Nelfy's Arcane Mage PvE Guide 7.1.5

[a0kalittlema0n]

Arcane Mage 7.1.5 Guide

I'm still editing this to be completely updated, so hold back all your amazing criticism for when it's completed. Working on it but RL is happening atm, so might be a week or two.

7.1.5 Arcane Mage Guide
Nëlfy - Aerie Peak - US
akalittleman#1387*
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/ranking...1718723/latest
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw-...12PSIlHVbim0JQ
https://www.twitch.tv/a0kalittlema0n
https://twitter.com/NelfyNeonmoon
https://discord.gg/C9kPpHh

Updated: 1/24/2017

Table of Contents:
I Changes
II Introduction
III Overview
IV Talents
V Rotation
VI Stat Weights
VII Legendaries
VIII FAQ


Frosted's Post on Trinkets, Sims, etc:
https://www.altered-time.com/forum/v...php?f=3&t=2618

Binkenstein's Trinket ilvl Comparison Updated for 7.1 with ToV/Kara/Trinket Changes:


Arcane Mage 7.1.5 PvE Video Guide



Mythic + Arcane Mage Tips Video





I - Changes

Mana no longer increases damage based on what percentage you're at.
4 x Arcane Blast*-> Abarrage is no longer mana neutral
Greater Invisibility is baseline for Arcane
Ice Barrier is baseline for all mage specs
Plenty of talent changes

II - Introduction

Arcane is a system based off of mana management,*Arcane Blasts, and Arcane Missile procs.*Mastery: Savant is responsible for increasing our damage, maximum mana, and mana regeneration.

III - Overview

Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles, and Arcane Explosion all grant a stack of Arcane Charges which stacks up to 4. Each Arcane Charge increases mana cost by 125% and damage by roughly 60% (increased by mastery).

Arcane Missiles and Supernova are the only spells that cost no mana, where Arcane Blast and Arcane Explosion are both mana spenders. Each Arcane Barrage, Arcane Explosion, Supernova, Nether Tempest, and Arcane Orb all have a 15% chance to proc a charge of Arcane Missiles while*Arcane Blast*has a 30% chance.

IV - Talents

Tier 15


Arcane Familiar: Provides 10% max mana and a passive attacking pet. Sometimes the pet disappears randomly, annoying to reapply, but great passive damage and additional mana for longer burns.

Amplification: This makes Arcane Missiles do significantly more damage, which is a great increase to Single Target/Priority damage which bodes well for raiding in general.

Words of Power: Has the potential to be great, just lacks direct damage output that Arcane Familiar does. This brings back the idea of WoD Arcane when staying high on mana until burn phase rewards your conserve DPS.

tl:dr - Amplification is looking like the best talent, specifically paired with Slipstream bringing your highest DPET ability as an on the move ability.


Tier 30


Shimmer: Advantage is this is off the global cooldown and doesn’t interrupt casting when used.

Slipstream: Minimizes the possibility of dropping Evocation cast, and makes Arcane Missiles cast able while moving.

Cold Snap: Great for specific encounters that call for soaking with*Ice Block, otherwise not too useful in raids

tl:dr -Shimmer vs. Slipstream is a really hard choice sometimes. This will be fight dependent and personal preference. Making the transition to not always having an off global blink that doesn’t interrupt casting and Icy Floes is a rough transition, even though Slipstream is definitely not a bad talent.


Tier 45


Mirror Images: Mediocre damage-wise, but a set and forget CD. Has a 2 minute CD which doesn't line up too well with other CDs we have. Great for taking aggro while questing.

Rune of Power: This is the min max talent of the tier. This grants the best ability to line up CDs/Trinkets, burst with mana, and deal the highest damage. Higher skill cap to stay in the rune the whole time, but provides a challenge and new skill cap to the class. (Does not snapshot, everything goes up or down the second you step in or out of the rune)

Incanter's Flow: Great for fights with high movement or if you're not too great at using Rune of Power. This talent makes it easier to DPS without having to time things perfectly to make sure you can use your Rune of Power all the time. Great for casual raiders or those playing an alt.

tl:dr - Rune of Power for min/max, Incanter's Flow is a great second choice, Mirror Images can't compete DPS-wise


Tier 60


Supernova: Great for knockup utility in M+, also has chance to proc AM without costing mana.

Charged Up: Great talent to cleave without losing ST damage, while also increasing your ST output through the cleave. Pairs well with Kilt, and helps with initial burn and eliminates the ramp up.

Resonance: Great AoE/Cleave talent. Great for Mythic+.

tl:dr - Resonance sims highest even for ST, but CU will be a good choice for Kilt users


Tier 75


Chrono Shift: This is going to be the go to for raiding in general. This is a good QoL change for both questing and movement in raids.

Ring of Frost: Great for PVP, not so great for raiding.

Ice Ward: Gives your another Frost Nova. More kiting in questing/pvp. Outside of that unless an encounter calls for it specifically it is useless in raids

tl:dr - Chrono Shift.


Tier 90


Nether Tempest: Only main benefit of this talent over any others is that it can proc AM, and this will be able to do AoE damage to spread targets/adds while focusing the main/priority target.

Unstable Magic: Good passive cleave if adds will only be up for a few seconds and doesn’t allow Erosion to build up stacks. Also good if non priority add will be up for extended period of time.

Erosion: Best simming talent atm. Great talent for sustained AoE and anytime you’d be running M+.

tl:dr - UM or Erosion for most things, also helps that they’re passive. Only time I see NT being used is possibly if you have Rhonin’s Bracers combined with 4 set on longer fights.


Tier 100:


Overpowered: This talent sims highest, has mana reduction, and helps us to do great burst, definitely the all around go to for raiding.

Temporal Flux: Makes cast times quicker, which will help with movement in raids. The tradeoff is that you’ll generate more AM procs, which helps with 2/4 set and Rhonin’s, but you’ll drain your mana quicker and have overall less mana reduction compared to Overpowered.

Arcane Orb: This finally has some viability in M+ dungeons but the sim comparisons aren’t out yet in terms of AO vs OP yet.


Artifact:

Mark of Aluneth
This spell does great AoE/Cleave damage, should always be used in conjunction with Rune of Power, and preferably if any AoE or Cleave is coming. It lines up with Arcane Power every other use, and there should always be a Rune of Power up when the time comes to use this.

Artifact Trait Chart:



Talent Combinations:
Keeping in mind that Rune of Power, Supernova, Nether Tempest, and Shimmer can all be replaced by others, just pointing out combos that synergize well.

Single Target
Turret: Amplification - Slipstream - Rune of Power - Charged Up - Chrono Shift - Erosion - Overpowered
Heavy Movement: Amplification - Slipstream - Incanter’s Flow - Charged Up - Chrono Shift - Erosion - Temporal Flux

Dungeon/AoE Build
Amplification - Slipstream - Rune of Power - Resonance - Chrono Shift - Erosion - Overpowered / Arcane Orb

V - Rotation

Opener:

Prepot (Potion of Deadly Grace) While remembering that distance is important here
Precast MoA
Charged Up
Rune of Power
Arcane Power (including all on use trinkets/racials etc)
Presence of Mind (hopefully proccing ToTM)
Arcane Blast x 2
Arcane Missile if you have 2 AM procs
Arcane Blast

***Without Charged Up talented the opening sequence changes like this:

Prepot
Precast Arcane Blast
Arcane Blast x 3
Mark of Aluneth
Rune of Power
Arcane Power
Presence of Mind
Arcane Blast x 2
Arcane Missile if you have 2 AM procs
Arcane Blast


ST Rotation:

There are two parts of our rotation, Burn and Conserve.

Burn Phase:

This consists of having Arcane Power, Rune of Power, and/or Mark of Aluneth off cooldown
In this phase you will always start with this priority

Start with 4 Arcane Charges
Refresh Nether Tempest (if talented)
Mark of Aluneth (if off CD)
Rune of Power
Arcane Power (if off CD)
Supernova (if talents and off CD, but don't hold for burn)
Arcane Missiles if you have 2+ procs
Arcane Blast (Arcane Explosion if 2 or more targets)

Since Mark of Aluneth, Arcane Power, and Rune of Power all have different CDs you'll have moments where you can't use all three at once, therefore adapt to the situation.

Conserve Phase:

The goal of conserve rotation is to be able to time your evocation to be able to burn your remaining mana to sub 10% to be able to use Evocation right when it coms off CD, to not have it sitting there too long. This will depend how much mana you have when evocation is coming off CD and how many times you get AM procs to lower Evocation CD. You will need to start burning mana closer to 20 seconds left on evocation CD if you have 80% mana as opposed to having 20% mana where you wouldn't need to burn any mana until evocation was actually off CD.

***Having Rhonin's Armwraps makes the length of a mana burn take longer, so remember to initiate earlier due to procs that slow down your mana burning process.[/B]

There is no goal of staying as a certain % of mana during this phase since that was removed in WoD. How much mana you're hovering at will depend how soon or how late you need to begin burning your mana.

The basic conserve rotation is this:

Supernova on CD (if talented)
Build up to 4 Arcane Charges
Refresh Nether Tempest (if talented)
Burn any Arcane Missiles procs
Arcane Barrage

AoE Rotation is the exact same thing as both the burn and conserve rotations except that you replace Arcane Blast with Arcane Explosion. Continuing to Arcane Explosion instead of spending your Arcane Missiles charges will output less overall damage.

VI - Stat Weights

The stat weights for Arcane are somewhat convoluted. It changes drastically depending on your gear, so you aren't just stacking Crit like a fire mage would, but nonetheless here are the stat weights.

Int > Crit = Haste > Vers > Mastery Stats have changed in 7.1.5, so I’m not 100% sure but I think highest simmed DPS w/o Legendary was something like 29% mastery, 34% crit, 8% vers, 14% haste or something similar. Will update when more details are out)

The real answer is Sim yourself, it will change depending on your gear, more so than other specs/classes.

VII - Legendaries

Rhonin's Assaulting Armwraps:
The effect on our rotation from this legendary is merely a longer burn phase, which keeps us in the burn phase longer. This is the BiS ST legendary

The Mystic Kilt:
One way to use the pants is to continue with your normal rotation, but burn further down after you evocate since you will build mana back up with barrage.

Another way is to use Charged Up talent over Supernova. This results in the ability to rapidly gain mana 2 times inbetween evocations. You can barrage > CU > barrage > ABx4 > barrage and quickly gain a solid 40% mana back, and then do the same thing later when it comes off CD again. This also gives a slightly better opener as well: Precast MoA > CU > RoP > AP > AB/AM > continue. This playstyle does not have a reliable sim, hasn't particularly been proven to be better or worse DPS-wise, and I actually don't have experience with it, so any information you have regarding this would be welcomed.

VIII - F.A.Q.

Q: Is it a DPS gain to bank Arcane Missilesprocs for Touch of the Magi?
A: It hasn't been shown to be a DPS increase through sims (granted I didn't do them and didn't research to make sure it was correct), so the correct answer is to say no. Personally I don't think there is anything wrong with it if using Arcane Familiar instead of Words of Power, just never lose an Arcane Missiles proc or its definitely a DPS loss. Just think of it as a random DPS boost when you get TotM not something like a trinket proc that you wanna take advantage of.

Q: Does Arcane compete with Frost/Fire for raiding/M+?
A: Arcane can compete in sustained AoE and burst AoE, has better survivability, bigger Ice Barrier, and has more sustained damage outside of CDs from ability to burn mana whenever. Fire mechanically has automatic cleave, great ST Burst (mana burning vs. fires lackluster DPS outside of Combustion), sustained ST, but lacks the target swapping ability that arcane does so well.

tl:dr: Depends on the fight. We will win on some, they will win on others.

Q: Are the new pots going to be better that Deadly Grace potions?
A: No. People say 2500 stats is good, which it is, but when you have 33k int, getting 2500 more of that isn't that large of an increase. Deadly Grace potions are superior to prolonged power pots.

Q: Is it better to sync RoP, MoA, AP, PoM or use them together on CD?
A: See the below resources for more info since this isn't a yes or no answer, but my answer is there is a 2k difference in a sim, but as well as what the other graphic shows, your knowledge of fight length, encounter, add spawns, DPS checks, etc will be a better guide to whether you should sync or desync your abilities. If you need to burst down an add and are a few seconds off, burn your PoM outside of AP to kill it, etc.

TLR: If you don't really care all that much, just sync them together or use them on CD it doesn't matter all that much.

[a0kalittlema0n]

Done updating this guide, and saving this post incase I need for future

[Shangalar]

Thanks for writing the guide! I've made it sticky. Everyone, feel free to participate in the discussion on Arcane mechanics, gear and gameplay here.

[Krazzorx]

Is there any gearing changes with 7.1.5? So I know what to go for gearing wise as I assume I can't sim for 7.1.5 yet?

[Shangalar]

Is there any gearing changes with 7.1.5? So I know what to go for gearing wise as I assume I can't sim for 7.1.5 yet?

Stat weights, i.e. gearing process, depends on final talent and number tuning. We can guess that it's still going to be a reasonable balance between all stats with a focus on Intellect.

[a0kalittlema0n]

Between SimC and experimenting in game I've found a solid stat weight that has given me good outcomes. All of the percentages are rough and vary depending when you upgrade gear, but I've found sticking around these general numbers has proven great for a rotation including barrage.

Crit 30%
Haste 15%
Mastery 30%
Vers 6%

As far as PTR I ran the Nighthold testing with my same stats, and I found these results and conclusions based on 2 days ago with regards to the PTR patch that was named to be the launch build.

Overpowered as a 100 talent feels slow and it remains difficult to burn your mana quickly with the 4 set bonus procing AM so often and a reduction in Evocation CD. If running OP I'm going to "assume" we'll want much higher haste to compensate for that.

Relics for this build that would be great would be AP Duration, AM Proc %, and Crit %

Temporal Flux, while it "seems" inferior atm will either benefit greatly from haste or want none of it (depending on whether or not the reduced cast time calculates before or after the haste/talent which I'm not 100% sure about) and this build will probably want more mastery than the other builds. This build will most likely require Amplification as well since you have a higher % chance to get AM due to double chance for ABlast which you will be casting more often. This build will probably synergies with legendaries that grant mana.

Relics for this build that would be theoretically beneficial is an AB dmg %, AM Proc %, and of course 1% crib.

As to questions in the other forum that went unanswered:

Nether Tempest on PTR is outputting less damage on single target, but where the question lies is whether or not it does more damage for cleave situations when you can consistently keep 8 stacks of erosion up on the add.

Conserve Phase: I build to 4 stacks with ABlast > Refresh NT > Supernova > AM > Barrage

You have to start with higher mana since this is mana negative, I typically start conserve rotation with >60% mana to not run out before AP comes back up.

There is a way to slow cast and just keep Quickening stacks up, but I don't typically recommend that play style, but my Video guide addresses that enough to satisfy I think.

AM > AB during AP as a pure DPS increase viewpoint, BUT as was previously mentioned, you save mana by casting AB during AP and then have 4 seconds to regain mana outside of AP when you dump those AM. If you have Rhonin's the casting of AM in AP is even worse since you can proc a free AB, which should definitely be used outside of AP, so I'd hold them as much as you can if you run Rhonin's Wraps.

[Shangalar]

Feels like in 7.1.5 we're gonna have two gearing directions - some Haste with a focus on Crit/Mastery for people who don't have some form of mana regen legendaries, and some Mastery with a focus on Haste/Crit for those who have mana regen legendaries. Talking primarily about helmet and pants. It would make sense in a way, but the 4-set bonus is also going to push us more towards Haste.

As far as relics go, it's probably going to be Power duration / Crit chance before set bonuses, and then Power duration / Missiles proc chance with set bonuses. I like this, the spec priorities slightly changing based on context and not everything being so clear cut. Though, preparing guides and answering people's questions is gonna be a bitch.

[Krazzorx]

Would overpowered benefit from a haste heavy build to get more AB in during AP's duration?

[a0kalittlema0n]

Would overpowered benefit from a haste heavy build to get more AB in during AP's duration?

That is going to be a huge focus of the build. Hitting specific haste breakpoints will be integral to that build. Two that I can think of right off the bat is how AB you can get in AP with Heroism and no Heroism. On top of that that will be dependent on your haste, AP duration relics, and whether or not you run Mark of the Claw (which is supposed to be better and hopefully would proc on the pull) or any other haste on use trinkets.

On top of that, running this build with any kind of mana legendary might make it difficult to burn all of your mana in time with the 4 set, so having more haste would be better in terms of using all available mana and not wasting any.

[The Archmage]

7.1.5 is out, and i would like to know what opinions are out there regarding the changes.

I tested the spec for almost 8 hours on proper endgame gameplay now (mythic EN clear until Cenarius and ToV until Helya). Switched out talents a bit, tried out different things. I will start saying that numbers are of no concern as of now: too early to tell if they are just low or definetly too low, whatever the case Blizzard will intervene. My focus point is on playstyle and general feel of it.

The spec in this current iteration feels... odd. Specifically, it feels tremendously SLOW. Like i have hardly seeing in this game. Everything we do has a cast time, and a long one at that. Even on Mythic adds (Evil Tree, for example) i could barely get 2 or 3 arcane blasts out before a Corruptor was nuclearized to death by my teammates, and that is without counting the casts i had to interrupt due to movement with the loss of Ice Floes. With the talent rebalancing, we lost almost all active skills: Erosion over Nether Tempest, Resonance (on most cases, since adds are very present in the current raid tiers) over SN, Ice Floes is no longer a thing and another active we lost. All i use are blasts, missiles, RoP and Barrage occasionally, when required, alongside the new Prismatic Barrier (which again feels rather weak at the moment, but if it is too weak Blizzard will intervene).

All this mechanical changes coupled with the overall stat reduction (roughly 5% haste, for me) provides a feeling of having a slow nuclear cannon that hurts like hell when it lands a juicy critical hit but fails to do so more often that not. I almost forgot the feeling of having a cast interrupted because my target died while midcast, or because i had to move.

Probably more gear and stat scaling will contribute to lowering this "snoring" feeling that the spec currently provides, but still... it will take me quite a while to get used to it.

What do you guys think? Have you tested the spec yet?

[Deix-EU]

7.1.5 is out, and i would like to know what opinions are out there regarding the changes.

I tested the spec for almost 8 hours on proper endgame gameplay now (mythic EN clear until Cenarius and ToV until Helya). Switched out talents a bit, tried out different things. I will start saying that numbers are of no concern as of now: too early to tell if they are just low or definetly too low, whatever the case Blizzard will intervene. My focus point is on playstyle and general feel of it.

The spec in this current iteration feels... odd. Specifically, it feels tremendously SLOW. Like i have hardly seeing in this game. Everything we do has a cast time, and a long one at that. Even on Mythic adds (Evil Tree, for example) i could barely get 2 or 3 arcane blasts out before a Corruptor was nuclearized to death by my teammates, and that is without counting the casts i had to interrupt due to movement with the loss of Ice Floes. With the talent rebalancing, we lost almost all active skills: Erosion over Nether Tempest, Resonance (on most cases, since adds are very present in the current raid tiers) over SN, Ice Floes is no longer a thing and another active we lost. All i use are blasts, missiles, RoP and Barrage occasionally, when required, alongside the new Prismatic Barrier (which again feels rather weak at the moment, but if it is too weak Blizzard will intervene).

All this mechanical changes coupled with the overall stat reduction (roughly 5% haste, for me) provides a feeling of having a slow nuclear cannon that hurts like hell when it lands a juicy critical hit but fails to do so more often that not. I almost forgot the feeling of having a cast interrupted because my target died while midcast, or because i had to move.

Probably more gear and stat scaling will contribute to lowering this "snoring" feeling that the spec currently provides, but still... it will take me quite a while to get used to it.

What do you guys think? Have you tested the spec yet?

I'm following you, arcane spec right now seem to be designed clearly (gameplay wise and maybe number, scaling is in favor of arcane for high end) for T19 + pair of nice legendaries and haste. But till then, it indeed lost all active skill which is wierd because the contrary is for other classes / specs. I guess it's unwanted by Blizzard and they'll rectify it soon cause for them active spell should be more rewarding.

[a0kalittlema0n]

Done updating the guide if you want to change title to 7.1.5 guide

[Vlue]

thanks for the guide

[D3athsting]

Can't find info on relics, i currrently have 2 am proc and 1 crit%, what are bis relics for 2pc and 4pc set?

[Desparil]

Can't find info on relics, i currrently have 2 am proc and 1 crit%, what are bis relics for 2pc and 4pc set?

Am proc chance>Ap duration>Ab damage>Crit chance>Am dmg thats what Frosted posted on Altered time, here is the link for all other stuff https://www.altered-time.com/forum/v...7d9ade5e8a3eaa

[a0kalittlema0n]

Spot on, I personally am not a fan of the AP duration relic, but I also put Crit chance higher as well. I would love your relics

[D3athsting]

Just got arcane belt as 5th leg, (previous were norgannon, fire belt, belo'vir and fire bracers), how good is arcane belt? How does it affect burn and conserve phases?

[a0kalittlema0n]

TBH it is literal crap. I have Norganon's, Chest, Bracers, Sephuz, Belt and I never use it. Maybe it does something, but its like an additional 3 ABs over an entire encounter or something like that, especially since we don't stack mastery the value of it was severely decreased.

I typically run Bracers and Norg, unless interrupts then Sephuz.

I'd run Norg, and either chest or the others if you have worse items to replace them with etc. I love Norgannon's though, super nice

Edit: Belt sims worst of all legendaries for arcane, yep the neck sims higher....

[D3athsting]

Justy got 4pc tier, how good is for arcane? How does it affect rotation?

[a0kalittlema0n]

It's bugged, and doesn't sim well, but it affects rotation because you desync your evocation and arcane power. It's not amazing for us compared to other classes.