Arcane Mage 7.1.5 Guide
I'm still editing this to be completely updated, so hold back all your amazing criticism for when it's completed. Working on it but RL is happening atm, so might be a week or two.
7.1.5 Arcane Mage GuideMana no longer increases damage based on what percentage you're at.
Nëlfy - Aerie Peak - US
akalittleman#1387*
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/ranking...1718723/latest
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw-...12PSIlHVbim0JQ
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Updated: 1/24/2017
Table of Contents:
I Changes
II Introduction
III Overview
IV Talents
V Rotation
VI Stat Weights
VII Legendaries
VIII FAQ
Frosted's Post on Trinkets, Sims, etc:
https://www.altered-time.com/forum/v...php?f=3&t=2618
Binkenstein's Trinket ilvl Comparison Updated for 7.1 with ToV/Kara/Trinket Changes:
Arcane Mage 7.1.5 PvE Video Guide
Mythic + Arcane Mage Tips Video
I - Changes
4 x Arcane Blast*-> Abarrage is no longer mana neutral
Greater Invisibility is baseline for Arcane
Ice Barrier is baseline for all mage specs
Plenty of talent changes
II - IntroductionArcane is a system based off of mana management,*Arcane Blasts, and Arcane Missile procs.*Mastery: Savant is responsible for increasing our damage, maximum mana, and mana regeneration.
III - Overview
Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles, and Arcane Explosion all grant a stack of Arcane Charges which stacks up to 4. Each Arcane Charge increases mana cost by 125% and damage by roughly 60% (increased by mastery).
Arcane Missiles and Supernova are the only spells that cost no mana, where Arcane Blast and Arcane Explosion are both mana spenders. Each Arcane Barrage, Arcane Explosion, Supernova, Nether Tempest, and Arcane Orb all have a 15% chance to proc a charge of Arcane Missiles while*Arcane Blast*has a 30% chance.
IV - Talents
Tier 15
Arcane Familiar: Provides 10% max mana and a passive attacking pet. Sometimes the pet disappears randomly, annoying to reapply, but great passive damage and additional mana for longer burns.
Amplification: This makes Arcane Missiles do significantly more damage, which is a great increase to Single Target/Priority damage which bodes well for raiding in general.
Words of Power: Has the potential to be great, just lacks direct damage output that Arcane Familiar does. This brings back the idea of WoD Arcane when staying high on mana until burn phase rewards your conserve DPS.
tl:dr - Amplification is looking like the best talent, specifically paired with Slipstream bringing your highest DPET ability as an on the move ability.
Tier 30
Shimmer: Advantage is this is off the global cooldown and doesn’t interrupt casting when used.
Slipstream: Minimizes the possibility of dropping Evocation cast, and makes Arcane Missiles cast able while moving.
Cold Snap: Great for specific encounters that call for soaking with*Ice Block, otherwise not too useful in raids
tl:dr -Shimmer vs. Slipstream is a really hard choice sometimes. This will be fight dependent and personal preference. Making the transition to not always having an off global blink that doesn’t interrupt casting and Icy Floes is a rough transition, even though Slipstream is definitely not a bad talent.
Tier 45
Mirror Images: Mediocre damage-wise, but a set and forget CD. Has a 2 minute CD which doesn't line up too well with other CDs we have. Great for taking aggro while questing.
Rune of Power: This is the min max talent of the tier. This grants the best ability to line up CDs/Trinkets, burst with mana, and deal the highest damage. Higher skill cap to stay in the rune the whole time, but provides a challenge and new skill cap to the class. (Does not snapshot, everything goes up or down the second you step in or out of the rune)
Incanter's Flow: Great for fights with high movement or if you're not too great at using Rune of Power. This talent makes it easier to DPS without having to time things perfectly to make sure you can use your Rune of Power all the time. Great for casual raiders or those playing an alt.
tl:dr - Rune of Power for min/max, Incanter's Flow is a great second choice, Mirror Images can't compete DPS-wise
Tier 60
Supernova: Great for knockup utility in M+, also has chance to proc AM without costing mana.
Charged Up: Great talent to cleave without losing ST damage, while also increasing your ST output through the cleave. Pairs well with Kilt, and helps with initial burn and eliminates the ramp up.
Resonance: Great AoE/Cleave talent. Great for Mythic+.
tl:dr - Resonance sims highest even for ST, but CU will be a good choice for Kilt users
Tier 75
Chrono Shift: This is going to be the go to for raiding in general. This is a good QoL change for both questing and movement in raids.
Ring of Frost: Great for PVP, not so great for raiding.
Ice Ward: Gives your another Frost Nova. More kiting in questing/pvp. Outside of that unless an encounter calls for it specifically it is useless in raids
tl:dr - Chrono Shift.
Tier 90
Nether Tempest: Only main benefit of this talent over any others is that it can proc AM, and this will be able to do AoE damage to spread targets/adds while focusing the main/priority target.
Unstable Magic: Good passive cleave if adds will only be up for a few seconds and doesn’t allow Erosion to build up stacks. Also good if non priority add will be up for extended period of time.
Erosion: Best simming talent atm. Great talent for sustained AoE and anytime you’d be running M+.
tl:dr - UM or Erosion for most things, also helps that they’re passive. Only time I see NT being used is possibly if you have Rhonin’s Bracers combined with 4 set on longer fights.
Tier 100:
Overpowered: This talent sims highest, has mana reduction, and helps us to do great burst, definitely the all around go to for raiding.
Temporal Flux: Makes cast times quicker, which will help with movement in raids. The tradeoff is that you’ll generate more AM procs, which helps with 2/4 set and Rhonin’s, but you’ll drain your mana quicker and have overall less mana reduction compared to Overpowered.
Arcane Orb: This finally has some viability in M+ dungeons but the sim comparisons aren’t out yet in terms of AO vs OP yet.
Artifact:
Mark of Aluneth
This spell does great AoE/Cleave damage, should always be used in conjunction with Rune of Power, and preferably if any AoE or Cleave is coming. It lines up with Arcane Power every other use, and there should always be a Rune of Power up when the time comes to use this.
Artifact Trait Chart:
Talent Combinations:
Keeping in mind that Rune of Power, Supernova, Nether Tempest, and Shimmer can all be replaced by others, just pointing out combos that synergize well.
Single Target
Turret: Amplification - Slipstream - Rune of Power - Charged Up - Chrono Shift - Erosion - Overpowered
Heavy Movement: Amplification - Slipstream - Incanter’s Flow - Charged Up - Chrono Shift - Erosion - Temporal Flux
Dungeon/AoE Build
Amplification - Slipstream - Rune of Power - Resonance - Chrono Shift - Erosion - Overpowered / Arcane Orb
V - Rotation
Opener:
Prepot (Potion of Deadly Grace) While remembering that distance is important here
Precast MoA
Charged Up
Rune of Power
Arcane Power (including all on use trinkets/racials etc)
Presence of Mind (hopefully proccing ToTM)
Arcane Blast x 2
Arcane Missile if you have 2 AM procs
Arcane Blast
***Without Charged Up talented the opening sequence changes like this:
Prepot
Precast Arcane Blast
Arcane Blast x 3
Mark of Aluneth
Rune of Power
Arcane Power
Presence of Mind
Arcane Blast x 2
Arcane Missile if you have 2 AM procs
Arcane Blast
ST Rotation:
There are two parts of our rotation, Burn and Conserve.
Burn Phase:
This consists of having Arcane Power, Rune of Power, and/or Mark of Aluneth off cooldown
In this phase you will always start with this priority
Start with 4 Arcane Charges
Refresh Nether Tempest (if talented)
Mark of Aluneth (if off CD)
Rune of Power
Arcane Power (if off CD)
Supernova (if talents and off CD, but don't hold for burn)
Arcane Missiles if you have 2+ procs
Arcane Blast (Arcane Explosion if 2 or more targets)
Since Mark of Aluneth, Arcane Power, and Rune of Power all have different CDs you'll have moments where you can't use all three at once, therefore adapt to the situation.
Conserve Phase:
The goal of conserve rotation is to be able to time your evocation to be able to burn your remaining mana to sub 10% to be able to use Evocation right when it coms off CD, to not have it sitting there too long. This will depend how much mana you have when evocation is coming off CD and how many times you get AM procs to lower Evocation CD. You will need to start burning mana closer to 20 seconds left on evocation CD if you have 80% mana as opposed to having 20% mana where you wouldn't need to burn any mana until evocation was actually off CD.
***Having Rhonin's Armwraps makes the length of a mana burn take longer, so remember to initiate earlier due to procs that slow down your mana burning process.[/B]
There is no goal of staying as a certain % of mana during this phase since that was removed in WoD. How much mana you're hovering at will depend how soon or how late you need to begin burning your mana.
The basic conserve rotation is this:
Supernova on CD (if talented)
Build up to 4 Arcane Charges
Refresh Nether Tempest (if talented)
Burn any Arcane Missiles procs
Arcane Barrage
AoE Rotation is the exact same thing as both the burn and conserve rotations except that you replace Arcane Blast with Arcane Explosion. Continuing to Arcane Explosion instead of spending your Arcane Missiles charges will output less overall damage.
VI - Stat Weights
The stat weights for Arcane are somewhat convoluted. It changes drastically depending on your gear, so you aren't just stacking Crit like a fire mage would, but nonetheless here are the stat weights.
Int > Crit = Haste > Vers > Mastery Stats have changed in 7.1.5, so I’m not 100% sure but I think highest simmed DPS w/o Legendary was something like 29% mastery, 34% crit, 8% vers, 14% haste or something similar. Will update when more details are out)
The real answer is Sim yourself, it will change depending on your gear, more so than other specs/classes.
VII - Legendaries
Rhonin's Assaulting Armwraps:
The effect on our rotation from this legendary is merely a longer burn phase, which keeps us in the burn phase longer. This is the BiS ST legendary
The Mystic Kilt:
One way to use the pants is to continue with your normal rotation, but burn further down after you evocate since you will build mana back up with barrage.
Another way is to use Charged Up talent over Supernova. This results in the ability to rapidly gain mana 2 times inbetween evocations. You can barrage > CU > barrage > ABx4 > barrage and quickly gain a solid 40% mana back, and then do the same thing later when it comes off CD again. This also gives a slightly better opener as well: Precast MoA > CU > RoP > AP > AB/AM > continue. This playstyle does not have a reliable sim, hasn't particularly been proven to be better or worse DPS-wise, and I actually don't have experience with it, so any information you have regarding this would be welcomed.
VIII - F.A.Q.
Q: Is it a DPS gain to bank Arcane Missilesprocs for Touch of the Magi?
A: It hasn't been shown to be a DPS increase through sims (granted I didn't do them and didn't research to make sure it was correct), so the correct answer is to say no. Personally I don't think there is anything wrong with it if using Arcane Familiar instead of Words of Power, just never lose an Arcane Missiles proc or its definitely a DPS loss. Just think of it as a random DPS boost when you get TotM not something like a trinket proc that you wanna take advantage of.
Q: Does Arcane compete with Frost/Fire for raiding/M+?
A: Arcane can compete in sustained AoE and burst AoE, has better survivability, bigger Ice Barrier, and has more sustained damage outside of CDs from ability to burn mana whenever. Fire mechanically has automatic cleave, great ST Burst (mana burning vs. fires lackluster DPS outside of Combustion), sustained ST, but lacks the target swapping ability that arcane does so well.
tl:dr: Depends on the fight. We will win on some, they will win on others.
Q: Are the new pots going to be better that Deadly Grace potions?
A: No. People say 2500 stats is good, which it is, but when you have 33k int, getting 2500 more of that isn't that large of an increase. Deadly Grace potions are superior to prolonged power pots.
Q: Is it better to sync RoP, MoA, AP, PoM or use them together on CD?
A: See the below resources for more info since this isn't a yes or no answer, but my answer is there is a 2k difference in a sim, but as well as what the other graphic shows, your knowledge of fight length, encounter, add spawns, DPS checks, etc will be a better guide to whether you should sync or desync your abilities. If you need to burst down an add and are a few seconds off, burn your PoM outside of AP to kill it, etc.
TLR: If you don't really care all that much, just sync them together or use them on CD it doesn't matter all that much.