- Author: Malphaz
- Date: June 8, 2019
- Updated: July 28, 2021
- Expansion: WotLK Classic
Welcome to the Arcane Mage PVP guide for World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King 3.3.5a. In this guide, you will learn about playing an Arcane Mage in the arena or a battleground. The guide includes Talents, Glyphs, Gems, Enchantments, Add-ons, Gameplay & Skill rotation tips, Team setups.
Talent Tree
Glyphs
Major Glyphs
Minor Glyphs
Gems
Gems are situational and depend on the build and equipment. They are used to reach the required stat caps.
- Meta: Forlorn Skyflare Diamond
- Red: Runed Cardinal Ruby
- Yellow: Quick King’s Amber
- Blue: Shattered Eye of Zul
Enchants
- Head – Arcanum of Burning Mysteries
- Shoulder – Greater Inscription of the Storm
- Cloak – Scroll of Enchant Cloak – Spell Piercing
- Chest – Scroll of Enchant Chest – Exceptional Resilience
- Bracers – Scroll of Enchant Bracer – Superior Spellpower
- Gloves – Scroll of Enchant Gloves – Exceptional Spellpower
- Waist – Eternal Belt Buckle
- Legs – Sapphire Spellthread
- Boots – Scroll of Enchant Boots – Tuskarr’s Vitality
Weapons
- One-handed – Scroll of Enchant Weapon – Mighty Spellpower
- Two-handed – Scroll of Enchant Staff – Greater Spellpower
Gameplay & Rotations
Stat Priority
Hit (4%) > Spell Penetration (110-130) > SpellPower (3000-3300) > Haste (900)
Tips
Covering buffs and debuffs is a useful tactic. Use Slow Fall to cover your buffs from classes who are trying to dispell/purge. Also, you can cover a Polymorph on the enemy with a debuff to make it harder to get rid of it. Polymorph can be used to heal yourself when casting against a Warrior with spell reflect.
Positioning yourself near pillars will help you to survive due to loss of sight. Fake casting may be good to lure out some CC, but a skilled opponent won’t buy it, so be careful with it. If they block your school of magic – use instant spells from another one. Ice Block can be used to get rid of CC, but be sure to pay attention and timely cancel it to receive a heal.
Use Fire ward right before being hit by a fire spell to reduce the chance of it getting dispelled.
Team Setups
Here is a list of preferable partners in the 2v2 and 3v3 arena.
2v2 Arena
- Shadow Priest
- Balance Druid
- Demonology Warlock
- Elemental Shaman
- Mutilate Rogue
3v3 Arena
- Discipline Priest + Rogue
- Warlock + Restoration Druid / Shaman
- Priest + Restoration Shaman
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About the Author
Everyone recommends glyphs of fire ward or frost ward but does it actually works?
works
tested in duel
you can ask mage to spam lvl1 fireball if you want to be sure
This gem list doesn’t make any sense.
If you consider these gems to be of equal value;
-Red: Runed Cardinal Ruby
-Yellow: Quick King’s Amber
then Reckless Ametrine is a better option for both socket colors. Because instead of dividing its spell power by 2 down to 11.5sp +haste, it gives 12sp +haste.
So half of the Reckless value is actually 12/11.5 (104.3%), 4.3% more than it’s supposed to be. The whole gem is 2.15% better than Runed or Quick alone.
But people generally prefer 1 stat over another (before considering caps).
If you prefer spell power, you should gem red sockets with spell power and yellows with sp+haste(reckless gems).
If you prefer haste, you should gem red sockets with sp+haste(reckless gems) and gem yellow with haste.
If we follow the author’s stat priority, we should be seeing Reckless gems before Quick’s, and we would get; Runed>Reckless>Quick
If one prioritizes haste over spell power, we would get;
Quick>Reckless>Runed
Rotation?