Arcane Mage Frequently Asked Questions — The War Within (11.2)

There are no haste caps for Arcane Mages.

However, depending on your chosen talents and your other stats, Haste will lose some value at higher levels. To make sure you run with optimal stats, it is advised to use Raidbots Stat Weights to actively keep your stats up to date (see our Raidbots guide).

Disclaimer: This is based entirely on PTR data. Blizzard is known to do significant tuning between PTR and shortly after the launch of the patch. We will update the viability section as the patch evolves.

In 11.2, Arcane is looking to perform well in all content, due to its strong single-target damage, and the ability to do very high priority damage in AoE situations while still doing great AoE damage at the same time.

In Raiding content, all 3 Mage specs are looking to be very close together in terms of performance, with all 3 sitting very close in single-target damage. Although not as strong as some other classes, it is likely Arcane will be a very strong raiding spec.

In Mythic+, Arcane is looking to perform very well. Great boss damage, good AoE, and the ability to do very high priority damage, along with good survivability and group utility, makes Arcane a great choice for Mythic+.

All races are very close in DPS, and it generally does not matter what race you play. Usually, Mechagnome, Human, or Troll is going to be the highest DPS, but it depends on your gear and the content you are doing, and generally, all races are within half a percentage of each other. For a full overview of the DPS of every race, check the simulations page.

You can enter the Burn Phase whenever you have Arcane Surge, Touch of the Magi and Evocation ready.