Arcane Mage DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities - The War Within (11.0.2) (2024)

The buttons below can be used to select between curated Single-Target andAoE/Mythic+ loadouts. You can also use the switches below to add or removeindividual talents you may also be using. Keep in mind, some talents are socritical to the spec to function correctly, or you must take them to be ableto navigate the tree properly, in which case theywill not have a checkbox below and will be assumed picked.

Single-TargetMythic+/AoE

Talent Selections, etc.
Sunfury
Spellslinger
Magi's Spark
Evocation
Shifting Power
Aether Attunement
High Voltage
Arcane Bombardment
Arcane Harmony
Presence of Mind
Arcing Cleave

Arcane ExplainedSingle-Target RotationAoE Rotation

Arcane is largely focused around a couple of key concepts:

• Do not waste Mana. Generally, Mana = DPS for Arcane, so whenever yousit on maximum Mana for long periods, you are losing damage. Thereare, however, some notable exceptions to this rule:
  • Evocation on the pull. At the start of the fight, you will stillcast Evocation, even though all of the Mana from it will be wasted. This isbecause of the large Intellect boost it gives, and it allows you to syncthe cooldown with your other cooldowns.
• Maximize using spells on 4 Arcane Charges. There are many ways to gainArcane Charges quickly, and we want to maximize these to avoid casting Arcane Blaston less than 4 Arcane Charges, as this does little damage,
• Use cooldowns quickly. This is important for almost all specs in thegame, 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 yourcooldowns like Arcane Surge, but you also end up violating the previousrules because your mana generation is directly tied to your cooldowns, furtherlowering your damage.
• Maximizing Burden of Power (and the following Glorious Incandescence) procs.Burden of Power is not only a large damage buff, but the Glorious Incandescene procafterward also gives 4 Arcane Charges back. There is a "trick" whereBurden of Power can apply to both Arcane Blast and Arcane Barrage,even though it only has a single stack. You can achieve this easilyby simply casting Arcane Blast into Arcane Barrage when you have Burden of Power.As long as you spellqueue Arcane Barrage, both spells will benefit fromBurden of Power. Additionally, because of Glorious Incandescence, you will immediatelyhave 4 Arcane Charges back as well.
• Maximizing Nether Precision procs. You can make both Arcane Blast and Arcane Barrage benefitfrom a single stack of Nether Precision. You do this by castingArcane Blast into Arcane Barrage after each other, as long as youspellqueue Arcane Barrage. This should only be done on the finalstack of Nether Precision. The ideal scenario is that you have both Burden of Powerand the second stack of Nether Precision at the same time, in which caseyou will double-dip both buffs at the same time. However, it is not worthholding onto Clearcasting to force this scenario. You should only do the Nether Precisioncombo when you have a way to get back 4 Arcane Charges,like Burden of Power (because it gives Glorious Incandescence), Intuition(4-set proc) or Arcane Orb.

For more in-depth explanations on min-maxing Burden of Power and Nether Precisionsee our Burden of Power and 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 Surgeand Touch of the Magi are ready.

The opener consists of a very specific sequence of spells into a standardpriority system. The same sequence below applies any time you have your cooldownsready, 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 Surge;
5. If you have 4 Arcane Charges, cast Arcane Barrage.This will not be the case in the opener, but later in the fight, you willdo this sequence while on 4 Arcane Charges;
6. Cast Touch of the Magi. If this isafter Arcane Barrage, make sure you cast it while Arcane Barrage is travelingtowards the target. Due to Touch of the Magi being off the globalcooldown, 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 Surgeand Touch of the Magi are ready;
2. Cast Shifting Power whenever it is ready and none of your cooldownsare currently active: Arcane Surge, Arcane Soul, Siphon Storm (the buff from Evocation) or Touch of the Magi;
3. 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. Note: On the very final global cooldown of Arcane Soul, you can cast Arcane Barrage even if you have 3 Clearcasting.
4. Cast Arcane Missiles when you have Clearcasting, and you do nothave Nether Precision, OR you have 3 Clearcasting stacks.
5. You should interrupt Arcane Missiles by casting your next spellas soon as your global cooldown is over unless the Arcane Missilesis impacted by Aether Attunement.
6. Cast Arcane Blast into a queued Arcane Barrage, if you have 4 ArcaneCharges, and one of the following:
   • Burden of Power
   • Intuition (4-set proc)
   • Touch of the Magi is ready, and Arcane Surge is not ready for another 45 seconds
7. Cast Touch of the Magi right after Arcane Barrage if it is ready,and Arcane Surge is not ready in the next 45 seconds;
8. Cast Arcane Orb when available and you have 0 or 1 Arcane Charge;
9. Cast Arcane Blast as your filler.
10. Cast Arcane Barrage if you are out of mana.

Thissection updates based on the selected talentsand other options selected at the top of this block. Make sure you select appropiateAoE talents.

The AoE rotation for Sunfury Arcane Mageis very similar to the single target rotation. However, it does require youto 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.

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

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

The opener consists of a very specific sequence of spells into a standardpriority 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 globalcooldown, it should apply before Arcane Barrage reaches the target;
8. Cast a single Arcane Blast to triggerthe Arcane Blast portion of Magi's Spark, immediately followed by Arcane Barrage, both benefitting from the second Nether Precision stack;

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

As Sunfury, you generallywant to do a rotation where you focus down a single target and thendo 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 healthto do this, in which case, you should follow the pure AoE rotation instead.

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

The main differences are:

• You queue Arcane Barrage after Arcane Blastwhen you have 1 stack of Nether Precision if you have Arcane Orb.
• You do not cast Arcane Barrage right after Arcane Blastwhen you only have Intuition. It must be combined with the final stackof Nether Precision.

This leads to the following full rotation:

1. Go into the cooldown sequence above whenever Evocation, Arcane Surgeand Touch of the Magi are ready;
2. Cast Shifting Power whenever it is ready and none of your cooldownsare currently active: Arcane Surge, Arcane Soul, Siphon Storm (the buff from Evocation) or Touch of the Magi;
3. 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. Note: On the very final global cooldown of Arcane Soul, you can cast Arcane Barrage even if you have 3 Clearcasting.
4. Cast Arcane Blast into a queued Arcane Barrage, if you have 4 ArcaneCharges, and one of the following:
   • Burden of Power.
   • Touch of the Magi is ready, and Arcane Surge is not ready for another 45 seconds.
   • 1 stack of Nether Precision and you have a way to build back Arcane Charges, via Intuition (4-set proc) or Arcane Orb.
5. Cast Touch of the Magi right after Arcane Barrage if it is ready,and Arcane Surge is not ready in the next 45 seconds;
6. Cast Arcane Orb when available and you have 0 or 1 Arcane Charge;
7. Cast Arcane Blast when you have Nether Precision.
8. Cast Arcane Missiles when you have Clearcasting
9. You should interrupt Arcane Missiles by casting your next spellas soon as your global cooldown is over unless the Arcane Missilesis impacted by Aether Attunement.
10. Cast Arcane Explosion if you have 0 Arcane Charges.
11. Cast Arcane Blast as your filler.
12. Cast Arcane Barrage if you are out of mana.

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

1. Go into the above burst sequence when Evocation, Arcane Surge and Touch of the Magi are ready;
2. Cast Arcane Orb when you have no Arcane Charges;
3. Cast Shifting Power while Arcane Orb is on cooldown and none of your cooldowns are active;
4. Cast Arcane Barrage when you have 4 Arcane Charges;
5. Cast Arcane Missiles when you have Clearcasting;
6. Cast Arcane Explosion to generate Arcane charges.