Arcane: AP and when to use it

[takolin]

So our burn phase comes on a 2 minute timer due to the evocation CD and falls in line with the improved mana gem, but AP has a shorter CD.

So I was wondering if it's worth waiting 30 seconds to use AP with mana gem and the burn, or to just use it on CD.

Well this excludes an imminent death of the boss when AP comes of CD and the boss would be dead in 30 seconds.

[Groovymama]

Interesting question, and if you do some testing I'd love to read about it. I tend to use AP whenever it's up, but that's more out of habit than any careful strategy.

[Makarena]

also curious about the testings, seems like waiting is better for short fights but we dont have that much of short fights today

[Deleted]

i always start with a burn phase, going to 4 stacks of ab debuff, then mana gem+ ap+ mirrors+any trinks burn down to 30% ~ ( yes that low, by the time you finish a full evo, you gain 2 ticks of the mage armor , you WILL be at 100% mana ) then ofc manage the rotation properly, the way i go from there, is begin a new burn when ap comes of cd, with the mana gem used ON CD ! ( for the obvious mana gain and the sp buff catching ~ 5 sec of ap ) the repeat , but this is , of course dependant on fight particularities, ( magmaw exposed head phase...and the likes )

[Cryssa]

So our burn phase comes on a 2 minute timer due to the evocation CD and falls in line with the improved mana gem...

Bear in mind I havent played arcane since early ICC;

Mana Gems give you a 2% of you max mana as spellpower on use, so you'd be losing say 1800 SP for 10 seconds if you had 90000 mana by not waiting. I havent done any math on it, but that seems to be an aweful lot of spell power to miss on a burn phase...

[Deleted]

I think that it is better to wait for the CDs.

If the damage of your burst phases (without arcane power) is at least 1.5 times higher than the dps of your conservation phase (without arcane power), waiting for the CDs should result in a dps increase. Usually the damage of spamming AB should be 1.5 times higher than the damage of a conservation cycle, together with mana gem (and 2 minutes on use trinkets) it is even more.

I am not completly sure about the "1.5", because I didn´t consider things like the increased mana cost while arcane power is active or the possibility to start a second burst phase only for arcane power with a flame orb at the end to get mana to 100% again with AM proccs. But I think waiting for CDs is still the right choice, if not, it is a very small amount of damage you´d lose.

[Deleted]

Every time I see this thread coming up I can't help myself but to make this offtopic comment:

Might be interesting idea if they made AP letting us cast spells on the move.

[Fahren Kaa]

Every time I see this thread coming up I can't help myself but to make this offtopic comment:

Might be interesting idea if they made AP letting us cast spells on the move.

Arcane missiles should be castable on the move regardless, but that's not a bad idea at all. Might even revive some arcane viability in arena's, thought that's doubtful since you're butter against a hot knife in most cases anyway.