Arcane Mage PvE Guide

[Eihwaz]

Arcane AoE is so low and complex there's really no wrong way to AoE like Aquamonkey said (except blizzard xD)

I usually dont even bother on trashs, I just NT 2/3 mobs, get to 6 stacks and AE like a madman . (i'm haste, so ABarr isnt a viable option)

Now, on boss, that's different (Windlord comes in mind). I use glyphed LB then single target the adds down.

[Soulstrike]

Arcane AoE is so low and complex there's really no wrong way to AoE like Aquamonkey said (except blizzard xD)

I usually dont even bother on trashs, I just NT 2/3 mobs, get to 6 stacks and AE like a madman . (i'm haste, so ABarr isnt a viable option)

Now, on boss, that's different (Windlord comes in mind). I use glyphed LB then single target the adds down.

complex?? hmm i guess its not 1 button spam to maximize dps

our aoe dps is great imo (not as good as surv hunter though) but its up there its not the worst

most of trash i use LB(if i have it that is most of time not really) engineering frag belt (instant 80k damage to all target) flamestrike and spam AE

i dunno why flamestrike is not used since its a aoe dot damage u can pretty much cast it once then spam AE afterwards

[Eihwaz]

complex?? hmm i guess its not 1 button spam to maximize dps

our aoe dps is great imo (not as good as surv hunter though) but its up there its not the worst

most of trash i use LB(if i have it that is most of time not really) engineering frag belt (instant 80k damage to all target) flamestrike and spam AE

i dunno why flamestrike is not used since its a aoe dot damage u can pretty much cast it once then spam AE afterwards

I said complex because theres lots of way to aoe has arcane and none of them really stand out. Some use NT on 3 target, some NT every thing, some use Flamestrike some don't, some use glyphed LB..

Meanwhile on priest, spam mind sear and doubles ur dps.

[Mana]

From the PTR patch notes

"Invocation now removes Evocation's cooldown, and reduces its channeling time and duration by 50%. A completed Evocation now grants 15% increased damage for 1 minute after an Evocation is completed, instead of 25% increased damage for 40 seconds".

"For Arcane Mages, Evocation now restores 40% (was 60%) of total mana over 6 seconds, and consumes all Arcane Charges. For each Arcane Charge consumed, the total amount of mana regenerated is increased by 10%, up to a maximum of 80% over 6 seconds. Evocation remains the same for Fire and Frost".

Do we disregard the first quote "reduces its channeling time and duration by 50%" or Evocation now restores 40% (was 60%) of total mana over 6 seconds.
It is hard keeping up with this and confusing if anyone could clear this up for me I would appreciate it. I am trying to see what my options and play style are for 5.2.

Thanks.

[Serene]

Disregard neither.

Arcane changes Evocation, not how the Evocation channel behaves when you take Invocation.

Basically, Arcane w/ Invocation will be 3s channel (assuming 0% Haste) which will restore 40% of your maximum mana (assuming 0 stacks) and give you 15% increased damage for 1 minute.

Following on from this, as I haven't seen any serious theorycrafting regarding the new rotation and I'm far too lazy to sift through the drivel of the 5.2 thread;

What's Arcane rotation in 5.2? Are we using Barrage to clear stacks or using Invo to burn lower, similar to current live Invo playstyle? (assuming Invocation is taken. RoP I would guess is Barrage clearing at a certain % to maintain mana).

[spaace]

Arcane

- Arcane Barrage damage is increased by 40% per Arcane Charge, down from 50%.
- Arcane Blast damage is increased by 40% per Arcane Charge, down from 50%. Base damage increased 33%. SP scaling decreased by 11%. Mana cost is increased by 120% per Arcane Charge, down from 150%.
- Arcane Charge is now also consumed by Evocation. Evocation's mana generation is increased by 25% per charge.
- Arcane Missiles base damage reduced by 30% and SP scaling reduced by 10%. Damage is increased by 40% per Arcane Charge, down from 50%.

then quickly

We continue to tweak Arcane numbers, so if you're trying to theorycraft Arcane, you may want to hold on for a bit longer. At the moment, we have restored Arcane Charge back to +50% damage and +150% mana cost but reduced the damage of Arcane Blast (-22.2%), Arcane Missiles (-22.2%) and Arcane Barrage (-13.6%).

Seems they still have no idea what to do...

[Imnick]

Seems like they're testing things in internal builds and making changes based on those results...

[voltaa]

Been a while since I've gotten to stretch my legs in my favorite thread...HI GUYS

But ya as for 5.2, it seems like Arcane is just going to be a whirlwind of buffs and nerfs for the first few weeks and I'm really not liking how things are looking, hopefully after some time they'll realize that our spec/mechanics were really good in 5.1 and we just needed a slight numbers tweak.

[Shangalar]

I should probably start rewriting the guide this week. Gah.

[mrgreenthump]

I should probably start rewriting the guide this week. Gah.

I dont really see a point, as we dont really even know the form arcane is going to hit live in 5.2 yet.

[Shangalar]

Oh we know. They're gonna keep the 4 Charges, we just don't know exactly what gameplay will be optimal and what our damage will be. Just a matter of testing, but based on zomgDPS's experiment it seems that Mastery+ROP is still the best.

[Seohyun]

But, will haste-invocation still be viable? I really can`t get used to playing with RoP so if hast-invo no longer are viable I`ll probably try my luck with Fire RNG again = )

[Shangalar]

Who knows. If zomgDPS acts cool and doesn't get banned again on our forums, he'll probably fill us in on a lot of testing results he keeps doing on the PTR.

[Drooul]

Not being able to max stack 100% mana missiles after evocation seems to have hurt that style's dps a lot

[voltaa]

Who knows. If zomgDPS acts cool and doesn't get banned again on our forums, he'll probably fill us in on a lot of testing results he keeps doing on the PTR.

Not really holding my breath on that one :S is there not anyone else also testing it out?

[Serene]

I've given up on Arcane.

Further nerfs are just disappointing, really. I see almost 0 justification for the nerfs unless Blizzard are doing something we haven't thought of - which I highly doubt.

[Mana]

I've given up on Arcane.

Further nerfs are just disappointing, really. I see almost 0 justification for the nerfs unless Blizzard are doing something we haven't thought of - which I highly doubt.

Arcane Blast's damage has been reduced by 22.2% and mana cost has been increased to 1.66667% of base mana (was 1.5%).
Arcane Missile's damage has been reduced by 22.2%.
Arcane Barrage's damage has been reduced by 13.6%.

I'm with you

[Eihwaz]

Arcane Blast's damage has been reduced by 22.2% and mana cost has been increased to 1.66667% of base mana (was 1.5%).
Arcane Missile's damage has been reduced by 22.2%.
Arcane Barrage's damage has been reduced by 13.6%.

I'm with you

Yeah theres a new one since then, on top on this one .

[-Silenus-]

That being said, they did mention that for any changes we need to take into consideration new gear and scaling. I'm still not quite sure tbh. Ah... how I miss those OP WoTLK pre-Cata patch days. Never mind that I was basically spamming one key. xD

Also, bear in mind that we will have 4 stacks of charges now, meaning we will be casting much more max stack ABarrs. I'm not on the PTR so I can't really test the impact of this though.

[Eihwaz]

That being said, they did mention that for any changes we need to take into consideration new gear and scaling. I'm still not quite sure tbh. Ah... how I miss those OP WoTLK pre-Cata patch days. Never mind that I was basically spamming one key. xD

Also, bear in mind that we will have 4 stacks of charges now, meaning we will be casting much more max stack ABarrs. I'm not on the PTR so I can't really test the impact of this though.

We tested it, extensively, don't worry