WoD Arcane Guide *not updated for 6.2*

[Farseer]

I tried all three - unstable magic, nether tempest and supernova - in UBRS runs. For the boss fights as well as trash supernova seems to be performing way better than the other two. I went from being nr. 4 on recount with NT, below the tank, to nr. 1 with Supernova, doing about 40% of total dps in trash fights and 30ish on boss.

From what I have seen so far, Nether Tempest does a lot less damage than Supernova, even single target. Also it feels kind of clunky to refresh, since you should cast it as soon as you have 4 charges, but I don't often have that many arcane missile charges which means I would already have to refresh it after one AM or AB cast, because if I wouldn't, I probably wouldn't make it to the next 4 charges in time to refresh before the previous NT is already over.

So in effect I'd be casting it twice, once as soon as I have 4 charges, and once right before arcane blast to make sure I can refresh it in time before it runs out. But that means I'd be losing dps because the second time I'd cast it, it wouldn't already be in the last 3.6 seconds, more like somewhere around 6 seconds.

Not sure which is better between NT and UM, but I think I'll be sticking with Supernova for now. Between the three, Supernova excels in dps for me.

[Polarthief]

About the rotation, I can't help but feel like I'm doing some things wrong, so here's a few questions:

1a. Do we burn at L90?
1b. If we do ^, do we use AM during the burn? (At L100 too?)
1c. What do we burn to? ~35-40% still?

2. At 4 stacks, I've been doing something akin to AM, AB, AM, AB, AM, AB (repeating til I run out of AM), and mixing in Supernova (and sometimes AE) to fish for procs because I never dip below 90% mana and can sit at 4 charges. Is there a more optimal method? (PS: Yes, I am using 4P T16 because that 25% less mana on AB from AM is what lets me sit at 90%+ mana at 4 stacks )

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Not sure which is better between NT and UM, but I think I'll be sticking with Supernova for now. Between the three, Supernova excels in dps for me.

Plus it's (by a landslide) the most fun. A burst AoE ability that also greatly annoys players for some reason. Also, stacking a few simultaneous SNs from multiple Mages makes mobs "float" for awhile. (My entire raiding team already knows about it because of how much we Mages have been using it in raids XD)

I really don't care if UM (or NT) ever gives me more overall DPS; I simply can't give up SN!

[Komman]

I tried all three - unstable magic, nether tempest and supernova - in UBRS runs. For the boss fights as well as trash supernova seems to be performing way better than the other two. I went from being nr. 4 on recount with NT, below the tank, to nr. 1 with Supernova, doing about 40% of total dps in trash fights and 30ish on boss.

NT doesn't work well on trash fights because you keep having to refresh it again and again on new targets. SN has much stronger burst AOE, which makes it more suited for these occasions.

NT is very strong for longer duration single target or cleave fights. Our level 90 haste levels are extremely high, which not only reduces the GCD for NT, but also increases the number of NT ticks linearly. Then we have also Bloodlust and more importantly, the Legendary meta, both of which are 30% multiplicative boosts again. During Meta + Bloodlust, a single NT literally does more DPS within the 12 second span than a Supernova that you cast every 25 seconds. With Supernova you only gain a half second of extra cast time for AB/AM, even if you have 100% extra haste. The key to NT is uptime and keeping your mana level high.

[taishar68]

I mention that in my guide. To answer tho, MI scales bad with AP, multiple targets, and Mastery, so IF is a better option. And IF and RoP are pretty close! You won't see much of a difference especially if you struggle high RoP uptime.

Thanks for the reply; I used IF in my raid last week and I was pleased with my rank. I think on specific fights where I am comfortable with my placement I might switch to RoP, but i'll see what happens.

[Mejn]

Wondering about gearing since patch is out. AMR says to drop for example (waist - ring - off hand all non wf) with mastery for items that are WF but without mastery. Now I read somewhere that our mastery is anyway pretty much high and no need for stacking more. Will that WF boost be enough to cover mastery lost or just dont touch it ?

[Deleted]

snip

Well Polar... from my point of view.... just have fun playing arcane... you'll easily clear mythic with or withour burst ^^ no reason to care for a new rotaion for 3 weeks :P

Well I tried some burst and non burst on fights.... didn't see a difference.... guess burning will only be back at lvl 100, as AP will reduce mana cost....

when it comes to NT/UM/SN...... <3 SN the best talent ever
you can really rock the meters and burn adds so fast...
My trick: I use Incanters Flow.... and use SN only at 5 Stacks..... for that little tick of extra damage through skill Iguess NT or UM hardly beat it... well in a long fight, there might be a point you won't use it at 5 stacks.... but that rarely ocurs. even if you have to bomb adds.... for which you for dure got a 5-10 sec window.... you got time to wait for 5 stacks IF

[Txiv]

I'm still not clear on why a burn phase would be good now. Do you really do that much damage at 4 stack with blast that it's worth it?

[Deleted]

@Txiv

It's going to be worth to burn in WoD at lvl 100.... at leaqt this is what Blizzard aims for.... at the moment..... burn isn't really worth buit also isn't a dps loss....

[Erolian]

I'm still not clear on why a burn phase would be good now. Do you really do that much damage at 4 stack with blast that it's worth it?

Assuming you mean at 100 along with some perks and set bonuses buffing evocation up the reason is because of the intentional shifting of damage away from barrage so your other two spells are much more appealing in comparison

[ZombiexCat]

So we all know Rune of Power is the default choice for now. But at level 100, are the other talents so far behind that RoP is the only viable choice, like it was in MoP? Or will the other talents be close enough that it isn't that much of a loss (like in the margin of error percent dps loss)?

[willemh]

So we all know Rune of Power is the default choice for now. But at level 100, are the other talents so far behind that RoP is the only viable choice, like it was in MoP? Or will the other talents be close enough that it isn't that much of a loss (like in the margin of error percent dps loss)?

Incanter's is close enough (around 2%, given you use RoP perfectly which many players dont/cant on most raid bosses), mirror image is quite weak because they dont scale with mastery as far as I read. For dungeons/movement intensive fights you'll certainly use incanters. Btw did any mage do any challenge mode testing as arcane? How does arcane do in challenge modes?

[NPI]

Anyone who is related to simulationcraft.org can answer why they just simulating the non-burn rotation? This picture is the mana level of an arcane mage in T17 mythic (695) gear. There is no burn there at all.

[Komman]

Anyone who is related to simulationcraft.org can answer why they just simulating the non-burn rotation? This picture is the mana level of an arcane mage in T17 mythic (695) gear. There is no burn there at all.

I remember giving you an answer about this over a month ago...

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...1#post29824691

The simulation is burning mana just fine. Your graph represents the averaged mana level over thousands of iterations, which is why you don't see huge dips.

[NPI]

@Komman: thank you, i missed the earlier one.

[Deleted]

A couple of times now I got more AM procs, than I should. Can it be, that multistrike might enable another AB proc?

Also I am interested about the arcane orb. With this we can make the rotations at intense speed, if we want to. I am unsure if it is worth it though. Barrage damage is destroyed and with only 2x AB and the orb itself we only have 3 chances instead of 4 for AM. Because we can make charge 3 and 4 free of mana cost with it we can gamble extend on every second rotation at least. Consecutive rotations if we get a couple of AM procs.

AB, AB, AO, AM/AB.

[Deleted]

Has somebody sim'd the current stat weights for arcane yet ?

[Deleted]

@imbanane
look here:
http://altered-time.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=774
I guess this is corect..

[Truffle]

How are people handling arcane orb? It feels odd not using it for a large portion of the fight due to burn phases. So far it seems to make the most sense to unglyph ap and only burn through it (without overpowered I'm usually at around 50% mana when it ends) before two-tick evo back to conserve, but that's just intuition speaking. I don't know what to do when considering interaction between glyphed ap and lust. Glyphed lusted ap burn is often ending at ~10% mana for me right now. I plan on running NT/RoP/AO most of the time if it matters.

[shaft4783]

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?

[Xires]

@imbanane
look here:
http://altered-time.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=774
I guess this is corect..

The date is November. That is old.