Arcane Mage PvE Guide

[fearist]

Yup two seperate scenarios. seems to happen quite often and im already frustrated with arcane lol.

[Shangalar]

Scenario 1 - Bindings proced, but no Missiles
- if 10-12 or more seconds remaining on Bindings, discharge Barrage and and get back to 4 Charges, use burn combo
- if less than 10-12 seconds remaining on Bindings, use burn combo

Scenario 2 - Missiles, but no Bindings/Toxic Power
- save Missiles, discharge Barrage, get back to 4 Charges
- if at that moment there is still no Bindings proc, you're really unlucky and just do whatever you want, your dps is gonna suck anyway (on a more serious note, use the burn combo or don't, if you have time warp I'd wait one more round, if not I'd just use the burn combo)

[Deleted]

Scenario 1 - Bindings proced, but no Missiles
- if 10-12 or more seconds remaining on Bindings, discharge Barrage and and get back to 4 Charges, use burn combo
- if less than 10-12 seconds remaining on Bindings, use burn combo

Scenario 2 - Missiles, but no Bindings/Toxic Power
- save Missiles, discharge Barrage, get back to 4 Charges
- if at that moment there is still no Bindings proc, you're really unlucky and just do whatever you want, your dps is gonna suck anyway (on a more serious note, use the burn combo or don't, if you have time warp I'd wait one more round, if not I'd just use the burn combo)

But if I get to 4 charges, all trinkets/meta gem are up and there is obviously over 12 seconds left on bindings, surely it is worth it to just AT anyway for the 6 extra seconds of KTT and Meta gem no?

[Erolian]

Is it really optimal to dump and rebuild if your trinkets have proc'd but no missles? From a gut instinct it seems better to AT in this scenario, as you will at least be able to capture your metagem and rppm trinket in alter time even if you don't have any missles.

The only time I could really say its optimal to dump/rebuild would be if you will still have 6 seconds of your procs to snapshot afterwards. Unless you're on mad amounts of haste and things proc late this will basically never be the case

[Shangalar]

But if I get to 4 charges, all trinkets/meta gem are up and there is obviously over 12 seconds left on bindings, surely it is worth it to just AT anyway for the 6 extra seconds of KTT and Meta gem no?

The two Intellect procs are stronger by many magnitudes of power than any meta proc or Jade Spirit so it's a tough question. I could write up 50 different scenarios, depending on how much time you have left on your procs, but those two from my last post are typical and common. This isn't something you have the luxury to think about - a split second decision. Go for it by feeling and you'll probably be right. Remember that there are many situations in which bosses start doing abilities very early in the fight - that means that sometimes you just don't have the time to delay your combo even if you want to (Immerseus, Sha of Pride, Dark Shaman, Malkorok, Spoils). Can't really answer the question accurately

[Deleted]

Hi guys,
i have a few questions for you
I have that mage:
http://eu.battle.net/wow/de/characte...Yifei/advanced

I play Arcane and sec Frost.
Now i have new items for my mage and the main question is, shall i reEQ some of them to optimize her.
Items on board for EQ:
1. T16 nhc Set Head and T16 nhc shoulders
2. BBoY nhc / KTT nhc
3. EQ 4 Set with Swirling Senses or with Furious Flame pants?
4. or leave it like it is and play as i did until now?

and the last question is, if we now progress Thok and then Blackfuse, will it be better to get a fire spec?

thx 4 your answers.

[Deleted]

Hi guys,
i have a few questions for you
I have that mage:
eu.battle.net /wow/de/character/Antonidas/Yifei/advanced

I play Arcane and sec Frost.
Now i have new items for my mage and the main question is, shall i reEQ some of them to optimize her.
Items on board for EQ:
1. T16 nhc Set Head and T16 nhc shoulders
2. BBoY nhc / KTT nhc
3. EQ 4 Set with Swirling Senses or with Furious Flame pants?
4. or leave it like it is and play as i did until now?

and the last question is, if we now progress Thok and then Blackfuse, will it be better to get a fire spec?

thx 4 your answers.

I'm not too knowledgable on arcane for now, but I can reply to the bold part.

If you're doing siegecrafter 10 man, and you're tasked with doing belts, fire really is the only viable option there. On thok, any of the 3 specs fine, though fire does a bit more DPS if you get targetted to kite multiple times, but you can cheese this by not being among the furthest 25% of the group to the boss.

[Amko]

You guys using affdots mage for refreshing LivingB/NetherT?
Been using it with my SP and WL and now I have to play mage, so is it good/bugfree for mages?

[LocNess]

You guys using affdots mage for refreshing LivingB/NetherT?
Been using it with my SP and WL and now I have to play mage, so is it good/bugfree for mages?

Been using it since September, never had an issue with it.

[pkm]

Is invocation arcane less dps than frost and fire?

[Frostjack]

I use Affdots for mage but only see it as a big dps increase addon if Arcane cause our bombs are retarded amounts of damage and love Affdots , and I think invocation arcane isn't stronk cause the fact that evo drains our arcane charges, makes us use huge dumps of mana so mastery is hurt, and you will have to evo alot so less dps time and hard to set up when invo buff is about to fall off and u need to re-invo for buff and also lose all current stacks.

[Deleted]

Arcane spec + Invocation tallent is the worse combination at the moment for Arcane gameplay. Reasons - many, mostly the ones described by Frostjack.

Offtopic - since im bored latetly this actualy gives me an intresting idea. I will refresh my mage a bit. My evil plan is to play with Invocation and totaly reverse the stats prio for my mage. In my dreams [Invocation + (Frost Armor+haste>crit>mastery build)] = (a lots of giggles+supposed fun) I will be like mad lunatic and yelling "BURN, BURN, BURN, MUAHAHHA!". I wonder what the result will be x)

[Deleted]

Hello, I play an A/F Mage on Twisting Nether and I just read about the option of canceling AT should Expanded mind trigger during its duration. I always thought canceling the buff would be the same as ending AT, so this was something new to me.
I also apologize in advance since I am currently on iPad with no access to a computer to help me calculate some things... If numbers are wrong I obviously will appreciate and not take personal offense should someone be kind enough to point it out.

Note. My second trinket is KTT.
My question is - Is it really EVER worthwhile to enter AT during KTT+meta, while still waiting for PBoI to trigger? Considering the number of casts we get in with Tempus Repit, about 50pc of the time we'll have to choose between cancel aura AT (wasting AT if I understand right) and wasting Expanded Mind. In my practice, if I wasn't lucky, I have always waited for PBoI and at least one AM proc to enter AT, or if extremely unlucky 2 missile charges after Expanded Mind ends. Is this wrong?

[Sunblaze]

Arcane spec + Invocation tallent is the worse combination at the moment for Arcane gameplay. Reasons - many, mostly the ones described by Frostjack.

Offtopic - since im bored latetly this actualy gives me an intresting idea. I will refresh my mage a bit. My evil plan is to play with Invocation and totaly reverse the stats prio for my mage. In my dreams [Invocation + (Frost Armor+haste>crit>mastery build)] = (a lots of giggles+supposed fun) I will be like mad lunatic and yelling "BURN, BURN, BURN, MUAHAHHA!". I wonder what the result will be x)

Pls, let us know how that goes

[Shangalar]

Hello, I play an A/F Mage on Twisting Nether and I just read about the option of canceling AT should Expanded mind trigger during its duration. I always thought canceling the buff would be the same as ending AT, so this was something new to me.
I also apologize in advance since I am currently on iPad with no access to a computer to help me calculate some things... If numbers are wrong I obviously will appreciate and not take personal offense should someone be kind enough to point it out.

Note. My second trinket is KTT.
My question is - Is it really EVER worthwhile to enter AT during KTT+meta, while still waiting for PBoI to trigger? Considering the number of casts we get in with Tempus Repit, about 50pc of the time we'll have to choose between cancel aura AT (wasting AT if I understand right) and wasting Expanded Mind. In my practice, if I wasn't lucky, I have always waited for PBoI and at least one AM proc to enter AT, or if extremely unlucky 2 missile charges after Expanded Mind ends. Is this wrong?

Expanded Mind is a lot stronger than reactivating Alter Time. And you gave me an idea. I also always assumed that cancelling AT would be the same as reactivating it, never once did it occur to me that cancelling it would simply... cancel it that's why I was so confused a couple of pages back and just let it slide after that. How stupid of me.

Though, I realized that in the first pull rotation you can actually use 3-4 more Blasts after reaching 4 Charges to either get more Missiles procs or proc PBoI. And the chance of it proccing in those 3-4 extra Blasts is actually very high. The mana gem used in the alter time macro (without the glyph of loose mana) restores you back to 100% for the burn phase.

Blah I feel so stupid about the Alter Time thing now.

- - - Updated - - -

Arcane spec + Invocation tallent is the worse combination at the moment for Arcane gameplay. Reasons - many, mostly the ones described by Frostjack.

Offtopic - since im bored latetly this actualy gives me an intresting idea. I will refresh my mage a bit. My evil plan is to play with Invocation and totaly reverse the stats prio for my mage. In my dreams [Invocation + (Frost Armor+haste>crit>mastery build)] = (a lots of giggles+supposed fun) I will be like mad lunatic and yelling "BURN, BURN, BURN, MUAHAHHA!". I wonder what the result will be x)

We did that back in 5.1 and some people tried it in 5.2. The result was similar damage to Mastery on pure single target fights and far far far inferior damage on anything that ever involves more than one target.

[Deleted]

Ah! Interesting! I will give that a spin once I get home, tomorrow. So far I have been using loose mana glyph not just for the sake of staying high'ish mana but also because it doubled with AT, but I will give unglyphing it a shot.
However, I am also thinking... If I am to use the gem like that, wouldn't glyph of loose mana be just as good, should I use the mana gem on 2-3stacks of AC? That way I can get some extra value if the proc pops up during the gem duration. I have done this before (during tot, since both of my trinkets were rppm) whenever my first two ABs gave me at least one missile charge, but I haven't tried it in SoO because of the threat of PBoI inside AT.

[Shangalar]

Well I like to start the AT macro/burn phase with 100% mana to get the full bonus damage on Missiles, but that's not really doable with the Glyph of Loose Mana, because it needs more time to do its full effect. Of course, in the AT macro, Mana Gem is used *before* AT. This is kind of a grey area where it's a matter of personal choice and style. Sure, the Glyph gives you more mana regen in the long run, but it's how you use it with procs that matters most.

[Deleted]

I see...Well, one method guarantees maximum mastery benefit even on the first missile while the other allows for some extra blasting at max stacks before discharging. Since each has its own asset, it shouldn't make a huge difference I guess.

[Deleted]

We did that back in 5.1 and some people tried it in 5.2. The result was similar damage to Mastery on pure single target fights and far far far inferior damage on anything that ever involves more than one target.

Did messed whole week with it. Frost bomb+Invocation+Frost armor+haste>crit>mastery. With my current gear i went to 1,3 cast time raid buffed, 33% crit, 50% mastery. At first SimC esteminated 40-50k dps less for light movement fights and it was right numbers for Sha, Juggernault and Malkorok. For a multitarget fight... well "far far far inferior" is very simple description of the result.

All tho its pure dmg loss i must add i had one hell of a fun. 1,8 sac Evo, 1.3 sec AB was cool, Frost bomb with 1 second cast, 6second CD - very dynamic rotation, tried several rotations in flex:
1) Pure AB spam and casting missles only at 75%+ mana then burn rest with AB with mastery gear, get to 20% mana cast evo, not nessesary to let it finish unless you have to refresh the buff
2) the other rotation i tried was with 4 set and was more focused on AM fishing with AB, but to be honest resemble the current rotation - since i had more crit with 4p i was casting AM every time i had them up, AB to consum the 2p buff, when i reach 50% mana discharge with Barrage -> Evo, again just to fill mana, was not needed to wait for the cast to end, unless the buff was about to wear out like in 15 seconds

Not impressive at all, maybe with FB/NT there were gona be better results, but somehow i wanted to be specificly with the worse tallent choices like frost bomb and Invocation. Anyway due the fast casts was fun, but not satisfing results so im back to standart FB/NT+MA+master>haste>crit and our good ol' friend RoP

[Shangalar]

Hah well done for trying at least though I must say that I'm quite happy now with over 12k haste from gear in the full mastery build. 573 item level or something like that. The rotation is already dynamic. A few more heroic items and I'll probably hit 13-14k haste and 100% mastery bonus