Arcane Mage Guide for Patch 5.0.4

Nymphy is an arcane mage who logged into the post 5.0.4 patch World of Warcraft and noticed two very huge things. 1.) Her UI wasn't as broken as she feared! Yay for quick addon updates, she salutes the addon writers for being super prepared! 2.) Uhhh, her spec however, WAS broken, and broken beyond repair.


(Important Note for the Reading Impaired: Arcane mana regen has totally been fixed. For an actual Arcane mage guide please see the link at the bottom of the post.)

So! Here is my super handy guide for surviving as an arcane mage until Mists of Pandaria is released in a month.

1.) Run to the target dummies or perhaps even a heroic dungeon to test out new rotation.

2.) Immediately commence QQ because OMG MANA?! WHERE DID IT GO?!!!

3.) Realize that you don't get your major mana regeneration talent until level 90.

4.) Respec into Frost as right now there is simply no way you can sustain an arcane rotation on the fixed mana pool without mana regen.

5.) REFORGE ALL THE THINGS! Then QQ when you realize that you have to reforge ALL that lovely, sexy mastery into...<sigh> haste.
       5a.) Then REGEM ALL THE THINGS! (Not really ALL the things, just like 4 gems for me)
       5b) REGLYPH ALL THE THINGS!!!!

6.) Go searching for a Frost guide to help you figure out what the hell to do. Find one and slowly figure out a rotation.

7.) Organize your casting bars so they seem to look like they make sense.

8.) Grab a group of your guildies and convince them to accompany you to a Hour of Twilight heroic and eye your Water Elemental suspiciously. (PET BAR?! Uhh, I guess I put him on assist and leave it right?)

9.) Realize with a sinking heart that you can't go back to arcane until level 90 and you might as well get used to playing another spec that you do, hey, actually halfway decent DPS on surprisingly!

10.) Still countdown the month until you can respec Arcane though!

Frost isn't that bad to be honest <gasp!> But Arcane is where my heart stays and lives and it is where I have found the most enjoyment in playing my mage. I look forward to the Day of Pandas when I can level and respec back into it, but for now I am enjoying playing around with something new.

So hopefully you didn't come here looking for a REAL arcane mage guide for the latest patch, because I am not a huge theorycrafter and you should go here instead. If you did, then I apologize. This "guide" was meant to be a humorous, QQ, mage thing instead of a real thing. Please go to the linked guide, they have super helpful information in an easy to read format. And if you want to L2FrostMage(Nub) then go read Jed's excellent post here.