10.2.6 S4 Dragonflight Arcane Mage Guide | ST & AoE Rotations and Talent Builds! | World of Warcraft

Welcome to the patch 10.2 Dragonflight Arcane guide!
In this guide, you'll find info for talent builds and rotations in both ST and AoE!
If there's anything I missed feel free to comment below and I'll make sure to get you an answer ASAP!
*What is spell queuing?*
The Spell Queue Window is the time in milliseconds in which you're allowed to tell WoW's servers about the next spell you want to cast before your current cast is finished. This defaults to 400 milliseconds. When we want to spellqueue Arcane Barrage into Arcane Blast, we spam click Arcane Barrage when our Arcane Blast cast is ~70% complete.
*Why shouldn't I spellqueue in AoE?*
The reason we don't want to spellqueue in AoE has to do with how Radiant Spark and Harmonic Echo buff spells. Radiant Spark buffs spells when you cast them, but Harmonic Echo only buffs spells when they land on your target.
When you spellqueue Arcane Surge and Arcane Barrage together, both are cast at the same time and thus both benefit from Radiant Spark's bonus damage. However, due to Arcane Surge having no travel time it lands on your target first thus getting buffed by Harmonic Echo. In multitarget scenarios, it is more worth for Arcane Barrage to benefit from Harmonic Echo over Arcane Surge (due to Arcing Cleave + Resonance talents), so we remove the spellqueue. You also don't want to spellqueue Surge and Barrage in single target either as they would consume the same stack.
Link to AoE flowcharts: imgur.com/a/uN...
Single Target Cheat Sheet: imgur.com/a/VA...
Nether Precision Tracker: wago.io/-ApNbKpq1
Clearcasting + Concentration Tracker: wago.io/c8zvYCldS
Tier Set Tracker: wago.io/elFFqnJmv
All my addons and WeakAuras can be found in the description of this video:
• My Addons and WeakAura...
Pure ST Import String
B4DArSxcnei16P8xFL3rzzOyRSEUSDJSkigIJERSIRCkEk0SCAAAAAAAAAAAISSSSkkkEIA
Funnel Cleave Import String
B4DArSxcnei16P8xFL3rzzOyRSEUSDJSkigIJERSIRgkkQSLJAAAAAAAAAAAgIJJJkkkcggA
AoE Import String
B4DArSxcnei16P8xFL3rzzOyRKRIl0QiEpIgcgERkESEIJJk0SCAAAAAAAAAAAISSSCJJJCJA
If you're having trouble landing Touch of the Magi before barrage lands in melee range, this macro can help. Just spam click it when you want to instant cast TotM right after Barrage:
/castsequence reset=10 Arcane Barrage, Touch of the Magi, Touch of the Magi
I stream my raid night Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 8pm-11pm EST. Hope to see you there!
/ phosphoroswow
Here's my Twitter:
/ phosphoroswow
If you'd like to support the channel so I can continue to make guides like these you can donate here:
streamlabs.com...
0:00 Intro
0:12 General Tree Talents
1:09 Pure ST Talents
1:49 Funnel Cleave Talents
2:16 AoE Talents
2:27 Arcane Damage Pattern
2:46 ST Rotation (Surge Burn)
5:06 ST Rotation (Filler)
5:54 ST Rotation (Mini Burn)
6:44 3 Minute ST Demo
10:22 AoE Rotation (Surge Burn)
12:29 AoE Rotation (Filler)
12:57 AoE Rotation (Mini Burn)
13:37 2 Minute AoE Demo
16:10 Outro

[@PhosphorosWoW]

During PTR it was suspected that the Dragonflight Season 1 rotation was going to make a return. The rotation was RS > NT > AB x3 > AS > AB + Barrage > TotM. *However, two days before Season 3 began there were optimizations made to the APL that proved the rotation shown in this guide is higher DPS by a pretty significant margin. Any guide telling you to use the Season 1 rotation is unfortunately outdated.*

[@zhig_]

Thanks for keeping us updated. I don't know why u get hate when you try to give proper advice, keep up the good work.

[@dimitriss1418]

what weak aura is the sound proc at ToM ?

[@wailai416]

for M+ do i still do the RS NT AS Aba Totm and then ab x3?? i find a lot of time with orb barrage specced the aba>totm will fire an orb and consume a charge of RS? so i just go 2x ab and then into the priority list? instead of 3x?

[@TTonnio]

Thnaks for keeping us rocking arcane! quick question, What does APL mean?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

It stands for Action Priority List. It's what Raidbots uses for deciding what spells to use when for the sims.

[@HeyheyReirei]

Glad I went back to watch this. Was doing s1 rotation and couldn’t figure out where I was missing damage when the sims had me at 10-20k more dps than I was doing. Thank you!

[@janhrovat5325]

Amazing. I was waiting for this! Thanks, amazing work, easy to follow, structured, and well explained. You are the only reason why I play arcane.

[@JamesCurwood]

Good concise video about a complicated topic. I like how you very briefly describe the why of most of what is going on here. I personally understand things better when I know the why behind what to do

[@RoguesNtheHouse]

I have been looking for a guide I can actually follow and understand for soooo long. Thank you!

[@thomasreader2343]

Love the RuneScape music in the background 💯💯💯

[@lordfieldsworth595]

My favourite WoW channel on youtube for us Mages and in particular Arcane mages. Keep it up! ❤

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Thank you I appreciate the support! ♥️

[@Keyblader001]

the aoe for arcane is actually so fun to pull off

[@Diplata15]

Thank you very much sir, im looking to get the top 1 arcane mage on my server (rag) this season, i hope arcane mage doesnt change too much on gameplay in war within

[@Nemaro24]

Glad to see you're back with the Arcane guides missed these while you were playing druid.

[@demoheart99]

Always enjoy your videos mate, helps out a lot. Very excited to play this seasons keys and raid!

[@Yama973]

Havent played season 2 only went in to get the mount then dipped, but this rotation is quite fun cant wait to push 20+ keys with this Thanks so much again man, your videos are very much appreciated! Thanks! You even blessed us with some WA's again, such a lifesaver

[@TheBoredPersons]

I'd really appreciate if you could speak with Hekili and work out their rotation helper addon for arcane, its good but not flawless, some of us handicapped gamers quite like using hekili and i've been a fan of arcane for years, this would really help in raids so we can focus on mechanics more and think less on our rotation :)

[@quintit]

maeve from paladins? v nice

[@quintit]

not about it being hard, just gets kinda meh having to read the literal apl to play properly. I did it for 2 seasons and I'm already burned out on it. Not saying that's how it is for everyone, but it's a valid pov.@@PrinceRatL9

[@TheBoredPersons]

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you didnt read it, but im talking about users who are handicapped that use this @@PrinceRatL9

[@wnyduchess]

anecdotally hekili is TERRIBLE for arcane. pure ST i can barely scrape 50k following it at ilvl 441 with enchants

[@TheBoredPersons]

that may be a you issue then, i've decided to keep using it and im near my sim in raid at 455 ilvl pushing over 140k@@wnyduchess

[@nonottim]

Dang Arcane is a headache compared to Frost imo. But this is really helping me wrap my head around the rotations. I'm new to casters in general so I really appreciate these breakdowns. Thanks a lot

[@nonottim]

​@@AAKhanivoreI always enjoy playing multiple specs for the class I'm playing. So tbh just trying to figure out whats more my playstyle/what I'm more comfortable doing.

[@johncrislack3854]

Hey ty for the video, what Addon or WA you use for track button pressed in the top of the screen?

[@theyolk25]

Hi great guide, I have two questions: 1. When you don't double time warp, why do you directly go from evocation into radiant spark ramp instead of first burning mana for ~13 seconds? 2. When you do open with double time warp, would you switch to going directly from evocation into radiant spark ramp on your next arcane surge burn?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

1. Without the extra haste from Time Warp we won't run into mana issues later on, so we can jump straight into Evocation and the Surge Burn without worrying about going oom. 2. Yep every Surge Burn after the double Time Warp one you can go directly into the Radiant Spark ramp after Evocation.

[@Diplata15]

Thanks for the guide, i finally got top 4 arcane mage on my realm (us ragnaros), im expectating for try to get top 1 on war within.

[@miha7234]

Ty for the vid

[@ScreamHunter1]

Looks like a fun and interesting game to me I would like to start playing.

[@Murci0059]

Hey ! Returning Arcane mage from S2 here, I love that you get those guides updated ! But I have questions.. why do we NT and AB+AM+AB after Double BL ? And why is it ok to spend all our mana before our big burst? As I guess it's because we want our big burst to have maximum intell on the Evo buff, but why didn't we do that on S2 ?

[@valvers1401]

I was wondering too, if anyone could answer :)

[@swj20238]

Thanks! Now I can be the best Arcane Orc!

[@ahmadrezashahmirzaee8123]

Thanks again and again for the great content

[@chaseruizarwin]

Hi, im a new arcane mage player. Just wanna ask on your ST rotation, for the AS and mini burn phases, why do we only cast AB once? Aren’t we suppose to use it every 4 arcane charges?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

If you mean Arcane Barrage, then no. In ST we only use Arcane Barrage as a way to stop/slow our mana spending or when we're out of mana. In our burn phases though, we can use the one Barrage before Touch since Touch will give us 4 Arcane Charges back so spending Barrage there is "free" damage. Over half of our damage comes from Nether Precision-buffed Arcane Blasts and Arcane Missiles, so our goal is to get as many of those casts out as possible.

[@chaseruizarwin]

@@PhosphorosWoW wow this gives me a new way of thinking how to dps as an arcane mage! Thank you sir!!!

[@RoguesNtheHouse]

Will you be doing a guide for TWW when it launches?

[@AdamArchangel]

Oh wow, so all of those videos that posted the season 1 rotation are now outdated information, I wonder if they'll take their videos down and make new ones. Thanks for the info!

[@Strumzirael]

Thank u! Awesome guide!

[@salehmousavi5837]

Thx for your guide it was usefull may I know how can I set my UI like yours?

[@grumpydinosaur2347]

I miss times when i could just press arcane blast and evocation.

[@senfglas214]

Really appreciate the deep guide

[@J.G-Fate]

Hello, I read the description for Spell Queue. But I still don't understand the reasoning behind it. I tried Spell Queueing Arcane Surge > Arcane Barrage on a dummy and again without Spell Queueing (stopping briefly). I don't see any difference.. Can you please elaborate?

[@covermebaby5827]

Hey, im late to the Party but is There any reason as to why we're spending mana for our St opener before casting AS since its damage is based on mana levels?

[@MrKrizix]

I love your ui, how to match it? saw some WA, but dont know how to track cds like you do..

[@toontownfoo]

Is there a reason why during AOE Filler phase we don't throw a 4 charge Nether Tempest?

[@SugarBomb69.]

YOU ARE A SAINT!

[@ezCat1337]

Awesome guide thank you! Time to blast :D

[@jamiecarson6013]

How do you get the "ka-ching" sound when you proc an orb with your arcane barrage ?

[@carlosromero1157]

Can I get the song at 7:00 minutes when you start the single target rotation

[@PhosphorosWoW]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/rovdZ3yea8eYjaM

[@carlosromero1157]

THANK YOU!

[@reveng3r]

Why u starting from AB spam not Big burn at pull?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

The reason we don't start with big burn is that since we no longer have the mana regen from the Aberrus 4pc, if we go straight into our burn we'll run into mana issues quite early so AB spam on pull allows us to 1. Spend "free" mana during lust since we will get most of it back from Arcane Surge. 2. Lines up our Surge Burn with the remaining duration of double lust so that both end roughly around the same time. This causes us to not spend so much mana in the filler phase between Surge and Mini burn. 3. We also get to start stacking the Amirdrassil 2pc and 4pc before the burn.

[@MrKrizix]

Thanks for this guide ! Btw im looking for Mage content creators like you, do you have names to share ? Im leaving my DK to focus on Mage for our Mythic roster and im really dedicated into it. Thanks :)

[@doctorferdinand1003]

Really good guide. My arcane damage is consistently lower than my frost damage though. Is this normal?

[@jayryan1956]

Do you wait for balefire branch to come back up before sending arcane surge or just send surge with branch because when there’s like zero downtime between burn phases most the time there’s still like 8 seconds or so left before you can pop trinket. I’m also using a macro to to use mana gem pot trinket and cast barrage but ever since 10.2.5 it’s like my macro is broken and only works half the time which is extremely frustrating. Are you just using trinket/pot/ mana gem after surge on a separate keybind or how do you manage that? Hope you can reply thank you

[@PhosphorosWoW]

So I usually have pot/trinket/gem macro'ed together but this season it's better to have them all on separate binds. Potion: Use this immediately on pull with double lust. It lasts 30 seconds which will cover your entire opener and Surge burn. Balefire: Use this when Siphon Storm buff hits 20 seconds left on your opener. This will have it come back off CD during your second Surge burn. You use it whenever it comes back off CD for the second and then skip it on the third Surge burn. Gem: Use it after you finish Arcane Surge cast.

[@vyro8794]

i guess that "bing"-Checkout sound is the proccs for Orb right ? can u share that too ?

[@immortalis6]

Love the content as always! Thank you for putting cheat sheets up!

[@tomas97x]

im sorry but i simple cannot play without Improved Arcane Missiles, specially now that AM is getting a strong buff with tier set, i like casting it fully cuz its a little window for mana regen. i might be playing it wrong lol but its ok im not a hardcore player. Great video tho!

[@Abruno364]

Seeing others revert back closer to a season 1 rotation. Using AB barrage on the 5th stack of RS. Is there a big difference between the two?

[@Abruno364]

I guess final sims put this question to rest. Thanks for the guide.

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Yep for anyone else with a similar question, the season 1 rotation was suspected to be the new 10.2 rotation, but 3 days ago there were optimizations made to the action priority list. As such, the season 2 rotation is still the way to go. Any guide telling you to do the season 1 rotation is unfortunately outdated.

[@mawouel9606]

​@@PhosphorosWoWFor those that picked up arcane this season, what is the difference between s1 and S2 rotations ? Burning mana before big burn and how you sequence spark casts ?

[@willt2810]

Does the Wow head cleave built counts as AOE and Single target?

[@connorheadden3597]

So are you saying during the arcane surge burn in ST that we don't even spend our charges? we just keep using arcane blast? Such that only 1 barrage fits into the Touch of the Magi window?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Correct. Nether Precision-buffed Arcane Blasts offer so much damage that it's more DPS to fit as many of those as possible inside of Touch than it is to land more Barrages inside of Touch (specifically in ST).

[@nirhawk]

can you explain Accumulative Shielding ? i see same cooldown with or without it ,,, 25 sec for single shield and 2min for mass shield,,, the cd not change when it on or off

[@PhosphorosWoW]

The cooldown timer will still show the cooldown starting at 25 seconds but while your shield is up it will tick down 30% faster. So if you put up your shield and start a stopwatch at the same time you'll see Barrier should be back up after ~18 seconds rather than 25.

[@jakehardy5417]

So question before I start putting everything together, do you have any 2 spells macro together to use at same time ?

[@АлШт]

Great video! I however do not recommend to take orb barrage talent in m+. It sure is a lot of damage, but it's uncontrollable, and can easily agro undesirable paks. In high key levels it can be a literal death sentence.

[@senfglas214]

Theres no competing talent imho. So much damage lost without it and damage is key in keys. Yes the accidental pulls are really annoying because youre in melee range and the orb travels further than expected…

[@NickKek-pz8kc]

You can avoid that by facing into a direction where no enemies are and if you are pushing high keys with premades you can tell the tank to move them accordingly

[@АлШт]

@@NickKek-pz8kc In my experience I spent more time positioning then casting. Coordinated team can fix that, yes.

[@PandemoniumRift]

The left mouse click control the camera, the right mouse click controls where your char is facing. Using that last option, you can easily control where your char is gonna land the orb. More of that, the aoe rotation allow you to move easily, most of aoe spells are instant so... Its just about training, you cant really play without the talent now, its a HUUUUGE dps gain

[@OlimpoWow]

hi master great vid as always!! it is still good for season 4?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Yep as of right now this is still relevant when Season 4 releases! Thank you for the support!

[@GeorgMaUlWurf]

hi can you put sections in your video? like marking ST talents as ST in the video timeline

[@qqmoreharz]

Thanks for this. I just got back playing. Just one question though, so the rotation is pretty much the same from last season even with the new s3 tier set bonus?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Yep the only differences are the extended opener during lust where you burn mana before doing the Surge Burn, and you want to let 4 set buffed missiles fully channel.

[@WH-InfiniteBattles]

how u can use arcane missiles on multiple target ?

[@romanarguello3025]

Hi! what addon are u using for de UI? Can u export for me please? I really need to organize my skills

[@arainbowinthedark2]

When do you know when the 4 set proc happens to not clip the AM, cause WoWhead said to continue clipping AM unless the 4 set procs??? I didn't really see anything in your gameplay indicating when to clip and when not too or when the 4 set proc'ed.

[@PhosphorosWoW]

When my Clearcasting proc turns a dark blue that's indicating I have the 4 set buff. I also have an icon just above Shifting Power that glows green when I get the 4pc buff. If you want to give those WeakAuras a try, here's the link: wago.io/c8zvYCldS wago.io/elFFqnJmv

[@Malavander]

Switched to mage recently and I see Frost simming a decent bit higher, but logs are heavy Arcane for this raid. Just curious why that is... Are people just comfy with it from previous tiers or does it just line up better on most fights?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Arcane's damage pattern lines up pretty well on most fights and burst is usually favored in progression environments. I always recommend playing what you find the most fun though!

[@BageXR]

Hello, new to Arcane class and found your video. Thank you for taking the time for the guide. I wanted to also let you know all your links are don't work. "page not found" are you updating soon?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Which links are missing for you? I just double checked them and they're working on my end

[@BageXR]

@@PhosphorosWoW Ok, weird I jst checked now, and they are all working. I have no idea why didn't before it kept giving the error 404 web page not found error but not now. Thanks for the uploads. New to Arcan started yesterday alot to take in.

[@kevmoney89]

So when do you pom in the aoe rotation?

[@xSaursang]

What embellishments do you recommend?

[@sloogalmcdoogle]

Are you just spamming Arcane Blast to clip missiles? Or is there a macro'd Blast that clips it?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Spamming Arcane Blast

[@sloogalmcdoogle]

Awesome man thank you! @@PhosphorosWoW

[@The4ernilll]

do you wait with your arcane surge burn for the trinket cooldown (Brunch 90s cooldown)? cause surge comes off 12 seconds earlier generally

[@Katsaguro]

After mini burn you casted evocation by itself instead of part of the full burn, should you just do this as you run out of mana to keep up dps, or should you hold it to have it as part of the full burn phase? Or should you only try to do the full burn if things line up properly?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

You can do this as you run out of mana to keep up dps as long as the Siphon Storm buff lasts the full duration of TotM until it drops.

[@matteobedeschi9242]

@PhosphorosWoW Hi mate must One question. On raid bosses when u use bl at start are better use prepot after bl or after arcane surge? Becouse i see in your raid fight u use after bl And another question like in nymue fight mytich u dont charge4 set missils becouse u need burst on add during interpunse?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Hey so you want to pop DPS potion on pull because it lasts 30 seconds so it will last the full duration of Siphon Storm. As for Nymue, you want to immediately do the Surge Burn rather than stacking the tier set buff because it will allow you to get your Surge burn back when the intermission starts so you can kill the add.

[@MrCherrycheeks]

it looks like during the AOE rotation display, your arcane missiles are cleaving.....HOW?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

It's the 10.2 tier piece 4 set bonus

[@CosmicHorrors]

Welp i wanted to get into arcane but holy shit...

[@brandonbarker6009]

i agree a headache at best

[@CrusaderZav]

Is nether tempest powerful enough to keep uptime on? Or is it just used to benefit the burn phase ToM damage? Because I notice in the opener you cast it immediately after the double timewarp.

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Nope. You can pretty much just use it for burn phases to benefit from Arcane Echo. The Nether Tempest on pull isn't necessary.

[@RVKZ_]

Why use Magi after Arcane Surge and Arcane barrage if Magi stores all damage dealt and explodes after 12s? Woudnt be better to use Magi to store the Arcane Surge and Arcane Barrage damage to explode?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Over half of our damage comes from Nether Precision buffed Arcane Blasts and Clearcasted Arcane Missiles, so it's better to use Arcane Surge for its damage buff and then get as many Arcane Blasts/Missiles as possible inside TotM. We also Barrage before TotM because TotM will refill us to 4 charges so it's free damage.

[@Eggonak]

Love your stuff

[@joelcox2585]

Awesome video. Can u do a video of the single target as m+ spec and also 2 target cleave rotation?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Single target as M+ is essentially the same except you don't have Mana Gem and you might cast one less Arcane Blast during your Radiant Spark ramps since Barrage > TotM might shoot out an Arcane Orb from Orb Barrage

[@joelcox2585]

​@PhosphorosWoW thank u man. I have bad mana issues but I wasnt weaving my missle proc basically cuz I thought we ignored them in the ramp so hopefully it will help mana issue

[@benjaminblace5459]

Hello, In mini burn on fight you you sometimes ends up with 3 charge of RS no Orb(you RS arbarrage proc a . So if you just barrage you end up with no orb and In that case do you arr explo/arblast in order to reach 4 charge and then arcane barrage?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Are you referring to the mini burn with 4 arcane charges when you get no Orb Barrage procs? If so, when you reach the second Arcane Orb cast if you don't have an Arcane Orb charge available then you would just Arcane Explosion and enter the filler rotation instead.

[@IceBeerG100]

I've just one question (since i'm kinda lazy and dont wanna test it myself :P) Is it worth to cast arcane missles st/aoe without clearcast proc in case of increadeble unluck/(intermission mechanic), when it's about to wear off without you getting proc?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

If you mean the 2pc wearing off, it only refreshes when you consume a Clearcast proc, so casting Missiles without a proc would unfortunately not refresh it. You also don't ever want to cast Missiles without a Clearcasting proc anyway (even if you have 4 set buff).

[@Platt223]

Is there a reason we cant macro mana gem and trinket with ToTM? So that we would AS>Barrage>Mana gem+ToTM during the big burn. Im also wondering why we need to delay the ToTM until right before barrage lands, as opposed to spamming ToTM right after barrage goes off

[@PhosphorosWoW]

You can macro them together if that's easier for you. All it would really do is not buff the Barrage but it's not a huge deal as NT-buffed Blasts and Missles are the majority of our damage. As for delaying TotM until Barrage lands, it's more about hitting TotM when the GCD from casting Barrage is over. If you cast TotM immediately then you'd lose the ~1 second of TotM damage due to the GCD. There are some cases where you pretty much want to hit it immediately though such as Barrage > TotM in melee range and when you have a ton of Haste either from PI or double lust (GCD becomes mostly irrelevant).

[@jayryan1956]

when do we use and not use arcane battery? is it even worth use on aoe or only ST? no mention of the new 2 and 4 set workings?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

With the 2 set for the most part you just treat it as a passive. You can spam Arcane Explosion during downtime in raid fights or M+ to stack/refresh it though. As for the 4 set, you use it like any other Clearcasting proc except you want to fully channel that cast instead of clipping it. If you know extra mobs are about to spawn in a couple seconds you can delay the cast by using a few Arcane Blasts instead as well.

[@jayryan1956]

@@PhosphorosWoW in m+ will we ignore the arcane battery and just continue to AE and orb barrage or do you still send the artillery proc in heavy aoe situations? I feel like sometimes when you’re getting heaps of orb procs and chewing through cc procs it’s easy to drop the artillery buff before going to the next pack while still maintaining a cc to make full use of its damage if that makes sense. And in ST situations when cc procs are kinda not happening but you’re almost into a burn phase do you kinda just keep blasting until you get a cc proc so you can maintain the 10% damage buff before it drops off going into a burn phase or do you just send cool downs? Like obviously there’s a few little tips and tricks to try and keep that 10% up as long as possible or like you said just treat it as a passive. Sorry for the long reply just got my tier this week late start

[@99Pierogies]

ive been looking at logs of top mages, and pretty much all of them skip the AB burn at the start and go right into big burn with RS into AS. is there new info that makes this more optimal?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Great question! The AB burn at the start is the perfect example of sims not being able to account for actual scenarios in-game that require you to stray away from the most optimal, mathematically proven rotation. To answer your question though, there is no new information. Mathematically, doing the AB burn at the start of a pure ST fight will still give you the most damage overall. However, a lot of the fights in this raid have a mechanic that will cause you to do more DPS if you get your burn on CD immediately on pull. Take Nymue for example. You need your Surge burn back up to kill the first middle add during the intermission which means you have to burn immediately on pull. Same thing with Smolderon. You have to burn immediately on pull so that your Surge burn is back up for the intermission phases with the damage increase, etc etc. This website is a great resource for easily finding out which fights you should/shouldn't do the burn at the start: lorrgs.io/spec_ranking/mage-arcane/gnarlroot Hope that made sense and if you have any questions for a specific fight just lmk!

[@99Pierogies]

@@PhosphorosWoW thanks for the in depth reply! I had my suspicions that CD timing was the case, but I wasn't sure since I just swapped to mage for my guild, so the whole kit is brand new to me. I'm familiar with lorrgs, that's where I got my initial info from, but great to get confirmation from an actual person instead of just stats haha. The variable opener based on boss is what's been tripping me up, and timing my CDs on cleave fights with having to time magi ramp just right. Thanks again, and good luck with progression!

[@GNGFan21]

Probably hardest rotation to get right. Miss one spell and your dps tanks and hard

[@cartnitee2]

I know this may be a terrible question, but im generally new and its hard for me to learn all of these especially in order. Is their a macro to execute different variations of these cycles? I really find it hard trying to find different keys i can press on my board to get comfortably with it and I feel the macros may help? Thanks!

[@1shogunate696]

Sadly I’ve only found 1 macro and that’s for touch of magi. I just started trying to learn this build and I think I may not have the mental capacity for it

[@KhanhNguyenTran-b4f]

I am new and please help me how can you spam bundle of skills together ? I try but my fingers cant type a lof of skills. Help me

[@PhosphorosWoW]

My best advice would be practicing as much as possible on a training dummy and try moving spells that you use together closer to eachother on your keybinds. So Arcane Missiles and Arcane Blast for ST, Arcane Explosion and Barrage for AoE, etc. You can also try an MMO mouse if you're using keyboard binds and you feel like you're needing to do finger gymnastics to hit spells.

[@tyronhills8163]

Hey @Phosphoros, do you or would you be willing to look at my arcane mage VOD and tell me what mistakes I should be correcting ?

[@eliezerviloriocruz7339]

Muchas gracias por esta maravillosa guía.

[@deanbrandt4356]

Does anyone have any pointers on how to trick my brain into remembering to hold RS until ToTM is up? 😭 I just wanna blasty blast and my brain goes "ooooh CD"

[@oKthen-pc7kk]

hello very nice guide but have a few questions.is this rotation only with new 4set?also what is the reason we don't start with AS burst at the begining of the fight with the double bl ?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Yep this rotation is for 4 set. The reason we don't start with AS burst is that since we no longer have the mana regen from the Aberrus 4pc, if we go straight into our burn we'll run into mana issues quite early so burning on pull allows us to 1. Spend "free" mana during lust since we will get most of it back from Arcane Surge. 2. Lines up our Surge Burn with the remaining duration of double lust so that both end roughly around the same time. This causes us to not spend so much mana in the filler phase between Surge and Mini burn. 3. We also get to start stacking the Amirdrassil 2pc and 4pc before the burn.

[@oKthen-pc7kk]

@@PhosphorosWoW I see! thank you man appreciate the response!

[@SilentKME]

Question, am i supposed to keep nether temptest up at all times like a DoT class would?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Nope. You only cast it before TotM and when you're trying to conserve mana.

[@SilentKME]

@@PhosphorosWoW thank you!

[@Whytchii]

Hello phosphoros, thank you very much for your very good arcane mage video. You brought me to the arcane mage with your video in season 2 and I really liked your videos for rotation back then. But now I'm having a bit of difficulty understanding the aoe rotation. In the video you explain (as I know it from the rotation) that you pull arcane barage and land on gcd touch of magni just before arcane barage. At this point you have 4 arcane charges again through Touch of Magni. Now you explain in scenario two that if you didn't get a procc for arcane balls through arcane barage, you should pull arcane barage a second time because touch of magni gives us 4 arcane charges again. But if I have already drawn arcane barage and touch of magni in the gcd, touch of magni won't give me new charges? that confuses me. It would be really nice if you could briefly explain this again. tysm

[@PhosphorosWoW]

If you use Touch too quickly after Barrage it may sometimes not give you your charges back. You can increase the delay manually or try this macro: #showtooltip Touch of the Magi /castsequence reset=10 Arcane Barrage, Touch of the Magi, Touch of the Magi This macro will cast Arcane Barrage the first time you press it and then Touch of the Magi the second time. You can spam click it and it should always refund the charges.

[@Whytchii]

@@PhosphorosWoW tysm for explaining and for the macro! 😍🥰

[@ZAckNett]

How do i know when i actually get a orb proc, non of my weakauras tell me when one is up. Or is it just hoping 40% will hit

[@SK-pi6cn]

You can see the orb fly out of your character when it procs.

[@senfglas214]

Do I use trinkets before or after casting Surge? I guess after because you used the mana gem after Surge.

[@PhosphorosWoW]

It depends on the trinket. Belor'relos is used after Siphon Storm. Balefire is used anytime after Siphon Storm

[@Jagix1]

hello mate, have you ever tried rotation where you use RS NT AB AB AB AS AB+arcane barrage TOM? isnt it better?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Yes that rotation was suspected to be the new 10.2 rotation, but 3 days ago there were optimizations made to the action priority list. As such, RS NT AS Barrage TotM AB AB AB is higher DPS. Any guide telling you to do the rotation as you mentioned is currently outdated.

[@TheStormRogue]

what weak auras are you using to get the flashy curves on each side of your character?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

This is the WeakAura for tracking Clearcasting/4pc: wago.io/c8zvYCldS And this is the one for tracking Nether Precision: wago.io/-ApNbKpq1

[@Chevekiwi]

How do you get 4 arcane charges after arcane barrage in the AS burn phase ?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Touch of the Magi gives us 4 Arcane Charges, so when you pop it after Barrage it refills them

[@GeorgMaUlWurf]

another question: whats the desired uptime on nether tempest? do I re-apply it (at 4 stacks) on CD?

[@GeorgMaUlWurf]

from what Ive seen in warcraftlogs it is only used in burst phases with TotM and RS

[@PhosphorosWoW]

@@GeorgMaUlWurf Yes you apply NT after RS so that it procs Arcane Echo during TotM. Outside of that you can use it when

[@GeorgMaUlWurf]

@@PhosphorosWoW thx!!!

[@newagesoup]

So in ST, correct me if i’m wrong - our rotation and talents are the same as last season except now we allow empowered clearcasting to fully channel instead of clipping?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Correct, and there's the extended opener where you burn until either 0 mana or Siphon Storm has

[@newagesoup]

@@PhosphorosWoWah right! and that means within double timewarp, AB(NP)>AM(CC)>AB until either of those points you said? (siphon storm

[@PhosphorosWoW]

@@newagesoup Yep follow that priority exactly how you listed it. I believe the thinking behind it is that since we no longer have the mana regen from the Aberrus 4pc, if we go straight into our burn we'll run into mana issues quite early so burning on pull allows us to 1. Spend "free" mana during lust since we will get most of it back from Arcane Surge. 2. Lines up our Surge Burn with the remaining duration of double lust so that both end roughly around the same time. This causes us to not spend so much mana in the filler phase between Surge and Mini burn. 3. We also get to start stacking the Amirdrassil 2pc and 4pc before the burn.

[@newagesoup]

@@PhosphorosWoW Ahhh I see! So definitely some potential mana issues without the aberrus 4pc and I hadn’t thought about stacking the new passive. Thank you so much for your help. It makes a lot of sense now!

[@GeorgMaUlWurf]

4:52 PoM gives 2 charges of instant casts, is it worth to use both of these instant casted ABs before TotM expires?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

You want to use PoM to fit one final Arcane Blast inside TotM, so if the cast time of your Arcane Blast is longer than the remaining duration of TotM, you'd instead PoM > AB to fit an extra blast in. Usually you won't be able to get the second instant cast AB in before TotM drops due to the GCD. You can see how I do it at 7:24. When I finish my Arcane Blast cast there is less than a second left of TotM and there would be no time to fit another casted AB in, so I PoM > AB instead,

[@GeorgMaUlWurf]

@@PhosphorosWoW I see. Is it worth using PoM for a non-buffed AB or do I use Clearcasting Proc instead?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Yep in that very last GCD of TotM you'd fit a PoM > AB whether it is buffed or not@@GeorgMaUlWurf

[@GeorgMaUlWurf]

@@PhosphorosWoW u a king

[@wondelond1420]

Where you know the biss ?

[@Gwnlescot]

What is that blue and purple around u if i may ask

[@PhosphorosWoW]

That is a WeakAura tracking the new 4 set bonus. You can pick it up here if you want to give it a try: wago.io/c8zvYCldS

[@TheZlimshady]

Wait this one is without 4 piece, cause that changes rotation back to the s1 right?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Nope this is with the 10.2 four piece. Initially we were going back to the S1 rotation but there were optimizations made 2 days before the patch that proved the rotation in this guide is higher DPS. Any guide telling you to use the S1 rotation is unfortunately outdated.

[@TheZlimshady]

@@PhosphorosWoW Okay thank you!

[@Iddy267]

why use evocation at 4 stacks if your mana is full`?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

The Siphon Storm talent gives you a huge intellect buff, so it turns Evocation into a damage cooldown rather than a mana management cooldown.

[@CharlieToof]

This is allready thinked with the new Arcane mage set in mind?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Yep, this guide assumes you have the 10.2 tier set.

[@paranoidsoldier]

Im going back to frost. I just dont get it.

[@razzg_]

Shouldnt we burn some mana on pull with 2x Lust? And use surge after RS 3xAB? I wonder which opener is better

[@PhosphorosWoW]

Yes, on double lust in single target you do the filler rotation until you either run out of mana or Siphon Storm reaches 17 seconds left. You can see the demonstration at 6:45. As for when to surge, there were rotation optimizations made to the APL 2 days ago that calculate RS > NT > Surge > Barrage > TotM > 3x AB as higher DPS than RS > 3x AB > NT > Surge > AB + Barrage > TotM.

[@davidnagy9754]

how did you make arcane missiles hit aoe?

[@PhosphorosWoW]

It's the 10.2 4pc set bonus

[@davidnagy9754]

@@PhosphorosWoWthank you