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Comment by Suspence

Anyone knows how much the casting time reduces after each time it's casted?
And how much does the mana cost increase?

Comment by my0p1c

http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=36032
1/3 of a second off the cast time, and +75% mana cost.

Comment by Firestorm

I'm not so sure about the above calculation. I would think that having the abovelinked buff stacked 3 times would give a person the following buff:

"Arcane Blast casting time reduced by 1 sec and mana cost increased by 225%."

Increasing the base mana cost of 195 by 225% results in a total cost of 195x3.25=633.75 mana. Obviously quite a lot, but a far cry from the previous calculation that estimates it to be well above 1000mana

Comment by Silvertusk

This is a very decent spell regardless of your spec; though being Arcane certainly makes this thing that much better.

It excels at dealing exceptionally high damage for a very low mana cost; anything beyond the first cast is, essentially, a waste of mana - unless you're trying to quickly burst down an opponent regardless of how much mana you're spending.

The best way to use this is to alternate your casting.

This is easy for PVE: start off with a Frostbolt or Slow, then cast Arcane Blast, then Arcane Missiles. When Arcane Missiles wears off, cast another Frostbolt or Frost Nova and move or Blink away. Cast Ice Lance (if you learned it and have 5 points in Ice Shards) until enemy is dead. If the enemy isn't dead by the time the freeze effect breaks, cast Arcane Blast again and finish them off. Hopefully they'll be dead by then. (Note: Recast Frostbolt/Slow as needed.)

I can't describe a proper method for PVP, as tactics change for each class and I don't have the kind of time to go through each one! However, a variation of the above method works well against some classes.

Comment by breunor

The second cast of arcane blast is still fairly efficient, and you can design a casting rotation that takes advantage of the faster cast time without the higher cost as well. For example, cast AB once and the next cast time becomes 2.2 seconds. Then cast either 2 improved fireballs or 4 scorches, then another arcane blast. The debuff will still be up on the next AB, giving you a 2.2 cast time, but the debuff drops before you finish casting and should then make the spell cost just the base 195 mana (since the mana isn't deducted until the end of the cast). Another 2 fireballs or 4 scorches or whatever takes 6 seconds, and you're set.

This gives a 2.2 second cast, 195 mana, 700+spellpower damage spell.

Comment by olibloodmage

This is one of the best damage spells, especially if you are arcane spec.This is how the effect stacks:

1st cast: 2.5 sec cast time, 195 mana

2nd cast: 2,17 sec cast time, 341 mana (Base time - 0.3 seconds, Mana cost + 75%)

3rd cast: 1,83 sec cast time, 487 mana (Base time - 0.7 seconds, Mana cost +150%)

4th cast: 1.5 sec cast time, 633 mana (Base time - 1.0 seconds, Mana cost +225%)

With the effect fully stacked, it only costs 168 more mana then the Fireball , 288 more mana then the Frostbolt but its casting time is a lot shorter. All in all, I believe it is a great spell which however, must be used with caution because it drains the mana pool pretty fast.

Comment by drako

Ever since i saw the new talents and spells in BC i wanted to try an arcane build with arcane blast/arcane missles. I specced arcane @ lvl 64 and been trying arcane ever since (i'm 70 now for a while). After long time tests my conclusion is this :
- arcane build is still useless for pve/raid
I have 10k+ mana self buffed and ~13k raid buffed. ~1k spell dmg raid buffed. I figured the best way to efficiently use arcane spec is to alternate arcane blast and arcane missles. It works pretty well tbh, i never get more than 1 debuff which is acceptable. The only issue which is major is that i still run out of mana, even with a pretty high mana pool and arcane meditation, and raid mana regen ...
Considering the fact that many raid fights last very long (even close or over 10 minutes) an arcane mage can't keep up dps over 10 minutes. At least i can't.
The sad thing is that T5 buffs/debuffs even more arcane blast :<
Well these are my personal opinnions and you may prove wrong but me, i'm gonna try an arcane/frost spec.

Comment by Mavv

Not to call you out, but it wasn't the spec, it was the way you played it. Arcane still isn't great as a standalone, but it makes all your other spells useful. If you put as much as 10 points into fire for ignite, scorch becomes a great way to wear off the debuffs on AB.
Arcane missiles is near-useless for fire and frost mages, and for arcane mages, it's main use is only on clearcasts (where each missile gets the crit increase). Since your regen continues during the free clearcasted AM, and each missile has a high crit chance, it's amazing for that, but useless for much else.
Spec 41/20/0 or 40/21/0 or 46/15/0 and try ABx2, Scorchx3 and repeat. You'll be surprised.

Comment by arnsnabben

10 minutes is a long fight sure.

Consider what you can do in 10 minutes:

2x Evocation
Mana Emerald, Ruby, Agate etc
5x Super Mana Potion

l2bealchemistsforalchemistsstone

Healers use potions, tanks use potions, even the other dpsclasses use potions (pretty much everyone except huntards and warlocks). Why shouldn't mages ? :)

Imo, full arcane spamming AB and AM is one of the most immense was to dps as a mage. Besides, arcane missiles autoaim :D

Comment by Maddy

Well I currently spec 58/0/3(lower ice.fire spell cost.)
And I I found good way to reduce mana cost, and still keep damage.
AB+AB(gives 2 debuffs)+Scroch+FBall+FBall then repeat

When Clearcast Proc's Ap+tinkets Free AMat 1k-1.2k per hit, and 1.7k-1.9k crits, the best I had so far is 5x2.1k over 10k damage for free.
you can look at my stats on armour to check my arcane speced gear. Maddy - Ravencrest.

Comment by Dospalmos

As an arcane fire mage, this spell rocks in PvE. In raid bosses, it's nice to alternate it between fireballs/scorches every time the spell debuff wears off: it keeps generating good damage with very low aggro gain (with subtlety talent) and very low mana usage.

If you still have a handful of mana when the boss is in his last 10%, it's time to nuke him out chaincasting with a sadistic grin in your face and enjoy the crit festival if you got Arcane Impact.

Summing up, if you are an arcane mage, it goes progressively from the highest Damage per Mana a mage can have to the highest constant Damage per Second available.

Comment by Mynea

Cast time is determined at the start of the cast, and mana cost is deducted at the end. This means that if your arcane blast debuff wears off in the middle of the cast, you get the faster cast time for the lower mana cost.

Comment by Zival

I agree 100% with arnsnabben's comment. I've been running deep arcane build w/ pom pyro for pvp and I believe this to be an awesome build for both pve/pvp. USE POTS. It's an advantage that blizzard has built into the game for us to use.

Watch for clearcasts when you are casting AB. If you are in a group with a fire mage, throw in a scorch before you AM and your timer will be up for AB once you're channel is finished, plus, a scorch before-hand gives another chance for clearcast to proc before you start AM. And know how long your fight is. Like the comment above, you can utilize a lot of mana regen if you are prepared (ie Evo).

Comment by frmorrison

A better rotation is AB x3, AM, Scorch. Doing that the next AB you cast will be affected by the cast time, but not the mana cost.

AB is a great spell, and becomes really competitive with Fire once you get 2/5 Tier 5 (adds 20% damage and 20% to the base mana cost to AB or 39 mana).

Comment by oksekod

thx mynea was just thinking about that ;D

Comment by olibloodmage

Yes it does. Arcane Blast receives +71.43% from your total Spell Damage at each and every cast, no matter how many buffs you have on you. (source http://www.wowwiki.com/Spell_Damage_Coefficients )

Comment by webkilla

with +547 arc spell dmg at lvl 70 my mage hits around 1.1K non-crit with Arcane blast and twice that with spell power when criting - something he does quite often with 30% + 6% (from talent) spellcrit.

one of the best mage spells atm for raid bosses and even instance bosses

Comment by Carighan

Hunters and Warlocks who want to be useful chain-quaff pots, too.

Comment by Dorothea

Calculations aside, cause i cant care to much. This spell proved very useful if used correctly.

Example is the fight against Alar, fire immune boss for those who dident know. Anywho, fire is and allways will be the best damage spec (10/48/3) for raiding against almost all bosses and encounters in the game.

Anywho, start off with 2 casts of arc blast, and while the debuff is fading, use frost bolts, cast arcane missiles when clearcast has procced.

Even though your not solely using arc blast, it will deal the majority of your damage as clearcast is random.

Yes as a fire specced mage against a boss like alar, you will not top the dmg meters, but you will do a reasonable enough amount against this somewhat easy boss to save yourself the need to spec frost.

Comment by Tipoux

smcn is erronous in his calculation. The +75% stacking is not a (1.75)^3-1 increase. It's a 3 * 75% more. WAY bellow what he said.

Comment by madiadk

would like to add ifff you cast wihtin 1,4sek of the debuff stack wiht 3 debuff you get a 1,5 cast for lowest mana an it resets counting on howe many debuffs you have this also couts for wihtin 1,7 an 2,2

im not god at explaining but hope you get the idea 1 1,5 sek arcane blast for 195 mana !

Comment by jellegaard

Not to be brat or anything, but why does so many do calculations on the debuff for the 4th and 5th cast when the skill note says that the "buff/debuff" only stacks 3 times?

Guessing it was changed at some point but I'm imagening that this could be shot off more than 3 times in a row to get a very high dps for short fights, since it's got half the casting time compared to imp. frostbolt/fireball.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Comment by Kaitain

Not to be brat or anything, but why does so many do calculations on the debuff for the 4th and 5th cast when the skill note says that the "buff/debuff" only stacks 3 times?

The calculations are for 4th cast because the third debuff doesn't affect the 3rd cast you used to apply the 3rd debuff. The max is 3 stacks though.

Guessing it was changed at some point but I'm imagening that this could be shot off more than 3 times in a row to get a very high dps for short fights, since it's got half the casting time compared to imp. frostbolt/fireball.

Indeed you can do just that. A lot of the discussion above is regarding long term sustained DPS which is ofc the winning factor for any raiding spec.

The beauty of the buff/debuff from Arcane Blast is that if you have more mana than you'd need for sustained DPS and would like the mob dead asap, just spam AB with max debuffs and the DPS is immense. Slow down whenever you need to. Particularly good in 5 and 10 man instances.

In raids if you are max buffed for regen, all talents buffs consumables and a healthy amount of spirit on your gear, many fights have medium sized moments throughout the fight when you just can't DPS anyways and you regain a lot that way and then you can afford to get bonus DPS at the cost of mana when you do have the moment to nuke. It being essentially a haste effect means it scales very well with your gear. It's all about managing your mana. Being in a Shadow Priest's group is also a fantastic boost to the sustained DPS of arcane spec.

Comment by Xhurin

Being a 40/0/21 spec, Draining 60% of my mana in 2 mins is not unheard of if I really want to:

People say this spec takes way too much mana, which may be true, but the DPS is insane.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1.5 Sec cast - 30% from Bloodlust - 20% from Icy Veins - 15% from Haste Rating*
+ 30% Mana cost + 20% Mana Cost from T5 2set Bonus + the 225% Mana cost = OOM

BUT: +30% Damage From AP + 20% Damage from T5
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Without the 2 Piece T5 Bonus, and gear not extreamly good, Pre 2.4 Badge Gear, Spellfire, I can Peak at about 1400 DPS, averaging out about 1k Even. With the changes to Evoc Being 60% of your mana (Switching to an "Of Int" MH/OH with +30int chant gives you an even higher boost), The change to the Highest mana gem having 3 Charges, and a Pot cooldown, I dont have too big of a mana problem.

Also this build Should use Mage Armor instead of Molten for the Extra Mana Regen, Most mages will have 20-25%ish Crit chance Buffed without Molten. An Extra 6% from Talents Puts you at 26-31%.

Stack 3 Charges > Macro PoM, AP, IV, Trink, Mana Gem (with 2 Piece T5 you will Drain your mana Far enough to use it), Etc all together > Go Nuts... Evocate > Cold Snap > Stack 3 Charges > IV and Go nuts again. If you run out of mana, Cast a Down Ranked Spell (I use R1 Frostbolt) to Proc Clearcasting, or just Wait till the Debuff Wears Off and Hit AB Again.

With salv and the Amazing 40% reduced threat Talents you should have, Most tanks will be able to hold the TPS.

I Havent Tried This Past T4 Content, but Have a Mage in my Guild Who has had it Post T5 Content, and it has Worked So far. So it Is a Viable Spec.

*Dont Knock it. Haste Rating FTW if you have a healthy Hit Cap and +Dam, and Yes i have seen 15% Spell haste.

Edit: Spelling

Comment by Noobinater

arnsnabben

10 minutes is a long fight sure.

Consider what you can do in 10 minutes:

2x Evocation
Mana Emerald, Ruby, Agate etc
5x Super Mana Potion

um u cant use 2evocation in a 10minute battle unless if u start it off which wastes da spell.

Comment by Bluefire

Expect some changes to Arcane Blast before WotLK reaches live. A Blizzard rep from the beta forums:

From our internal patch notes:

Arcane Blast effect duration reduced to 3 seconds, now increases damage by 15/30/45% instead of reducing cast time.

Comment by veno3

This spell is getting reworked in WotLK. Quote from current Beta patchnotes:

Arcane Blast effect duration reduced to 3 seconds, now increases damage by 15/30/45% instead of reducing cast time.

Comment by Crystals

Ok, I am well aware that this is a pretty unusual way of using AB, and that there are IMBA mages who cant handle the mana drain.
But, if you are a little carefull and give it some practice it is possible to spam arcane blast for well over 10 mins and only throw in an AM a little now and then. Many bosses have a 10 min enrage timer, that's why I say 10 mins. I kept it up for 18 mins on Lurker on my guilds 1st down, and ended up with half my mana left (yeah, noobish done, should have drained it a little more)

This is how it works (mainly for 25 mans, be more carefull in Kara and ZA):

Spam AB
Pop your mana gem as soon as it fills your mana to 95-98% (just so you wont waste one single point of mana)
Spam AB
Use one AM and give it bout 0.5 sec before you
Spam AB
Pop your next mana gem asap
Spam AB, throw in an occational AM when you feel you have to go down in mana drain.
Evocation when your just below 40% mana (if it's possible at that time, be carefull at some bosses it aggroes if they for example reset threat or spawn adds)
Keep repeating this, with enough practice and right amount of int and spirit (yeah SPIRIT, an arcane mage use mage armor, so we have 60% mana regen while casting -compare to a holy priests 30%)

Personally I am currently raiding on an arcane / icy veins specc and it has brought me the higest dps, way higer than fire / icy veins and slightly higer than arcane / pyro.
I use PoM for getting the AB (de)buff back up if I should lose it, else it's there untouched.. To throw a fireball or frostbolt with it would mainly be a waste of a GCD imo.

Wanna end with saying that I am well aware of that many ppl will laugh at me and think or even write here that I am a noob. But if so it's not my fault it's hard to manage the arcane mana, and so far I have not once gone OOM because of this rotation.

And for those of ya who read this and wanna try it:
GOOD LUCK, and remember to bring a few mana pots aswell. the more mana you can spend, the more dmg you can do.:))

Edit: posting to fast here.. a few things I forgot to mention:
Timing your AMs on a clearcast for the extra crit is a good advice, but I wouldnt bother too much about it if I didnt have time to pay attention to clearcasts. Thinking too much about it, will lower the dps as much as the dmg you win from the crits. But aim for AMs on clearcast when you know your spells and the bosses.

Also, I have found bout 10k unbuffed (not even arc int on) mana being very usefull for this specc/rotation.
And, 10k unbuffed was what I had in spellfire/spellstrike, a couple kara/HC epic and s1 Gladiator Staff, Vinicator's Silk Cuffs and rings and trinks q and rep rewards. So, 10k mana is easily obtainable for an arcane mage.
Below these gears I would stick to an arcane / scorch specc. Gonna be a higer dps than a fire / icy veins at this gear lvl anyways, and the absolute best dpm a mage can find.

Comment by gsx0

This was changed in the latest PTR build. The spell damage increases by 15% but the mana cost goes up 300%.

No buff = 200 mana

1 buff = 800 mana

2 buffs = 1400 mana

3 buffs = (I couldn't get that high with the amount of lag on the servers but it would be 1800 mana theoretically.)

Comment by gabbarabba

300% increase in mana is just insane. it was hard enough to keep AB spam up at 75% increased mana, but to increase that by 4 times for less DPS? blizzard obviusly doesnt want mages to spam this, considering it might actually give us competative DPS.

Comment by Zansky

Debuff time reduced to 3 sec, meaning you can let it fade much easier than now. Arcane mage can now easily get 15k mana, wonder how much will we see on them at 80 on decent gear, and let's then see how much of a waste this spell is

Comment by neophyte87

Anyone happen to know the air time on AB? Depending on that... might be swappable between ABarr and AB... just back and forth... without to much thinking, but then again it might not, as the AB would land weird.. I dunno, just a thought, I don't have an active account to test it with though.

Comment by Crystals

If I’m somewhat right informed about the changes on Arcane Blast looking at the difference in mana cost at lvl 70, it’s not too bad…

Base mana on lvl 70 is 2241 mana.
Current base mana cost is 195 mana.
Last change on AB made the base mana cost 9% of base mana and each stack increase mana cost by 200%
Changed talent 3x Arcane Focus now gives 3% reduced mana cost on arcane spells.

That gives
2241*0.09≈ 202
202*0.97≈ 196

New base mana cost at lvl 70 is 196 mana.

Now we have:
(de)buff - % increased mana cost - mana cost
0 .................................................................195
1 .........................75%..................195*1.75= 341
2 .......................150%....................195*2.5= 488
3 .......................225%..................195*3.25= 634

Changed:
(de)buff - % increased mana cost - mana cost
0 ................................................................196
1 .......................200%......................196*3= 588
2 .......................400%......................196*5= 980
3 .......................600%....................196*7= 1372

But we can’t just look at the spells mana cost, since the cast time is changed.
Best way to compare the mana cost is to look at it over time.
During 5 sec (to make it easy to compare with Mp5 regen) we have:

1.5 sec cast = 10 spells on 15 sec (15 sec /3= 5 sec)
(634*10) /3≈ 2113 Mp5 use

2.5 sec cast = 2 spells on 5 sec
1372*2= 2744 Mp5 use

With 0 Mp5 while casting the mana cost differs
2744-2113= 631 mana

Haven’t really looked into how the stats will change and how they’re counted in WotLK.
But if intellect and spirit remains as it is now, I’d like to see each stack increase mana cost by 150% (=450% on 3rd stack). That would only increase the mana cost by 43 Mp5 use.
Include the new 10% spirit increase from Arcane talent and the new mana cost will be less than it is now.
An 500% increased mana cost on 3rd stack could also work, but since I don’t know what stats I can expect at lvl 80 it’s possible that the current 200% on each stack works very well.

Comment by bloodygeoff

"But we can’t just look at the spells mana cost, since the cast time is changed."

My understanding is that cast time no longer reduces, damage goes up instead.

Comment by Wiimage

Blizzard nerfed the mana cost increase to 200% becouse they dont want Arcane Blast to be the only spell we use, right now you can raid with only this spell. If you do Arcane Blast + Random spell then start casting Arcane Blast again, the debuff will be gone before the casting is complete and it will cost normal low mana.

Comment by Crystals

"But we can’t just look at the spells mana cost, since the cast time is changed."

My understanding is that cast time no longer reduces, damage goes up instead.

That's what I meant, since current cast time is 1.5 sec while spamming and the new cast time will be 2.5 sec we will cast fewer spells over the same amount of time, but do "the same dmg".
So when comparing mana cost, it's better to look at it over time rather than per spell.

Comment by Crystals

have been really worried about the changes to Arcane Blast, but in the end I must say I like it.
First of all, an 150% increased mana cost on each stack would give us a lower mana use than we had untill now.
So, 200% increased on each stack doesn't seem too much of a problem to me. Not as lvl 80 anyhow.

But I'm still concerned about the dps of the spell. A 15% increase of dmg for each stack isn't really enough to weight up for the longer cast time, unless I missed something when I looked at it.
Alltho the boost to AB that we get from talents might weight up for the lost dps.
Since we'll be loosing the (de)buff as soon as we even look at something but Arcane Blast I feel that it's close to impossible to say anything for sure about the dps untill we've had some time to try it ingame, to get to know how often we'll loose the (de)buff.

The changes might be a nerf or it might be the best thing that's ever happened to the arcane specc.
Anyhow, the increased mana cost is not the end of raiding arcane mages, but if we're ending up with a much lower dps that could be the end of arcane...

Anyways, the spells and talents of 3.0.2 is tuned for lvl 80 and will work differently on a lvl 70 compared to when we hit lvl 80.

And to say that fire mages only spam fireball apart from an occational scorch was true, untill now. Instant pyroblasts? do I have to say much more. To me the fire specc finally looks fun.

Comment by Jiraiya15

Is there a reason no one see's how useful this is here?

Since Arcane Barrage has a 3 second cooldown, it fits perfectly into the rotation.

Arcane blast followed by Arcane Barrage. Rinse and repeat. Maybe an Arcane Missles here and there if you dont have to move around and you're worried about mana.

The global cooldown from arcane barrage will put you over the three seconds so you dont have to worry about mana. If your ready to down a boss or something then skip the barrage in the rotation and just stack the buff.

Arcane Barrage is a bit costly, but far less than Arcane Blast with 3 stacks.

Comment by KaaosvoimA

Notice the http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=54490 talent... It makes that Arcane blast, Arcane barrage rotation even better. You just cast Arcane missiles instead of blast when the buff is on. I bet that someone with some macro skills could make spammable macro for that.

Comment by Crystals

thought that the Arcane mage typical dps rotation (2x AB, AM, FB) was exceptionally well thought out by blizzard.

A rotation on only 2xAB or 3xAB - AM - FB or Scorch would have given the arcane mage a lower dps then the fire mage with a rotation on scorch stacking and Fireball spam before the 3.0.2 patch. So assuming an arcane mage should be able to dps just as good as a fire mage, that rotation wasn't very good.

But indeed the dpm and dps is much lower with the changes and I think we'll have to use Abarr and the 2.5 sec channeled AM to increase our dps rather than as before the patch; throw in some more AB before removing the (de)buff.

Comment by 7598462153

Arcane Barrage anyone?

Comment by Fwip

No, you can't make macros that decide what spell to cast.

Comment by Dant

Blizzard's rotation plan for Arcane is based around Arcane Barrage, which has a 3 second cooldown.
They've stated in many occasions that what they want is for Arcane to rotate this spell and Arcane Barrage while fishing for Missile Barrage procs to cast AM. The numbers have yet to be balanced as Fireball outdoes Arcane Blast at the moment, but it makes perfect sense.

You just aren't meant to spam this, hence the debuff and its reduced duration. You won't be running oom as you'll avoid the debuff.
Arcane will raid just fine when they fix the scaling on these.

Comment by logicalmayhem

Im totaly happy with the 200% just means you have to mix it up with barrage and missiles(when it procs)

IMO the only problem is its damage coefficient atm
71.43% (+9% from talents)
80.43%

not totaly sure why this is only 80% .... even frost bolt is 81 base and 91.43 with talents,and its that way becouse of the slowing component.

IMO this spell should be a 90% ish coefficient as i agree fireball should be higher becouse of the higher cast time but i can see no reason for it to not have at least the same or higher coeffishent than FB

Comment by Zheck

Blizzard should make ranks of Arcane Blast starting at level 20. It's boring to be a low-level Arcane mage.

Comment by Envision0

Arcane Blast -> Arcane Barrage -> Arcane Blast -> Arcane Barrage
- When Missle Barrage Procs
Arcane Blast -> Arcane Barrage -> *Proc MB* Arcane Missiles -> Arcane Barrage -> Arcane Blast

Use Barrage after any spell mainly. Mana is hardly an issue for me with the Glyph of Mage Armor and Arcane Meditation. This generally puts me at 1.2 to 1.3k DPS in Kara gear.

- Also when matched with numerous mobs, and considering you have a tank that can hold decent aggro on multiple targets, I place a Mana Shield on myself and Arcane Explosion. It causes more damage than Blizzard if you're specced Arcane. The only problem is your vulnerable to AoE damage that mobs might cause. I realize it's quite mana costly to use Arcane Explosion too, but I generally rarely have mana issues. Just eat a biscuit when it's over and by the next pull you should be fine.

The only big issue I see with arcane is it's no where near as powerful AoE damage as a Fire or Frost mage. With the new Wrath dungeons there are going to be a lot of jump situations where AoE will come into play, so we'll have to see how it goes. >.<

I think we deserve an AoE Arcane Range spell =P

Comment by Sporeggar

This is a force to be reckoned with. Most people in my server underestimate it in PVP. It is very useful if you're at a hidden place considering that this spell does not leave trails unlike frostbolt and firebolt.

Comment by alexbard

Subject of change. Soon it will be on PTR to tests.

Arcane Blast – overhauled. Will now increase the damage of your next Arcane spell by 30%. However using Arcane Blast itself does not consume the charge, but instead increases the mana of your next Arcane Blast, up to a maximum of 3 stacks. You can alternate Blast and Barrage to keep buffing Barrage, or you can build Blast up higher for a heavy mana cost.

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/28/13393389857-upcoming-mage-changes.html

Comment by Sunstealer

more accurate news on the changes, as far as mmo-champion goes

Arcane Blast now increases the damage of all Arcane spells by 15% and lasts 10 seconds instead of 3.

not sure exactly how it's going to stack or if it will at all. PTR time.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=29837.0

Comment by Alcest

not sure exactly how it's going to stack or if it will at all. PTR time.

That's where I help out! :D

Basically, it will be just like before, only the stack *15/30/45 %* damage boost for Arc Blast ONLY, is now for ALL Arcane Spells. Simply put: If you spam Arcane Blast, you will see NO difference except the debuff now lasts 10 seconds instead of 3.
If you do an ABlast then ABarr rotation, then the debuff will basically go away after the ABarr *or ANY arcane spell that deals damage BESIDES Arcane blast*, also giving that arcane spell cast a 15% Damage boost. If you cast 3 arcane blasts, the first will be normal, the second will be +15% damage and +200% mana cost, and the third will be +30% damage and +400% mana cost, and then use an ABarr, the ABarr will get a +45% damage increase, and remove the debuff. It's actually a nice buff for an ABlast/Abarr rotation because:

A. It increases damage by the ABarr or AMissiles *Or AExplo/A whatever else I'm forgetting* that you cast after an ABlast

B. The debuff is removed after any Arcane damaging spell other than Arcane Blast is cast, making mages with high Haste rating not have to worry about going OOM due to high debuff stacks

C. It's just a pure damage / mana conserving buff.

That's my input on it, but with all PTR notes, they may be subject to changes...

EDIT: Also, the debuff part that increases mana cost is ONLY for Arcane Blast for any mages worrying that the debuff stacks will increase ABarr by 600% mana and +45% damage... That would be WAY too mana draining O_o;

Comment by piggywiggy7

Probably not the smartest thing to do in raids.... but if ur looking for a big crits in PvP or whatever, go Arcane Blast x 3, Arcane Power, Arcane Missiles. =)

Comment by Darkrainin

A good talent build for Arcane Barrage/Arcane Blast w/ Arcane Missles is 64/7/0. I skipped the Arcane Stability for Burning Determination as I already had Incineration i actually saved a talent point and it allowed me to use interrupt free polymorphs as well as stacking with all the other spells :)

Comment by Mailiamah

Actually, While reading the Upcoming Mage Changes thread at elitistjerks, I found a post that broke down the best dps method for an Arcane mage. (post 3.0.8)

(Using someone elses gear for numbers)

mentalfloss@elitistjerks

Arcane Missiles: 2971 dps, this means 5942 with missile barrage. -> 14855
Arcane Blast: 2976dps -> 7440
Arcane Barrage: 3919 dps -> 5878.5

each ABar ABlast cycle has a normal dps of 3329.6 and 36% chance to proc Missile barrage, which is an increase of 2612.375 dps for 2.5 seconds.

I think it's reasonable to assume the proc between ab and abar in the cycle would be unusable because you are already casting abar, thus you only see the proc after each pairing of 2.
* - represents a missile barrage proc below.

AB ABar * AB AM ABar continue with normal dps cycle of ab abar
Total damage
7440 + 1.15*5878.5 + 7440+1.15*14855 + 5878.5 = 44600

ab abar * am ab abar continue with normal dps cycle

7440 + 1.15*5878.5 + 14855 +7440+1.15*5878.5 = 43253.7

Both are over the same time

With the first rotation, you lose out on a 20% to get another MB because it's already proc'd while you cast a ab to buff, so that buffing ab's proc is lost. This translate to an actual 16% loss on the proc as you already had 4% loss of the proc with your normal ab abar rotation. 4% being the chance both AB and ABar proc and thus the AB proc is useless

16% chance to lose out on a net increase of 6531 damage = 1045 extra damage on the second cycle due to extra proc.

It's very clear AB MB ABar is a better rotation on the proc than MB AB ABar

it seems to me, you should ALWAYS buff your proc'd Missile barrage.

From the same posting he also mentioned that it would be worthwhile to fully buff your Mbam (Missle Barrage Arcane Missles).

...if you have mana to spare, *proc* AB AB AB MB = 7440 + 8556 + 9672 + 21539.75 = 47207 over 10 seconds is better than the dps loss over the 3 possible procs that would be lost due to them being redundant.

Also, I've played an arcane mage for end game content of TBC, had to respec for leveling, and with the upcomming changes to Arcane I've specced back into it to get use to it again.
From what I've seen from 2 Naxx runs, and a Bunch of heroics Glyph of Mage armor is pointless for arcane mages (Unless your using to heavy of a burn cycle). I've found myself using more Molten armor making my Glyph of Mage uselss. Gem at each cool down. If I know the fight I can even pop a safe Evo and go right back into my burn cycle. (Using 3/3 Arcane Med and 2/3 Master of Elements)

Comment by sephyrine

As of patch 3.0.8, the base damage of this move has been stealth buffed from 912-1058 base damage to 1208-1405 base damage, in addition to its other changes!

Comment by Sunsilk

What does the new glyph for this spell do?

Comment by KingAnubis7

There isnt one... your on this site why would you not look for it! wow your not intelligent.

Comment by Urbanmech

The proc is considered a magic debuff, and allies can cleanse/dispel it from you... GG

Comment by Kazin

The new glyph increases the damage buff effect of Arcane Blast by 5%, so it's an increase of 20%, 40%, 60% to your next arcane spell. Pretty sweet, :-D

Comment by limesz

I haven't really tested it but does anyone know wether the stacking damage bonus applies only to the base damage of the arcane spells or the total amount (with the added coefficients, popped trinkets, etc.). Feel free to rate me down if it's a stupid question.

Comment by Concrete

The best raiding spec where this spell will be your bread and butter, is currently 57/3/11,

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/mage/talents.html?tal=23001523010033015032310251532103000000000000000000000000002032030010000000000000000000

This will do very impressive single target DPS, while retaining your mana as well as possible. Glyphed for Arcane Blast and Mage Armor would of course be recommended.

Note that there is a side effect with the Arcane Blast effect, where if you channel Arcane Missiles while under it, and fire off an Arcane Barrage just as the 5th missile lands, the Barrage will also benefit from the damage increase (if timed well). This is probably unintended and will likely be changed

Comment by MihaiLung

As Arcane Blast was completely changed, I wanted to discuss it a bit, as I don't see this done anywhere on this page.
It's initial mana cost is really low, <200 mana at level 73. Also, the damage is not bad at all and the buff is just sweet. In almost any rotation, an Arcane Mage should use Arcane Blast regulary.

I found, untill now, 3 rotations that work preety sweet:

1. Very low mana rotation - Acceptable DPS:
This rotation is for when you expect the fight will take long (not usual in wotlk) and fear you will remain OOM before the battle is over (used rarely).
Rotation: Arcane Blast => Arrcane Barrage => Arcane Blast => Arcane Barrage ...
If Clearcasting proccs, cast Arcane Missles. If Missle Barrage proccs, better ignore it untill you can combine it with Clearcasting.

2. Mana efficient Medium DPS rotation:
This rotation is for when you want to deal an acceptable ammont of damage, higher then rotation 1 anyway, but don't want to burn your mana in a matter of seconds.
Rotation: Arcane Blast => Arcane Barrage => Arcane Blast => Arcane Barrage...
If Clearcasting proccs, there are two thing you can do:
1. Cast another Arcane Barrage, so that you get 2 buffs at the price of one.
2. If you have Missle Barrage on, and it is near the end, just cast Arcane Missles, as it is to precious to loose that sweet buff :P
When Missle Barrage proccs, just add another Arcane Blast, getting a second buff, to increase the DPS of the spell and then cast Arcane Missles.

3. Mana hungry - Mad DPS rotation:
This rotation is when you are confident you won't remain OOM before the enemy falls and you can show the true hidden face of the Arcane mages and give to all those whiners from the forums a true reason to whine!
Rotation: 3 x Arcane Blast => Arcane Barrage => 3 x Arcane Blast => Arcane Barrage...
If Missle Barrage proccs, gain the 3 buffs and cast Arcane Missles instead of Arcane Barrage.
If Clearcasting proccs, cast Arcane Missles, no matter how many buffs you have.

NOTE: All those 3 rotations have 1 thing in common! Use Presence of Mind and Arcane Power at each cooldown, as they are preety sweet additions to your DPS.

Don't forget to use Mana Stones anytime the ammount regenerated won't excess your mana pool, and as Evocation has just a little funny 2 min cooldown for Arcane Mages, you can be sure it will be always there when you need it f you're carefull. Keep that in mind when choosing which rotation will fit every situation.
heh, forget, my info is kinda ourdated, read the post below :P

Comment by coldviper18

One of my favorite things about this core arcane mage spell is in PvP.(BG's and World specifically). Mages have a habit of being focus fired, since we can easily destroy people in seconds if nobody pays attention to you.

Anyway my favorite thing is that it's not a projectile. So if like me your a BG and world PvP fan, if your good at finding hiding spots where you can still be in LoS, you can literally spam the crap out of this and with the way the game is these days its gonna be hard to notice your even being hit with it, let alone figure out where since its not a projectile.

Just a nice little bonus for the spell. Being able to hide and blow people up without them knowing where. Or even notice that its happening until its too late.

Comment by Fishrule

There is a nifty rotation that you can use, when you have 2 or 3 stacks of arcane blast, depending on what your mana is, start casting arcane missiles. The buff will only cancel after the last missile hits the target, which allows you to put in an arcane barrage that will also benefit from the buff!

Arcane Blastx2--->Arcane Missiles---->Arcane Barrage

Comment by Reechter

Request change: 3 stacks of A Blast will turn your next Polymorph spell into an instant cast.
(or alternatively perma-poly the enemy, whatever you think is best.)

On a more serious note;

Using Rawr to calculate my DPS, it says that a 3stack of Arc Blast spam will be doing about 900 more DPS than a 1 or 2 stack of the same spell (1 and 2 only has about 30 DPS in differance.). I suspect it might be taking into account my Illustration of the Dragonsoul, which will be giving me 200 SP at 10 stacks. Any ideas?

Comment by Magetastic

As your stacking up your Arcane Blast, you'll gain the 3 stacks, leading up to 600% increase in mana for your next arcane spell.

Arcane Blast will not consume the Buff -but what i did notice, was that Arcane Blast does in fact increase its base mana 600% -.-

killing Dungeon bosses, i normally would just spam Arcane Blast and when Missile Barrage proc's, Arcane Missiles.
Thats when i noticed that my Arcane Blast starts 221 mana, at the 1st cast, increases to 663, and at the 2nd cast, it increases to 1105 mana. Either this is a mistake or this spell is horrible to spam with, unless your doing your Arcane Blast (one stack) then following it up with a Arcane Barrage.

Besides the point though; "Effect stacks up to 3 times and lasts 10 sec or until any Arcane damage spell except Arcane Blast is cast."

the mana increase should not affect Arcane Blast(s), but it does -please correct this in the next patch x.x

Comment by lmh86

Undocumented Class Changes
As of Patch 3.1.0 - PTR Build 9704:

Mage T8 2P Bonus -- Your Arcane Blast, Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt, and Fireball spells have a chance to grant you 350 spell power for 15 sec.

Comment by daowninshamy

i once made 10k crit with this blast, in the BC, with a friend's Mage, (Arcane, duh) with the tier 6....mage are really cool :D

Comment by SecH

Well as a 57/3/11 Mage I use this spell as the rotations explained above but if u want to increase your dps for some seconds you could do this:
-As soon as bloodlust/heroism is popped you should stack it to 3 buffs
-Use Arcane Power and Icy Veins
-Use a trinket (if you still have one) or any item that grants you spellpower AND use a mana gem (even if u dont need the mana that moment) ONLY if you have the buff that tier7 gives ( 225 spellpower)
-Use a Potion of Speed or a Potion of Wild Magic.
-Keep casting AB untill buffs diseappear

You are going to burn all the mana you have but you are going to do 10K+ (14K+ critical) hits every second because of all the spellpower and haste that you are going to have at that moment (something about 15-20 sec)
And as stated above you are going to burn all your mana so you will have to use Evocation and continue your regular rotation.

Comment by Jimthedark

As of 3.2, the mana cost of this spell will be reduced by 12%.

Comment by JizaWatson

Which means that the new mana cost @ level 80 will be:

NOW ---------- PATCH 3.2
253 ------------ 223
759 ------------ 669
1265 ---------- 1115
1771 ---------- 1561

Comment by Runciter

UPDATED FOR 3.3:

The recent patches have greatly simplified the cast sequences to use with this spell for raiding. As of the current patch, just stack ABx4 and clear with AM. Mana should not be a problem any more; if it is just clear on the 3rd or 2nd stack instead.

* It is nearly always a DPS increase to stack to 4 stacks, although the 2t10 bonus mitigates this.
* Arcane Power's mana cost increase does not multiply with AB's. In other words, a 4-stack of AB with AP active is only slightly more costly (20% of AB's base cost), not 20% of the stacked cost extra. As a consequence, if AP is drawing to a close, you may want to keep chaining AB and clear at the last moment rather than clear at a 3-stack like normal.
* Clearing the stack with ABarr is NEVER a good idea at level 80, unless you are forced to move. Best to keep fishing for Missile Barrage proc or clear with regular AM if you need to.

Comment by henny234

The buff that increases arcane damage will apply for Arcane damage wands!

Comment by Amrun

This is the spell that arcane PvE spell rotations are based around. It has a fairly swift cast, and it becomes more powerful (and more costly) with each cast. It also increases the power of any arcane spell, but the buff disappears if you cast any arcane spell except this one.

So, if you cast arcane blast to 3 stacks, then an arcane missiles or arcane barrage after it will be brilliant.

As of 3.2, arcane blast will have a mana cost reduction of 12%, making things even easier on arcane mages.

Comment by Senko

From 3.2.2 Patch Notes
Arcane Blast: The buff from using this ability now stacks up to 4 times instead of 3, and each application increases mana cost by 130% instead of 200%

Here are some rough mana figures I took from JizaWatson's post above mine,

NOW ---------- PATCH 3.2.2
223 ------------ 223 -- 1st
669 ------------ 513 -- 2nd
1115 ---------- 803 -- 3rd
1561 ---------- 1093 -- 4th
X -------------- 1383 -- 5th

I believe the goal was to bring a similar mana cost to the 4th AB in 3.2.2 as the 3rd AB had in previous builds.

Overall a very nice change, I believe we'll be seeing some more Arcane Mages in PvE as of 3.2.2, this coupled with the changes to Missile Barrage, our mana efficiency will be cosiderably better, as well as a small boost to damage in order to compete with the Fire Tree.

Comment by Peppercan

"Effect stacks up to 4 times and lasts 6 sec or until any Arcane damage spell except Arcane Blast is cast."

Wait, what?

Isn't that like ultimate damage boost for frost and fire? xD

Comment by Weezmo

Here I was doing some crit damage testing on my mage and saw how much this thing seemed to crit without raid-buffs or flasks, I actually made a - 29.810 crit

http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/4275/wowscrnshot.jpg

Comment by Heath

At rank 4, this spell does 1377 damage, that's even more than 1337. Leet damage!

Comment by Runciter

The main reason you're wrong is that AB has a 40% chance to proc missile barrage. So if you clear with AM, even "without" the proc, 40% of the time you're getting the proc anyway (on the last AB you didn't have a chance to react to). If you clear with ABarr you're throwing away and over-writing procs and doing less dps.

A second reason you're wrong is that fishing for the proc is always worth it, if mana is not a concern. But if mana is a concern, forcing you to clear without the proc, you should clear with AM, because that's more mana efficient (especially taking into account the 40% chance it will be free). By definition, at that point you want to clear with the mana-efficient spell, because mana efficiency concerns is the reason you stopped fishing.

Comment by CcFreAk

Hmm, it says the Arcane Blast debuff last 6 seconds, isn't it only 5 seconds now? Thats what my timers say.
It's abit sad when u got your ABx4 and getting cc'd by a boss, *pow* gone :\ But i love the dmg output<3

Comment by fooshards

It's a damn shame this spell isn't available to lower levels. Without AB, arcane is a completely useless spec to try to level up as.

Comment by Elysianfield

Actually, if you didn't get Missile Barrage after the first 3 ABs, there's a 87,04% chance of getting it after the 4th one. I'd say it's worth the blindshot.

The way this is phrased isn't quite accurate. It's a misconception known, among other things, as the gamblers fallacy. There is still only a 40% chance of getting a MB proc after your fourth Arcane Blast because each cast is a distinct, independent chance to proc MB. If, for example, you toss a coin up in the air five times and it lands on heads five times, it still has a 50% chance to land on heads on the sixth toss:
H H H H H H
vs.
H H H H H T.
If this wasn't true you'd end up with contradictory statements, for example:
Suppose Alice tosses a coin five times and it lands on heads five times in a row. Bob then walks in and Alice tosses the coin to see whose the better mage. Alice fallaciously thinks that since the head has already landed on heads five times in a row it has a "higher chance" to land on tails. Bob, who hasn't seen the previous five tosses thinks that the odds are 50/50. Clearly, both can't be right. In this case Bob is right since, if we were to follow Alice's line of logic, we would have to consider not only these five tosses, but all tosses that that coin was used in. If we follow this line to its extreme, we'd find that given an infinite number of previous tosses, the odds of landing on heads is about 50% anyway.

You could correctly say that there was a 1/32 chance of getting the coin to landing on heads 5 times in a row and before you start tossing the coins you could correctly say that there is only a 1/64 chance of landing on heads 6 times in a row; however, these are all talking about groups of events. For any specific event there is a 50% chance of landing on heads.
(Hence "gamblers fallacy": the illusion that because they've had many loses gambling they are "due" for a win).

The way that this should be stated is, "There is an 87.04% chance of having MB after having casted AB four times." The distinction here is that we're looking at four events together (going from 0 casts to 4), rather than individually (going from the 3rd AB to the 4th).

Comment by SpareSimian

As a PvE frost mage I don't really understand how to use this. I've been blasting away with frost bolts on single targets, followed with ice lance if the target freezes. (Blizzard for AOE.) How do I incorporate Arcane Blast into that?

Comment by leet3lite

Absolutely true.
The 40% chance is probably still worth the blind shot though... 40% chance for that final stack to deal all that extra damage quickly and for free. 60% chance to still do the extra damage, but pay the increased mana cost for it.
Your choice.

Comment by Luckypalms

Congratulations, arcane now has TWO buttons to push. Maybe even three!

Comment by Elysianfield

Actually, dont be so analytical
he specifically said "87% after the fourth cast"
which is a compounded number, 40% x4 diminished from 0.4 in 1.0
which is dead on accurate, as he was specifically talking about 4 casts

"you have 87% to have it -AFTER- the fourth cast"

he didnt say "ON THE FOURTH CAST", which would have been wrong.

your thinking is correct, but not in his context, not even close. dont try to be an ass like that.
especially since you cant read properly.

He specifically said, "Actually, if you didn't get Missile Barrage after the first 3 ABs, there's a 87,04% chance of getting it after the 4th one." This is the same as saying, "Even If I loose the first three coin tosses at least I have a 93.75% chance of winning after the fourth toss," which is not true. There are only two events that can occur on the fourth toss, I land on heads or I land on tails - the three prior coin tosses have no bearing on this case. Likewise there are only two possibilities that can happen on the fourth cast, he can either get MB or not get MB, what happened before does not matter.

Put yet another way, it is because he already stated that the first three casts *have not procced MB* there is only a 40% chance of getting it after the fourth cast.

This is precisely why it is called the gambler's fallacy. "Oh I didn't win the first X times I played therefore there's a high chance I will have won after the next game." The game itself does not change after you have played it - and lost - several times.

Your thinking is incorrect and, in this context, not even close. If I had wanted to be an ass I would have made a syntactically unambiguous statement such as, "you are a moron," but I know how easily that could have been misconstrued as an insult, especially since some people can't read properly.

Comment by Elysianfield

Comment by themguyman

this ability is now available at level 20 subject to change

Comment by coolbeans0325

hitting 25k+ on the ptr on 1k resil

Comment by hell77

The best single burst spell pre-cata

This spell can crit well over 55k with avg. 333 iLvl gears when stacked 4x and glyphed.

Lets say a mage in 5-mans with all of the spell and damage % debuff on target + AP and somehow got full mana on 4th stack.100k crit isn't that hard to achieve IMO.

Although it would be extremely VERY inefficient spamming this, because 700% Mana cost would burn all of your mana pool in under a minute..

Comment by dasheep

What?

They just ruined the arcane mage rotation..... if there were any at all..
If what was before may be called a rotation there is definately no rotation now :(
I simply don't understand how there can be any rotation when Arcane Blast only affects Arcane Blast itself, what is then the point of Arcane Missilies and Arcane Barrage?

I imagine Arcane Blast beeing the only spell cast in some fights... and even if it does work with regard to mana problems, what would the fun be? 1 button to press? like WOW, how original... -.-

In addition the whole speciality of Arcane now relies in maxing your mana and mana regeneration and minimizing mana cost of your spells, so launching this several times with 700% mana cost isn't much of a mana efficiency...

but the rotation... where is it?

Comment by Keshicus

I'm surprised there are no 4.0 comments on how extremely overpowering this spell is now.

Had a mage highest crit to to around 60k...

Meanwhile warlocks have to still hit 4 buttons to do just as much dps..

Comment by Tarondin

Was in ICC10 yesterday on my shammy, and our mage managed to, according to recount, crit 92k with Arcane Blast... -.-

Comment by ughzean

Arcane Missiles used to crit over 10K (each) for me

now they crit 4K each

sufficed to say i never use them anymore :/

i think blizz should make it with having mage armor allows you to channel arcane missles while moving for those very (move) oriented fights

because if im standing still theres only one spell im using lol

Comment by cruddyone

Arc Blast seems to be broken since Cata came out. maintaining 18,000 dps was not a problem before cata came out, Now I am lucky to sit on 10,000 dps. (Yes i am hit capped). Damage increase is seriously undervalued compared to the casting cost increase. I find my dps highest when i revert to the old. 5 ABla, 1MB , 1ABar rotation.

PS... I do Higher dps in my frost pvp spec in heroics.

Comment by ughzean

well you cant channel arcane missiles while moving silly :)

Comment by Borgoth

Lower mana cost is already hotfixed in. Tested it on Nef, I actually finally managed to pull off a decent burn phase (until now it was almost zero gain, since burn was so short that evocation ate the gain). Well over 20k dps during burn, also much better dps overall. Using 4p-PvP set while it's still overpowered, hitcapped.

Unfortunately, arcane is still boring. But it's good spec for Nef fight (much less damage taken + self heals).

Comment by dasheep

Self heals?

Comment by Giluu007

In patch 4.1 ABs base mana cost is being reduced to 5% base mana down from 7% base mana

befor

7%
10,5%
15,75%
23,625%
35,4375% -4th stack

after

5%
7,5%
11,25%
16,875%
25,3125% -4th stack

Thats a hudge difference at the 4rth stack so ABmburing will be more effective now. :P

Comment by ZanathKariashi

Also spellsteal-able

Comment by whisperingsage

In the current PTR (4.1) they fixed the tooltip to correctly show 5% base mana cost, and lowered the cast time to 2.0 seconds. As they have not changed the cast decrease with stacks, this will lower Haste's priority with Arcane. Even without any outside haste, Blast will get down to a 1.6 cast time at 4 stacks.

Comment by SoooWhoCares

For Level 85, Patch 4.0.6:

Mana costs: | Stacks: | Damage bonus % (unglyphed): | Damage bonus % (Glyphed):
1219 | 0 | 0 | 10
3047 | 1 | 10 | 13
4876 | 2 | 20 | 26
6704 | 3 | 30 | 39
8533 | 4 | 40 | 52

-only boosts Arcane Blast damage
-each stacks reduces the cast time of the spell by 0.1 sec
-the modifier buff / debuff fades when any other arcane spell that deals damage is used
-the modifier buff / debuff can't be dispelled or stolen anymore (it's uncategorized now)

Edit: These are the mana costs for a human mage. Since the base stats of a level 1 char are a little different per race the mana costs may vary a little.

Comment by Luke20333

Overall damage of this spell has been reduced by 5% as of patch 4.2. This spell is the Arcane Mage's primary nuke spell and will deal a lot of damage if used correctly. Continuous casting will burn through a lot of mana but will deal fast damage.

Strategies:
Mana Conservation Phase (Evocation on cooldown):
2-3 casts then use Arcane Missiles if available or Arcane Barrage. Use Arcane Barrage more often if mana is low. Repeat. Use Molten Armor for extra crit rating. Use Mage Armor if your mana is very low. Use Frost Armor if you are taking a lot of damage.

Mana Burn Phase (Evocation is ready):
Cast only Arcane Blast. Ignore Arcane Missile procs. Use Molten Armor only. Use Arcane Power and then Mirror Image (if necessary). At 60% mana, use a mana gem and continue. This phase ends with an evocation.
- This method will use a lot of mana very fast! Best used during boss fights or when a ton of damage is needed NOW.

Comment by piumosso

As of patch 4.2, the damage range appears to be 1677 to 1947 arcane damage at level 85. The values shown on the spell here don't match testing. The spell power coefficient is 1.0. On the in-game tooltip, the numbers reflect spell power added in to the base damage, times any spell multipliers (25% for Arcane Specialization and 3% for Arcane Tactics, if you have it, 28.75% total). The tooltip values don't include Mana Adept (mastery's effect).

Comment by turkeymon

Main spell of an Arcane Mage's rotation.

Comment by Raihley

I hope Blizzard is going to balance the values of Arcane rotation spells while working on the next expansion (I'm sure they are): Arcane Blast-only-spam gets extremely boring quickly.
What I think would be a nice change is to change AB to be more like:

Arcane Blast:

with the addiction of a talent like:

Arcane Fever:

This would provide some nice tools to keep Arcane efficient during encounters that require a lot of movement.
It would also make AM and Arcane Barrage more attractive overall and not just necessary to clear AB debuff; while nerfing AB removing the cast time reduction provided, returning to a more-like WOTLK rotation (at least in fights that do not require so much moving around), hopefully waiting for some even bigger change.

Comment by tarthur1

TL:DR

Comment by seahen

This tooltip would be both shorter and clearer if it said "...until Arcane Missiles or Arcane Barrage is cast." (You'd think Mirror Image would count as a damage spell.)

Comment by meldora

What is the name of the proc from this spell?

Edit: Never mind it's: Arcane Blast (Arcane Charge)

Comment by GoHF

For the sake of giving some perspective to those not playing the beta: in ilvl 484 pvp gear, self-buffed, fully enchanted, gemmed, with popped trinkets, flasked, potted and full procs, arcane blast has crit as high as 398k on a dummy.

That's the kind of peak burst you can expect from arcane, and more as the tiers roll by.

Comment by NaAbPwNzOr420

Idiot mages spam this on bgs = time to interrupt and pewpew harry potters with my giant axe haha

Comment by rodalpho

PvP multipliers are not in the tooltip or minable in the spell data.

From the August 26 2016 7.0.3 hotfix notes:

Arcane Blast (Arcane) now deals 15% more damage in PvP.
Fireball (Fire) now deals 75% additional damage in PvP (was 150%).
Ice Lance (Frost) deals 20% additional damage in PvP.
Frost Bolt (Frost) deals 20% additional damage in PvP.

Add to list...Links WeakAuras Export

Arcane Blast

Arcane Blast

2.75% of base mana	40 yd range

2.25 sec cast

Blasts the target with energy, dealing (55% of Spell power) Arcane damage.

Each Arcane Charge increases damage by 60% and mana cost by 100%, and reduces cast time by 8%.

Generates 1 Arcane Charge.