Arcane
At the moment, Arcane mages are at a disadvantage in the Cataclysm expansion primarily due to their lack of DPS on the move. With raids heavily geared toward staying out of the fire, the Arcane spec is not recommended for the time being. That said, it has very strong burst damage when you're able to stay in one spot and also has a few raid utility options that may be needed for certain fights, such as Slow.
The most up-to-date information that has much more depth to it than this does can be found at:
Elitist Jerks Arcane Mage Compendium
Arcane Spec
Mage Arcane Spec - RaidThis raid spec focuses on mobility (albeit not as great as Fire) and reduced raid damage.
Playing an Arcane Mage
Playing an Arcane Mage at the end of Wrath meant smashing your Arcane Blast key as many times as you could in one fight...in fact, I had fights where I'd have 99% damage coming from AB - not exactly fun. Blizzard has tried to counter that by adding a little challenge: mana management. Currently, Arcane Mages has two phases:
- Burn Phase: The burn cycle is when an Arcane Mage is going to have some serious burst damage. This cycle should always be designed to start when Evocation is off cooldown when the burn phase is completed. A typical burn phase consists of spamming Arcane Blast (AB) until a Mana Gem will take you back to 100% mana. Then, hit all cooldowns and spam AB until you hit 40% mana. At this point, you hit Evocation to get back to 100% mana and start the conservation phase.
- Conservation Phase: The conservation phase is designed to keep your mana near 100% until your Evocation is off cooldown. The exact rotation is completely dependent on your gear and raid buffs. Typically, it could consist of a rotiation such as hitting AB twice and then hitting Arcane Barrage or Arcane Missles if they proc. Ideally, you should test which spells keep your mana near 100% on a dummy before trying this spec out.
- Keep Mage Armor up as it regenerates mana.
Gearing an Arcane Mage
The current order of importance for stats on an Arcane Mage is:
1. Intellect – By far the most important stat for a Arcane Mage. It increases our spell power, mana, and critical strike chance.
2. Hit – Getting hit capped (17% or 1742 rating) is important for Arcane Mages, but not at the cost of Intellect. The best way to get Hit Capped is to 1) Find gear with Hit, 2) Use Purple Hit Gems if the socket bonus is worth it (often it’s not due to Intellect being the strongest stat), 3)Enchant your gear for Hit, and 4) Reforge the weakest combat ratings into Hit.
3. Spell Power – Spell power can be found on weapons and trinkets.
4. Crit, Hase, and Mastery levels are dependent on your gear. Use a program like Rawr to decide which gear is best for you.
Recommended Glyphs
- Prime: Glyph of Mage Armour , Glyph of Arcane Blast, Glyph of Arcane Missles
- Major: Glyph of Arcane Power, Glyph of Slow
- Minor: Glyph of Mirror Image, Glyph of Conjuring
Fill in the rest with whatever you like...
Focus Magic Priority Table:
| Profile | DPS w/o FM | DPS with FM | Target DPS gain | Feedback Uptime | RDPS gain |
|---|
| MageFireT12H | 31703 | 32826 | 1123 | 98% | 1906 |
| WarlockDestructionT12H | 33832 | 34686 | 854 | 100% | 1653 |
| WarlockDemonologyT12H | 35722 | 36617 | 895 | 87% | 1590 |
| MageArcaneT12H | 36003 | 36802 | 799 | 98% | 1582 |
| DruidBalanceT12H | 32365 | 33185 | 820 | 91% | 1547 |
| ShamanElementalT12H | 33031 | 33661 | 630 | 100% | 1429 |
| WarlockAfflictionT12H | 36084 | 36840 | 756 | 80% | 1395 |
| MageFrostT12H | 37117 | 37695 | 578 | 100% | 1377 |
| PriestShadowT12H | 33846 | 34759 | 913 | 45% | 1272 |
| RogueAssassinationT12H | 34557 | 34907 | 350 | 93% | 1093 |
| ShamanEnhancementT12H | 35167 | 35427 | 260 | 95% | 1043 |
| PriestDiscSmite_T12H | 14649 | 14862 | 213 | 99% | 1004 |
| RogueCombatT12H | 34867 | 35194 | 327 | 84% | 998 |
| RogueSubtletyT12H | 35474 | 35576 | 102 | 77% | 717 |
| DeathKnightUnholy2hT12H | 35348 | 35613 | 265 | 52% | 680 |
| DeathKnightUnholy1hT12H | 30458 | 30731 | 273 | 50% | 673 |
| DeathKnightFrost1hT12H | 38100 | 38171 | 71 | 33% | 334 |
| PaladinRetributionT12H | 33443 | 33479 | 36 | 36% | 323 |
| DeathKnightFrost2hT12H | 33753 | 33802 | 49 | 25% | 249 |
| HunterMMT12H_Arcane | 34632 | 34672 | 40 | 0% | 40 |
| HunterSVT12H | 32263 | 32302 | 39 | 0% | 39 |
This is a copy and paste from
elitistjerks.com. This table was last updated on 07/21/11 at 2:01 PM.