WoD Arcane Guide *not updated for 6.2*

[Tennis]

May be a stupid question but I had listed my 4 piece BIS with oregorger hands as the off piece.
My mythic mission gave me blackhand helm with haste and mastery warforged. It would be better to use that as my offpiece instead right? We're only 7/10 heroic progression at the moment.


Tier gloves are crit/haste so not ideal for arcane but the crit would be nice for fire.

[Capell]

May be a stupid question but I had listed my 4 piece BIS with oregorger hands as the off piece.
My mythic mission gave me blackhand helm with haste and mastery warforged. It would be better to use that as my offpiece instead right? We're only 7/10 heroic progression at the moment.


Tier gloves are crit/haste so not ideal for arcane but the crit would be nice for fire.

No need to ask! the Ilvl already tell you what to do :>

[Shangalar]

There's bis and then there's the thorny full of compromises road to bis.

Getting the 4-set bonus is crucial. Any other calculations come later. For the time being, this helmet will be your best off-set item, but getting the set is more important.

[Tennis]

I agree but my guild makes us do lists and you are unable to get the Tier piece unless it's one of your 4 listed pieces hence the complication :S.

[Deleted]

I have a question regarding when to use supernova, is it better to;

a) use it at ~95-100% mana and a low (1-3) stack of incanter's flow
or
b) use it at ~70-80% mana and a high (4-5) stack of incanter's flow

I find myself having to make this decision a lot during the opener on some fights.

[Wilderness]

I have a question regarding when to use supernova, is it better to;

a) use it at ~95-100% mana and a low (1-3) stack of incanter's flow
or
b) use it at ~70-80% mana and a high (4-5) stack of incanter's flow

I find myself having to make this decision a lot during the opener on some fights.

Why would you ever be at 70-80% mana unless you are doing a burn? If you are burning, then you should be using SNx2 at the start of that (presumably with your PC) so it can be re-charging while you burn, and if 1 charge of it comes back available there's no reason to use it then, wait until you're back in conserve phase.

If you can time SN with high stacks of IF then great, but I believe Komma showed at some point that its a really small dps gain (<1%, maybe .5%?) to try to maximize that, so it basically wasn't worth the hassle. Save SN for PC when that's coming up, and otherwise use it in your rotation to keep yourself at 4 stacks of AC as much as you can.

[Deleted]

Hi,

Thanks for an awesome guide.

I've got a few questions.

- Do you ever use Arcane Missiles before hitting 4 stacks? Even if you cap at 3 procs of Arcane Missles with 1 charge?
- During burn phase, you end with Evocation. This gives you almost full mana immediately, depending on your mana % before ending the burn phase. Isn't it better to end the burn phase at 65% then and then use Evocation (and then cancel it immediately) than letting it run for another tick?
- On cleave fights, do you dot multiple enemies with Nether Tempest or just one?

[Deleted]

Why would you ever be at 70-80% mana unless you are doing a burn? If you are burning, then you should be using SNx2 at the start of that (presumably with your PC) so it can be re-charging while you burn, and if 1 charge of it comes back available there's no reason to use it then, wait until you're back in conserve phase.

If you can time SN with high stacks of IF then great, but I believe Komma showed at some point that its a really small dps gain (<1%, maybe .5%?) to try to maximize that, so it basically wasn't worth the hassle. Save SN for PC when that's coming up, and otherwise use it in your rotation to keep yourself at 4 stacks of AC as much as you can.

Thank you.

[Wilderness]

Hi,

Thanks for an awesome guide.

I've got a few questions.

- Do you ever use Arcane Missiles before hitting 4 stacks? Even if you cap at 3 procs of Arcane Missles with 1 charge?
- During burn phase, you end with Evocation. This gives you almost full mana immediately, depending on your mana % before ending the burn phase. Isn't it better to end the burn phase at 65% then and then use Evocation (and then cancel it immediately) than letting it run for another tick?
- On cleave fights, do you dot multiple enemies with Nether Tempest or just one?

- Yes, if you cap at 3 AM while building charges then use 1.
- Sims have shown that 50% was the ideal percentage to burn to, but also that being a little higher or lower isn't much of a difference. 65% seems a little high, but I wouldn't worry too much about if you were 55%, 60%, 45%, etc.
- NT can only be on 1 target at a time, so you put it on the enemy that will live through its full duration

[Deleted]

Hello there mates , quick question , just got my 4p set , and i'm questioning the lvl 100 talent . Now that i have 4p and i'll use the best of Arcane Missiles , should i go for "Overpowered " ? or Prismatic Crystal ? .

[Deleted]

Burn phase is unclear to me.

- When you use evocation, do you make it tick once or twice?
- With glyphed AP, do you ONlY have a burn phase every 3 minutes, or do you have a burn phase every 1.5 minutes (everytime prismatic crystal is up and evocation basically).

I am asking this because if you are only doing a burst phase every 3 minutes, you are losing out on the 2p bonus from evocation.

[nickseng]

Burn phase is unclear to me.

- When you use evocation, do you make it tick once or twice?
- With glyphed AP, do you ONlY have a burn phase every 3 minutes, or do you have a burn phase every 1.5 minutes (everytime prismatic crystal is up and evocation basically).

I am asking this because if you are only doing a burst phase every 3 minutes, you are losing out on the 2p bonus from evocation.

1. You make it tick once (you automatically get one as soon as you begin to channel, then wait for another tick)
2. Your burn phase is tied to Evo, not Arcane power or Crystal.

[BreaKerNZ]

Trinket advice, is Shards of nothing Mythic warforged better then DUT Heroic? I am thinking shards but i am not 100% sure.

[Orwell7]

Hello!

I have a complicated question.
Sometimes my burn phase is getting really long (swimming in AM procs), thus next time Arcane Power is coming off cooldown, Evocation still has 40-50 seconds left.

What is the optimal strategy here? Should I use "conserve" mana management, and clear stacks under Arcane Power, or just delay for 10-20 seconds?

[Deleted]

@BreaKerNZ
Considering both trinkets are somewhat the same - static int and haste and that both trinkets you describe have 11 item levels difference and that you can control when to use SoN effect, then mythic warforged SoN will be better than DUT

@Orwell7
Dont overextend the burn phase. It shouldn't be longer than 30 seconds. Yes burning to 50% is what is said to be optimal, but if it screw up your cooldown rotation it doesnt worth it. You can burn to 60-65%. It is not so deadly to not burn to 50%. It is not deadly to burn under 50% either. It is just optimal. If RNGEsus have mercy upon you so be it, but don't push it, because as you see you are forced to delay cooldowns or not use them properly and that is not optimal.


Just my cents

[ultramini]

@BreaKerNZ
Considering both trinkets are somewhat the same - static int and haste and that both trinkets you describe have 11 item levels difference and that you can control when to use SoN effect, then mythic warforged SoN will be better than DUT

@Orwell7
Dont overextend the burn phase. It shouldn't be longer than 30 seconds. Yes burning to 50% is what is said to be optimal, but if it screw up your cooldown rotation it doesnt worth it. You can burn to 60-65%. It is not so deadly to not burn to 50%. It is not deadly to burn under 50% either. It is just optimal. If RNGEsus have mercy upon you so be it, but don't push it, because as you see you are forced to delay cooldowns or not use them properly and that is not optimal.

Just my cents

Can you link the math that prove that 50% is optimal regardless of the amount of mastery ? I'm new to the spec so I wonder.

The less mastery you have,the more you benefit from arcane charge regardless of the amount of mana you have.At 4 stack,this is 200% increase damage on all spell.

Lets say we have 50% mastery.What are the benefit of droping our arcane charge to have a conservation phase ? With a 1min cooldown on evo,it's almost possible to never drop our 4 arcane charges to always be at 200% increase damage (around 15% mana base on proc).

In a conservation phase,we rarely benefit from 200% except for missile proc.So this is more like 2-3 stacks(100-150%) + 50% from mastery at 100% mana.

So where is the math behind it ? Thx

[Wilderness]

The math is done by simulations, and you can see them here for why 50% is optimal: http://altered-time.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1146

Also, Evo is a 1.5 min CD, not 1 min, so you really can't keep your 4 stacks of AC in between.

[NPI]

@Wilderness:
AM has 40% chance to proc by every other spell. so if you cast 10 spell you get 4 AMs in average, which means if you cast 5 ABs you get 2 AMs.

The problem with Simc is, that it has a HUGE difference (like 25% or more) from reality.
Patchwerk fight in 665 gear vs. Butcher dps in 665 gear
I would check the 75th percentile against the simulation, as 95th+ includes luck. (Simc values are also some kind of average). You may as well check the 50th percentile as this is what an average player can achieve. Butcher is includes some movement, but as a mage you only use a few gcd with blink, so in my opinion its the closest to the patchwerk fight.

You may also check Patchwerk fight in 680 gear vs. Butcher dps in 680 gear

Pity that Simc no longer posts the ilvl630 values as those had huge differences too.

I only checked mages, you may compare other classes/specs if you like. However these differences (17-25% for arcane) are huge enough for me to not trust conclusions derived from Simc. Pity that Rawr was discontinued.

[ZombiexCat]

Question about AoE. On an AoE fight like Beastlord, is it right to arcane explosion to 4 stacks while keeping Glyphed CoC on CD, the burn ALL missle stacks THEN barrage? Or should we skip missiles all together and just barrage in situations like that? I know with 3+ targets we want to barrage as much as possible, but still unclear on what to do with missiles at that point.

[mauserr]

Question about AoE. On an AoE fight like Beastlord, is it right to arcane explosion to 4 stacks while keeping Glyphed CoC on CD, the burn ALL missle stacks THEN barrage? Or should we skip missiles all together and just barrage in situations like that? I know with 3+ targets we want to barrage as much as possible, but still unclear on what to do with missiles at that point.

On a fight like Beastlord you should be playing fire.