WoD Arcane Guide *not updated for 6.2*

[Deleted]

Im curious about the opening sequence for arcane. In the past, we'd start off with a burn rotation while AP was up. Then when AP was done, at about 50% mana, I'd use evocation to 100%, then continue with AB to 4 stacks and the trade off with AM and AB. Barrage when you have no missiles.

Is the burn sequence still necessary and is it advised?

As im looking it from my experience of the first reset with this low haste levels i dont see Burn phase much viable now. Due our high mana regen and draenor AP's perk the only time when you can use burn phases is if you use glyphed arcane power with overpowered tallent with hero on pull. In other cases you just burn as much as u are capable within 15 seconds, which is not much either for the same reason (low haste), discharge with Barrage and evocate till u get to 95%ish mana, interrupt the channel and continue the good ol' conserve rotation to not dip below 85-90%.

[Deleted]

The date is November. That is old.

I guess it is that old because I postet it in November.... as an answer to a question which was asked in.... uh? november? XD
A that time there were thos 10% AB and 35% Pyro hotfixes....

just a small warning notice: a forum might contian outdated info, if you look at old posts

[NPI]

Anyone knows whether multistrike has interaction with our rotation?
Specifically:
(1) AB multistrikes generate charges?
(2) non-AM multistrikes can generate AM procs?
(3) multistrike hits affected by the changed charge number? (both AB and Abarr case)

[Komman]

(1) AB multistrikes generate charges?

No.

(2) non-AM multistrikes can generate AM procs?

No.

(3) multistrike hits affected by the changed charge number? (both AB and Abarr case)

Yes.

[Deleted]

Any chance this guide will be updated for 6.0.3 in the near future?
I somewhat wanna try arcane on butcher, but it makes no sense if I don't know what to do. Haven't really played arcane since ToES, so it's been a while.

[shaft4783]

Any chance this guide will be updated for 6.0.3 in the near future?
I somewhat wanna try arcane on butcher, but it makes no sense if I don't know what to do. Haven't really played arcane since ToES, so it's been a while.

Arcane is a beast right now. I'm expecting a nerf in the future to be honest. Check out icy veins guide if you want to learn how to play it.

[havician]

Im doing 23k dps on butcher 25man heroic with Arcane (IL 645)

[nukie]

The Icy Veins guide was very helpful but i still have a few questions.

Should i be using RoP or MI on Butcher as Arcane spec?

Is UM relatively close to SN? Id like to use it while i learn Arcane (I'm finding myself forgetting about SN often as I'm learning the mana management aspect).

[Deleted]

2 things - dont use MI... ever and dont use UM... ever. Possibly the worst choices you can make... for the moment

MI scale very bad. It is not as effective if you are in another spec and UM proc rate is just horrible. I also tried UM on butcher and it did around 6% of my total damage. For comparison NT was doing 12-13% of my total damage and SN was doing 18-19% of my total damage, but in the case of SN is because i use it with IF and PC thats why i can get a lot more damage out of it.

[nukie]

2 things - dont use MI... ever and dont use UM... ever. Possibly the worst choices you can make... for the moment

MI scale very bad. It is not as effective if you are in another spec and UM proc rate is just horrible. I also tried UM on butcher and it did around 6% of my total damage. For comparison NT was doing 12-13% of my total damage and SN was doing 18-19% of my total damage, but in the case of SN is because i use it with IF and PC thats why i can get a lot more damage out of it.

Awesome, thanks

[shaft4783]

When using copelands clarity, what's best?

1. Using it seperately from arcane power after the initial pull? The trinket every 2 minutes, arcane power at 3 minutes, and then pairing them at 6 minutes?

2. Or waiting to pop the trinket on every arcane power cd?

3. Or removing glyph of arcane power, which will allow for the trinket, the cd, and evocation to align at every 2 minutes?

[Shangalar]

I have come back from a longer hiatus from MMOC which happened for various reasons. No matter the reasons, I apologize for not updating the guide in a timely manner, but this gave me the opportunity to use my current raiding experience and even more sources of information to update it properly. The BiS lists and encounter specific tips will come very soon, but in the meantime here is a finalized version of our stat weights and proper gameplay.


Our precise stat weights depend on the talents you have. However it can be summarized as follows:

Nether Tempest: Mastery >>> Haste >= Multistrike >> Crit >> Versatility

Supernova: Mastery >>> Multistrike > Haste >= Crit >>> Versatility

6. Gameplay

Arcane gameplay changes significantly based on talent choices. All the choices are described below:

1. Single Target Option 1
Nether Tempest + Rune of Power + Overpowered

The goal is to always be in your Rune of Power and to always keep a 4-Charge Nether Tempest rolling on the main target, sometimes even if you have to refresh it long before it expires.

Burst phase:
1. Get to 4 Charges
2. Nether Tempest
3. Arcane Power
4. Missiles + Blast burst to 50% mana, prioritizing Missiles because they extend the duration of Power
5. Evocate back to 100% mana

The conserve phase primarily consists of getting to 4 Charges, refreshing Nether Tempest, spending Missiles, using Barrage and getting back to 4 Charges in time to refresh Nether Tempest within the 3.6 second window of its remaining duration.

This means that you need to anticipate encounter mechanics enough to know whether or not movement or something else will prevent you from reaching 4 Charges in time to refresh NT. In cases like that, you'll have to refresh NT at 4-Charges at any time before it expires if it will ensure that it will still be in time for a proper refresh in the next cycle.

Finally, in this setup, it is possible to use the Glyph of Arcane Power if you know that you will have the time to stay casting for such a long time (around 45 seconds or more) without interruptions every time it's up. This is not really possible on most bosses.

2. Single Target Option 2
Supernova + Rune of Power + Prismatic Crystal

1. Get to 4 Charges
2. Prismatic Crystal
3. Arcane Power
4. Supernova x2
5. Blast + Missiles (prioritizing Missiles when at 4 stacks) on the Crystal until it expires
6. Continue bursting the boss after the Crystal expires until 50% mana and then Evocate back to full mana.

The conserve phase is harder on mana because you don't have NT available so you will be cycling through Charges and clearing them more. Be sure to use Supernova on cooldown, but also make sure that 1-2 (preferrably 2) Supernovas are available for the next Crystal burst phase.

In this setup you should never use the Glyph of Arcane Power because you can have Power ready for every single Crystal and that's just insane burst.

3. AoE options
a) NT + RoP + Arcane Orb
b) SN + RoP + Arcane Orb

It is very hard to describe a proper AoE damage rotation, with the talents listed above you will have the highest damage while also maintaining more of a single target rotation than anything else. Using our AoE spells (Explosion and glyphed Cone of Cold) is not really worth it for damage.

4. Movement limitations

Some raiding encounters will simply be too movement heavy for us to be able to use Rune of Power. In situations like that, the alternative is Incanter's Flow.

Incanter's Flow, however, also brings some other changes, primarily the fact that Supernova + Prismatic Crystal becomes a slightly superior choice to Nether Tempest and Overpowered. With Incanter's Flow one of your goals should be that you spend both of your Supernova charges on the Crystal when Flow is on 5 or 4 stacks. And during conserve also to make sure to use the occasional Supernova on Flow 5.

[Deleted]

A honorable mention about Single Target Option 2 is Presence of Mind and for once that skill to be useful the the point of OPness.
Could also be mentioned that if you can you could try to be as close to the crystal as possible to reduce the wasted damage due spell travel time to the crystal. Just example - i once lost a full missile cast just because i was in max range of the crystal and before even the first missile reached the crystal it disappeared.

[Deleted]

I can't find much info on the AP glyphs, and running sims for my character (in frost gear though, so probably not very accutare) for AP being glyphed running SN/PC shows that the difference hardly matters, in which case i assume not using it is optimal since a) depending on fight length you might get an extra use sometimes or b) it's easier to sync it with periods of higher damage like Bracken mushrooms, Imperator transitions etc. I can see why it wouldn't be ideal when using Overpowered either.

Does this mean that glyphing AP is now pretty much unecessary for every realistic situation? Am i missing something?

[Deleted]

You are right on everything and have not missed much.
AP glyph is many things - personal choice, a better understanding/knowledge of the fight or your capabilities (understand "on-use" trinkets or mechanics that make a given target take extra damage) or simple laziness. For everybody might be a different thing. In general it should be giving you the same damage output in the long run as if you don't use it.
Also yes it does have a very good synergy with Overpowered. However i personally think that the fact PC, PoM and AP have exact same cooldown is very strong synergy, especially when we add to the equation the interesting charge mechanic of Supernova that u can also fit both charges on PC AND with IF ... yeah i got too excited.

I have heard some rumors that glyphed AP, Overpowered and Unstable magic are strong combo for single target patchwerklike fights, but with that horrible proc rate of UM i just dont see it it viable this tier (at least) as i see the way how SN interact with IF and other shenanigans

[Deleted]

1 question: If you got up to 4 stacks of arcane charges, you have refreshed your NT and you have 100% mana do you cast Arcane blast 1 more time before using arcane barage then? or do you simply use arcane barage directly and start over with 100% mana and just get to 4 charges again and then refresh NT?

[Shangalar]

You cast Arcane Blast one more time if your haste level will allow you to get to 4 Charges again before Nether Tempest drops off. This should easily be doable as I have only 800 Haste and it works well.

[Shangalar]

The recent Haste change has moved Haste to be our second best secondary stat even in combinations with Supernova and Prismatic Crystal.

[Carebearr]

Has anyone done more testing to see where the alchemy trinket stands for arcane compared to the mythic highmaul trinkets? Looks really good on paper with the passive mastery and 55 sec icd. Also, I have a couple videos up from an Arcane perspective that some of you might want to check out! Still trying to learn the spec but I really like that they didn't bound you to the rune of power like in previous tiers.

[esgaroth]

Hello Fellow arcanages.

I just rerolled arcane / Mage. Mage has been the first dps class I ever played. It was my alt in Mist since I played prot pala as main. I went ret late SoO gear made it easier to keep main. Ret was good start WoD but I think it is time to make the change to my first love. ARCANE!!!!

If you guys can give me any tips on add-ons WA scripts etc it would be awesome.

And thanks for the great guide. It is very simplified and easy to follow. If you could drop a list of boss specific talents / glyphs that would be even more awesome.

Thanks Guys