but it can be useful in case you need max damage.
Norgannon’s Foresight grants you an opportunity to cast spells while moving for 4 secs, provided the previous 6 secs you haven’t moved. The countdown starts once you start moving.
Sephuz’s Secret gives you, passively, 2% Haste and 10% moving speed. The proc that is activated with your dispels, stuns and paralysis increases Haste by additional 25%, and the moving speed – by 70%.
Celumbra, the Night’s Dichotomy is a craft Legendary. Okay for fresh characters if you’re willing to put in the gold and the agents for creating it. Replaced as soon as you receive the first two Legendaries.
If you’ve got different Legendaries out of the first list, and want to figure out which one of them would be better for you, we recommend you use Simcraft.
An Arcane Mage’s damaging model comprises 2 phases: the burst phase in which Mana is blown; and after it’s restored with Evocation, there comes the phase of thrifting and Mana-saving.
But let’s follow the flow and review the phases one by one.
Keep discarding your mana this way until you’re almost out of it; after that use Evocation.
Mana-saving phase.
Conserve phase
After Evocation, we start the Mana-saving phase (or Mana conserve). During this phase, Mana is only regenerated passively which means you need to be very careful and attentive to what spells you are using, because by the time Arcane Power restores, you need to be at your max Mana.
The phase begins as soon as you start using your Rune of Power and Arcane Power. Before entering this phase, consider all the mechanics present on the encounter and make sure that you won’t have to be exiting your Rune’s action range any time soon, or even move at all.
Main priorities:
Stack up 4 Arcane Charges;
With 4T21 get rid of Arcane Charges with your Arcane Barrage;
Arcane Orb and Charged Up allow you to use Arcane Barrage more often during any phase as it enables you to restore Arcane Charges instantly.
Keep using Arcane Missiles during any phase. They deal quite a lot of damage on their own, and it can be focused on the main target in a group of enemies. It also allows you to regenerate Mana.
Important notes
If, during the conserve phase you go below 70% Mana, discard Arcane Charges by 3 instead of 4.
Despite the fact Arcane Missiles generate an Arcane Charge, they are Mana-free, and the damage delivered grows with the growth of the Charge count. That’s why it is reasonable to use them at max charge count. This way, you give your Mana a break to regenerate, and the damage you deliver becomes as massive as it gets with Arcane Missiles.
Mark of Aluneth should be used per CD, but you should make sure that the 20% Mana returned through the trait Aluneth’s Avarice do not overcap Mana, so, you should do it at a Mana level no higher than 80%.
Rune of Power. Since every stack has a restoring time of 40 secs, sometimes you’ll just have to discard your charged out of bursts. Let’s review the best opportunities to use them out of Arcane Power:
1. For Mark of Aluneth, if it’s desynchronized with Arcane Power.
2. After your Arcane Power is over, provided you have enough Mana to stand 10 secs in the Mana burn phase.
3. If a certain moment in your encounter demands max DPS.
4. If you have several powerful trinket procs, or various encounter mechanics increase the damage dealt by you; or the damage received by some particular targets is increased.
5. If you don’t need to run anywhere.
6. If you have accumulated a lot of Mana, and you have 4 Arcane Charges. 7. AoE:
Movement. In general, an Arcane Mage has a whole bunch of ways to keep damage dealing up on the move. The first – and the key – rule is – don’t do extra movements. Using Shimmer does not interrupt your cast. The talent Slipstream allows you to cast Arcane Missiles on the go which enables you to move short distance. If your Blink / Shimmer happens to be on CD, or if it throws you way too far, and you lack Arcane Missiles charges (with Slipstream), your optimal choice would be casting or renewing Prismatic Barrier.
The basic priority rating for the characteristics is as follows:
Haste > Versatility > Crit > Mastery > Intellect
The current specialization’s Mastery increases the max Mana and the damage dealing by the spells empowered by Arcane Charges.
Haste reduces spell casts as well as GCD and CD of Arcane Barrage.
This is the base stat priority, but (!) their values are close to each other, plus it can be influenced by Legendaries, set bonuses and accessories. That’s why it is recommended, once you receive new equipment, you use Simcraft or Raidbots.com. There is no way to get a more precise answer to which stat to focus on first, but through a simulation.
Based on the aforementioned characteristics and results of your character’s own simulation results, you can draw conclusions on Gems, Chants and Raid Chemicals.
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