Hi everyone, my name is Phosphoros and today I'm going to be teaching you how to play Arcane and Dragonflight Patch 10.0. I'll be telling you exactly what to press in what order for optimal damage, so let's get right into it!
General Tree Talents
First things first, let's take a look at our talents on the General Tree.
Highlighted in green, you'll see the talents that I consider to be a requirement; these are talents that will give you a direct damage increase and should be included in every build. The only exception to this is if, for example, you're on a rating counter where you aren't getting full value from Shifting Powers cooldown reduction. In that specific scenario, you'd want to take Meteor.
Outside of that, Shifting Power is the way to go. One thing to note here as well is that Temporal Warp allows you to have two Time Warp Buffs active at the same time, so the play is to always try and double up on Temporal Warp whenever possible.
As for the rest of the talents on the General Tree, it's all up to you based on what you feel you need.
I like going mostly defensive talents and Arcane Warding, Winter's Protection, Tempest Barrier, Cryofreeze and Accumulative Shielding with a bit of Mobility included in Master of Time Displacement and Shimmer.
Speaking of Shimmer, Ice Flows is a decent alternative if you'd prefer that. The only reason I haven't been taking it so far is that there seems to be a bunch of weird interactions and bugs with the spell at the moment, so I'm taking Shimmer for now, but eventually I would like to move over into Ice Flows.
A notable mention here as well is that Ice Nova does have its uses in both the single target and AoE rotation, as you'll see later, so it's also worthy of a talent choice.
The Arcane Tree
This is the pure single target build. We take Siphon Storm, Harmonic Echo, and Arcane Harmony as our capstones.
If you're wondering why we take another Tempest, it's because it has a pretty strong synergy with Arcane Echo in that each time Nether Tempest ticks, it also procs Arcane Echo.
Another notable Talent is Nether Precision. This Talent is the core of what makes Arcane strong this time around, and you'll notice that Arcane Blast is now our highest damaging ability outside of AOE situations. The reason for this is that we're abusing Nether Precision as much as possible, so I highly recommend you get a tracker for this Talent because it currently has a kind of anti-synergy with Concentration in that Concentration-buffed Arcane Missiles will not generate another Precision stack.
I'll have another position tracker that I use linked in the description of this video, as well as some other very helpful resources, so make sure to check that out as well.
Funnel Damage with an Arcane Mage
Outside of pure single target scenarios, we have this build for funnel damage. Funnel damage is a damage type where the higher the target count, the more single target damage you'll deal. So the only difference between the pure single target build and this one is that we remove our points in Arcane Missiles and Arcane Familiar, and instead put them into Charged Orb and Arcane Cleave, and this is where our funnel damage comes into play.
Arcane Orb will generate more Arcane charges as we hit more targets, so it gains more value along with having another stack.
Arcane Cleave will cause Barrage to spread, hitting nearby targets and increasing damage to our primary target based on the total amount of enemies hit. This Talent is the core of where Arcane gains its funnel.
Stacked Cleave Build for Arcane Mages
Arcane Mages can now choose to focus more on AOE damage with the Stacked Cleave build. This build sacrifices single target damage in order to deal more AOE damage.
Pros
- Greater AOE damage
Cons
- Less single target damage
Mythic+
It's hard to say if this build will be more effective than the funnel build in Mythic+ as the season hasn't started yet. We'll see how it plays out as the season goes on.
Arcane Damage Pattern
So before we head into the single target rotation, I'd like to speak a bit about Arcane's damage pattern. Arcane is a very ebb and flow style to its damage pattern; about every 45 seconds, you'll have a big burn with Arcane Surge, followed by a period of low filler damage, into a mini-burn, followed by another period of low filler damage, and then the cycle repeats.
ST Rotation (Surge Burn)
Now, let's head into the single target rotation:
15 seconds before the pull, you want to be spamming Arcane Explosion to fish for Clearcasting procs. This part may vary based on your haste levels, but in general, 9 seconds before the pull starts, you want to cast Evocation so we can start stacking the Siphon Storm.
At around 3 seconds, you want to cast a Rune of Power into an Arcane Blast precast and Arcane Orb. The pull has now begun and we already have four Arcane charges, so we're ready to start our Arcane Surge burn.
However, this burn will change based on if you have double Time Warp activated or not. So if you plan on popping double Time Warp, you want to immediately stack Arcane Harmony to 20, then continue with the burn rotation. If you aren't popping double Time Warp, then you don't have to worry about Arcane Harmony; it can immediately start with Radiant Spark when the pull begins.
After Radiant Spark, we cast three Arcane Blasts into Arcane Surge. Another Tempest, now if Time Warp is up, you want to cast Arcane Blast and spell key Arcane Barrage into it. If you're not sure what it means to spell key, I'll have an explanation of it down in the description. If you're not in Time Warp, then forget about Arcane Blast - just cast Arcane Barrage and cast Touch of the Magi while Barrage is traveling.
But right before it lands, the reason that we popped Touch of the Magi while Barrage is traveling is so that we gain about an extra second of Touch of the Magi uptime while still benefiting from Barrage inside it.
Also, Touch of the Magi itself gives us four Arcane charges, so right after Touch of the Magi, we want to follow a simple priority list: their precision buffed Arcane Blasts, Clearcasting at Arcane Missiles, and regular Arcane Blasts.
Now, due to Arcane Bombardment, if your target is under 35 health, you want Barrage and have it landed just before Touch of the Magi ends. Otherwise, use Presence of Mind to fit one last Arcane Blast into Touch. And finally, if you're in double Bloodlust, you want to cast a Barrage on the last Global of your Arcane Surge buff. Otherwise, just follow the priority list as usual and once your Arcane Surge buff wears off, cast Shifting Power and that's the end of the Arcane Surge burn.
Now, I know this may be a lot to take in all at once, especially since the rotation changes so much based on if Bloodlust is active or if the target is in Execute. My best advice would be to take it one step at a time. First, learn the rotation without Bloodlust or Execute, and then gradually start incorporating the other conditionals to help you out with this.
I created a cheat sheet that you can find in the description of this video, and it'll have everything you need to know about the rotation, so you can have that pulled up on the side while practicing.
After the Surge burn, we head into the Fuller rotation. The Fuller rotation consists of following a simple priority list: cast Arcane Orb at less than two Arcane Charges, Arcane Blast with another Precision, Arcane Missiles with Clearcasting, and regular Arcane Blasts.
Now, when in filler, you'll need to conserve Mana for your next upcoming burn. Many burns require 60 Mana or 85 Mana in Time Warp. In the case that you need conserve to maintain these levels of Mana, you can Nether Tempest at 4 Arcane Charges, Arcane Barrage to clear your Arcane Charges, and during Time Warp, it may even be worth to use Ice Nova, Fireblast, and Frostbolt in that order.
If you're wondering why I specifically mentioned four Arcane Charges for another Tempest, that's because Nether Tempest gives us back four Arcane Charges, so casting it just before our Arcane Surge burn allows us to get it off cooldown and maximize our damage.
And that's it for the rotation! I hope you all have a better understanding of how to play Arcane now. Thanks for watching!