3.3.5 PvE Arcane Mage FAQ

Post by TheReal

Reported my own thread for being out of date. If you come here from the sticky list, why are you reading about 3.3.5 anyway? This guide is old and out of date, therefore you shouldn't trust anything you read here.

Here is the Arcane Mage FAQ I promised. I'm hoping to eliminate some of the "help me do more damage" and "did I gem correctly?" threads.

To do list: hyperlink the below bullets to the appropriate sections

Gearing your mage
The talent spec
Hit capping
Enchanting your gear
Gemming correctly
The Caveat
Using Rawr to do it all
Spell rotation
Cooldowns

Gearing Your Mage

Hit to cap > Haste ~= Spellpower > Crit > Intellect > Spirit

These are the stats in the order you want them. Haste and spellpower are nearly equal according to every spreadsheet available. Get all you can get of both of them. If all other stats on two pieces of gear are equal except one gives spellpower and the other gives haste, use the piece that gives the higher number of either.

The Talent Spec

This is the 55/3/11 +2 spec that top arcane mages are using right now. Notice the lack of a talent point spent in Slow deep in the arcane tree. But wait! Why take Torment the Weak if I don't also pick up Slow? Because. All (non-fail) tanks have an ability that will trigger your Torment the Weak's increased damage, and their ability should be up on the boss at all times.

The glyphs are essential. Use the ones in the spec.

The spec does have 2 points left over that can be placed anywhere in the build to add different effects. ToC raiders should consider putting points into Incanter's Absorption for the spellpower increase against Twin Valkyrs (this mechanic is being nerfed in 3.3.3). ICC raiders should consider putting 2 points into Arcane Stability if they regularly run with a paladin who will have Concentration Aura up. Without a Concentration Aura, you might consider putting both points into Arcane Stability. If your tank fails, put a point in Slow and cast it on the mob coming to one-shot you, especially if your Ice Block is on CD.

Hit Capping

Hit is the single most important factor influencing damage until you have all you need. Consider that 26.232 hit rating is equal to 1% hit. To graciously steal and augment the chart from Caribou16's thread:

Level Difference vs Chance to Hit

+0 :: 96% = 105 Hit
+1 :: 95% = 132 Hit
+2 :: 94% = 158 Hit
+3 :: 83% = 446 Hit

The amount of spell hit necessary to never miss a heroic dungeon boss is 6%, and the hit rating necessary to never miss a raid boss is 17%. The spec itself gives 6% hit, so hit rating on gear isn't even necessary if you only intend to farm instances using the cookie cutter spec and never step foot inside a raid.

Raid makeup can affect how much hit rating an arcane mage using the cookie cutter spec needs to take into the raid.

Draenei in the same party as the mage: 10% = 233 Hit
Shadow Priest and/or Balance Druid in the raid: 8% = 210 Hit
Draenei + Shadow Priest and/or Balance Druid: 7% = 184 Hit

Always remember though: 17% is the magic number. This piece of knowledge will come in handy later when I explore with you a little caveat of the spec that seems to go unnoticed.

Post by TheReal

Enchanting Your Gear

There is really very little room to play with gear enchants if you want the most from your mage. Profession enchants should always be taken over the enchants presented here.

Some mages have argued that Tuskarr's Vitality is the boot enchant to use because the increased movement speed gets you out of the bad stuff and back to casting quicker. Blink works even faster, but causes a global cooldown. You won't be able to get back to casting as soon as if you'd have just taken a couple steps to the side or whatever. Mages from the world's top raiding guilds use Tuskarr's, so perhaps it is the way to go.

Some have also argued that Greater Spirit is the way to go, but 18 spirit works out to 9.9 crit. Throw a Blessing of Kings on us and the resulting spirit gives 11.97 crit. As we all know, 12 crit > 11.97 crit > 9.9 crit. If you have specced into Student of the Mind with leftover talent points and will receive a Blessing of Kings, only then should you consider Greater Spirit over Icewalker or Tuskarr's. Just remember the 12 hit rating Icewalker gives you; those 12 hit could come into play when we investigate our caveat later.

Gemming Correctly

This is an easy topic to write about. Arcane mages are only concerned with 4 gems at the moment.

Chaotic Skyflare Diamond
Purified Dreadstone
Runed Cardinal Ruby
Reckless Ametrine

For the meta gem, there is only one choice. Which doesn't really make it a choice. You have no choice. You either use this as your meta gem or your mage isn't doing all the damage he/she could be doing.

Use Purified Dreadstone in blue sockets that have a socket bonus equal to or greater than +7 spellpower. If you do not have two such slots in your gear, then gem any 2 blue sockets with a Purified Dreadstone while aiming for the best socket bonus. If you don't have any blue sockets or only have one blue socket, then use a Purified Dreadstone in a red socket. If you have 3 or more blue sockets with a socket bonus below +7 spellpower or if the socket bonus is anything else, then treat the socket as a red or yellow socket. See below.

The choice for red and yellow sockets requires some tuning. Ultimately, two Reckless Ametrines provide 24 spellpower and 20 haste. If you were to gem a Quick King's Amber into a yellow socket and a Runed Cardinal Ruby into a red socket, the result is 23 spellpower and 20 haste. What does all this mean?

It means to gem red and yellow sockets according to your mana situation at the end of a fight. If you burn through your mana resources with the boss left alive, then you need to remove some haste and add some spellpower. If you have mana leftover when the boss falls, then you need to gem more haste and lose some spellpower. Never use a Quick King's Amber though.

Haste is good. I've heard people argue that arcane mages should stack spellpower in their sockets because it makes their spells hit harder. While that is true, a low-haste mage forced to move out of the bad stuff may see the Arcane Blast stack fall off before another can be cast. At least with a higher haste rating, a mage can squeeze off another AB to save the debuff stack.

Post by TheReal

The Caveat

I hear it all the time. "My mage is swimming in hit!" Upon inspection, these are the same magi who are still running the cookie cutter spec. If you're way over the hit cap for your particular situation, then why hold onto hit-increasing talents like Precision and Arcane Focus? Put those talent points somewhere they're going to make a difference! Student of the Mind increases spirit and therefore critical strike rating, and Incanter's Absorption is nice in ToC or when used in tandem with Fire/Frost Ward. Losing points in Precision can really only result in putting those points into Ice Shards, but more Blizzard damage > hit you don't need.

Using Rawr to do it All

Rawr is a nice little program that anyone serious about getting the most out of his or her mage should consider. Open the program, import your character from the Armory, then look at your current DPS. It's shown just to the right of where your currently-equipped shirt is displayed. This number is far higher than you're used to seeing on Recount. The reason for this is your DPS is figured with optimal raid buffs on stand-and-burn raid boss with zero latency. You can play around with the settings if you'd like to see what your DPS should be with whatever raid composition your normally run with, but I tend to leave the settings alone.

Rawr makes finding an upgrade easy. Left clicking on a piece of your current equipment brings up a scroll list of equipment for that slot. Scroll down the list and find the highlighted item; it's the one you have now. Everything above your item is better for your DPS, and everything below your item is worse. You'll probably also notice that the same item is listed several times in a row -- that's because those items are gemmed differently. Find an upgrade whose effect on your DPS you want to determine. Left click it. Ta-da! Your improved DPS is now displayed where your imported character's DPS was displayed.

You may also want to play around with your talent spec inside Rawr. Click the "Talents" tab near the top of the Rawr window. Simply right click talents to refund their points and left click to spend them. Go back to the original tab and check the effect on your DPS. Of course this change cannot guess how much spellpower you'll receive from Incanter's Absorption, but that's a highly situational talent anyhow. I take Arcane Stability > Student of the Mind > Incanter's Absorption when I have spare points due to the caveat, but your preference may differ.

That's it. That's how I use Rawr. Simple and effective.

Post by TheReal

Rotation

I also hear a lot about rotations. Without getting into the math, a general rule is to cast Arcane Blast 4 times and then cast Arcane Missiles whether Missile Barrage has procced or not. If you have to move, you're in danger of your AB stack dropping. If Presence of Mind is up, consider popping a PoM-AB to save your stack. You can also cast Arcane Barrage if PoM is on cooldown. If you always use this rotation, your DPS will be very good for your gear level. See Squishalot's discussion on why ABx4 AM is generally the best choice for the highest possible DPS.

The 2pc T-10 set bonus throws a wrench into the works, though. With the increased haste, it's suddenly far better, from a mana-conservation standpoint, to cast Arcane Missiles as soon as possible after you've stacked your AB debuff to at least 2. Source (about 2/3 down the page, posted by Kavan.) Conserving that much mana will mean fewer Evocations, which will result in more damage done.

Before you have a 2pc T-10 bonus, AB spam is the highest DPS rotation (even though it kills your mana pool in a hurry). Once you have the 2pc bonus, it is ALWAYS higher DPS to cast your Missile Barrage AM. Source

Cooldowns

I also hear a lot about cooldowns and when to pop them. I use another general rule here. Pop Mirror Images about 1-2 seconds prior to the start of your first AB cast (before the fight or as you move into position). Cast AB 3* times (changed to 4 times, see reasoning below), then cast PoM-AB. During the global cooldown that results from your 4th AB, pop your on-use trinket(s), Icy Veins, and Arcane Power macro...

#showtooltip
/use 13
/use 14
/use Icy Veins
/use Arcane Power

...and then cast your (hopefully procced) Arcane Missiles. If my Missile Barrage has not procced in my first 4 ABs, I spam AB fishing for the proc before popping my trinket/IV/AP macro. Mirror Images is recast upon completion of the cooldown, and I wait for Icy Veins to refresh before popping the trinket/IV/AP macro again. 4pc T-10, now that I have it, makes me want to hold onto my Mirror Images for a second cast until my IV-AP-Trinket macro is available again.

*In actuality, casting PoM-AB for your 4th AB results in the 30% crit multiplier from Arcane Potency being applied to the AB with a 45% damage buff. If PoM-AB is used for the 5th+ AB, then the crit multiplier from Arcane Potency is applied to an AB cast that is already getting a 60% damage buff.

Thank you for reading my walls-o-text. Please provide suggestions about how to make this thread better for the betterment of the mage community.