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

We will present the skill rotation of a Mage Healer 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 build in the talents page and are playing a maximum level character. If you are still leveling, please refer to the leveling page for a leveling-specific rotation.

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.

1. 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;
2. If you can, pre-cast Arcane Blast and use Regeneration on the tank at the same time as the cast finishes to get some immediate healing aimed to hit at the same time as the first swing from the boss.

You can get maximum benefit from your Temporal Beacons by applying them to injured targets (with Mass Regeneration, for example) at the same time as a casted damage ability (such as Arcane Blast) finishes casting.

Due to Spell Batching, by the time the damage from Arcane Blast is processed the targets will already be considered as having the Temporal Beacon effect, and thus be healed instantly!

This will allow you to get your heals to injured targets much faster than if you apply Temporal Beacons first, and also to be able to use the Beacon for longer as you start healing with it immediately upon application, which is of particular value with the lower duration Beacons applied by Mass Regeneration.

Because there are many viable Rune setups, make sure to only consider the tips below that apply to the Runes you are currently using.

1. Keep Temporal Beacon active on the tank with Regeneration and heal raid damage with Mass Regeneration, allowing for your damage follow up to heal them further;
2. Emergency healing with Chronostatic Preservation* is an option if you have time to cast it up to 20 seconds ahead of dangerous damage events;
3. Another emergency healing option is Rewind Time which will instantly heal all damage taken within the last 5 seconds for a target that had your Temporal Beacon for at least that long;
4. Activate Arcane Power and any other cooldowns such as Gneuro-Linked Arcano-Filament Monocle and Mildly Irradiated Rejuvenation Potion;
5. If aiming for maximum DPS, cast Balefire Bolt until you reach 9 stacks while performing other actions to reapply beacons as necessary. Never hit 10 stacks or you die;
6. Cast Arcane Blast x2 and spend the charges with Arcane Missiles if you had a Missile Barrage proc, otherwise use Arcane Barrage to consume the stacks.

* Chronostatic Preservation requires you to cast it and can then be unleashed instantly for high single target healing during the next 20 seconds, making it a great emergency heal if you can find a time to cast it before dangerous damage happens.

Follow the same rotation as single-target for healing, but consider using Arcane Explosion instead of Arcane Missiles to reset Arcane Blast stacks, which will do more damage but less healing overall.

If you want to focus on raw DPS just Arcane Explosion as much as possible.

As a Mage, you have various offensive and defensive 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.

Presence of Mind makes your next spell be instantly 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 very powerful boost to your damage and converted healing.

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.

Rewind Time is a new 30-second cooldown that causes your target to heal all damage taken over the past 5-seconds, if it had Temporal Beacon for that period or longer. Because it is Mana-free, it is a great healing tool against burst damage on your Temporal Beacon targets.

Arcane Surge is a new 2-minute cooldown in SoD 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, aiding 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 for 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 Mage Healers. 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 X Mana per 5 seconds, such as Smoked Sagefish are also 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!