Arcane Mage DPS Spell List and Glossary — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)
On this page, we present you with all spells and procs that you need to understand as an Arcane Mage in World of Warcraft — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0).
If you were looking for Mists of Pandaria Classic content, please refer to our Mists of Pandaria Classic Arcane Mage spells.
Arcane Mage Spell Summary
If you are new to Arcane, it is recommended you read this before proceeding! In this section, we will discuss what abilities you have, what they are used for within the specialization, and how they interact with important cooldowns. If you have played this spec before or have already achieved a level of comfort playing this spec in a practical environment, it is recommended you skip this section and move on to the rest of the guide.
Keep in mind some spells might be much easier to use via macros or are more easily used in combination with other spells. Visit the macro page below to get a good idea of such macros.
Unlocking Abilities
Note that this page simply lists all the different abilities, assuming you are at max level. If you are leveling, check out our dedicated Mage Leveling page, which has detailed information on when you unlock all of these abilities.
Main Resources of Arcane Mage
Mana and Arcane Charges are your primary resources, and interact with each other in a fashion unique to Arcane.
Arcane Charges are generated by
Arcane Blast and
Arcane Explosion, and by some talented spells. They go to a maximum
of 4 and greatly increases the Mana cost of Arcane Blast for each stack.
They also increase the damage of Arcane Blast,
Arcane Barrage and various
other talents based on stacks and your Mastery.
Mana is the other main resource of Arcane Mages. With the above information in mind, managing your Mana can be a challenging task. On one hand, casting spells while at 4 Arcane Charges allows you to do maximum damage. The consequence of this is that you will quickly chew through your Mana bar, leaving you with no option but to stand there and wait for your Mana to slowly regenerate. This relationship between Mana and Arcane Charges forms the central theme of the Arcane specialization and will be discussed at length later in the guide.
Baseline Abilities for Arcane Mage
These abilities are available no matter what talents you choose and form the bread and butter of this specialization.
| Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
|---|---|---|
| AB | This is your main filler and nuke and generates 1 Arcane Charge when cast. This spell has a low Mana cost when you have no Arcane Charges but can make your Mana bar disappear in only a handful of casts at 4 Arcane Charges. It has no travel time, which makes it great for instantly applying damage or finishing off an important add. | |
| Abarr | Arcane Barrage is an instant-cast spell that clears your Arcane
Charges and makes your Arcane Blast cheaper to cast again. This ability is used
as a reset button to help you maintain a stable Mana pool. You can generate
charges with |
|
| AM | Although technically a talent, Arcane Missiles is the first node
and required to pick. It is a channeled spell that deals high damage.
It can only be cast when you have a |
|
| AE | Arcane Explosion is an instant cast spell, and generally your primary AoE
ability that generates 1 Arcane Charge if you hit any number of targets with
it. Unlike Arcane Blast, the Mana cost and damage of Arcane Explosion does not
go up with the number of Arcane Charges. Unlike practically all other Arcane
Mage spells, Arcane Explosion requires you to be near the targets you want
to hit, potentially putting you closer to danger, Can be replaced by
|
|
| Invis | Invisibility is a utility spell that makes you invisible over 3 seconds. It can be very useful to skip certain enemies in a dungeon or open world content. Additionally, it also completely drops your aggro over 3 seconds, which can be useful when you are at risk of getting aggro on enemies. | |
| - | Blink is an instant cast spell that immediately travels you 20 yards forward, breaking any stuns and roots you might be affected by. This iconic Mage spell is a very strong mobility spell that helps with getting around the battlefield. | |
| CS | Counterspell is an instant-cast spell that is not on the global cooldown, which, when cast, will interrupt your target's spell cast and also locking them out of casting any spells of the same school as the interrupted spell for 6 seconds. If you cast this on a target that is not casting, it will have no effect. | |
| TW/BL/Hero | Time Warp is an instant-cast spell that is not on the global cooldown,
which increases Haste by 30% for 40 seconds for all party and
raid members within 100 yards. This ability debuffs everyone with a debuff that
prevents the possibility of benefiting from Time Warp, |
|
| AI/Int | Arcane Intellect buffs the entire raid, giving them more Intellect. Mages are the only class that gives this buff, so most raids will want at least one Mage to ensure the raid has this buff. | |
| Poly | Polymorph, one of the most iconic Mage spells in the game, turns your target into a critter that cannot do anything while at the same time healing them. This spell does no damage. Instead, it heals your target, so it is not used in any DPS rotations. However, it is a very useful spell used very actively in PvP and sometimes in PvE content to reduce the number of enemies you are fighting at the same time. There are various collectibles to change the appearance of your Polymorphed target, but as a baseline, your target turns into a sheep. | |
| Cone/CoC | Cone of Cold is an instant-cast spell that slows enemies in front of you. It is generally not used as a damage spell but purely as a control spell. | |
| - | Conjure Refreshment is a utility spell that generates food for you. If you are in a group, instead of directly creating food, it instead creates a table that you and your party or raid members can click to gain food instead. This food will regenerate health and Mana out of combat while eating it, but it does not provide any combat buffs like some other types of food. | |
| - | Slow Fall is an instant-cast spell that, as the name suggests, makes you fall more slowly, avoiding any fall damage. You can also use this on other players to reduce their falling speed and fall damage. This is primarily used to save yourself from dying when falling from high places and in some niche PvP situations. | |
| Nova | Frost Nova is an instant-cast spell that does a bit of damage to targets around you, freezing them in the process. This freeze effect stops them from moving but not from using any spells or abilities. The freeze effect can also break from damage, both yours or anyone else's damage. This spell is usually not used in a DPS rotation, but it is often used for its crowd control effects in PvP or open-world content. | |
| Port | Portal is a spell that opens up a portal to a specific destination. There are multiple variants of this spell that open up Portals to most of the big cities in World of Warcraft. Anyone in your party or raid group can take this portal to quickly travel around the world. | |
| TP/Tele | Teleport is a lot like |
Important Procs for Arcane Mage
Arcane Mage has several important procs that are very important to the normal rotation.
| Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
|---|---|---|
| CC | The main rotational proc Arcane has. This proc
allows you to cast |
|
| Salvo/AS | The other core proc for Arcane. Arcane Salvo greatly increases the damage
of Arcane Barrage, stacking 20 times by default. By default, only
|
To learn how to use these abilities together in your rotation, read the rotation part of our guide below.
Class Tree Active Abilities for Arcane Mage
In this section, we will go over all the active abilities in the Mage general talent tree. Active abilities are abilities you can press yourself.
| Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Barrier | Prismatic Barrier is an instant-cast spell that provides you with a shield that absorbs damage before your health pool. Additionally, while the shield is up; it also reduces the Magic damage you take by 15% and reduces the duration of harmful Magic effects by 25%. This is an incredibly strong defensive tool and proper usage of this will increase your survivability greatly. | |
| Block/IB | Makes you completely immune to all damage, and removes (almost) all debuffs
from you. You are unable to do anything while in an Ice Block, but you can cancel
it by pressing it a second time. Causes |
|
| - | Spellsteal is a utility spell that steals one magic beneficial effect from a target enemy and applies it to yourself for a maximum of 2 minutes. There are many powerful effects in all types of content that can be stolen with this spell, which can greatly boost your damage or survivability. In some cases, enemies might have buffs which can be removed from the enemy via Spellsteal, but you do not receive the buff yourself. This is pretty rare, but does sometimes happen for balance reasons. | |
| - | Remove Curse can be used to remove Curses from a raid or party member. Sometimes called Decurse. | |
| MI | Mirror Image spawns 3 copies nearby that will attack your enemies and greatly reduce the threat you generate while at least one is alive. Any direct damage you take will cause one of the copies to be removed. These copies can not be controlled. Although the copies do some damage, it is primarily a defensive ability, as the damage they do is very low. The copies will also take aggro before you, which allows you to survive significantly longer in solo content. Generally, they do not take damage from area damage, but they do die from direct attacks on them. | |
| AT | Alter Time can be used as both a defensive and a mobility tool. Ten seconds after casting this ability or after pressing it a second time, you will be returned to your location and health from when you cast it. One common usage is to activate it right before a big hit and then re-activating it after the big hit to immediately heal back to full health. | |
| - | Mass Polymorph is an AoE version of |
|
| - | Ice Nova is an instant-cast spell that freezes your target and
targets around it for 2 seconds. Although it does do some damage, it is
generally not used for the damage aspect, as the damage is not high enough to
make it worth casting just for damage. Unlike the Freeze from
|
|
| - | Shimmer replaces |
|
| GI | Greater Invisibility is a stronger version of |
|
| DB | Dragon's Breath is a short-range instant-cast crowd control
spell. It will disorient all enemies in front of you for 4 seconds when cast,
canceled by damage. It is often used in dungeons as a way to interrupt multiple
enemies all at once. A common combo in PvP or solo content is to use Dragon's Breath
into |
|
| SN | A ranged crowd-control ability that knocks your target (if it is an enemy target) and surrounding enemies into the air. This can be used both on enemy and friendly targets but will only knock up/damage enemy targets, and does double damage to the primary target. It is often used in dungeons as a way to interrupt multiple enemies all at once. Although this ability does damage, it is generally not used for its damage and purely for crowd-control. | |
| - | Makes you and all your party or raid members invisible for 12 seconds. The invisibility breaks when any ability or item is used and does not apply on allies in combat. | |
| - | After casting |
|
| - | Replaces |
Class Tree Passive Abilities for Arcane Mage
In this section, we will go over all the passive abilities in the Mage general talent tree. Passive abilities are abilities you cannot press yourself but instead apply some effect to other abilities.
| Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
|---|---|---|
| - | Causes |
|
| - | Whenever you drop below 25% health, immediately heals you by 50% health. Can
only activate while |
|
| - | Increases the critical strike chance of |
|
| - | Reduces the cooldown of |
|
| - | Reduces the duration of |
|
| - | Grants you bonus movement speed for a few seconds after casting
|
|
| - | Reduces the cooldown of |
|
| - | Increases the critical damage of your spells. | |
| - | When you gain |
|
| - | Reduces your mana costs. | |
| - | Increases your Mastery. | |
| - | Reduces the cooldown of |
|
| - | Arcane Warding reduces all magic damage you take by a small amount. | |
| - | Reduces |
|
| - | Reduces the cooldown of |
|
| - | Causes |
|
| - | Reduces the cooldown of |
|
| - | Causes |
|
| - | Makes it so that when you cast |
|
| - | Master of Time reduces the cooldown of |
|
| - | Improved Frost Nova increases the duration of |
|
| - | Increases the duration of |
|
| - | Increases your Critical Strike chance by 2%. | |
| - | Increases your Haste by 2%. | |
| - | Causes casting |
|
| - | Reduces the cooldown of |
|
| - | Gives |
|
| - | Reduces the cooldown of your crowd control abilities. | |
| - | Whenever any of your barriers are removed, it reduces their cooldown by a few seconds. | |
| - | Causes your |
|
| - | ||
| - | Further reduces the amount of magic damage you take and duration of magic
debuffs while |
Spec Tree Active Abilities for Arcane Mage
In this section, we will go over all the active abilities in the Arcane talent tree. Active abilities are abilities you can press yourself.
Arcane Missiles is technically a talent,
but it is the first required node so it is listed under the base abilities.
| Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
|---|---|---|
| AS/Surge | This is Arcane's biggest DPS cooldown. It consumes all Mana,
and deals high damage, based on the Mana consumed, to your target and all
enemies nearby your target (reduced beyond 5 targets) and grants you one stack of |
|
| PoM | Causes your next 2 |
|
| - | Replaces |
|
| AO | Shoots an Arcane Orb forward (depending on how you are facing), giving you one Arcane Charge when cast and another for each target struck. | |
| ToTM | A relatively short cooldown spell that when applied to your target will accumulate 20% of the damage done to the target for 10 seconds, after which it explodes for the total damage accumulated to the primary target, and reduced damage to nearby targets. Additionally, it also generates 4 Arcane Charges, allowing you to immediately go into high burst windows without first needing to build up Arcane charges. | |
| Evo | Not a direct damage cooldown, strictly speaking, but it does restore 100% of your Mana bar. As noted, Mana is damage for Arcane Mages, so this ability ends up having a high DPS value. |
Spec Tree Passive Abilities for Arcane Mage
In this section, we will go over all the passive abilities in the Arcane talent tree. Passive abilities are abilities you cannot press yourself but instead apply some effect to other abilities.
| Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
|---|---|---|
| - | ||
| - | Makes |
|
| - | Allows you to stack |
|
| - | Makes |
|
| - | Gives |
|
| - | Allows you to cast |
|
| - | Increases the damage |
|
| AF (sometimes) | Causes |
|
| - | Gives |
|
| - | When you reach max stacks of |
|
| - | Empowers your |
|
| - | Causes |
|
| - | Reduces |
|
| Tempo | Increases your Haste. | |
| - | Causes |
|
| Echo | Causes your |
|
| - | Casting |
|
| Reso | Makes |
|
| - | Causes |
|
| - | Makes |
|
| EN | Increases your Arcane Damage the more mana you have, and increases your mana regeneration the lower your mana. | |
| - | Gives |
|
| - | Increases the chance of |
|
| - | Further increases the damage bonus Arcane Charges provides to
|
|
| - | When consuming |
|
| - | Increases the damage bonus of |
|
| HV | Grants |
|
| - | Causes each wave of |
|
| - | Increases the damage and mana cost of |
|
| - | Gives |
|
| - | ||
| - | Gives |
For more information on when to pick the above-described talented abilities, and their relative strength, see our talent page.
Hero Talents Abilities for Arcane Mage
In this section, we will go over the important abilities from the different Hero Talents for Arcane Mage.
Sunfury
| Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
|---|---|---|
| - | Grants all your spells chance to grant a stacking buff
( |
|
| - | Grants a buff that increases your Haste every time you cast
|
|
| - | When you cast |
|
| BoP | Increases the damage of |
|
| GI | ||
| - | ||
| - | Increases the duration of |
|
| - | Increases the damage of |
|
| - | When your Arcane Phoenix expires, it grants you |
|
| - | Increases the maximum stacks of |
|
| - | During |
Spellslinger
| Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
|---|---|---|
| - | Creates an |
|
| - | Creating an |
|
| - | This makes your |
|
| - | ||
| - | Proccing |
|
| - | Gives your |
|
| - | Causes your Arcane Splinter direct hits (so not the damage over time effect)
to reduce the cooldown of |
|
| - | Causes |
Changelog
- 19 Jan. 2026: Updated for Midnight Pre-Patch.
- 30 Nov. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.2.7.
- 05 Oct. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.2.5.
- 04 Aug. 2025: Updated spells for the 11.2.0 changes.
- 15 Jun. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.1.7.
- 21 Apr. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.1.5.
- 24 Feb. 2025: Updated spells for changes in 11.1.
- 15 Dec. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.7.
- 21 Oct. 2024: Updated spells for 11.0.5 changes.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Removed double-dipping mention for Burden of Power due to removal in-game, and removed bug mention of Ignite the future after the bug fix.
- 28 Aug. 2024: Updated some spell descriptions.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6. and fixed some typos and updated some abbreviations.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated all spells and talents for the Arcane Mage rework of 10.1.5
- 01 May 2023: Updated some descriptions to be more clear and cleaned up some duplicate spells.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 30 Nov. 2022: Updated Temporal Warp description for changed time warp functionality.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Mage Guides
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This guide has been written by Dutchmagoz. Dutchmagoz has been playing Mage since 2009 and writing guides and theorycrafting since 2012, with many top 20-100 world kills and rank 1 parses under his belt. He is the owner of the official Mage Discord server Altered Time, where he is involved in Mage Theorycrafting and everything else Mage. You can reach out to him directly for questions or feedback about the guide there.
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