Noxxic

DPS Rotation & Cooldowns

This rotation offers a general priority list for Arcane Mage abilities, along with key cooldowns at the bottom. It's based on a standard build and is here to help while we work on a smarter, build-aware system. If you are very new to the game or this class, we added info on the new assisted rotation features at the bottom of this guide. Updated for the latest patch in World of Warcraft: The War Within (11.1.7).

Single Target

Ensure Evocation, Arcane Surge, and Touch Of The Magi are ready before starting.

Start for Intellect buff and Clearcasting.
Consume Clearcasting and gain Nether Precision.
If < 2 Arcane Charges.
Use after activating trinkets or racials.
Use after Arcane Barrage if possible.
Use with 4 Arcane Charges or during Arcane Soul.
Use with Clearcasting or 3 stacks of it.
Use as filler.

Begin with Evocation and Arcane Surge for buffs, then prioritize Touch Of The Magi and Arcane Barrage with 4 charges. Use Arcane Missiles with Clearcasting and Arcane Blast as filler.

AoE

Ensure Evocation, Arcane Surge, and Touch Of The Magi are ready before starting.

Start for Intellect buff and Clearcasting.
Consume Clearcasting and gain Nether Precision.
If < 2 Arcane Charges.
Use after activating trinkets or racials.
Use after Arcane Barrage if possible.
Use with 4 Arcane Charges for AoE.
Use with < 3 Arcane Charges.
Use as filler.

Start with Evocation and Arcane Surge, then prioritize Touch Of The Magi and Arcane Barrage with 4 charges for AoE. Use Arcane Explosion with low charges and Arcane Blast as filler.

Cooldowns

Use to restore Mana and gain Clearcasting.
Use for burst damage and Mana regeneration.
Use during cooldown phases for max DPS.
Use to reduce cooldowns when no other cooldowns are active.

Use Evocation for Mana and Clearcasting, Arcane Surge for burst, and Touch Of The Magi during cooldown phases. Use Shifting Power to reduce cooldowns when others are inactive.

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.