This is an all inclusive Arcane PvE thread to be updated for the remainder of Cataclysm to trim down on the amount of question threads popping up every day asking the same thing. I'll try to cover as much as my pretty little brain can muster.
Talent Choices:
31/7/3
The above is highest mathematical DPS spec choice for Arcane. There are, in reality, four free points for Arcane to play with and the choices made depends on your raid comp and the type of fight faced. Below is a list of the talents you can choose from to customize your spec.
Improved Blink (1/2 or 2/2):
In my opinion, this is the weakest choice out of all the fillers in Arcane for PvE. The movement speed granted after Blink is, for the most part, unnecessary and goes to waste to a Mage playing well. If you need to move more than the distance of Blink, then you are simply out of position and you shouldn't spec to fix a player fault. A case can be made for cases of prolonged movement (take the dance from Heigan as an example). In those cases, the movement speed increase won't grant any additional DPS. On a priority level, out of the four talents to choose from, this one falls at the bottom.
Improved Arcane Explosion (1/2 or 2/2):
This talent ups Arcane's minimal AoE capabilities to a less...bad level. You can use this on fights that require heavy single target but also have short AoE phases that can be used to pad meters (from all reports I get, this sounds like Lord Rhyolith). It's extremely situational and will provide no additional single target DPS. Pick it up for the gimmicks listed. This talent falls above Improved Blink in the priority.
Nether Vortex (1/2 or 2/2):
This one is harder to quantify since it doesn't grant anything fancy looking for people to notice. It provides a possible DPS increase in that it can put up Torment the Weak before a tank, but again, that's hard to quantify. It provides possible raid utility in providing snares to something that a tank hasn't picked up yet (think Blood Beasts from the Saurfang encounter in ICC). The biggest argument I can think of for this talent, is that the Slow proc can grant an additional chance for Arcane Missiles to proc which increases your DPS slightly in the conserve phase. Out of the filler Arcane talents, this one provides you the most utility for single target, but you may get problems when there is more than one Arcane Mage with the talent in the raid.
Fire Power (1/2 or 2/2):
This is the only talent in the bunch that actually grants more DPS. It increases the damage of your Flame Orb, which is handy, and it grants the possibility to to have an explosion. If you want to min/max your single target DPS, this is the talent to get, though it eludes most Arcane Mages...since Fire talents aren't Arcane talents. I'd recommend this one the most out of the four listed.
Gearing Choices:
Below is a repost of my work on the 4.3 BiS lists, only listing Arcane here since the others are superfluous.
Arcane:
Helm: Time Lord's Hood
Neck: Opal of the Secret Order
Shoulders: Time Lord's Mantle
Back: Nanoprecise Cape
Chest: Time Lord's Robes
Bracers: Bracers of the Banished
Gloves: Gloves of Liquid Smoke
Belt: Cord of the Slain Champion
Legs: Time Lord's Leggings
Boots: Janglespur Jackboots
Ring 1: Infinite Loop
Ring 2: Ring of the Riven
Trinket 1: Shard of Woe
Trinket 2: Will of Unbinding
Weapon: Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest
OH: N/A
Wand: Finger of Zon'ozz
~~~~~~~~~~
The listed scale factors are ONLY FOR THE PROVIDED SET. I added them not to show what everyone should have, rather to show how the secondary stats fare when you are perfectly itemized. This is a BiS list, as in it covers the best possible items for each slot. If you cannot obtain items due to some constraints, look at the items and see what they favor and go for, and try to duplicate it for your progression level.
To note, when you are gearing up, your tier chest should include two Brilliant gems since you will most likely be above the Hit cap. However, when your gear mirrors (or almost mirrors) the one provided here, you will need to gem a Veiled gem in the blue socket to maintain Hit cap. At this point, you want to add in an Artful gem to pick up the bonus. This combo beats out double Brilliant gems when you need the Hit, so keep it in mind.
Rotations:
Wait...is that a "s" at the end of that? AHMAGAWD PLURAL ROTATIONS?!?!?!?! Yup, I went there. Though if I hear the word rotation mentioned herein, I will not be so kind. Arcane has no set rotation and functions as a dynamic priority list, keep that in mind when posting in the thread
Burn Phase:
When you have your cool downs up, including Evocation, Arcane Power, and Mana Gem, AND your mana is at or near max levels, then you want to enter your burn phase. At this point, you want to...wait for it...spam Arcane Blast until a full Evocation brings you back to full. There is no set amount of Arcane Blast or any set duration on how long this should last, but this is where the majority of your DPS comes from. DON'T MESS IT UP!
Conserve Phase:
This comes after your burn phase and again has no set duration on Arcane Blast usage. The point of this phase is to maintain your mana near max levels so you can enter your burn phase sooner. Try not to fish for Arcane Missile procs past four Arcane Blasts, you'll lose too much mana that way. Arcane Barrage can be shuffled in if no AM procs are available.
Tips and/or Tricks:
Incanter's Absorption
This is an overlooked skill in most raid scenarios. Primarily, you want to activate it with Mage Ward and not Mana Shield for best results. To give an example on how to best use it, think about Sinestra's conal Fire breath. This is on a timer slightly longer than the CD of your Mage Ward and deals Fire damage. Prior to her cast finishing, you can pop Mage Ward and absorb the damage to help your healers and gain a nice chunk of Spellpower worth the GCD incurred. If you have a scenario like that, use Mage Ward. If it's something new no one has ever seen before...think about it then judge for yourself whether the SP gained outweighs the lost GCD.
Haste Soft-Cap
This is one that is, for whatever reason, controversial. The debate has come down to an argument about Haste and Mastery. While there is non clear answer (since both stats are actually very valuable), I can explain both sides of the argument and state my personal opinion on the matter. First and foremost, if you're in BiS gear, you'll be at the soft-cap whether you like it or not. So for a fully progressed Arcane Mage, this isn't an issue. However, the problem comes up for people asking what stat is better and what they should go for. Again, you shouldn't pass up one stat and hinder the other. If anything, Crit is your weakest stat so it should be cut before the other two, but that's neither here nor there.
Now, Haste is awesome for Arcane simply due to the play style of the spec. It only has casted DD spells to deal damage. Logically speaking, maximizing your cast output is a great DPS gain, which makes Haste good for the spec. To that end, Haste also reduces your down time due to GCD reduction and a sped up Evocation. The down side of Haste is that it burns through mana quicker due to not speeding up Mage Armor ticks, but at higher gear levels, the complaint, while real, is almost trivial.
Mastery, on the other hand, simply increases your damage done. While the text makes it seem more complicated than it really is, the fact of the matter is that the stat increases your damage at all mana levels, but to slightly varying degrees. The higher your Master, the higher the max cap is when scaling down. It's a lot less complicated than Haste so I'm not going to go deeper into it. There is also no down side to Mastery so yay, another paragraph skipped.
Now, some people make the claim that the two stats are inherently counter productive, but that's not true. Haste doesn't change the mana cost of spells, so in reality, you still get the same number of spells out under the same mana levels, Haste simply gets them out faster. So, while it may seem you're spending less time under max mana, you're really not...you're just doing more damage since you can fit in more spells per fight. For me, Haste is the better stat than Mastery up to a point, but you should never forgo one for the other. That's all I'm including on this topic for now.
Flame Orb Usage
This is a tricky issue to address since I have not been playing for about six months now and can't grant "real world" examples. In any case, it should be noted Flame Orb has amazing scaling with both Mastery and Arcane Power. Whether you use it during burn phase or conserve phase almost seems like a personal choice. I would use it directly after my CDs to max its damage, but it grants a near infinite amount of Arcane Missile procs to help the conserve phase, so...test both and see which grants better DPS then get back to me.
TrinketsOriginally Posted by Valanna
Standard List for Trinkets: Heroic WoU > Shard of Woe > Heroic IotCM > Heroic CotC > WoU > IotCM > CoTC ~ H VPLC >DMC:V/MWC
Soul Casket and all trinkets of that level...are terrible for Arcane.
Now...stop asking about trinkets.
Gemming
I know, I know, this should be up with the gear, but hey, I have things to drink. Anyway, for Arcane there are two scenarios (three I suppose if you want to be technical) that warrant not gemming Brilliant gems.
Scenario 1: Single Blue Socket
In this scenario, the socket bonus needs to be a minimum of +10 Intellect to justify picking up this gem. This applies to Red+Blue pieces and solo Blue pieces.
Scenario 2: Single Yellow Socket
Here, the bonus needs to be a MINIMUM of +20 Intellect to justify gemming the Orange gem. This applies to Red+Yellow pieces and solo Yellow pieces.
Now, in case you have a Yellow+Blue piece, you need to be able to use the Hit in order to gem this AND the bonus needs to be at least +20 Intellect to justify picking it up. Outside of the listed scenarios, you should gem +40 Intellect in all sockets sans Meta.
Well, that closes the OP for this thread now, post questions below and discuss away. It will be updated to reflect changes in 4.3 and possibly beyond. Enjoy.