Arcane Mage DPS Mythic+ Tips — The War Within (11.2)

Arcane Mage has been a strong Mythic+ spec in recent years, and that is no different in Season 3. It has great AoE damage, while able to do very high priority target damage, better than almost any other spec in the game. It also comes with great utility and survivability, making it a very desirable spec to bring to any Mythic+ group.

The Mythic+ playstyle is not very different from the single-target playstyle, mostly being a bit more aggressive with Arcane Barrage usage. It can also be more aggressive with spending mana, as you will have more time to recover mana in between packs, especially in dungeons with downtime between packs.

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.

Spellsteal and Remove Curse are utility spells which can either be incredibly important, or completely useless, depending on the dungeon and affixes you are doing. Below we highlight which dungeons and affixes require you to have these talents, and which ones you can skip.

Additionally, we will also list a couple of other spells that can be useful in Mythic+. These are Ice Block (by unspeccing Ice Cold) to immune certain effects to remove critical debuffs, and Energized Barriers, which can be used to remove snare effects.

Note: usually Ice Block can be used to immune many things in many dungeons, but we only list the ones where Ice Block is the only way to immune/cancel an important effect in the dungeon, since the opportunity cost of not taking Ice Cold is quite high.

Dungeons	Affixes
Eco-Dome Al'dani	Xal'atath's Bargain: Ascendant
Ara-Kara, City of Echoes	Xal'atath's Bargain: Voidbound
The Dawnbreaker	Xal'atath's Bargain: Pulsar
Priory of the Sacred Flame	Xal'atath's Bargain: Devour
Operation: Floodgate
Halls of Atonement
Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder
Tazavesh: So'Leah's Gambit

Based on the selections above, you should run the following class talents:

• Spellsteal
• Remove Curse
• Ice Block (unspec Ice Cold)
• Energized Barriers

The AoE rotation outlined in the Rotation Page below is a perfect fit for Mythic+ content.

We do provide some additional rotation tips only relevant to Mythic+ below.

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.

This section has Mage-specific tips for dealing with the various affixes of Mythic+. If you want general guides for each of our Dungeons or Mythic+ in general, check out our dedicated page below.