Arcane Mage DPS Easy Mode — Shadowlands 9.1.5

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 hyper mobile and comes equipped with a variety of defensive spells and cooldowns. In this section we will be focusing on a setup that minimizes the amount 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.

The best Covenant choice for to be flexible in PvE content when trying to keep the rotation relatively easy is Necrolord. Bonesmith Heirmir is the best Soulbind in all situations, using this tree.

However, if you want to be completely optimal, there is a different Covenant choice that performs slightly better than Necolord, but has a significantly different rotation and also impacts your best Legendary. If you want to go more indepth, we suggest you check out the Covenant page below for what Covenant to play for what situation.

1. Arcane Prodigy (when Night Fae
2. Magi's Brand
3. Discipline of the Grove (Night Fae only)
4. Arcane Prodigy (when not Night Fae)
5. Ire of the Ascended (Kyrian only) / Siphoned Malice (Venthyr only)
6. Nether Precision

1. Artifice of the Archmage
2. Magi's Brand
3. Discipline of the Grove (Night Fae only)
4. Siphoned Malice (Venthyr only) / Ire of the Ascended (Kyrian only) / Gift of the Lich (Necrolord only)

For more info regarding what Soulbind and Conduits to pick for what situation, check our full Covenants, Soulbinds & Conduits 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.

• Level 15: Amplification
• Level 25: Shimmer
• Level 30: Rune of Power
• Level 35: Arcane Echo
• Level 40: Chrono Shift
• Level 45: Arcane Orb
• Level 50: Overpowered

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 extremely 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.

Arcane needs multiple Legendaries to be able to perform optimally in all situations. Arcane Bombardment is the best AoE Legendary, and only around 1-3% behind the best single-target option, so if you want to focus on a single Legendary, we suggest Arcane Bombardment. Temporal Warp is slightly better on single-target if you can get good use out of it, so that is another good option to craft.

If you are looking for in-depth explanation on what Legendary to pick for what situation and how to obtain them, read our Legendary 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 back to full Mana.

You can enter the Burn Phase when the following is true:

• Arcane Power is ready;
• Touch of the Magi is ready.

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

1. Cast Deathborne.
2. Cast Touch of the Magi.
3. Cast Arcane Power.
4. Cast Arcane Missiles if you have Clearcasting.
5. Cast Rune of Power while Rune of Power is not already active from Arcane Power.
6. Cast Arcane Blast.
7. Cast Evocation when out of Mana.

You should enter the Conserve Phase any time you are not in the Burn Phase. The goal of the Conserve Phase is to get as many high Arcane Charges casts of Arcane Blast off, without running out of mana before your cooldown are back up. Below we have listed the order in which you should perform your spells during the Conserve Phase.

1. Cast Touch of the Magi when Rune of Power is ready.
2. Cast Rune of Power while Touch of the Magi is active.
3. Cast Arcane Missiles if you have Clearcasting.
4. Cast Arcane Barrage if you have 4 Arcane Charges and you have less than 50% Mana.
5. Cast Arcane Orb when you have no Arcane Charges.
6. Cast Arcane Blast.

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