[Arcane] Got the ilvl and gear, but the dps..

[Manzazuu]

Hello everyone.

I have this mage which I have been playing as frost since I came back after a long long break of the game.

Frost got on my nerves and after realizing that most of my gear was mastery/haste or mastery/hit, and reaching the mark of ilvl 568 (yet to level), I thought it was a good time to try arcane.

So I used askmrrobot and used the feature of "best in bags". As you can see in my armory (oops, sorry, cant post my armory link here), my gear type should be good enough to be doing a decent job as an arcane mage.

My rotation is LB (single target bosses - last 4 bosses in SoO were the ones I tested), Arcane Blast x 4, Arcane Missles if procs, Arcane Barrage to drop the stacks, rinse and repeat.

I am using the burst macro (arcane power, alter time, mana gem, arcane missles) and I often miss the T16 - 4 proc (I need some kind of addon, as those tiny little buff icons I can barely see) and I have issues with Rune of Power. I tried ice floes to place the runes as I run, but even when I am standing my dps is crap (im doing around 189k, yeah) so theres something more wrong. Even on target dummies, standing on a Rune of Power, my dps is ultra mediocre compared to other arcane mages with lower ilvls.

Since the game is down, I wont be able to change my gems (those gems you see on my armory now are set for frost, as I was so horrible last night that my guild asked me to switch back) but I am using askmrrobot for gems, reforge and enchants.

ANY help will be most appreciated.

Thank you.

[Txiv]

Sounds like you need to weave better with missiles. If you have 2 and 4 set bonus you should get to 3 or 4 blasts ( 3 if you have 2 arcane missle procs ) and then missle, blast, missle, blast. Keep doing this while refreshing your bomb to fish for missile procs. If you start to dip in mana to low you can misslex2, blast and barrage to reset rotation.

Also try frost armor on pure single target.

Lastly during cooldowns you burn mana very quickly and it can easily get away from you. Be very careful during arcane power you don't go below 85% mana

[FayrenPickpocket]

I would recommend Weak Auras for tracking buffs, trinket procs, misc procs. It's really helpful and pretty easy to use.

I'm going to presume that you have the legendary cloak and meta (which increases your dps by 10-15%).

For your burst macro, I'd recommend 1) Glyphed Mana Gem 2) Gylphed Arcane Power 3) Alter Time 4) Mirror Images. You would use your macro when you have 2 stacks of Arcane Missiles and 4 stacks of Arcane Charge, and when you have trinket procs/timewarp.

What a lot of newer arcane mages don't realize is that it's okay to stay at 4 stacks of Arcane Charge as long as you don't go under 80% mana. Usually you can get 4 stacks, use your missile procs, refresh your bomb, use arcane blast 2 more times, use more arcane missiles, arcane blast again, and then drop the stacks, all above 80% mana.

Just because you're at 4, doesn't mean you have to drop it. That's when we do our most damage.

[Manzazuu]

Hi man, thanks for taking your time to give me a hand.

Yes, I have the 4 set bonus, but I already realized that im going to need an addon to warn me about those procs. I simply cant see them on my screen with the default UI.

So, if I understood, I should be casting arcane blast till 4 stacks, fish arcane missles for the T16 procs, use arcane blast to burn procs while trying to fish for more arcane missles to get even more procs and keep doing crazy 4x stack damage until I reach like, 80%, when im going to cast arcane barrage and restart to make my mana regen, all that while under the rune of power?

I see that not using my procs correctly, and my uber stupidity towards the Rune of Power are screwing my dps.

PS: Thanks for the macro, cant wait to implement it.

PS2: Blazing Speed or Ice Floes?

[Txiv]

Icy floes , macro it with rune for placing while you move. You can probably get away with double blink on most fights, blazing is nice but not necessary

[Manzazuu]

Im using glyph of evocation, glyph of arcane power and glyph of mana gem. Is this ok?

[Txiv]

Evo isn't necessary. Double blink or extended AE range are probably more usefull

[Skyefire]

So, if I understood, I should be casting arcane blast till 4 stacks, fish arcane missles for the T16 procs, use arcane blast to burn procs while trying to fish for more arcane missles to get even more procs and keep doing crazy 4x stack damage until I reach like, 80%, when im going to cast arcane barrage and restart to make my mana regen, all that while under the rune of power?

I see that not using my procs correctly, and my uber stupidity towards the Rune of Power are screwing my dps.

PS: Thanks for the macro, cant wait to implement it.

PS2: Blazing Speed or Ice Floes?

I wouldn't recommend burning til 80% mana - that's a little too low. I'd say try not to go below 90% mana.

Re: blazing speed/ice floes, i'd say it's personal preference but Ice Floes is just really really good for pre-placing your rune when you have to move. GL.

It's also important to snapshot your bomb with trinket procs as Arcane. Try the Affdots mage module, might help you out

[Shangalar]

In response to the macro suggestion - you can't use Mirror Image in the macro because it costs a global cooldown which is at best 1 second of Alter Time wasted. Use Mirror Image individually before the pull and before the burst macro throughout the rest of the fight.

The macro is as follows:
1. Any profession buff (like Lifeblood)
2. Arcane Power
3. Mana Gem (or Brilliant or Loose or whatever you use, the glyph of loose mana isn't mandatory, it's a thing of playstyle)
4. Alter Time (snapshots the buffs and mana)
5. Arcane Missiles (so you immediatelly start casting and don't waste a single milisecond and especially not a full gcd)

With high enough haste levels or during time warp you can fit different combos in the alter time:
1. Missiles, missiles, blast, blast, barrage, refresh bomb
2. Missiles, blast, missiles, blast, barrage, bomb
3. Missiles, blast, blast, missiles, barrage
Etc.

My bomb is typically ready for refreshing at the end of alter time, so I included it because of that.

Another thing that can mess up your dps is Expanded Mind (PBoI proc) activating too late and ruining your day. If it procs during alter time, you have to make an educated guess based on other procs and what's going on in the fight to see if you should cancel alter time to benefit from Expanded Mind. It is situational and you learn it by practice. Sometimes you will completely delay your alter time because of that proc, but it also depends on other things like if you will have to move or stop dps for any reason in the next 15-30 seconds. It's not an exact science.

[LocNess]

It's also important to snapshot your bomb with trinket procs as Arcane. Try the Affdots mage module, might help you out

IIRC it was found out that snapshotting Single Target is not worth it, however it still is multi-dotting on fights like Protectors if you use NT.

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