DPS Rotation & Cooldowns

A general priority guide for Arcane Mage abilities and cooldowns. Helpful for understanding the spec's fundamentals and getting comfortable with core synergies. Updated for the latest patch in World of Warcraft: Midnight (12.0.1).

Single Target

Ensure Arcane Intellect and Prismatic Barrier are active before combat.

• Arcane SurgeView detailsUse on cooldown for mana regen and damage boost.
• Touch Of The MagiView detailsUse on cooldown, ideally on a high-health target.
• Arcane BarrageView detailsUse with 4x Arcane Charge and max Arcane Salvo stacks.
• Arcane MissilesView detailsUse with Clearcasting proc.
• Arcane OrbView detailsUse to generate Arcane Charge if below 4.
• Arcane BlastView detailsUse as filler.
• EvocationView detailsUse if out of mana and Arcane Surge is not ready.

Maintain Arcane Surge and Touch Of The Magi on cooldown. Use Arcane Barrage with max charges and salvo stacks, and Arcane Missiles with Clearcasting. Generate charges with Arcane Orb and Arcane Blast as filler.

AoE

• Arcane BarrageView detailsUse with 4x Arcane Charge and max Arcane Salvo stacks.
• Arcane PulseView detailsUse with 2+ targets or to generate Arcane Charge.
• Arcane OrbView detailsUse to generate Arcane Charge and Arcane Salvo.
• Arcane MissilesView detailsUse with Clearcasting proc.
• Arcane BlastView detailsUse as filler.

For AoE, prioritize Arcane Barrage with max charges and salvo stacks. Use Arcane Pulse and Arcane Orb to generate charges, and Arcane Missiles with Clearcasting.

Cooldowns

• Arcane SurgeView detailsUse on cooldown for mana regen and damage boost.
• Touch Of The MagiView detailsUse on cooldown, ideally on a high-health target.
• EvocationView detailsUse when out of mana and Arcane Surge is not ready.

Use Arcane Surge and Touch Of The Magi on cooldown for burst damage. Use Evocation to restore mana when needed.

New to Class? Try Assisted Rotation

Patch 11.1.7 introduced new features that make it eaiser to pick and play new characters. These new settings can be enabled from settings » gameplay enhancements:

• Single-Button Assistant
• Assisted Highlight
• Cooldown Manager

If you are new to World of Warcraft or a certain class, enabling Assisted Highlight and Cooldown Manager can help you learn which abilities to prioritize and use.

While the Single-Button Assistant can be a much easier and more accessible way to play the game, it does come with a slight performance hit due to a small GCD penalty, as you will have to wait 25% longer in between spells and abilities.

To see which specs are best with the Single-Button Assistant feature, you can check out our DPS Rankings which uses SimC to sim every class using this feature.