Arcane Mage DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents (Legion 7.3)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.3 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 4. Strengths
  • 5. Weaknesses
  • 6. Viability in the Current Patch
  • 7. Contents
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
    • 4.1. "Burn"
    • 4.2. "Conserve"
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Spell Summary
  • 2. Main Resources
  • 3. Basic Abilities
  • 4. Important Procs
  • 5. DPS Cooldowns
  • 6. ChangeLog
• ×Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheets
    • 2.1. Raid Encounters
      • 2.1.1. Heavy Cleave/AOE
    • 2.2. For General Use
  • 3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression — First 35 Points
    • 1.1. Early Point Investment
    • 1.2. Second Golden Trait
    • 1.3. Third Golden Trait
      • 1.3.1. Mythic Raid Progression/Single Target Focused
      • 1.3.2. Mythic+ Dungeons/AoE Focused
    • 1.4. Final Point Investment
  • 2. Patch 7.2: 35+ Trait Path
  • 3. Relic Choice
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths
  • 1. General Optimization Advice
  • 2. Tier 2 Upgrade Priority
  • 3. Tier 3 Upgrade Priority
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Ability Priority List
    • 1.1. Conserve Phase
    • 1.2. Burn Phase
  • 2. Important Notes
    • 2.1. Arcane Charges: Understanding Your Mana Pool
      • 2.1.1. Aluneth's Avarice
    • 2.2. Spells That Benefit From Arcane Charges
    • 2.3. Truncating Arcane Missiles
    • 2.4. Effectively Handling AoE
    • 2.5. Rune of Power
    • 2.6. Arcane Orb
    • 2.7. Prismatic Barrier
  • 3. Core Concepts
    • 3.1. Mana Management During Conserve Phase
    • 3.2. Executing the Burn Phase Consistently
    • 3.3. Movement Management
      • 3.3.1. Quiet Movement
  • 4. Resonance Opening Sequence
  • 5. Charged Up Opening Sequences
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
    • 2.1. Statistics Explanations
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
  • 2. Enchants
  • 3. Consumables
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Addons
    • 1.1. ElvUI
    • 1.2. Weak Auras
    • 1.3. Boss Mods
      • 1.3.1. BigWigs Bossmods
      • 1.3.2. Deadly Boss Mods
    • 1.4. Name Plates
      • 1.4.1. KUI Nameplates
      • 1.4.2. TidyPlates
    • 1.5. Damage Meters
      • 1.5.1. Skada
      • 1.5.2. Details
    • 1.6. Extra AddOns
      • 1.6.1. Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 1.6.2. DeathNote
      • 1.6.3. Doom CooldownPulse
      • 1.6.4. Angry Assignments
  • 2. Macros
    • 2.1. Generic Macros for Mages
      • 2.1.1. Stopcast Blink
      • 2.1.2. 1-Button Block
      • 2.1.3. Block Cancel
    • 2.2. Specific Macros for Arcane Mages
      • 2.2.1. Stopcast Displacement
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Tier 20 Set Bonus
  • 2. Best in Slot List
    • 2.1. Trinket Notes
  • 3. Evaluating Upgrades Using Stat Weights
  • 4. Racial Bonuses
  • 5. Legendaries
  • 6. Loot Competition
  • 7. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we present the viable talent choices for Arcane Mages in World of Warcraft Legion 7.3. We detail what each of the talents do and in which situations they should be taken.

The other pages of our Arcane Mage guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Author and Reviewer

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Blixius, a top Arcane Mage who raids in Bird is the Word.

1. Talent Choices

Level	Choices
15	✘ Arcane Familiar	✔ Amplification	✘ Words of Power
30	? Shimmer	✔ Slipstream	✘ Mana Shield
45	✘ Mirror Image	✔ Rune of Power	? Incanter's Flow
60	? Supernova	✘ Charged Up	✔ Resonance
75	✔ Chrono Shift	✘ Ring of Frost	✘ Ice Ward
90	? Nether Tempest	? Unstable Magic	✔ Erosion
100	✔ Overpowered	✘ Temporal Flux	✘ Arcane Orb

Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area (such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, Tome of the Tranquil Mind and Codex of the Tranquil Mind can be used to temporarily allow players to change talents anywhere, as long as they are out of combat.

2. Talent Cheat Sheets

While optimizing talents on a contextual basis is the highly recommended method of setting up your build, the talent builds listed below work great for specific purposes.

2.1. Raid Encounters

These talents are currently used for every Tomb of Sargeras raid encounter.

• Level 15: Amplification
• Level 30: Slipstream
• Level 45: Rune of Power
• Level 60: Resonance
• Level 75: Chrono Shift
• Level 90: Erosion
• Level 100: Overpowered

2.1.1. Heavy Cleave/AOE

• Level 15: Amplification
• Level 30: Slipstream
• Level 45: Rune of Power
• Level 60: Resonance
• Level 75: Chrono Shift
• Level 90: Erosion
• Level 100: Overpowered

2.2. For General Use

This build is an excellent starting point for questing and general purpose usage.

• Level 15: Amplification
• Level 30: Shimmer
• Level 45: Incanter's Flow
• Level 60: Supernova
• Level 75: Chrono Shift
• Level 90: Unstable Magic
• Level 100: Temporal Flux

3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents

✘ Arcane Familiar

✔ Amplification

✘ Words of Power

Tier 1 talents offer a minor boost to sustained damage.

• Arcane Familiar increases your maximum Mana by 10% and attacks your current target.
• Amplification causes your Arcane Missiles to deal an additional 15% damage per Arcane Charge.
• Words of Power grants a 1% increased chance for your spells to trigger Arcane Missiles per 20% Mana you currently have.

Amplification is currently the best choice in all situations.

4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents

? Shimmer

✔ Slipstream

✘ Mana Shield

Tier 2 talents offer a boost in defensive utility.

• Shimmer replaces your Blink ability. It functions exactly the same as Blink except it is off the Global Cooldown and does not interrupt spellcasting.
• Slipstream allows Arcane Missiles and Evocation to be channelled while moving.
• Mana Shield grants Prismatic Barrier no cooldown, but your Mana is drained by 50% of the damage it absorbs.

This talent tier is largely a matter of preference between Shimmer and Slipstream. Slipstream guarantees that Evocation cannot be cancelled by movement, and improves the caster's ability to reposition while channelling Arcane Missiles. Shimmer greatly improves mobility, and by extension, survivability. This tier is largely a matter of preference between these 2 talents and the ideal choice almost certainly varies by encounter, though Slipstream is the recommended choice as it is much easier for the average player to take full advantage of.

5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents

✘ Mirror Image

✔ Rune of Power

? Incanter's Flow

Tier 3 talents are focused on providing the player a consistent damage increase.

• Mirror Image creates 3 copies of yourself which damage enemies and last 40 seconds.
• Rune of Power places a small zone which increases the damage you do by 40% for 10 seconds. This ability has a 45-second cooldown, with 2 charges.
• Incanter's Flow increases your damage between 4% and 20%, cycling every 10 seconds.

Rune of Power should be your go-to talent any time you are confident you will be able to take full advantage of the full 10-second buff reliably. It provides enormous burst potential and the predictable cooldown makes it easy to line up with cooldowns, procs, and fight mechanics. It is best on both single target and AoE.

Incanter's Flow is good for situations where you want a stable and sustained damage increase. This talent is fine for questing and dungeons.

Mirror Image is not used.

6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents

? Supernova

✘ Charged Up

✔ Resonance

Tier 4 talents are focused on providing unique damage utility.

• Supernova gives you a new spell that deals solid damage that cleaves everything within 8 yards of the target, and knocks them in the air.
• Charged Up instantly grants 4 Arcane Charges.
• Resonance empowers Arcane Barrage to deal 25% extra damage for each additional target struck.

Resonance is the default option for all situations. Charged Up is not far behind but not worth taking in any scenario.

Supernova is a viable option if you need to improve your control in dungeons via the knock up effect.

7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents

✔ Chrono Shift

✘ Ring of Frost

✘ Ice Ward

Tier 5 talents focus primarily on providing utility.

• Chrono Shift causes Arcane Barrage to slow enemies by 30% and increase your movement speed by 30% for 8 sec.
• Ring of Frost places a ring that can freeze up to 10 targets for 10 seconds at the targeted location, broken by damage.
• Ice Ward gives Frost Nova 2 charges.

Chrono Shift is the only talent with a benefit for raiding and Mythic+, currently.

8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents

? Nether Tempest

? Unstable Magic

✔ Erosion

Tier 6 talents add extra cleave and sustained damage options to your kit.

• Nether Tempest can be applied to one target, and deals damage over time to the target and all other targets within 10-yards.
• Unstable Magic grants Arcane Blast a 20% chance to splash for 50% additional damage to all targets within 8-yards of the target.
• Erosion stacks a debuff on the target that increases damage taken from your Arcane spells by 1% per stack (maximum 8 stacks). If your target does not take damage from your spells for 3-seconds, stacks will expire at a rate of 1% per second.

Erosion is the best option for any number of targets where damage is sustained. Unstable Magic is a good option where you are constantly target swapping.

9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents

✔ Overpowered

✘ Temporal Flux

✘ Arcane Orb

Tier 7 talents add new abilities and additional damage to your kit.

• Overpowered causes Arcane Power to now increase damage by 60% and reduces Mana costs by 60%.
• Arcane Orb travels in a line and deals AoE damage to everything it hits. It generates 1 Arcane Charge on cast and 1 every time it deals damage. It also has a chance to generate Arcane Missiles every time it deals damage.

Overpowered is the best talent on the tier currently, as it allows for more aggressive conserve phases. Temporal Flux has potential but it will require legendaries and very high levels of gear to support the increased Mana tax. Arcane Orb is a potential option for large scale AoE, such as lower level Mythic+ where trash pulls are consistently large, however, for most Mythic+ Overpowered is still recommended.

10. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 29 Aug. 2017: Small updates to talent discussions for tiers 2, 4, 6, and 7.
• 12 Jun. 2017: Updated Tier 4 talent explanations to provide more details.
• 30 Mar. 2017: Updated Arcane Power tooltip.
• 20 Mar. 2017: Updated Tier 2, 4, and 7 talent descriptions.
• 09 Jan. 2017: Fully updated talents for 7.1.5.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 19 Jul. 2016: Improved the explanations for Arcane Familiar.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.