Welcome to our PVE Arcane Mage guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Mage class as Arcane. If you follow this build you should be at the top of the DPS chart in no time!

Talents

This build is designed for new players and primarily uses Frostfire Bolt.

Fireball is the main ability used in this second build. This build is higher DPS and works better with high level gear. This build picks up Torment the Weak from the arcane tree. Torment the Weak still works even if the boss can’t be snared, it only cares about the debuff being on the boss.

If you would like, with either build you can take a point ouf of Master of Elements and put it into Blast Wave.

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

• Frostfire or Fireball
• Molten Armor
• Living Bomb

Minor Glyphs

• Slow Fall
• Frost Ward
• Fire Ward

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

• Meta: Chaotic Skyflare Diamond

1st Build

• Runed Cardinal Ruby
• Purified Dreadstone
• Potent Ametrine

2nd Build,

• Red: Potent Ametrine
• Blue: Misty Eye of Zul
• Yellow: Potent Ametrine

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants based on your gear but these are the standard enchants.

• Head: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries
• Shoulder: Greater Inscription of the Storm
• Back: Greater Speed
• Chest: Powerful Stats
• Bracers: Superior Spellpower
• Gloves: Exceptional Spellpower
• Waist: Eternal Belt Buckle
• Legs: Brilliant Spellthread
• Boots: Icewalker
• Two-Handed Weapon: Enchant Staff – Greater Spellpower
• One-Handed Weapon: Mighty Spellpower or Black Magic

Stat Priority

1. Hit (17%) (14% with talents)
2. Spell Power / Critical Strike
3. Haste
4. Spirit (Increases crit rating)
5. Intellect

Mages need 17% hit, 446 rating, to always hit bosses. Precision gives you an extra 3% hit rating. This lowers your cap to 14%, which is 368 rating.

Spell power and critical strike rating are your primary stats for this build. The more often you crit, the more consistent your DPS will be.

This spec relies heavily on Hot Streak so your crits are super important. You will need 45% crit for this spec to even be viable. You will need 71% critical strike chance to have a 50% chance of procing Hot Streak after casting a Fireball. 

Haste is really a secondary stat with this build. Just let it increase as your gear upgrades and don’t try to gem or enchant for it.

Spirit is an unusual stat that is very beneficial to a Fire Mage. Molten Armor converts your spirit into Critical Strike Rating.

• Regular Molten Armor  converts 35% spirit to critical strike rating.
• Glyphed Molten Armor  converts 55% spirit to critical strike rating.
• Glyphed + T9 set bonus, Khadgar’s Regalia, converts 70% spirit to critical strike rating.

You can also use the Khadgar’s Regalia set bonus to buff with improved Molten Armor and then swap back to your regular gear.

Intellect is only useful when you first hit 80 and have mana problems still.

Rotation

1. Scorch
2. Living Bomb 
3. spam Frostfire Bolt (first build) or Fireball (second build)
4. Pyroblast after Hot Streak procs

• Cast Scorch every 30 seconds.
• Cast Living Bomb every 12 seconds after it explodes.
• Cast Pyroblast every time Hot Streak procs.

Welcome to our PVP Arcane Mage guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Mage class as Arcane in the arena. If you follow this build you should be king of the arena in no time!

Arcane gives up a lot of survivability that frost has in exchange for really high burst damage. I only recommend arcane if you have good gear otherwise you end up being squishy and not doing much damage. With good gear though, you can delete people.

Talents

This is the core arcane mage build.You get all of the damage & burst from arcane and icy veins from frost for the casting speed buff.

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

• Arcane Missiles
• Polymorph
• Evocation

Minor Glyphs

• Slow Fall
• Frost Ward
• Fire Ward

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

• Meta: Forlorn Skyflare Diamond
• Red: Runed Cardinal Ruby
• Blue: Shattered Eye of Zul
• Yellow: Quick King’s Amber

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants based on your gear but these are the standard enchants.

• Head: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries
• Shoulder: Greater Inscription of the Storm
• Back: Spell Piercing
• Chest: Exceptional Resilience
• Bracers: Superior Spellpower
• Gloves: Exceptional Spellpower
• Waist: Eternal Belt Buckle
• Legs: Sapphire Spellthread
• Boots: Tuskarr’s Vitality
• Two-Handed Weapon: Enchant Staff – Greater Spellpower
• One-Handed Weapon: Mighty Spellpower

Stat Priority

1. Hit (4%)
2. Spell Penetration (110-130)
3. Spell Power (3k-3.3k)
4. Haste (900+)

You need at least 4% hit rating to reliably hit players. 130 is the ideal amount of spell penetration for enemies with high resistances. 110 is ok most of the time.

Rotation

There really isn’t a rotation for this spec, you will spend most of your time trying to stay alive and then bursting when you see an opening.

You should stay near pillars, This will allow you to line of sight spells and kite melee classes around the pillar.

Fake casting is an important skill to have, this allows you to bait out the enemy silences/interrupts and will get you a window to burst. If you do get interrupted you can switch magic schools and cast a different type of spell.

Ice block can be used to break CC or prevent yourself from dying. Make sure you absolutely need to cast ice block when you do because it’s your best defensive CD. Make sure to stay in the ice block until your healer gets a heal off.

Arena Teams

2v2 Arenas

• Mutilate Rogue
• Shadow Priest
• Demonology Warlock
• Balance Druid
• Elemental Shaman

3v3 Arenas

• Discipline Priest + Rogue
• Priest + Restoration Shaman
• Warlock + Restoration Druid / Shaman

Welcome to our PVP Fire Mage guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Mage class as Fire in the arena. If you follow this build you should be king of the arena in no time!

Fire sacrifices a lot of survivability that frost would normally have in exchange for stuns in exchange for higher damage. I only recommend fire if you have great gear otherwise you end up being too easy to kill.

Talents

This is the core fire mage build.You get all of the damage, burst and utility from Fire and then Improved Counterspell & Arcane Shielding from arcane.

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

• Scorch or Living Bomb
• Polymorph
• Evocation

Living Bomb is better if you gem for Critical Strike. It works a lot better in Battlegrounds and world PVP where your enemies have bad PVP gear. Scorch works better in the arena where you will have less crits due to enemies having better gear.

Minor Glyphs

• Slow Fall
• Frost Ward
• Fire Ward

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

• Meta: Chaotic Skyflare Diamond
• Red: Runed Cardinal Ruby
• Blue: Mysterious Dreadstone
• Yellow: Potent Ametrine

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants based on your gear but these are the standard enchants.

• Head: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries
• Shoulder: Greater Inscription of the Storm
• Back: Spell Piercing
• Chest: Exceptional Resilience
• Bracers: Superior Spellpower
• Gloves: Exceptional Spellpower
• Waist: Eternal Belt Buckle
• Legs: Sapphire Spellthread
• Boots: Tuskarr’s Vitality
• Two-Handed Weapon: Enchant Staff – Greater Spellpower
• One-Handed Weapon: Mighty Spellpower

Stat Priority

1. Hit (4%)
2. Spell Power (3k-3.3k)
3. Haste (900+)
4. Resilience (1k+)
5. Spell Penetration (110-130)

You need at least 4% hit rating to reliably hit players. 130 is the ideal amount of spell penetration for enemies with high resistances. 1k+ resilience is ideal, you really need a decent amount of resilience to avoid being burst down.

Rotation

There really isn’t a rotation for this spec, you will spend most of your time trying to stay alive and then bursting when you see an opening.

You should stay near pillars, This will allow you to line of sight spells and kite melee classes around the pillar.

Fake casting is an important skill to have, this allows you to bait out the enemy silences/interrupts and will get you a window to burst. If you do get interrupted you can switch magic schools and cast a different type of spell.

Ice block can be used to break CC or prevent yourself from dying. Make sure you absolutely need to cast ice block when you do because it’s your best defensive CD. Make sure to stay in the ice block until your healer gets a heal off.

Arena Teams

Here are some 2s & 3s partners that work well with a Fire Mage.

2v2 Arenas

• Mutilate Rogue
• Shadow Priest
• Demonology Warlock
• Balance Druid
• Elemental Shaman

3v3 Arenas

• Discipline Priest + Rogue
• Priest + Restoration Shaman
• Warlock + Restoration Druid
• Elemental Shaman + Discipline Priest
• Elemental Shaman + Holy Paladin

Welcome to our PVP Frost Mage guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Mage class as Frost in the arena. If you follow this build you should be king of the arena in no time!

Frost is generally accepted as the best all around PVP build for mages. You have high burst, great sustainability and really good survivability. You can also take on any class 1v1, some are just a little more difficult (Hunters/Warlocks).

Talents

This is a solid build for arena & battlegrounds. You can move points around based on preference and team setup but this will definitely get you started as a solid core build.

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

• Ice Barrier
• Evocation
• Icy Veins (recommended if you don’t need Mana Gem or Polymorph)
• Mana Gem (Helps with mana issues)
• Polymorph (Required if your sheep gets dotted often)

Minor Glyphs

• Slow Fall
• Frost Ward
• Fire Ward

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

• Meta: Chaotic Skyflare Diamond
• Red: Runed Cardinal Ruby
• Blue: Stormy Majestic Zircon or Mysterious Dreadstone
• Yellow: Quick King’s Amber

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants based on your gear but these are the standard enchants.

• Head: Arcanum of Dominance
• Shoulder: Inscription of Dominance
• Back: Spell Piercing
• Chest: Exceptional Resilience
• Bracers: Superior Spellpower
• Gloves: Exceptional Spellpower
• Waist: Eternal Belt Buckle
• Legs: Sapphire Spellthread
• Boots: Tuskarr’s Vitality
• Two-Handed Weapon: Enchant Staff – Greater Spellpower
• One-Handed Weapon: Mighty Spellpower

Stat Priority

1. Spell Power (3k-3.3k)
2. Hit rating (120)
3. Spell Penetration (110-130)
4. Critical strike (17-20%)
5. Resilience (1k+)

You need at least 120 hit rating to reliably hit players. The ideal amount of spell penetration for enemies with high resistances is 130. 1k+ resilience is ideal, you really need a decent amount of resilience to avoid being burst down. Critical strike chance really helps with your burst damage and is important.

Rotation

There really isn’t a rotation for this spec, you will spend most of your time trying to stay alive and then bursting when you see an opening.

You should stay near pillars, This will allow you to line of sight spells and kite melee classes around the pillar.

Fake casting is an important skill to have, this allows you to bait out the enemy silences/interrupts and will get you a window to burst. If you do get interrupted you can switch magic schools and cast a different type of spell.

Ice block can be used to break CC or prevent yourself from dying. Make sure you absolutely need to cast ice block when you do because it’s your best defensive CD. Make sure to stay in the ice block until your healer gets a heal off.

Arena Teams

Here are some 2s & 3s partners that work well with a Fire Mage.

2v2 Arenas

• Rogue
• Demonology Warlock
• Balance Druid
• Feral Druid
• Shadow Priest
• Discipline Priest
• Retribution Paladin
• Survival Hunter
• Frost Mage

3v3 Arenas

• Rogue +Priest
• Rogue + Restoration Druid
• Demonology Warlock + Restoration Druid
• Elemental Shaman + Discipline Priest
• Balance Druid + Restoration Shaman
• Survival Hunter + Restoration Shaman / Druid
• Death Knight + Restoration Shaman / Druid
• Elemental Shaman + Holy Paladin

Welcome to our PVE Arcane Mage guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Mage class as Arcane. If you follow this build you should be at the top of the DPS chart in no time!

Talents

This is the core/max dps Arcane mage build. I’ll list some options/points below.

• when you do not have Concentration Aura in your group Arcane Stability is a very useful talent.
• Optionally, You can take points out of Arcane Stability and redistribute them into Student of the Mind and Arcane Meditation.
• This build doesn’t take Arcane Barrage which is used to reset your Arcane Blast stacks. If you are having mana problems, this will help tremendously until you get better gear.

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

• Arcane Missiles
• Molten Armor
• Arcane Blast

Minor Glyphs

• Slow Fall
• Frost Ward
• Fire Ward

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

• Meta: Chaotic Skyflare Diamond
• Red: Runed Cardinal Ruby or Reckless Ametrine
• Blue: Purified Dreadstone (2x to activate your meta)
• Yellow: Reckless Ametrine

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants based on your gear but these are the standard enchants.

• Head: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries
• Shoulder: Greater Inscription of the Storm
• Back: Greater Speed
• Chest: Powerful Stats
• Bracers: Superior Spellpower
• Gloves: Exceptional Spellpower
• Waist: Eternal Belt Buckle
• Legs: Brilliant Spellthread
• Boots: Icewalker
• Two-Handed Weapon: Enchant Staff – Greater Spellpower
• One-Handed Weapon: Mighty Spellpower or Black Magic

Stat Priority

1. Hit (17%) (11% with talents)
2. Spell Power
3. Haste
4. Critical Strike
5. Spirit (Increases crit rating)
6. Intellect

Mages need 17% hit, 446 rating, to always hit bosses. Precision and Arcane Focus  combine to give you an extra 6% hit rating. This lowers your cap to 11%, which is 289 rating.

Spell power is your primary stat as increasing it gives you the biggest DPS boost after hit cap.

Haste is another critical part of your DPS. You can decrease your global cooldown to 1 second, this will increase the number of spells you can cast. As an arcane mage, you want to lower Arcane Blast‘s cast time as much as possible.

Your haste rating can be further improved with the 2 piece Bloodmage’s Regalia set or Enchant Weapon – Black Magic. You should strive for a minimum of 600 haste and at end game you should have at least 1400(raid buffed).

Critical strike rating is usually just obtained by upgrading your gear and isn’t a stat that you strive to increase. You already have a really high chance to crit thanks to Arcane Potency.

Spirit is an unusual stat that is very beneficial to an Arcane Mage. Molten Armor converts your spirit into Critical Strike Rating.

• Regular Molten Armor  converts 35% spirit to critical strike rating.
• Glyphed Molten Armor  converts 55% spirit to critical strike rating.
• Glyphed + T9 set bonus, Khadgar’s Regalia, converts 70% spirit to critical strike rating.

You can also use the Khadgar’s Regalia set bonus to buff with improved Molten Armor and then swap back to your regular gear.

Intellect is only useful when you first hit 80 and have mana problems still.

Rotation

There is really one rotation for Arcane but I’m also going to include the burst damage opener. Once you finish popping your cooldowns, you start the normal rotation and use your DPS cooldowns when they come back up.

Burst Damage Opener

• Open with Presence of Mind and then Arcane Blast 3 times.
• Cast Mirror Image  if you have the 4 piece (Bloodmage’s Regalia)
• Cast Icy Veins + Arcane Power + Trinkets
• Spam Arcane Blast until you get a Missile Barrage proc and then cast Arcane Missiles
• Now start the normal rotation

Normal Rotation

Cast Arcane Blast 3 or 4 times, until the Missile Barrage buff procs and then cast Arcane Missiles.

If the proc isn’t happening, you can continue to cast Arcane Blast if you have the mana or use Arcane Barrage to reset your stacks. You don’t want to cast Arcane Missiles without the Missile Barrage buff active.