TBC Classic Arcane Mage Pre-Raid Gear

This gear collection list is considered the to be the best gear you can get outside of raids and includes gear and badges from (Heroic) TBC dungeons, gear from PvP, and gear from Tailoring.

The list below is following the stat priority of Spell Hit until cap > Spell Damage = Intellect > Spell Haste > Spell Crit > Spirit and assumes no Hit chance raid buffs.

If your character is ready to jump into Phase 5 / Tier 6 content, then see our current best in slot list. If you wish to go through the content of Tiers 4 or 5 instead, then please see their respective lists below.

The craftable pieces are either tradeable or their recipes/patterns are. For your gems, you should look to use Chaotic Skyfire Diamond to increase your damage output in battle, Glowing Shadowsong Amethyst in Blue or Red sockets (you need two of these to activate your Meta gem), Brilliant Lionseye in Yellow sockets, and Runed Crimson Spinel in Red sockets. Glowing Nightseye, Brilliant Dawnstone, and Runed Living Ruby are the low-budget alternatives to these Epic-quality gems. The uncut Epic gems can be bought for 15 Badge of Justice per unit. While it might look tempting, it is usually not worth going after the yellow-blue(-red) socket bonus, except for activating your meta gem. In that case, just use yellow gems in every slot, except for two blue/green/purple gems in blue slots.

While the list above contains the absolute best gear set up it can be extremely difficult, expensive, or generally unrealistic to obtain it in a timely manner. Below are alternatives. You may also use these alternative items if you find yourself not hit capped.

For each of these gear sets, make sure to be Spell Hit capped. The Arcane Mage stat priority and hit cap can be found in our Arcane Mage PvE Stats section.

If you have further questions about gemming and enchanting these items, our Arcane Mage Enchants and Gems page below provides more information.