World of Warcraft: Forever Arcane Mage Guide

Arcane Mages, the masters of the mystical Arcane Magic, are real damage powerhouses. Their knowledge of Magic and Mana goes way beyond the knowledge a Fire or Frost Mage has and offers high consistent damage and a huge burst DPS potential with Arcane Power. Furthermore, Arcane is the specizalization that not only focuses on playing your DPS rotation, but also on managing your mana. This gives the spec a nice layer of complexity, which the other two Mage specs lack.

Playstyle-wise, Arcane Mages require you to not only have an eye on your Mana bar and cooldowns, but also to react to procs such as Missile Barrage and Arcane Concentration. Arcane Blast will be your main damage spell that will be used to proc Missile Barrage, which you then use to cast a barrage of Arcane Missiles. The effect of Arcane Blast can also be used to enhance your next AoE spell, making this spell a great situational tool for AoE Damage with Blizzard or Arcane Explosion.

If you wish to learn more about the Arcane Arts and to master of them, this guide is the right place for it. Come and join the Arcane Mage universe and you will learn more about the magical powers hidden in Azeroth than any other class can.

Please note that some things may still change in terms of leveling during the beta.

There are several important things to keep in mind while leveling:

1. Have your personal buffs Arcane Intellect and your Mage armor of choice up ( Mage Armor, Frost Armor). This includes buffs from Scrolls, Elixirs, Buff food and other profession/world buffs.
2. Pull mobs with Frostbolt so they are slowed from the start. This may also trigger Missile Barrage.
3. Until you have Arcane Blast, you can keep casting Frostbolt or Arcane Missiles.
4. If enemies die quickly from your wand — which is often the case at low levels — do not waste your Mana on spells (unless your Mana bar is full). You can even use the wand to regenerate mana while doing damage.
5. Use your wand to finish off enemies with low health. This saves mana and is often about as fast as casting a spell when an enemy hits you.
6. If you try to AoE enemies with Frost Nova, Arcane Explosion and Flamestrike, never pull many mobs and be surprised, if it does not work. Start with 1 or 2 mobs and see if your Mana and Health bars are big enough to kill them. When this works, you may start pulling more mobs.
7. Always visit your class trainer and train your spells. You may even want to check out at which level new ranks of spells become available.
8. If you know you have to travel a bit before you engage the next mob, do not eat and drink. Let the passive regeneration do the work for you while you move. In many cases this can save you 20 seconds of sitting and drinking. This adds up and saves lot of time.
9. Get an Addon that makes following Missile Barrage procs easier.
10. If you have excess mana and a long travel route in front of you, use that time and mana to conjure water/food, so you have it ready when you need it.
11. If a quest is too hard for you, move on and come back later. Green quests still give good XP and are easier when mobs are lower level than you.

This is our suggested leveling build for the first 20 levels:

For the first 20 levels, the wanding strategy is usually the best. Since you will pull with a Frostbolt anyways, the mob will be slowed while Arcane Missiles are channeled and it will run to you from afar. Two or three spells at this level are usually enough to kill an enemy. Thus, spell pushback decrease from Improved Channeling is basically not useful. Furthermore, in early levels, the damage from wands is a bit overpowered (mostly better than spells) and gets buffed even further by Wand Specialization, which is why this talent should be chosen.

The talent points spent in Arcane Focus are also not the most important, since you Frostbolt and wand a lot. You may also go for Improved Channeling instead. We have put the hit talents in here, since from Level 20 on, when you get Arcane Blast, hit chance on Arcane spells will be more important. The first two points go into the Wand Specialization, and the other 3 points either, to your preference, in Arcane Focus or Arcane Channeling.

Arcane Concentration is pretty good, as it gives you free spells here and there, which is good for your Mana sustainability and you will need it later for the Arcane Meditation talent. The alternative talents are all pretty lackluster, compared to this one. Put the next 5 points into Arcane Concentration.

Finally, at Level 20, you just pick your new main damage spell, Arcane Blast. The last talent point you spend for now.

Your utility spells and buffs are mostly Arcane Intellect, your armors Frost Armor and Mage Armor, Blink, and Mana Shield. The Elemental wards Fire Ward and Frost Ward absorb Fire and Frost damage from enemy casters, while Mana shield protects you from physical attacks at the cost of mana. Always have your Intellect and one of your Armor buffs up. The Frost Armor you want to use when you face physical damage mobs, as it slows their damage through enhancing your armor and their attack speed. The Mage Armor enhances your Mana regeneration while casting and your resistance to spells. Blink is used to travel forward. Use it while traveling to go faster.

Your main damage spell will be Arcane Blast, which is used to proc Missile Barrage. Your secondary spell is Arcane Missiles. The Frostbolt is only used to slow enemies. Later on you will get a cooldown called Arcane Power, which increases your damage and spell mana cost by 30% for 15 seconds. Presence of Mind makes a spell with a cast time less than 10s an instant cast spell. Whenever you want to move and still deal damage to enemies, Fire Blast is your friend.

In order to control enemies, you can use Polymorph to turn Humanoids and Beasts into a sheep for a certain duration (depending on the rank of the spell). With Counterspell you interrupt spellcasters' casts. Frost Nova and Cone of Cold can help you keep single and multiple enemies at distance, making these spells perfect for kiting. When you kite groups of mobs and want to kill them, Arcane Explosion and Flamestrike are good sources of damage. Arcane Explosion just does damage in a sphere that grows outwards around you, while Flamestrike does damage once and leaves a damage over time (DoT) burn on the ground, damaging enemies.

These and, of course, Conjure Food, Conjure Water, and several Mana gems that can be conjured and used later to restore Mana, are the most important spells of the Arcane spec. Later you will also learn Teleport and Portal spells, such as Teleport: Ironforge or Portal: Undercity.

For Single Target your rotation should look like this:

1. Keep your personal buffs up (see General Leveling Tipps above)!
2. Pull a mob with Frostbolt so it is slowed from the start. This may also trigger Missile Barrage.
3. If Missile Barrage gets triggered from the Frostbolt, cast Arcane Missiles.
4. Cast Arcane Blast a maximum of 4 times, then cast Arcane Missiles.
5. If Missile Barrage gets triggered from the 3rd Arcane Blast, cast Arcane Missiles.
6. Go to Step 3

By the time you will get a feeling for when a mob is going to die from your Arcane Missiles. Keep that in mind and use your Missile Barrage asap, if you know it will finish your enemy. In this case, do not cast another Arcane Blast, as the mana cost drastically increases with each cast.

For Multiple Targets your rotation should look like this:

1. Keep your personal buffs up (see General Leveling Tipps above)!
2. Mobs are tanked: Arcane Explosion
3. Your AoE Farm:
   1. Gather mobs with wand/body pull/ Fire Blast/ Arcane Explosion
   2. Freeze them with Frost Nova
   3. Face them, cast Flamestrike on them and slow them with Cone of Cold.
   4. Kite them with Arcane Explosion, slow with Cone of Cold if needed, or repeat stel two of this rotation.

Explosives from Engineering can be very useful for AoEing groups of enemies. Sometimes you may cast Arcane Blast anyways before you deal AoE damage, health/mana potions and Mana Shield may save your life. You may use the buff from Arcane Blast to enhance your first AoE spell.

While being frozen from Frost Armor, you may also use bandages from First Aid.

Engineering is basically always the best profession you can get. It has so many tools, such as a cloaking device, target dummies, or explosives, that can boost your surviability or add damage, that it is always worth going for this profession.

The second best profession is usually Tailoring, as it allows you to turn the cloth (e.g. Linen Cloth) you find on your journeys into armor for yourself, and it provides some very strong end-game Enchanting items.

However, do not let professions take the fun from your gameplay. If you want to be a Mage that is picking flowers and brewing concoctions, then so be it. Go for Herbalism and Alchemy. Generally professions are more of a max-level PvE or PvP decision, covered in the in-depth class guides later in the Beta.

For secondary professions, First Aid and Cooking are very useful throughout the game. Fishing is notorious in World of Warcraft for it's addiction and relaxation potential and definitely a profession that is very useful as well, especially in combination with cooking.

Since the Beta is in it's early stages, a lot of stuff needs to be found out first before being added to this guide, so please have that in mind.

In general it is important to look reasonably on the mix of stats on an item, not gear only for one stat.

• Hit Chance — Generally, Hit chance is your best stat until the cap. Every Mage spec gets 5% Hit chance from their talents, but it only becomes really important in the higher levels when fighting bosses. Furthermore, on low level gear there is not a lot of hit. So we have to prioritize other stats
• Spell Power — Increases the damage of all your spells. This is basically the most sought-after stat.
• Spirit — This may look surprising, but Spirit is a powerhouse. It works while you cast, especially with Mage Armor and Arcane Meditation, while you move from one mob to another, while you travel. It restores Health and Mana, so you have to drink less. It is not the big direct damage increasing stat, but it reduces your downtime between fights. If you cast, Spirit Mana regeneration is lower (except for Mage Armor and Arcane Meditation effects). When you stop casting for 5 seconds, your Spirit-based mana and health regeneration will improve a lot. This is why Spirit is usually better than MP5.
• Intellect — Slightly increases your chance to critically strike enemies and increases your maximum Mana. More Mana means more drinking though.
• Critical Strike Chance — Increases your chance to critically strike enemies. Take the stat when it is on gear, but do not prioritize it. Only gets really powerful when you have 5 talent points in Arcane Mind.
• Stamina — Yes, this does not increase your damage, but what damage will you do when you are dead? Thankfully, this stat will come naturally with most gear and you do not have to gear for it.
• MP5 — Mana per 5 seconds is a stat usually found on healer items, but if it is on a good damage item, you may as well take it.

To this point we are still gathering all the information about new consumables.

The common and useful consumables are, of course, Mage conjured food, water, Mana Gems. Alchemy provides Elixirs, Mana and Healing Potions. You will also want weapon Oils from Enchanting, buff food from Cooking, explosives from Engineering, and bandages and anti-venoms from First Aid. As soon as there is more info from the Beta, we will add the most recent information in this and all the other guides.

More WoW Forever Mage Guides

Frost Mage Ranged DPS GuideFire Mage Ranged DPS Guide

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Destruction Warlock Ranged DPS GuideFeral Druid Melee DPS and Tank GuideSurvival Hunter Melee DPS GuideRetribution Paladin Melee DPS GuideShadow Priest Ranged DPS GuideRestoration Shaman Healer Guide