I'm not a pro mage as im just a casual player with some experience, sharing my 2 cents worth of arcane..

In the past arcane was the best in naxxramas where fights were simple and short, suitable for arcane's bursty dps.. Then Fire/ttw was the best dps in ulduar due to arcane consumes too much mana and the fight usually last too long.. Not forgetting that fire/ttw also requires alot of hit (17%) to make it work.

Ever since arcane has been buffed, arcane mage is the way to go with a much more simpler playstyle, the cookie cutter build of 57/3/11 is now the best single target dps at the moment. Fire/ttw is still good and its great on multiple mobs too with multiple living bombs.

Not to mention arcane is much easier for fresh 80's to get to the spell hit cap, which only requires 11% to cap.

Mana dumping and cd burning:
For optimum pve dps, basically u need to time when to blow ur cds and when to dump ur mana for dps, when to lay low, and to finish the fight all out with almost zero mana when the boss dies.

Timing comes with experience of coz.. But essentially, try blowing all ur cds during the initial stage if theres no special encounter phase that u need to take note of, (e.g. Lord jaraxus to spell steal all 5 buffs b4 burn cd's n dumping mana or when ur doing ulduar xt during heart phase) other than that its a standard Arcane Blast x4 till you get missile barrage then arcane missiles, if there no proc you can continue to AB if ur mana allows it, otherwise just arcane barrage and restack AB. Only arcane missiles when u have 4 stacks of AB. Use arcane barrage/fire blast when you need to move (e.g. moving out of fire/voids/orbs). Use mana gems early, evocate smartly (otherwise 1 boss knockback and u can kiss ur dps goodbye).

Rotations:
When u begin the fight, stack 3 AB's and use POM + AB on the forth stack then dump ur mana by AB spam all the way till all ur cd buffs are gone, then followed with arc missiles.

After that you can lay low with AB x 4 + arc missile if missi barrage proc... Evocate smartly if needed, and blow cd's again appropriately. If you're near bloodlust timing, keep cd's and mana for bloodlust phase. When i say mana dump means blowing all ur trinket cds + icy veins + arc power + haste pot(if needed) + MIRROR IMAGE (otherwise ur going to pull aggro). If your omen is showing ur ALMOST 130% threat, use invisibility IMMEDIATELY to erase all your threat. Staying alive and not wiping the raid with ur aggro = MOAR dps.

Arcane's optimum stats:
Hit till cap > sp > haste > crit
Always use flask + sp food buff (haste/mana pots if necessary)

Tips n tricks :
1) If there is about 1 min b4 tank pulls boss, activate ur presence of mind and click off the the POM. So you have the 30% chance to crit arcane potency on your 1st arcane blast. (POM has a 1 min cd, so make sure u only do it if the raid is slacking for about 1 min b4 pull)
2) Ask for power infusion from disc priest . Doesn't stack with arc power/icy veins/bloodlust tho(moar pw:shield too if ur speced Incanters absorption)
3) If its a dps race encounter, drink a haste pot just before tank pulls boss. So you can drink another pot during combat (25sec cd tho)
4) Its worth wasting a gcd to cast fire ward/frost ward if u can anticipate there is incoming fire/frost dmg and if u specced Incanters Absorption + frost warding. (Say hi to 13+k dps at hodir or 13+k dps at Twin valk) You can get mana returns too from frost warding.
5) IT IS ALWAYS WORTH TO SACRIFICE SOME DPS TO HELP THE ENCOUNTER (shooting orbs when needed in anub, decursing ur raid and etc)
6) 2/3 IA is sufficient as 3/3 is not worth the point.
7) Download RAWR program for gear optimization.

*There are quite a few variation to 57/3/11, i prefer frost warding + 2/3 Incanters Absorbtion. For reference you can look at my armory profile for my talent & glyphs @ http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.x...aurissan&n=Xyth

Pls feel free to comment or add anything if i miss.

Cheers

This post has been edited by Xyth: Nov 25 2009, 11:30 AM

Taken from wowiki.com

Does not stack with Icy Veins or other self-applied only haste effects.
Does not stack with Arcane Power. If Arcane Power is already active, a priest casting Power Infusion will receive an error message "A more powerful spell is already active." If Power Infusion is already active on the mage, activating Arcane Power will override it.
Does not not stack with Bloodlust/Heroism or other haste effects which can be applied to others.
Cooldown reduced to as low as 96 seconds (1.6 minutes) with Aspiration.

IV + Lust is based on scenario, if your gcd is at 1 sec with both up, then u shouldnt. Otherwise you should always IV + BL every single time. Try to sneak in an evo during the last second of IV too.

Cheers