1.0 - Introduction
2.0 - Arcane Talents
3.0 - PvP
4.0 - PvE Gear

This guide is simply intended to provide a general overview of the class. For a more in-depth and highly detailed resource on this class, check out this guide here.

1.0 - The Arcane Mage

Arcane Mages represent massive and continued burst DPS so far as mages go, even surpassing that of the much vaunted heavy fire mage once you obtain the proper gear. However, that's just it, without the amount of mana required to sustain Arcane's massive DPS you fall far short of par.

Additionally Arcane Mages see much less light in the Arena as opposed to cookie cutter 17/0/44 Frost Mages or 17/44/0 Fire mage PvP specs, often due to the simple fact that either of those will be a direct improvement over arcane.

However not all is lost, with proper control, skills, and of course gear, Arcane can still succeed quite nicely at brining the pain in earlier raid instances as well as much more so on into the later end raiding game EX: Mount Hyjal & Black Temple

2.0 - Talent Builds

40/0/21 Arcane Raid DPS Build

61/0/0 Pure Arcane PvE/Raid Build

33/28/0 Arcane/Fire Hybrid Build

2.1 - Spell Rotation

Arcane Blast - Arcane Blast - Arcane Blast - Arcane Missiles - Scorch

2.2 - Leveling Arcane Build

40/21/0 Arcane/Fire Leveling Build

10 – 14 Improve Arcane Missiles
15 – 19 Arcane Concentration
20 – 24 Improved Fireball
25 – 29 Ignite
30 – Pyroblast
31 – 33 Arcane Impact
34 – 35 Magic attunement
36 – 38 Arcane Meditation
39 – 40 Improved Counterspell
41 – 45 Arcane Mind
46 – Presence of Mind
47 – 49 Arcane Instability
50 – Arcane Potency (1/3)
51 – Arcane Power
52 – 53 Spell Power
54 – 55 Arcane Potency (3/3)
56 - 70 Expand more into the fire tree picking up flame throwing and blast wave as well as finishing the arcane tree's useful talents

3.0 - Arcane PvP Build

48/13/0 Arcane/Fire Arena Build

36/0/25 Arcane/Frost Arena Build

NOTE: The below section is nearly identical for all three specializations of mage, this is due to the usage of almost entirely the same stats for any mage no matter the talent build/elemental specialization.

4.0 - Number Crunching

Spell Hit - 12.6 = 1%
Spell Critical - 22.1 = 1%
Spell Penetration - 1 = 1 Lost point of Resistance
Spell Haste - 15.7 = 1%/0.025 seconds off of Global Cooldown & Spell Cast Time

Spell Damage Coefficients:

Arcane Missiles = 142.9%(or 28.57% per wave of missiles)
Arcane Explosion = 21.4%
Arcane Blast = 71.4%
Scorch = 42.8%

Spell Hit Cap:

Spell Hit Cap W/ (3/3) Elemental Precision = 164 For Fire & Frost/126 (Frostbolt Only)
Spell Hit Cap W/ (5/5) Arcane Focus = 76 for Arcane
Spell Hit Cap W/ (3/3) Elemental Precision & (3/5) Arcane Focus = 126 for Fire, Frost & Arcane

4.1 - Spell Hit, Crit, etc.

The Numbers above detail the percentage to which each point of +Spell Damage actually effects any given spell. For instance, 1 point of spell damage does not automatically equal an increase of one damage, rather it will increase it to a percentage as listed above.

If the spell you're looking for isn't listed above then simply take the base casting time(without talents) and divide it by 3.5. However, a different formula will apply to AoE spells.

Defacto Priority:

Spell Hit(Until Capped) - Spell Damage OR Haste - Spell Critical

What to shoot for when entering Karazhan & Heroics:

If you simply want to make certain you're good to begin attempting karazhan and heroics try aiming for the stats below as an absolute minimum, surpassing them however is recommended to make things overall quite easier.

Additionally, you can downgrade these stats somewhat for the easier heroic dungeons as Karazhan is definitely more challenging than most if not all of them.

Spell Hit: 90
Spell Damage: 600
Spell Critical: 20%
Health: 6,000
Mana: 7,000

What to shoot for when heading into 25-Raids:

These numbers should cover you for passing Karazhan into the 25-man raiding content, statistics such as spell hit will be notably harder to achieve prior to gearing up in Karazhan & Heroics quie a bit. Otherwise if you have this or higher by the time you eclipse Karazhan you'll be fine.

Spell Hit: 16% (With Talents)
Spell Damage: 800+
Spell Critical: 23%
Health: 7,000+
Mana: 9,000

4.2 - Gems

[Runed Living Ruby]
[Great Dawnstone]
[Quick Dawnstone]
[Veiled Noble Topaz]
[Unstable Topaz]

4.3 Enchantments

Head: Glyph of Power
Shoulders: Aldor/Scryer Inscription
Back: Spell Penetration
Chest: Exceptional Mana
Wrist: Spellpower
Hands: Major Spellpower
Legs: Runic Spellthread
Weapon: Major Spellpower

4.4 - PvE Gear Guide

Note: As this is a PvE gear guide I'll only list the PvP rewards capable of being obtained via Honor, arena rewards are however viable alternatives to many pieces of gear.

Many pieces of gear will be equally useful to both fire, frost, and arcane mages, the only few pieces that really differ are Spellfire Vs. Frozen Shadowweave and a couple little rings.

Head:

[Annihilator Holo-Gogs] - Crafted
[Spellstrike Hood] - Crafted
[Hood of Oblivion] - Arcatraz
[Incanter's Cowl] - Mechanar

Neck:

[Vindicator's Pendant of Subjugation] - PvP Reward
[Brooch of Heightened Potential] - Shadow Laybrinth
[Hydra-fang Necklace] - Heroic Underbog
[Torc of the Sethekk Prophet]- Quest Reward

Shoulders:

[Mantle of Nimble Thought] - Crafted
[Fel-tinged Mantle] - Heroic Magister's Terrace
[Duskhallow Mantle] - Normal Magister's Terrace
[Gladiator's Silk Amice] - PvP Reward

Back:

[Cloak of the Betrayed] - Normal Magister's Terrace
[Cloak of Arcane Alacrity] - (60) Badges of Justice
[Sethekk Oracle Cloak] - Sethekk Halls
[Cloak of the Black Void] - Crafted

Chest:

[Spellfire Robe] - Crafted
[Scarlet Sin'dorei Robes] - Heroic Magister's Terrace
[Robe of the Crimson Order] - World Drop BoE
[Warp Infused Drape] - Botanica

Wrist:

[Bracers of Nimble Thought] - Crafted BoE
[Bindings of Raging Fire] - Magister's Terrace
[Vindicator's Silk Cuffs] - PvP Reward

Hands:

[Spellfire Gloves] - Crafted
[Gloves of Arcane Acuity] - Normal Magister's Terrace
[Studious Wraps] - (60) Badges of justice
[Manaspark Gloves] - Normal Underbog

Belt:

[Belt of Blasting] - Crafted BoE
[Spellfire Belt] - Crafted
[Girdle of Ruination] - Crafted BoE
[Vindicator's Silk Belt] - PvP Reward

Legs:

[Spellstrike Pants] - Crafted
[Legwraps of Sweltering Flame] - (100) Badges of Justice
[Breeches of the Occultist] - Heroic Black Morass
[Battlecast Pants] - Crafted BoE

Boots:

[Boots of Incantations] - (75) Badges of Justice
[Vindicator's Silk Footguards] - PvP Reward
[Sigil-Laced Boots] - Arcatraz
[Shattrath Jumpers] - Quest Reward

Rings:

[Ashyen's Gift] - Reputation Reward
[Sparking Arcanite Ring] - Heroic Old Hillsbrad
[Band of Arcane Alacrity] - Normal Magister's Terrace
[Seal of the Exorcist] - (50) Spirit Shards
[Seer's Signet] - Reputation Reward
[Band of Dominion] - BoE World Drop

Trinkets:

[Darkmoon Card: Crusade] - Darkmoon Card Deck
[Icon of the Silver Crescent] - (41) Badges of Justice
[Scryer's Bloodgem] - Reputation Reward
[Sorcerer's Alchemist Stone] - Crafted
[Arcanist's Stone] - Heroic Old Hillsbrad

Two-Handed Weapons:

[Gladiator's War Staff] - PvP Reward
[Terokk's Shadowstaff] - Heroic Sethekk Halls
[Sun-infused Focus Staff] - Normal Magister's Terrace

Main-Hand:

[Scryer's Blade of Focus] - (150) Badges of Justice
[Jaded Crystal Dagger] - Heroic Magister's Terrace
[Gladiator's Spellblade] - PvP Reward
[Blade of Wizardry] - BoE World Drop
[Blade of the Archmage] OR [Stormcaller] - Reputation Reward

Off-Hand:

[Fetish of the Primal Gods] - (35) Badges of Justice
[Flametongue Seal] - (25) Badges of Justice
[Lamp of Peaceful Radiance] - Arcatraz
[Star-Heart Lamp] - Black Morass

Wand:

[Carved Witch Doctor's Stick] - (25) Badges of Justice
[Nether Core's Control Rod] - Arcatraz
[Voidfire Wand] - Normal Mana-tombs
[Gladiator's Touch of Defeat] - PvP Reward