Arcane 101

Arcane Mage

Arcane is the go-to spec for high, single-target damage. The spec's mastery, Mana Adept, varies your damage output based on how much of your mana pool you've got left. On paper, it's relatively simple: The closer to max mana you are, the more damage your spells do. The way it plays out is actually far more complex. Playing an arcane mage requires skill, patience, and a willingness to do some research on your class. Once you get a good grasp on what you're doing, though, the spec is incredibly rewarding. There's very little I can do to describe the feeling you get when you see an Arcane Blast crit for six figures, not only killing the mob you had targeted, but also doing damage to his posterity down through seven generations, causing his children's children's great-great-grandchildren to speak in hushed tones about the time many generations past when a mage blew up his forefather.

Base spec Arcane 31/2/3



This gets you the basic DPS talents (and the always-useful movement talent Improved Blink). It also picks up the crit-increasing Piercing Ice from the frost tree and the mana-refunding Master of Elements from the fire tree. As you make your way to level 85, you'll pick up five more discretionary talent points that you can deploy however you wish.

Basic rotation

Arcane's rotation is governed by Mana Adept's dependency on your mana pool. Your highest damage rotation is simple Arcane Blast spam, but spamming that spell also burns through your mana pool at an incredibly rapid clip. The idea is to break your rotation up into phases.

Burn phase Arcane Blast spam until you get to about 40 percent of your mana pool. Slip in Arcane Power and your Mana Gem when you deem appropriate (to buff your damage output during this high-output phase and return your mana to full when it gets low enough).

Recovery phase Evocation to get your mana pool back to 100 percent.

Conservation phase The actual rotation here varies based on your gear and level. The concept is to keep your mana at the same optimal level long enough to get close to the cooldown of your Evocation being up and thus primed for another burn phase. For most mages, you want your mana pool top stay around 85 to 90 percent. The best rotation to maintain this mana level (and thus consistent high DPS output) will change as your gear improves, and you will need to do some tinkering and/or research to determine the rotation specific to your mage.

The basic template to follow for the conservation phase is:

Arcane Blast x2 (or more) --> Arcane Missiles (or Arcane Barrage if Arcane Missiles hasn't procced) --> repeat


Adjust that as necessary to make sure your mana pool stays at 85 to 90 percent; then when Evocation comes back, you begin the burn phase. Mastery of this complex rotation is something of an art, and I firmly believe that Blizzard has placed playing this this spec properly so far beyond the scope of the casual WoW player's reach that number-crunching, spreadsheet jiggery, and outside research is pretty much required for arcane mages now.

Cheers for the Guide Mau really helpt alot. Were did you find those 2 (fire and arcane)? couldent find any good ones out there xD