Arcane Blast
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This article is flagged for a fact check!
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- For the Pet Battle ability, see
[Arcane Blast].
| Arcane Blast | |
|---|---|
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| Usable by | |
| Class | Mage |
| Properties | |
| Type | Offensive |
| School | Arcane |
| Cooldown | None/Global Cooldown |
| Other information | |
| Level learned | 10 |
| Modified by |  [Glyph of Slow] |
| Improvements |  [Arcane Charge] |
- Each blast of arcane power strikes its target more quickly than the last.[1]
Arcane Blast is an Arcane mage spell that deals direct arcane damage, with increasing damage levels and mana costs when cast in succession. With careful management, the mage can use this spell to trade off damage per mana versus damage per second.
Contents |
Notes
This spell is available for mages when they choose the Arcane specialization.
It had been reported that mana increasing modifiers such as arcane power or 2/5 mage T5 set bonus add to the % listed in the table above rather than multiply the mana cost listed in the last column, meaning they get more "relatively effective" as you stack the AB debuff higher. The practical result means that if you're going to spam AB with 3 debuffs stacked for some parts of the fight due to excessive mana supply, it's best to do it during arcane power uptime, as the relative increase in mana cost is, at that time, lower than the relative damage increase, compared to what you would get if you used arcane power and arcane blast spamming at different timeframes.
Improvements
[Arcane Specialization] is given to all mages specializing in Arcane. It increases the damage of all Arcane-spells by 25%.
- Glyph of Slow
- Major Glyph
- Use: Permanently teaches you this glyph.
Your Arcane Blast spell applies the Slow spell to any target it damages if no target is currently affected by your Slow. - Classes: Mage
- Requires Level 25
- Sell Price: 1
Equipment
Equipment Sets
Tirisfal Regalia - 2/5 will increase the damage and mana cost of Arcane Blast by 5%.- Valorous Kirin Tor Garb - 2/5 will give your Missile Barrage, Hot Streak, or Brain Freeze talent not to be consumed when you cast the spells which benefit.
- Conqueror's Kirin Tor Garb - same as above.
Conqueror's Khadgar's Regalia - 4/5 increases the critical strike chance of your Fireball, Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt, Arcane Missiles, and Arcane Blast spells by 5%.- Triumphant Khadgar's Regalia - same as above.
- Triumphant Khadgar's Regalia (heroic) - same as above.
Conqueror's Sunstrider's Regalia - same as above.- Triumphant Sunstrider's Regalia - same as above.
- Triumphant Sunstrider's Regalia (heroic) - same as above.
Tips and tactics
The mana cost increase will run you out of mana VERY quickly. While debuffless Arcane Blast is fairly efficient in terms of DPM, a single-debuff stack will already triple the mana cost for a very disproportionate DPM imbalance. Spamming this spell is very inefficient and virtually unsustainable even in the presence of such elements as 
[Innervate] and 
[Replenishment].
As of patch 3.0.8, Arcane Blast has been reworked. The debuff it applies increases the damage of the next arcane damage spell you cast. Arcane Blast will add another stack, while all others will consume the effect. This makes Arcane Blast a good way for arcane mages to power up their spells and increase their damage.
An arcane mage's main nuke, therefore, should consist of alternating Arcane Blast with 
[Arcane Barrage]. This way the blast provides efficient damage while the barrage consumes and receives bonus damage from the power-up.
For shorter fights you might decide to build more than one stack of power before releasing it with another arcane spell. However, for longer fights this probably won't be a very wise use of mana.
Arcane Blast is like Scorch (and unlike Fireball, Frost Bolt, and Arcane Missiles) in that it doesn't have a projectile animation. This makes the mage a bit less obvious in PvP combat as Arcane Blast won't leave a brilliant pointer back to the caster. Also, it's pretty hard to keep the debuff going as you'll hardly have time to sit around spamming 2.5 second casts (luckily for you).
Patches and hotfixes
Patch 5.2.0 (2013-03-05): Damage has been reduced by 22.9% and mana cost has been increased to 1.66667% of base mana (was 1.5%).- Hotfix (2012-09-20): "Arcane Blast damage has been reduced by approximately 3.5%."
- Patch 5.0.4 (2012-08-28): Now an Arcane specialization ability, affected by the [Arcane Charge] resource mechanic.
Patch 4.2.0 (2011-06-28): Damage done has been reduced by 5%.- Patch 4.1.0 (2011-04-26): Cast time has been reduced to 2.0 seconds, down from 2.35 seconds. In addition, the stacking effect of Arcane Blast now increases the damage done by Arcane Explosion, and Arcane Explosion does not consume that effect.
- Hotfix (2011-02-15): "Arcane Blast now costs 5% of base mana before stacking modifiers, down from 7%."
- Patch 4.0.6 (2011-02-08): Mana cost has been reduced by 12%.
- Hotfix (2011-01-18): The mana costs of the following mage spells have been reduced, but they still require the previous percentage of base mana in order to be cast: [Arcane Barrage] (11% of base mana), Arcane Blast (7% of base mana), and
[Fireball] (12% of base mana). As an example, Fireball requires 16% base mana to cast, but only consumes 12% of base mana. - Patch 4.0.3a (2010-11-23): Now increases damage of the next Arcane Blast by 10% per stack, down from 20%, reduces cast time by 0.1 seconds per stack, and increases the mana cost by 150%, down from 175%. In addition, the base cast time of Arcane Blast has been lowered to 2.35 seconds.
- Patch 4.0.1 (2010-10-12): Arcane Blast now costs 8% of base mana, up from 7%. Range increased to 40 yards, up from 30 yards. Now increases damage of Arcane Blast by 20% for each charge, up from 15%. Now deals 1579.53 to 1835.67 damage, up from 1185 to 1377 damage.
Patch 3.2.2 (2009-09-22): The buff from using this ability now stacks up to 4 times instead of 3, and each application increases mana cost by 175% instead of 200%. In addition, the duration of the buff has been reduced to 6 seconds.- Patch 3.2.0 (2009-08-04): Mana cost reduced by 12%.
- Patch 3.1.0 (2009-04-14): Stacking effect is no longer considered a Magic effect and will not be dispelled.
Formerly it was considered a harmful magical effect and would be dispelled by friendly casters, sometimes by accident, other times because of other magic debuffs. - Patch 3.0.8 (2009-01-20): This ability has been significantly changed. Arcane Blast now increases the damage of the next Arcane spell by 15%. However, using Arcane Blast itself does not consume the charge itself. Each time you cast Arcane Blast, the damage of Arcane spells is increased by 15% and the mana cost of Arcane Blast is increased by 200%. This effect stacks up to 3 times and lasts 10 seconds or until any Arcane damage spell except Arcane Blast is cast.
- Patch 3.0.3 (2008-11-04): Reduced the mana cost of Fireball, Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt, Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles, and Arcane Explosion.
- Patch 3.0.2 (2008-10-14): Effect duration reduced to 3 seconds, and now increases damage by 25/50/75% instead of reducing cast time.
Patch 2.1.0 (2007-05-22):
- A data error was fixed that was causing Arcane Blast to generate more threat than intended.
- The Arcane Blast debuff can no longer be dispelled.
- Patch 2.0.3 (2007-01-09): The mage spell "Arcane Blast" will now receive the mana reduction benefits from "Clearcasting".
See also
References
External links
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