Arcane Mage DPS Easy Mode — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

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.

1. The Basics for Arcane Mage

Arcane is a great Swiss Army Knife that has a complete toolkit to approach any situation. It provides great burst as well as impressive cleave and 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.

2. Talent Choice for Arcane Mage

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: Rule of Threes
• Level 30: Shimmer
• Level 45: Incanter's Flow
• Level 60: Resonance
• Level 75: Chrono Shift
• Level 90: Touch of the Magi
• Level 100: Overpowered

3. Stat Choice for Arcane Mage

You will want to prioritize secondary stats as follows:

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

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

If you want more information about how to properly gear yourself we highly recommend you read the gear page.

4. Basic Rotation for Arcane Mage

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.

4.1. The Burn Phase

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

• Arcane Power is ready;
• you have 4 charges of Arcane Charges;

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

1. Cast Arcane Power.
2. Cast Presence of Mind.
3. Cast Arcane Missiles if you have Clearcasting.
4. Cast Arcane Blast.
5. Cast Evocation when out of Mana.

4.2. The Conserve Phase

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, while keeping your Mana at a high level. Below we have listed the order in which you should perform your spells during the Conserve Phase.

1. Cast Arcane Missiles if you have Clearcasting and have less than 95% Mana.
2. Cast Arcane Barrage if you have 4 Arcane Charges and you have less than 50% Mana.
3. Cast Arcane Blast.

5. Changelog