Arcane Mage DPS Mythic+ Tips — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1.5

1. Arcane Mage in Mythic+

Arcane Mage, although not the best out of the Mage specs, can hold its own in Mythic+. It can focus down priority targets very quickly due to its burst potential, and it can also do quite strong AoE damage when needed.

1.1. Arcane Mage Mythic+ Rotation

Both the single target and multi-target rotations do not change in Mythic+ content. For more information about the Arcane Mage DPS rotation, refer back to the Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities page.

1.2. Arcane Mage Utility

The main reason to bring a Arcane Mage to a Mythic+ group is for its damage, but aside from that, it also has some very valuable utility which makes every Mythic+ group want at least one Mage:

• Arcane Intellect is a big boost for both the other caster DPS in the group, as well as additional healing for the healer.
• Time Warp is a required cooldown for any Mythic+ group.
• Remove Curse can be useful to dispel Curses in some dungeons.
• An Arcane Mage adds some crowd-control in the form of Polymorph.
• Spellsteal can be useful in some dungeons to remove dangerous buffs from enemy targets. Sometimes it can also be used as a big DPS boost for the Arcane Mage by Spellstealing beneficial buffs that increase your damage.

2. Mythic+ Talents for Arcane Mage

Below are the suggested talents for Mythic+. There are a couple of choices you can make with the talents, which are discussed below.

Level	Choices
15	✗ Amplification	✓ Rule of Threes	? Arcane Familiar
30	? Mana Shield	✓ Shimmer	✓ Slipstream
45	? Incanter's Flow	✗ Mirror Image	✓ Rune of Power
60	✓ Resonance	✗ Charged Up	✗ Supernova
75	✓ Chrono Shift	✗ Ice Ward	✗ Ring of Frost
90	✓ Reverberate	✗ Touch of the Magi	✓ Nether Tempest
100	✓ Overpowered	✗ Time Anomaly	✓ Arcane Orb

There are 3 real choices to make in the talent tree for Mythic+ content.

2.1. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents for Arcane Mage in Mythic+

Rune of Power is in theory the better choice here. It is both more DPS on single-target and on AoE. However, in certain dungeons it may be hard to stay in your Rune of Power due to a variety of different reasons. If you notice you are forced to move out of your Rune of Power multiple times during a dungeon, you should consider Incanter's Flow.

2.2. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents for Arcane Mage in Mythic+

Reverberate is the better AoE DPS option. However, during Tyrannical weeks, Nether Tempest should be considered. This is because Nether Tempest is not far behind Reverberate on AoE, and can actually be used for single-target DPS.

2.3. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents for Arcane Mage in Mythic+

Arcane Orb is the go-to choice for most Mythic+ dungeons, however, during Tyrannical weeks you should consider Overpowered for dungeons with hard DPS checks on bosses.

3. Mythic+ Affixes

The way Mythic+ affixes are tiered in Battle for Azeroth has changed quite a bit since their launch in Legion.

There are now three weekly affixes and one seasonal affix. The first affix available instantly at level two and three, the second affix starts at level four, the third affix enabled at level seven, and finally the seasonal affix at level ten.

3.1. Tier One Affixes

• Fortified increases the Health pool of all non-boss enemies by 20% and damage dealt by 30%.
• Tyrannical increases the Health pool of boss enemies by 40% and their damage dealt by 15%.

Fortified and Tyrannical are the two affixes every player will see. These affixes shift the focus of dungeons from boss to trash depending on the week. Arcane Mages can perform quite well in both Tyrannical and Fortified weeks, but it does not excel at either. During Tyrannical weeks, players may want to take more single-target oriented trinkets, gear, or even talents but that will be both dungeon and key level dependent.

3.2. Tier Two Affixes

• Raging increases the damage dealt by enemies below 30% by 100% until they die.
• Teeming adds additional trash mobs to certain packs throughout each dungeon.
• Bolstering buffs remaining enemies Health pools and damage dealt by 20% when an enemy dies nearby. To counter this affix, DPS all mobs down evenly and focus your casts into high Health mobs if there are any.
• Sanguine places a pool of blood on the ground when a mob is slain. This pool will heal remaining enemies who stay inside the zone and also damage players.
• Bursting forces enemy mobs to detonate when slain, afflicting the group with a stacking debuff that causes players to suffer 10% of their max Health in damage every four seconds. When handling the Bursting affix, ask how many stacks your healer can handle and try to not mindlessly DPS and exceed your healers stack limit. You can use Ice Block to remove these stacks for when there are too many stacks, or Greater Invisibility to greatly reduce the damage you take from it.

3.3. Tier Three Affixes

• Volcanic spawns volcanic plumes underneath and around players when in combat with any enemy. When damaged by Volcanic, players suffer 50% of their maximum Health pool in damage. The more enemies you are in combat with, the more Volcanic that will spawn.
• Grievous afflicts players with a stacking DoT when they fall below 90%. Use Prismatic Barrier liberally during Grievous weeks and bring consumables to assist your healer when out of combat.
• Quaking will periodically attempt to interrupt casters by creating a damaging zone around each player. About 3 seconds after the zone forms, it will deal 20% maximum Health in damage to each player caught in the zone as well as interrupting any hard casts being finished during the shockwave.
• Explosive will occasionally spawn Explosive Orbs that need to be targeted and burned down within a short period of time or they will deal significant damage to the party. Explosive Orbs are not cleaveable and the amount of orbs that spawn scales with the amount of enemies pulled. Arcane Explosion will not hit the Explosive Orbs, so you have to actively target them to kill them.
• Necrotic debuffs the target of enemy melee swings with stacking healing reduction and minor DoT.
• Skittish reduces the amount of threat generated by tanks throughout the dungeon. You should be careful of being in melee range during Skittish weeks for Arcane Explosion because you get additional threat when in melee range.

3.4. Seasonal Affix

Reaping is the seasonal affix for Season 2 of Battle for Azeroth. Reaping causes Souls to rise from the dead and attack the party at intervals of 20% completion on the Enemy Forces count. There are three different enemy types to be aware of:

• Risen Soul: Will apply Reap Soul to their current target, dealing 2% maximum health in damage every 3 seconds, per stack. This can be dispelled.
• Tormented Soul: Will cast Grave Bolt, which deals 25% maximum health in damage to the cast target. This cast can be interrupted.
• Lost Soul: Will cast Shadow Smash at their current target, a frontal cone ability that can be sidestepped. If you are hit by this, your maximum health will be reduced by 20% for 1 minute. Additionally, when Lost Souls die they will cast Expel Soul, spawning swirls on the ground that must be dodged. If you are hit by this, your damage and healing done will be reduced by 10% for 30 seconds.

Careful planning is required to deal with Reaping effectively. Be sure you keep track of when and how a Reaping will occur, and try to plan your pulls so that they end just as you hit the 20% interval. Once the Souls spawn, you will want to group them together for maximum AoE and cleave. Make use of Counterspell to bring the Tormented Souls in close.

Note that the Souls enter combat immediately upon spawning, although they can reset if in-combat stealth techniques, such as Shadowmeld, are used. Any Souls remaining from the previous wave will re-enter combat during the next wave. Like other trash mobs in dungeons, Souls will drop combat once the dungeon completes (all bosses are killed and Enemy Forces is at 100%), so you may want to kill the last boss before finishing off your trash count to avoid the final Reaping wave.

4. Mythic+ Azerite Traits

There are two Arcane Mage-specific traits should be used when possible in Mythic+

• Explosive Echo will increase your AoE damage significantly in Mythic+.
• Arcane Pressure is extremely strong in Mythic+, especially combined with Resonance. If you make sure to have 4 Arcane Charges when a group of enemies hits 35% Health, you can instantly Arcane Barrage them, follow it up with an Arcane Orb which should give you 4 Arcane Charges again, and allow you to Arcane Barrage again. In a lot of Mythic+ levels this rotation of 3 spells will outright finish off an entire pack of enemies from 35%, especially if you managed to get the trait on multiple pieces of Azerite gear.

5. Changelog