Mana Issues on Lich King

[mgjr]

We have finally started getting into the 3rd phase on LK with our 10 man group. The issue I'm having is mana. I'm running the cookie cutter Arcane spec with the T10 Set with the ICC Crafted legs. I evocate whenever I can. The only way I've found to help with this is buy swapping out the molten armor glyph for mana gem glyph, using Mage Armor, and Flask of mojo. Obviously this is a DPS loss for me. I keep thiking there is something I'm not doing correctly with the rotation that is causing the mana issues. Any suggestions are appreciated.

[WesM63]

Arcane does have a tough time on LK.

Does your group have Replenishment?

Alternately, you could drop to the ABx3 rotation for a higher DPM.

[JackalopeSpam]

A big thing is going to be Evocate at the right times as well, in order to maximize effectiveness. IE, don't evocate during valk's or defile as they're big DPS bursts or movement phases. What I'vve seen mages do is Evocate before the valk's are spawning, before the raging spirits (during transition), and a few other relatively bland moments.

Keep in mind that this is one of the longer fights in the entire raid/expansion. So you may have to change up your rotation a bit to increase mana efficiency. Otherwise, if it's a 10 man raid, you might also be missing some of the raid (de)buffs that help with mana. Is there a blessing of Wisdom or a Manastream totem? Is there a paladin who could use Judgment of Wisdom? Is there a resto shaman, cause if you could sneak into his group for the Manatide totems, that would help a lot. If the healers aren't having mana issues, could you get an Innervate from a Druid of any type?

Some of these might be a little greedy if they're catering to you specifically, but all of it could help.

And I completely forgot about replenishment...

Another option is to try out Fire. It does a lot of damage and has the 'cleave' effect as well to help with adds.

[mgjr]

I've thought about fire, but "Slow" is very useful for the Valks and there isn't an equivalent on the Fire side unless I get close enough to the Valk to cast Dragon's Breath. It may be viable to do that, but I'm not sure.

[Zentack]

People still talking about Lich king? :S

[Daxx]

I would also recommend fire. Once you reach a certain gear/stat level fire outperforms arcane on every encounter; on lk it can outperform arcane even in lesser gear

Slow is valuable to a certain extent, but on 10 man you are dealing with a single valk each spawn; there should be another way in your group to slow it and there shouldn't be any issues in killing it fast enough.

As another person said, plan your evos and gems properly, it helps out a lot ---

[Swizzle]

since you're talking about 10 man, there is only one valk and you don't even have to kill it, just get it to 50%. slow is a DPS loss on a valk which means it stays up longer which means a higher chance of it dropping its target. does your raid run without hunters, warriors, rogues, spriests, paladins, deathknights, and druids?

[extrudedcow]

Cast AM whenever Missile Barrage procs. With the T10 set bonus it's a minor dps loss but a significant improvement in efficiency.

Without an armory link it's difficult to spot anything incorrect regarding your spec or gear, but if you're not using an intellect trinket, I would recommend swapping it in if you're having mana issues.

Mana can be rough on the LK fight when you're learning it. Casting evocation at the right time and as close to it's cooldown as possible is very helpful. Keep in mind that this fight isn't really a dps race, so moving to a more conservative cast rotation keeps mana available for the moments you really need it.

[sidphoenix]

since you're talking about 10 man, there is only one valk and you don't even have to kill it, just get it to 50%.

gonna throw out there that assuming someone means heroic may be a big stretch here for mr arcane.

[Swizzle]

gonna throw out there that assuming someone means heroic may be a big stretch here for mr arcane.

wait...normal LK with a 30% buff? even easier. just nuke the living shit out of the valk and go back to LK. done and done.

[Tryinmilkme]

What do you mean by you dont even have to kill the valk? I am in a small guild that just recently came back to the game so LK is still new to me. I thought you had to kill the valk or it will drop the person off the edge everytime?

[Swizzle]

on heroic it drops the person after it reaches 50% health. though again, some people may not be on heroic.

[mgjr]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Last night we got Lich King to 14%. Yes, I almost punched the monitor. We are going to try again tonight even-though it's not a normal raid night for us. (We are an extremely casual 10 man crew). I was the 2nd to last to die. Fire was WAY more mana efficient and my DPS was actually higher because I need to evocate less and could keep casting LB and Fireball instead of standing around or doing ABX2.

[Potato Bus]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Last night we got Lich King to 14%. Yes, I almost punched the monitor. We are going to try again tonight even-though it's not a normal raid night for us. (We are an extremely casual 10 man crew). I was the 2nd to last to die. Fire was WAY more mana efficient and my DPS was actually higher because I need to evocate less and could keep casting LB and Fireball instead of standing around or doing ABX2.

Yeah, I ran fire for LK (normal mode 30% buff, I know... bad guild -> slightly better guild that died -> new guild that cleared it, but haven't felt like doing heroics now). I just toss out LB on adds in all phases and the adds on transition (was on orb duty), the cleave crits + ignites on multiple targets made mana a joke on the fight. I think I popped my mana gem twice overall with no evocates (and we were brushing the enrage timer >.>).

[siaro]

here's some tips that can help you alot!

Mana Gem/Mana Potions - Abuse it, i used(i'm not arcane anymore) it as soon as i could(meaning if it gives you 10% mana you use it when you need 11% to be 100%), same with mana pot(late fight prefered)

Evocation . Just cause your not at 40% mana dosn't mean you can't use it! Abuse it, use it when you can. On such fights as LK i'd use it in transitions or whenever you know you won't be able to put out your normal dps(think ahead in other words)

AB stacks - Well just never use AB when you have 4 stacks, it can really(like Really really) drain your mana. If you have 4 stacks and no proc, still just Use AM, it's better dmg then barrage anyway!

Hope this helped you!

/water

[Erik765]

My strat for LK is to burn down to 8-9k mana w/o using any gems on phase one, then when LK is running back into middle, blink to edge and Evo. Then use gems when I'm down about 4k during phase two, then use gems as needed throughout the fight. Usually end up making it through the rest of the fight w/o having to Evo again, but that's if everything goes right and I'm paying attention. If you need to, use it again as soon as phase three starts while the tank is building up aggro on the first spirit.

That's the fun part about Arc for me is paying attention to your mana, most people think it's boring, I personally think fire is boring. Too slow, nothing to really pay attention to besides keeping LB up... fun.