WotLK Classic Arcane Mage Spell Summary (2024)

Arcane Mages offer a variety of useful buffs for themselves and the groupthey play in. These buffs can be used to increase stats, damage and healingtaken, Critical Strike chance, and Mana regeneration. Other buffs decreasespell damage and healing taken. The Armor buffs are only castable on the Mage,while the other buffs listed below can be cast on any group member.

Arcane Intellect — Increases Intellect on the target.Can be improved with Glyph of Arcane Intellect.

Arcane Brilliance — Increases Intellect of everyone inthe target's group. Requires one Arcane Powder to be cast and Tome of Arcane Brilliance 3 to be learned.

Dampen Magic — Buffs the target to decrease magic damageand healing taken. Can be enhanced by 50% with Arcane talents. Very nicheuse.

Amplify Magic — Buffs the target to increase magicdamage and healing taken. Can be enhanced by 50% with Arcane talents. Usefulon players that take Physical damage only or almost exclusively Physicaldamage. A very strong situational spell.

Molten Armor — 35% (or 55% with the Glyph of Molten Armor) of your Spirit will be converted into CriticalStrike Rating. Deals 170 Fire damage per hit to melee attackers,decreases the chance to be critically hit by 5%. Can be enhanced with Firetalents to affect ranged and spell attacks as well.

Mage Armor — Increases magic resistance by 40 and allows50% of the Mage's Mana regeneration to continue while casting. Can beenhanced by Arcane Shielding (50%) and Glyph of Mage Armor (20%)

Ice Armor — Increases the Mage's Armor by 930 and Frostresistance by 40 and slows enemy melee attackers. Can be enhanced byFrost Warding (50%) and Glyph of Ice Armor (50%).

Focus Magic — is a powerful buff to be cast on a friendlytarget. Itincreases their Critical Strike chance with spells by 3%. If they score acritical strike, your Critical Strike chance is also increased by 3% for10 seconds.

Mages are sought after for their crowd-controlling abilities, such asPolymorphing enemies and Frost-exclusive slowing and freezingeffects. Further, they supply their group and themselves with fresh water andfood and open portals to all major cities of each faction. Mages can alsoremove curses from allies and magic from enemies.

Polymorph — With this spell, humanoids, critters andbeasts can be turned into a sheep for a certain amount of time. This effectcan end before its maximum time has passed. Through theFragmented Magic quest and the Tome of Polymorph: Turtle book,enemies can also be turned into a pig or a turtle, which is of course a verynice cosmetic upgrade. Glyph of the Penguin can transforms your Polymorphtargets into a penguin. Glyph of Polymorph removes damage-over-timeeffects from your Polymorph target, which could otherwise break Polymorph.

Conjure Refreshment — Conjured Mana Strudels, usable byfriendly players, restoring health and Mana. Conjured items disappear from theinventory after logging out for 15 minutes or more. This spell can be learnedfrom Mage trainers.

Ritual of Refreshment — Creates a portal two friendlyplayers need to click in order to make a table appear. Costs 5 Arcane Powder. Each player can take up to 80 Conjured Mana Strudels from this table. Conjured items disappear fromthe inventory after logging out for 15 minutes or longer.

Conjure Mana Gem — A Mage can create different types of Managems, which can be used in combat to restore Mana. The highest rank ofthis spell restores most Mana. Mana Gems are unique; conjuring the highestrank does not allow you to conjure lower ranks of it. Does not disappear whenlogging out. Has 3 charges. Can be improved with Glyph of Mana Gem.

Teleport Spells: Every Mage can teleport to their faction's major cities,to Shattrath, or to Dalaran at the cost of one Rune of Teleportation.

Portal Spells: These spells are used to open portals to each faction'smajor cities, to Shattrath, and to Dalaran that the whole group can use. Costs 1 Rune of Portals.

Invisibility — The Mage fades out for 3 seconds andbecomes invisible after that time. Each second before becoming invisible,the threat against all enemies is reduced. Any damage taken or actionfrom the Mage cancels the spell. This can be used as a threat dump, to leavecombat, or to sneak by enemies. Can be improved with talents and Glyph of Invisibility.

Evocation — A channeled spell that restores 60% ofyour Mana during 8 seconds. Haste effects make the channeling faster anddamage taken while channeling reduces the Mana restored. Has a base cooldownof 4 minutes, can be reduced to 2 minutes with talents. Another small tipis that the Tier 3 2-set bonus (Frostfire Regalia) reduces the cooldown ofEvocation by a minute. With this in mind, you can swap to the 2 pieces, waitfor a second (the bonus needs a bit to activate), Evocate, and swap back toyour normal gear. Be sure to only use this strategy out of combat, as youcan only switch back to your normal gear out of combat and Tier 3 is terribleto wear during an encounter.

Spellsteal — Sometimes enemies have beneficial magicalbuffs you can steal with this ability. Stolen buffs last on you for two minutes.Some bosses require one Mage to steal amagical buff from an enemy, in order to be able to tank it.Range can be improved with talents.

Counterspell — This spell is used to interrupt enemycasting and to prevent any spell of the interrupted spell school from beingcast for 8 seconds. Can be improved with talents.

Blink — Teleports the Mage 20 yards forward. Thisability canbe used to reposition during fights and save some running time, flee fromenemies, break snaring effects, or to prevent fall damage by Blinking shortlybefore reaching the ground. Can be improved with talents and Glyph of Blink.

Slow Fall — At the cost of one Light Feather(0 with Glyph of Slow Fall), Mages canreduce their and allies' falling speed for 30 seconds. This can be used tosurvive falling down, or to move to locations normally unreachable, by jumpingfrom a higher ledge to a lower position. Can be cast before mounting and itwill persist while mounted.

Remove Curse — Removes a Curse from a friendlytarget. Glyph of Remove Curse makes the decursed target immune to Cursesfor 4 seconds.

Slow — Exclusively available to Arcane Mages, reduces thetarget's movement speed and time between ranged attacks by 60%. This abilityalso increases the casting time of the target by 30% and the time betweentheir ranged attacks by 60%. Lasts 15 seconds, only one target at a time canbe affected by this spell.

Presence of Mind — Makes your next Mage spell with a cast timeof less than 10 seconds an instant spell. This can be used to instantlyPolymorph enemies, or to make a damage spell instant.Further, PoM also triggers Arcane Potency (see below!).Channeled spells do not consume the instant-cast effect of this spell, so you can use the Critical Strike chance, such as forBlizzard and following it up with an instant cast Flamestrike.

Frost Nova — Freezes enemies 8 yards around the Mage for8 seconds.

Improved Blizzard — This talent can be used to controlgroups of enemies by slowing their movement speed. It is a utility spell, ifit is required to buy time before mobs reach the group or the Mage.

Arcane Mages use different offensive abilities than Fire or Frost Mages.Some of these abilities are required for rotations or need to be usedwith special attention. To learn more about the rotation and how theseabilities synergize, read theArcane Mage Rotations page.

Arcane Blast — Your main source of damage. Arcane Blast,also referred to as "AB" gives youa stacking debuff. Each stack increases the Mana cost of Arcane Blast by 175%and increases the damage of all Arcane spells by 15%. It stacks up to fourtimes and will make your Arcane Blast cost too much Mana to be sustainable. Thedebuff drops after 6 seconds, when you cast another Arcane spell, or when youIce Block. Through the Missile Barrage talent your Arcane Blasthas a 40% chance to halve the cast time (the tooltip ismisleading) of your next Arcane Missiles and make them cost no Mana,which is most important for the Arcane Mage DPS rotation.Can be improved with talents and Glyph of Arcane Blast.

Arcane Missiles — The combo spell for Arcane Mages. LaunchesArcane Missiles at your enemy. When Arcane Blast orArcane Barrage proc Missile Barrage, the cast time of Arcane Missilesis halved. The recommended way to use this spell is when you have 4 stacks ofthe Arcane Blast debuff and a Missile Barrage proc, or when you have cast 6Arcane Blasts without a Missile Barrage proc. After a Missile Barrage procfrom Arcane Barrage, it is recommended to first build up 4 stacks of the ArcaneBlast debuff (if possible) and only then use Arcane Missiles.Can be improved with talents and Glyph of Arcane Missiles.

Arcane Barrage and Fire Blast — Will be castwhilemoving or to finish off an enemy with a last cast. Fire Blast has no traveltime. Abar has a 3-seconds cooldown, so when moving or finishing mobs, theoptimal rotation to use these spells would be Arcane Barrage ->Fire Blast -> Arcane Barrage. Can be improved with Glyph of Arcane Barrage.

Blizzard — Is a very strong AoE spell in the typicalArcane Spec, but should only be used on static enemies.

Flamestrike — Rank 9 and Rank 8 can be cast in betweenBlizzards on static enemies and if they live long enough to survivethe full rotation. A rotation of Flamestrike 9 -> Flamestrike 8 ->Blizzard deals very high AoE damage and should be used if it isexercisable.

Arcane Explosion — The main AoE spell when a fightis not stationary (when mobs are being kited by the tank).Generates very low threat with the Arcane Subtlety talent.Can be improved with talents and Glyph of Arcane Explosion.

Cone of Cold — A frontal cone AoE ability that does highdamage and slows enemies, but due to the frontal cone shape it is easy tomiss enemies, so Arcane Explosion is safer to use (hits more enemies).

Presence of Mind — Makes your next Mage spell with a lessthan 10-second casting time an instant spell. This spell can be used to makea damage spell instant or to extend the Arcane Blast debuff.

Arcane Power — Increases the damage of your spells by 20%,but they cost 20% more Mana to cast. Lasts 15 seconds and has a 2-minutecooldown. Can be used together with Icy Veins orBloodlust/Heroism. Preferably used withArcane Blast and Missile Barrage Arcane Missiles.Can be improved with talents and Glyph of Arcane Power.

Icy Veins — Increases your casting speed by 20% for20 seconds. During the duration of Icy Veins, your spells are no longer subjectto spell pushback. Preferably used with Arcane Blast.Can be improved with talents and Glyph of Icy Veins.

Mirror Image — Should be used for additional damage, as the MirrorImages attack your enemy and do additional damage, or to disappear from the threatlist while doing heavy burst (AoE) damage. Mirror images benefit fromBloodlust/Heroism if cast beforehand and only attack if an enemy isnearby and you are already in combat with them.Can be improved with Glyph of Mirror Image.

Every Mage spec has good defensive capabilities. They can absorb damage fromdifferent sources and even become immune to damage.

Mana Shield, Frost Ward and Fire Ward — absorbdamage and can be useful in some PvE situations.

Ice Block — Puts the Mage in an Ice Block for 10 seconds,making them immune to almost all attacks and spells. Some bossabilities can penetrate the Ice Block immunity and Priests can dispel Ice Blockwith Mass Dispel. This ability can also be used to protect thecaster from fall damage. After using Ice Block, you get the Hypothermiadebuff that prevents you from using Ice Block again for 30 seconds.Can be improved with talents and Glyph of Ice Block.