Pros
- Increase your party/raid members damage by +3% from Arcane Empowerment (more about it below)
- "Easy" spell rotation (huge damage even without skill)
- Low Hit Cap (good for low geared players)
- Easy switch between Brust (high DMG) and Mana-Saving modes (allows you to manage your mana all time)
- Each gear upgrade will give you awesome DPS upgrade
Cons
- Buggs on Molten: sometimes, with higher latency and haste close to hard cap (cast in 1 sec) your Arcane Missiles launch only 3-4 times instead of 5 (huge DPS lost)
- Some uneducated players will name you "arcane noob"
- Very restricted gearing (you can't depend only on GearScore, but need to re-think every item in inventory three times)
Now, more about raid buff from Arcane Empowerment. Some people says that +3% is nothing special, but lets do some maths.
What we know for sure:
- Icecrown Citadel 25-mode bosses have - in average - 50'000'000 health (I'm not counting Lower Spire)
- There are usualy 2 tanks, 5 healers and 18 DPSers in 25-man raid
Raid math without Arcane Mage:
- Lets count how much DMG is required
50'000'000 HP : 18 DPSers ~ 2'777'777 DMG on 1 head
- It means each DPS must do around 2'770'000 DMG during the fight to kill boss
Raid with Arcane Mage
- All raid members have +3% of their normal DMG
50'000'000 HP * 3% = 1'500'000 HP
- It means 1'500'000 DMG comes for free without any special activity
Conclusions
- In raid without Arc Mage every DPS must do 2'770'000 DMG
- In raid with Arc Mage 1'500'000 DMG comes for free
(1'500'000 * 100%) / 2'770'000 ~ 54%
- Arcane Empowerment gives you another (hypothetical) DPSer with 54% of normal DPSer damage (so it's like "Twenty-five An Half Man" mode ;) )
Race Choosing
Alliance:
Gnome:
- In my opinion best Alliance race for mage PvE
- Expansive Mind gives you +5% of your Intelect what means more Mana and Spellpower from Mind Mastery
- Escape Artist may be useful is some fights, not only PvP
- Arcane Resistance - minor meaning
- Engineering Specialization allows you to level Engineering easier (what is not a bad choice for mage)
Human
- In my opinion best Alliance race if you want also PvP much, but not bad in PvE too
- The Human Spirit means more mana regen and some more Crit from Molten Armor
- Every Man for Himself and nothing can stop you. useful for PvE and PvP.
- Diplomacy - easier reputation farm means you will be able to buy fractions gear and enchants faster
- Perception- only PvP usage
- Sword Specialization, Mace Specialization - useless for mage
Dranei
- Heroic Presence lower Hit cap, but for most time you wont be only Dranei in raid
- Shadow Resistance - minor upgrade for some fights
- Gift of the Naaru - well, you heal yourself a bit (really "a bit").
- Gemcutting - easier Jewelcrafting leveling, not a bad choice for mage profession
Blood Elf
- Not a bad choice for PvE too
- Arcane Torrent - free 6% mana restore
- Magic Resistance - minor upgrade
- Arcane Affinity - easier Enchanting leveling, not a bad proffesion for mage
I'm not recomending any changes in Frost and Fire tree - those points are 100% worthy to spend. You want to know why? Use your brains - at the end you want to be mage so start think ;)
Now, about Arcane tree. There might be some variations of those 57 talents. Fell free to find your own set. This is some other builds i saw in-game:
Glyph of Molten Armor - yes, Molten Armor is better than Mage Armor, at the end of this guide you will understand that Arc Mages never have "mana issues" just play as they were designed so we shall increase DPS
Glyph of Slow Fall - no more feathers in your bags, life saving spell when Archmages come at Valithria Dreamwalker encounter
Glyph of Frost Ward - you may use Frost Ward sometimes while moving at Sindragosa and Lich King encounter, it gives healers a bit help. Better than any other Minor Glyph.
Glyph of Fire Ward - you may use Fire Ward sometimes while moving at Blood Prince Council (Valanar) and Koralon the Flame Watcher encounter, it gives healers a bit help. Better than any other Minor Glyph.
Statistics
You shall read proper sections of this topic:
Every point less in Arcane Focus means that you need 26.232 Hit Rating more to cap
Spell Power - around 3'000-3'500 is good
Haste - as much as you can get, until you reach Arcane Blast casting time = 1 sec (count all haste buffs like Icy Veins, Heroism, etc.)
Critical strike - you shall focus on it when you reach good amount of Haste
Spirit - well, better don't go for it, let Priests, Warlock and Fire Mages have items with +Spirit. Equip such items ONLY if you don't have any replacment. Contribution from Molten Armor shall not be reason to waste item slot for +Spirit. If you have weaker item with stats other than Spirit better use it instead - your DPS will be higher.
Gear
Comming soon.
Enchants
This is only enchants without any Prfessions on your character. Bonuses from them will be show in proper section.
Use Icewalker only if you need some Hit Rating to cap. Otherwise i recomend Tuskarr's Vitality - wasting less time on moving means you can start casting faster, what is better than +12 Crit (you don't benefint from Hit after cap). And +15 Stamina isn't bad at all.
Gems
The choice of gems is pretty much dictated by the weights of the stats. Best choice is of course the pure +spellpower gems. Carefully consider how much benefit you get from the socket bonus, and decide if it's worth to discard them and putting just red spellpower gems into the sockets.
In order to activate the Chaotic Skyflare Diamond meta gem, you need two blue gems (2x Purified Dreadstone). Place them ONLY in blue sockets.
Decide which yellow sockets you want to fill with Reckless Ametrine - do it only if the socket bonus is worth it (personaly i place it in +7 Spell Power and +9 Spell Power bonuses).
Fill the rest of the sockets with Runed Cardinal Ruby, regardless of their color.
If you have Eternal Belt Buckle on your belt fill that socket with Runed Cardinal Ruby - it doesn't count for socket bonus anyway.
Professions
Comming soon.
Rotation Explanation
This is power of Arcane Mage - easy rotation that allows you to manage your mana all time and decide how much and HOW LONG you need to DPS on boss. When raid is going fine you can do 100% of your abilities, if something went wrong (and half raid is dead) you can maintain DPS mostly forever.
If you reach 1 second Arcane Blast cast u can decide to cast it more than 4 times before reset (watch your mana pool carefully)
Go back to basic rotation
AoE Damage Rotation (Area-of-Effect)
NOTE: Different ranks of Flamestrike give separate DoT (Damage-over-Time) effects. You may cast as many Ranks as you want, but i recomend only Rank 9 and 8.
Repeat (DoT's will fade before you stop casting Blizzard)
Tips & Tricks
"Heeee 500 mana here XD" - MAJOR RULE FOR ARCANE MAGE. When boss is dead you shall have only several percent of mana. If you have more it means you didn't make 100% od possible DPS. Try re-think High Damage Rotation and add more Arcane Blast casts.
"Keep castin yo @#$!%#!" - you shall casting spell 99,99% time of encounter, any second non-casting = waste of DPS
"Police! Dont Move!" - realy, you shall reduce your moving to minimum. Move only if your (or raid mambers) life is in danger
"Drinkin, drinkin..." - use first Mana Sapphire after you have 4'000 mana lack in your mana pool (around second Basic Rotation) and another as soon as possible. Also use Runic Mana Potion and/or Runic Mana Injector when needed.
"<DND> Meditating" - if you are runing out of mana in long fight use Evocation while you will be able to use Icy Veins again (after High Damage Rotation). NEVER Evocate in fight without Icy Veins!
"So cold here, folks..." - your Ice Block is miracle from Heaven. You can use it if healers stoped healing you for some reason or raid (or only you!) is going to take heavy damage from boss abilities
"Keep the distance... dude... dude!" - stay in range. Simply. Dont go closer to boss than 20-30 yard range. There is no need to go closer and it may cost you life. In several encounters you shall watch range between raid members too.
"Klickin, klickin..." - use Keybindings. I still see players who obviously use mouse to cast spells etc. It's pitiful waste of time.
Macros & Keybindings
This is all my Keybindings and Macros I use at the moment. Specially for this guide i re-wrote all of them and set easier keybindings. You can place all those macros in a single action bar.
Missing things: Arcane Brilliance, Focus Magic, Potions.
Can i win a frostfire mage with this spec and the correct rotation?
Depends on fire mage you will compare. Arcane Missiles problem makes your dps lower than skilled fire mage with same gear but don't forget about raid buff - none fire mage can bring that to raid.
Potion of speed (500 haste in 15 seconds [30 seconds if you are alchemist]) is better than the Runic Mana potion?
Well, good question. personaly i dont like haste potions and always use mana instead (more brust AB). but i think its every mage decision. probably haste potion give you more dps...
Any method or haste cap to prevent fire less missiles with missil barrage in latency moments? Or a "latency cap" to use this spec?
No. simply. just tested some new macros on Dummies in IF and with 150ms and 1.2 sec AB cast i had some (minimum but still) bugged missiles... I think it's about luck...
Whats the priority in brust damage rotation ? Arcane Blast or T10 2 piece bonus?
If you still can benefit from Bloodmage's Regalia 2 pieces haste buff (your cast is longer than 1sec) it is majority in spell casting. Try to rebuff it every 4 Arcane Blasts. But if you reached 1sec casting, cast Arcane Blast until you can (watch mana pool here!).
Is 3/3 Arcane Stability really necessary? Can I move some point from it?
There are plenty encounters where whole raid, not only tanks, get damage. ANY pushback you will suffer means HUGE dps lost! If you have Paladin with Concentration Aura you can move 1 point from Arcane Stability. Otherwise better don't.
*Constructive criticism is always welcome. Feel free do send me PM about any improvements in this topic.
**Please, remember that I am a living person who has real life and can't be here 24/7.
I have a BISS mage . Atm i play whit him TTW spec. Really high dps after fix bonus set and some bug on mage.
My question : Is Arcane more strong ath ttw/ffb on biss gear ?
This starter spec has the absolutely mandatory talents put into it. There are a few interchangable points (which I speced just so I can go deeper into the talent tree).
1 point from Arcane Stability (arcane T1). This is only available if the raid's holy paladin has speced at least one point into Improved Concentration aura. Otherwise, do NOT go below 4/5 in Arcane Stability.
2 points from Ice Shards into Frost Warding. Ice shards is generally preferred as your AoE is relatively weak compared to TTW/FFB fire.
3 points in Incanter's Absorption. The only reason I'm mentioning these points as interchangable is because most mages have no idea on how to actually use this. If you raid ICC and want to maximise your damage, the talent is a must.
You'll notice that you have 2 extra talent points. The only actually valuable places to put these are the following:
Magic Attunement, extra range. The increase in Amplify Magic is particularly useful for VDW.
Missile Barrage. Less risk of you not procing it.
Magic Absorption and Student of the Mind. Stundent of the mind is pretty damn weak, considering you'll have 0 spirit gear. Magic Absorption on the other hand is mostly good if you're in some kind of a progression guild. It will decrease the incoming AoE on you by a significant amount.
Note: I've arranged the talents in terms of importance based on my personal opinion.
I have a BISS mage . Atm i play whit him TTW spec. Really high dps after fix bonus set and some bug on mage.
My question : Is Arcane more strong ath ttw/ffb on biss gear ?
Ttw by a pretty clear margin. Regardless of your gear (except perhaps if you have a desperate shortage of hit rating, though at a gear level that low you ought to be Arcane anyways).
"I'm not recomending any changes in Frost and Fire tree - those points are 100% worthy to spend. You want to know why? Use your brains - at the end you want to be mage so start think ;)"
Good guide :) even if I m not agree with some points (you can pm me for more infos)
For people who ask them which spec is better :
Comparaison Arcan Vs Fire's specs :
Number of targets impact :
Arcan spec : have an highly monotarget burst then other spec
Fire spec : have an highly multitarget burst and dps at all thanks to dots (Lb, pyro, even ffb)
Moove impact :
Quick explaination : lot of spells create a GCD (Global CoolDown) that means when you press on the button to launch a spell you have approximatly 1.3sec of CD at all spells (minimum 1s, base time 1.5s) this mecanics have no impact on cast which have more then 1s cast because at the end of casting time GCD is already finish. but some instant spells like Lightning Bomb (LB) or the instant pyro (launch on Hotstreak) put a gcd and give you a break time on your gameplay in the one you cannot cast.
The fact is Arcan have no instant spell which incrase his dps (Arcan Barrage put on your rotation made you dps less). Then Fire specs have LB and Pyro under HS.
So in Arcan for moving you have to loose dps (moreover arcan haven't dots)
At the opposite : Fire specs benefits of a mooving capacity pretty amazing, thanks to the fact at end gear you have approximatly a gcd to use for mooving every 1.5 casts
To conclued for the Arcan VS Fire's specs debat : Arcan is a better spec to do an highly burst on a monotarget boss where you have not to moove (for me more then 4 mooves in a fight even you use arcan barrage, is too much)
Fire's are better multitarget and mooving specs
TTWFire Vs FFB :
FFB spec : give 3% hit and have a high crit damage coefficient on her FFB because of the frost part of her build, moreover FFB spec give an additionnal burst spell (Icy Veins)
TTWFire spec : have higher not-crit damages coefficient then FFB. Moreover TTWFire spec benefit of the talent TTW (Torment The Weaks) which increase damages of 12% on slow target (attack speed slows count) which means works on all bosses if spells like Ice Touch of DK is on it. Additionnal point TTWFire spec give 1 more meter of range (best capacity to isolate themself to other player and to moove less in a fight).
In Conclusion of TTWFire Vs FFB :
TTWFire give a better sustained dps then FFB
FFB give a burst with Icy Veins but works only with a lot of crit
General conclusion :
Best spec of TLK for mooving and multitargets fights : TTWFire
(BIS Stuffed)
Best spec of TLK for fix and monotarget fights : Arcan
Notice that Arcan spec is better on short fight which you have not to play on a "spare mana" rotation
(-5minutes fights at BIS gear)
Tiny.
PS : personnal point of view :
at low gear I play arcan because fire demand a lot of stastistics, personnally I stay in arcan before the 4T10 set bonus and 50% crit selfbuffed. Then I play TTWFire, for me FFB is a useless spec only create by TLK pserv in and for a time where TTW didn't work correctly on icc bosses.
PS : I m French, so excuse me for my english not good
Hello, I agree with some of your points, mainly the ones about either Fire specs being better for fights with heavy movement and that Arcane being an excellent spec for a starter Mage due to how low maintenance it is and how much room for error it provides of you misplay.
However there's much to be said about movement in WOTLK raiding, if you think about it the only fights that require more movement than you can cover with blink are Halion (shadow realm) and Lich King if you're still learning the fight and/or raiding with a tank who's insecure of how to position the boss for the most possible DPS uptime.
The fact is Arcan have no instant spell which incrase his dps (Arcan Barrage put on your rotation made you dps less). Then Fire specs have LB and Pyro under HS.
So in Arcan for moving you have to loose dps (moreover arcan haven't dots)
To conclued for the Arcan VS Fire's specs debat : Arcan is a better spec to do an highly burst on a monotarget boss where you have not to moove (for me more then 4 mooves in a fight even you use arcan barrage, is too much)
Now, while you're right about the usage of GCDs while repositioning is true a good Mage will always position himself in such way that he'll very rarely have to move at all on 10/12 of the ICC bosses, the 2 bosses you might have to reposition more than once every 15 seconds (Blink cd) are Lord Marrowgar (Coldflames & Bonestorm RNG) and Heroic Lich King (mostly avoidable if you know how to position properly in all 3 phases).
I know it looks like I'm arguing against the main strength of the two Fire specs but I would still recommend these 2 specs for anyone who raids with smaller guilds who are still progressing or simply raids plenty of pugs a lot simply because of how solid and reliable the DPS is on very long fights 7+ min even if you happen to not be critting as much as you'd like to.
Best spec of TLK for mooving and multitargets fights : TTWFire
(BIS Stuffed)
Best spec of TLK for fix and monotarget fights : Arcan
Notice that Arcan spec is better on short fight which you have not to play on a "spare mana" rotation
(-5minutes fights at BIS gear)
About DPS at BiS gear;
I want to make it very clear that no spec in the game will ever top a flawless rng TTW Fire mage (high 80s to low 90s percent crits on Fireballs and/or Pyros) on a single target due to Ignite reaching stupid levels of damage that can very quickly break the meter and dwarf everyone else in the raid in comparison.
That being said you can't and shouldn't rely on getting those lucky dice rolls even at BiS, if it fits your yolo playstyle you should definitely raid with Fire and keep praying for godly crit chains. More power to you.
Now about the "monotone" spec.
If you're settled down in an established raiding guild you will most likely down the majority of bosses before mana starts to matter and burst is king above all else.
Arcane will give you the best results by far simply because of how easy it is to maintain a fair portion of those massive numbers from the start of the fight due to short steroid cooldowns and no downtime period where your DPS dips enough for it make much of an impact on your overall output.
This insane burst that doesn't require ramping up is untouchable for instant high priority target switching (PP Oozes, LK Valkyrs & Ragings, LM Spikes and VDW Suppressors).
There's very few bosses in this expansion where it's a must that you keep constant high DPS on multiple targets where Fire will be a clear winner.
If you have the gear to play Arcane to its full potential it's ideal for most end game content and not just when you lack crit gear to make use of Hot Streaks.
It has a higher average DPS than TTW unless the fight includes plenty of bull**** unavoidable movement or craploads of adds for your Living Bomb to massacre.
PS : personnal point of view :
at low gear I play arcan because fire demand a lot of stastistics, personnally I stay in arcan before the 4T10 set bonus and 50% crit selfbuffed. Then I play TTWFire-
While this is true Arcane hyperscales at end game gear due to how many multipliers arcane spells and talents provide making it a fierce carry if played by a capable Mage who isn't too stubborn to try new things (Arcane Missiles was butchered on the old core so there's very few who have ever played the spec in PvE outside 5 man dungeons).
I know the common argument behind not using Arcane instead of a Fire spec is that it's mana heavy (to get the most juice out of) at almost every level of gear and/or that it falls off after the opening burst.
If you've played casters enough you will know how to manage mana well enough and cover your weak spots while getting the most out of your strengths and playing around procs & offensive cooldowns in order to maintain your momentum regardless of the raid situation.
It's worth noting that there's a big drawback of playing both(mainly Fire) of these specs to its full potential at BiS gear in a raid that isn't as geared as you 'cause you will have huge threat issues and you'll be forced to play at a lower capacity in order to stay alive and other classes should catch up to you when you start holding your hot streaks because you're playing it smart.
However there's much to be said about movement in WOTLK raiding, if you think about it the only fights that require more movement than you can cover with blink are Halion (shadow realm) and Lich King if you're still learning the fight and/or raiding with a tank who's insecure of how to position the boss for the most possible DPS uptime
2 bosses you might have to reposition more than once every 15 seconds (Blink cd) are Lord Marrowgar (Coldflames & Bonestorm RNG) and Heroic Lich King (mostly avoidable if you know how to position properly in all 3 phases).
For me the fact is blink made a gcd so in a fight use blink means loose dps, to my mine in a tlk fight you have approximatly to moove with blink maximum 2 time on an arcan spec maybe 3 to stay competitive (I prefer put Arcane barrage on my build and launch a arcane barrage, moove 1 sec and continue dps this is clearly sufficient to avoid flames or aoe of bosses), in fire if you excluded profanation and plague on lk you have to use blink (here I speak for experienced ppl in a group they known.
So this is my point of view, all time i don't spam AB then AM made me loose dps on arcan and for me a fight where it occured more then 5-7 times is a fight where I prefer play Fire spec (without speaking about fight which take over then 6min where clearly ttw are better).
I know it looks like I'm arguing against the main strength of the two Fire specs but I would still recommend these 2 specs for anyone who raids with smaller guilds who are still progressing or simply raids plenty of pugs a lot simply because of how solid and reliable the DPS is on very long fights 7+ min even if you happen to not be critting as much as you'd like to.
We are both agree to the fake without goods statitics play arcane is most convinient.
But say for an unexperimented player arcane is easyier .... I don't think so, for me play arcane is clearly harder then fire because to play good arcan (I don't speak about made an approximatly not hugly dps, but made a good dps) you have to know fight your placement at starting point is essential moreover you have to keep you nerves all the fight never moove for nothing or for a thing that healer can carry about. Un experimented players moove for anythings, don't care about their starting point placement etc and so dots and gcd "absorb" these mistakes they made, In aracan you have no right to do mistakes.
It has a higher average DPS than TTW unless the fight includes plenty of bull**** unavoidable movement or craploads of adds for your Living Bomb to massacre.
This insane burst that doesn't require ramping up is untouchable for instant high priority target switching
I not agree with these points, a good pve mage play Ingenieer and Tailor, so with your 1 min engenieer trinket you have a boost every 1 minutes ad to that the phylactary every 90 sec and halion scale every 45 sec and the talent who up damages after the 35% of the boss even in TTW, mage don't really have a down time in this fight, the only point is ttw start his burst like a diesel motor (if you correctly use you combustion).
For switching yes Arcan switch faster then fire but for Mobs with more then 12 sec (up time of an LB) hp, fire hit harder (So Ooze Valkyr), more over fire clearly made a better multitargets dps he can damages the 3 valkyr in same time fight against lk and spirits in transition phase of lk hit PP and Ooze in same time. For the other mobs like beast on DBS or Pics on Marrow hunt bomies and some others classes can clearly do the job and better then a mage.
The last point I wanna show you, is that in arcan you have 30 (or 35 I don't remeber yet) meters of range, while fire have 41meter (ttw I mean) so you can do a better switch in terms of range without mooving.
I know the common argument behind not using Arcane instead of a Fire spec is that it's mana heavy (to get the most juice out of) at almost every level of gear and/or that it falls off after the opening burst.
I don't have speak about the mana fact because to my mind a mage who know playing (use 1 mana gem at 85%mana, another when cd up, a mana potion after, and the last mana gem when cd up) can do a 6min fight at BIS gear in a burst rotation without even evocate hisself. Mana is for me not the point if you excluded the LK fight.
It's worth noting that there's a big drawback of playing both(mainly Fire) of these specs to its full potential at BiS gear in a raid that isn't as geared as you 'cause you will have huge threat issues and you'll be forced to play at a lower capacity in order to stay alive and other classes should catch up to you when you start holding your hot streaks because you're playing it smart.
I don't bring the threat reduce point in arcane spec so I clearly generate more threath on Arcan then Fire.
Understand, I clearly love Arcan spec and play it lot of time I just wanna show why TTW is clearly better. But a good Arcan mage can clearly be competitive (especially in front of not very good fire mages).
Tiny.
PS : For the argument of 3% raid dps I miss, you have to know BM Hunt and mostly Ret paly give them too.
A Blink will make you cover thrice the distance (slightly more even because you can spend the leftover gCD to move a bit further) within a single gCD, so it is very well worth the investment. Blink should be your premier movement ability as a Mage, nevermind your spec. Obviously it is still a DPS loss, but if you can manage it correctly it is rather negligible.
Arcane Barrage is a rather useless spell as it serves no real purpose (use Fire Blast if you really feel like you need that instant spell); it was used before to destack your abX stacks in case you didn`t get a mbarr proc, which has become obsolete since 3.2.
Other than that, Arcane range is 36 yards (which is kinda standard), and yes the movement management issue is quite tricky and certainly not trivial.