Arcane Mage DPS Spell List and Glossary — The War Within (11.0.5)

If you are new to Arcane, it is recommended you read this before proceeding! In this section, we will discuss what abilities you have, what they are used for within the specialization, and how they interact with important cooldowns. If you have played this spec before or have already achieved a level of comfort playing this spec in a practical environment, it is recommended you skip this section and move on to the rest of the guide.

Keep in mind some spells might be much easier to use via macros or are more easily used in combination with other spells. Visit the macro page below to get a good idea of such macros.

Note that this page simply lists all the different abilities, assuming you are at max level. If you are leveling, check out our dedicated Mage Leveling page, which has detailed information on when you unlock all of these abilities.

Mana and Arcane Charges are your primary resources, and interact with each other in a fashion unique to Arcane.

Arcane Charges are generated by Arcane Blast and Arcane Explosion, and by some talented spells. They go to a maximum of 4 and increase the Mana cost of Arcane Blast by 100% per stack. They also increase the damage of Arcane Blast and Arcane Barrage by a percentage dictated by your current Mastery value.

Mana is the main resource of Arcane Mages. With the above information in mind, managing your Mana can be a challenging task. On one hand, casting spells while at 4 Arcane Charges allows you to do maximum damage. The consequence of this is that you will quickly chew through your Mana bar, leaving you with no option but to stand there and wait for your Mana to slowly regenerate. This relationship between Mana and Arcane Charges forms the central theme of the Arcane specialization and will be discussed at length later in the guide.

These abilities are available no matter what talents you choose and form the bread and butter of this specialization.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Arcane Blast	AB	This is your main filler and nuke and generates 1 Arcane Charge when cast. This spell has a low Mana cost when you have no Arcane Charges but can make your Mana bar disappear in only a handful of casts at 4 Arcane Charges. It has no travel time, which makes it great for instantly applying damage or finishing off an important add.
Arcane Barrage	Abarr	Arcane Barrage is an instant-cast spell that clears your Arcane Charges and makes your Arcane Blast cheaper to cast again. This ability is used as a reset button to help you maintain a stable Mana pool. You can generate charges with Arcane Blast and Arcane Explosion. Arcane Barrage itself hits relatively hard when used at 4 Arcane Charges, especially on multiple targets.
Arcane Missiles	AM	Although technically a talent, Arcane Missiles is the first node and required to pick. It is a channeled spell that deals more damage than Arcane Blast. It can only be cast when you have a Clearcasting proc. Any Arcane spell you cast has a chance to proc Clearcasting. Arcane Missiles has a relatively slow travel time, which means you should avoid casting it on any target that is about to die, as it may not reach in time.
Arcane Explosion	AE	Arcane Explosion is an instant cast spell, which is your primary AoE ability that generates 1 Arcane Charge if you hit any amount of targets with it. Unlike Arcane Blast, the Mana cost and damage of Arcane Explosion does not go up with the number of Arcane Charges. Unlike practically all other Arcane Mage spells, Arcane Explosion, requires you to be near the targets you want to hit, potentially putting you closer to danger.
Arcane Orb	AO	Shoots an Arcane Orb forward (depending on how you are facing), giving you one Arcane Charge when cast and another for each target struck.
Clearcasting	CC	The only rotational proc Arcane has. This proc allows you to cast Arcane Missiles and Arcane Explosion for free, and also provides various other benefits depending on what talents you picked, like making Arcane Missiles channel faster or shoot more missiles. It can proc from any Arcane spell.
Invisibility	Invis	Invisibility is a utility spell that makes you invisible over 3 seconds. It can be very useful to skip certain enemies in a dungeon or open world content. Additionally, it also completely drops your aggro over 3 seconds, which can be useful when you are at risk of getting aggro on enemies.
Blink	-	Blink is an instant cast spell that immediately travels you 20 yards forward, breaking any stuns and roots you might be affected by. This iconic Mage spell is a very strong mobility spell that helps with getting around the battlefield.
Counterspell	CS	Counterspell is an instant-cast spell that is not on the global cooldown, which, when cast, will interrupt your target's spell cast and also locking them out of casting any spells of the same school as the interrupted spell for 6 seconds. If you cast this on a target that is not casting, it will have no effect.
Time Warp	TW/BL	Time Warp is an instant cast spell that is not on the global cooldown, which increases Haste by 30% for 40 seconds for all party and raid members within 100 yards. This ability debuffs everyone with a debuff that prevents the possibility of benefiting from Time Warp, Heroism, and Bloodlust for the next 10 minutes.
Arcane Intellect	AI	Arcane Intellect buffs the entire raid, giving them more Intellect. Mages are the only class that gives this buff, so most raids will want at least 1 Mage to ensure the raid has this buff.
Polymorph	Poly	Polymorph, one of the most iconic Mage spells in the game, turns your target into a critter that cannot do anything while at the same time healing them. This spell does no damage. Instead, it heals your target, so it is not used in any DPS rotations. However, it is a very useful spell used very actively in PvP and sometimes in PvE content to reduce the number of enemies you are fighting at the same time. There are different collectibles to change the appearance of your Polymorphed target, but as a baseline, your target turns into a sheep.
Cone of Cold	Cone/CoC	Cone of Cold is an instant-cast spell that slows enemies in front of you. It is generally not used as a damage spell but purely as a control spell.
Conjure Refreshment	Table/Food	Conjure Refreshment is a utility spell that generates food for you. If you are in a group, instead of directly creating food, it instead creates a table that you and your party or raid members can click to gain food instead. This food will regenerate health and Mana out of combat while eating it, but it does not provide any combat buffs like some other types of food.
Slow Fall	-	Slow Fall is an instant-cast spell that, as the name suggests, makes you fall more slowly, avoiding any fall damage. You can also use this on other players to reduce their falling speed and fall damage. This is primarily used to save yourself from dying when falling from high places and in some niche PvP situations.
Fire Blast	FB/IB	Fire Blast (often abbreviated IB due to its old name, "Inferno Blast") is an instant-cast spell that does a tiny bit of damage. It is generally not used as part of any DPS rotation, but it has some niche uses, like tagging enemies quickly or stopping an enemy in PvP from eating food.
Frost Nova	-	Frost Nova is an instant-cast spell that does a bit of damage to targets around you, freezing them in the process. This freeze effect stops them from moving but not from using any spells or abilities. The freeze effect can also break from damage, both yours or anyone else's damage. This spell is usually not used in a DPS rotation, but it is often used for its crowd control effects in PvP or open-world content.
Frostbolt	-	Frostbolt is a spell that does a bit of damage and slows the target. It is generally not used in a DPS rotation. There are other ways to slow enemies that do not require casting that are often preferred, but it is sometimes used in niche situations in PvP.
Portal	-	Portal is a spell that opens up a portal to a specific destination. There are multiple variants of this spell that open up Portals to most of the big cities in World of Warcraft. Anyone in your party or raid group can take this portal to quickly travel around the world.
Teleport	TP	Teleport is a lot like Portal, except instead of opening up a portal for you and your allies to use, it immediately teleports you to the designated city.

To learn how to use these abilities together in your rotation, read the rotation part of our guide below.

In this section, we will go over all the active abilities in the Mage general talent tree. Active abilities are abilities you can press yourself.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Prismatic Barrier	Barrier	Prismatic Barrier is an instant-cast spell that provides you with a shield that absorbs damage before your health pool. Additionally, while the shield is up; it also reduces the Magic damage you take by 15% and reduces the duration of harmful Magic effects by 25%. This is an incredibly strong defensive tool and proper usage of this will increase your survivability greatly.
Ice Block	Block/IB	Makes you completely immune to all damage, and removes (almost) all debuffs from you. You are unable to do anything while in an Ice Block, but you can cancel it by pressing it a second time.
Spellsteal	-	Spellsteal is a utility spell that steals one beneficial effect from your target and applies it to yourself for a maximum of 2 minutes. There are many powerful effects in all types of content that can be stolen with this spell, which can greatly boost your damage or survivability.
Remove Curse	-	Remove Curse can be used to remove Curses from your raid or party.
Mirror Image	MI	Mirror Image spawns 3 copies nearby, which will attack your enemies. While you have at least one copy alive, you will take 20% less damage. Any direct damage you take will cause one of the copies to be removed. These copies can not be controlled, but they do have a health bar and can die. Although the copies do some damage, it is primarily a defensive ability, as the damage they do is very low. The copies will also take aggro before you, which allows you to survive significantly longer in solo content.
Alter Time	AT	Alter Time can be used as both a defensive and a mobility tool. Ten seconds after casting this ability or after pressing it a second time, you will be returned to your location and health from when you cast it. One common usage is to activate it right before a big hit and then re-activating it after the big hit to immediately heal back to full health.
Mass Polymorph	-	Mass Polymorph is an AoE version of Polymorph, hitting all enemies within 10 yards. Due to the requirement to be within 10 yards of enemies to hit them, it loses significant value as it requires you to get in combat with the enemies before being able to Polymorph them. It can however still be used as a mass interrupt or for other niche situations.
Slow	-	Slow is an instant cast spell that slows your target by 50%. It can be active on multiple enemies at the same time. It is a very effective tool for kiting enemies.
Ring of Frost	Ring/RoF	Ring of Frost allows you to spawn a relatively big Ring of Frost in a targeted location that will incapacitate enemies for 10 seconds. Only enemies in the actual outer section of the circle, get incapacitated. Any damage will break the incapacitation effect.
Ice Nova	-	Ice Nova is an instant cast spell that freezes your target and targets around it for 2 seconds. Although it does do some damage, it is generally not used for the damage aspect, as the damage is not high enough to make it worth casting just for damage. Unlike the Freeze from Frost Nova, the Freeze from Ice Nova will not break from damage, but it lasts significantly shorter.
Shimmer	-	Shimmer replaces Blink when picked. Shimmer is an instant cast spell that has 2 charges and immediately moves you forward 20 yards. It does not apply a global cooldown and can be cast while casting other spells. Shimmer is one of the best mobility spells in the entire game. Unlike Blink, it will not break root or stun effects, but you can still cast it while rooted. Due to being usable while casting, Shimmer lets you get around the battlefield without giving up any DPS.
Ice Floes	IF	Ice Floes, while placed in the same node as Shimmer, does not replace Blink when picked. It has 3 stacks, and just like Shimmer, it does not apply a global cooldown and can be cast while casting other spells. When you cast Ice Floes, your next spell will be able to be cast while moving. It is a very strong spell, but because it competes with Shimmer, it is not picked as often as it would be on its own node. Generally, people will pick between Shimmer and Ice Floes depending on personal preference. If you re-cast Ice Floes in the last 0.5 seconds of an existing cast when you already have Ice Floes active, it will not consume a charge. This allows you to get 5 casts while on the move if you do it perfectly.
Blast Wave	BW	Blast Wave is an instant cast spell that does a bit of damage, but more importantly, it knocks all enemies close to you away from you and slows them by 70%. It is generally not used as a DPS ability but used only for its crowd control effects. The knockback will also interrupt enemies who are casting, if they are able to be crowd-controlled.
Greater Invisibility	GI	Greater Invisibility is a very strong defensive ability. This can help your healers out in a lot of situations when high damage is incoming. It also removes some debuffs and often stops any type of targeted ability from hitting you. It replaces Invisibility.
Dragon's Breath	DB	Dragon's Breath is another short-range instant cast crowd control spell. It will disorient all enemies in front of you for 4 seconds when cast, canceled by damage. It is often used as a way to interrupt targets in front of you, or to give you time to cast something else while the enemies are disoriented.
Shifting Power	SP	Shifting Power is a channeled AoE ability. While channeling, it will do decent damage to enemies around you while also decreasing the cooldown of all your spells by 12 seconds. The cooldown reduction is very significant for your shorter cooldown spells, but not very significant for your longer cooldown spells.
Supernova	SN	A 25-second crowd control ability that knocks your target (if it is an enemy target) and surrounding enemies into the air. This can be used both on enemy and friendly targets but will only knock up enemy targets, and does double damage to the primary target. Although this ability does damage, the damage is very lackluster and is primarily used for its crowd control effect.
Displacement	-	Displacement is another instant-cast mobility spell that teleports you back to the location you last used Blink (or Shimmer, if talented) from.
Mass Barrier	-	Applies Prismatic Barrier to yourself and your 4 closest allies. Keep in mind this does not apply the cooldown on your Barrier, so even without any allies, it still provides defensive value.
Mass Invisibility	-	Makes you and all your party or raid members invisible for 12 seconds. The invisibility breaks when any ability or item is used and does not work if applied when already in combat. Incantation of Swiftness does not apply to the invisibility gained from Mass Invisibility.

In this section, we will go over all the passive abilities in the Mage general talent tree. Passive abilities are abilities you cannot press yourself but instead apply some effect to other abilities.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Overflowing Energy	-	Overflowing Energy boosts the damage of your critical strikes by 10%. Additionally, it will increase your chance to critically strike by 2% every time you fail to crit, stacking up to 5 times (10%). Whenever you crit, the bonus chance resets to 0%.
Incanter's Flow	IF	Incanter's Flow increases your damage by 2-10%, cycling every 10 seconds.
Winter's Protection	-	Winter's Protection reduces the cooldown of Ice Block.
Tempest Barrier	-	Tempest Barrier gives you an absorb shield based on your maximum health any time you use Blink, or Shimmer if talented. This is a strong defensive passive, especially combined with Shimmer. Keep in mind the absorb does not stack if you cast Shimmer twice within quick succession.
Incantation of Swiftness	-	Incantation of Swiftness gives you increased movement speed after casting Invisibility or Greater Invisibility for 6 seconds.
Arcane Warding	-	Arcane Warding reduces all magic damage you take by a small amount.
Cryo-Freeze	-	Cryo Freeze heals you based on your maximum health while inside Ice Block. This also works when combined with Ice Cold, causing you to heal significantly even when not stuck in an Ice Block.
Reduplication	-	Reduplication reduces your Mirror Image's cooldown by a small amount whenever one dissipates due to direct damage. This means whenever you take direct damage, and one of your Mirror Images disappears due to it, not when a Mirror Image dies due to being attacked.
Reabsorption	-	Reabsorption heals you for based on your maximum health whenever one of your Mirror Image's dissipates due to direct damage. This means, whenever you take direct damage and one of your Mirror Images disappears due to it, not when a Mirror Image dies due to being attacked itself.
Quick Witted	-	Quick Witted reduces your Counterspell cooldown when you successfully interrupt an enemy with Counterspell.
Master of Time	-	Master of Time reduces the cooldown of Alter Time. Additionally, whenever Alter Time expires, or you press it a second time, it also resets the cooldown of Blink (or returns one stack of Shimmer, if talented).
Diverted Energy	-	Diverted Energy causes your Prismatic Barrier to also heal you for a portion of the damage it absorbs.
Mass Slow	-	Mass Slow makes it so that your Slow applies to all enemies within 5 yards of your target. Keep in mind that 5 yards is quite small, so it generally will not hit too many targets.
Improved Frost Nova	-	Improved Frost Nova increases the duration of Frost Nova by 2 seconds. Keep in mind this will not make it break slower from damage.
Rigid Ice	-	Rigid Ice allows the freeze from Frost Nova to withstand more damage before breaking. Although this sounds like it would help a lot, Frost Nova breaks quickly from damage, and if you are actively damaging a frozen enemy, they will still break long before the full duration of the Freeze is over. This talent is mostly useful to avoid damage over time effects or incidental damage from breaking your Freeze.
Tome of Rhonin	-	Increases your Critical Strike chance by 2%.
Tome of Antonidas	-	Increases your Haste by 2%.
Volatile Detonation	VD	Reduces the cooldown of Blast Wave and greatly increases the distance of its knockback.
Energized Barriers	-	Causes Prismatic Barrier to have a small chance when struck by a melee attack to give you a Clearcasting proc. Additionally, casting Prismatic Barrier will remove all snare effects.
Frigid Winds	-	Increases the snare effects of all your snares by an additional 5/10%. This works for all snares, not just Frost spells.
Flow of Time	-	Reduces the cooldown of Blink (or Shimmer, if talented) by 1 second. (per talent point, max 2 points)
Temporal Velocity	-	Increases your movement speed after you Blink (or Shimmer, if talented) for 2 seconds, or for 5 seconds after returning from Alter Time.
Ice Ward	-	Gives Frost Nova a second charge.
Time Manipulation	-	Reduces the cooldown of your crowd control abilities by 1 second any time you cast Fire Blast.
Accumulative Shielding	-	Causes your Prismatic Barrier to recharge its cooldown 30% faster while the shield is active.
Barrier Diffusion	-	Whenever any of your barriers are removed, it reduces their cooldown by 4 seconds.
Freezing Cold	-	Causes your Cone of Cold to freeze enemies for 5 seconds instead of slowing them. Additionally, whenever any of your roots expire or are dispelled, the enemies will be slowed by 80%, decaying over 3 seconds.
Time Anomaly	TA	Gives you a chance to randomly proc Combustion for 1 second, a charge of Fire Blast, or Time Warp for 6 seconds. The Time Warp proc can happen even while you have Temporal Displacement.
Inspired Intellect	-	Arcane Intellect grants an additional 3% Intellect.

In this section, we will go over all the active abilities in the Arcane talent tree. Active abilities are abilities you can press yourself.

Arcane Barrage and Arcane Missiles are technically talents, but they are the first 2 nodes and required to pick, so they are described under the base abilities section.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Arcane Surge	AS/Surge	This is Arcane's biggest DPS cooldown. It consumes all Mana, and deals very high damage based on the Mana consumed by your target and all enemies nearby your target (reduced beyond 5 targets) and grants you one stack of Clearcasting. Additionally, it increases your Mana regeneration by 425% and Spell Damage by 35% for 15 seconds after casting it. The 35% bonus damage is also applied to Arcane Surge damage itself. The increased Mana regeneration is enough to bring you back to full Mana throughout the buff, if you were to cast no other abilities.
Presence of Mind	PoM	Causes your next 2 Arcane Blasts to be instant cast. Presence of Mind is not affected by the global cooldown.
Touch of the Magi	ToTM	A relatively short cooldown spell that when applied to your target will accumulate 20% of the damage done to the target for 10 seconds, after which it explodes for the total damage accumulated to the primary target, and reduced damage to nearby targets. Additionally, it also generates 4 Arcane Charges, allowing to immediately go into high burst windows without first needing to build up Arcane charges.
Evocation	Evo	Not a direct damage cooldown, strictly speaking, but it does restore 100% of your Mana bar. As noted, Mana is damage for Arcane Mages, so this ability ends up having a high DPS value. Additionally, it provides Clearcasting and a bunch of Intellect for 20 seconds.

In this section, we will go over all the passive abilities in the Arcane talent tree. Passive abilities are abilities you cannot press yourself but instead apply some effect to other abilities.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Nether Precision	-	Increases the damage of your next 2 Arcane Blasts by 20%, after consuming Clearcasting.
Amplification	-	Makes Arcane Missiles empowered by Clearcasting also fire 3 additional missiles in the same duration.
Charged Orb	-	Gives Arcane Orb an additional charge and makes Arcane Orb do more damage.
Arcane Familiar	AF (sometimes)	Causes your Arcane Intellect to also summon a Familiar that does a bit of damage to your target, and increases your maximum Mana by 10% for 1 hour. The Familiar spawned is not like a normal pet, as it cannot take damage, nor can it die.
Arcane Tempo	-	Increases your Haste by 2% for 12 seconds any time you consume an Arcane Charge, stacking up to 5 times.
Concentrated Power	-	Arcane Missiles channels 20% faster and Arcane Explosion echoes for 40% damage when cast with Clearcasting.
Aethervision	-	Consuming Nether Precision with Arcane Blast causes your next Arcane Barrage to do more damage and generate 2 Arcane Charges. Stacks up to 2 times.
Arcing Cleave	-	Makes Arcane Barrage hit one additional target for 40% damage per Arcane Charge consumed.
Improved Clearcasting	-	Allows you to stack Clearcasting up to 3 times. This allows you to store them for later, for example, to save one of them for a period of high movement combined with Slipstream.
Big Brained	-	Whenever you gain Clearcasting, you also gain 1% Intellect for 8 seconds. Multiple procs of Clearcasting will generate independent buffs, meaning they expire independently and do not refresh each other's duration.
Energized Familiar	-	Empowers your Arcane Familiar so that it fires 4 bolts during Arcane Surge. Both in and out of Arcane Surge, its damage has a small chance to grant your 2% maximum mana.
Surging Urge	-	Makes Arcane Surge do 5% more damage per stack of Arcane Charge.
Slipstream	-	Allows you to cast Arcane Missiles while moving if it is empowered by Clearcasting. Additionally, it also allows you to cast Evocation while moving. If you have the Ice Floes buff active, it will not be consumed by Clearcasting Arcane Missiles nor Evocation.
Consortium's Bauble	-	Reduces Arcane Blast's mana cost by 3% and increases damage by 3%.
Resonance	Reso	Makes Arcane Barrage do 15% more damage per target it hits. This starts at the first target, so even if there are no additional targets, it still causes Arcane Barrage to do 15% more damage.
Impetus	-	Causes Arcane Blast to have a 10% chance to generate two Arcane Charges instead of one. If this effect procs while at 3 or more Arcane Charges, it will give you 10% Arcane damage for 10 seconds instead.
Dematerialize	-	When you cast Arcane Blast or Arcane Barrage while under the effect of Nether Precision, they also apply a damage over time effect equal to 8% of the original damage.
Static Cloud	-	Each cast of Arcane Explosion increases the damage of the next Arcane Explosion by 25%, up to 100%. After reaching 100%, it resets back to 0%.
Illuminated Thoughts	-	increases the chance of Clearcasting to proc by 5%.
Improved Touch of the Magi	-	Increases the damage Touch of the Magi accumulates by 5%.
Eureka	-	When consuming Clearcasting, the spell does 10% more damage.
Energy Reconstitution	-	Damage from Dematerialize has a small chance of exploding for damage equal to 50% of Arcane Explosion's damage. This is not a "real" Arcane Explosion, as it does not generate Arcane Charges or consume Clearcasting.
Reverberate	-	Gives you a 50% chance to get an additional Arcane Charge when Arcane Explosion hits 3 or more targets.
Arcane Debilitation	-	When you damage an enemy with Arcane Missiles, they take 0.5% increased damage from Arcane Missiles, Arcane Barrage and Arcane Blast. This effect stacks per hit of Arcane Missiles, so a single cast will apply multiple stacks. Each stack expires independently, and gaining new stacks will not refresh old stacks.
Arcane Echo	Echo	Causes your Touch of the Magi to also explode and do AoE damage any time you hit your target affected by Touch of the Magi. (reduced beyond 8 targets) Multiple hits will trigger multiple explosions, so for example, Arcane Missiles will trigger a lot of explosions.
Prodigious Savant	-	Causes your Arcane charges to further increase the Mastery Effectiveness of Arcane Blast and Arcane Barrage by 20% per talent point (max 2).
Time Loop	-	Gives Arcane Debilitation a small chance to apply another stack. This effect can trigger itself, so in very rare circumstances, it can chain proc itself and apply many stacks at once.
Aether Attunement	-	After consuming Clearcasting 3 times, your next Arcane Missiles deals double damage to your primary target and cleaves to 4 additional targets, dealing 50% more damage over a standard Arcane Missiles.
Enlightened	EN	Increases your Arcane Damage while above 70% Mana by 6%, while increasing your Mana Regen while below 70% Mana by 20%.
Arcane Bombardment	Abomb/Bombardment	Will increase the damage of Arcane Barrage by a massive amount of 100% against targets below 35% heath.
Leysight	-	Further increases the damage bonus of Nether Precision to 30%.
Concentration	-	Causes Arcane Blast to have a small chance to make your next Arcane Blast free.
High Voltage	-	Grants each tick of Arcane Missiles a small chance to grant you an Arcane Charge. Each hit that does not give you a charge increases the chance by 10%. In practice, you are very likely to get 1 Arcane Charge per cast of Arcane Missiles.
Arcane Harmony	Harmony	Causes your Arcane Missiles hits to give you a stacking buff that increases the damage of your next Arcane Barrage by 5%, stacking up to 20 times. (100% bonus damage)
Magi's Spark	Spark	Touch of the Magi also puts a Spark debuff on the target. This debuff causes your next Arcane Barrage, Arcane Blast and Arcane Missiles to echo for 100% of their damage. Each spell can only echo once this way. When all 3 spells have echoed this way, the Spark explodes dealing high damage to all nearby enemies.
Nether Munitions	-	When Touch of the Magi explodes, the main target and all nearby targets take 8% more damage from you for 12 seconds.
Orb Barrage	-	Gives Arcane Barrage a 10% chance per Arcane Charge to launch an Arcane Orb in front of you.
Leydrinker	-	Consuming Nether Precision has a chance to make your next Arcane Blast echo for 60% of its damage. This hits both the original target and up to 4 nearby targets. Casting Touch of the Magi grants Leydrinker.

For more information on when to pick the above-described talented abilities, and their relative strength, see our talent page.

In this section, we will go over the important abilities from the different Hero Talents for Arcane Mage.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Spellfire Spheres + Rondurmancy	-	Grants a stacking buff ( Spellfire Spheres) every 6 times you cast Arcane Blast or Arcane Barrage that increases your damage. Stacks up to 3 times by default but can be increased to 5 via Rondurmancy. Various other Hero Talents also interact with these Spheres.
Mana Cascade	-	Grants a buff that increases your Haste every time you cast Arcane Blast or Arcane Barrage. It can stack up to 10 times, but every stack has an independent timer. This means if you are on 10 stacks and cast a new Arcane Blast/Barrage, it will not refresh the duration of all other stacks, but simply replace the shortest duration stack.
Invocation: Arcane Phoenix + Codex of the Sunstriders	-	When you cast Arcane Surge, it spawns an Arcane Phoenix. This only works for Arcane Surges you cast yourself, not ones generated by Time Anomaly. The Phoenix casts various spells from both the Fire and Arcane school. By default, it casts "simple" spells like Arcane Barrage and Flamestrike, but with the Hero Talent Codex of the Sunstriders, it can also cast "Exceptional" spells like Arcane Surge and Greater Pyroblast. Additionally, each time your Phoenix consumes a Sphere like this, it grants you Lingering Embers. This buff is mostly there to make up for the fact the Phoenix consumes a stack of Spellfire Spheres.
Burden of Power + Glorious Incandescence	BoP + GI	Whenever you spawn a Spellfire Spheres, you get the Burden of Power buff. This is a very important proc, that makes your next Arcane Blast or Arcane Barrage do significantly more damage. After consuming Burden of Power, you get Glorious Incandescence, which makes Arcane Barrage return 4 Arcane Charges and spawn Meteorites on its target. These Meteorites are hard-hitting and make up a decent bit of your total damage.
Savor the Moment	-	Increases the duration of Arcane Surge by 0.5 seconds for each Spellfire Spheres you have, capped to 2.5 seconds. This only works for Arcane Surges you cast yourself, not ones generated by Time Anomaly.
Sunfury Execution	-	Causes Arcane Bombardment to increase Arcane Barrage's damage by 130% instead of 100%.
Ignite the Future	-	Makes your Phoenix cast an "Exceptional" spell when you generate a Spellfire Spheres. Exceptional spells are Greater Pyroblast, Arcane Surge, and similar hard hitting spells.
Memory of Al'ar	-	During Arcane Surge, you get twice as many stacks of Mana Cascade. The tooltip incorrectly calls it Mana Addiction, but it refers to Mana Cascade. Additionally, after Arcane Phoenix ends you get Arcane Soul for 3 seconds + 0.5 seconds of each exceptional spell your Phoenix cast. This usually ends up around 5 or 6 seconds. Arcane Soul is a very strong buff that makes Arcane Barrage gives 4 Arcane Charges and a stack of Clearcasting. All of these effects only occur for Arcane Surges you cast yourself, not ones generated by Time Anomaly.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Splintering Sorcery	-	Creates 2 Arcane Splinters whenever you consume Nether Precision. Arcane Splinters do initial hit damage and apply a debuff on your target that deals stacking damage over time. Various other Hero Talents interact with these or cause you to generate more of them.
Augury Abounds	-	When you cast Arcane Surge you generate 8 Arcane Splinters. This only works for Arcane Surges you cast yourself, not ones generated by Time Anomaly. It also causes you to double the amount of Arcane Splinters generated during Arcane Surge.
Controlled Instincts	-	This makes your Arcane Splinters do 20% AoE damage for 8 seconds after being hit by Arcane Orb. This only works for the direct damage portion of Arcane Splinters, not the damage over time effect.
Splintering Orbs	-	The first enemy hit by Arcane Orb generates 2 Arcane Splinter, and Arcane Orb does 10% more damage.
Volatile Magic	-	When an Arcane Splinter is removed, it explodes for AoE damage. The only way Arcane Splinters are removed is via Splinterstorm, which we discuss separately below.
Unerring Proficiency	-	Gives you a stacking buff each time you conjure an Arcane Splinter, which increases the damage of your next Supernova. This stacks up to 30 times. When used at 30 stacks, Supernova hits quite hard, but due to its very low base damage, it is not that big of a hit as you might expect.
Shifting Shards	-	Causes Shifting Power to shoot out 8 Arcane Splinters during its channel.
Spellfrost Teachings	-	Makes Arcane Orb do 10% more damage. Additionally, gives your Arcane Splinter direct hits (so not the damage over time effect) a chance to launch an Arcane Orb at 50% effectiveness.
Splinterstorm	-	Each time you accumulate 8 Arcane Splinters on a target, you cast Splinterstorm. This removes the Splinters from the target, dealing all of their remaining damage over time effects instantly. Additionally, it shoots out a splinter for each Splinter removed.