Arcane Mage DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (Season 1)

Arcane is largely focused around a couple of key concepts:

• Remain at 4 Arcane Charges as much as possible while casting as many empowered Arcane Barrages as possible. This is what most of our rotation tries to achieve. This means we generally only want to use Arcane Barrage when we have a way to build back 4 Charges immediately, via, for example, Glorious Incandescence, Intuition, or some other methods. This is a heavy strain on your Mana, which moves us onto our next point:
• Use cooldowns quickly. This is important for almost all specs in the game, but Arcane really suffers when you sit on your cooldowns for a long time. Not only are you losing damage from not gaining the damage benefits from your cooldowns like Arcane Surge, but your mana generation is directly tied to your cooldowns, further lowering your damage and making it much harder to remain at 4 Arcane Charges.
• Maximizing Nether Precision procs. You can make both Arcane Blast and Arcane Barrage benefit from a single stack of Nether Precision. You do this by casting Arcane Blast into Arcane Barrage after each other, as long as you spellqueue Arcane Barrage. This should only be done on the final stack of Nether Precision. You should only do the Nether Precision combo when you have a way to get back 4 Arcane Charges, like Glorious Incandescence, Intuition (4-set proc) or Arcane Orb (in some situations, check the full list of conditions in the priority list below).
• Combining all of the above points together leads to a (simplified) playstyle of the following:
  • Cast Arcane Blast, to generate Clearcasting so you can generate Nether Precision via Arcane Missiles.
  • Double-dip the Nether Precision with Arcane Blast -> Arcane Blast -> Arcane Barrage, if you have a way to build back 4 Arcane Charges.
• Maximizing Glorious Incandescence procs. (the proc right after Burden of Power) Glorious Incandescence immediately gives you 4 Arcane Charges back, which not only makes you able to cast the hard-hitting Arcane Barrage without losing Arcane Charges, it also provides Mana indirectly because it is a global spent on a hard-hitting spell that does not cost any mana. However, there are a couple of small things to keep in mind with this. Generally, you want to consume this as soon as possible because you could proc Intuition (the 4-set tier proc) which would cause Glorious Incandescence to be completely wasted. The only exception to this rule is around Nether Precision. When you have only 1 stack of Nether Precision, you instead want to cast a single Arcane Blast into Arcane Barrage. See the point below for more information on why.

For more in-depth explanations on min-maxing Nether Precision see our Nether Precision section.

The rotation of an Arcane Mage is outlined in the following priority list. First, you go into a specific sequence of spells to activate your cooldowns, followed by a priority list.

You should go into the Cooldown Sequence whenever Evocation, Arcane Surge and Touch of the Magi are ready.

The opener consists of a very specific sequence of spells into a standard priority system. The same sequence below applies any time you have your cooldowns ready, not just the opener.

1. Cast Evocation, for Clearcasting and the Intellect buff.
2. Use any on-use trinkets or racials;
3. Cast Arcane Missiles, consuming the Clearcasting from Evocation and granting Nether Precision;
4. Cast Arcane Orb, if you have less than 2 Arcane Charges, like on the opener;
5. Cast Arcane Missiles, consuming the Clearcasting from Evocation and granting Nether Precision and Arcane Charges via High Voltage;
6. Cast Arcane Surge;
7. If you have 4 Arcane Charges, cast Arcane Barrage. This will not be the case in the opener, but later in the fight, you will do this sequence while on 4 Arcane Charges;
8. Cast Touch of the Magi. If this is after Arcane Barrage, make sure you cast it while Arcane Barrage is traveling towards the target. Due to Touch of the Magi being off the global cooldown, it should apply before Arcane Barrage reaches the target.
9. Cast Arcane Barrage;
10. Shortly after Arcane Barrage, while it is traveling toward the target, cast Touch of the Magi. Due to Touch of the Magi being off the global cooldown, it should apply before Arcane Barrage reaches the target.

This marks the end of the specific opener/cooldown sequence. After this, follow the priority list below:

1. Go into the cooldown sequence above whenever Evocation, Arcane Surge and Touch of the Magi are ready;
2. Cast Shifting Power whenever it is ready and none of your cooldowns are currently active: Arcane Surge, Arcane Soul, Siphon Storm (the buff from Evocation) or Touch of the Magi;
3. Cast Shifting Power while Touch of the Magi and Arcane Surge are active, or Evocation and Arcane Surge have at least 15 seconds cooldown remaining;
4. Cast Presence of Mind when Touch of the Magi has less than one second left, immediately followed by Arcane Blast, to fit in this one extra Arcane Blast.
5. During Arcane Soul (the buff you get after Arcane Surge ends), cast Arcane Barrage.
6. During Arcane Soul (the buff you get after Arcane Surge ends):
   1. Cast Arcane Barrage if you have less than 3 Clearcasting;
   2. Cast Arcane Missiles if at 3 Clearcasting;
   3. You should interrupt Arcane Missiles by casting Arcane Barrage as soon as your global cooldown is over unless the Arcane Missiles is impacted by Aether Attunement.
   4. Note: On the very final global cooldown of Arcane Soul, you can cast Arcane Barrage even if you have 3 Clearcasting.
7. Cast Arcane Missiles when you have Clearcasting, and you do not have Nether Precision, OR you have 3 Clearcasting stacks.
8. You should interrupt Arcane Missiles by casting your next spell as soon as your global cooldown is over unless the Arcane Missiles is impacted by Aether Attunement.
9. Cast Arcane Blast into a queued Arcane Barrage on the final stack of Nether Precision.
10. Cast Arcane Barrage if you have 4 Arcane Charges and:
    • You have one of the following:
    • • Burden of Power.
      • Glorious Incandescence (the proc after Burden of Power).
      • Intuition (4-set proc).
    • And one of the following conditions:
    • • You are casting Arcane Blast and have 1 Nether Precision stack.
      • You are not casting Arcane Blast and have 2 Nether Precision stacks, for example, right after using Arcane Missiles while you have one of the above 3 buffs. Never interrupt Arcane Blast to create this situation.
      • You have no Nether Precision nor Clearcasting.
11. Cast Arcane Barrage followed by Touch of the Magi, if Arcane Surge is not ready in the next 45 seconds.
12. Cast Arcane Orb when available and you have 0 or 1 Arcane Charge;
13. Cast Arcane Missiles when you have less than 4 Arcane Charges to generate Arcane Charges via High Voltage;
14. Cast Arcane Blast as your filler.
15. Cast Arcane Barrage if you are out of Mana.

This section updates based on the selected talents and other options selected at the top of this block. Make sure you select appropriate AoE talents.

Note that the AoE rotation below assumes you have Arcing Cleave selected. Without Arcing Cleave, Arcane does very limited AoE damage, so we strongly suggest you always pick Arcing Cleave for any AoE scenario.

The Aoe rotation for Spellslinger Arcane Mage is a relatively straight forward rotation. The AoE rotation is Mana neutral, meaning you never run out of Mana following the AoE rotation, so there is no need to manage/conserve conserve your Mana. However, we still have an opening/burst rotation, followed by waiting for our cooldowns.

The AoE rotation for Sunfury Arcane Mage is very similar to the single target rotation. However, it does require you to have a main priority target for you to cleave off of. Without this, for example, if all enemies are dying quite fast, you follow a more traditional AoE rotation.

You should follow the AoE rotation below on 3 or more targets, assuming all targets are equally important. If there is one key target that needs to die before the rest, we generally suggest using mostly the single target rotation until the target is dead, and then following the AoE rotation.

You should follow the aoe rotation below on 5 targets or more. On less than 5 targets, we suggest simply running the single target rotation.

The opening sequence is always the same on AoE, whether you are doing the funnel or pure AoE rotation.

You should go into the Burn Phase sequence when Evocation, Arcane Surge and Touch of the Magi are ready.

The opener consists of a very specific sequence of spells into a standard priority system. The same sequence below applies to any burn phase, not just the opener.

1. Cast Evocation, for Clearcasting and the Intellect buff.
2. Cast Arcane Orb when available and you have 0 or 1 Arcane Charge;
3. Use any on-use trinkets or racials;
4. Cast Arcane Missiles, consuming the Clearcasting from Evocation and granting Nether Precision;
5. Cast Arcane Surge;
6. Cast Arcane Barrage;
7. Shortly after Arcane Barrage, while it is traveling toward the target, cast Touch of the Magi. Due to Touch of the Magi being off the global cooldown, it should apply before Arcane Barrage reaches the target;

This marks the end of the specific opener/burn sequence. After this, follow the priority list below:

The AoE rotation outside of the specific cooldown sequence is very straightforward:

As Sunfury, you generally want to do a rotation where you focus down a single target and then do cleave damage to everything else. However, this is not possible in all content, for example, lower Mythic+ keys will not have targets with high enough health to do this, in which case, you should follow the pure AoE rotation instead.

The funnel rotation is very similar to the single-target rotation, you are just using Arcane Barrage slightly differently.

The main differences are:

• On top buffs like Intuition and Glorious Incandescence, you also Arcane Barrage when you have Arcane Orb or Clearcasting. (due to High Voltage)
• On top of buffs like Intuition and Glorious Incandescence, you also Arcane Barrage when you have Arcane Orb or Clearcasting. (due to High Voltage)

This leads to the following full rotation:

1. Go into the cooldown sequence above whenever Evocation, Arcane Surge and Touch of the Magi are ready;
2. Cast Shifting Power whenever it is ready and none of your cooldowns are currently active: Arcane Surge, Arcane Soul, Siphon Storm (the buff from Evocation) or Touch of the Magi;
3. Cast Presence of Mind when Touch of the Magi has less than one second left, immediately followed by Arcane Blast, to fit in this one extra Arcane Blast.
4. During Arcane Soul (the buff you get after Arcane Surge ends), cast Arcane Barrage.
5. During Arcane Soul (the buff you get after Arcane Surge ends):
   1. Cast Arcane Barrage if you have less than 3 Clearcasting;
   2. Cast Arcane Missiles if at 3 Clearcasting;
   3. You should interrupt Arcane Missiles by casting Arcane Barrage as soon as your global cooldown is over unless the Arcane Missiles is impacted by Aether Attunement.
   4. Note: On the very final global cooldown of Arcane Soul, you can cast Arcane Barrage even if you have 3 Clearcasting.
6. Cast Arcane Barrage if you have 4 Arcane Charges and:
   • You have one of the following:
   • • Burden of Power.
     • Glorious Incandescence (the proc after Burden of Power).
     • Intuition (4-set proc).
     • Arcane Orb.
     • Clearcasting (due to High Voltage).
   • And one of the following conditions:
   • • You are casting Arcane Blast and have 1 Nether Precision stack.
     • You are not casting Arcane Blast and have 2 Nether Precision stacks, for example, right after using Arcane Missiles while you have one of the above. Never interrupt Arcane Blast to create this situation.
     • You have no Nether Precision nor Clearcasting.
7. Cast Arcane Barrage followed by Touch of the Magi, if Arcane Surge is not ready in the next 45 seconds.
8. Cast Arcane Barrage followed by Arcane Missiles if you have 4 Arcane Charges. Clearcasting and Aether Attunement,
9. Cast Arcane Orb when available and you have 0 or 1 Arcane Charge;
10. Cast Arcane Missiles when you have less than 4 Arcane Charges to generate Arcane Charges via High Voltage.
11. Cast Arcane Blast when you have Nether Precision.
12. Cast Arcane Missiles when you have Clearcasting.
13. You should interrupt Arcane Missiles by casting your next spell as soon as your global cooldown is over unless the Arcane Missiles is impacted by Aether Attunement.
14. Cast Arcane Explosion if you have 0 Arcane Charges.
15. Cast Arcane Blast as your filler.
16. Cast Arcane Barrage if you are out of Mana.

As Sunfury, you should follow the rotation below only if all enemies are dying too fast for you to funnel off of. If you have a big target to funnel off of, follow the funnel AoE rotation above instead. It does both higher AoE and higher priority damage.

1. Go into the above burst sequence when Evocation, Arcane Surge and Touch of the Magi are ready;
2. During Touch of the Magi, cast a single Arcane Blast to trigger the Arcane Blast portion of Magi's Spark;
3. Cast Arcane Orb when you have no Arcane Charges;
4. Cast Shifting Power during Touch of the Magi;
5. Cast Shifting Power while Arcane Orb is on cooldown and none of your cooldowns are active;
6. Cast Arcane Barrage when you have 4 Arcane Charges;
7. Cast Arcane Missiles when you have Clearcasting;
8. You should interrupt Arcane Missiles by casting your next spell as soon as your global cooldown is over unless the Arcane Missiles is impacted by Aether Attunement.
9. Cast Arcane Explosion to generate Arcane charges.