Arcane, Where Did THAT Come From?

[Pasture]

Arcane mage is, by far, the most ezmode damage rotation in the game. The easiest spec to play should not be doing the most damage.

You don't understand how Arcane works, so you shouldn't be commenting. Arcane has never been about a 'rotation'. It's always been about managing mana and cooldowns. It's easy to play it down because it only has two main nukes, but that has never been what Arcane is about. The Arcane 'rotation' is indeed simple. The cooldowns and mana management are what require the planning.

Most other specs just have to worry about their rotation, which might have three, four or five spells to it. They, however, don't have to worry about managing mana, or altering rotations, nor stacking cooldowns around mana and burst phases. They just have to worry about pressing their buttons without thinking. To some extent that's the more simple rotation because you're not forced into considering fight duration and burst phases. You just press the same buttons no matter what.

[Advent]

I'm still only hearing bitching about a class, rather than a spec. "All mages are doing this", "All mages are doing that". It's aggravating. Not all mages are arcane, and if they are, good for them. Why the hell is everyone so frustrated that the premier caster dps class has a true moment to shine in the limelight for the first time since Vanilla?

God you complainers make me sick!

[Gene B]

Incorrect. But I'll first delve into your question.

Arcane was boosted in dps by increasing the chance per Arcane Blast for Missile Barrage to proc from 20% to 40%. Also, Missile Barrage was made a free-of-mana cast, increasing the amount of mana an Arcane mage has (always a struggle). Third, Arcane Blast now stacks to 4 rather than to 3, allowing for more damage.

Fire was also buffed through combustion, but that doesn't seem to be your concern.

Now, about mages in raids. First, I should mention mages were NOT in like with other pure dps classes. We had 1 spec that could come CLOSE to Warlocks and Rogues, both with all three specs higher than or right around a mages max dps with only 1 spec viable. Mages now have two viable specs that top meters.

I'm sorry your rogue is no longer the top dog. It sucks, I mean, 3 whole patches and now you are actually losing?? I know, it's hard. However, nobody wants your rogue QQ. From 3.0-3.2 you guys were the clear number one, and now you are number two. It may be hard to deal with, but that's life.

And mages being top in all ToC fights is a crock. Take a look at the meters from the original kills of Anub-H-25. Rogues still dominate. Cut the QQ and find an audience who cares.

I agree with Deathleech - locks, hunters, and rogues do NOT i repeat NOT have 3 viable specs for top dps. Sub sucks ass (in pve) for rogues, BM is just bad for hunters, and demo pretty much all around sucks also. So as you blatantly put it, incorrect.

[Skarrd]

ill make a deal with you. they can remove all of our key arcane talents from the game if they give us naxx40-style rolling ignites back.

sound good?

[Swizzle]

I agree with Deathleech - locks, hunters, and rogues do NOT i repeat NOT have 3 viable specs for top dps. Sub sucks ass (in pve) for rogues, BM is just bad for hunters, and demo pretty much all around sucks also. So as you blatantly put it, incorrect.

mages don't either, we have 2: arcane (57/3/11) and TtW/fire (19/52/0 or 20/51/0). FFB is not competitive at this tier of raiding outside of 25 man heroic anub'arak for the AoE spam. so let's see, that's what? each pure dps class with 2 viable specs? awesome. see ya next expansion.

[Skarrd]

mages don't either, we have 2: arcane (57/3/11) and TtW/fire (19/52/0 or 20/51/0). FFB is not competitive at this tier of raiding outside of 25 man heroic anub'arak for the AoE spam. so let's see, that's what? each pure dps class with 2 viable specs? awesome. see ya next expansion.

not to mention FFB is a fire spec, and uses the same tree as another one of our good raiding specs and just tosses the extra baby 18 points in the third tree instead of the first.

also, demonology, though bad personal dps, can result in higher overall raid dps, and actually has it's place. not that it's good and should remain how it is, but i'd say its above sub/BM/frost by a good margin.

[Voltulio]

Few things.

I played fire for years, got bored of it, especially with the FFB spec. Now I play arcane - I am not bored, but suspect I might get bored now that mana control is barely necessary.

As to the PvE dps comparison...the balance between classes is better than it ever was at level 70, so you really can bring the player and not the class. A bag rogue will not do the DPS as a good mage and a good rogue will out-dps a bad mage. Small differences will be there for every encounter, who cares.

One last word on mage dps and gear - I found PvE dps was very gear dependent. Are other classes as dependent? Probably - but it seems gear is a bigger deal nowadays for DPS than which class class, which might be why Blizz keeps making gear easier to get.