iLvL or breakpoints for Frost to other spec transistions?

[Ggtbot]

Greetings,

I searched the first 3 pages, but unfortunately I didn't find my question answered. (Apologize if I a missed it)

I've read that there's a point at which Arcane becomes better for single target and Fire becomes better for AoE -- but that before that Frost is the best.

I'm a bit more geared and I'm just concerned if it's too early for me to go arcane. (I'd run the sims but I don't know how AOE sims and if I'm really even using them right)


Armory is US: GGTBOT - Tich

Thanks!

[Polarthief]

Arcane is pretty much always the best single-target if you can stand still for the entire fight; I believe as low as i650 this happens, and this will continue in higher gear, but the moment you start adding movement and/or a second target, Arcane pretty much drops off the planet. Frost is great at mobile single-target and 2-target fights, but falls short on any fights with long-term/many short-term AoE packs, but does well with infrequent AoE (intermission phases on Mar'gok for example).

Then comes Fire, which will always be excellent at constant (long-term/multiple short term) [DARMAC DARMAC DARMAC!] AoE/cleave, but will not outperform Frost on single-target until around ~i670 AND 4P T17 (the 4P is pretty important for doing well at ST and boosts Fire's already borderline overpowered AoE to even greater levels).

Hope this helps at all!

[Deleted]

It's most likely too early. Your gear does have a lot of mastery but unfortunately that will be lost come HM gear.

[Rinoa]

Actually Fire doesn't outperform Frost on single target at all in available gear. Frost remains ahead even in BiS Mythic BRF gear, though once you have a BiS set - they are very close to eachother, to the point where the gap is practically insignificant.

[ManicMage]

I would like to jump on this train. I'm currently 654 ilvl and play arcane. I'm really suffering on movement heavy fights but I don't know if I have the gear yet to be able to be effective at fire. I only have 32% crit buffed. Is it too early for me to be able to go fire on movement heavy fights?

oh and my armory is Lovelydeath- lethon

[Polarthief]

Actually Fire doesn't outperform Frost on single target at all in available gear. Frost remains ahead even in BiS Mythic BRF gear, though once you have a BiS set - they are very close to eachother, to the point where the gap is practically insignificant.

They're incredibly close at 680+ with 4P bonuses, but yeah, the only real reason to play Fire more than Frost is due to a handful of the fights just catering to Fire's strengths (Thogar, Blast Furnace, and Darmac all having a ton of bonus adds to cleave). Sure, you could argue that this caters to Frost too, but the adds are too many inbetween for it to be that great for Frost, unless you want to be spamming Blizzard constantly, which at that point, you might as well play Fire.

But as far as overall DPS goes, both are superb and fine on their own. Haven't bothered with Arcane due to personal reasons (I dislike being immobile), but if you can master your movement, Arcane will win pure single-target fights always.

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I would like to jump on this train. I'm currently 654 ilvl and play arcane. I'm really suffering on movement heavy fights but I don't know if I have the gear yet to be able to be effective at fire. I only have 32% crit buffed. Is it too early for me to be able to go fire on movement heavy fights?

oh and my armory is Lovelydeath- lethon

iLvl is quite low, though you can play Fire just fine for AoE right away, or for ST too if you get your 4P. If you're suffering that badly though, just roll with Fire now, or Frost if you don't mind trying that. Currently playing Frost for ST and Fire for Cleave fights and loving every moment of it

[ManicMage]

iLvl is quite low, though you can play Fire just fine for AoE right away, or for ST too if you get your 4P. If you're suffering that badly though, just roll with Fire now, or Frost if you don't mind trying that. Currently playing Frost for ST and Fire for Cleave fights and loving every moment of it

I really love the way arcane plays and have alot of fun with it. I pull 21-22k dps on fights like butcher and gruul but fights like twins or tectus I drop to about 18k I try to make use of Icy floes but it just doesn't seem to be enough. I feel it would be beneficial to my raid group to have an off spec with better movements so I could switch back and forth depending on the fight. The reason I was gonna go fire is cuz I thought fire and arcane were closer in stat priority. If I were to frost and arcane would I need two sets of gear?

[Polarthief]

The reason I was gonna go fire is cuz I thought fire and arcane were closer in stat priority. If I were to frost and arcane would I need two sets of gear?

At your iLevel, no, not really. Once you get some more BRF pieces (especially if Heroic), you could easily switch the off-spec to Fire for anything that has movement or cleave, and have little to no problems doing so. For now though, Frost will work fine as it's the least gear-reliant of the three.

[ManicMage]

Once you get some more BRF pieces (especially if Heroic), you could easily switch the off-spec to Fire for anything that has movement or cleave, and have little to no problems doing so.

alright thanks for all your help. One last question is there an ilvl requirment or crit percentage that I should aim for to switch at?