Focus Magic: Insane Arcane

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Focus Magic: Blink and you’ll miss it.

Greetings fellow Mages! How are your wondrous escapades and various journeys of epic proportions around Azeroth? Owning anything and everything I should imagine. This week’s edition of Focus Magic delves deep into the tiers of the Arcane. Just like the previous 2 articles discussing Fire and Frost, we’ll be looking at the different aspects and playstyles of Arcane. Let’s get going…

Although it can be done, Levelling as Arcane is not recommended. Most of the spells which make an Arcane Mage a useful levelling tool are learnt at a late level, usually 60+. Talents such as Arcane Barrage, Slow and Missile Barrage, and spells such as Arcane Blast are the main abilities an Arcane Mage will use while levelling, and since these are only obtainable at levels near Outland, levelling 1-60 as Arcane is a foolish decision. However once you enter the realms of Outland and beyond, Arcane can become quite a viable Mage spec for Levelling. Although it lacks the Survivability and AoE prowess of the other 2 specs, if played correctly and you conserve your mana efficiently, Arcane can have very little downtime, which results in faster killing of mobs, faster questing and therefore, faster levelling. The main rotation used for an Arcane Mage whose solo questing on a single target mob would be as follows: Open with an Arcane Blast, and immediately after chain cast a Slow on the target. Then Arcane Blast until either you get a Missile Barrage proc or the mob is too close for comfort. If Missile Barrage procs throw some Arcane Missiles at the ghastly creature. If not, use your other abilities as a Mage accordingly. Use Arcane Barrage when you feel it is necessary and with only a 3-second cooldown it might just happen that Arcane Barrage is necessary much more often than you think. Missile Barrage is probably one of the strongest talents for an Arcane Mage in general, but for levelling it really helps. Apart from giving you the potential to destroy a mob in it’s path within seconds, it also makes the next Arcane Missile spell you cast cost no mana. And that can really increase your mana efficiency, as one of the biggest aspects of an Arcane Mage is to utilitize their mana efficiently.

PvP

Moving on to PvP, an Arcane Mage can be very powerful if played well, but can also be a laughing stock if played badly. Bah, who am I kidding, there’s only one laughing stock of the PvP world. Starts with W. And it’s not Warriors. But to get a step ahead in PvP you’ll need the correct spec. As Arcane, there are many different specs for certain situations in PvP that an Arcane Mage will spec specifically towards to. Visit http://www.wowwiki.com/Mage_builds to have a clearer view on these specs and which role in PvP you wish to undertake. Make great use of Slow and Arcane Barrage in PvP, and with buffs such as Berserking and Arcane Power, it can be possible for an Arcane Mage to one-shot other players. Although a very uncommon occurrence it can be done, with crits in excess of 20k. Presence of Mind is also a very powerful tool when used in PvP, and if you’re specced into Fire far enough to obtain Pyroblast you can cast an instant Pyroblast (often abbreviated into “PoM Pyro”), chain cast a Slow and follow it up with an Arcane Barrage. That’s a whole lot of damage in under 3 seconds, and the opponent is slowed and at your disposal.

For your PvP Major glyphs, they will obviously need to be tailored specifically to your spec, so choose the 3 glyphs from the following which reflect your group setup and spec and will benefit you the most.

1. Glyph of Evocation - A Brilliant Glyph for any PvP Mage, a great way of recovering massive amounts of health and mana in a short time.
2. Glyph of Blink - This seems much more useful than at first glance. Against Melee it can give you extra time to plan your escape, cast more spells, immobilize them etc. Against a caster it can help you get behind them from a further range and can really confuse them if you’re blinking much further than they thought you would.
3. Glyph of Polymorph - A great tool to make sure that your Polymorph spell won’t be prematurely broken by that lingering DoT effect. Nothing more irritating than someone else’s (or your own) DoT breaking your own Polymorph within half a second of casting it.
4. Glyph of Arcane Missiles - Extra Damage from your Arcane Missile crits can be the difference between killing that pesky Warlock or having the rest of the opposing factions team come swarming around you and spreading your face all over the ground. Don’t take any chances.
5. Glyph of Remove Curse - An extremely powerful glyph if you are often de-cursing your comrades and can make a Warlock writhe in anger when you’re immune to his or her various curses.

Check out the previous Focus Magic articles for Minor Glyph choices and a full list of PvP enchants and gems.

PvE

For raiding and other PvE aspects, Arcane can be a brilliant spec for a Mage, as it has the potential to do ridiculously high burst damage, great single target, as well as AoE damage and also brings utility and unique buffs to the group in the form of Arcane Empowerment. A general cookie cutter PvE Arcane Mage spec is 57/3/11 (http://www.wowhead.com/talent#of0Vcu0IzxGuMtedcZbGc0o). There is some speculation about the usefulness of Slow in a raid, if you feel it is sitting on your hotbars gathering dust then fill in a point in Magic Attunement instead. Personally, I prefer to have Slow at my disposal, and for fights like Deathbringer Saurfang, Slowing the Blood Beasts can be a great help for an Arcane Mage who would otherwise struggle to deal with such a situation.

An Arcane mage’s rotation is relatively simple. Arcane Blast your target 4 times (since this will give you a massive damage bonus) and if Missile Barrage has procced in the meantime, fire off an Arcane Missiles. If Missile barrage has not procced, you have 2 choices. Either reset the debuff you get from Arcane Blast by casting Arcane Barrage and start again, or continue casting Arcane Blast until Missile Barrage procs. Keep in mind this will drain your mana remarkably quickly if used carelessly.

For your PvE Major Glyphs, just like PvP, you have a choice of more than 3. Tailor these Glyphs as to which fits your playstyle and the ones you feel most comfortable with. Your choices are:

1. Glyph of Arcane Blast - Being your main nuke spell, this glyph is a no brainer. Always have this as a Major glyph if you plan to be a successful Arcane PvE Mage.
2. Glyph of Molten Armor - Also a no brainer. Compared to the other Major glyphs, this is a very powerful one in the sense that it can boost your Crit Rating quite considerably. And that means more damage. If you’re lucky.
3. Glyph of Arcane Power - An extra 3 seconds on your Arcane Power can help you output extremely high numbers for an extended period of time.  Although not mandatory like the first 2, if you like the sound of this one, take it.
4. Glyph of Mage Armor - If you find yourself having problems conserving your mana, take this Glyph. But don’t take this, AND Glyph of Molten Armor, as you can only have one Armor up at once. And the amount of switching you’ll need to do to get any benefit from both glyphs will cancel out the effect of this glyph. So, no, don’t take both. Please.
5. Glyph of Arcane Missiles - As mentioned earlier, extra damage on your Arcane Missile crits can be an invaluable increase to your DPS.

For a list of PvE gems and enchants check the previous Focus Magic columns.

For some added information on Arcane as PvE, watch the series of videos put together by ‘ifexx’. Keep in mind they may be a little out of date (as they were made over a year ago) but they can help reinforce your knowledge and understanding of the Arcane Mage.

I guess that just about does it for this week. Now that I’ve covered all 3 specs in slight detail I now have a few paths to choose from. Should we go over the Cataclysm changes to the Mage? Or perhaps a detailed levelling guide? Maybe a gear guide to freshen up your newly dinged Mage is what you’re looking for. Feel free to comment and contact myself with any suggestions that you might have, and of course, feedback is always welcome. Until next week, fellow Mages, may the power of the Arcane be with you, and may your super fast Arcane Missiles pound that Warlock straight into the ground.

Got any mage related screenshots? Send them to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or contact me by the Kuurg Contact Page and you could be featured in the next edition of Focus Magic! The more dead Warlocks involved the better! Remember to include your character name and Server. Please title the e-mail "FM Mage" or the e-mail my not get through.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 10 August 2010 20:05 Written by Kuurg Tuesday, 10 August 2010 02:51