Best 7.2 PVE Spec?

[uchiwaa]

Hey MMO,

question... What is predicted to be the best PVE mage spec for 7.2? I main a shadow priest and am preparing an alt for 7.2 to help gear split raids and am wondering what the best spec will be? I want to know because this is the spec I want to focus on leveling my artifact weapon up for.

Thanks everyone for your time responding to this post, and if there are any other good mage guides out there to help use as a resource moving forward, i would appreciate any insight the community can provide!

-Uchi

[Huanak]

I say Arcane. They should be best single target with controlable busrt.they usually weak on early expansion but scale really well with end game gear.

[Aktec]

We don't really know yet, its gonna depend on the type of fights in ToS and however blizz decide to balance it. For now frost is doing well in Nighthold but blizz have said they don't like the double ice lance mechanic and without that will lose a fair amount of dps, fire is usually good on aoe but lacks some st dmg.

https://www.altered-time.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=1 as well as the mage discord are good places for other guides.

[Deleted]

I assume you mean the best spec for Tomb of Sargeras, which is released some time later. If you mean for farming Nighthold, then who cares?

Even though there isn't much coming in terms of class balance/changes in 7.2, I highly expect a 7.2.5 patch some time before they unlock ToS which will work much like 7.1.5. So I'm afraid there isn't any good guesses right now.

[Deleted]

We don't really know yet, its gonna depend on the type of fights in ToS and however blizz decide to balance it. For now frost is doing well in Nighthold but blizz have said they don't like the double ice lance mechanic and without that will lose a fair amount of dps, fire is usually good on aoe but lacks some st dmg.

https://www.altered-time.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=1 as well as the mage discord are good places for other guides.

the loss from the double ice lance thing is less than you would imagine, its about a 5ish% overall dps loss which is essentially given back through new traits, also frozen touch is apparently underpowered too and will get a buff as long as it doesnt make 100% uptime on IV a possibility, so the dps loss from a potential "winter's chill fix" will be barely noticable and unless arcane or fire gets a massive buff which isnt likely, frost will still be the spec to go to for ST and cleave and fire for aoe.

[Deleted]

the loss from the double ice lance thing is less than you would imagine, its about a 5ish% overall dps loss which is essentially given back through new traits, also frozen touch is apparently underpowered too and will get a buff as long as it doesnt make 100% uptime on IV a possibility, so the dps loss from a potential "winter's chill fix" will be barely noticable and unless arcane or fire gets a massive buff which isnt likely, frost will still be the spec to go to for ST and cleave and fire for aoe.

Or u can go arcane and be good in both situations :d

[stevenho]

Most of ToS is single target. If they don't rebalance, it is going to be frost city.

[Deleted]

i do not understand why people are so friendly with arcane. right now it's a bit low and there is no expected change on 7.2.
Frost is probably a better choice for ST/cleave, while Fire gives high burst on aoe damages and a very good mobility on fights that require a lot of movement.

maybe arcane can scale better with high level of stuff, but it is not something you should consider right now. Maybe later.

[Deleted]

All specs atm seem in a good place where they can be tweaked for ToS. But from experiance frost is stronger on ST, fire on AOE. Fire your really need ledgies bracers and waist for ST and waist and head for AOE although is a battle.

Not seen much on Arcane myself

[Deleted]

Or u can go arcane and be good in both situations :d

except atm, arcane isnt good enough for it to be good in both situations, fire is hands down best for aoe and frost is hands down best for ST and cleave, arcane is this weird mix of jack of all traits, master of none and atm it doesnt look like thats going to change much or at all.

[Obelisk Kai]

Seems the consensus is to maintain Fire AND Frost specs in order to be viable.

Maybe there is something to this 'pure tax' after all.

[stevenho]

You don't need fire or arcane to be viable. Any "aoe DPS checks" in the game are easily met with various comps, making boss damage much more important.

[Obelisk Kai]

You don't need fire or arcane to be viable. Any "aoe DPS checks" in the game are easily met with various comps, making boss damage much more important.

Then without any buffs to Fire, I will be switching to Frost in 7.2. Seems to be the safest option. I can use the legendary targeting system, as imperfect as it is, to try and get another decent frost legendary.

So it seems the real answer to the OP question is Frost.

[Emerald Archer]

Frost will be best for sure, Tomb is so heavily ST stacked, and frost is just too good for that. With other specs how they are atm (Fury/DH/FrostDK) So many other specs can do the little aoe that's needed, and do it much better, so there's no point in trying to do it when it just won't be needed. Be ST king.

[Obelisk Kai]

Frost will be best for sure, Tomb is so heavily ST stacked, and frost is just too good for that. With other specs how they are atm (Fury/DH/FrostDK) So many other specs can do the little aoe that's needed, and do it much better, so there's no point in trying to do it when it just won't be needed. Be ST king.

What galls me is that I was all set to go Frost prior to legion launch but was talked out of it by the buzz on the forums about fire. Then I read Blizzard saying they would never nerf a leading spec to the point of unviability because of the nature of the Artifact system. I felt secure.

I do feel massively let down, with 54 fire traits, 2 Fire Legendaries and 3 generic legendaries. I can start putting together a Frost set from my Nighthold runs quickly enough, and as stated I'll use the targetting system to try and make sure I get the Frost gloves legendary.

Still...this stinks.

[Deleted]

except atm, arcane isnt good enough for it to be good in both situations, fire is hands down best for aoe and frost is hands down best for ST and cleave, arcane is this weird mix of jack of all traits, master of none and atm it doesnt look like thats going to change much or at all.

Jack of all ? traits ? uh. this should be "jack of all trades" actually.
But with artifact weapon maybe this was made on purpose lol

- - - Updated - - -

You don't need fire or arcane to be viable. Any "aoe DPS checks" in the game are easily met with various comps, making boss damage much more important.

for a raid leader, you do not look only at the statistics on what spec is best atm.
Sometimes you need high burst aoe damage to make sure the ST best dps do not have to switch.

Well ok, it is not "satisfying" for any dps to be assignated to the secondary job, but you can take advantage of having fire mages on fights like skorpyron to let other ST dps focus mainly on the boss.

Fire mage utility is still there.

[Emerald Archer]

What galls me is that I was all set to go Frost prior to legion launch but was talked out of it by the buzz on the forums about fire. Then I read Blizzard saying they would never nerf a leading spec to the point of unviability because of the nature of the Artifact system. I felt secure.

I do feel massively let down, with 54 fire traits, 2 Fire Legendaries and 3 generic legendaries. I can start putting together a Frost set from my Nighthold runs quickly enough, and as stated I'll use the targetting system to try and make sure I get the Frost gloves legendary.

Still...this stinks.

It does suck, 100%. Blizz went back on what they said with one spec staying top. And it makes it much harder to swap. Luckily 7.2 will make a swap easy for the first few weeks with ap and how it's working.

- - - Updated - - -

for a raid leader, you do not look only at the statistics on what spec is best atm.
Sometimes you need high burst aoe damage to make sure the ST best dps do not have to switch.

Well ok, it is not "satisfying" for any dps to be assignated to the secondary job, but you can take advantage of having fire mages on fights like skorpyron to let other ST dps focus mainly on the boss.

Fire mage utility is still there.

No, it isn't. There's like 8 other specs, which will target swap/do adds much better than Fire mages, why bring a fire mage for that, instead get a frost mage for the high ST, and have someone with better aoe swap. Yes fire mages do good with AoE on Skorp, but how many fights are like Skorp? And how many will be that way in Tomb? None.

He's asking for tomb, clearly if it's nearly all ST, you should be the best spec for ST.

[Deleted]

except atm, arcane isnt good enough for it to be good in both situations, fire is hands down best for aoe and frost is hands down best for ST and cleave, arcane is this weird mix of jack of all traits, master of none and atm it doesnt look like thats going to change much or at all.

I have to disagree. Arc is better for AoE even than Fire if there is less than 6/7+ targets that u can't hit all the time. Fire needs a ramp up for his aoe, Arcane does not. Moreover, arcane is much better on aoe where the targets are spread.
Arcane is also really good for ST fights. It is not frost level, but good arc mage can easily pull 90-95% of dps done by frost mage

Example? Last week I had a Frost mage from Serenity on raid. He had the same ilvl as me, and he was doing no more than 10% dmg more than me. There were pulls were our dps was much the same.

Ps. I do love Arcane for its versatility, there is no fight where i feel useless. I can focus onn ST, target switching or AoE and do all of those good enough to beat the boss.

[pies1]

Then I read Blizzard saying they would never nerf a leading spec to the point of unviability because of the nature of the Artifact system. I felt secure.

It's been what, 12 years, and people still haven't learned that Blizz are full of shit?

[Obelisk Kai]

It's been what, 12 years, and people still haven't learned that Blizz are full of shit?

Can't fault that, I have only myself to blame to falling for it.