Is arcane PvP any good these days?

[Judicium]

My mage hit 80 about a week ago, and I've been gearing him up for PvP and playing with frost. I find frost kind of boring and sometimes downright frustrating. Seems like everyone has a million ways to get out of novas / deep freezes. Was just curious if arcane pvp is dead these days and I should just tough it out or what.

[Moistloins]

Stick with frost and master the control aspect that it brings.

[Deleted]

It's alright and quite fun, but obviously requires quite a bit more resilience than frost. From an arena point of view it's definitely not dead, but doesn't have as many viable comps as frost.

[Leios the Worstcase]

Well now that you can’t 2 Hit People with Arcane Power and a Instant Pyro + Barrage like in the first 4-5 Weeks of Wrath I guess you will get Kicked in the Face....

Nah it’s okay I guess... not good but okay.... Kinda

[thomasbechthyssen]

Hey guys
I got some questions I realy hope your can help me with.
1. Can any one tell me the good and bad things about PVP arcane and frost.
2. I know the stats for frost is haste, spellpower and resi. But what about arcane?

First I was specced arcane and every one told me that frost was the only right thing and no one pvp'ed as arcane any more. Is that right?

[Thugpants]

YES

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...7Ganis&cn=Abni

check that guy out...

baddest motherfucker on my server i watch him duel al the time (hes arcane) and he NEVER loses.... seriously this guy is a fucking savage.. he wrecks people with ease....

[Katave]

YES

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...7Ganis&cn=Abni

check that guy out...

baddest motherfucker on my server i watch him duel al the time (hes arcane) and he NEVER loses.... seriously this guy is a fucking savage.. he wrecks people with ease....

I am not extremely experienced in Arcane PvP, but it seems like he doesn't have much haste. If he is as savage as you say he is... then damn. Correct me if I'm wrong... but isn't Arcane meant to gear/gem for haste, and lots of it? From what I have read in the past, your typical Arcane Mage will want to get a good mix of PvE and PvP gear to maximize haste. Again, correct me if I am wrong...still got a lot to learn.

To OP: Frost is the "preferred" spec for "good Mages," while Arcane is the spec for "terribles." (Quoting a Tauren Druid from another forum about Arcane PvP.) I tried Frost and thought it was very boring and frustrating, too. I've had a bit more success and a lot more fun playing Arcane in BGs. You're going to have to stay fairly mobile as Arcane due to its lower survivability compared to Frost. You could also try Fire if you're really into blowing people up.

[stormix]

LooL... Why you even watch Abni, i mean he is like THE skilled arcane mage out there... Gladiator all the times...And yes, he plays arcane, and yes, he is really damn good at it.

[Baabinator]

Normal Tier: Frost
Legendary Tier: Fire
Above Legendary (is that possible?) Tier: Arcane

[Deleted]

Hehe, I guess it was only a matter of time before someone mentions Relentless Gladiator Abni, arcane mage class hero. There are a few arcane gladiators post-nerfs but he's definitely the only R1 I've seen. Even though it's priest PoV watching Bilian 3 and 4 gives some idea about how arcane still works as played by Abni, but as I noted earlier pretty much the only really good comp for arcane is RMP. Not to say Abni couldn't make it work in any comp.

As for the haste PvE gear bit, that's what frost mages do. As frost you feel gimped with low haste, as arcane not so much and generally speaking you need more PvP gear as arcane. Some frost mages actually gem for haste for PvP these days but I don't think it's worth it for arcane.

If you're looking at all 30 specs (+hybrids) in the game, arcane isn't exactly the worst and is better off atm than Fire for example. At the end of the day hunters kill you in three seconds anyway so go with whatever spec you like. ^^

[krohnal]

YES

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...7Ganis&cn=Abni

check that guy out...

baddest motherfucker on my server i watch him duel al the time (hes arcane) and he NEVER loses.... seriously this guy is a fucking savage.. he wrecks people with ease....

Never looses u say.... lies, just check his achievements :P

1606 - Duels lost.

[Thugpants]

LooL... Why you even watch Abni, i mean he is like THE skilled arcane mage out there... Gladiator all the times...And yes, he plays arcane, and yes, he is really damn good at it.

theres a few other awesome arcane mages on mal'ganis also... i cant remembr the dudes name i think its angryarnold.. he always takes abni to about 10%hp in deuls and rapes all other classes

[Thugpants]

Never looses u say.... lies, just check his achievements :P

1606 - Duels lost.

those were probably in his earlier days ... seriously ive never seen him losein at least over hundreds of the deusl ive seen him in.

[Piscesthepally]

I think it depends on how good you are at playing mage. I've had great success with it on my mage

[ifrah]

My mage hit 80 about a week ago, and I've been gearing him up for PvP and playing with frost. I find frost kind of boring and sometimes downright frustrating. Seems like everyone has a million ways to get out of novas / deep freezes. Was just curious if arcane pvp is dead these days and I should just tough it out or what.

If people getting out of novas is frustrating you, then as arcane you'll be swiss cheese in no time.

[Deleted]

If people getting out of novas is frustrating you, then as arcane you'll be swiss cheese in no time.

To me it seemed like was mostly annoyed by not being able to do a lot of damage through shatters rather than for example ferals/paladins getting out of snares and getting into melee range. Compared to frost, arcane offers excellent burst that cannot be prevented by defensive dispels.

[thomasbechthyssen]

Thx for all the good answers Í will give it a try, frost is very hard to play and takes alot of practice. I like arcane more before you have alot of instant you can use on the move

But I thought crit was very important for arcane, but its more important with haste.

[Skarrd]

Thx for all the good answers Í will give it a try, frost is very hard to play and takes alot of practice. I like arcane more before you have alot of instant you can use on the move

But I thought crit was very important for arcane, but its more important with haste.

PvP arcane wants crit more than haste, though haste isn't bad or anything.

[Geckomayhem]

I haven't really PvPed with my mage since vanilla, but am thinking about giving it a shot as arcane in the next patch (when they remove honour tokens). I guess you gotta start out somewhere, and if it means getting absolutely ravaged because of low resilience, then so be it. Battlegrounds are a team effort, anyway. If I can be the glass cannon, I'll try and be the glass cannon that stays obscured. >.<

[Judicium]

Thanks for all the replies. I've since done some arcane pvp and like the fact that it doesn't take as much setup to do damage and slow is amazing, but the survivability is pretty bad. Back trying frost for the mean time, I just don't like that if they aren't frozen I'm not doing any real damage.