Season of Discovery Arcane Mage DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities

We will present the skill rotation of a Mage as a priority list. This is not an exact sequence in which abilities should be cast. Instead, whenever you must choose between using different skills, try to use the one at the top of the list first.

Our list assumes you are running the recommended talent build and are playing a maximum level character. If you are still leveling, please refer to the leveling page located in the table of contents at the top of the page.

While they are extraordinarily powerful, explosives such as Heavy Dynamite will not be detailed in the rotation. Usually, you will want to use them as soon as the tank has solid threat on the target. The main exception is when you are facing multiple or particularly dangerous (such as enraged) enemies at some point in the fight. Saving explosives to carry you and your group through these moments (and possibly do a ton of AoE damage in the process) is probably worth it.

Ensure Arcane Intellect is buffed on the whole group, and your choice of Mage armor is up on yourself. Consider whether you will need Dampen Magic or Amplify Magic for the upcoming fight.

If you can, pre-cast Arcane Blast for a big burst of damage on the opener.

1. Activate Arcane Power, Icy Veins (if runed) and any other cooldowns such as Gneuro-Linked Arcano-Filament Monocle and Mildly Irradiated Rejuvenation Potion;
2. Cast Balefire Bolt if you are at 8 stacks or less of its debuff, making sure you queue something else on the next cast to avoid hitting 10 stacks and dying;
3. Cast Arcane Blast until you get a Missile Barrage proc, at which point you should cast Arcane Missiles to consume it and the Arcane Blast stacks. Consume it with Arcane Barrage instead if you hit 4 stacks without a proc.

1. Use Living Flame on cooldown;
2. Cast Arcane Explosion.

As a Mage, you have various offensive cooldowns at your disposal. Using your cooldowns properly is often the difference between topping meters or just being average, and as such, you should learn how they work and how to optimize their usage. This list will be expanded as more abilities are unlocked by later phases.

Living Flame is a new short cooldown in SoD which causes high area damage, provided targets do not move away from its effect. This spell and its damage are considered of both Fire and Arcane schools and benefit from talents or effects that affect either spell category, including Arcane Blast stacks.

Presence of Mind makes your next spell an instant-cast, but only once every 3-minutes. This can be used to deal damage with Arcane Blast or Balefire Bolt while moving, or for extra burst damage.

Arcane Power increases your damage by 30% but makes them also cost 30% more Mana, and only lasts 15 seconds, with a 3-minute cooldown. This is a powerful boost to your damage.

Icy Veins is a new 3-minute cooldown in SoD which increases your Haste by 20% and removes spell pushback for 20 seconds on a 3-minute cooldown, this allows you to do more damage, but at the cost of higher Mana consumption.

Arcane Surge is a new 2-minute cooldown which deals a massive amount of damage, removes all of your Mana, and gives you a high amount of Mana regeneration for the following 8 seconds. It is not currently recommended under any PvE circumstance, but it can be used in PvP to one shot other players.

Evocation is a great method by which you can quickly replenish your Mana pool during a fight. Make sure that you use it at low Mana and during a period in which you will be able to channel it to the end, without interruption.

Blink allows you to instantly break most stuns, and also to cover large distances quickly, ainding in avoiding potentially lethal area of effect spells.

Frost Nova gains time for you, and your group, against freezable melee enemies. Use it whenever things go wrong, or as a coordinated means of reducing incoming damage.

Remove Lesser Curse provides a way to dispel dangerous curse effects, which only Mages and Druids can do. Make curse removal your #1 priority during progression!

Counterspell is one of the few ranged interrupts in WoW Classic. As such, you should always be paying attention to enemies outside of melee range that might need to be interrupted.

Polymorph is one of the few complete disables in the game that can be kept indefinitely on a non-player target. That, along with its short cast time and lack of special requirements to be cast, makes it the most popular way to take specific enemies out of a fight, until you or your group is ready to deal with them.

In this section, we will dive a bit deeper into the core mechanics and various abilities of Arcane Mages. Understanding these topics is an important step to truly mastering the specialization.

Mage's primary resource is Mana. It is important that you understand how Mana is generated, so you can effectively manage and use it.

Mana has a maximum capacity based on your Intellect, and starts full by default. Mana is slowly used by your spell casting, and does not regenerate naturally if you have cast something in the last 5 seconds. However, using certain talents, such as Arcane Meditation, allows a part of your Mana regeneration (which scales based on Spirit) to continue during this period. Items that restore Mana per 5 seconds, such as Smoked Sagefish, should also be active at all times.

Mages are the squishiest class in WoW Classic, due to the usage of cloth and the lack of direct survivability boosts such as Inner Fire. This means that in order to survive you need to use your kit to avoid being hit in the first place.

Make sure to keep that in mind at all times and never let enemies get to you!