Welcome to this new WoW Classic Season of Discovery Phase 2 guide of Arcane Mage Healer. This time we’ll be taking a deep dive into talents, runes, and rotations. While some elements have evolved, much of it builds on the foundation laid in the first phase. So, let’s start explorating.
Runes
For the runes of Arcane Mage healing, the 2 staples that are going to stick around are Regeneration on chest and Arcane Blast on hands. Living flame is another strong option for legs, but it is not the deal anymore because its healing is basically non-existent. So, use a Living Flame if you want to do damage. The new alternative is actually Arcane Surge. So, they fixed some bug with it where the Regeneration is a lot better than it used to be, so you can use it in your healing build when you run out of mana.
Next, we will get to Missile Barrage, my favorite rune of WoW Season of Discovery Phase 2 and what I think defines Mage healing. You have a 40% chance every time you use Arcane Blast to decrease the duration of your next Arcane Missiles, reduce the mana cost making it zero, and then having it fire faster. So, what that means is Mages become one of the most efficient tank Healers in the entire game depending on how many Missile Barrage procs you get.
For boots, our last slot, you have an option between 2 choices. One is Spell Power, which just increases your crit damage. Your other option is Chronostatic Preservation, which is a 2-second cast that puts a buff on you. If you press it again within the next 15 seconds, it consumes the buff, instantly healing your target. It’s an incredibly powerful ability, but it’s kind of hard to fit into your current rotation and it costs a good amount of mana. However, if you want to give it a go, the spell power is totally fine. You don’t have to think about it, just put on your boots and blast.
Talents
Moving on to talents, you are going to go 31 points into Arcane. The only difference from Phase 1 is 2 unused abilities. The first is Presence of Mind, which is your the button when you’re healing. You can use it to cast an Arcane blast instantly, giving you a stack and doing a bunch of damage and healing. The second ability is Arcane Power, which is just a damage boost but at the cost of mana.
As a Healer early in Gnomeregan, you’re probably not going to be using this often, so save it until you get a better grasp of how much mana you have at the end of fights. All the other points in the tree basically either increase your damage, mana, or crit chance. To ease your way through the Gnomeregan dungeons, it's also a good idea to bring some SOD Gold with you.
This talent tree that I used for leveling focuses on getting you more hit and making Arcane Missiles unable to be interrupted. As a whole, leveling as Arcane is really interesting, and if you still haven’t tried it out, I would definitely recommend giving it a go.
Rotation
Let’s move on to the new rotation, which just adds in proc chance. Your core rotation as an Arcane Healer is going to be spamming Arcane blast until you get a Missile Barrage proc and clearing it with Arcane Missiles. The reason why this is so strong is that Arcane Blast with zero stacks only costs 59 mana, and if you actually get a Missile Barrage proc, plus the damage that Arcane Blast does, you essentially get around 1,000 plus healing for 59 mana, which is insane.
If you don’t get the procs, it’s going to be very similar to Phase 1. Cast Arcane Blast 2 for 4 times and then pick 1 of the 3 options based on your scenario. If you’re low on mana, use your wand to drop the stacks. If you need to refresh Regeneration, do it now to drop the stacks. And then if you just want to max damage, use a default Arcane Missiles, even if you don’t have the proc.
Final Thought
If you’re trying to get better at healing, I recommend coming down to Thousand Needles and just trying to practice your rotation at some point. Always keep Regeneration up on your tanks, then go into spamming Arcane Blast. If you get a Missile Barrage proc, take it immediately.
For DPS, I don’t think that’s optimal. But for healing, this is the most efficient way to use your mana. Casting a single Arcane Blast into a Missile Barrage proc is insane to heal efficiency. A few of those throughout a fight isn’t going to actually kill your mana, but if you are really good at taking the Arcane Barrage proc like instantly, it’s going to save you in the long run.
