Arcane Mage DPS Easy Mode — Season 4

This section is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty, or simply want a more straightforward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous priorities and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.

Arcane is a great Swiss Army Knife that has a complete toolkit to approach any situation. It provides great burst as well as impressive AoE. It is also hypermobile and comes equipped with a variety of defensive spells and cooldowns. In this section, we will be focusing on a setup that minimizes the number of buttons and reactivity necessary without unduly compromising overall damage output.

If you are completely new to Arcane and need more information on the abilities available to you, you can check out our Spell Summary page.

These choices are optimized for ease of use. Although some talents might offer marginally higher gains when played perfectly, these same talents often result in damage losses when utilized by many players. These talents aim to present the best setup that has very little punishment for unfamiliarity or mistakes.

You can easily import the talent trees below via the "copy export string" button.

If you are looking for the absolute best talents for Arcane, which do not compromise on performance for ease of use, you can find a more in-depth analysis on our full talents page below.

You will want to prioritize secondary stats as follows:

1. Intellect;
2. Critical Strike;
3. Mastery;
4. Versatility;
5. Haste.

We recommend you prioritize item levels over specific stats, as they are all very close in value.

While the stat priority for classes is normally the same for both the Easy Mode page and our full guide, subtle differences can still occur. If you want to see the full explanation of the stat priority, as well as the absolute top choices for the priority, head to our full stats page below.

If you are interested in finding out about the specific best-in-slot items from the current tier, or want more information on how to gear, we suggest reading the full gearing page below.

The Arcane rotation consists of 2 priority lists, the Burn Phase and the Conserve Phase. The concept is to maintain a high and stable Mana pool during your "Conserve" phase, biding time until your cooldowns are available. As soon as your cooldowns are ready, you enter the "Burn" phase where you siphon all your Mana into damage. Then, when you run out of Mana, you use Evocation to return to full Mana.

There are 2 types of burn phases in the Arcane rotation. The "Mini-burn" and a full burn phase. The main difference is whether or not Evocation and Arcane Surge are ready. If both are ready for your next burn, it is considered a full burn. If they are not ready, it is considered a mini burn.

You can enter the (mini)Burn Phase when the following is true:

• Radiant Spark is ready;
• Touch of the Magi will be ready within 5 seconds;

Below, we have listed the order in which you should perform your spells during the Burn Phase.

1. Cast Evocation, if Siphon Storm is talented;
2. Cast Arcane Orb, if ready;
3. Cast Arcane Blast once to reach 4 Arcane Charges, if you do not have it yet;
4. Cast Radiant Spark;
5. Cast Nether Tempest;
6. Cast Arcane Surge, if ready, followed immediately by Mana Gem;
7. Cast any other cooldowns, like Racial abilities and on-use trinkets, if available;
8. Cast Arcane Barrage, immediately after Arcane Barrage, cast Touch of the Magi. Due to Touch of the Magi being off the global cooldown, it should apply before Arcane Barrage lands;
9. Cast Arcane Blast 3 times to consume all the Radiant Spark charges;
10. While Touch of the Magi is active, cast Arcane Blast when Nether Precision is up;
11. While Touch of the Magi is active, cast Arcane Missiles while Clearcasting is up;
12. Cast Arcane Blast as filler.

You should enter the Conserve Phase any time you are not in the Burn Phase. The goal of the Conserve Phase is to translate your Mana into damage as efficiently as possible. Generally, you will try to maintain at least 60% Mana if your next burn phase is a mini-burn (so a burn phase where Evocation and Arcane Surge are not ready). If your next burn phase is a full burn (so with Evocation and Arcane Surge), you can go as low on Mana as you want.

1. Cast Arcane Orb when available;
2. Cast Shifting Power when available;
3. Cast Arcane Missiles with 3 stacks of Clearcasting;
4. Cast Arcane Blast with Nether Precision;
5. Cast Arcane Missiles with Clearcasting;
6. Cast Arcane Barrage when on 4 Arcane Charges, and you are below 60% Mana. You can skip Arcane Barrage if your next burn is a full burn phase (so including Evocation);
7. Cast Arcane Blast as your filler.

The above rotation should get you started on performing well on your Arcane Mage. However, there are many small optimizations you can make in your rotation, which can be found in the full detailed rotation guide.