Arcane in Forever is built on Arcane Blast, a 2.5-second nuke that is now a talent. Each cast raises the damage of your other spells by 10 % and its own mana cost by 175 %, up to four times. You spend those stacks on Arcane Missiles, which Missile Barrage makes free and twice as fast, or on a second spell when no proc comes. Arcane Power and Presence of Mind are your cooldowns. It scores 761.8 DPS on a one-minute single-boss fight, 12th of 25 damage specs.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

• Free missiles on one boss. Missile Barrage is worth 27.3 % of your damage on a three-minute fight. Every Arcane Missiles the rotation casts there is one of its free, half-length channels.
• Mana that lasts. Mage Armor and Arcane Meditation together keep all of your Spirit regeneration running while you cast. With gems, a rune and a potion, the three-minute fight never gets as far as Evocation (0 casts a fight).
• Three bosses at once. Arcane Explosion hits everything within 10 yards and takes Arcane Impact's crit and Arcane Mind's crit damage. It is 76.0 % of your damage on a three-minute fight against three bosses, where Arcane ranks 12th.
• A raid buff. Arcane Brilliance gives every party 31 Intellect.

Weaknesses

• Single-target damage. On a three-minute single-boss fight Arcane does 69.6 % of the best spec's number and ranks 14th.
• It needs hit. Spells miss a raid boss 17 % of the time before hit, and a missed Arcane Blast gets no chance at Missile Barrage. Spell hit is your top stat on every fight.
• Mana on long pulls of several bosses. On a three-minute fight against three bosses Arcane Explosion spends more mana than you regain. The potion is worth 2.2 % there and almost nothing on one boss.

On every fight

Arcane holds a similar place on every single-boss length and climbs a little on three bosses, where it swaps its whole rotation for Arcane Explosion and Cone of Cold. The build changes with the fight: one and two minutes take Fire down to Pyroblast, three minutes take Frost for Frostbolt. Picking a fight in the table switches every page of this guide to it.

Races

For the Horde, Undead lead the longer fights and every three-boss fight through Touch of the Grave. The caster version has a 10 % chance on each landed spell, at most once a second, to drain 5 % of your maximum health from the boss. It is 1.9 % of an Undead mage's damage on one boss and 3.6 % on three, where each Arcane Explosion rolls on three targets. On the one-minute fight Blood Fury, used at the pull alongside Arcane Power, brings the Orc level with them.

For the Alliance, Human leads every fight. Sword Specialization is now 2 % crit with spells as well as attacks while you hold a sword, and every set here uses Sageblade, a sword. Gnomes follow, with Eureka! and 5 % more mana. High Order sits last, furthest behind on the one-minute fight, by more than its 1 % haste can explain. Treat that gap as unconfirmed until we have checked it.

What a Mage brings to the raid

Arcane Brilliance is the mage's raid buff, 31 Intellect for everyone. Below is its worth on this fight to each spec that gains from it.

Changes

This build's result on this fight through each simulator and game-data update. The Updates page explains each one.