Arcane Mage Defense In Arenas

[kogbe]

Hello, I'm here to ask a few questions on Arcane Mage in a PvP setting. On my Arcane mage that is full 730ilvl PvP gear with the 4set bonus and trinket bonus, I go down pretty fast, even managing cooldowns and spellstealing with the glyph to gain back my hp. Other Arcane mages I have seen have been able to take damage for much longer, without having to use any major cooldowns such as Ice Block or Cold Snap. What are some things an Arcane mage could do in order to reduce the damage they take? Thanks for reading my post.

[Shangalar]

There's not actually much you can do. Slow your enemies, freeze them every now and then, use Ice Barrier on cooldown or heal up with Alter Time, polymorph enemies, run away and drink behind a pillar, stuff like that. Arcane mages are easy targets though - not a lot of survival potential, not a lot of defense and can't do damage if locked on. You and your arena partner need to work together to disable enemies and to keep you safe with various tools. PvP isn't simple, especially when playing a spec that has significant limitations in arenas. Practice using all the possible tools at your disposal and it will become a bit better over time.

[kogbe]

There's not actually much you can do. Slow your enemies, freeze them every now and then, use Ice Barrier on cooldown or heal up with Alter Time, polymorph enemies, run away and drink behind a pillar, stuff like that. Arcane mages are easy targets though - not a lot of survival potential, not a lot of defense and can't do damage if locked on. You and your arena partner need to work together to disable enemies and to keep you safe with various tools. PvP isn't simple, especially when playing a spec that has significant limitations in arenas. Practice using all the possible tools at your disposal and it will become a bit better over time.

Alright, thank you for your reply. Would you recommend Ice Barrier/Alter Time over Flameglow?

[Deleted]

Stick with flameglow. Alter time and ice barrier will get purged/dispelled vs competent opposition. Though you can try AT if you think you've enough dispel protection.
Arcane is pretty tanky tbh so I would say it's not your gear that's the issue. What comp do you play? 2s or 3s? Double dps 2s as Arc is a bit of a nightmare unless you run with a rogue or boomkin. Much more forgiving with a good hpal or rdruid.
In 3s you need to be very positionally aware. Blinking behind a pillar when the enemy lands cc on your healer can often save the need to iceblock, for example.
Using yours and your teammates cc defensively too is also huge. If pressure is just too high practise cc chaining one dps, then the other, etc etc.
And practise! The Arcane dream is real, keep it up!

[Edmerlin]

It may be something with your talents. Evanesce instead of iceblock is a MUST in 3s. In 2s only take it if you have a healer. You can use it offensivly with settups- but you seem more concerned with defensive play. I reccomend using it to set up polys. One of the harder things you will see is playing against a melee cleave comp that just trains you.. Like Ebola or some combination of two melees- especially ferals. When they switch to you pretty hard, evanesce poly one of them while spellstealing and using your position to your advantage. Dont forget to use PoM to poly as well. One of the more difficult things about arcane is getting spell locked- since almost everything- including poly- is of the "arcane" school. Fake casting can really help baiting a counterspell or wind shear etc. I suggest running with a holy pal, as BoP and aura mastery can be really beneficial as arcane.