Arcane Bomb in Vanilla 1.12.1: Mana Drain and Silence

◆What the Arcane Bomb does

The 1.12.1 tooltip reads: drains 675 to 1125 mana from those in the blast radius and does 50% of the mana drained in damage to the target. Everyone caught in the blast is also silenced for 5 seconds — while silenced, a target cannot cast spells. The cooldown is 1 minute and the bombs stack to 10.

Two important conclusions follow from the mechanic:

• Damage depends on the target's mana. If an enemy has no mana there is nothing to drain, so the damage is zero. Against warriors and rogues the bomb is nearly useless.
• The silence matters more than the damage. Five seconds without spells for a healer or a mage in PvP often decides a fight more than the damage itself.

Using it requires Engineering (300), so only an engineer at maximum skill can throw the bomb.

Arcane BombItem Level 60Requires Engineering (300)Use: Drains 675 to 1125 mana from those in the blast radius and does 50% of the mana drained in damage to the target. Also Silences targets in the blast for 5 sec. (1 Min Cooldown)Max Stack: 10

◆How to make the Arcane Bomb

1. Skill 300. The recipe is learned only from a schematic and requires maximum skill; the path to 300 is described in the Engineering guide.
2. Schematic: Arcane Bomb. Trainers and vendors do not have it — it is a rare random drop from level 60 enemies, including those in high level dungeons. Players usually look for it on the Auction House.
3. Delicate Arcanite Converter. The engineer makes it at skill 285 from 1 Arcanite Bar and 1 Ironweb Spider Silk. The converter schematic is sold in limited supply by the goblin engineering supplies vendor in Everlook (Winterspring).
4. Arcanite Bar is created by alchemists, who transmute it from an Arcane Crystal and a Thorium Bar — details on the Arcanite Bar page.
5. Crafting. 1 Delicate Arcanite Converter + 3 Thorium Bar + 1 Runecloth, Blacksmith Hammer as the tool, 8 second cast, yields 3 bombs.

Schematic: Arcane BombItem Level 60Requires Engineering (300)Use: Teaches you how to make an Arcane Bomb.

◆Arcane Bomb versus other explosives

A comparison with neighbouring engineering items, based on 1.12.1 tooltips:

The Arcane Bomb is the only item on this list that takes spells away from the target. For a stun engineers use the Thorium Grenade, for cheap area damage Dense Dynamite, and for maximum damage at the cost of their own health the Goblin Sapper Charge.

Use in PvP and PvE

• Against healers. In a battleground skirmish a bomb thrown at a healer and nearby casters leaves them without spells for 5 seconds and burns a noticeable part of their mana. For tactics against mana classes see the priest PvP guide and the mage PvP guide.
• Against caster mobs. In dungeons the silence interrupts dangerous spells from caster packs, and the mana drain shrinks their pool.
• Economy. Each bomb costs a real share of arcanite, so it is saved for key moments rather than thrown into every fight.

Tips

• Aim at a group of casters: the effect hits everyone in the radius, and each target loses mana separately.
• Silence does not stop a warrior or a rogue, so against them keep an Iron Grenade or a Thorium Grenade with its stun.
• The full list of bombs, mines and engineering trinkets is in the overview of engineering combat gadgets.

◆Related pages

• Engineering combat gadgets
• Engineering 1–300 guide
• Dense Dynamite
• Thorium Grenade
• Arcanite Bar
• Engineering schematics

You can test the Arcane Bomb on an enemy healer in a battleground: create an account on WoW x5 and connect to the server — Vanilla 1.12.1 with x5 rates gets Engineering to 300 faster.