Arcane Blast


 * Each blast of arcane power strikes its target more quickly than the last.

Arcane Blast is a 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.

Damage caused
This table shows Arcane Blast's damage for each fifth level, starting from 20 when it's obtained.

Arcane

 * Arcane Specialization is given to all mages specializing in Arcane. It increases the damage of all Arcane-spells by 25%.
 * Mana Adept (Mastery) increases all spell damage done by up to 12%, based on the amount of mana the Mage has unspent. Each point of Mastery increases damage done by up to an additional 1.5%.
 * Arcane Concentration gives you a 3/6/10% chance of entering a Clearcasting state after any damage spell hits a target. The Clearcasting state reduces the mana cost of your next damaging spell by 100%.
 * Torment the Weak Your Arcane damage spells deal 2/4/6% more damaged to snared or slowed targets.
 * Arcane Potency increases the critical strike chance of your next two damaging spells by 7/15% after gaining Clearcasting or Presence of Mind.
 * Nether Vortex (mage talent) gives your Arcane Blast spell a 50/100% chance to apply the Slow spell to any target it damages if no target is currently affected by Slow.
 * Arcane Power will cause your spells to deal 20% more damage while costing 20% more mana to cast. This effect lasts 15 sec.

Fire

 * Master of Elements Your spell criticals will refund 15/30% of their base mana cost.
 * Burning Soul reduces the casting time lost from taking damaging attacks by 23/46/70%.
 * Impact Gives your damaging spells a 3/6/10% chance to reset the cooldown on fire blast.
 * Molten Fury increases damage against targets with less than 35% health by 4/8/12%.

Frost

 * Frostburn (Mastery) causes all your spells to deal 20% increased damage against Frozen targets. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 2.5%.
 * Piercing Ice Increases the critical strike chance by 1/2/3%.
 * Shatter Multiplies the critical strike chance against frozen targets by 2/3.
 * Icy Veins increasing spell casting speed by 20% and reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting by 100%. Lasts 20 sec.
 * Enduring Winter reduces the mana cost of all spells by 3/6/10%.

Glyphs

 * Glyph of Arcane Blast increases the damage from your Arcane Blast buff by 3%.

Equipment Sets

 * Inv chest cloth 43.png Tirisfal Regalia - 2/5 will increase the damage and mana cost of Arcane Blast by 5%.
 * Inv chest cloth 43.png Valorous Kirin Tor Garb - 2/5 will give your Arcane Blast, Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt, and Fireball spells to have a chance of granting you 350 spell power for 15 sec.
 * Inv chest cloth 43.png Conqueror's Kirin Tor Garb - same as above.
 * Inv chest cloth 75.png Conqueror's Khadgar's Regalia - 4/5 increases the critical strike chance of your Fireball, Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt, and Arcane Blast spells by 5%.
 * Inv chest cloth 75.png Triumphant Khadgar's Regalia - same as above.
 * Inv chest cloth 75.png Triumphant Khadgar's Regalia (heroic) - same as above.
 * Inv chest cloth 68.png Conqueror's Sunstrider's Regalia - same as above.
 * Inv chest cloth 68.png Triumphant Sunstrider's Regalia - same as above.
 * Inv chest cloth 68.png 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.

Watch and listen for Missile Barrage. Casting Arcane Blast before firing Arcane Missiles will increase the talent's effectiveness.

Also watch for Clearcasting. If this procs when you already have a stack of power, your next blast will get all of the extra damage and none of the extra cost.

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).

Patch changes

 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.