PVE WotLK Arcane Mage DPS Guide (Short)

Welcome to our PVE Arcane Mage guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Mage class as Arcane. If you follow this build you should be at the top of the DPS chart in no time!

Talents

This is the core/max dps Arcane mage build. I’ll list some options/points below.

Arcane Mage Build

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

Minor Glyphs

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants based on your gear but these are the standard enchants.

Stat Priority

  1. Hit (17%) (11% with talents)
  2. Spell Power
  3. Haste
  4. Critical Strike
  5. Spirit (Increases crit rating)
  6. Intellect

Mages need 17% hit, 446 rating, to always hit bosses. Precision and Arcane Focus  combine to give you an extra 6% hit rating. This lowers your cap to 11%, which is 289 rating.

Spell power is your primary stat as increasing it gives you the biggest DPS boost after hit cap.

Haste is another critical part of your DPS. You can decrease your global cooldown to 1 second, this will increase the number of spells you can cast. As an arcane mage, you want to lower Arcane Blast‘s cast time as much as possible.

Your haste rating can be further improved with the 2 piece Bloodmage’s Regalia set or Enchant Weapon – Black Magic. You should strive for a minimum of 600 haste and at end game you should have at least 1400(raid buffed).

Critical strike rating is usually just obtained by upgrading your gear and isn’t a stat that you strive to increase. You already have a really high chance to crit thanks to Arcane Potency.

Spirit is an unusual stat that is very beneficial to an Arcane Mage. Molten Armor converts your spirit into Critical Strike Rating.

  • Regular Molten Armor  converts 35% spirit to critical strike rating.
  • Glyphed Molten Armor  converts 55% spirit to critical strike rating.
  • Glyphed + T9 set bonus, Khadgar’s Regalia, converts 70% spirit to critical strike rating.

You can also use the Khadgar’s Regalia set bonus to buff with improved Molten Armor and then swap back to your regular gear.

Intellect is only useful when you first hit 80 and have mana problems still.

Rotation

There is really one rotation for Arcane but I’m also going to include the burst damage opener. Once you finish popping your cooldowns, you start the normal rotation and use your DPS cooldowns when they come back up.

Burst Damage Opener

Normal Rotation

Cast Arcane Blast 3 or 4 times, until the Missile Barrage buff procs and then cast Arcane Missiles.

If the proc isn’t happening, you can continue to cast Arcane Blast if you have the mana or use Arcane Barrage to reset your stacks. You don’t want to cast Arcane Missiles without the Missile Barrage buff active.

PVP WotLK Retribution Paladin Guide (Short)

Welcome to our PVP Retribution Paladin guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Paladin class as Retribution. With this setup you will be king of the arena in no time!

Talents

This is the standard Retribution Paladin PVP Build.

Retribution Paladin PVP Build

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

Other Viable Major Glyphs

Minor Glyphs

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants based on your gear but these are the standard enchants.

Stat Priority

  1. Hit rating (8% for raids, 263 rating)
  2. Expertise (26 is cap, 213 rating)
  3. Strength
  4. Critical Strike
  5. Agility
  6. Haste

You need 8% hit rating to never miss bosses. Expertise reduces the chance of your attacks being dodged or parried. you need 26 expertiese or 213 expertise rating to hit cap. Once you hit expertise cap bosses will not be able to dodge your attacks.

Your primary stat for this build is Strength because it provides attack power and scales with raid buffs. Critical strike rating is also a very significant DPS boost. Agility increases our critical strike rating which makes it a decent stat. Lastly we have haste which is useful primarily because it increases our auto-attack frequency.

Rotation

PVP situations don’t usually allow for a rotation so I’m going to list some gameplay tips instead.

Your opponents should always be as debuffed as possible. This will make it harder to dispell your CC’s when you use them. Every time you land a crit you get an instant Flash of Light thanks to The Art of War. Judgement has a high critical strike chance, this makes it great at letting you cast instant Flash of Light‘s.

Almost never use Holy Light to heal. It costs a ton of mana and also has a long cast time making you vulnerable to interrupts. Don’t forget that you can heal with Divine Storm though.

Using Avenging Wrath with your trinkets can lead to deadly burst dps. You should coordinate this combo with your teammates to secure a kill.

PVE WotLK Retribution Paladin DPS Guide (Short)

Welcome to our PVE Retribution Paladin guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Paladin class as Retribution.

Talents

This is the standard Aura Mastery spec. It has all of the core Retribution talents and Divine Intellect, and Aura Mastery from Holy.

Retribution Build (Aura Mastery)

This second build is a Divine Sacrifice build. This build is recommended for progression rading with a serious guild. This build is lower DPS with higher raid survivability thanks to Divine Sacrifice.

Retribution Paladin Build (Divine Sacrifice)

The first spec, Aura Mastery, is higher DPS and generally recommended.

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

Minor Glyphs

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

Relentless Earthsiege Diamond requires 1 of each color to be activated, after activating it fill the rest of your sockets with Bold Cardinal Ruby.

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants based on your gear but these are the standard enchants.

Stat Priority

  1. Hit rating (8% for raids, 263 rating)
  2. Expertise (26 is cap, 213 rating)
  3. Strength
  4. Critical Strike
  5. Agility
  6. Haste

You need 8% hit rating to never miss bosses. Expertise reduces the chance of your attacks being dodged or parried. you need 26 expertiese or 213 expertise rating to hit cap. Once you hit expertise cap bosses will not be able to dodge your attacks.

Your primary stat for this build is Strength because it provides attack power and scales with raid buffs. Critical strike rating is also a very significant DPS boost. Agility increases our critical strike rating which makes it a decent stat. Lastly we have haste which is useful primarily because it increases our auto-attack frequency.

Rotation

Retribution Paladins have more of a priority list than a rotation. The priority list is listed below.

  1. Hammer of Wrath 
  2. Judgement 
  3. Crusader Strike 
  4. Divine Storm 
  5. Consecration 
  6. Exorcism
  7. Holy Wrath

Other than that, just use any skill as it comes off cooldown.

PVE WotLK Protection Paladin Tank Guide (Short)

Welcome to our PVE Paladin Tank guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Paladin class as Tank.

Protection Paladins are good AOE tanks that have good damage mitigation. The take less damage than a Druid/Death Knight so mixing in a shield tank will really help your healers out.

Talents

Firstly, we have a build with just the core 56 talent points which are required as a prot paladin tank regardless.

Prot Paladin Core Talents

This 2nd build is the first “core” build filled out with Retribution talents to complete the build. The retribution talents give us better threat generation.

Prot Paladin Build (high threat)

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

Minor Glyphs

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

Insightful Earthsiege Diamond requires 2 blue and 1 red gem to activate. After you activate your meta you can either stack Solid Majestic Zircon for health or gem for stats depending on what you need/prefer.

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants based on your gear but these are the standard enchants.

Stat Priority

  1. Defense (540 is def cap / required to raid)
  2. Stamina
  3. Armor
  4. Hit rating (8% for raids)
  5. Expertise (26 is cap)
  6. Strength
  7. Dodge/Parry
  8. Block

You will need 540 Defense to be capped in raids. Keep in mind, this is 540 “Defense”, not defense rating. For raids you will need 8% hit, which is 263 hit rating. For dungeons you will need around 5%, which is 164 rating. Expertise cap is 26 which should be pretty easy to hit with the help of Combat ExpertiseGlyph of Seal of Vengeance and racial weapon passives.

Rotation

Protection paladins follow the 969 rotation. This rotation contains 5 skills total. The first two skills have a 6 second cooldown and the other 3 skills have a 9 second cooldown. You use a 9 second CD skill then use a 6 second CD skill and work your way down the list alternating.

9 second skills

6 second skills

PVE WotLK Holy Paladin Healer Guide (Short)

Welcome to our PVE Holy Paladin guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Paladin class as Holy. If you follow this build you should be topping the healing charts in no time!

The beauty of a holy paladin is their large heals combined with great survivability. When other healers may fall over dead, you will still be there, healing the tank to the bitter end. Holy Paladins make great tank healers by the way.

Talents

This is the common holy paladin build. It takes Divinity from the Protection tree to increase all healing by 5%. It also takes Conviction from the Retribution tree for the extra 5% critical strike chance.

Holy Paladin PVE Build

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

Minor Glyphs

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

Insightful Earthsiege Diamond requires one of each color gem to activate. This is why we need 1 red gem and 1 blue gem. Nightmare Tear is another option to activate your meta gem.

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants based on your gear but these are the standard enchants.

Stat Priority

  1. Intellect
  2. Spell Power
  3. Haste (676 soft cap)
  4. Critical Strike

Intellect is the main stat for Holy Paladins because it increases the size of your mana pool. Holy Light requires a lot of mana per cast, which is why we need a large mana pool.

You could use Flash of Light as your primary healing spell instead of Holy Light and this would change your primary stat from Intellect to Spell Power but this doesn’t work as well for end game content.

Rotation

Healing only one tank

Cast Sacred Shield and Beacon of Light on the tank and use Flash of LightHoly Light and Holy Shock to heal everyone else.

Healing Two tanks

Cast Sacred Shield and Beacon of Light on one of the tanks and continually cast Holy Light & Holy Shock. If you are running out of mana use Flash of Light.

Lower Gear healing

If you have a lower gearscore, you are probably going OOM in most fights. You should switch to Flash of Light as your primary healing spell and use Holy Light occasionally to get the Light’s Grace buff.

PVE WotLK Destruction Warlock DPS Guide (Short)

Welcome to our PVE Destruction Warlock guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Warlock class as Destruction. If you follow this build you should be at the top of the DPS chart in no time!

Talents

Destruction Warlocks have two main specs. With this first build, you just stand still and cast your spells. Soul Leech and Improved Soul Leech will keep you at full health and mana the entire time. You won’t have to rely on Life Tap and will be constantly pumping out DPS.

Destruction PVE Build – Stationary

The second build works better in fights with a lot of movement. This build doesn’t take Soul Leech or Improved Soul Leech because Unholy Power is better when you have to move a lot. You will be using Life Tap to get mana back while moving.

Destruction PVE Build – Mobile

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

Minor Glyphs

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants based on your gear but these are the standard enchants.

Stat Priority

  1. Hit (17% cap)
  2. Spell Power
  3. Haste
  4. Critical Strike

Rotation

  1. Life Tap before the pull
  2. Curse of the Elements (or Curse of Doom)
  3. Immolate  (Keep the debuff up at all times)
  4. Corruption (Keep the debuff up at all times)
  5. Conflagrate (This should be used every time it’s off CD)
  6. Chaos Bolt  (This is your primary spell)
  7. Incinerate (Use this when everything else is applied or on CD)

Keep Curse of the Elements or Curse of Doom on the target at all times. You use Curse of Doom if you have an Unholy Death Knight or Moonkin in your group. Otherwise you use Curse of the Elements.

Imp is your best pet. He deals the most damage and the builds above both have Empowered Imp which gives us a 100% chance to crit after he crits.

PVE WotLK Demonology Warlock DPS Guide (Short)

Welcome to our PVE Demonology Warlock guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Warlock class as Demonology. If you follow this build you should be at the top of the DPS chart in no time!

Talents

This is considered the highest DPS spec for Demonology Warlocks. It comes with an extra 5% chance to crit on the target. It also gives an additional spell power buff to your entire raid. You can tweak it to your liking but it’s a great place to start.

Demonology PVE Build

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

Minor Glyphs

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants based on your gear but these are the standard enchants.

Stat Priority

  1. Hit (17%) (14% with talents or raid buffs)
  2. Spell Power
  3. Critical Strike
  4. Haste

Rotation

Demonology relies on a priority system instead of a skill rotation.

Core Abilities

Curses

Other Spells

PVE WotLK Affliction Warlock DPS Guide (Short)

Welcome to our PVE Affliction Warlock guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Warlock class as Affliction. If you follow this build you should be at the top of the DPS chart in no time!

Talents

This is the standard/core Affliction Warlock Build. You can tweak this to your liking but it’s a good base build.

Affliction Warlock Build

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

Minor Glyphs

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants based on your gear but these are the standard enchants.

Stat Priority

  1. Hit (17%) (14% with Suppression)
  2. Spell Power
  3. Haste
  4. Critical Strike
  5. Spirit (Increases spell power)

Rotation

  1. Corruption
  2. Unstable Affliction 
  3. Haunt  (Mostly for the buff)
  4. Curse of Agony
  5. Drain Soul (When the boss is below 25%)
  6. Shadow Bolt 

Be careful not to re-apply DoTs earlier than necessary as this will lower your DPS.

PVE WotLK Discipline Priest Healer Guide (Short)

Welcome to our PVE Discipline Priest guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Priest class as Discipline. If you follow this build you should be topping the healing charts in no time!

Discipline is amazing at clutch healing/shielding. If you ever wanted to make someone think they were going to die and then save them… This is the class for you! You may not be the most mana efficient healer in the raid but you have really good survivability and bring a lot of utility to the table.

Talents

This is the standard Discipline priest spec and it works well with just about any gear setup. The beauty of Discipline is the increased survivalibity with talents such as, Spell Warding and Desperate Prayer.

Discipline PVE Build

This second build focuses on using Renew. Make sure to pick up Glyph of Renew if you go with this build.

Disc Renew PVE Build

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

Minor Glyphs

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

If you are running out of mana, you can mix in Royal Dreadstone, Luminous Ametrine and Purified Dreadstone to increase your mana regen until you get better gear.

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants based on your gear but these are the standard enchants.

If you have mana problems, here are some other enchants you could use:   Arcanum of Blissful Mending, Enchant Chest – Exceptional Mana or  Greater Inscription of the Crag

Stat Priority

  1. Spell Power
  2. Intellect
  3. Spirit (until you aren’t going oom during fights)
  4. Haste
  5. Critical Strike
  6. Mp5

Guidelines

You don’t have a rotation as Discipline, so instead I’m going to mention some general guidelines and tips.

Your role in raids is to shield and heal. Not just shield nor just heal but to shield AND heal.

Rapture will keep you from going OOM. Use it on your tank before he takes heavy damage, the shield is destroyed and you gain mana. It’s pretty simple.

Power Infusion Doesn’t stack with Bloodlust or Heroism. If things get out of hand, you can cast Power Infusion on yourself.

If things get out of hand, Desperate Prayer and Pain Suppression are great tools to keep someone alive.

PVE WotLK Holy Priest Healer Guide (Short)

Welcome to our PVE Holy Priest guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Priest class as Holy. If you follow this build you should be topping the healing charts in no time!

The beauty of a holy priest is their ability to adapt. You can completely change your rotation when the situation demands it. You have access to HoT’s, Single target DPS and AoE spells. 

Talents

This is the common holy priest spec and it works well with just about any gear setup.

Holy PVE Build

As your gear gets better you can take Blessed Resilience otherwise I would use Improved Healing. Lightwell is also worth considering although most people don’t get it.

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

Minor Glyphs

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

If you are running out of mana, you can mix in Sparkling Stormjewel, Luminous Ametrine and Purified Dreadstone to increase your spirit until you get better gear.

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants based on your gear but these are the standard enchants.

Stat Priority

  1. Spell Power
  2. Intellect
  3. Spirit (until you aren’t going oom during fights)
  4. Haste
  5. Critical Strike
  6. Mp5

Rotation

Normal healing rotation

  1. Circle of Healing
  2. Prayer of Mending
  3. Prayer of Healing

Binding Heal costs a lot of mana, so use it wisely.

Tank healing rotation

  1. Prayer of Mending 
  2. Renew 
  3. Binding Heal

When possible, instead of Binding Heal, you can use Flash Heal until you get two stacks of Serendipity.

When the tank is taking a lot of damage

If you have Serendipity cast Greater Heal, otherwise use Binding Heal. Afterwards revert back to the standard rotation.

Don’t forget about Guardian Spirit if things get really scary.

Healing when you are Out of Mana

OOM Situations should be avoided as much as possible. As you become more experienced they won’t happen as often. If you are OOM use this rotation:

  1. Guardian Spirit
  2. Prayer of Mending 
  3. Renew

If you have the talent, Lightwell works great in these situations.