WotLK Classic Arcane Mage Guide

Arcane Mage is the best Mage specialization when it comes to doing as much single target DPS as possible, in as little time as possible. With their strong buffs like Icy Veins and Arcane Power, they can deal immense damage in a short amount of time. Arcane Mage focuses on a playstyle revolving around ABC (Always Be Casting), movement, raid support, crowd control, and Mana management. Arcane Mage empowers their raid with the raid-wide Arcane Empowerment buff, making them an easy pick for group play.

Furthermore, Arcane Mage can do respectable damage with very little gear, as they only need 8% (or 7% as an Alliance player with the Draenei buff Heroic Presence) Hit Rating from their equipment. For PVP players, however, Frost is the preferred talent specialization, as it offers more survivability and crowd control while dealing respectable burst damage. Once you've reached Tier 8 content (Ulduar and beyond), the gear from raids has better stats, with most fights becoming more complex than just patchwork-style single-target fights. Due to this, Fire Mage catches up in raid performance from this point on and outshines Arcane.

Nevertheless, you should play the Mage specialization that you enjoy the most, and that is most compatible with your raid. See our PVE and PVP ranking pages for more detailed information on which Mage specialization is strongest in which phase of WotLK:

For the Alliance, Human is the best choice for PvP with Perception and Will to Survive. For PvE, the decision making is not as easy. Draenei comes with an extra 1% Hit for the whole group from Heroic Presence (even in a raid, only the group in which the Draenei is in will affected, not the whole raid) and the self-heal Gift of the Naaru. However, the value of the Hit buff disappears as soon as there is another Draenei in your group. The buff applies for both physical and magic attacks, and it's the reason why Draenei is the strongest PvE race for Mage, closely followed by Gnomes with their Expansive Mind.

Horde players want to choose Troll as their preferred PvE Mage race, because Berserking and Da Voodoo Shuffle are very strong racial traits. Undead rule the arenas and battlegrounds with Will of the Forsaken and Cannibalize.

Just as Undead, Draenei have a slightly higher resistance to Shadow damage. Their Gemcutting ability increases their Jewelcrafting skill. The two most important racial traits are Heroic Presence and Gift of the Naaru. Heroic Presence increases the Hit chance of players grouped with you, and Gift of the Naaru is a heal-over-time that scales with your level, usually used in niche situations such as healing while running away from enemies.

• Shadow Resistance — Chance to be hit by Shadow spells decreased by 2%.
• Gemcutting — Jewelcrafting skill increased by 5.
• Heroic Presence — Increases chance to hit by 1% for you and all party members within 30 yards.
• Gift of the Naaru — Gift of the Naaru is a heal that scales with your level and will heal your target over the course of 15 seconds.

Perception is a very strong passive ability, detecting any stealth class around you, giving you a massive advantage in PvP. While The Human Spirit isn't great for Mage, it's better than nothing. Diplomacy is useful any time you do a reputation grind and Will to Survive can be very strong in PvE and PvP. The combination of Perception and Will to Survive make Human a very good race for PvPers.

• Perception — Increases stealth detection. Passive ability.
• The Human Spirit — Spirit increased by 3%.
• Diplomacy — Reputation gains increased by 10%.
• Will to Survive — Removes all movement impairing effects and all effects which cause loss of control of your character.

Gnome is very strong for PvE due to their Intellect boost from Expansive Mind, providing a useful buff to all three Mage specs, especially for Arcane. Escape Artist is a very strong racial trait for both PvP and PvE, as it is instant in WotLK and on a low 1.75-minute cooldown. The extra Arcane Resistance helps in a few PvE situations. The bonus to Engineering is just as handy as any other races' profession bonuses.

• Escape Artist — Escape the effects of any immobilization or movement speed reduction effect.
• Arcane Resistance — Chance to be hit with Arcane spells decreased by 2%.
• Engineering Specialization — Engineering skill increased by 15.
• Expansive Mind — Intellect increased by 5%.

Mana Tap and Arcane Torrent restore Mana and also grant Mage a 2 second AoE silence, which can be used as an emergency Counterspell. The additional Magic Resistance decrease magic damage taken slightly and as Arcane beings, Blood Elves have increased Enchanting skill.

• Magic Resistance — Chance to be hit with spells decreased by 2%.
• Arcane Affinity — Enchanting skill increased by 10.
• Arcane Torrent — Silences all mobs within 8 yards of you for 2 seconds and grants 6% of your base Mana.

Trolls are the best PvE Horde race for Mage. The passive damage increase to beasts is nice to have while leveling and farming beasts, but the real deal is the increased cast speed from Berserking. This ability lets you cast 20% faster for 10 seconds. Further, Trolls are able to generate small amounts of Health during combat, an ability no other race has. Da Voodoo Shuffle reduces the duration of all movement impairing effects by 15%.

• Berserking — Increases your casting and attack speed by 20%. Lasts 10 seconds.
• Beast Slaying — Damage dealt versus Beasts increased by 5%.
• Regeneration — Health regeneration rate increased by 10%. 10% of total Health regeneration may continue during combat.
• Da Voodoo Shuffle — Reduces the duration of all movement impairing effects by 15%.

The racial traits of Undead are most the powerful in PvP combat, but also have niche uses in PvE. Undead can cancel Charm, Fear and Sleep effects. When combined with Ice Block, this is a very strong ability. The Undead hunger for fresh bodies lets them feast on their enemies' corpses, restoring Health very quickly. Being able to breathe three times longer underwater than any other race, Undead do not need to fear from drowning while doing underwater farming or questing, and Undead are more resistant to Shadow damage.

• Will of the Forsaken — Removes any Charm, Fear, or Sleep effect.
• Cannibalize — When activated, regenerates 7% of total Health every 2 seconds for 10 seconds. Only works on Humanoid or Undead corpses within 5 yards. Any movement, action, or damage taken while Cannibalizing will cancel the effect.
• Underwater Breathing — Underwater breath lasts 233% longer than normal.
• Shadow Resistance — Chance to be hit with shadow spells decreased by 2%.

Engineering is simply the best profession. Explosives, such as Saronite Bomb and Global Thermal Sapper Charge, deal a huge amount of extra damage and can be woven into your normal rotation. Engineering also offers access to several best in slot enchants, pre-raid best in slot items, such as Visage Liquification Goggles, and the Zapthrottle Mote Extractor, used for farming Eternals such as Eternal Water.

Tailoring gives access to several strong Tailoring items, such as Ebonweave Robe. Most noteworthy, however, are the best in slot enchants Tailoring offers, which make Tailoring the second best profession for Mage. The Lightweave Embroidery is the best cloak enchant available, and Sanctified Spellthread is extremely valuable, as it is exclusively for tailors and costs only one Eternium Thread to make. Further, Tailoring offers Epic flying carpets, such as Magnificent Flying Carpet and allows you to craft several good Bind on Equip items throughout the expansion, like Merlin's Robe.

All of the other Professions are not considered best in slot, but the power gap between Tailoring and these is not as extreme as it would be between Engineering and any other profession. Most other professions provide almost equal bonuses. All the same, we recommend learning Engineering and Tailoring.

While Jewelcrafting offers more flexibility with Hit Rating, from 3x Rigid Dragon's Eyes providing 42 more Hit rating than 3x Rigid King's Amber, this is more impactful for Fire Mage than for Arcane, as the hit requirements for Arcane is low anyways. Nevertheless, using those gems might enable you to use stronger non-hit raid items. For only one Arctic Fur per application, Leatherworking provides different Fur Linings, such as Fur Lining - Frost Resist or Fur Lining - Spell Power, which can be applied and changed dynamically between encounters. However, this is considered a niche use of this profession. The list below shows you the bonuses each profession can give:

• 48 Spell Power or extra 42 Hit Rating — Jewelcrafting
• 47 Spell Power — Alchemy
• 46 Spell Power — Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Inscription, Leatherworking
• Lifeblood, passive heal — Alchemy
• Toughness, 60 Stamina — Mining
• Master of Anatomy, 40 Critical strike rating — Skinning

Using macros and addons makes your life significantly easier when playing Wrath Classic, and they can improve your experience a lot, depending on how skilled you are at customizing them.

If you are interested in learning more about addons and macros suited to Mage, check out our guides below: