TBC Classic Arcane Mage Phase 5 / Tier 6 Gear and Best in Slot

Most item choices in this BiS list are pretty clear. However, the few to talk about should be discussed a little bit below. Items not listed here or in the BiS list, are usually not worth being picked up.

• Neck:
  • Pendant of Sunfire — If you are a Jewelcrafter take it, but do not go Jewelcrafting only for this necklace.
  • Amulet of Unfettered Magics — BiS if hit is needed.
  • Brooch of Nature's Mercy — BiS if no hit is needed. Sin'dorei Pendant of Conquest from the Eredar Twins comes close to this neck.
• Chest:
  • Robes of Ghostly Hatred — Clearly the BiS chest.
  • Sunfire Robe — If you are a Tailor, this robe is a very good pick until you get Robes of Ghostly Hatred.
• Hands:
  • Gloves of Tyri's Power — Those gloves are BiS if you do not need hit rating.
  • Handguards of Defiled Worlds — BiS if hit is needed.
  • Sunfire Handwraps — Those are BoE and can be used until you have one of the BiS gloves. Keep in mind that breaking your T5 4-set bonus for these is most likely not worth it and needs to be simmed.
• Legs:
  • Leggings of Calamity — BiS by a slight margin, but highly contested.
  • Pantaloons of Growing Strife — Slightly worse than absolute BiS and much less contested. It makes sense for you to go for these legs.
  • Leggings of the Tempest — Mostly a placeholder until you get one of the two BiS legs. If you find yourself casting a lot of Frostbolts these legs (together with the 4-set bonus) gain value compared to high-mana support Arcane Blast only scenarios.
• Rings:
  • Loop of Forged Power — This is a very good ring, that can even outperform Ring of Omnipotence, if you can make good use of the hit. It is from Jewelcrafters, bind on equip and you can wear two of them, which sometimes can be the best option. Make sure to sim which ring combo is the best for you!
  • Band of the Eternal Sage — BiS in most scenarios.
  • Ring of Omnipotence — If you have got enough hit from many other sources, this highly contested ring can be BiS for you.
• Trinkets:
  • Shifting Naaru Sliver — Can be used to get to the 25% passive haste soft-cap and is a great trinket that synergizes well with your cooldowns, since it has only a 1min30s cooldown and your main cooldowns Arcane Power and Icy Veins are on a 3-minutes cooldown. However, other trinket combos can sim quite equal.
  • Hex Shrunken Head — BiS in most gear setups.
  • The Skull of Gul'dan — With the amount of passive haste on items from Sunwell Plateau, the on-use effect of this item can go to waste, especially during cooldowns. The hit can still be useful for Horde players.
  • Mark of the Champion — Still a very strong trinket, versus Demons/Undead.
  • Sextant of Unstable Currents — With more haste you can get more out of this item's proc and has a good amount of critical strike rating on it. Paired with Hex Shrunken Head, this item can make it sim very close to the Shifting Naaru Sliver.
  • Serpent-Coil Braid — Also still a very good trinket, especially if you can make use of the hit rating, for the same reasons as Sextant is good.
  • Ashtongue Talisman of Insight — Still your BiS AoE trinket.
  • Icon of the Silver Crescent/ Dark Iron Smoking Pipe — Still solid, but the DPS difference to other trinkets is noticeable.
• Weapons:
  • Sunflare + Heart of the Pit — Without a shed of a doubt, this weapon combo is the best you can get in the game. If you can utilize the hit rating on Chronicle of Dark Secrets from Mount Hyjal, the two off-hands are within a few DPS of each other.
  • Grand Magister's Staff of Torrents — This weapon is great for Arcane Mages, because you can slap 3 Brilliant Lionseye into it and it's stats make it better than every weapon except Sunflare. If your mana support is not as good (meaning no Innervates), this weapon can come very close in performance to Sunflare + Off-Hand, and it is generally better for Horde players who do not have Inspiring Presence and can use the hit rating on it.

The items on the following list come from TBC dungeons, raids, and reputation rewards. It also uses only crafted gems, as these are easier to come by.

In this phase, the Badge of Justice vendor G'eras in Shattrath gets some new items added.

• Pantaloons of Arcane Annihilation (75 Badges) — Great for AoE, due to haste. Not recommended for bosses, due to lack of stats.
• Fetish of the Primal Gods (35 Badges) — Can perform close to Chronicle of Dark Secrets, but Chronicle will always be better. However, Fetish can be a nice addition to your AoE set, as it has Haste.
• Carved Witch Doctor's Stick (25 Badges) — Your new best wand. Gem with Intellect, unless you need one more blue gem for your Meta Gem activation.
• Voodoo-woven Belt (60 Badges) — A weaker version of Belt of Blasting.
• Cloak of Subjugated Power (60 Badges) — A weaker version of Shawl of Shifting Probabilities (25 Badges), but not worth picking up.
• Cloak of Arcane Alacrity (60 Badges) — Can sim somewhere between Brute Cloak of the Ogre-Magi and Shadowcaster's Drape. Good pre-BiS cloak.

The following items will drop from Zul'Aman:

• Akil'zon:
  • Brooch of Nature's Mercy — New Best in Slot necklace, even game BiS for Alliance and close 2nd game BiS for Horde.
  • Shadowcaster's Drape (timed run chest) — Basically the third best cloak in this content phase, after the BiS alternatives.
  • Mantle of Ill Intent (timed run chest) — The haste can be nice for AoE if you have nothing better, but you should definately not break your 4-set T5 before simming!
  • Signet of Ancient Magics — Not a good ring, unless you have blue rings and need a blue gem slot to achieve your meta socket requirements
• Nalorakk:
  • Fury of the Ursine — Basically the third best bracers in this content phase, after the BiS alternatives.
  • Amani Divining Staff (timed run chest) — With 3x Brilliant Lionseye this can be better than The Nexus Key from Kael'thas Sunstrider in Tempest Keep. The Staff can also be swapped in with a macro to get more mana from Evocation, if gemmed with 30 Intellect. A nice little trick.
• Jan'alai:
  • Wub's Cursed Hexblade — Also comparable to The Nexus Key, if paired with Fetish of the Primal Gods.
  • Footpads of Madness — Can are good for AoE, and a contender for second BiS boots in this phase.
  • Mana Attuned Band (timed run chest) — A good hit/haste ring. Can replace Ring of Ancient Knowledge, if Zhar'doom is your weapon and you require hit.
• Halazzi:
  • Robe of Departed Spirits — The haste can be nice for AoE if you have nothing better, but you should definately not break your 4-set T5 before simming!
• Hex Lord Malacrass:
  • Hex Shrunken Head — An expansion BiS candidate for and the most important item for Arcane Mages from Zul'Aman. It might look only slightly better than Icon of the Silver Crescent, but do not let the looks fool you. The on-use effect is a lot stronger, which is why it scales so well for Arcane Mages (cooldown stacking).
  • Hood of Hexing — Not recommended. Any other Epic Head slot item with a Meta Gem socket is better.
• Zul'jin:
  • Loop of Cursed Bones — A viable alternative to Brooch, but the value of this neck (e.g. compared to The Sun King's Talisman) will depend on your current haste levels.
  • Blade of Twisted Visions — This blade is a bit worse than your BiS weapons this phase. However, it is the best weapon you can get in Zul'Aman, and it has Haste.

The Phase 3 BiS list will talk in more detail about which head, chest, legs, weapons and trinkets items are optimal.

If you need additional spell hit rating, Cowl of the Tempest/ Robes of the Tempest plus Leggings of Tirisfal give you more spell hit. If you are fine on hit, 4-set T5 and either Leggings of Channeled Elements or Leggings of the Tempest, which are basically equal, are your best picks. Other casters are surely happy, if you leave them Leggings of Channeled Elements and take T6 Legs.

If available, Vindicator's Pendant of Subjugation can perform very close to The Sun King's Talisman, especially when using the Sword+Off-Hand combo. All listed cloaks and wrists are pretty close to each other. Please note, that next phase you will have access to the pretty strong and accessible cloak Shadowcaster's Drape from Zul'Aman. Which cloak/wrist/neck combination comes out on top depeds mostly on your weapon and other slots (sim it!). Generally the spell haste items are better overall, because more haste means more Arcane Explosions, but too much haste can impact your single-target damage. The best waist is Anetheron's Noose. However, Waistwrap of Infinity from Supremus in Black Temple can be slightly better for AoE - again because of spell haste.

The Skull of Gul'dan is the best new trinket overall, but not by far. Even the trinket combination Ashtongue Talisman of Insight and Serpent-Coil Braid can sim equally as good, if you used with Sword+Off-hand combo. On AoE Ashtongue Talisman of Insight is BiS and the Skull's on-use effect outweighs other trinkets. Further, if you have such good mana support, that you have trouble spending all your mana, the additional haste from Skull can make this trinket worthwile. However, unless you are Horde and can make use of the hit rating on Skull, there are several reasons why you should not sweat this trinket:

• The skull is a coveted piece of jewelry that many classes compete for.
• For some classes, it is significantly better than for Mages.
• The on-use haste effect can force you to desyncronize your cooldowns, which can lead to misjudgements in your cooldown and mana management.
• This will only get worse the more haste you get.
• There are plenty of alternatives, which are almost as good as Skull.

The ring combination in this clear, but it can be good to know that if you use Zhar'doom, Greatstaff of the Devourer, next phase you might go for Mana Attuned Band and replace Ring of Ancient Knowledge. Something to have in mind when planning your gear.

For single-target fights, Tempest of Chaos + Chronicle of Dark Secrets and Zhar'doom, Greatstaff of the Devourer are basically equal with Zhardoom having a very slight edge over Sword + Off-hand. On AoE Zhardoom's is a bit better, because of haste. However, using Zhardoom locks you into using some specific combinations of hit items (e.g. The Skull of Gul'dan or Serpent-Coil Braid), especially as Horde, where you do not have access to Inspiring Presence. As a result, Tempest of Chaos+Off-Hand will give you a bit more flexibility when gearing, as it comes with hit. If you go for Tempest of Chaos, next phase Fetish of the Primal Gods releases and sims close to (but worse) Chronicle of Dark Secrets.

All the items on the following list that have alternatives, are within a few DPS of, or as good as the best option. Make sure to prioritize the Tier 5 2-set bonus first, as the upgrade will be massive. You will use the set for a long time and it is worth getting the whole set, and not stop after 4 pieces. The 4-set bonus is also very strong.

The items on the following list for Tier 4 come from TBC dungeons, professions, reputation rewards, and PvP. As world boss loot is very hard to get for most players, this set does not include any world boss loot. If you are not a Tailor, go with the alternative items. The Quagmirran's Eye is a very good trinket, so do not worry too much, if you do not get The Lightning Capacitor.

Furthermore, most of the items from raids in this content phase are roughly equally strong, as long as you are hit capped. So if you raid, and an item drops that nobody else wants and that is not on this list, do not hesitate to take it.