Mage
Arcane
Playstyle
Burst-oriented ranged DPS that cycles between intense cooldown phases and quieter mana-maintenance periods. Builds Arcane Salvo stacks with Arcane Missiles and spends them via Arcane Barrage, while Arcane Blast eats most of the mana bar. Excellent mobility from Shimmer/Blink charges, but real cooldown-coordination demands and mana-tracking give it a higher skill floor than the other two specs in this class.
Strong "funnel DPS" that scales up with extra targets present
Season 2 Tier Set
Primal Leywarden's Attire
Arcane Missiles fires 1 additional missile and deals 20% increased damage.
Each wave of Arcane Missiles increases the damage of your next Arcane Blast, Arcane Pulse, or Prismatic Bolt by 5%, up to 40%.
+ The Good
Strong "funnel DPS" that scales up with extra targets present
Class-wide Arcane Intellect buff
Solid burst on priority targets
− The Bad
Middle-of-the-pack tuning with real survivability gaps against sustained damage
Raids treat it as viable rather than highly sought
A meaningful chunk of throughput rides on the random Prismatic Bolt proc rather than something you directly control
Almost no way to recover HP after a bad hit — the kit is built around avoiding damage in the first place, not healing through it
Pick My Main ratings
Raid buffs
Utility
Hero talents
Built around generating Arcane Splinters; leans further into the class's arcane-purple aesthetic, though a recent rework left it mechanically closer to Sunfury than it used to be.
Generates Spellfire Spheres and calls in an Arcane Phoenix during Arcane Surge for a strong post-burst window. Currently the stronger defensive option of the two thanks to a reworked Merely a Setback.