Honest Opinions on Which Spec for ToS

[Uglyduck]

Hello fellow mages, or melee classes who mistakenly stumbled into the wrong bar,

I've recently returned to the game after about a 2.5 month break. I progressed through Mythic EN early in the expansion, but have not touched Mythic NH thus far. I am excited for the upcoming patch with ToS, but am completely torn between which spec to play. I am playing frost, currently, but know it will be taking a significant hit when ToS is released. I know fire is getting a buff, but am convinced it won't be enough, and I have not touched arcane until late last night.

I know everyone's suggestion is "play what you enjoy the most," but what I (personally) enjoy the most is doing well in raids. With that being said, can we have a detailed discussion on what the best spec is playing out to be. My guess is arcane? But I haven't done too much digging/testing with patch notes/PTR.

Any information would be greatly appreciated!

[nukie]

We dont know enough because they still havent rolled out any real fixes to PTR but from what we know:

Frost will still be awesome. The chicken littles are doing their best to over blow the TV nerf, but unless you are a double ice lance theorycrafter, you probably wont feel it. In reality land where the rest of us live, it will be a small nerf. And for the 50th percentile player and the beginner, the change might actually result in more TV uptime. With what we know, frost will drop from top3/borderline OP to upper middle of the pack, middle of the pack at worst. Frost will be solid.

Fire will be good, probably. If they ever roll out those promised changes. Will probably be better then Arcane which they have mentioned even less. TBD if "good" means a threat to the middle of the pack specs or a threat to the top dogs.

Based on what we know, we cant say arcane improvements are coming, but i also dont think Arcane needs it as bad as Fire. Probably the status quo for Arcane, which means meh at best, unless in the hands of a skilled player.


Id say stick with Frost, its your best bet based on an educated guess of what we know.

I'm a stubborn fire mage that will probably not be raiding at the mythic level, and so ill be riding fire out for better or worse.

[Deleted]

Right now, for Arcane, it seems like it will benefit the most from the Soul of the Archmage for single target, but further accentuates how required the Kilt Legendary is.

However, for the other legendaries, it seems Fire and Frost are both going to benefit greatly from them for single target, while the Arcane one will take Arcane AoE to new unheard of heights.

Overall, Frost still seems to be best. I would still not choose anything definitive yet though.

[Schmeebs]

the answer is not fire.

[MV Kaa]

Frost or arcane. No one will know for sure until after the first week of heroic and they do balance patch.

[The Oblivion]

its probably going to be frost, but I am keeping arcane in my back pocket as a close 2nd.

[Deleted]

If you were playing as Frost keep playing it. It may tak too long before you drop bis legendaries for other specs. Moreover, Frost is good pick for ToS as there is a lot st/cleave fights. However, if you don't like the spec, just roll with Arcane/Fire they will be stronger in ToS than they were in NH.

[gushDH]

It's just insane that fire was one of the top specs and is now most likely again the worst. I remember blizzard specifically saying that if a spec is at the top, they will nerf it very little so it stays quite high but also gets closer to other specs, so players won't have to respec because it got nerfed. Damn blizzard.

[Nitros14]

Probably frost, but outside chance the tuning pass in a few weeks launches arcane or fire ahead.

But with many people having all the legendaries of one spec and moving into another and concordance on all three there's the opportunity to change spec based on encounter for the first time this expansion.

[trm90]

All 3 specs work in progression, I would say Fire/Frost are slightly better at target swapping and Arcane is sturdier thanks to GInvis. I plan to stick with Arcane unless something goes horribly wrong but I would literally kill to use anything except RoP for the raid, having to plan ahead for 10 second turreting becomes such a headache.

[Uglyduck]

Frost is what I was thinking of sticking with, I actually really like the play style and aesthetics of it. Since I took a 2.5 month break, I only have 4 legendaries (2 utilities, the belt, and boots), so my numbers are super low without the bracers/warp ring. Maybe once I get those I'll enjoy it even more? I think I'm due for another legendary this week, hopefully, so that could be really nice.

[Urstruly]

Right now it looks like we may be going Frost/Fire for progression. Not sure which fights people are saying we're going fire for but that's what I've been told by mages who are much better then myself.

[kheath812]

the meteor legendary for fire seem to be pretty insane in its current form after watching some streams. doing upwards of 20% of the mages damage on bosses. it's definitely going to get nerfed. if it doesnt, fire will definitely be a contender if you have that. (yawn, another required legendary)

[SFBayGamer]

the meteor legendary for fire seem to be pretty insane in its current form after watching some streams. doing upwards of 20% of the mages damage on bosses. it's definitely going to get nerfed. if it doesnt, fire will definitely be a contender if you have that. (yawn, another required legendary)

This would bring its ST dps more in line Frost/Arcane I would imagine as even if meteor if 20% of your DPS:
20% Meteor dmg minus normal casted Meteor dmg (assume around 4-5%) minus the current best 2nd ST legendary (Belt) at roughly 6% would only NET a mere 10-11% ST DPS from where we are now.

Not sure how insane 10-11% ST DPS increase is when Fire was behind 18-20%. But yah, absolutely required legendary, I will agree with that.

The spec balance around legendaries seems misguided I will agree.

I think if you are anything but Mythic Progression, any of the 3 specs are absolutely fine so pick a theme/concept you like the best.

[Aktec]

If you not arcane for any fight with aoe your gonna be doing it wrong, the new shoulders are looking insane. Haven't looked at the tos fights yet but from what people are saying its mostly st. I'll probably go with frost and arcane for aoe/m+.

[SFBayGamer]

Okay just looked up the new Fire mage shoulders on the PTR videos and they are doing Meteor dmg@14% not 20% as someone posted so this is a net % ST dmg buff fire in the range of 5%.....hardly "insane", doubt it will be nerfed whatsoever.

And if you have Shoulders+Bracer, Fire will be still be far behind Frost in ST. But again though, as long as you arent Mythic Progression any spec will work. Just wanted to clear up the fake news tidbit.

[Uglyduck]

Okay just looked up the new Fire mage shoulders on the PTR videos and they are doing Meteor dmg@14% not 20% as someone posted so this is a net % ST dmg buff fire in the range of 5%.....hardly "insane", doubt it will be nerfed whatsoever.

And if you have Shoulders+Bracer, Fire will be still be far behind Frost in ST. But again though, as long as you arent Mythic Progression any spec will work. Just wanted to clear up the fake news tidbit.

It's definitely been settled that I won't be going fire, played it at the start of the xpac (like everyone else), and honestly hated every second of it. Seemed super 1-trick-pony esque. I have a feeling once we are full T20 geared arcane will be superior to frost, due to arcane typically scaling very well with endgame gear. Frost is still just the most fun to me. I don't have concordance for any weapons yet, so I think I'll just keep pumping AP into frost, hope for some BIS legendaries (ring/bracers), then switch to arcane loot spec once I get there... If I ever get there...

[MV Kaa]

If you not arcane for any fight with aoe your gonna be doing it wrong, the new shoulders are looking insane. Haven't looked at the tos fights yet but from what people are saying its mostly st. I'll probably go with frost and arcane for aoe/m+.

And this is why you should just keep your opinions to yourself. OP ask a question and all you give him is opinions. Do some research, run some sims, actually look at the fights instead of just going off rumors.

[Aktec]

And this is why you should just keep your opinions to yourself. OP ask a question and all you give him is opinions. Do some research, run some sims, actually look at the fights instead of just going off rumors.

I mean opinion in literally in the title of the thread...

[MV Kaa]

I mean opinion in literally in the title of the thread...

"detailed discussion on what the best spec is playing out to be"