(Arcane mains) Would you give up arcane if quickening is no longer a thing?

[danieltang34]

As it appears it's possible arcane will be taking overpowered instead in 7.1.5, then arcane will once again become the most boring and brainless spec In the game...
I would really hate to lose quickening, it's the only reason I love arcane and it's the only mechanic to differentiate good and bad players, it makes the rotation so much more engaging and gives it so much depth, what do you guys think?

[SafariDiscoLion]

One spell every six seconds to hold stacks for 2/3rds of a fight is not "engaging".

[Deiae]

I already mentioned in an earlier thread my discontent and some of my issues with many of the upcoming changes as they are currently on the ptr.

One spell every six seconds to hold stacks for 2/3rds of a fight is not "engaging".

You don't have to hold any casts to do well. I think you are propagating misconceptions. There are logs that show people dropping their QK stacks at certain times in an encounter to have higher stacks at another point to make the most of it. It is question of timing and managing your resources - mana, QK stacks, cooldown timers.
Managing your resources is an old innate arcane thing.

I think the lack of clear guides / theorycrafting for arcane is just due to fewer people playing it and the fire hype overshadowing the other specs. Your best bet is to look at succesful logs and try to replicate what those guys are doing at what point.

[Kyriani]

I'm actually happy to see alternatives to quickening actually being competitive, even if that means quickening itself isnt as good.

[SafariDiscoLion]

You don't have to hold any casts to do well. I think you are propagating misconceptions. There are logs that show people dropping their QK stacks at certain times in an encounter to have higher stacks at another point to make the most of it. It is question of timing and managing your resources - mana, QK stacks, cooldown timers.
Managing your resources is an old innate arcane thing.

I think the lack of clear guides / theorycrafting for arcane is just due to fewer people playing it and the fire hype overshadowing the other specs. Your best bet is to look at succesful logs and try to replicate what those guys are doing at what point.

There's plenty of theorycrafting for Arcane on Altered Time and in the discord, and all of the top logs are doing Barrage-less conservation phases.

[Armourboy]

I already mentioned in an earlier thread my discontent and some of my issues with many of the upcoming changes as they are currently on the ptr.


You don't have to hold any casts to do well. I think you are propagating misconceptions. There are logs that show people dropping their QK stacks at certain times in an encounter to have higher stacks at another point to make the most of it. It is question of timing and managing your resources - mana, QK stacks, cooldown timers.
Managing your resources is an old innate arcane thing.

I think the lack of clear guides / theorycrafting for arcane is just due to fewer people playing it and the fire hype overshadowing the other specs. Your best bet is to look at succesful logs and try to replicate what those guys are doing at what point.

In a world where Blizzard is constantly trying to make things easier and less complex, I'm not surprised something like Quickening is getting nerfed. I think they want more people playing Arcane, and I think they see the nature of how the spec is played right now as part of the problem.

[Shangalar]

I can't wait to drop Quickening as soon as it gets nerfed. I really don't like its current iteration and I don't care if it's mathematically better to maintain stacks until the next burn phase. I just don't feel it as a good mechanic so I just always drop stacks. Well, obviously except when I know that the raid/dungeon boss is going to die while I burn through all my mana again.

One of the reasons that it's getting nerfed is because Blizzard don't support this play style. And it's not really intuitive for the players or anyone.

[a0kalittlema0n]

I'll be honest, I'm not all that into quickening, but I thought it added a definite skill cap to the class.

Having said that, I'm more excited for the quickening rework than anyone out there. I absolutely hated it, made raid leading a pain to do as an arcane mage.

There are plenty of small skill cap things as an arcane mage, like actually AoEing in melee without dying, playing M+ with volcanic, Evo explosion, playing w/o Ice Floes (if that's a thing, its really a huge skill cap all the sudden), etc.

There will always be mana management as well, those who mana it best are best, and those who struggle from here to there aren't as good. Best example is making sure to actually USE all your mana in M+ and knowing when, where and how to drink, all while using/conserving your mana perfectly to line up with bosses. Love it.

[sosaria]

I'm more inclined to go with the Overpowered Trait and the semi infinite burn phase.

Never liked keeping an eye on buffs

[RyuuSaber]

The spec felt very high skill cap without the pants. Maintaining the mana management was a true challange back then. Now that I have the pants the rotation is a little bit altered. However with a little research on how to utlize the pants to its maximum potential with quickening play, and the result will pay off.

Speaking of quickening, I believe with the new evocation legendary and the nighthold t19 set bonuses, it could make the quickening play even more interesting now it goes beyond 50 stacks, but at the cost of ever increasing mana. I definetly would like to dabble more into quickening play going forward from 7.1. even though overpowered (if PTR passes) is a simple way of an never ending burning phase with the correct stat set-up.

[nocturnus]

The only reason I'm now considering arcane is because quickening ISN'T a thing ^^

[The Archmage]

Dropping the toxic Quickening is a dream come true. There is nothing exciting about relying on a cluncky mechanic that actually prevents me from playing my class. To be honest, i would have preferred that they removed it entirely and gave us something new, instead of buffing Overpowered so much as to make it mandatory... but i'll settle. As long as i am not forced to use it anymore.

[nocturnus]

Dropping the toxic Quickening is a dream come true. There is nothing exciting about relying on a cluncky mechanic that actually prevents me from playing my class. To be honest, i would have preferred that they removed it entirely and gave us something new, instead of buffing Overpowered so much as to make it mandatory... but i'll settle. As long as i am not forced to use it anymore.

Aye, don't forget it's the first PTR release. No right minded developer would allow such a cookie-cutter talent to go live.

Which in Blizzard terms means it probably will.

[Deleted]

Which is Blizzard terms means it probably will.

I was just about to ask you if you forgot who we are dealing with. And then I read the your last line and couldn't agree more.

[nocturnus]

I was just about to ask you if you forgot who we are dealing with. And then I read the your last line and couldn't agree more.

You know, the worst thing for a company is when customers lose faith. I sense quite a bit of this, to be honest.

[Keulenkommando]

Quickening is a bad skill. I hate beeing forced to use it and im glad if it goes away soon.

[HubertTheHorrible]

There's plenty of theorycrafting for Arcane on Altered Time and in the discord, and all of the top logs are doing Barrage-less conservation phases.

Barrage-less conservation phase works well if you have the Bracers, high mastery and the fights are short. For the players who are not mythic geared, they are probably doing less DPS trying to imitate top logs with a Barrage-less conservation phase to get high quickening stacks than they would if they used Barrage conservation phase.

[Deleted]

You know, the worst thing for a company is when customers lose faith. I sense quite a bit of this, to be honest.

I agree. I've lost mine. I played Arms warrior at first in this expansion, and we took a pretty hard hit so I went with my mage from then on.
I picked fire like so many others and I actually find it to be a lot of fun, even if we're just average at the moment. And the way they destroy a spec for no apparent reason other than people with no insight in the current balance who are bitching and moaning like the little cunts they are, it just is really demotivating and demoralizing...

why not just bring up the weaker specs rather than nerf ones that are just in the middle of the pack...

[Vorrum]

I will not be dropping arcane because of the quickening nerf, I'm excited to pick up the new overpowered talent.

[SafariDiscoLion]

Barrage-less conservation phase works well if you have the Bracers, high mastery and the fights are short. For the players who are not mythic geared, they are probably doing less DPS trying to imitate top logs with a Barrage-less conservation phase to get high quickening stacks than they would if they used Barrage conservation phase.

It doesn't matter at what point it kicks in or what gear is necessary for it; the fact that we had NT spam not that long ago and now Barrage-less rotations at ALL is proof that Quickening needs to be redone, as it's been the thorn in Arcane's side for all of Legion.