Arcane Mage 101

There are several different variations of this spec, depending on gear and raid composition. The base spec that I will discuss is a cookie cutter spec for beginners. This is especially good for a Mage who has just hit 80, and as such is not hit capped. The talent tree can be found *here. This talent tree maximizes your chances to hit with Precision and Arcane Focus. The 3 points in Arcane Stability bank mainly on a Paladin in your raid having up Concentration Aura. If you know for a fact that there will not be Conc Aura, you should move 2 points from Arcane Concentration to Arcane Stability. If you have a well geared tank who knows what they are doing, you can move one point from Arcane Subtlety to Arcane Concentration. If you have a Shadow Priest or a Balance Druid specced into Imp. Faery Fire, that will remove 3% of the hit rating you need, and if you also have a Draenae in your group, that will give you another 1%. The chance to hit on a Level 80 Raid Boss for a level 80 caster is 83%. So, with this spec, our chance to MISS is 11%. With a Shadow Priest or Balance Druid, it becomes 9%, and with a Draenae in our group, it becomes a 8% chance to miss. 26.2 hit rating gives us 1% chance to hit, so with optimal raid composition and the base spec listed here, we need at least 210 hit rating. If you are far enough over that, I HIGHLY suggest moving points from Arcane Focus to Incanter's Absorbtion, as this can greatly increase your DPS. If you have points in Incanter's Absorbtion, you will also want to move 2 points in the Frost tree from Ice Shards to Frost Warding. Make sure that you are using your Wards during raids, and make sure to use the right one. Don't use a Flame Ward on Sindragosa, who deals mainly Frost damage.

Rotation

The rotation for this, and indeed for all Arcane Specs, is as follows. Arcane BlastX4, Arcane Missiles. Note that if you have low mana, or low mp5, you should reduce it to Arcane BlastX3, Arcane Missiles. The reason that an Arcane Mage uses this rotation is because of the Talent Missile Barrage. This gives a 40% chance for your Arcane Blast to proc a buff that will cut the casting time (but not the overall damage) in half. In order to calculate the odds of reaching a full stack of Arcane Blast (the damage buff that it gives can't go over 4 stacks) without a Missile Barrage proc, we take 60%, the chance for the proc to NOT occur, and X, the number of times we cast Arcane Blast.

Now these are Figures i came up with they may be wrong but they are very close.

• 0.6^4 = 12.96%
• 0.6^3 = 21.6%
• 0.6^2 = 36%
• 0.6^1 = 60%

So, in all likelyhood, every seventh or eighth rotation you will get to a full stack of Arcane Blast without a Missile Barrage proc. If you are using this spec, you most likely don't have much mana, so I would highly suggest that if this occurs, you simply terminate the stacks with an Arcane Barrage. Note: DO NOT allow the stack to simply fall off. This will lose you about 50% of your DPS.

Glyphs

The best Glyphs to use for this spec are Molten Armor, Arcane Missiles, and Arcane Blast in the Major slots, and Frost/Fire ward in 2 of your minor slots. For the 3rd minor, you should probably use Glyph of Slowfall.

Fire Mage 101

Ok i am going to make as insiteful as possible so bare with me.

Fire is one of the Mage's talent trees that focuses on dealing great sustained damage while providing excellent mana efficiency; Mages who mainly invest into this tree are referred to as fire mages. Fire builds are quickly becoming the default raid build because of talents like Molten Fury which increases a mage's damage vs targets with less than 35% health by as much as 12%. Fire mages excel in mana efficiency when combining talents like Master of Elements and Arcane Concentration (from the arcane tree) essentially giving the mage a chance to gain mana back when casting a Fire or even a Frost spell. Ignite, a staple talent of the Fire tree makes critical hits from fire spells even more dangerous, setting the target ablaze further damaging them for an additional 40% damage when maxed. Pyroblast and Fireball are used to damage the target at range, and Fire Blast, Blast Wave, and Dragon's Breath are all instant-cast spells that can be chained together to finish off the target. In AoE Grinding, fire mages rely on Flamestrike in combination with Blast Wave, Dragon's Breath, and the occasional Frost Nova to lock enemies in place.

In PvP, the Fire Mage philosophy is: "The best defense is a good offense", due to having a very limited number of defensive abilities such as Blazing Speed. However, when played right, a fire mage can ruin someone's day using Combustion to deliver an onslaught of crits as well as disorienting them with a well placed Dragon's Breath.

In PvE, more specifically in raid and groups, this type of mage really shines maintaining higher sustained DPS than a Frost Mage and better mana efficiency than an Arcane Mage.

Impact can also proc when someone takes damage from Molten Armor giving melee classes a real headache.

PvP Tip: Unless you are 3 minute mage build, this is your best chance of a 1v1 kill with a fire mage. First spell should be Polymorph unless target is already in close proximity, in which case spell order should be Frost Nova followed by Polymorph. Once target has been sheeped the progression is such: Pop best damage trinket, Pyroblast, Scorch, Dragon's Breath, Blast Wave, Fireblast. Let it be known that due to PvP trinkets that allow many players to prematurely escape your polymorph, it may be preferable to go with a Fireball rather than Pyroblast in this spell progression. Assuming that your gear is on par for the level enemy player you are trying to waste and your Combustion is not on a cooldown this should provide you with a kill.

Thier can be only one.

Xercsies

#1 is the lonliest

Ok this is the first of hopefully many post to come. Be kind to me not much of a how do you say it "word nerd".
This blog is going to be some endless rants about my main which happens to be a Mage (if you couldn't tell by my blog title). He is a Horde which lies in the realm Eitrigg and goes by the name Xercsies.
I rather enjoy being a mage, just sitting back and pew pewing and watching stupid rogues die buhahahaha *cough* Randumhenby. I am lloking forward to the new patch so much to come for me 1 being a tailor new flying carpet woot and 2 they are taking away the 5% health thing in incanter's absorbation which means i can get the full amount of spell power that i absorb. Since ICC has come out Ranged has been used as utility, which means we have more jobs than just sittting back and pew pewing. Yes ICC is designed for the somewhat serious raiders and they are now bending towards the low end raiders and trying to get the people in thier that i believe don't need to be raiding. ICC is about paying attention to everything, I myself never use the add-on DBM and i very rarely screw up. OMG that means i am acctually watching and paying attention to whats going on what a concept.

Ok i am done for new need to leave some fire for future post. Some ideas and such would be helpful leave me a comment or something and iw ill look into it.

Thier can be only one.
Xercsies