Arcane or Frost?

[Nevianx]

If for whatever reason I don't want to play Fire, which spec is better for PvE - Arcane or Frost?

[PurechaosSK]

well if you are doing random, crazy insane things..... i would say you better decide based on your own preference.

[mrgreenthump]

Almost always Arcane, due to Frost being the prefered PvP spec. Blizzard will probably at least try to keep the specs near to each other, but Fire having it's autocleave it will be likely spec of choice for the whole expansion till we max our Artifacts and can switch based on encounter.

That said, people won't understand why you aren't Fire atm.. My friend's guild kicked their Mage out of the core group due to him wanting to play Arcane rather than Fire, because he liked Arcane.

But as PurechaosSK said, choose what you like really. It's a game and you should be playing it for yourself rather than someone else's pleasure.

[Nevianx]

well if you are doing random, crazy insane things..... i would say you better decide based on your own preference.

As random, crazy and insane as it might sound, I just don't like Fire and want to play the best out of the other two options (I know it's absolutely shocking!)

[NPI]

Choose arcane; In the end it always the arcane which has the most dps

[Swizzle]

I've had the most fun with Frost out of all the specs. Nothing quite beats a massive Glacial Spike to get that feeling of oomph.

Of course, you can always just go with whatever you enjoy the most. Unless you're bleeding edge progression or Gladiator player, you can do whatever you want.

[smaktat]

If for whatever reason I don't want to play Fire, which spec is better for PvE - Arcane or Frost?

Lotsa folks seem to be trying hard for Arcane PvE for some reason. Maybe they're just hipsters? If you're not going to play Fire then Arcane has some decent Guardians lore and Frost has some LK stuff. I heard Arcane Barrage on trash is satisfying, but so is Glacial Spike.

Imo just play fire and learn to deal if you want to top meters. If you don't care, then pull it out of a hat since it really doesn't matter at that point.

[Amsden]

I hate fire and frost is just so much fun this expansion. It's totally worth the DPS loss. Also, as a bonus I don't have those ugly orbs floating around my head.

[lolbubble]

I hate fire and frost is just so much fun this expansion. It's totally worth the DPS loss. Also, as a bonus I don't have those ugly orbs floating around my head.

This! Loved frost at the end of WoD and the nodes on the frost artifact are just much more interesting than fire, although i haven't even looked at arcane.

[The Archmage]

To be perfectly honest, i think Arcane will be in an amazing spot. All indicators point to a buff in its numbers AND in its mechanics, leading to a buff to Mastery, which will greatly increase its efficiency and playability. AoE burst damage is borderline insane with the right talents, and ST can still be decent and will probably end up being very strong, due to Blizzard already stating that it should be the go to single target spec amongst the 3.

Stay strong Arcane mages, i think we will be fine. Expecially considering that, for the most part, we are already fine... we are just gonna be even more so.

[Deleted]

Lotsa folks seem to be trying hard for Arcane PvE for some reason. Maybe they're just hipsters? If you're not going to play Fire then Arcane has some decent Guardians lore and Frost has some LK stuff. I heard Arcane Barrage on trash is satisfying, but so is Glacial Spike.

Yeah, hipster spec is arcane. Numbers way go arcane, it simply has better aoe. But if you are choosing between frost and arcane it doesn't matter. Burn phases for arcane are fun. Big glacial spikes are fun as well.

Go fire.

[Xirrohon]

This! Loved frost at the end of WoD and the nodes on the frost artifact are just much more interesting than fire, although i haven't even looked at arcane.

IMO when they changed to mastery to Icicles Frost became bad. I never liked the Icicles change. Frost burst isnt like it was and we cant Freeze/Stun people and burst them like Frost used to. I wish that they would have reverted the Icicle change. I dont like having to to use Water Jet either. Glacial Spike is ok I guess but Frost just doesnt feel the same. Icicles... Im not sure if I will ever like them.

- - - Updated - - -

To be perfectly honest, i think Arcane will be in an amazing spot. All indicators point to a buff in its numbers AND in its mechanics, leading to a buff to Mastery, which will greatly increase its efficiency and playability. AoE burst damage is borderline insane with the right talents, and ST can still be decent and will probably end up being very strong, due to Blizzard already stating that it should be the go to single target spec amongst the 3.

Stay strong Arcane mages, i think we will be fine. Expecially considering that, for the most part, we are already fine... we are just gonna be even more so.

This is probably the truth here. No way they are going to let the Nether Tempest spam remain a thing.

Im prob going to bank all of my AP next week and see what kind of tuning Blizz does.

[Deleted]

Or maybe we should expect Blizzard to balance the specs to be extremely close to each other and have slight niches?
I was hoping they would put in more effort this time around with the Artifact gating and all but nope. Also lol at all the random completely unviable talents that most specs have now, they did horribly in that front too.

Shouldn't they have teams focused solely on monitoring this and adjusting these things anyway?

[Raggon]

What niche would frost have though? Fire has better cleave and aoe, arcane is supposed to be st... Imo forst needs an entire overhaul at this point

[ThrowAwayForAReason]

What niche would frost have though? Fire has better cleave and aoe, arcane is supposed to be st... Imo forst needs an entire overhaul at this point

I honestly feel like Frost is superior to Fire on 2 target fights. Fire doesn't really shine much until there is more than 2 targets for Ignite to jump to.. That's when you see insane Ignite damage. Just my opinion.

[Sithalos]

Play what you like. The Fire bandwagon won't last forever.

[Amsden]

Play what you like. The Fire bandwagon won't last forever.

Ohh the forums will be fun once the fire nerf comes in and after people have invested so much AP into fire. Even though I'm most likely going to stay with frost I've been banking my AP the last few days waiting for a tuning pass. You never know Blizzard might go full derp and nerf frost...

[Deleted]

Ohh the forums will be fun once the fire nerf comes in and after people have invested so much AP into fire. Even though I'm most likely going to stay with frost I've been banking my AP the last few days waiting for a tuning pass. You never know Blizzard might go full derp and nerf frost...

Don't encourage them.

[Deleted]

I'm kinda in the same boat. What made me go Arcane instead is how it feels like a build-a-mage spec since all the secondary stats are pretty close to each other in value wise. Frost is better for relax game play and single target/cleave sustain, but Arcane in general is just better (burst, aoe, overall dps) atm but that can change in the first balance patch. Only reason I didn't want to play frost is that I already have a shadow priest that stacks just haste and crit.

[Deleted]

Ohh the forums will be fun once the fire nerf comes in and after people have invested so much AP into fire. Even though I'm most likely going to stay with frost I've been banking my AP the last few days waiting for a tuning pass. You never know Blizzard might go full derp and nerf frost...

They explicitly said that due to the investment of AP, they will be reluctant to mess with the hierarchy of specs. You can safely bet that fire will remain top dog for now.