Mage Guide

Arcane Mage is one out of the three available Ranged DPS specs a Mage has access to. Arcane manipulates Arcane magic to cause devastating damage to its enemies in the form of Arcane Blast, Arcane Barrage and various other hard-hitting spells. As an Arcane Mage, you will be carefully managing your mana, to transform it into massive burst damage that will make short work of any enemy. Although Arcane might seem like a very stationary caster, with a lot of its spells requiring relatively long cast times, do not be deceived. Arcane is very mobile, and can actually do much of its damage while on the move, due to tools like Slipstream, and having many instant-cast spells available.

Arcane is unique amongst DPS classes, in that it has to manage its mana carefully. Arcane can transform its mana into damage, via hard hitting spells like Arcane Blast, however, casting too much of this will quickly leave you out of mana, unable to further damage your enemies. Luckily, you have many tools available to manage your mana, from Evocation giving you back all of your mana, to Arcane Barrage resetting your mana costs back down to more manageable levels, and many other tools. As an Arcane Mage, you will be constantly balancing your mana pool and your damage output.

Arcane performs relatively well in Raiding content, however it is currently not really seen as the go-to Mage spec in Raiding content even though its numbers are actually quite good. Arcane has good damage, provides good utility, and also has some of the most sought after "niches" of raiding: high burst damage and funnel damage. (doing more damage to your primary target when more enemies show up) However, other classes/specs are currently just pushing out slightly more damage, and since many players follow what the very high end is doing, Arcane is not brought as much. Having said that, this can change at any time, and has changed multiple times throughout the current expansion already. Any small number tuning can immediately make Arcane the top spec again due to its great damage profile and utility.

Similar to Raids, Arcane actually performs quite well in Mythic+, keeping up with basically all other specs in the game apart from some outliers. It is it good at killing bosses quickly, and it can do so while still providing great AoE damage. Throw in incredible utility, like Arcane Intellect, enough crowd-control to lock down an entire pack of enemies for a pretty long time, and even extra survivability for your entire group ( Mass Barrier), and it is easy to see why they perform very well in Mythic+. Although Arcane is a bit less popular than the other 2 Mage specs in Mythic+, this is not based around its numbers or ability to complete the highest keys, but purely player preference.

Fire Mage is one out of the three available Ranged DPS specs a Mage has access to. Fire is a highly mobile caster with many instant-cast spells, that can do high burst damage. Fire is all about throwing out massive fiery boulders like Pyroblast that then burn enemies down with Mastery: Ignite. As a Fire Mage, you will not just burn down all your enemies, you yourself will literally become fire when you activate your big damage cooldown, Combustion.

The core gameplay of Fire is built around one key proc, Hot Streak. This proc makes the hard hitting Pyroblast an instant-cast, and provide significant extra damage via Mastery: Ignite. Your playstyle revolves around getting as many of these procs as possible. At its core, all you need to do is critically strike an enemy twice in a row to get this proc, however, you have much more control over this proc than simply getting lucky. You use powerful tools such as Fire Blast to guarantee critical strikes, which is a unique spell that can be cast while casting other spells.

Fire has the iconic Combustion as its main DPS cooldown, which guarantees all of your spells critically strike, providing many Hot Streak procs in a row. Not to mention, you are literally on fire while it is active.

Currently, Fire is one of the most played specs in the game in Raiding content, and that is no surprise. Fire provides great execute damage, and can do almost all of its damage on the move. Combine this with solid single-target damage while also doing AoE damage without giving up any single-target, and it is no surprise it is so popular. It also has Cauterize which is great when first learning a fight, as it gives you a second chance when you die.

In Mythic+, Fire is very sought after. It has a great overall damage profile, doing either great AoE damage with good single-target damage, or great single-target damage while doing good AoE damage without giving up priority damage. In addition, it provides lots of utility to the group, from Arcane Intellect, to lots of crowd-control which can completely shut down enemy packs. It even provides additional survivability for the group ( Mass Barrier), which is quite rare as a DPS. Due to this, Fire Mage is a welcome addition to any Mythic+ group, including the very highest keys.

Frost Mage is one out of the three available Ranged DPS specs a Mage has access to. Frost is a highly mobile caster with many instant-cast spells. It primarily revolves around Shattering spells and managing your procs.

The core gamplay of Frost is built primarily around Winter's Chill. The debuff causes any spell to impact while it is active to gain the benefits of Shatter, granting a large bonus to crit chance, and allowing certain spells to hit harder.

Frost's primary cooldown is Icy Veins, which grants a large amount of Haste, and summons the Water Elemental which buffs you with 15% damage, generates Brain Freeze procs, and grants access to another ranged root while active.

Frost, while performing well enough in most situations, does not seem to be particularly sought after, but it is also not usually ignored. It generally is a comfortable spec that people will take into the raid regardless of performance. The relative ease in which it can be played allows for more thought on the fight mechanics themselves. It is not a bad spec in and of itself, just that the other two usually perform better in a burst mechanic, or a mass AoE mechanic, where Frost tends to sit somewhere in the middle of the two. It can, and very regularly is, one of the more popular specs to play as it tends to be a nice middle ground that allows you to concentrate on the fight itself.

In Mythic+, Frost -like the other Mage specs- is usually taken to the highest of keys regardless of actual performance due to the ability to survive what would usually kill other classes. Its talents do not give up too much single target to get to its primary AoE components, and it provides an abundance of utliity to the group. Between multiple AoE stops, Arcane Intellect, Remove Curse, and Mass Barrier that all Mages share, Frost also brings the ability to permanently slow nearly everything. This can allow for a recovery in the event of a tank death through kiting, or simply allowing mob buffs to drop off as the tank moves just out of range.