Arcane Mage Leveling Guide From 1 to 70 for TBC Classic

Last updated on Jun 02, 2021 at 11:31 by Wrdlbrmpft 1 comment

Discover the Arcane arts and their hidden powers in this leveling guide! While other leveling specs, such as Frost Single-Target Leveling, Frost AoE Leveling, and Fire Leveling enjoy more popularity, this method of leveling can be really refreshing and new, even to veteran players.

1.

Arcane Mage Level-by-Level Rotation, Talents, and Trainer Skills

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

Level: 70
2.

Talent Tree for Leveling as Arcane Mage

From Level 10 on you get one talent point per level, which you can use to build your talent tree. The talent menu can be accessed via the default keybind "N" in game.

Your talents should look like the trees below. However, for the Arcane tree you can swap some points around based on personal preference. The suggested order is optimized for Mana efficiency and damage.

Improved Arcane Missiles IconImproved Arcane Missiles is one of the strongest Arcane talents and available right at the start. It reduces Arcane Missiles IconArcane Missiles' chance to suffer spell pushback from any attack by 20% per talent point. After spending 5 talent points, this means that no ranged, melee or spell attack can cause spell pushback while channeling Arcane Missiles. However, Arcane Missiles can still be interrupted by abilities like Silence IconSilence, Kick IconKick, Earth Shock IconEarth Shock, or simply by stun effects. Keep an eye out for Rogue, Mage, Shaman, or Warrior-type NPCs, as some of these possess such interrupting abilities.

Wand Specialization IconWand Specialization is extremely useful early on, as wands do very high DPS in the beginning of the game and wanding can save you Mana. Typically you cast one or two Arcane Missiles IconArcane Missiles and then finish off enemies with your wand to save a lot of Mana. With three talent points in Arcane Focus IconArcane Focus, you will be hit-cap against enemies up to two levels above you, making quests with higher-level enemies much easier to complete.

For incredible Mana efficiency, and later on for more damage from the Arcane Potency IconArcane Potency talent, we choose to place 5 talent points into Arcane Concentration IconArcane Concentration. The Mana efficiency of Arcane gets even better with the Arcane Meditation IconArcane Meditation talent, which lets 30% of your Mana regeneration continue during combat. Later on, this will add up to 60% with Mage Armor IconMage Armor and increase your regeneration even further, making Intellect and Spirit more valuable for leveling. It has to be noted though, that this effect only works while casting and not while traveling. Nevertheless, this it is still a great talent, as you will only ever struggle with Mana when fighting and not while traveling.

As Frost Nova IconFrost Nova is your only efficient way of keeping enemies away from you, you will be using Mana Shield IconMana Shield more often, thus making Improved Mana Shield IconImproved Mana Shield a good talent. Mana Shield will use up 20% less Mana per damage absorbed after spending these two talent points.

At Level 30, Presence of Mind IconPresence of Mind will become available, which makes your next spell with a cast time less than 10 seconds an instant spell. You can use this while traveling to cast Conjure Water IconConjure Water or Conjure Food IconConjure Food, instantly sheep an enemy while running away, or simply make any damage spell an instant cast such as Frostbolt IconFrostbolt for slowing enemies. Portal spells are not affected by this.

Arcane Fortitude IconArcane Fortitude will increase your Armor by an amount equal to your Intellect, which is a very strong defensive talent for only one talent point. Dampen Magic IconDampen Magic will also become a better defensive spell to use after spending your 2 points into Magic Attunement IconMagic Attunement, further decreasing your magic damage taken. At this stage, you also have the option to put the two talent points of Magic Attunement IconMagic Attunement into Arcane Subtlety IconArcane Subtlety instead. This is recommended if you plan on doing lots of group and dungeon content, as it reduces the threat of your Arcane spells by 40%, making it easier for tanks to keep aggro.

Arcane Mind IconArcane Mind increases your Intellect and, thanks to Arcane Fortitude IconArcane Fortitude, also your Armor from Intellect by 3% per talent point up to a total of 15%. Arcane Instability IconArcane Instability will give 3% more damage and a 3% higher crit chance, which is also a prequisite to your Level 40 cooldown talent Arcane Power IconArcane Power. After spending your points in Arcane Potency IconArcane Potency, each time you get the clearcasting effect from Arcane Concentration IconArcane Concentration you will have an increased Critical Strike chance, up to 30% in the end, for your next spell cast while clearcasting is active.

At Level 40, Arcane Power IconArcane Power, the big cooldown ability of the Arcane tree becomes available. When used, it allows you to deal 30% more damage for 15 seconds, but your spells cost 30% more Mana. This is particularly useful when you need to kill a strong enemy or many enemies in a short amount of time and can also be used in conjunction with Arcane Explosion IconArcane Explosion to finish off enemies quickly. The Spell Power IconSpell Power talent makes your critical strikes deal 175% normal damage instead of 150% normal damage, which is also very good. Mind Mastery IconMind Mastery is one of the strongest Arcane talents, turning 25% of your Intellect into Spell Damage. Together with Arcane Mind IconArcane Mind, one point of Intellect gives you 0,2875 Spell Damage or in other words you get 1 Spell Damage per 3.5 Intellect, making Intellect a very valuable stat from now on.

Arcane's main control spell, Slow IconSlow, comes with Level 50. It reduces the target's movement speed by 50%, makes them take 50% more time between ranged attacks and increases their casting time by 50% for 15 seconds. This can be used defensively to delay enemies from reaching you and cause them to deal ranged or magic damage 50% more slowly to you. If you need to flee from an enemy, simply Slow. This ability works like Polymorph IconPolymorph: only on one target at a time. Arcane Missiles IconArcane Missiles become stronger with the Empowered Arcane Missiles IconEmpowered Arcane Missiles talent, increasing its Spell Damage coefficient from 142% to 188%. This makes each point of Spell Damage worth 1.88 damage instead of 1.42 and makes Arcane Mind IconArcane Mind, Mind Mastery IconMind Mastery, and the Spell Damage stat itself take off in value. By the mid-50s, you should also have gotten some Spell Damage gear. A little downside of this talent is that it will make your Arcane Missiles cost 6% more Mana, however that is neglible given that you now should have some Spell Damage and Intellect gear. With two points in Arcane Subtlety IconArcane Subtlety, your Arcane spells will do 40% less threat which is the best threat-reducing talent of Mages; your enemies' spell resistances are also reduced by 10. If you do any dungeon content, you can now be sure that it will be very hard for you to pull threat from tanked mobs. If you took Arcane Subtlety IconArcane Subtlety earlier, now is the time to instead place your talent points into Magic Attunement IconMagic Attunement.

Arcane Impact IconArcane Impact will give Arcane Explosion IconArcane Explosion and Arcane Blast IconArcane Blast, a novel spell learned at Level 64, a 6% higher chance to crit. After spending 2 talent points on Prismatic Cloak IconPrismatic Cloak, all damage done against you will be reduced by 4% and the 5 talent points in Magic Absorption IconMagic Absorption will restore 5% of your maximum Mana if you fully-resist enemy spells. To resist more spells, this talent gives you an additional 10 resistance versus spells, which works hand-in-hand with the resistance-increasing effect of Mage Armor IconMage Armor and Outland zones generally having more caster mobs than Azeroth. This effect can only occur once per second. With this spec, you can go into Outland dungeons as well. For raid content or PvP it is highly recommended to respec into a proper PvP or PvE spec.

3.

Rotation for leveling up as an Arcane Mage

  1. Cast Arcane Intellect IconArcane Intellect and Frost Armor IconFrost Armor if you are missing their buffs.
  2. Cast Arcane Intellect IconArcane Intellect and Frost Armor IconFrost Armor if you are missing their buffs. Use Mana Shield IconMana Shield in any situation where you could die.
  3. Cast Arcane Intellect IconArcane Intellect and Ice Armor IconIce Armor if you are missing their buffs. Use Mana Shield IconMana Shield in any situation where you could die.
  4. Cast Arcane Intellect IconArcane Intellect and Mage Armor IconMage Armor if you are missing their buffs. Use Mana Shield IconMana Shield in any situation where you could die.
  5. Cast Arcane Intellect IconArcane Intellect and Molten Armor IconMolten Armor if you are missing their buffs. If you feel that your Mana regeneration is lacking, use Mage Armor IconMage Armor instead. Use Mana Shield IconMana Shield in any situation where you could die.
  6. Cast Fireball IconFireball as your main attack.
  7. Cast Frostbolt IconFrostbolt as your main attack.
  8. Always use a Wand and your Shoot IconShoot ability. From Level 5 on, you can use Lesser Magic Wand Icon Lesser Magic Wand and quest zones gradually offer you upgrades on your Wand.
  9. Cast Fireball IconFireball as your main attack.
  10. It is recommended to open with Frostbolt IconFrostbolt and then go into Arcane Missiles IconArcane Missiles, as upon channeling Arcane missiles the enemy will immediately start running toward you. Therefore we will keep learning Frostbolt IconFrostbolt as an opener and to have a spell available to cast when we get locked out on the Arcane spell school.
  11. It is recommended to open with Frostbolt IconFrostbolt and then go into Arcane Missiles IconArcane Missiles, as upon channeling Arcane missiles the enemy will immediately start running toward you. Therefore we will keep learning Frostbolt IconFrostbolt as an opener and to have a spell available to cast when we get locked out on the Arcane spell school. In order to kill strong enemies fast or speed up the killing process, you may also cast Arcane Blast IconArcane Blast, but be aware of the high Mana cost and spell pushback that can come with this spell.

Mana Shield IconMana Shield, can be kept up during battle in order to minimize health lost. However, Mana Shield also takes Mana from you, so you might have to spend more time drinking. Generally it is recommended to use Mana Shield only as an emergency tool for survival or if you notice that you spend more time regenerating Health than regenerating Mana.

Utility skills, such as Frost Nova IconFrost Nova, should be used to keep enemies away from you or to freeze and finish them off.

Utility skills, such as Frost Nova IconFrost Nova, and AoE skills such as Cone of Cold IconCone of Cold should be used to keep enemies away from you or finish off packs of enemies as required.

Utility skills, such as Frost Nova IconFrost Nova, and AoE skills such as Cone of Cold IconCone of Cold or Slow IconSlow should be used to keep enemies away from you or finish off packs of enemies as required.

You can make your own food and water with Conjure Food IconConjure Food and Conjure Water IconConjure Water. These spells should definitely be learned, as water and food from vendors will cost you far more gold than these spells do. Sometimes other players even want to buy conjured water and you can gain a little extra gold. Conjured items disappear after 15 minutes of being logged out.

3.1.

Summary of Trainer Skills for Arcane Mage

  • At Level 1, buy Arcane Intellect IconArcane Intellect as soon as you can afford it. It provides a significant boost to your Intellect which lasts for 30 minutes.
  • At Level 4, buy Conjure Water IconConjure Water and Frostbolt IconFrostbolt. Conjure Water creates free water you can use while leveling and to sell to others. Frostbolt deals strong single-target damage and slows the target by 40%.
  • At Level 6, buy Conjure Food IconConjure Food and Fire Blast IconFire Blast. Conjure Food creates free food you can use while leveling and to sell to others while Fire Blast is usually used as a finisher or to deal damage while moving.
  • Also buy Fireball IconFireball at level 6, as it does more damage than a Frostbolt IconFrostbolt without talents.
  • At Level 8, buy Polymorph IconPolymorph, Arcane Missiles IconArcane Missiles and Frostbolt IconFrostbolt. Polymorph Rank 1 allows you to take one humanoid or beast enemy out of combat for 20 seconds, which is very useful for looting quest items guarded by a single enemy or when dealing with several enemies. Only one enemy at a time can be Polymorphed and, in TBC, crowd control effects can break at any time with an increasingly-higher chance to break toward the end of the effect. Arcane Missiles is your main nuke as they do not suffer from cast time pushback.
  • At Level 10, buy Conjure Water IconConjure Water, Frost Armor IconFrost Armor and Frost Nova IconFrost Nova. Frost Nova freezes nearby enemies for 8 seconds, allowing you to regain distance on them before re-engaging. In these low levels, the damage component of Frost Nova can also be used to finish one enemy off and freeze another enemy to engage him with Arcane Missiles IconArcane Missiles if you are fighting multiple enemies.
  • At Level 12, buy Dampen Magic IconDampen Magic, Conjure Food IconConjure Food and Slow Fall IconSlow Fall. Slow Fall slows your falling speed at the cost of a Light Feather Icon Light Feather. This comes in handy to avoid fall damage and enable shortcuts that would otherwise lead to death.
  • At Level 14, buy Arcane Explosion IconArcane Explosion, Arcane Intellect IconArcane Intellect, and Frostbolt IconFrostbolt. Arcane Explosion is your main AoE spell with the single-target spec. It is an instant-cast ability and can also be used to finish off low-health enemies. It has a high Mana cost but lower threat than the Fire AoE spells you will encounter later.
  • At Level 16, buy Arcane Missiles IconArcane Missiles.
  • At Level 18, buy Remove Lesser Curse IconRemove Lesser Curse. Remove Lesser Curse is a bit niche for leveling since you will only rarely get cursed. However, the ability of this spell to remove curses from yourself or friends is very valuable later on in the game and you will definitely use it.
  • At Level 20, buy Blink IconBlink, Frost Armor IconFrost Armor, Frostbolt IconFrostbolt, Conjure Water IconConjure Water, Evocation IconEvocation, Polymorph IconPolymorph, and Mana Shield IconMana Shield.
  • In Stormwind, Ironforge, Exodar (Alliance) and Orgrimmar, Undercity, Silvermoon (Horde) you can now buy the teleport spells for each city.
  • Each Teleport spell requires you to use one Rune of Teleportation Icon Rune of Teleportation, which can be bought at any reagent vendor. You can find reagent vendors by clicking the magnifier button on the mini map and they will be automatically displayed there when you are close to one. The Teleport spells can save a lot of travel time and makes learning new spells from your Mage trainers very convenient. Evocation IconEvocation is another great spell you will never want to miss. It restores 60% of your total Mana within 8 seconds. Use this ability as often as you can, as this will also increase your leveling speed by not having to drink. Blink IconBlink is a utility spell that allows you to travel 20 yards instantly. It removes rooting effects and most stuns from you; you can use it together with Frost Nova IconFrost Nova to get away from enemies and you can use it as a tactical spell in dungeons to move out of aoe effects or to reposition yourself instead of walking to a new position for several seconds. Other applications of Blink are to skip enemies and to prevent death from falling — when falling down from somewhere, Blink can be used shortly before hitting the ground to avoid fall damage. Mana Shield IconMana Shield will avoid cast time pushback and will absorb damage in dangerous situations. However, it costs Mana, so it is advised to be used only when needed as you will have to regenerate that Mana again.
  • At Level 22, buy Arcane Explosion IconArcane Explosion and Conjure Food IconConjure Food.
  • At Level 24, buy Arcane Missiles IconArcane Missiles, Dampen Magic IconDampen Magic, and Counterspell IconCounterspell. Counterspell instantly interrupts enemy casts and prevents spells of the interrupted school from being cast for 10 seconds. This ability has a 30-second cooldown and finds a variety of applications in PvP and PvE.
  • At Level 26, buy Cone of Cold IconCone of Cold and Frostbolt IconFrostbolt. Cone of Cold slows enemies in front of you with a frontal cone. It can be used to deal damage to groups of enemies or finish them off. It can also be used defensively to flee from dangerous situations since it is instant-cast and slows enemies for 8 seconds. If you use it as a defensive ability, always use Rank 1 to save mana.
  • At Level 28, buy Arcane Intellect IconArcane Intellect, Mana Shield IconMana Shield, and Conjure Mana Agate IconConjure Mana Agate. Conjure Mana Agate is the first out of five spells that create Mana Gems, which can be used in and out of combat to instantly restore Mana. These gems do not share a cooldown with Mana Potion Icon Mana Potions, have a 2-minute cooldown, and are consumed on use. Except for the last rank of this spell, these gems cost more Mana to make than they restore, so only use the first four ranks if really needed. As any conjured item, these are destroyed when logging out for more than 15 minutes.
  • At Level 30, buy Ice Armor IconIce Armor, Ice Block IconIce Block, Arcane Explosion IconArcane Explosion, Conjure Water IconConjure Water, and Teleport: Darnassus IconTeleport: Darnassus (Alliance) or Teleport: Thunder Bluff IconTeleport: Thunder Bluff (Horde) at the respective city's portal trainers. You now stop using Frost Armor IconFrost Armor and use the slightly-better Ice Armor instead. Ice Block IconIce Block is very useful if you get into hairy situations and can be used to remove debuffs on you, avoid any kind of damage, and to buy time when you are waiting for another cooldown or a healing spell to land on you in group content. This spell is very versatile and it is recommended to get a feeling of when to use it.
  • At Level 32, buy Conjure Food IconConjure Food, Arcane Missiles IconArcane Missiles, and Frostbolt IconFrostbolt.
  • At Level 34, buy Mage Armor IconMage Armor. With Mage Armor, 30% of your Mana regeneration continues while casting. This may not sound like much, but it makes a significant difference for leveling speed. Further, it gives a small amount of magic resistance. At this point, should you get hit by physical attacks, you have talents to compensate for the extra damage which allows you to use Mage Armor over Ice Armor IconIce Armor.
  • At Level 35 Portal: Theramore IconPortal: Theramore and Teleport: Theramore IconTeleport: Theramore is available to learn for Alliance players in Theramore while Horde players can learn Portal: Stonard IconPortal: Stonard/ Teleport: Stonard IconTeleport: Stonard in Stonard. The Stonard portal is useful later on to get to Karazhan fast.
  • At Level 36, buy Dampen Magic IconDampen Magic and Mana Shield IconMana Shield.
  • At Level 38, buy Arcane Explosion IconArcane Explosion, Conjure Mana Jade IconConjure Mana Jade, and Frostbolt IconFrostbolt.
  • At Level 40, buy Arcane Missiles IconArcane Missiles, Conjure Water IconConjure Water and Polymorph IconPolymorph. At Level 40, you can also start to buy the portal spells for each major city, except for Darnassus and Thunder Bluff which become trainable at level 50. Portals use a Rune of Portals Icon Rune of Portals from a reagent vendor and can be used by anyone in your group.
  • At Level 42, buy Arcane Intellect IconArcane Intellect and Conjure Food IconConjure Food.
  • At Level 44, buy Mana Shield IconMana Shield and Frostbolt IconFrostbolt.
  • At Level 46, buy Mage Armor IconMage Armor and Arcane Explosion IconArcane Explosion.
  • At Level 48, buy Arcane Missiles IconArcane Missiles, Dampen Magic IconDampen Magic and Conjure Mana Citrine IconConjure Mana Citrine.
  • At Level 50, buy Frostbolt IconFrostbolt, Conjure Water IconConjure Water and Portal: Darnassus IconPortal: Darnassus (Alliance) or Portal: Thunder Bluff IconPortal: Thunder Bluff (Horde) at each respective city's portal trainers.
  • At Level 52, buy Conjure Food IconConjure Food and Mana Shield IconMana Shield.
  • At Level 54, buy Arcane Explosion IconArcane Explosion.
  • At Level 56, buy Frostbolt IconFrostbolt, Arcane Missiles IconArcane Missiles, Arcane Intellect IconArcane Intellect, and Arcane Brilliance IconArcane Brilliance. Arcane Brilliance buffs your whole group with Arcane Intellect for one hour and requires one charge of Arcane Powder Icon Arcane Powder from reagent vendors per cast.
  • At Level 58, buy Conjure Mana Ruby IconConjure Mana Ruby and Mage Armor IconMage Armor.
  • At Level 60, buy Conjure Food IconConjure Food, Conjure Water IconConjure Water, Frostbolt IconFrostbolt, Polymorph IconPolymorph, Mana Shield IconMana Shield, Arcane Missiles IconArcane Missiles, Dampen Magic IconDampen Magic and Teleport: Shattrath IconTeleport: Shattrath in the middle of Shattrath (Alliance and Horde). In Outland you can buy better Filtered Draenic Water Icon Filtered Draenic Water at level 60 and Purified Draenic Water Icon Purified Draenic Water at Level 65, which are both better than the conjured Level 60 water. The Level 65 food Clefthoof Ribs Icon Clefthoof Ribs is also better than the conjured Level 60 food.
  • At Level 62, buy Molten Armor IconMolten Armor and Arcane Explosion IconArcane Explosion. If you feel that you take too much damage and Mana is not a concern, Molten Armor is the new suggested Armor type. It adds 3% crit chance and damages mobs when they hit you. It also decreases the chance to be critically hit with Physical melee attacks. If incoming damage is no problem and/or Mana is a problem, stick to Mage Armor. At this point, you can decide which armor type you prefer, based on your own experience.
  • At Level 63, buy Frostbolt IconFrostbolt and Arcane Missiles IconArcane Missiles.
  • At Level 63, buy Arcane Blast IconArcane Blast. This spell is the Mage's highest DPS spell in TBC, but also the most Mana-intensive. Use this spell in conjunction with your Mana Shield IconMana Shield, Frost Nova IconFrost Nova, Slow IconSlow, and Arcane Power IconArcane Power to finish off strong enemies fast. The Mana consumption of this spell is so high that we recommend to avoid it while leveling unless its burst damage is needed. Each time you cast Arcane Blast, you gain one stack of a debuff, stacking up to a maximum of 3. This debuff makes your Arcane Blast cast faster, but also cost much more Mana. On top of its Mana inefficiency, Arcane Blast is, contrary to your talented Arcane Missiles, also subject to spell pushback.
  • At Level 65, buy Conjure Water IconConjure Water, and Portal: Shattrath IconPortal: Shattrath in the middle of Shattrath (Alliance and Horde).
  • At Level 66, buy Dampen Magic IconDampen Magic.
  • At Level 68, buy Invisibility IconInvisibility, Mana Shield IconMana Shield, and Conjure Mana Emerald IconConjure Mana Emerald. Invisibility is a new spell that takes 5 seconds to make you invisible. During that time, you fade, which is useful in dungeon groups, as it reduces your threat against all targets by 20% per second until you finally become invisible and drop combat. This spell can also be used to sneak by enemies and reach a quest spot earlier, or to flee and avoid death. The new Mana Emerald contains 3 charges and restores more Mana than it takes to conjure, so you can both use it like the old gems and also use it in between too for a net Mana regeneration.
  • At Level 69, buy Mage Armor IconMage Armor, Frostbolt IconFrostbolt and Arcane Missiles IconArcane Missiles.
  • At Level 70, buy Arcane Intellect IconArcane Intellect, Arcane Explosion IconArcane Explosion, and Spellsteal IconSpellsteal. Arcane Brilliance IconArcane Brilliance, Conjure Food IconConjure Food, and Conjure Water IconConjure Water are learned from the books Tome of Arcane Brilliance 2 Icon Tome of Arcane Brilliance 2, Tome of Conjure Food VIII Icon Tome of Conjure Food VIII, and Tome of Conjure Water IX Icon Tome of Conjure Water IX, which are all Level 70 dungeon drops. Learning Rank 9 of Conjure Water and Rank 8 of Conjure Food is most important, because these two spells unlock Ritual of Refreshment IconRitual of Refreshment at your trainer. Ritual of Refreshment uses two Arcane Powder Icon Arcane Powders per cast and summons a table which gives everyone who uses it up to 80 Conjured Mana Biscuits. Spellsteal steals one beneficial magic effect from your target, which you can benefit from for a maximum of two minutes. There are a few, but not too many good spells you can steal. However, this ability is required to defeat High King Maulgar in the Gruul's Lair raid.
4.

Additional Arcane Mage Information After Reaching Level 70

After you reached level 70, there is still a lot to learn. Our Arcane Mage PvE Guide covers the most relevant and up-to-date information about your Arcane Mage spells, talents, rotation, gear, and many more.

5.

Changelog

  • 02 Jun. 2021: Added link to Level 70 class guide for this spec.
  • 28 May 2021: Fixed typos and spell ranks.
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