Arcane Missiles

Arcane Missiles is a mage spell card, inducted into the Legacy set, formerly from the Basic set.

Generated by
As well as being collected in decks, this card can also be created by the following cards.

Strategy
As with any random effect, this spell's usefulness is significantly determined by chance. Under the right conditions this spell is capable of destroying 3 separate characters (more with spell damage).

As a non-targeted effect, this spell is capable of hitting Stealthed targets. This makes this a very useful card against targets like Blood Imp.

Inexperienced mage players often use this spell on the first turn against enemy hero. This is a very bad choice and a waste of the card. The main strength of this spell lies in its randomness and ability to hit several minions. It can be used to remove three 1 Health minions for only 1 mana (more with Spell Damage), or be used against a single target with a good chance of striking it at least once.

Together with the Hero Power Fireblast, this card allows the mage to split damage between several enemies in the most efficient way, and set the stage for further clearing with their minions. It may also be used against a single high Health creature in order to soften it, if no controlled direct damage spells are available.

Note that each point of damage is dealt individually, making it a bad idea to play this with enemy minions such as Gurubashi Berserker or Frothing Berserker on the board.

As an RNG-heavy card, Arcane Missiles often provides either great satisfaction or great frustration. With the right luck, it can send each missile to exactly the right target, becoming a very effective and very cheap card; with the wrong luck, it can send every missile to exactly the wrong target, foiling the mage's plans or even leading to their defeat. This is part of playing the card, and is generally impossible to avoid entirely.

Probability
The target of each missile is determined at random from all available enemy targets, including the enemy hero. Note that as a non-targeted effect, this can include Stealthed targets.


 * The chance of each missile hitting a given target is equal to
 * With 2 targets, each missile has a 50% chance of hitting a given target
 * With 3 targets, each missile has a 33% chance of hitting a given target
 * With 5 targets, each missile has a 20% chance of hitting a given target

If a target is destroyed, that target will no longer be a valid target for the next missile, affecting future probabilities.

Examples:
 * If your opponent controls only 3 minions, all at 1 Health, you have a 25% chance to kill them all.
 * If your opponent controls 2 minions, one with 1 Health and the other with high Health, you have a 70% chance to kill the 1-Health minion.
 * If your opponent controls only a 1-Health minion, you have a 87.5% chance to kill it.
 * If your opponent controls only a 2-Health minion, you have a 50% chance to kill it.
 * If your opponent controls only a 3-Health minion, you have a 12.5% chance to kill it.

Lore

 * "As mage spells go, this one isn't the showiest. Nonetheless, you'll find it quite effective."

In World of Warcraft, is a channeled  mage spell that shoots a series of missiles at the target dealing direct arcane damage.

Trivia

 * The artwork for this card comes from the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game "Servants of the Betrayer" series, for the card Scholar Krosiss.

Patch changes

 * Moved from Basic to Legacy set.
 * No change to the card's effect.
 * No change to the card's effect.