Classic
Burning Crusade
Lich King
Patch: 3.3.5
Author: Legacy-WoW
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
Minor Glyphs
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
- Hit (17%) (11% with talents)
- Spell Power
- Haste
- Critical Strike
- Spirit (Increases crit rating)
- 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.
