Only that Arctic Silver is not that great a product. Get Prolimatech PK-1 instead.
And "wet", well no, that paste is supposed to remain a paste so it better conducts the heat. Usually it is some sort of grease actually. Nonetheless it must be replaced every time you take the cooler off the CPU. This does include carefully cleaning away the old stuff. Use isopropyl alcohol or, even better, chloroform to do this.