#0 - April 21, 2008, 3:57 p.m.
This guide is about how to use arcane spells and arcane talent specs. Why arcane? There are reasons like - amaze with your dps - but maybe you just want to try something new, have problems with pulling aggro or just acquired two pieces of T5 gear and got arcane blast bonus. Or maybe you are just bored of fire and frost. (After fire immune bosses in Molten Core and dps extreme Naxxramas perhaps or doing arena with frost).
First of all only 40 points in arcane tree is needed for the two main nukes of arcane to work. Main single target spell is Arcane Blast and main area of effect spell is Arcane explosion. Third useful spell Arcane missiles demands 43 arcane but in raid boss fights it's only used as "fill up spell" for spell rotation to refresh arcane blast stack.
Arcane missiles is in these builds: full 61 arcane, 43/13/3+2 arcane pyro and 48/0/13 arcane icy veins. Arcane missiles is useful for stacking certain trinket and for spell stolen "machine gun" in Zul'aman. For main nuke arcane missiles spends a lot of mana and is hard to maintain enough mana regen for it. Also it has smaller dps than stacked arcane blast.
Arcane builds for pvp and pve are different and mostly it is more useful for pve with the exception of 40 arcane with 21 frost that includes Shatter: Spell power 2/2 and Shatter 5/5. This build relies on high crits from using spells on frozen targets. Note that this is different from 40/0/21 pve build which doesn't have shatter and has -threat for frost instead.
40/0/21
This spec is currently the highest aoe and single target dmg spec for reasons below:
( http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?tal=2500250300030150330125000000000000000000000000535000310030010000000 ) and if you have 10% hit from gear spend extra points to something else like http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?tal=2300350310030150330125000000000000000000000000535000310030010000000 )
- - after your threat per second/minute hits tank_threat_cap (depends on tank, fight type and hunter's using misdirection) you are gimped with fire spec and sometimes can't use invisibility or it fails to reset aggro. It's spoken only in whispers but some tanks go for coffee in middle of boss fights and just auto attack. It happens more often than you think, deal with it. ;)
- arcane spells have lowest threat per second
- manageable for 10 minute long boss fight with shadow priest and maybe shaman in group. Also note usage of dmg food, flask, elixirs, brilliant wizard oil and mana potions.
- Even the experts (noobs) at elitist jerks site agree it's best arcane spec.
- Need only 6% spell hit from gear for arcane and 10% for frost. (13% for fire) I'm Not explaining...
- Two Icy Veins with Cold Snap! Fire mages can only dream of this kind of burst... Arcane blast spam + icy veins + arcane power + trinket + possible other trinket buff + maybe disc priest buff = Even with my %#!% gear can dish out 3k+ dps burst for long enough to make difference. (In boss fight 1350 avarage normal, 2,1k for limited duration, 2k-5,5k aoe in my mostly kara, ZA, badge & pvp gear with only two tier 5 cloths)
- 2 ice blocks. Ok you die a lot and just can't stand it. nuff said...
It's however good spec only for mages that know what they are doing. Not difficult to use when just know how it works. It can be horrible spec when played wrong. I know casual "fire mages" that have only played with one spec and haven't raided long won't agree but I saw what happened to threat of fire spec after the notorious threat and rolling ignites fix and Naxxramas stat level changing to tbc stat level. TK & SSC had also funny immunities for fire and frost and threat resets that are bad for fire dots.
How to play with this spec?
1. Use arcane blast as main nuke!
Arcane blast is about 80% of my dmg in single target boss fight with current mana regen from all my sources. Rotation is only needed if can't get enough mana from group members/potions/gems/gear/innervates. (don't bother with mana regen gear, go for max dmg/crit gear with spell hit capped. Rotation is used to refresh stack of arcane blast to first low mana cost AB. Try spell haste if your LAG is low - otherwice gear for dmg/crit. I don't get full benefit from haste gear with my lag so I don't use it.
- Basic rotation is 3 AB -> 3 Frostbolts and fast AB. Fast AB because you can still get fast cast - spell haste helps if you can't reach it). Only use rotation if you can't maintain arcane blast spam. At some gear level can just ignore rotations. Only 40 talents from arcane is needed for this. Basic rotation for arcane pyro build is 3 AB -> Arcane missiles-> Scorch->fast AB.
2. Manage your mana consumption!
The way you burn your mana should depend on the estimated fight length and your group setup. No shadow priests, druid doesn't give innervates, shaman doesn't use mana tide, dmg or hit/crit totem, you don't use consumables, forgot to drink in between fights-> use rotation and if things get bad - frostbolt spam. (it's actually possible to regen mana with frostbolt spam in really nice group until mana gem and mana potion cool down is over ;) With high crit rate frostbolts with Spell power talent do quite nice dps especially with full frostmage in group but are less dps otherwice. Since you die less with low aggro arcane you can afford mana potions. Drink always when possible.
3. Threat.
Arcane has lowest threat -40% of all specs but it does become a problem again after you go way over the top. Get Subtlety enchant on cloak when it happens and pop invisibility for high burst after it.
4. Tier 5
Get two pieces of T5 for 20% higher AB dmg (and mana usage). Youd dps will increase by 200 dps when you reach that gear and it scales with gear. This spec can be used without those gears..
5. AoE
Your aoe nuke is Arcane explosion. Don't use blizzard unless you don't feel safe with your tanks. Use Cone of Cold if you like and especially if you have more pvp oriented arcane-shatter build. Very important in aoe - get paladin tank to your guild! You can easily beat evenly geared experienced destruction warlocks in aoe heavy fights like in Battle for Mount Hyjal if you don't have to worry about aggro!
6. Warlocks
Make sure warlocks use Curse of shadow/arcane. Curse of elements is not that important for you ;)
7. Shadow priest, resto shaman and dps paladin are your best friends
You will want to give gear to shadow priest who maximises your mana gained. Resto shamans have mana tide totem. If you have loads of shadow priests and not much mages, Get 2 shadow priests to same group! Also destruction warlocks and hunters will want to stay in your group but you won't benefit from other than Curse of shadow. Dps Paladin with JoW on boss helps you also. Also remember that you need tank paladin for max aoe dmg without any cc delays. Tank paladins need mage swords..Notable other buffs: Caster shaman has +3% hit/crit totem and +1% from racial (even less need for hit gear), shaman haste, paladins have kings and blessing of wisdom, discipline priests have nice dmg from spirit. Moonkins with 5% spell crit.
8. Beyond Battle for Mount Hyjal raid
if you get four pieces of tier 6 check if your tanks can handle fire spec but if not just use 2 pieces from t5 and rest from t6 or other gear. With T6 fire is certainly interesting.
9. Best trinkets for Arcane
Lightning capacitor from Karazhan is really nice for arcane even after it's change. Without shadow priest in group (or low dmg spriest) level 62 trinket Mark of Defiance is best trinket for arcane mage followed by Serpent-Coil Braid and The Lightning Capacitor. I complement Serpent with icon of the silver crescent because I like to have a macroed burst opener spell. These are quoted from manoutoftime:
DPS Increase Trinket
68.72 Ashtongue Talisman of Insight
64.72 The Skull of Gul'dan
59.97 The Lightning Capacitor
56.92 Hex Shrunken Head
52.39 Quagmirran's Eye
49.96 Darkmoon Card: Crusade (10-minute restack)
46.65 Darkmoon Card: Crusade (3-minute restack)
46.06 Sextant of Unstable Currents
44.34 Icon of the Silver Crescent
40.48 Sorcerer's Alchemist Stone
39.71 Eye of Magtheridon
39.65 The Restrained Essence of Sapphiron
36.51 Darkmoon Card: Crusade (1-minute restack)
35.50 Shiffar's Nexus-Horn
33.11 Serpent-Coil Braid
DPM Increase Trinket
0.85 Mark of Defiance
0.68 Serpent-Coil Braid
0.53 The Lightning Capacitor
10 Trinket macros for arcane
These are very optional but I don't use normal spell buttons. I don't want to press +dmg/20 second trinkets so I use these that include the /use ability trinkets I change around. First macro uses +dmg trinket with arcane blast (but doesn't use if you are targetting friendly player) Second one launches frostbolt and uses trinket AND uses icy veins. I like to use icy veins when I clear AB stack so I get nice burst after it but it is questionable: icy veins could very well be used in arcane blast only but this way I avoid making too much aggro in beginning.
#show Arcane Blast(Rank 1)
/stopMacro [noharm]
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/use Icon of the Silver Crescent
/use Scryer's Bloodgem
/use Xi'ri's Gift
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/script UIErrorsFrame:Show()
/cast Arcane Blast(Rank 1)
#show Frostbolt(Rank 13)
/stopMacro [noharm]
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/use Icon of the Silver Crescent
/use Scryer's Bloodgem
/use Xi'ri's Gift
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/script UIErrorsFrame:Show()
/cast Icy Veins
/cast Frostbolt(Rank 13)
Just remember you are pro mage only if you are fun to play with, nothing else matters ;)
