Wrdlbrmpft Arcane Mage Leveling Guide

Arcane is one of the three main DPS specializations of Mages in WoW: Forever. The Arcane spec is built around delivering high magical burst damage, both in AoE and single-target scenarios with spells such as Arcane Blast, Arcane Wrath, Arcane Missiles and Arcane Explosion.

The greatest things about Arcane are that via Arcane Concentration and Arcane Meditation you can get your hands on significantly better mana sustain talents than the other specs have as early as level 15. The Wand Specialization is also a very strong leveling talent, because at low levels wands do very equal DPS to your spells - for no mana cost. Talking about mana: Arcane Wrath receives a percentage of your maximum mana as bonus damage and Arcane Blast increases your spell damage by a percentage of your stat 'Intellect'. On top of this, you gain access to Arcane Subtlety very early as level 15. While this talent does not seem to be super strong, it is super strong, because it adds spell piercing to your spells, increasing your damage by roughly 10%. Missile Barrage is also accessible very early on, giving you a free high damage spell.

Later on, Arcane will be completed by Presence of Mind, Arcane Instability, Arcane Power and Arcane Mind, further boosting your burst potential.

This makes Arcane probably the best Mage leveling spec, because it will benefit a lot from Intellect/Spirit, that is usually found on leveling gear, and it has the best mana regeneration talents of all three Mage specializations.

Stat priority is a widely discussed topic with various views.

On Paper, Crit, Haste, Spell Power and Hit come out on top. However, Arcane benefits hugely from Mana regeneration from Spirit in combat and spells like Arcane Blast and Arcane Wrath make you benefit from Intellect. Furthermore, Spirit also helps you to regenerate Mana whenever you are moving from A to B, while in this time Hit, Crit, Spell Power and Haste do nothing. Furthermore, with Mage Armor and Arcane Meditation, you gain 100% Spirit based Mana regeneration during casting, which is a big reason as of why Spirit stays a pretty good stat for Arcane.

Haste and Crit will just not miraculously do tons of more damage while leveling. First of all, the crit and haste rates you might be able to get from gear during leveling are just very low and rare. Second, haste makes your spell casts a bit faster, but you will need to drink earlier, since you use up your mana faster. Crits randomly dish out higher than normal damage, but are not reliable and steady. It may happen that you crit when a mob is at 5% health and all the extra damage from a crit is wasted.

Hit rating is very good on paper as well, but you usually should not fight lots of enemies above your level. Questing is a lot easier when you fight mobs that are 1-3 levels lower than yours and you still get full XP for those quests. Doing lower level quests also means that your spells cannot miss (making hit chance irrelevant) and with higher level you get stronger spells. The latter is very noticeable against lower level enemies. Furthermore, if you really quest in areas with mobs on your level, just get Precision from the Frost talent tree, giving you 6% hit to all spells. 6% hit will be enough to hit every enemy up to 2 levels above yours.

Spell power (or "damage and healing") is the only pure dps stat that can be found on early items in relevant quantities and that simply makes every spell stronger.

With the elaboration above in mind, this guide will rank stats for leveling with this priority:

1. Spell Power (or "damage and healing")
2. Spirit
3. Intellect
4. Haste = Crit
5. Hit

Keep in mind that this priority list is not set in stone. You do not blindly want to go for Spell Power and Spirit. It is just a basic guideline to show you that Spirit/Intellect are not dead or bad stats.

If you do AoE Grinding, you might want to lean more towards Stamina and Intellect, to have a big enough mana pool to kill all enemies and enough health points to survive enemy attacks.

Right now (this might still change) all Alliance/Horde races sim for roughly the same DPS. This might still change, but it is too early to make a clear statement on what is the best race. This guide recommends you to pick the race which you enjoy most.

Alliance Races

Alliance Mages can play as Gnome, Human, and High Order Skyborne, giving the following racial traits.

Gnome

Overall, Gnomes are probably the highest DPS contenders together with High Order Skybornes.

• Eureka! increases damage done by 10% for 8 seconds, also reduces mana cost of all damage spells during that time. 2-minutes cooldown.
• Expansive Mind is especially nice for Arcane in conjunction with Arcane Wrath and Arcane Mind, as it increases your Maximum Mana by 5%.
• Engineering Specialization lowers the backfire or failing rate of Engineering devices by 20%, which is nice to have, but it's strength depends on what high-level engineering items WoW Forever will offer us.
• Escape Artist is just sweet for both PvE and PvP, as it lets you escape from movement impairing effects and gives you immunity to it. 2-minutes cooldown.

Human

Humans are probably the best race if you enjoy both PvP and PvE, as Perception and Will to Survive are such great PvP skills and Humans ain't shabby in PvE as well.

• Ruthless gives you 1% passive critical strike chance. Not bad, not game-breakingly strong.
• The Human Spirit increases your Spirit by 10%. Spirit is such an overlooked stat, especially in end-game PvE, 10% more Spirit means 10% more mana regeneration and might be the reason why you are still casting while the non-Human Mages in your group are already wanding, because they are out of mana and you are not. A good choice for leveling.
• Perception is a PvP skill that drastically increases your stealth detection for 20 seconds.
• Will to Survive also is more of a PvP skill, as it instantly removes all stun effects. This can be combined with Blink to break stuns, but because of Blink it is not as relevant in PvE, as it is in PvP.

High Order Skyborne

High Order Skybornes are contenders for the top DPS PvE class, because their racial traits are very strong.

• Read Leyline increases your Mana regeneration, which is extremely nice for leveling.
• Wind Blessed gives you 2% passive Haste. This is a very strong passive racial trait.
• Elemental Insight increases damage versus Elementals by 5%.
• Walk on Air is basically a 10-seconds Slow Fall with the ability to control your direction of travel.

Horde

Horde can be played as Troll, Orc or Undead. All three races are contenders for the highest damage in PvE, as they sim very close. Especially for Undead this might come as a surprise, but their Touch of the Grave damages enemies, so that makes up for the lack of active on-use abilities.

Troll

Trolls' racials are more leant towards PvE with their racial abilities, but the Rapid Regeneration can also be helpful in PvP situations.

• Rapid Regeneration is very nice for many situations. It is basically a secondary First Aid bandage on a 3-minutes cooldown and restores 50% of your maximum health over 6 seconds. Any movement, action, or damage taken will cancel the effect.
• Berserking increases your casting and attack speed by 10% for 10 seconds (3-minutes cooldown). This is a strong DPS cooldown.
• Beast Slaying increases your damage dealt versus beasts by 5%. A nice passive bonus, as many enemies in WoW are beasts.
• Regeneration increases your health regeneration rate by 20% and 20% of your health regeneration will continue during combat. A nice small bonus, but nothing ground breaking.

Orc

Orcs are great in PvE and PvP, as their racial traits are good for both scenarios.

• Blood Fury increases Spell Power by 10% for 15 seconds. This scales with gear, which means: The more Spell Power you have gathered, the stronger this ability becomes. 2-minutes cooldown.
• Shatter Curse instantly removes all curses and banes from you and gives you 5% less magical damage taken for 8 seconds. 3-minutes cooldown.
• Hardiness reduces the duration of Stun effects on you by 20%. This is a nightmare for any class (e.g. Rogue) that relies heavily on stuns to kill their enemies.

Undead

Overall, Undead are more of a PvP race. Their abilities are more built for survivability than for DPSing. However, with Touch of the Grave doing damage as well, Undead are also suited well for PvE.

• Underwater Breathing is basically the most useless skill for PvE. It only shines when you go pearl diving.
• Will of the Forsaken instantly removes all Charm, Fear and Sleep effects on a 2-minutes cooldown. This can be useful in both PvP and PvE.
• Cannibalize regenerates 7% of your maximum mana and health every 2 seconds over 10 seconds, so 35% in total. Requires a nearby (5 yards) Humanoid or Undead corpse. Any movement, action, or damage cancels the effect. 2-minutes cooldown.
• Touch of the Grave gives your spells a 30% chance to drain 5% of your maximum health from the enemy, currently on a 15-seconds hidden cooldown (during patches this might change and it already was changed a few times). On average this will return you 1,5% of your maximum health per cast. This can be a life-saver in both PvE and PvP, but you should not gamble and play if safe. However, the health drained counts as damage thus making this passive ability really decent.

Consumables can make your leveling experience much smoother. Here is a list of items that will definately help you leveling, however trying to gather all these buffs you may end up losing more time than they gain you, if it is your first character.

Cooking - Starting with cooking, all new buff foods give you a 5% experience buff. You may start at level 1 with Brilliant Smallfish just for the buff and switch to Rainbow Fin Albacore or Smoked Sagefish at level 5 and 10. Buff foods gradually become better, e.g. at level 25 Briny Seafood Stew gives you even more spell damage.

Enchanting - The main consumables for leveling from enchanting are Wizard oils. You start by using Minor Wizard Oil, then use stronger versions, such as Lesser Wizard Oil and Wizard Oil. Furthermore, Enchanting offers you a lot of enchants that can enhance your character. However listing them here would be well beyond the content of a normal leveling guide, because there are so many.

Alchemy - Provides you with various Mana potions (e.g. Minor Mana Potion or Mana Potion) and elixirs (e.g. Elixir of Wisdom, Minor Arcane Elixir, Arcane Elixir). A very good and cheap starting elixir is Minor Mageblood Elixir, as 3 mp5 is a lot early on.

First Aid - Consumables from this profession are also very nice, because bandages (e.g. Heavy Linen Bandage andHeavy Silk Bandage) heal a lot of hitpoints over 6-8 seconds. Healing potions (e.g. Minor Healing Potion and Healing Potion) and items that cure venoms, diseases and bleeds (e.g. Anti-Venom, Simple Poultice and Woolen Tourniquet) can save your life and restore a lot of hitpoints in an instant.

Leatherworking - Those consumables are basically enchants that greatly enhance your spell damage, such as Mystic Medium Armor Kit or later on even Mystic Rugged Armor Kit. Should you get your hands on such an armor kit for a few silver, you may definately want to use it on a very good and long-lasting item.

As a Mage you sometimes loot scrolls that you need to decipher. They can contain useful scrolls, such as Scroll of Cryoblast or Scroll of Frog Familiar. Those provide you with small buffs or damaging abilities.

A few of the professions benefits are already covered briefly in the Consumables section above.

As of now, it is not clear yet, which profession will be the best end-game profession. Usually Engineering is one of the best two main professions, because it offers some kind of movement speed enhancing item (e.g. Gnomish Rocket Boots), explosives (e.g. Goblin Sapper Charge or Thorium Grenade) or useful devices like the Gnomish Cloaking Device or the EZ-Thro Field Transporter: Gadgetzan. For leveling, Engineering allows you to put down a Reagent Bot at a campfire to sell stuff during leveling. This can be very useful if your inventory is full and you do not want to run far to the next vendor. Making a campfire requires at least a Basic Campfire Kit (or a higher version of that) from Cooking.

A strong candidate for the second best end-game profession is Tailoring, as it likely will provide you with some kind of pre-raid best in slot gear and during leveling you gain strong items, even early on (see level 10-19 gear above). For leveling, Tailoring provides you with a Faction Banner at a campfire, furthermore you will be able to craft bags (e.g. Black Silk Pack) for more inventory space.

For leveling, this guide recommends Skinning. In early levels, Skinning allows you to sell leathers to the vendor for decent profit, allowing you to buy skills and a wand. Usually you will gain more money at the Auction house, but at the launch of the game, everyone is poor and the vendor coppers are reliable income. Skinning also gives you a Camp Chair at the campfire.

The second primary profession for leveling is basically up to your taste. Almost every profession has some benefits for Mages. You may go for pure gathering professions, like Skinning, Herbalism or Mining and drop them later, or you may want to work on your end-game professions whlie leveling. If you go for Herbalism, the campfire buff from Alchemy (Mana Well) is very much recommended. The mp5 is insanely strong in the beginning.

As secondary professions you definately want Fishing, Cooking and First Aid.

Following is an overview, which profession brings which campfire buff and how it is valued for Arcane Mages.

Main profession campfire buffs:

• Alchemy: Mana Well - Mana per 5 seconds. Very strong.
• Blacksmithing: Sharpening Wheel - Gives Strength, useless for Mages.
• Enchanting: Enchanted Lute - Increases armor, stats and resistances. Basically a Mark of the Wild, but weaker. Not recommended.
• Engineering: Reagent Bot - Useful to sell things out in the world.
• Herbalism: Incense Candle - Increases your Intellect stat, but does not stack with Arcane Intellect.
• Leatherworking: Camp Tent - Gives you 5% rested XP every 1 hour. This is insanely strong, but you will find this at most campfires by default.
• Mining: Lodestone - Buffs your melee Attack Power, so it is basically useless for Mages.
• Skinning: Camp Chair - Increases your critical strike chance by 2%. Good, but not game-breaking for leveling.
• Tailoring: Faction Banner - Increases your Spirit stat. Not a bad buff for leveling.

Secondary profession campfire buffs:

• Cooking: Basic Campfire Kit - Places down a campfire that allows you to gain up to 3 camping buffs and allows you to cook. This is an absolute must.
• First Aid: First Aid Kit - Provides you with a Stamina buff. Not bad, but other buffs are better.
• Fishing: Fish Bowl - Increases stats by 8%, basically a weaker Blessing of Kings. A decent buff.

Some tips and tricks are pretty major, some are more subtle. Here we go:

1. If it is your first character, get Skinning. At the start you will want to vendor the leathers to be able to afford your next skills from the Mage trainer.
2. Get a wand at level 5. This cannot be stressed enough. Wands do absurdly high DPS in the early game, especially with Wand Specialization. The top candidate for your first wand is Lesser Magic Wand. With the leather trick, you should be able to afford it pretty easily. Buy it from the Auction house.
3. If you plan to travel a long way, Conjure Water and Conjure Food before and while you travel, so your mana bar can naturally replenish while you walk. However, usually the highest level water/food from vendors is better than conjured food.
4. At low levels, you will want to buy some waters from vendors (here the skinning trick also helps with money). Refreshing Spring Water and Ice Cold Milk are worth the money.
5. Make a Bank alt asap with an easy name to write. For example "Asdbank Bankgodx" and send all your excess items you do not need to that banker. Use the mailbox of your bank alt(s) as additional bank space. This will keep your inventory clean.
6. Get and addon like Bagnon. This way you can easily check what items are on your bank alts, either by switching to their inventory, or by hovering items in your inventory and looking at the tooltip, if those items are also present in your bank alt's inventory.
7. Use a buff food (see consumables section) all the time to gain more experience. Buff food is not expensive. Same goes for campfire buffs. Camp Tent, Mana Well and Faction Banner or Fish Bowl are very strong buffs, especially early on.
8. Always log out in an inn to gain more rested XP.
9. Once you are finished with your starting zone (e.g. Human starting zone), you can switch to another starting zone (e.g. Gnome starting zone) quest there (of course not the level 1 quests). This way you will be roughly level 10 and still get 1-3 levels from it. Now the follow-up zone (e.g. Westfall/Loch Modan) will be much easier and most enemies will be green. However, green quests, if not too low level, still give full xp, but mobs are much easier to kill when you are higher level.
10. Try to gather all dungeon quests before doing a dungeon. This will greatly increase your experience gained from dungeons.
11. If you wait for a quest mob to spawn, do not idle. You may still kill mobs around you.
12. Use target macros (type /m in game to open the macro editor) to see if mobs are there and to tag them:
    /tar Name of the mob
    /cast Fire Blast
    If you target the mob and you don't see it, right click the target frame of the mob and set a mark on it, that is very different to the background (e.g. use a light blue target marker if you are in a desert zone, not a yellow one). With the marker you can find the mob easier.
13. Use a nochanneling macros to not clip channeled spells like Arcane Missiles:
    /cast [nochanneling] Arcane Missiles
    or
    /cast [nochanneling] Frostbolt
    Alter spell names as needed. This way you can spam spells without clipping channeled spells.
14. Vendor grey items for additional profit. Check the item tooltip, how much vendor profit you gain from an item. If necessary, throw away items with low vendor profit first. White items are often sold for a higher profit at the AH, but do not sell them at or below vendor value.

04 Nov. 2026: Added level 20-59 items.
03 Nov. 2026: Updates to talent trees and tips and tricks.
31 Oct. 2026: Guide added