The rotation for Arcane Mages in Dragonflight can be a rather complicated one. Getting the most damage out of all your spells and procs, combined with cooldowns and mana conservation will require a fair amount of attention. Fortunately, it can be broken down into smaller chunks to understand it a little easier.

Many classes now have a number of cooldowns that they can use all at once to increase their damage for a short duration known as a "Burst" or "Burn" phase. Arcane Mages are no exception and can front-load a lot of their damage very effectively, the downside to this is that their damage outside of this window is much lower, as they need to conserve mana for when their cooldowns come up again.

Arcane Mage Rotation In Dragonflight

The main rotation for Arcane Mages consists of using a priority system. #1 being the highest priority to cast if available, otherwise, cast the skill below it.

1. Arcane Orb with less than 2 Arcane Charge
2. Arcane Missiles with 3 stacks of Clearcasting
3. Arcane Blast with Nether Precision
4. Arcane Missiles with Clearcasting
5. Arcane Barrage with 4 Arcane Charge with less than 60% mana*
6. Arcane Blast

Arcane Mage AoE Rotation

If there are fewer than 4 targets, the rotation for Arcane Mages remains the same as for Single-Target encounters due to Harmonic Echo. For fights with 4 or more targets, replace Arcane Blast and Arcane Missiles with Arcane Explosion. The simplest standard AoE rotation without any cooldowns available would be as follows:

1. Arcane Explosion x4
2. Arcane Barrage

A high-damage burst AoE skill priority would look something like this:

1. Nether Tempest (at 4 Arcane Charge, on the target with the highest HP)
2. Get into melee range (Blink or Shimmer can help)
3. Arcane Orb (with less than 2 Arcane Charge)
4. Rune of Power
5. Radiant Spark
6. Arcane Explosion (with less than 4 Arcane Charge)
7. Arcane Surge
8. Arcane Barrage (with 4 Arcane Charge)
9. Touch of the Magi
10. Arcane Missiles (during Touch of the Magi with Clearcasting)
11. Standard AoE Rotation

Cooldown Usage

The main damage-enhancing cooldowns to be used in an opener or burst rotation are Arcane Surge and Evocation, which are both on a 90-second cooldown. This lines up nicely with Radiant Spark and Touch of the Magi on a 30-second and 45-second timer, respectively. The final cooldown is Shifting Power but doesn't line up for subsequent uses and is instead used between burn phases.

The idea is to stack all cooldowns together in an initial "Burst Phase" and then when Radiant Spark and Touch of the Magi are both available use them again for a "Mini-Burst Phase". Then repeating this process once all cooldowns are available again.

Typical Opener or Burst Rotation

When all cooldowns are ready for use, follow this order of operations to maximize damage during the main "Burst Phase".

1. Evocation (7 seconds before combat / next burst phase; provides Intellect buff from Siphon Storm)
2. Time Warp x2 (from Temporal Warp)
3. Rune of Power
4. Arcane Missiles (until 20 stacks of Arcane Harmony)
5. Arcane Orb (x2 with Charged Orb)
6. Radiant Spark
7. Arcane Blast x3
8. Arcane Surge
9. Nether Tempest
10. Arcane Barrage immediately casting
11. Touch of the Magi while the projectile from Arcane Barrage is heading towards the target
12. Arcane Blast (with Nether Precision)
13. Arcane Missiles (with Clearcasting)
14. Arcane Barrage
15. Shifting Power once buffs from cooldowns are expired.

For the "Mini Burst Phase" when both Radiant Spark and Touch of the Magi are available cast the following:

1. Radiant Spark
2. Arcane Blast x4
3. Rune of Power
4. Nether Tempest
5. Arcane Barrage immediately casting:
6. Touch of the Magi while the projectile from Arcane Barrage is heading towards the target.

Macros for Arcane Mage

These Macros are useful to improve the efficiency of your rotation. Creating a Macro is easy: Type "/m" or "/macro" in the chat box to access the Macro Menu, click New, enter a Name, and select an Icon. Don't forget to click Save when making changes.

Touch of the Magi Macro

The combo of Arcane Barrage into Touch of the Magi can sometimes be hard to execute due to lag or being very close to your target. Using the macro below allows you to constantly press a single keybind to ensure Touch of the Magi goes off asap after Arcane Barrage. This will also include activating your top trinket as well (for bottom trinket: "/use 14")

• #showtooltip Touch of the Magi
• /use 13
• /castsequence reset=10 Arcane Barrage, Touch of the Magi

Arcane Missiles Ticks

Avoid canceling Arcane Missiles too early and missing out on the final damage tick during its channel. This macro can be replaced with any spell you'd likely use after Arcane Missiles, such as Arcane Blast.

• #showtooltip
• /cast [nochanneling] Arcane Blast

Using an addon such as Quartz or Weak Auras have the option to display when those damaging ticks will land and you'll be able to cast the next spell earlier.

Cancel Ice Block

If you want to quickly remove debuffs this macro allows you to spam the keybind to get into and out of Ice Block very quickly. It can still be used with a single key press to use normally.

• #showtooltip
• /cancelaura Ice Block
• /cast Ice Block

Presence of Mind Into Arcane Blast

Bind Presence of Mind with Arcane Blast to save you a click

• #showtooltip Presence of Mind
• /cast Presence of Mind
• /cast Arcane Blast
• /cqs