Arcane Mage PVE Guide – Cataclysm

Welcome to the PVE Arcane Mage Guide for World of Warcraft Cataclysm!

This guide will teach you how to play an Arcane Mage in a raid. It covers talents, glyphs, gems, enchantments, rotation, and gameplay tips.

This talent build takes the standard Arcane Mage talents.

Prime Glyphs

• Glyph of Arcane Blast
• Glyph of Mage Armor
• Glyph of Arcane Missiles

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Arcane Power
• Glyph of Blink
• Glyph of Evocation

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of Conjuring
• Glyph of Mirror Image
• Glyph of Slow Fall

Gems are situational and depend on the build and equipment. They are used to reach the required stat caps.

• Meta – Burning Shadowspirit Diamond
• Red/Prismatic – Brilliant Queen’s Garnet, Brilliant Inferno Ruby, or Brilliant Chimera’s Eye (Jewelcrafting)
• Yellow
  • If Socket Bonus is not at least +10 Intellect, Brilliant Queen’s Garnet or Brilliant Inferno Ruby
  • Otherwise, if you have hit haste cap, Artful Lava Coral or Artful Ember Topaz
  • Else, Reckless Lava Coral or Reckless Ember Topaz
• Blue
  • If Socket Bonus is not at least +10 Intellect, Brilliant Queen’s Garnet or Brilliant Inferno Ruby
  • Else, Veiled Shadow Spinel or Veiled Demonseye

• Head – Arcanum of the Hyjal
• Shoulder – Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone or Felfire Inscription (Inscription)
• Cloak – Enchant Cloak – Greater Intellect or Lightweave Embroidery (Tailoring)
• Chest – Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats
• Bracers – Enchant Bracer – Mighty Intellect or Draconic Embossment – Intellect (Leatherworking) with Socket Bracer (Blacksmithing)
• Gloves – Enchant Gloves – Greater Mastery or Enchant Gloves – Haste with Synapse Springs (Engineering) or Socket Gloves (Blacksmithing)
• Waist – Grounded Plasma Shield (Engineering) or Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
• Legs – Powerful Enchanted Spellthread or Master’s Spellthread (Tailoring)
• Boots – Enchant Boots – Lavawalker or Enchant Boots – Haste (cheaper) or Enchant Boots – Precision (for hit cap)
• Rings – Enchant Ring – Intellect (Enchanting)
• Weapon – Enchant Weapon – Power Torrent or Enchant Weapon – Hurricane (cheaper)
• Off-hand – Enchant Off-Hand – Superior Intellect

Take Spirit until you’re happy with your mana regeneration. Haste is only useful up if you can hit soft caps, so don’t bother adding extra haste until you can reach the next cap.

• Intellect
• Hit Rating (to spell hit cap of 17%)
• Haste (to soft cap of 1s cast time for Arcane Blast w/ all cast speed buffs active)
• Mastery
• Haste
• Critical Strike

Utilize Mage Armor at all times.

Single Target Rotation

• Phase 1 – Using up your mana
  • Use Arcane Power and all DPS cooldowns
  • Use Arcane Blast to 30% max mana
  • Use Evocation to regain mana
• Phase 2 – Stay as close to 100% mana as possible
  • Use Flame Orb on cooldown
  • Use Arcane Blast 2-4 times
  • Use Arcane Missiles or Arcane Barrage
  • When your Evocation cooldown is almost refreshed, return to Phase 1

Multi Target Rotation

• Use Arcane Blast until you have 4 stacks, then cast to maintain 4 stacks
• Use Arcane Explosion while you have 4 stacks
• If you cannot get in range of your targets with Arcane Explosion, alternate Flame Strike and Blizzard
• Use Cone of Cold as needed to slow groups of enemies

Cooldowns

• Use Presence of Mind when Arcane Power isn’t active