Arcane Mage Raid Guide
Last Updated:September 15, 2024|Change Log|FAQ
Welcome to the Arcane Mage Raid guide for the World of Warcraft patch 11.0! This guide covers everything you need to know to understand your character! Are you starting out and leveling up from 70? Check out the leveling guide!
Overview
Hero Talents
Sunfury
Sunfury is the main hero talent used in both single and AoE scenarios. Spellslinger is sadly around 20% behind in single target and slightly less behind in AoE. As such, the rest of the guide assumes Sunfury is being played.
- Spellfire Spheres
- This is the defining aspect of Sunfury. The entire playstyle revolves around generating as many Spellfire Spheres as possible. The more Spellfire Spheres generated, the more damage in single and AoE.
- Invocation: Arcane Phoenix
- Your Spellfire Spheres are spent through this talent. The bird popularly known as "Arlo" takes the generated Spellfire Spheres and cast spells such as Arcane Surge and even Flamestrike.
- Burden of Power and Glorious Incandescence
- These two talents go hand in hand and are the main reason why the playstyle revolves around generating as many Spellfire Spheres as possible.
- Thanks to Glorious Incandescence, the arcane charges lost from casting Arcane Barrage are regenerated instantly.
- Memory of Al'ar
- After Arcane Surge ends, the Arcane Soul buff is gained dependent on how many Spellfire Spheres were used. This buff allows the use of multiple fully charged Arcane Barrages in a row without depleting arcane charges and giving a stack of Clearcasting for each cast.
- Splintering Sorcery
- The entire fantasy of Spellslinger revolves around shooting dozens of spikes at your enemy during combat. Most of the hero tree talents are passive effects and you do not play around anything specific.
- Slippery Slinging and Look Again
- Generally, default to Slippery Slinging as you would need to drop some utility in the class tree to pick up Displacement. If you ever were to have Displacement however, Look Again is the default pick.
- Phantasmal Image
- This talent synergizes extremely well with Reduplication potentially making your Mirror Images more potent and a very short cooldown.
- Spellfrost Teachings
- Be ready to react to all the free extra Arcane Orbs you get while playing Spellslinger. Especially in AoE, you gain tons of free Arcane Barrages.
- Splinterstorm
- When playing Spellslinger, this trait contributes to changing your rotation in a quirky way. Shifting Power becomes the first button pressed after going into your first big burn!
Talents
Gameplay Altering Talents
Discover all talents that significantly alter your gameplay within the Spec and Class Talent trees. This section gives a concise overview of these talents and their applications but for a more detailed look check out the Rotation and Deep Dive sections below.
Spec Tree
- Arcane Surge
- This is your major cooldown as an Arcane Mage. Granting you massive spell power and mana regeneration.
- Touch of the Magi
- This is a short cooldown that accumulates 20% of your damage to the target for 12 seconds. Thus, making it one of the most important spells to play around in your rotation.
- Magi's Spark
- In most cases this talent is completely passive, just remember in AoE situations you need to cast Arcane Blast at least once during your Touch of the Magi window.
- Aether Attunement
- This talent allows every third cast of Arcane Missiles to deal increased damage and cleave onto other targets. This is your only Arcane Missiles that is fully channeled (more about clipping in deep dive).
Class Tree
- Shifting Power
- This spell is a channel used after your cooldowns to reduce all your spells by 12 seconds.
- Spellsteal
- There are a lot of magic mechanics you can Spellsteal to gain their benefit.
- Time Anomaly
- Be ready to react to the procs acquired get from this talent, they can impact the rotation differently depending on when they proc.
- Mass Barrier
- Make sure to use Mass Barrier to give your teammates Prismatic Barrier!
- Shimmer
- This talent node is the main reason Mages in general have such high mobility. Being castable while casting and off the GCD, it is essential you manage your Shimmer well to achieve 100% uptime on DPS during any encounter.
Hero Talents
- Lessons in Debilitation
- This talent option is more not wanting to limit the CC capabilities of Supernova than the free Spellsteal but it is nice.
- Sunfury Execution
- Generally, the default pick for all encounters due to its execute benefit. Savor the Moment is about 0.4% better in pure Single Target so that is why it's in the default build. Execute is generally worth more than the Single Target gain.
- Rondurmancy
- Numerically the best pick as Ignite the Future currently is bugged and does nothing.
When to use this Spec
Use this spec whenever there is more than one target present at any point during the encounter.
Talent Adjustments
Listing all the changes within the Class and Spec tree compared to the default build.
Spec Tree
- Added
- Arcing Cleave
- The majority of your AoE damage comes from barrage cleaving onto enemies.
- Arcing Cleave
- Removed
- Consortium's Bauble
Hero Talents
- Added
- Sunfury Execution
- Becomes numerically better than Savor the Moment when multiple enemies are present.
- Sunfury Execution
- Removed
- Savor the Moment
Rotation
Tier Set
- 2-Set: Arcane Blast and Arcane Barrage damage increased by 6%.
- 4-Set: Casting Arcane Blast or Arcane Barrage has a 5% chance to make your next Arcane Barrage deal 20% increased damage and generate 4 Arcane Charges.
This tier set is a nice addition to the already pleasant arcane rotation. It increases the damage of our main abilities while also providing a free and empowered Arcane Barrage to use. Try to line this free Arcane Barrage up with your last stack of Nether Precision to double-dip the effects of Nether Precision while not losing Arcane Charges.
Single-Target
Opener
- The goal of the opener is to enter the Touch of the Magi window as fast as possible.
- Evocation is casted 4 seconds before the pull happens.
- Arcane Missiles is casted 1 second before the pull happens.
- Touch of the Magi is off the GCD.
- Every Touch of the Magi besides the opening Touch of the Magi has an Arcane Barrage casted before. The only exception is if you do not have 4 Arcane Charges. This could be due to casting Arcane Barrage with no refunds to arcane charges because you are out of mana.
- Be sure to cast Touch of the Magi before the Arcane Barrage hits the target.
Priority List
This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.
All Arcane Missiles are clipped except ones empowered by Aether Attunement (more about clipping in deep-dive).
- Cast Shifting Power after your Arcane Soul expires.
- Cast Arcane Missiles if you have 3 Clearcastings.
- Cast Arcane Orb when you have less than 2 Arcane Charges.
- Cast Arcane Barrage if you have Burden of Power, are currently not casting Arcane Blast and have either 1 or 2 stacks of Nether Precision.
- Cast Arcane Blast queued into Arcane Barrage if you have 4 Arcane Charges and if one of the following is true:
- You have 1 stack of Nether Precision and Glorious Incandescence (this is from consuming Burden of Power).
- You have 1 stack of Nether Precision and Intuition (this is from your tier set).
- You don't have Nether Precision or Clearcasting procs but have Glorious Incandescence or Intuition.
- Cast Arcane Blast with Nether Precision.
- Cast Arcane Missiles with Clearcasting.
- Cast Arcane Blast.
- Cast Arcane Barrage if you are out of mana.
Arcane Soul Priority List
During Arcane Soul, ignore the above priority list and follow the priority below.
- Cast Arcane Barrage as your last GCD in Arcane Soul.
- End Arcane Soul with 3 Clearcastings.
- Cast Arcane Missiles if you have 3 Clearcastings.
- Cast Arcane Barrage with Nether Precision.
- Cast Arcane Missiles with Clearcasting.
- Cast Arcane Barrage.
Multi-Target
The current understanding of multi target for Arcane Mage in raids is to have the same rotation for both Single and AoE scenarios. Burden of Power is currently very strong so maximizing how many Spellfire Spheres generated, results in more damage in both situations. The generic "AoE" build can perform slightly better in pure AoE, but it is recommended to perform the single target rotation as it results in far higher single target damage while doing very similar overall damage in raid encounters.
Deep Dive
Mana Management
Generally, the only part of the rotation where mana is an issue is after the second Touch of the Magi of the fight if you lusted on pull. In this situation, it is best to cast Arcane Barrage if Arcane Blast can not be casted due to lack of mana. Build back up Arcane Charges with Arcane Orb and continue the cycle. You can enter your Arcane Surge Touch of the Magi combo with 0% mana as Arcane Surge gives you all of your mana back. Generally, mana is not a big concern anymore compared to previous iterations of Arcane Mage.
Shimmer Cast Immunity
Shimmer is very unique as it gives the caster a small grace period of being able to cast spells while moving. This lets Mages perform some technical maneuvers in order to lose zero damage during knockbacks or other events where casting is required and the Mage needs to move small steps. At a basic level, you achieve this by first casting a spell, using Shimmer, taking the small step then standing still and resuming casting. When using this on a knockback, you first start casting a spell, use Shimmer right before the knockback and Shimmer again as soon as the knockback goes off. If done correctly, the cast should not have canceled and you have achieved full uptime during a knockback without Ice Floes!
Clipping Arcane Missiles
- Clipping refers to intentionally canceling your Arcane Missiles channel in order to cast another spell.
- Currently, it is best to clip every Arcane Missiles besides ones empowered by Aether Attunement in both Single and AoE. This is done because the Nether Precision buff and Spellfire Spheres are simply too important. This allows for less time casting Arcane Missiles and more time generating Spellfire Spheres which results in more damage.
Double-Dipping (Queuing)
Double-dipping is a core game mechanic that Arcane Mage's utilize to increase their damage. Double-dipping refers to having two spells benefit from a singular buff. This is thanks to spell queuing! In short, if you have a Nether Precision, you can cast Arcane Blast queued into Arcane Barrage and have both spells benefit from the buff.
Orb Barrage Minmaxing
Orb Barrage is currently not played in raids BUT, the rotation is always undergoing massive changes, if the single target rotation falls out of the AoE meta for raids, the next best AoE build is going to contain Orb Barrage.
There is a trick you can use to maximize your Orb Barrage efficiency in AoE scenarios. I have coined this trick the "7-10 Split".
DISCLAIMER: This trick is highly technical and mechanically taxing. I do not recommend trying this trick unless you are proficient at Arcane Mage already.
7-10 Split
The 7-10 split refers to casting multiple fully charged Arcane Barrages with a singular Arcane Orb. This is only usable when there are 8 or more targets. The difficulty is dependent on how stacked the mobs present are. The looser the stack, the easier it is to use this trick. You can achieve this when the mobs are almost fully stacked but it is extremely difficult.
You can achieve this majestic feat by first having an Arcane Orb headed towards 8 or more targets. When the Arcane Orb hits 4 enemies, send a Arcane Barrage before the Arcane Orb damages the rest of the enemies. You want to stand around 20+ yards from the mobs (this distance depends on your haste, the higher your haste, the closer you can stand) in order to not lose globals waiting for the Arcane Orb to hit the targets.
Here is a clip from S2 Dragonflight showcasing this very well. Even though it is a previous patch, the concept is the same as Orb Barrages has not changed.
As you can see, the mobs are fairly stacked and every global during Touch of the Magi is filled with fully charged Arcane Barrages even when getting average procs.
Understanding Mechanics
Rotational min-maxing is just one aspect of mastering a specialization, but there are numerous other key mechanics that influence your performance. Use the following guides to improve them.
Nerub-ar Palace
The following tips are mainly applicable to Heroic Bosses. Mythic tips are released after our progression concludes.
← Scroll for more Bosses →
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Be aware of all the movement that is needed on this fight. Use Shimmer well to not lose uptime throughout the entire fight.
- Additionally, during Ready to Feed utilize Alter Time to quickly feed the boss multiple times
Offensive Cooldown Usage
- Cooldown usage in this fight depends heavily on which group you are assigned to go down on. The general rule is to have Arcane Surge ready for whichever group you are in.
Boss Tips
- You can Shimmer and even Alter Time over Spewing Hemorrhage.
- You can damage the adds with Arcane Barrage if you face your camera towards the adds and the boss thanks to Arcing Cleaves.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Use defensives whenever you are targeted by Decimate or Decimates are about to hit Cosmic Simulacrums.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Help control the Infested Spawn if needed.
- You are generally in one Shimmer range for all mechanics during this fight. If targeted with Spinneret's Strands for example, simply Shimmer away instantly and Shimmer back after the mechanic.
- Save Shimmer charges to quickly follow and inturrupt the boss.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
- Offensive cooldowns can vary dependending on the strategy your guild uses. Some add sets that spawn are harder than others and you can potentially save Arcane Surge for those specific adds. Generally, you can send Arcane Surge on cooldown or slightly delay it and it is going to help with certain add sets either way.
Boss Tips
- Use Prismatic Barrier to quickly cleanse yourself from Unstable Web. This is doable because of the Energized Barriers talent.
- As a Mage you are an excellent interrupter as you can travel great distances and instantly Counterspell enemies.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Defensive Cooldown Usage
- Try to save Mirror Image for each intermission phase.
- Try to have a Prismatic Barrier for each Assassination[/wow-spell.
Boss Tips
- Use [wow-spell id=414658]Ice Cold as an emergency button. For example, if you get hit by multiple Twilight Massacres.
- The main thing to keep an eye out for on this boss is the position of each Nether Rift. Their placement dictates how much you get pulled towards them. Try to position yourself in a way that each Nether Rift is at a similar distance to you.
- It can be very difficult as a Mage during the pull ins because your first instinct is to Shimmer away. I found it is best to trust the pull and go whenever it drags you and only Shimmer if it is absolutely necessary.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
- The bosses gain damage amps multiple times throughout the fight but, they also have shields you need to break too. Your cooldown usage can be different dependending on these two factors and which strategy your guild ends up using.
Boss Tips
- Use Mirror Image before the pull to cover the first Venomous Rain as you can take lots of damage early on in the fight and it saves you an entire global!
- Use Alter Time and teleport back instantly after getting pulled in by Web Vortex to save yourself some movement.
- Alternatively, use Demonic Gateway if available to negate the pull in effect.
- Try to get some good distance from the adds that spawn from Call of the Swarm since they fixate the closest target.
- Alternatively, if you are feeling nice, you can bait them on you intentionally and use your movement to get away from them.
Stat Priority
Understand your secondary stat priority and the tertiary stats needed for optimal performance during Raid boss fights as an Arcane Mage. For more detailed information, visit the Stats and Attributes guide.
Higher Item level items are better in most scenarios. For an accurate representation of what item to equip you should use Simcraft! A static "Stat Priority" is just a starting point and can easily shift depending on your individual gear.
- All secondary stats are affected by diminishing returns. Click here to learn more!
Tertiary
- Avoidance - Great stat to reduce the damage intake of "Area of Effect" abilities.
- Leech - Provides additional healing through damage dealing. Leech is a great stat tertiary stat to have, especially on AoE.
- Speed - Niche tertiary that can be very useful and has been proven useful in the past. Makes playing certain mechanics a lot easier.
Gear
| Slot | Item | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Head | Cocoonsilk Cowl | Mists of Tirna Scithe |
| Neck | Sureki Zealot's Insignia | Sikran |
| Shoulder | Beacons of Violet Rebirth | Catalyst |
| Cloak | Wings of Shattered Sorrow | Rasha'nan |
| Chest | Runecoat of Violet Rebirth | Catalyst |
| Wrist | Consecrated Cuffs | Crafting |
| Gloves | Jeweled Gauntlets of Violet Rebirth | Catalyst |
| Belt | Acrid Ascendant's Sash | Queen Ansurek |
| Legs | Coattails of Violet Rebirth | Catalyst |
| Boots | Slippers of Violet Rebirth | Catalyst |
| Ring 1 | Seal of the Poisoned Pact | Queen Ansurek |
| Ring 2 | Experiment 08752's Band | City of Threads |
| Trinket 1 | Ara-Kara Sacbrood | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Trinket 2 | Spymaster's Web | The Silken Court |
| Weapon | Sovereign's Disdain | Queen Ansurek |
| Offhand | Vagabond's Torch | Crafting |
Below you are presented with a good list of farmable alternatives that are obtainable outside of WoW’s weekly lockout system. While replaced in time as you progress, these offer immediate character power.
| Slot | Item | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Head | Crown of Enfeebled Bodies | Grim Batol |
| Neck | "Emergency Stop" Keychain | The Stonevault |
| Shoulder | Reanimator's Mantle | The Necrotic Wake |
| Cloak | Anvilhide Cape | The Stonevault |
| Chest | Shadowed Orator's Tunic | The Stonevault |
| Wrist | Necropolis Lord's Shackles | The Necrotic Wake |
| Gloves | Gory Surgeon's Gloves | The Necrotic Wake |
| Belt | Cord of the Pious Warder | Priory of the Sacred Flame |
| Legs | Curse-Tainted Leggings | Grim Batol |
| Boots | Membranous Slippers | The Dawnbreaker |
| Ring 1 | Stitchflesh's Misplaced Signet | The Necrotic Wake |
| Ring 2 | Experiment 08752's Band | City of Threads |
| Trinket 1 | Ara-Kara Sacbrood | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Trinket 2 | Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj | The Dawnbreaker |
| Weapon | Wand of Untainted Power | Grim Batol |
| Offhand | Pail of Preserved Obscurity | City of Threads |
Trinkets
Below you can find active and passive alternatives to our recommended trinkets. Do note that some trinkets are better than others depending on the raid boss.
Active Trinket alternatives
- Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg
- Decent on-use trinket but can be worse if it's a movement heavy fight.
- Treacherous Transmitter
- Very strong on-use trinket but has a downside.
- Requires you to complete one out of 3 tasks before getting the effect.
- Very strong on-use trinket but has a downside.
Passive Trinket alternatives
- Unbound Changeling
- Good passive trinket that procs secondary stats.
- Hadal's Nautilus
- Damage proc trinket that's decent on both single-target and AoE.
Embellishments
It's recommended to hold your Spark of Omens craft and wait for further tuning.
- Writhing Armor Banding
- Empowers any Nerubian embellishment by 100%.
- Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension
- Gain a random secondary stat stacking up over time.
Remaining Sparks
- Crafted items are 636 item level and regular items are 639 on max item level therefore it's not beneficial to equip crafted items outside of your 2x embellishments unless you don't have access to other high item level gear on that slot.
Simcraft
To find the best combination of gear available to you or identify the best possible upgrades, visit our Simcraft guide to learn how to utilize Simcraft easily and effectively.
Consumables
- Phials
- Flask of Alchemical Chaos -- maximum DPS.
- Flask of Tempered Versatility -- less DPS but more survivability.
- Food
- Feast of the Divine Day
- Feast of the Midnight Masquerade
- Combat Potion
- Tempered Potion
- Health Potion
- Algari Healing Potion -- a big burst of healing
- Weapon Oil
- Algari Mana Oil -- default
- Augment Rune
- Crystallized Augment Rune
- Sockets
- Quick Onyx
- Culminating Blasphemite -- Unique, use one of each gem color to enhance your Culminating Blasphemite.
- Deadly Sapphire
- Versatile Emerald
- Masterful Ruby
Enchantments
| Head | Nerubian Gemweaver |
| Neck | Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Cloak | Enchant Cloak - Chant of Winged Grace |
| Chest | Enchant Chest - Crystalline Radiance |
| Wrist | Enchant Bracer - Chant of Armored Avoidance Nerubian Gemweaver |
| Waist | Nerubian Gemweaver |
| Legs | Sunset Spellthread |
| Boots | Enchant Boots - Defender's March |
| Ring 1 | Enchant Ring - Radiant Haste Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Ring 2 | Enchant Ring - Radiant Haste Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Weapon | Enchant Weapon - Authority of the Depths |
You buy Nerubian Gemweaver from the Great Vault Vendor to add sockets to your Helm, Wrists & Waist.
Races
For min-maxing an Arcane Mage in raiding, different racial traits can provide a tremendous benefit to your character. If this is not your top goal, picking a race that fits your style works just as well.
- Stoneform -- Dwarf
- Dispels Magic and Bleed debuffs. Has been useful in the past on some bosses with Bleeds.
- Rocket Jump -- Goblin
- Do a small jump in the direction your character is facing.
- While you're in the Rocket Jump animation you are placed on a global cooldown until your character lands.
- Spatial Rift -- Void Elf
- Spawn a shadow traveling into your facing direction, and activate it again to teleport to it.
- Maximum range of 100 yards.
- Hyper Organic Light Originator -- Mechagnome
- Works the same way as Mirror Image in terms of threat.
Recommendation
In general, it's safe to say that if you care about min-maxing your DPS, you should go with the highest DPS racial. That being said, the story is a bit different if it's about progression raiding. Some help out massively to speed up the progression on certain bosses. Notably, Dwarf with their Stoneform helped out on Tindral Sageswift and Fyrakk the Blazing in the latest Race to World First by having easy access to dispelling yourself at crucial points of the fights mentioned.
Macros
Discover recommended macros for Arcane Mages during Raid encounters and watch a quick video guide on creating simple macros for your character.
Mouseover Macros
Recommended Macros
Addons
Below, you see a screenshot of the author's User Interface for their Arcane Mage, outlining which addons are used and how they are utilized in Raids to make your life easier.
Addons
WeakAuras
Changes this Patch
Patch 11.0.2
Patch 11.0
FAQ
Q: Why is my Touch of the Magi small?
Credits
Written By: Hopeful, Wolfdisco
Reviewed By: Soda