Cataclysm Classic Arcane Mage Stat Priority

The stat priority for Arcane Mage is as follows:

1. Intellect
2. Hit Rating (17% Hit Cap!)
3. Haste Rating (until soft cap)
4. Mastery Rating
5. Haste Rating (after soft cap)
6. Critical Strike Rating

Intellect becomes our new best stat by far, you can never have enough of it, the more the better. It provides Spell Power, Crit and a Mana pool increase.

Hit is our second best stat until you reach the cap of 17% hit (16% for Draenei Mages). Once you reach 17% hit chance, any further Hit Rating becomes redundant. Draenei Mages need 1640 Hit Rating to reach the hit cap, whereas other races require 1742 Hit Rating. The best way to get hit rating from Reforging is to reforge Critical Strike Rating into Hit Rating.

At Level 85:

• 102.44 Hit Rating = 1% Spell Hit Chance

The table below shows the soft haste caps, depending on your raid buffs. This soft haste cap is needed to bring down the cast time of Arcane Blast to one second. If you are a Troll Mage, do not use Berserking during Bloodlust/ Heroism/ Time Warp, or you will likely overshoot your 1 second global cooldown cap and the extra haste from Berserking will go to waste. The 5% Buff comes from Moonkin Form, Mind Quickening, or Wrath of Air Totem, the Goblin racial gives you 1% Haste.

At Level 85:

• 128.05 Haste Rating = 1% Haste

Mastery is better than Haste (after reaching the Haste soft cap) and Crit. This is due to the Mana Adept passive talent from choosing the Arcane talent tree. It increases all spell damage done by up to 12%, based on the amount of mana the you have unspent. Each point of Mastery increases damage done by up to an additional 1.5%.

The more mana% you have, the better Mastery will be, meaning at 100% mana Mastery is more beneficial than at 50% mana.

For instance, if your Mastery Rating tooltip indicates: "Increases all spell damage done by up to 20%, based on the amount of mana the Mage has unspent.", this would mean that a spell which does 10000 damage before Mastery would behave the following way:

• At 10% mana, it would deal 10200 damage, reflecting a 2% increase (10% of the 20% boost from Mana Adept).
• At 25% mana, it would deal 10500 damage, corresponding to a 5% increase (25% of the 20% boost from Mana Adept).
• At 50% mana, it would deal 11000 damage, reflecting a 10% increase (50% of the 20% boost from Mana Adept).
• At 75% mana, it would deal 11500 damage, reflecting a 15% increase (75% of the 20% boost from Mana Adept).
• At 100% mana, it would deal 12000 damage, reflecting a 20% increase (100% of the 20% boost from Mana Adept).

At Level 85:

• 179.28 Mastery Rating = 1% Mastery

Critical Strike Rating is simply the worst stat for Arcane Mages and should always be Reforged into the other stats mentioned above, depending on which stat you currently need the most. Typically this will be Hit Rating, Haste Rating or Mastery Rating.

At Level 85:

• 179.28 Crit Rating = 1% Crit