Table of Contents:
1. Introduction
-1.1 Who am I?
2. Playstyle
3. Spell Priorities
4. Talents and Glyphs
-4.1 Talent overview
-4.2 Glyphs and why
5. Stat Priorities
-5.1 Gemming
-5.2 Reforging
-5.3 Enchants
6. Professions
7. Macros
8. Closure
1. Introduction
Hello there!
Since I had way too much time on my hands I've decided to bring you guys a PvP guide on how to play/rotate/spec your arcane mage to obtain the best possible results!
-1.1 Who am I?
People usually call me by the nickname "Looshi", I'm a Rank 1 Gladiator Arcane Mage and a MultiGlad player on Frostwolf.
2. Playstyle
Arcane mage in MoP has one of the most interesting playstyles it's ever had in history.
It has its good old arcane stacks just like cata etc, but:
it's not a stationary hardcaster and it can be at the same time. In 5.4.8, Arcane is provided with Deep Freeze and Ice Lance.
Needless to say, Arcane offers the highest damage among the 3 specs, along with the highest burst damage ingame overall when it comes to huge hits.
***RETAIL ARCANE FOOTAGE OF A 2.7K ARCANE AND MULTIR1 EXP FROST MAGE***
3. Spell Priorities
Obviously the spec itself requires spell priorities based on the situations you're facing. We'll take a look at the most important ones you must always keep track of.
Spell schools are divided in colors: Arcane Frost Fire
-Slow: Keep them slowed! You don't want any of those nasty meele dpses running for you!
-Blazing Speed: This is your gap closer. You will need this talent for kiting efficiently and closing gaps when you need to Deep Freeze or refresh your Arcane Charges.
-Living Bomb: This spell at the end of a match might equal 40-50% of your total damage so it's a "must keep up at all times" spell. Remember to refresh it when you have a lot of procs up.
-Ice Barrier: If you run Ice Barrier make sure you refresh it at all times.
-Temporal Shield: If you run Temporal Shield make sure to use it when your enemy is bursting.
-Spellsteal: Make sure your targets are almost always buffless. Along with the fact that it'll provide you with more buffs it also heals you for 2% of your hp if you're running Glyph of Spellsteal.
-Incanter's Ward: Make sure you rotate it every time you can, but also you must make sure you will get hit, or it'll simply go to waste. It replenishes the mana you lost from the heavy spellstealing or Arcane Blast hardcasting. It improves your spellpower value by a considerable percentage and gives you a tiny absorb.
-Arcane Missiles: Use them whenever you can, they're the easiest way to build up stacks. Also provides incredible pressure damage while at 4 charges.
-Deep Freeze: This is very, very, important to an Arcane Mage, in 5.4.8, since it's the moment when you'll be trimming your enemy's hp by 50-100%.
-Arcane Blast: Cast it whenever you can cast it or you don't need to rush kills and have no Arcane Missiles stacks. Never freecast an Arcane Blast while a meele is on you and be careful while casting it because you could get locked while you're being focused and it'll lock your Arcane school making you unable to Blink, making you incredibly vulnerable.
-Ice Lance: This is your "mobile" form of damage during Deep Freeze when your Arcane Charges are less than 3 to use Arcane Barrage.
-Cone of Cold: Cone of Cold is a 60% slow, superior to slow but has shorter range and is not spammable. This talent allows you to slow multiple targets at once and kite meeles more effectively since every meele slow except a shivved crippling poison is 50%, thus, giving you the edge in speed.
-Arcane Barrage: This is your weapon of mass destruction. With more than 3 charges and arcane missiles they'll provide the highest damage. When you're at more than 3 Arcane Charges cast Burst + Alter Time -> Arcane Missiles -> Barrage. At the same time, you can also cast it when the target is very far away from you or when you know you won't be able to refresh your Arcane Charges.
-Arcane Explosion: This spell allows you to refresh your stacks, you'll often find yourself using Blazing Speed to close gaps between you and your target and refreshing your charges with Arcane Explosion.
-Frostfire Bolt: This is an interesting one. Just like Hansol's famous Fireball into Pyroblast shatter, or the good old TBC Frostbolt into Ice Lance shatter, you can do something similar while your target is under Ring of Frost or a Frost Nova. Hardcast a Frostfire Bolt into Ice Lance(frostfire shatter) before you deep freeze and their hp will disappear. This can obviously vary if you have 4 charges: you could cast Frostfire Bolt into Arcane Barrage (elemental shatter) and if you do it properly it will hit for more than 300k+ with all procs up.
-Alter Time: This one can be used both defensively and offensively, depending on the situation. While bursting you'll need Alter Time in order to use up to 2 Arcane Barrages in a row (since alter timing back will also bring Arcane Charges back).
4. Talents and Glyphs
When it comes to talents, I've somehow managed to narrow down an all-arounder tree which provides the best results for 1v1s/2v2s/3v3s/RBGs.
-4.1 Talent overview
Level 15 Tier: Blazing Speed
Blazing Speed is the best thing that's ever happened to arcanes. Having a hard time CCing unlike fire and frost (breath and extra ranged novas) arcanes often find struggles in position/kiting. Thanks to blazing speed you'll be able to, do your hard casts, reach your targets with ease AND kite them with ease. Presence of Mind is not needed since the only thing an arcane could get from it is an arcane blast, which is just 1 stack out of 4 although it could be useful against certain 3s comps where a lot of peels are needed and you're certain you won't really be the target of choice. Ice Floes is pretty bad 'cause either way hardcasting arcane blast, or whatever, while moving isn't really all that profitable.
Level 30 Tier: Ice Barrier
Ice barrier provides a very good amount of absorb. Non-battle fatigued it can go from 100k to 200k. While under battle fatigue it ranges from 45k to 80k. Needless to say, 3s will force you to run temporal shield due to very high bursts, or if you plan on running healer-dps in 2s. Flameglow is also a good choice when facing pressure comps(i.e. Affli Locks).
Level 45 Tier: Ring of Frost
This one is very cute. It can CC a whole RBG or a whole team based on how well you use it. For those who don't like walking into it you could Frost Nova -> CounterSpell blanket -> Ring of Frost on them. Frostjaw isn't a bad choice nor is Frostward but ring is my personal preference.
Level 60 Tier: Cold Snap
Needless to say, having 2 Ice Blocks (also remember that technically the cooldown becomes 3 minutes after both blocks have been depleted thanks to Cold Snap) and that 30% hp heal every 3 mins is very useful for your overall survivability along with the fact that Arcane is provided with very few Freezes so if you don't have any way to setup a ring and have no nova you won't be able to deep. In that case, you could Cold Snap and just Deep Freeze them right away.
Level 75 Tier: Living Bomb
Living bomb is the best choice out of all 3 bombs simply because it deals the highest overall damage among the 3. Nether Tempest breaks CC due to its proximity AoE and Frost Bomb is hardcasted and won't crit unless under freezes.
Level 90 Tier: Incanter's Ward
Incanter's Ward as mentioned above provides you with damage increase, mana replenishment and a tiny but efficient absorb. You won't need Invocation since arcane hardly ever runs out of mana (haste based mana replenishment + gems + incanter's ward provides more than 50% of your mana) and you don't want to be hardcasting it for that 15% midgame. Rune of Power is something you absolutely want to avoid since Arcane must try to avoid being for too long in a single spot.
-4.2 Glyphs and why
Primary Glyphs:
-Glyph of Deep Freeze: This is you most important glyph. It's a must have. You don't want your deep freeze to be an extra global for shatter reasons.
-Glyph of Ice Block: Provides 3s of spell immunity and an additional Frost Nova. It provides that extra nova you lack. If you use alter time right after ice block you'd end up having a 3s immunity twice. (Could be substituted with Glyph of Polymorph/Armors based on the situation)
-Glyph of Spellsteal: Provides you with a ridiculously good constant heal. (could be changed with Armors/Polymorph based on the situation)
-Glyph of Polymorph: This glyph can be replaced to Glyph of Ice Block if you're facing classes you'll be able to spellsteal buffs from. This Glyph is used when you have team members that DoT massively or need to peel constantly. It could also be replaced with Glyph of Spellsteal in case you're facing warriors etc.
-Glyph of Armors: This one is used when you know you won't be needing Ice Block(thus replace iceblock glyph) that much or you'll be sitting a lot of magic CC. Or if you know you won't be able to spellsteal that much (Hunter/Warrior comps without healers etc, thus replacing spellsteal Glyph).
Minor Glyphs don't matter for Arcanes. They're just for fun.
5. Stat Priorities
Gearing, Gemming, Priority and Enchants all follow your Stat priority which is : 6% Hit Rating>Intellect=Haste>Mastery>Critical Strike
To many of you who think that Mastery is the priority stat for Arcanes, you're not 100% wrong but 200% wrong. Mastery results in slower casts, global cooldowns and slower mana regeneration which affects your mastery aswell. Arcane mastery deals Mastery% damage based on the amount of mana you have unspent. Meaning if you're at 100% mana you will be dealing more damage(Reason why before you cast Full stack arcane barrages it's good to use mana gem if not at 100% mana). By building haste your casts will be faster, thus you will build up more stacks in less time and you will also cast crowd controls more efficiently and globals will drop considerably (especially with frost armor up).
With Haste you also have the passive ability called [Nether Attunement] and its effect is "Your spell haste also increases your mana regeneration", meaning not only will you be casting faster but you will also be regenerating mana faster, which will put you at nearly 99% of the times at 100% mana. Thus making your mastery much more efficient overall.
Whether you pick Intellect or Haste as your primary stat will affect your Gemming primarily.
-5.1 Gemming
As I mentioned before choosing whether you will be building on Haste or Intellect is entirely up to you.
In endgear I'd suggest going mainly intellect, since it will increase your overall damage output thus allowing you to play frost armor, resulting in 7% haste which will pretty much make up for the deficiency. Although your casts will be slightly slower when it comes to CC or bursting (GCDs and casts).
Having said that, the conclusion is that there are 2 possible ways to make your build.
The Meta Gem is the same for both builds: Burning Primal Diamond (216 Int / 3% Crit)
Intellect Build:
Red: Brilliant Primordial Ruby (160 Int)
Yellow: Reckless Vermilion Onyx (80 Int/160 Haste)
Blue: Mysterious Imperial Amethyst (80 Int/ 80 PvP Power)
Haste Build:
Red: Reckless Vermilion Onyx (80 int/160 Haste)
Yellow: Quick Sun's Radiance (320 Haste)
Blue: Shattered Wild Jade (160 Haste/ 80 PvP Power)
-5.2 Reforging
Reforging is very simple:
Just follow the stat priority and you'll know how and what to reforge. Keep in mind that you must go further than the 6% hit chance and 25.03% for the breakpoint and not sacrifice too much crit.
-5.3 Enchants
Enchants are fairly easy aswell:
-Weapon: Jade Spirit (1650 Intellect / 750 spirit under 25% mana)
-Offhand: Major Intellect (165 Intellect)
-Shoulders: Greater Crane Wing Inscription (200 Intellect / 100 Critical Strike)
-Back: Lightweave Embroidery (2000 Intellect/550 Tailoring)
-Chest: Glorious Stats (80 all stats)
-Bracer: Super Intellect (170 Intellect)
-Gloves: Greater Haste (170 Haste)
-Belt: Living Steel Belt Buckle (With 160 intellect if Intellect Build or 320 Haste if Haste Build)
-Legs: Master's Spellthread (285 Intellect / 165 Critical Strike)
-Boots: Pandaren's Step (140 Mastery / Slight Movement Speed Increase) It's true this is mastery and not haste, but the slight movement increase is very important.
6. Professions
Your professions as Arcane should be Herbalism (2880 Haste and a minor heal from Lifeblood at 600 skill level) and Tailoring (2000 Intellect Proc Enchant on Cloak).
The reason for that is very simple: the 2 professions offer both of your stat priorities, haste and intellect at the peak of their profession level. Herbalism will help you out when bursting, faster casting, faster GCDs and a minor heal is never bad. Tailoring provides you with a 2000 intellect proc which if timed and aligned with other procs it will make you deal massive damage.
7. Macros
Macros are a fundamental part your typical PvP environment.
The amount of macros you will need, are surprisingly more than you'd think.
"But don't I just need the usual focus CC macros and Burst macros?"
That's a common question that comes to mind. And that's partially true. But the thing is you need more than that.
If you're in Ice Block and you need to get out of it quickly you're gonna need a "/cancelaura Ice Block" macro command at the beginning of every macro.
I personally reccomend making a macro for every crucial ability so that you can perform faster.
Here are some of the most basic macros you'll need:
Polymorph:
Code:
#showtooltip Polymorph
/cancelaura Ice Block
/cast [@focus] Polymorph
Counterspell:
Code:
#showtooltip Counterspell
/cancelaura Ice Block
/cast Counterspell
/cast [@focus, mod: shift] Counterspell
Ice Block:
Code:
#showtooltip Ice Block
/cancelaura Ice Block
/cast Ice Block
Deep Freeze: (this one is very useful if you're using [Glyph of Ice Block])
Code:
#showtooltip Deep Freeze
/cancelaura Ice Block
/cast Deep Freeze
/cast [@focus, mod: shift] Deep Freeze
Alter Time REMOVAL macro: (used to juke your opponents or if alter timing back brings you to a disadvantage)
Code:
#showtooltip Alter Time
/cancelaura Alter Time
Swifty/Burst Macro:
Code:
#showtooltip Arcane Power
/cancelaura Ice Block
/cast Arcane Power
/cast Lifeblood
/use 13
For the burst macro I wrote /use 13. This macro command uses your equipment slot 13 which is your upper trinket slot. The slot trinkets are 13 and 14. 13 being the top one and 14 being the bottom one. (Use this only if human)
8. Closure
I hope this guide has been helpful to whoever is reading.
Needless to say all the mechanics involved in this guide are MoP related, going in any other expansion and playing the same way as in MoP as an arcane won't be fruitful at all.
I decided to make this guide because I was tired of seeing so many players playing arcane the wrong way and making a bad name for the arcane spec overall. "It's not good enough", "doesn't do damage", "it's a pve spec", "He's arcane that means he's bad".
If you need to hit me up ingame hit me up on my arcane: Purple (Alliance) or Ryzzy (Horde).
Thank you,
Looshi.
Member
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