DRAGONFLIGHT GUIDE CAN BE FOUND HERE
https://www.mage-hub.com/arcane

Updated for 9.2

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Introduction

Arcane is a spec that revolves around burst damage and mana management. The spec remains unique in that it’s the only DPS spec left in the game that still cares about mana; however it’s mana functions much closer to slow moving energy than it does to traditional mana like healers.

To see the raw sim data driving the information in this guide, please check out my sim website.

You can listen to my thoughts on specs and covenants in 9.2 here

Updated for 9.2

Introduction

1 - Major Changes

2 - Overview

3 - Abilities

4 - Talents

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Tier 4

Tier 5

Tier 6

Tier 7

5 - Kyrian/Harmony Rotation

5.1 - Rotation Overview

5.2 - Radiant Spark

5.3 - Burn Phase

5.4 - Evocation Usage

5.5 - The Conserve Phase

5.6 - AOE Rotation

6 - Standard Rotation

6.1 - Rotation Overview

6.2 - Burn Phase

6.2.1 - Arcane Power Burn

6.2.2 - Evocation Burn

6.3 - The Mini Burn Phase

6.4 - Fishing Prior to Burns

6.5 - The Conserve Phase

6.6 - Covenant Abilities

6.7 - The Opener

6.8 - AOE Rotation

6.9 - Legendary Usage

7 - Gearing

7.1 - Stats

7.2 - Trinkets

7.2.1 - Trinket Usage

7.3 - Legendaries

7.4 - Conduits and Soulbinds

7.5 - Gems, Enchants, and Consumables

8 - Covenants

9 - Racials

9.1 - Horde

9.2 - Alliance

10 - Macros and Add-ons

10.1 - Add-ons

10.2 - Macros

11 - Advanced

11.1 - Cancelling Alter Time

11.2 - Rune of Power Range

11.3 - Starting fights with Clearcasting

11.4 - Using Fire and Frost spells for DPS

12 - FAQ

13 - Other Resources

Closing

1 - Major Changes

If you are returning to mage after one or more expansions, here's some important fundamental changes that you should be aware of since last time you played.

Battle for Azeroth

Shadowlands

2 - Overview

Arcane has 2 main resources:

To assist with mana management arcane has several ways to regenerate mana

In Shadowlands, Arcane mage is unique in that the Kyrian Covenant combined with the Arcane Harmony legendary provide an entirely new way of playing. Because of this many sections of this guide will be split into what I’m calling “traditional” Arcane (aka not using this setup), and “Kyrian/Harmony” Arcane which does utilise it.

3 - Abilities

Damage abilities:

  • Arcane Blast is our filler ability. Damage and mana cost are increased per Arcane Charge . Unlike other filler abilities our resources mean this also works as our primary damage source at high Arcane Charge .
  • Arcane Missiles is a medium damage channel with a high mana cost. Ticks an additional time and costs no mana with Clearcasting.
  • Arcane Barrage is a high damage ability that deals additional damage per Arcane Charge and resets our Arcane Charge to 0. Hits an additional target per Arcane Charge . Restores 1.5% mana per Arcane Charge used.
  • Touch of the Magi is an 8 second debuff that stores a percentage of the damage we do to the target over the duration; at the end the damage is released to deal damage to the target and all nearby enemies.
  • Arcane Power is our primary damage cooldown. Giving us 30% increased damage and 30% reduced mana costs for 15 seconds.
  • Evocation is a channelled ability that regenerates our mana over the duration.

Utility abilities:

  • Blink teleports us 20 yards forwards and is our main mobility tool.
  • Arcane Intellect is a castable buff that increases your groups Intellect by 5% for 1 hour.
  • Prismatic Barrier gives us a small shield and reduces magic damage taken by 20%; useful for periods of high damage.
  • Ice Block is an immunity that prevents all damage, but we cannot move or cast spells for the duration. Can be cancelled by pressing Ice Block again.
  • Remove Curse dispels all curses from a friendly target.
  • Greater Invisibility turns us invisible after a short delay and reduces damage taken by 60%. Useful for periods of high damage and can be used to fizzle several targeted boss abilities.
  • Spellsteal steals 1 beneficial magic buff from the target. Note some incredibly powerful buffs cannot be stolen and will simply be purged.
  • Mirror Image creates 3 copies of our character that cast Frostbolt for 40 seconds. While an image is active your direct damage taken is reduced by 20%, and taking direct damage causes an image to dissipate. This is not a DPS cooldown.
  • Alter Time snapshots our current location and health. The spell can be reactivated again within 10 seconds to return us to said location and health.

4 - Talents

Single target:                                                                                                             AOE such as an add fight or Mythic+:

Tier 1

Amplification is your go to here in basically every scenario. The big disadvantage of this talent is that it is purely single target, but Arcane Familiar simply does not pull the numbers required on AOE to make the swap worth it even when multiple targets are involved.

Tier 2

All 3 options here are competitive.

For Arcane I recommend Slipstream on most fights. Slipstream + Presence of Mind means you are covered movement-wise whenever it matters most during your burst, and when channelling Evocation.

Master of Time is worse from a mobility perspective, but has the added advantage of being a defensive talent as well.

Tier 3

  • Incanter's Flow is a passive damage buff that fluctuates between 4% and 20%
  • Focus Magic is a buff that can be placed on a party or raid member increasing their critical strike by 5%, if that ally critically strikes with an ability our critical strike chance and intellect are increased by 5% for 10 seconds.
  • Rune of Power is an active ability that places a rune on the ground for 12 seconds. Standing near the rune increases our spell damage by 40%. Rune of Power is automatically cast when using Arcane Power.

Rune of Power provides the highest damage and has good synergy with both Touch of the Magi and Arcane Power. However on movement intensive encounters or encounters where you cannot get full Rune of Power value, you can consider Incanter's Flow or Focus Magic. Currently however Rune of Power is powerful enough that it should be taken in almost every scenario.

Tier 4

Arcane Echo is the default choice on single target, Arcane Missiles allows us to activate Arcane Echo a significant number of times during Touch of the Magi especially combined with Clearcasting.

Resonance provides the highest damage on multiple targets and provides the best funnel.

Nether Tempest is currently not useful in any situation.

Tier 5

Chrono Shift is the default choice here, it provides additional mobility but keep in mind it’s not as useful as it seems as the movement speed is not granted until Arcane Barrage hits its target.

Ice Ward and Ring of Frost provide very little value on most raid encounters. If an encounter requires you to control adds, consider which talent gives more benefit to your raid. Frost Nova is faster and more forgiving, but Ring of Frost can be used from range.

In dungeons Ring of Frost can be used to stack up adds on bigger pulls and assist your tank with kiting.

Tier 6

Arcane Orb is the best option here on both Single Target and AOE for both playstyles. The damage and additional Arcane Charges provide more DPS than the other 2 talents in all situations.

Tier 7

Time Anomaly is terrible. Never take this talent.

Due to the burst nature of Arcane Overpowered is the best option here over Enlightened. The two talents actually provide fairly similar damage as with Enlightened we tend to spend our Arcane Power window above 70% mana, and most of our conserve phase below 70% mana. The big issue with this row is that Arcane Prodigy is currently one of the goto conduits and that makes Overpowered a lot stronger.

Enlightened becomes a lot more competitive on AOE due to spending more time above 70% mana.

5 - Kyrian/Harmony Rotation

5.1 - Rotation Overview

As a member of the Kyrian Covenant with Arcane Harmony your rotation changes from what would be considered the more traditional Arcane rotation, however as Kyrian is the best covenant this is the closest thing to the ‘standard’ rotation right now. You instead want to maximise the number of huge Arcane Barrage casts, by casting an Arcane Barrage into a 4 stack Radiant Spark with as many Arcane Harmony stacks as possible:

Similar to regular Arcane you have a number of phases, due to wanting to cast Radiant Spark and Arcane Power on cooldown, the timing of each is fairly telegraphed. There are 2 sequences that you should consider based on the fight.

  1. Arcane Power every 2 minutes & Touch of the Magi every 1 minute (aka no Arcane Prodigy)
  2. Arcane Power every 90 seconds & Touch of the Magi every 45 seconds (with Arcane Prodigy)

Arcane Prodigy (45s/90s)

No Arcane Prodigy (1 min / 2 min)

Using the above sequence we don’t Radiant Spark again at 1:30 because we don’t want to delay Arcane Power (as the above timings are not exact).

These timings are not exact as you will end up delaying certain spells for a second or two for one reason or another. It should however give you a good idea of the “cycles” you’re supposed to go through.

  • Generally you should default to the Arcane Prodigy sync rotation.
  • You can play the 2 minute Arcane Power build on any fight where 2 minute cooldowns are favoured; because you need to hold cooldowns for example.
  • You can work on incorporating desync  Rune of Power or Radiant Spark if the fight allows it, however it ends up being more difficult as you need to find more windows where you can stand still.
  • When playing desync at high levels of Arcane Prodigy you can hold Touch of the Magi and only use it with Arcane Power.

5.2 - Radiant Spark

Radiant Spark should always be cast prior to Touch of the Magi. The Radiant Spark sequence is simple:

  1. Arcane Blast (+0% increased damage)
  2. Arcane Blast (+10% increased damage)
  3. Arcane Blast (+20% increased damage)
  4. Arcane Blast (+30% increased damage)
  5. Arcane Barrage (+40% increased damage)

If Arcane Barrage is spell queued after the 5th Arcane Blast both will fire at the same time and both will gain the benefit of the final charge of Radiant Spark.

On AOE we prioritise two Arcane Barrage casts over a single big Arcane Barrage as this nets more damage:

  1. Arcane Explosion (+0% increased damage)
  2. Arcane Explosion (+10% increased damage)
  3. Arcane Barrage    (+20% increased damage)
  4. Arcane Orb             (+30% increased damage)
  5. Arcane Barrage    (+40% increased damage)

You should still enter this combo with 18 stacks of Arcane Harmony if possible.

5.3 - Burn Phase

Enter the burn phase when the following spells are off cooldown and you have 18 stacks of Arcane Harmony:

It's very important that we have Arcane Orb ready for Arcane Power to regenerate Arcane Charges; as we’ll be using Arcane Barrage mid Arcane Power and dropping Arcane Charges.

Burn Priority:

  1. Cast Radiant Spark
  2. Cast Touch of the Magi
  3. Cast Arcane Power
  4. Cast Arcane Blast if the target is affected by Radiant Spark
  5. Cast Arcane Barrage if the target has 4 stacks of Radiant Spark
  6. Cast Arcane Orb
  7. Cast Arcane Blast if you have less than 4 Arcane Charges
  8. Cast Arcane Missiles

During burn, you want to use Presence of Mind in one of two ways:

  1. To move freely during Radiant Spark
  2. To regenerate charges as quickly as possible after the first Arcane Barrage

Mini-Burn Priority:

  1. Cast Rune of Power
  2. Cast Radiant Spark
  3. Cast Touch of the Magi
  4. Cast Arcane Blast if the target is affected by Radiant Spark
  5. Cast Arcane Barrage if the target has 4 stacks of Radiant Spark
  6. Cast Arcane Orb
  7. Cast Arcane Missiles

5.4 - Evocation Usage

This version of Arcane has a lot less control over its mana than traditional Arcane. You should not be intentionally burning like regular Arcane. Simply cast Evocation once you run out of mana. Do ensure you have enough mana to enter burns. If you need to conserve mana without Evocation cast Frostbolt.

5.5 - The Conserve Phase

During the conserve phase when everything is on cooldown our goal is to simply efficiently spend mana while ensuring that we have enough mana and Arcane Harmony stacks for our next burn phase. Generally follow this priority until you want to prepare for Radiant Spark:

  1. Cast Arcane Barrage at 4 Arcane Charges
  2. Cast Arcane Orb
  3. Cast Arcane Missiles with Clearcasting
  4. Cast Arcane Blast with 2 or more Arcane Charges
  5. Cast Arcane Missiles

Pay attention to your Radiant Spark cooldown. Do not Arcane Barrage if Radiant Spark is coming off cooldown soon.

5.6 - AOE Rotation

You should begin the AOE rotation at 3 targets outside cooldowns, and 5 targets during cooldowns:

  1. Cast Radiant Spark
  2. Cast Touch of the Magi
  3. Cast Arcane Power
  4. Cast Rune of Power if you do not have one from Arcane Power
  5. Cast Arcane Barrage at 4 Arcane Charges
  6. Cast Arcane Orb
  7. Cast Arcane Missiles with Clearcasting until 8 targets
  8. Cast Arcane Explosion

On AOE we can provide an extremely high burst damage combo with all cooldowns available:

        Radiant Spark -> Touch of the Magi  -> Arcane Power

        or

        Rune of Power-> Radiant Spark -> Touch of the Magi 

Followed by:

Arcane Explosion -> Arcane Explosion - > Arcane Barrage -> Arcane Orb -> Arcane Barrage

With this combo Touch of the Magi still provides a hefty amount of damage on AOE because we are funneling most of the Arcane Barrage damage into one target.

In Dungeons its very important that as the last few mobs die you begin casting Arcane Missiles to stack Arcane Harmony in preparation for the next pack

6 - Standard Rotation

This is the rotation you should use as a Venthyr, Night Fae, or Necrolord.

If you are playing Kyrian (which you should be), you can skip this section. Because this is the ‘normal’ way to play Arcane, I am keeping it here for completeness sake.

6.1 - Rotation Overview

The Arcane rotation involves cycling between burn phases and the conserve phase. Below I have detailed when you should enter each phase:

  1. Arcane Power Burn - Arcane Power is off cooldown. Touch of the Magi is off cooldown or more than 15 seconds away. You are above 30% mana.
  2. Evocation Burn - Evocation is off cooldown.
  3. Mini burn - Rune of Power and Touch of the Magi are off cooldown.
  4. Conserve - You cannot enter any burn phase.

6.2 - Burn Phase

6.2.1 - Arcane Power Burn

Enter the burn phase when Arcane Power and preferably Touch of the Magi are off cooldown. If Touch of the Magi is more than 15 seconds away then you should not bother to wait and just enter the burn phase anyway. By this point you should have also ensured that you are above 30% mana.

  1. Cast Touch of the Magi if available
  2. Cast Arcane Power
  3. Cast Arcane Missiles with Arcane Echo talented if the target is still affected by Touch of the Magi
  4. Cast Presence of Mind followed by Arcane Blast if you can only fit one more spell inside Rune of Power
  5. Cast Arcane Missiles with Clearcasting
  6. Cast Arcane Blast

We always want to Presence of Mind -> Arcane Blast at the end of the respective damage window (Touch of the Magi/Rune of Power/Arcane Power) rather than the beginning, as it will net us an extra spell cast due to the damage happening at the beginning of the GCD instead of the end.

6.2.2 - Evocation Burn

If Evocation is off cooldown, we are free to completely burn our mana bar and use Evocation to regenerate it.

  1. Cast Arcane Orb
  2. Cast Arcane Missiles with Clearcasting
  3. Cast Arcane Blast at 4 Arcane Charge

Continue until you hit 0 mana, afterwards Evocation and enter the conserve phase.

You should generally try to Evocation burn

6.3 - The Mini Burn Phase

Enter the mini burn phase when Touch of the Magi and Rune of Power are off cooldown.

If Touch of the Magi is ready ,Rune of Power is not, and Arcane Power is roughly 45 seconds away; you should enter Touch of the Magi without Rune of Power so that it’s ready in time for Arcane Power.

  1. Cast Touch of the Magi 
  2. Cast Rune of Power
  3. Cast Arcane Missiles with Arcane Echo talented if the target is still affected by Touch of the Magi 
  4. Cast Arcane Barrage at 4 Arcane Charges or if it’s your last spell inside Rune of Power
  5. Cast Arcane Blast

Note that during mini burn you can generally afford to burn a bit more mana by casting multiple Arcane Blasts at 4 Arcane Charges. The mana has to get used somewhere. Just ensure you have enough mana for your burn later.

6.4 - Fishing Prior to Burns

If we can we want to try and enter our burst with as many Clearcasting procs as possible. Especially when playing with Arcane Echo, we want to maximise the number of damage instances during Touch of the Magi via spamming Arcane Missiles. Prior to any Touch of the Magi windows (with or without Arcane Power), we can increase our damage during Touch of the Magi by “fishing” for Clearcasting procs. We do this by more aggressively spending mana leading up to a Touch of the Magi window and simply holding the Clearcasting proc gained, not using Arcane Missiles until Touch of the Magi.

Prior to our Arcane Power burn, if Evocation is off cooldown we want to spam 4 Arcane Charge Arcane Blast until either:

After one of these things happens we enter our Arcane Power burn with whatever Clearcasting charges we managed to gain in that time and continue as normal.

When playing Venthyr there is generally no need to fish unless you’re playing Empyreal Ordnance.

6.5 - The Conserve Phase

During the conserve phase when everything is on cooldown our goal is to simply efficiently spend mana while ensuring that we have enough mana for our next burn phase.

  1. Cast Rune of Power unless you need to hold it for a mini burn.
  2. Cast Arcane Orb
  3. Cast Arcane Missiles with Clearcasting.
  4. Cast Arcane Blast while below 4 Arcane Charges or above 90% mana.
  5. Cast Arcane Barrage at 4 Arcane Charges.

6.6 - Covenant Abilities

Generally mage covenant abilities should be used on cooldown with some optimisations:

Kyrian:

  • Covered in the Kyrian/Harmony rotation section.

Venthyr:

Night Fae:

Necrolords:

6.7 - The Opener

Generally we want to begin an encounter with the fishing phase explained above, followed by our burn phase. On certain encounters though that may cause issues down the line and you may need to begin the burn phase immediately on pull (or have a shorter fishing period).

As Venthyr we don’t need to fish due to the additional Clearcasting from Mirrors of Torment. As Venthyr we want to cast Mirrors of Torment on pull and enter our burn roughly ~8 seconds later.

6.8 - AOE Rotation

Generally the Arcane AOE rotation begins at 3 targets, and 5 targets during Deathborne:

  1. Cast Touch of the Magi
  2. Cast Arcane Power
  3. Cast Rune of Power if you do not have one from Arcane Power
  4. Cast Arcane Barrage at 4 Arcane Charges
  5. Cast Arcane Orb
  6. Cast Arcane Missiles during Touch of the Magi if you have Arcane Echo talented
  7. Cast Arcane Explosion

On AOE we can provide an extremely high burst damage combo with all cooldowns available and 4 Arcane Charges:

Arcane Power/Rune of Power -> Arcane Barrage -> Touch of the Magi  -> Arcane Barrage -> Arcane Orb -> Arcane Barrage

If you are Night Fae you can immediately cast Shifting Power and follow it up with another Arcane Orb -> Arcane Barrage.

With this combo Touch of the Magi still provides a hefty amount of damage on AOE because we are funneling most of the Arcane Barrage damage into one target.

6.9 - Legendary Usage

Arcane Bombardment changes the rotation in a few depending on the number of targets (Obviously assuming the target is below 35% health).

  • On single target you should cast Arcane Barrage at the end of Arcane Power.
  • On multiple targets, you should build to as many Arcane Charge as it takes to hit all targets with Arcane Barrage then immediately clear. This means you should Arcane Barrage at (number of targets -1). Note this is assuming all targets are below 35% health.
  • If you require the mobility, you can alternate between Arcane Barrage and Arcane Explosion during execute. Do note that this is a minor DPS loss compared to the regular rotation but allows for much more mobility.

Arcane Harmony

Temporal Warp

Siphon Storm

7 - Gearing

With all gearing related decisions you should trust your own sims over any generic lists or advice you see on the internet.

7.1 - Stats

Arcane has no stat breakpoints, no hard caps, and no specific stat percentages to aim for - that's not how stats work anymore. There will be some minor haste breakpoints when it comes to fitting extra spells inside Arcane Power/Touch of the Magi but if these are worth the DPS gain it will appear in sims.

  • Critical Strike increases the critical strike rate of our abilities.
  • Haste reduces the cast time of our spells, the global cooldown, and therefore the rate at which we spend mana.
  • Versatility provides a flat damage increase and damage taken reduction.
  • Mastery: Savant increases our mana and mana regeneration. Increases the damage bonus provided by Arcane Charges, and provides a flat damage increase to all Arcane damage done.

Due to the large Intellect stat budget on items, item level will usually be an upgrade. Stat weights vary depending on your current gear and talents. To produce an accurate stat priority or to accurately compare items you must sim yourself. Remember that haste value increases on AOE due to the AOE rotation being mana neutral.

Generally prioritise stats like so:

1. Intellect

2. Critical Strike / Mastery

3. Versatility

4. Haste

7.2 - Trinkets

Generally you'll want only one on use trinket that benefits from Arcane Power.

Good trinkets that synergise with Arcane Power are:

Good passive trinkets to complement your on-use are:

Some new trinkets are still missing in game / simc implementations. I will update this section as soon as I can.

7.2.1 - Trinket Usage

Arcane Power no longer buffs the damage of trinkets, however some trinkets will still benefit our Arcane Power by giving us additional stats. You should always overlap these items with Arcane Power. If you have multiple on use trinkets you should prioritise the one that benefits Arcane Power the most during Arcane Power. You must ensure you take into account the 20 second shared cooldown when activating your second trinket as you don't want to delay Arcane Power to wait for your first trinket.

When using trinkets that have a longer cooldown than Arcane Power (either naturally or because of effects like Arcane Prodigy), you should not delay Arcane Power. Simply delay your trinket and use it with the next Arcane Power.

You should generally try to avoid using two on use trinkets that rely on Arcane Power synergy.

7.3 - Legendaries

Legendaries should be crafted using Missive of Critical Strike and Missive of Mastery. Whenever upgrading legendaries keep in mind that higher level legendaries do not have a stronger effect, only better stats. You should also aim to craft legendaries in the slots that have the most stats.

Covenant legendaries should simply be treated as an extension of the base ability, and will be factored into covenant decisions in that section.

Prioritise slots as follows:

1. Legs

2. Neck/Ring

3. Hands/Feet

4. Back

In 9.2 we want to avoid tier slots where possible. This is not possible with some legendaries, either craft in both slots or hope for the best. You should also consider recrafting Unity onto your worst slot at the time with more ideal stats. If you want to be flexible I recommend recrafting it on Ring.

Kyrian:

Arcane Harmony for most single target and AOE encounters

Arcane Bombardment for sustained AOE

If for some reason you aren’t playing Kyrian:

Venthyr:

        Siphon Storm for single target

Arcane Bombardment for AOE

Necrolords:

Temporal Warp for single target

Arcane Bombardment for AOE

Night Fae:

Temporal Warp for single target

Arcane Bombardment for AOE

Do not craft any other Legendary for Arcane PvE.

7.4 - Conduits and Soulbinds

Remember that the level of your conduit can impact which conduit pulls ahead, as always I recommend you sim yourself; but assuming equal item levels you should be able to follow this guide. Remember that Soulbinds do not level up at the same renown level, which means you can find that some weeks a different soulbind may pull ahead. SIM IT.

Kyrian:

Pelagos - Ire of the Ascended > Arcane Prodigy > Magi’s Brand

Note that Mikanikos is not as potent as he is for many other specs, as Arcane does not properly utilise the cooldown reduction on Radiant Spark. You should choose Mikanikos in any of the following situations:

  • Your Combat Meditation mastery buff becomes desynced from your Arcane Power
  • You can consistently Radiant Spark on 5 targets to maximise the cooldown reduction

Venthyr:

        Theotar - Arcane Prodigy > Siphoned Malice > Magi’s Brand

Necrolords:

Emeni - Arcane Prodigy > Magi’s Brand > Gift of the Lich

Night Fae:

Dreamweaver  - Magi’s Brand > Discipline of the Grove > Arcane Prodigy

7.5 - Gems, Enchants, and Consumables

Gem and Enchants:

Consumables:

8 - Covenants

Kyrian is the only competitive option for Arcane.

Kyrian fields a very abusable covenant ability in Radiant Spark along with some of the best soulbinds in Pelagos and Mikanikos.

  • It provides the most damage
  • It gains pseudo mobility by not being uptime dependent outside of Radiant Spark
  • Sync and desync play styles both being competitive makes the spec’s damage profile very flexible in actual raid encounters
  • It uses the same talents and legendary for Single target and AOE, making it very good at fights that contain both
  • It has good funnel

The covenant however comes with some trade offs

  • The covenant requires a lot of pre-planning
  • The covenant's sustained multitarget (Cleave or AOE) is not great (but also not terrible).

To see the data driving these decisions, please check out my sim website where I have provided the DPS of each ability and soulbind at various Renown levels on both single target and AOE.

When evaluating covenants it’s important not to tunnel vision on the signature ability. Covenants are a package deal of 2 abilities, a covenant specific conduit, and 3 soulbinds.

9 - Racials

Fire generally has more impactful DPS racials than some of the other specs in the game. However, do not underestimate races with utility racials.

9.1 - Horde

  • Troll - Berserking is an insanely good DPS racial for both Fire and Arcane. Troll provides additional value for Kyrian Arcane as it allows you to land your combo more consistently from distance.
  • Orc - Blood Fury is an insanely good DPS racial for both Fire and Arcane.
  • Goblin - Rocket Jump is one of the few useful utility racials while Time is Money keeps the race somewhat competitive for DPS, but still behind Troll.

9.2 - Alliance

  • Mechagnome - The passive intellect bonus is a very powerful well rounded DPS racial.
  • Void Elf - Spatial Rift is one of the few useful utility racials while Entropic Embrace keeps the race competitive for DPS.

10 - Macros and Add-ons

10.1 - Add-ons

Raidbots combined with the Simulationcraft Add-on now make simming your character incredibly easy. There is no longer an excuse to not be simming if you want to find upgrades and make accurate gear comparisons.

Weak Auras is the only add-on that I consider mandatory for World of Warcraft raiding. It is incredibly powerful and incredibly customisable. If you don't want to go through the effort of creating your own, there are a few I recommend:

You can also check out Wago.io to find other premade Weakauras for both mages and boss encounters.

BigWigs or Deadly Boss Mods provide boss timers and notifications. Deadly Boss Mods is a bit more "in your face" with notifications and warnings whereas BigWigs is slightly quieter. Personal preference between the two.

Details! is by far the best damage meter out there. Makes it easier to analyse wipes and DPS while being easy on your CPU.

10.2 - Macros

There are also some small optimizations that can be made through macros in order to master your arcane mage.

Macro all cooldowns, racials, and items into one key.

#showtooltip

/cast Arcane Power

/cast Blood Fury

/cast Berserking

/use 11

/use 12

/use 13

/use 14

/use 2

Can be used to cancel Ice Block and immediately Shimmer. Useful when Ice Blocked in a void zone as you'll Shimmer out and take no damage.

#showtooltip

/cancelaura Ice Block

/cast Blink

The macro below can be used to automatically cancel Ice Block if you try to cast a spell while blocked; and automatically targets something if you try to cast a spell with no target. [nochanneling] will also allow you to spam the key without cancelling Shifting Power.

#showtooltip

/cancelaura Ice Block

/cast [nochanneling:Shifting Power] Arcane Blast

/targetenemy [noexists][dead]

Use whatever you have in the tier 3 talent row.

#showtooltip

/use [talent:3/2]Focus Magic; [talent:3/3]Rune of Power;

Counterspell macro. Prioritises Mouseover > Focus > Target.

#showtooltip Counterspell

/cast [@mouseover,harm][@Focus,harm][harm] Counterspell

The same macro but for Spellsteal

#showtooltip Spellsteal

/cast [@mouseover,harm][@Focus,harm][harm] Spellsteal

Mouseover Remove Curse

#showtooltip Remove Curse

/cast [@cursor]Remove Curse

Delete current Mana Gem and make a new one

#showtooltip Conjure Mana Gem

/run for b=0,4 do for s=1,36 do n=GetContainerItemLink(b,s);if n and string.find(n,"Mana Gem") then PickupContainerItem(b,s);DeleteCursorItem();end;end;end;

/cast Conjure Mana Gem

11 - Advanced

11.1 - Cancelling Alter Time

Alter Time snapshots our current location and health. The spell can then be reactivated within 10 seconds to return us to said location and health. However if the buff expires we will be returned regardless, which sometimes we may not want to do.

If we cancel the Alter Time buff, it will not automatically be activated at the end of the duration, allowing us to stay where we are.

/cancelaura Alter Time

11.2 - Rune of Power Range

An often overlooked property of mage is how big the radius of Rune of Power is. A lot of players express frustration with this talent but by properly tracking the buff you can frequently move quite far and still benefit from Rune of Power. I recommend you have a weak aura to track the buff.

Here is an example showing how far you can be while still benefiting from rune:Image

11.3 - Starting fights with Clearcasting

Prior to an encounter we can spam Arcane Explosion until we get a Clearcasting proc, then immediately drink.

11.4 - Using Fire and Frost spells for DPS

In Shadowlands, Arcane has access to Fire Blast and Frostbolt. Neither of these spells provide incredibly high damage on their own, but they end up having some niche uses.

  • Fire Blast gives us an instant cast that we can use while moving
  • Fire Blast and Frostbolt both cost very little mana and allow us to manage mana in certain scenarios

Imagine the following situation as a Kyrian/Harmony Mage:

You are low mana, your burst is coming up, you have 4 Arcane Charges and 18 stacks of Arcane Harmony, you have no Clearcasting. Touch of the Magi and Arcane Power are up in 8 seconds.

        

This is a situation where we’d use Fire Blast and Frostbolt until we’re ready to burn.

Note spamming Frostbolt is a mana positive play.

12 - FAQ

Q: Why do your guides not have BIS lists?

A: A few reasons. First off BIS setups are only BIS once the entire set has been complete, which is likely long after your gear is actually relevant. Changing one item could mean that another item is no longer BIS. Second, with the current gearing system in World of Warcraft gear acquisition is incredibly random; it is far more productive to figure out how to sim and seek short term upgrades than it is to spend months chasing an ideal setup.

Q: How do I sim syncing cooldowns as Kyrian?

A: apl_variable.always_sync_cooldowns=1

  • Note this is the default behaviour with 9.2 tier set

Q: Should I use Arcane Momentum?

A: Person preference. Generally I would advise against it as it's more error prone and you should be able to do everything you need with proper camera control and default blink. Arcane momentum is also currently bugged.

Q: How do I sim Focus Magic trade?

A: external_buffs.focus_magic=1

Q: How do I sim Shifting Power without the damage?

A: override.spell_data=effect.815217.sp_coefficient=0

Q: What stat percentages should I aim for?

A: Nothing, you don't aim for specific percentages of stats. The thought process behind this question is simply a misunderstanding of how stats work. There are very few stat breakpoints in the game that are of utmost importance, and stats generally complement each other. You equip the gear that gives you the most DPS with almost no thought on what stat percentages that leaves you at (hint: it doesn't matter).

Q: Should I use pawn?

A: No, it's an outdated add-on, based on an outdated way of thinking about the game. It relies too heavily on stat weights being an accurate method of comparing gear, which they aren't.

Q: What professions should I use?

A: In Shadowlands professions don't really matter. Almost nothing requires you to actually have the profession to use except for a few niche items in Engineering.

13 - Other Resources

Here is my guide to the mage tower - Arcane Mage Tower Guide

Altered Time Mage Discord - https://discord.gg/8huqAW5. Please ask questions here instead of PMing me or any of the other contributors/staff members. (and check the pins/resources!)

Mage Sims, contains all information you need to know about covenants and legendaries - https://toegrinder.github.io/mage-compendium/sims

Toegrinder's Fire Mage Compendium - https://tinyurl.com/fire-mage-compendium

Toegrinder's Frost Mage Compendium - https://tinyurl.com/frost-mage-compendium

Mage simc info - https://github.com/simulationcraft/simc/wiki/Mages

Beware of stat weights - https://medium.com/raidbots/beware-of-stat-weights-240769a5323e

Closing

Big thanks to Sergrand for their work on the Arcane APL.

Thanks to Norrinir, Frosted, Dorovon and many more for their work on simulationcraft.