Arcane Mage PvE Guide

[Tezra]

A few other questions for you fellow arcane mages!

If I get 2 AM procs the first 2 casts (1 from bomb 1 from arcane blast) is it best to use 1 missiles since I got 2 very early on? Also, when is it best to refresh LB as arcane? 2.5 seconds or less, never let fully expire? my damage feels a bit light atm, heres my armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...ssmyn/advanced

Granted I'm quite rusty since I took a break from WoW and recently came back, so I'm looking to improve my dps. I also find it extremely frustrating using alter time with trinkets, do most of you just say screw it, and pop it on cd with x2 missiles @ 4 stacks? I'm also still in the process of testing glyph of arcane power and not using the glyph, it feels like mana is pretty rough when I use it, I dip to 75-80%. So i've been doing abx3->missile proc(s) -> barrage since abx4 will make me dip too low.

Any helpful tips/advice for these addressed concerns would be much appreciated!

[Deleted]

As for LB refreshing, just do it whenever you have an opportunity and you're sure you will get the explosion so somwhere less than 2 seconds remaining. About trinkets with AT just nevermind it, if you have 4 charge and 2 missiles just pop your cds regardless on pull you will most likely atleast have some proccs up and it's not worth waiting tbh. I'm using glyphed AP but mainly beacuse I'm lazy and on some fights it's pretty awesome like Jikun with food buff and lust + first jin'rok puddle or for the major burn in last phase of horridon (our phase last only like 40-50 seconds so I can't fit 2 APs there anyways). On the other hand on some fights you probably want to unglyph it like tortos where you have alot of movement & shit.

Only use AM pre 4 stack if you're at 3 stacks with 2 AM. And yea if you're mana is dipping a bit you should clear at 3 stacks (burn your missile procs first ofc) or use a gem to recover.

[Deleted]

Frost armor is pointless, check top mages, everyone of them using Mage Armor.

ToT has more encounters with multi dot then single target, so NT haste breakpoint is far superior then LB. So if I were you I would go for 8086 haste or 5512. Keep in mind that you have legendary meta gem (+30%) haste so its like heroism/Bl, then go for breakpoints which I mentioned above.

LB is just as important as NT as far as breakpoints go, especially as you can go fo 9522 (using FArmor) and get an extra tick on either one. If you really want to push it, can go to 9762 Haste for an extra tick on NT w/o Frost Armor and then go Mage Armor in Multi-DoT situations (Council HC, Dark Animus mainly) and go Frost Armor/LB in Single Target.

Yes, at high iLvl Frost Armor is pointless, lower iLvl it's a bit different.

[Tezra]

As for LB refreshing, just do it whenever you have an opportunity and you're sure you will get the explosion so somwhere less than 2 seconds remaining. About trinkets with AT just nevermind it, if you have 4 charge and 2 missiles just pop your cds regardless on pull you will most likely atleast have some proccs up and it's not worth waiting tbh. I'm using glyphed AP but mainly beacuse I'm lazy and on some fights it's pretty awesome like Jikun with food buff and lust + first jin'rok puddle or for the major burn in last phase of horridon (our phase last only like 40-50 seconds so I can't fit 2 APs there anyways). On the other hand on some fights you probably want to unglyph it like tortos where you have alot of movement & shit.

Only use AM pre 4 stack if you're at 3 stacks with 2 AM. And yea if you're mana is dipping a bit you should clear at 3 stacks (burn your missile procs first ofc) or use a gem to recover.

Great! Thanks a lot. Also, in terms of mana % whats the "rule of thumb percent"? You dont want to dip below...85% give or take?

[Shangalar]

Get the Arcanometer addon, I've been using it all expansion and I love it. When your mana drops below its visible part, it's time to take it easy. It shows only a part of your total mana just for that reason. Also amazing for tracking bombs and charges.

[shady1989]

Can anyone tell me what are the haste breakpoints now for arcane for nether tempest and livingbomb because i can not find them

[Deleted]

Use this table:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...owsperpage=250

[Deleted]

Hey guys, want to play arcane properly the next weeks. I have 2 questions:

Is 2 mastery > 2 haste > Int > crit the best option with rune or could be 2 haste > 2 mastery > int > crit equivalent? Cause I only tested arcane once so far with full haste and it was okay I think.

What is the best option in heavy movement situations - like Lei Shen p3? Spamming Fireblast on CD and?

Thanks in advance and thanks to Shangalar for his ToT boss tipps & tricks for arcane : )

[Shangalar]

I just won't talk to you at all, your item level is 550

Basically you can do whatever you want with your ridiculous gear. You could also consider boosting me instead of playing Arcane

Anyway, if you go Rune of Mastery then you shouldn't take huge amounts of haste, somewhere around 10-11k is enough to get the breakpoints with the legendary meta gem and then everything else into mastery. If you want Hastevocation then go for as much Haste as possible and balance mastery and crit.

[mrgreenthump]

Hey guys, want to play arcane properly the next weeks. I have 2 questions:

Is 2 mastery > 2 haste > Int > crit the best option with rune or could be 2 haste > 2 mastery > int > crit equivalent? Cause I only tested arcane once so far with full haste and it was okay I think.

What is the best option in heavy movement situations - like Lei Shen p3? Spamming Fireblast on CD and?

Thanks in advance and thanks to Shangalar for his ToT boss tipps & tricks for arcane : )

Now, I don't have logs to prove this(hidden, don't know for the life of me why, but that ain't up to me), but as Arcane goes, going for high haste ain't going to nerf your dps, until you AoE, then mastery will just take the ball. And going for full mastery ain't that much different from going full haste. So what I at least do currently, Is I go for the Bomb haste caps, 9522 with LB and Frost armor, and 9762 with NT and mage armor. Given my gear is still VERY crit heavy, around 9k crit with full haste/mastery reforges.

But hey this is just how I go currently. And its every evolving really as I go. For heavy AoE I would just go straight up mastery and maybe crit if 1.5 haste is reached by +30% haste. But have to say am no expert on current Arcane. Have played it in 2 raids whole tier. So no real feel for it.

As for Lei shen p3, Arcane on it, is just ye. Unless you will spec IW and just "go with the wind", which is sort of possible even with heroic, I wouldn't go arcane on lei shen. Depends really how long your P3 is. Few tricks can be made to make RoP work, but as for the wind timing, RoP really aint good on it..

[Deleted]

Is I go for the Bomb haste caps, 9522 with LB and Frost armor, and 9762 with NT and mage armor.

This is what I'm doing right now - again fairly poorly optimised gear as I sat out for nearly a month to try and get a Mage trial geared and then extending lockouts on Lei Shen.

Basically what I do is reforge solidly for the 9762 breakpoint and change Armors and Bombs depending on fight. If there's multiple targets but little AoE (Megaera for example, unless you're on adds) I use LB/Frost Armor and just multi-dot anyway, but if there's cleaving or more AoE-orientated fights (Council, for example) I go Mage Armor and NT.
My results thus far are far from stellar, but yeah.

Personally, I argue that Arcane on Lei Shen 25 works just fine if you go 9762 and Mage Armor w/ NT. I've (up until now) been trying LB w/ Frost Armor but thing is with more Mastery you can make up for the bomb explosion damage in P2 and NT allows for more cleaving options in P1/P3 if your group gets adds by mistake. LB is a DPS increase if your group plays the fight perfectly, though. Just depends.

Feel free to poke through our logs from last night; the only fights I'd straight up ignore are Jin'rokh and Tortos. Jin'rokh because it's been over 2 months almost since I did it last and so fucked up a lot, Tortos because Arcane on Tortos is utter shit if you play RoP and aren't on bats. Oh, and just note that on Ji-Kun I wasn't taking the buff, also.

http://worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-oz...ih1/dashboard/
Pretty sure they're public at the moment, give me a shout if not. Armory (to check my gear) is in my signature

[Deleted]

What is the best option in heavy movement situations - like Lei Shen p3? Spamming Fireblast on CD and?

For Lei shen I'm going with "go with the wind and fuck of rune"
Edit: Looks like a good way to do it http://worldoflogs.com/rankings/play...H/Arcane_Mage/

I play mastery-arcane since we killed Ra-den. (three weeks ago or so~) The tot bosses except durumu and dark animus are perfect for arcane.

(armory: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...%A1gome/simple )
( Logs: http://worldoflogs.com/guilds/7733 )

[Deleted]

Thank you for your feedback. I will try Arcane with rune and mastery next week. For heavy movement situations I´ll always try to use Arcane Explosion, AM (if I have procs), Fireblast, AB and Barrage without rune buff and try to stay around 80 - 85% mana

I will have 11373 haste next ID even with a full mastery build (got the haste/mastery robe from Ra-den last night, but don´t have points for upgrade this ID), but according to your statements it seems to be okay, even past 10k haste.

@ Shangalar

Believe it or not, I won 11 heroic tf and 6 heroic items via bonus roll. TF only the laste 6 weeks. My fellow guildies just want me for "Rent a Pete". I log on their accounts to bonus roll after a boss kill ^^

[Deleted]

I would recommend using IW on Lei shen quite frankly, the mana regen is almost the same and it's still a 6 % bonus dmg when not on CD and in last phase I don't think you will spend much time in your rune at all.

[Boxedwaffle]

Hey, Pete. I've been playing arcane on a few fights lately with full haste. I've only played RoP once, and it was on Raden, but I seemed to get pretty competitive results with heavy haste gear and mage armor - despite having pretty poor mana management. I'm going to try playing arcane for more fights over the next week and post my results. For the most part, I'll be invo instead of RoP.

[Deleted]

This would require cata style of play? Burn/conserve and Invocation/Mana gem on cd with IW?

Hey boxed, thats good. I will try mastery rop (hope to get in for a few bosses) and we share experiences, if you want.

[Boxedwaffle]

This would require cata style of play? Burn/conserve and Invocation/Mana gem on cd with IW?

Hey boxed, thats good. I will try mastery rop (hope to get in for a few bosses) and we share experiences, if yoou want.

For the most part. Depending on what you're trying to do, you've gotta keep yourself at high mana to make the best of your mastery. I'll be sure to keep you posted. I know that I'll be RoP on jinrokh, qon, and raden. Will probably go invo for the rest. Although, if you're allowed to turret, RoP comes out on top.

[Grackin]

Thank you for your feedback. I will try Arcane with rune and mastery next week. For heavy movement situations I´ll always try to use Arcane Explosion, AM (if I have procs), Fireblast, AB and Barrage without rune buff and try to stay around 80 - 85% mana

I will have 11373 haste next ID even with a full mastery build (got the haste/mastery robe from Ra-den last night, but don´t have points for upgrade this ID), but according to your statements it seems to be okay, even past 10k haste.

You're at that awesome gear level where you should be pulling for that 37.52% haste (with mage armor) which is a breakpoint for LB and NT. You could go to 37.73% for another NT breakpoint during meta/lust. Having your haste over 10k is awesome because it increases your quality of life greatly by lowering cast times of AB and ROP which is actually a big deal if you are attempting to play ROP arcane in a heroic setting.

You might just have to play with it, but I've been playing arcane for a couple months now and am really set on that 37.73% because of how well it performs during high movement fights. A lot of people in this thread aren't raiding heroics, are just theorycrafting, or are spewing numbers for people at lower gear levels. Arcane is very much about the feel and finding what flows for you.

[shady1989]

Hi guys im strugling to do damage on Ji kun 25hc i have to fly and collect the buff but nomatter how hard i try i just cant do descent amount of damage! I could use some advice!
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...nerfire/simple

[Shangalar]

All I can say is welcome to the world of Arcane on Ji'Kun. This is the only fight in which I would really really suggest that you respec into anything else, using Arcane gear/gems/reforges. I killed it a bunch of times on normal and struggled all the time. I can't even give you any proper advice except "do your best to save cooldowns for when you SUCCESSFULLY take the buff, because a bunch of time I fail and waste my feathers for nothing".

Good luck from Shangalar and the rest of the Arcane community