Arcane Mage DPS Mythic+ Tips — The War Within (Season 1)

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

This build is incredible for Mythic+, since not only is it capable at doing incredible AoE damage; it does this while giving up minimal boss damage. To make things even better, it does its AoE damage via a "funnel" rotation, meaning it focuses down a priority target and applies its AoE damage indirectly. Do not confuse indirect AoE damage for low damage, though, the AoE damage is very competitive.

If I were forced to give a downside to this build, it is that it struggles to do good damage if all the enemies die very quickly. However, this is not really a practical downside, as it simply means you are overgearing the content you are doing and should probably do higher keys for better rewards.

• Replace Mass Barrier for Mass Invisibility if your dungeon route requires the ability to skip enemy packs and have no one else providing the group with invisibility (a Rogue or using potions).
• Swap out of Remove Curse for any defensive talent of your choice when there are no Curses to dispel in the dungeon you plan to do or if someone else will handle the dispelling.
• Swap out of Spellsteal for any defensive talent of your choice when there are no buffs worth dispelling in the dungeon you plan to do.
• Take Ring of Frost or Ice Nova if you need any more crowd-control at the cost of any of your defensives.
• Replace Blast Wave for any defensive talent of your choosing if you do not need the crowd-control.
• Replace Supernova for any defensive talent of your choosing if you do not need the crowd-control.
• Opt out of Ice Cold (and the nodes leading to it) for any defensive nodes of your choosing if you need the immunity of Ice Block for the dungeon you are doing.

• Swap Energized Familiar for Charged Orb for more burst AoE in dungeons where enemies are dying very quickly. If you are doing keys where packs are dying in less than 10 seconds, you can switch to Charged Orb to provide a bit more burst damage in those short 10-second windows. However, this is an overall DPS loss if enemies are not dying very fast.
• Swap the Hero Talent Sunfury Execution to Savor the Moment for slightly more boss damage at the cost of some AoE damage.

The main reason to bring an Arcane Mage to a Mythic+ group is for its damage, but aside from that, it also has some very valuable utility:

• 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 can add a lot of crowd control in the form of Supernova, Polymorph, Blast Wave, Ice Nova, Ring of Frost, or even Mass Slow.
• 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.
• Mass Barrier can be brought as a decent defensive cooldown for the group.
• Mass Invisibility can be very useful to skip certain packs.

The AoE rotation outlined in the Rotation Page below is a perfect fit for Mythic+ content. However, we also list some additional tips on this page that only apply to Mythic+.

One of the most important parts of your damage in Mythic+ will come from how efficiently you move between packs and how you use the downtime between packs. Below, we have some tips on how to manage this.

• Make sure you start the run with some water so you can generate mana out of combat if needed.
• Make sure you drink some water if you are low on mana while moving to the next pack. The easiest way to do this is to Blink or Shimmer ahead right after a pack dies and getting in 2 or 3 seconds of drinking. Although nowadays you are unlikely to fully run out of mana, if you do end up very low on mana, make sure to use the downtime to recover this.
• Avoid using Evocation in combat whenever possible. You should always try to fit Evocation in between packs so that you can immediately start doing damage when you enter combat with the next pack or boss. Make sure to use Shimmer or Slipstream to follow your group toward the next pack while casting Evocation. Of course, if a pack or boss still has plenty of health left and Evocation is ready, you should still use it but otherwise, aim to use it outside of combat.