Arcane Mage DPS Mythic+ Tips — Shadowlands 9.0.2

Arcane has very potent AoE damage and very potent priority damage. Arcane only really has 2 downside in Mythic+, which is that it has to pick whether it wants to focus on AoE damage or priority damage, as it cannot excel at both at the same time, and that for its AoE damage it has to be in melee range, which is a caster is usually quite dangerous.

If you are unfamiliar with Mythic+ and its associated general mechanics, you can read more about it on our Shadowlands Mythic+ Season 1 page below.

Although the base rotations outlined in the standard rotation page still apply to Mythic+, Mythic+ usually has different types of damage requirements than raids do. If you are unsure about the standard rotations of Arcane, check out our rotation page below.

One of the biggest rotational changes is how you should look at your burn and conserve phases. Since there is generally a bit of downtime in Mythic+, for example due to moving to the next pack of mobs, or the healer having to drink, you can be more aggressive with your Mana. Especially if you are running Shimmer, when a pack is about to die, you can quickly use both charges to move ahead to the neck pack, and then get a couple of seconds of drinking in to regain Mana. In practice, this means you can spend almost every trash pack purely using the Mana aggressive rotation of 4x Arcane Explosion -> Arcane Barrage, even if Evocation is not soon ready, as long as you know that there is a bit of downtime after the current pack.

If you are running the Arcane Bombardment Legendary, you will want to delay the below AoE combo until the enemies are around 50-60% (depending on how quickly they die) and instead use the normal AoE rotation until then.

The below combo generates a lot of threat, and because you are in melee range, you can die very quickly if you do happen to pull aggro. Because of this, be prepared to cast Greater Invisibility or Mirror Image if you do get aggro or are close to getting aggro.

1. Use Shimmer or Blink to get into melee range of the pack
2. Cast Rune of Power or Arcane Power if it is ready and you do not need to hold on to it for the next pack or boss
3. Cast Arcane Barrage if you are still on 4 Arcane Charges from the previous pack
4. Cast Arcane Orb
5. Cast Arcane Barrage
6. Cast Touch of the Magi
7. Cast Arcane Barrage
8. Cast Shifting Power (if Night Fae, otherwise the combo ends here)
9. Cast Arcane Orb (in some cases, especially with high haste, Arcane Orb will not be back up here, in which case, you should Arcane Explosion 4x -> Arcane Barrage, and then Arcane Orb)
10. Cast Arcane Barrage
11. Continue the standard AoE rotation with 4x Arcane Explosion -> Arcane Barrage.

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.

1. Make sure you start the run with plenty of water (100+ usages)
2. Try to fit in as many drinks of water as possible without falling behind. The easiest way to do this is to already Blink or Shimmer ahead right before a pack dies. You can then usually get 2 or 3 seconds of drinking in, even if your group is chainpulling. Getting in frequent 2 or 3 seconds of drinking is a big damage gain as it means you do not have to spend any time conserving Mana while actually in combat. Do not underestimate how much Mana you can get back across a run even with just a couple of seconds of drinking between every pull.
3. Avoid using Evocation in combat whenever possible. On boss fights, using Evocation is fine, but outside of boss fights, you should always try to fit Evocation in in-between packs. Make sure to use Shimmer or Slipstream to follow your group towards the next pack while casting Evocation.

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.

Below are the suggested talents for Mythic+. There are a couple of choices you can make with the talents, which are discussed below. If you are interested in talents for raiding or other PvE scenarios, check out our generic talents page.

These are our suggested talents for Mythic+.

Level	Choices
15	✓ Amplification	✗ Rule of Threes	? Arcane Familiar
25	? Master of Time	✓ Shimmer	✓ Slipstream
30	✓ Incanter's Flow	✗ Focus Magic	✓ Rune of Power
35	✓ Resonance	✓ Arcane Echo	✓ Nether Tempest
40	✓ Chrono Shift	✗ Ice Ward	✗ Ring of Frost
45	✓ Reverberate	✓ Arcane Orb	✗ Supernova
50	✓ Overpowered	✗ Time Anomaly	✓ Enlightened

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

Amplification is the best choice on Tyrannical weeks and most Fortified weeks, but Arcane Familiar can be used during Fortified weeks if you are pulling large groups of enemies. Generally, even then Amplification is still preferred as it is barely an AoE damage loss, but a big single target gain.

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.

Resonance is the highest pure AoE damage talent in this row (by a lot). However, Arcane Echo is much better on single-target, and can still dish out decent cleave damage on smaller packs, so if you need extra priority damage Arcane Echo is preferred.

Reverberate is the better sustained AoE DPS option if packs take a long time to die. However, Arcane Orb does more single-target DPS and more burst AoE DPS. If trash packs are not dying very slowly, Arcane Orb is generally the better choice. However, if you really need more sustained AoE DPS Reverberate can be picked. When picking Reverberate, it is generally advised to pick Resonance as well.

Enlightened does slightly more overall DPS than Overpowered, however Overpowered adds extra burst, which can be good to quickly kill problematic packs or bosses, so it can be picked when there are specific packs or bosses you need to kill quickly, or when everything already dies quickly.

You will want to make sure that your cooldowns are ready, or close to ready, once you defeat the Manifestation of Pride, as you get a 30% bonus damage buff after beating the Manifestation, allowing you to burst extra hard after defeating the Manifestation. Other than that, this new affix does not do anything special for Fire Mages that you can really interact with.

When choosing your trinkets, we recommend simulating yourself on Raidbots using the Patchwerk option for raids and single-target, and selecting multiple boss targets for simulating Mythic+ or add target fights. Usually, we recommend using trinkets that proc stats, rather than single-target damage dealers for Mythic+.

You can also get a quick overview of good Mythic+ Trinkets on our Gearing page, specifically the Simulation chart for multi-target scenarios.