Idea for Arcane Barrage

[Zoros]

I love Arcane Barrage, it feels awesome when you cast it in a group of mobs, its multistrikes are really cool, and the synergy with Arcane Orb is really fun. It's a spell that really makes me feel like an arcane mage. Unfortunately, Barrage has been shadowed by other spells, and often feels unimportant. Probably my suggestion won't be popular, but I will try to explain myself anyways.

1. Our single target rotation is against casting Arcane Barrage. At the end of a fight, Barrage often represents just minimal percentile of our damage.

2. Even in aoe situations, to consume Arcane Charges to cast Arcane Barrage may not increase our damage. So the spell that epitomizes the whole Arcane Charge mechanic often ends being more penalizing than rewarding. On the other hand, Supernova, an spell without any mechanic, deals crazy amounts of damage.

3. Arcane Orb talent is an obvious favorite, but not because how cool it is, the reason is Arcane Barrage. Chosing Overpower or Prismatic Crystal feels like renouncing to Arcane Barrage. Even Nether Tempest and Unstable Magic seems against dropping arcane charges.

My suggestion to solve this issues, is a proc:

"Your arcane damage spells have a chance to make your next Arcane Barrage not consume Arcane Charges and not trigger its cooldown".

We only have Arcane Missiles proc, so there is room for a second proc. With this addition, we will be able to cast Arcane Barrage in our single target rotations, even when Arcane Power or Prismatic Crystal are up. And ofc, in aoe situations we will be able to cast two Arcane Barrage in a row, even without Arcane Orb.

What you think?

[aLCuiN]

Its would be awesome only if (not trigger its cooldown)

[Deleted]

I like it.

[Wilderness]

I'm pretty happy with it currently. It already holds an important spot during your single-target rotation, and its just plain fun to weave in barrages with AO for multi-target. I just don't think that we need another proc, and if we did, I'd rather it be something different than just the "get to use a spell that you already use, but for free" variety. Its a spell that gets used quite regularly throughout your rotation, and it does have pretty cool effects, but I don't know that I need to see more of them.

Probably my suggestion won't be popular, because mages don't care too much about fun or cool, just numbers, but I will try to explain myself anyways.

So anyone who doesn't have your same completely subjective opinion must care only for numbers and not fun at all? How condescending of you. Perhaps - *gasp* - someone might simply find other things fun or cool?

There's nothing wrong with your idea, at all, but claiming anyone who disagrees with a subjective opinion about what is/isn't fun or cool is silly.

[NPI]

I like it too, very nice idea

[Deleted]

Need to tune the rest of the spec around this and maybe add a mastery % chance to proc?

[Zoros]

There's nothing wrong with your idea, at all, but claiming anyone who disagrees with a subjective opinion about what is/isn't fun or cool is silly.

I don't think my comment was ofensive, however english is not my main language so maybe words ended meaning something different of what I pretended. I actually want to know if other arcane mages find the idea fun or cool, not censor them. I want to know if the rest of arcane mages are enjoying their rotations, despite DPS, or they are missing something like me, and have other ideas to improve our gameplay. I have made a suggestion but I easily fall in love in other people suggestions!

Maybe the problem is the "despite DPS numbers" condition. Sorry, I have seen too many times the "numericallly we don't need fun" repply. Mages are proclive to reduce any suggestion to DPS numbers, and to try talk about fun or cool on this forum can be really frustrating. Anyways I've already edited my first post. I will try to be more objective on my future comments. Thanks

[Wilderness]

Perhaps I just read it in a way you didn't intend - no harm no foul.

If they were to do anything to spice up Arcane's rotation (which I'm fairly happy with overall, I think that it works well as is), I'd just rather have something new or different, not just "here, use ABarr more b/c its free".

[Zoros]

Need to tune the rest of the spec around this and maybe add a mastery % chance to proc?

I feel that there is room for a proc like that, but I can't say how powerful it should to be. Probably just a free Arcane Barrage won't be enough to make it more relevant, don't know. But why not multistrike? Even if mastery is our main stat, Arcane Barrage multistrikes look awesome. But I'm afraid we are going too far away as you say that would need to retune the rest of the spec.

If they were to do anything to spice up Arcane's rotation (which I'm fairly happy with overall, I think that it works well as is), I'd just rather have something new or different, not just "here, use ABarr more b/c its free".

Agree the idea still feels random, and even too similar to Arcane Missiles. Even if often we would keep the proc to use it on the right moment (4 charges, need to move, several enemies, arcane power/prismatic crystal), many times it would be just cast Barrage when it procs. That's not necessarily bad considering that we spam Arcane Blast a lot and Arcane Barrage can proc Arcane Missiles. But it could be more fun or less random.

Maybe it could be related to other spells like Presence of Mind, instead of being a random proc.

[Wilderness]

Maybe it could be related to other spells like Presence of Mind, instead of being a random proc.

Some change to PoM would probably be a good idea. Now that its Arcane only and can't be used on pretty much anything except AB, it just feels like a really useless 90 sec CD. Oh, look, an instant AB every minute and a half. Yay? Hell, make it so that you can use it with AM and when you do it just fires out all 5 missiles at once and I'd be satisfied. An explosion of missiles from my hands every 90 seconds seems a lot more fun.

[Deleted]

I feel that there is room for a proc like that, but I can't say how powerful it should to be. Probably just a free Arcane Barrage won't be enough to make it more relevant, don't know. But why not multistrike? Even if mastery is our main stat, Arcane Barrage multistrikes look awesome. But I'm afraid we are going too far away as you say that would need to retune the rest of the spec.



Agree the idea still feels random, and even too similar to Arcane Missiles. Even if often we would keep the proc to use it on the right moment (4 charges, need to move, several enemies, arcane power/prismatic crystal), many times it would be just cast Barrage when it procs. That's not necessarily bad considering that we spam Arcane Blast a lot and Arcane Barrage can proc Arcane Missiles. But it could be more fun or less random.

Maybe it could be related to other spells like Presence of Mind, instead of being a random proc.

Putting an MS %chance would make it weird to use considering how little MS we want on gear. You could even change it a little bit and make ABar GIVE Arcane Charges when the proc happens. That way you'd not interrupt your cycles and be able to have that OMG PROC feeling

[Zoros]

Putting an MS %chance would make it weird to use considering how little MS we want on gear. You could even change it a little bit and make ABar GIVE Arcane Charges when the proc happens. That way you'd not interrupt your cycles and be able to have that OMG PROC feeling

Oh, I see I thought you were asking for additional mastery on that Arcane Barrage. That's the reason why I I suggested multistrike instead, to give it more visual appeal. Something like:

"Your Arcane Blast and Arcane missiles have a 10% chance, and your Arcane Explosion has a 5% chance, to overcharge you, making your next Arcane Barrage not consume your arcane charges, not trigger its cooldown, and have an extra 50% chance to multistrike"

(Numbers are random, just to help imagination).

The extra multistrike won't be something completly new, it's like a reminiscing from our lost shatter combos, but instead of critical, multistrike. But your suggestion goes farther, it's not just a "random Pyroblast proc"...

The idea of Arcane Barrage generating Arcane Charges is really appealing. It would improve our movility, specially on PvP, and will reduce our Arcane Orb dependency. However as overall, may end being contradcitory. We stack charges to cast Barrage, not viceversa. But I will considere the idea in my brainstorming. The proc could be more exciting

Some change to PoM would probably be a good idea. Now that its Arcane only and can't be used on pretty much anything except AB, it just feels like a really useless 90 sec CD. Oh, look, an instant AB every minute and a half. Yay? Hell, make it so that you can use it with AM and when you do it just fires out all 5 missiles at once and I'd be satisfied. An explosion of missiles from my hands every 90 seconds seems a lot more fun.

Presence of Mind could work like Fire and Brimestone-Conflagrate, making our next Arcane Blast instant and hit all nearby enemies. That also means aoe Slow. A varition of that idea is to include Presence of Mind on Unstable Magic effect, giving a 100% to proc it. But I'm affraid that my ideas are far from original or exciting.

About mixing the Arcane Barrage idea with Presence of Mind, I like it, but Presence of Mind and Arcane Orb could end being too similar.

Also Cone of Cold could have some love, but as we say here, that are apples from a different apple tree.

[Deleted]

The idea of Arcane Barrage generating Arcane Charges is really appealing. It would improve our movility, specially on PvP, and will reduce our Arcane Orb dependency. However as overall, may end being contradcitory. We stack charges to cast Barrage, not viceversa. But I will considere the idea in my brainstorming. The proc could be more exciting

Might become contradictory, but right now it's quite lackluster damage wise

[Orinoco]

Or; "For every target above 1 that your Arcane Barrage you hits you gain an Arcane Charge", makes it much more useful in cleave/AoE situations without the need to balance anything.

Edit to clarify ; 1 target = no charges, 2 targets = 1 charge etc

[Deleted]

Hehe seems a lot of people want Barrage to be on same damage level as it was before. To me i feel the same as both opinions running here - am both happy with how arcane feel right now, but every time i cast barrage i get a little sadder to see that my 4 stacks AB does twice the damage of my finisher.
Its like Crusader strike does more damage than Templar verdict, like jab doing more damage than blackout kick, like mangle doing more damage than Ferocious Bite/Rip... i think you get the point.
For it to actualy worth casting (read satisfying to cast) you need to have atleast 4(?) targets stacked... At some moments i even think that it should be worth to finish with Barrage on PC, but then again, when i see the total damage done of the cast (with MSBT) is still barely the same amount as one AB cast (AND it have slow travel time so you can fuck up yourself big time) it's worth drop even more

After the first week of HM raiding i was actually expecting the hotfix to buff Barrage... my surprise when i saw ABlast additionally buffed that made it even more powerful spell and made Barrage even less desirable to cast. I don't know ... maybe this is part of the balance or it could have make Orb too OP... Who knows

The only option i see to make Barrage a more intresting spell to cast for arcane is maybe via set bonus next tier. I dont really see any kind of rework/buff to Barrage, because i think this will cause everything else to be retuned around that buff, and as the gear goes up and the scaling goes out of control... well... i think we might be stuck with this poor excuse of a finisher spell till the end of WoD ( i hope not really)

[Deleted]

But if we would get that procc aswell wouldnt that boost arcane mages huge? im just saying that with the gear today arcane mages are almost top 5 in every figth and with that procc aswell i think we would do to much damage to not get a nerf?