Arcane or Fire

[Therec]

Oh, and don't think me biased. I was an Arcane mage throughout WotLK. If I was in a 25-man guild I'd go Arcane in a heartbeat, but right now there are just too many times in my 10-man raid group where I'm assigned to do something that would not be doable as arcane. (Like kiting/killing the adds on H Magmaw)

[Deleted]

First off "You are going with terrible fire mages or you are raiding with terrible arcane mages" blah blah blah, stop the sillyness please.
Both specs are pretty close where you could go either and do good to godly DPS, I'm mainly fire due to the previous patch fire being better and all my gear and forging is aimed towards fire that didn't stop me from making my OS arcane and giving that a go and guess what I still did pretty high numbers. Please remember one very simple thing about this game if you are better at playing fire than arcane or vise versa swapping to the one you are worse at will only HURT your DPS. Neither spec is so far ahead that swapping to it if you are ill suited to the will result in a DPS gain.

For people that actually want to look : here is a link to Sinestra where I'm arcane but fully gem'd and forged etc... for fire it's average nothing great, I could squeeze out a chunk more DPS by fully gear'ing for arcane which I'm going to try tonight and do all the encounters as arcane so I can compare it to fire and I'll let you all know how that goes :P

I think the best solution will be to swap between spec's for certain fights (that's me guessing as I wont know until after I test if it's better to do that or not). But if your guild are that annoyed with you about going back after each respec to reforge or if you are too lazy to do that then rest easy knowing that with good gear you have high enough stats to be useful regardless of spec.

The most important point here to remember however is if you suck at arcane(and mana management) and play fire very well (able to time combustion / don't miss pyro's etc..) going arcane will not help you and vise versa.

[velias1234]

For 4.1 raiding which is more sustainable and viable for raids? Arcane or Fire?

Go arcane for everything. Arcane is far more consistent than fire, in which you pray for a good rng streak to maximize your combustion.

OR if you're aoe'ing with fire and can't get impacts / hot streak / ignite to line up perfect to spread your combustion. Arcane aoe is actually pretty good now.

Thats the problem with fire really, the results aren't consistent. Arcane is consistent, most mages in high end guilds have switched to arcane full time. Its also far higher single target, and less reliant on outside help to parse well with

[Deleted]

Go arcane for everything. Arcane is far more consistent than fire, in which you pray for a good rng streak to maximize your combustion.

OR if you're aoe'ing with fire and can't get impacts / hot streak / ignite to line up perfect to spread your combustion. Arcane aoe is actually pretty good now.

Thats the problem with fire really, the results aren't consistent. Arcane is consistent, most mages in high end guilds have switched to arcane full time. Its also far higher single target, and less reliant on outside help to parse well with

Most mages have not , don't make bland statements like that without at least reading the above comment (le sigh) the top DPS mages for all fights (except Sinestra) are still showing fire first.

Is arcane more reliable ? Possibly but you cannot do the majority of your DPS while moving. You don't have the WHOPPING AoE that is fire example is here this is top fire dps on that fight check that with arcane here and you can see that the TOP arcane mage wouldn't even fit into the top 200 fire.

I could do that for a lot more fights if you want but I'd be pointing out the obvious. Fire is not consistent to an exact number but it stabilises out you're never going to be in a case where your DPS is so hugely different that you're like 'wtf?' also you can CONTROL fire to reduce the 'RnG' but it comes down to knowing how to play fire and what to do and when you need to do it....

With better gear fire becomes even less 'RnG' as you call it. Please don't misread me Arcane is not bad but just don't make stupid statements like the above without at least trying to prove it.

[KoolKidKaos]

Fire/Arcane Reforge for Arcane, Gem for Arcane Win the game, maybe 2-4 fights you should go fire imo, maloriak,cho'gall,valiona, ODS. Everything else, there is no point to do anything other then Arcane, and fire reforged to full mastery > crit, isn't all that bad, so reforging between fights isn't necessary.

[Redbounty]

Whoever is saying Frost is a dps spec for raiding should quit. Arcane is Burst IMO u need to learn how to play it wisely for Raid Boss\'(s). Fire is a Single Target Spec for PvE aswell, But when u get that Impact/living bomb off it spreads. Never ever go frost for 1 single fight. I\'d Kick somebody if i saw they were frost

[KoolKidKaos]

Personally I've loved fire since the 10% buff in ICC, and I've been fire ever since, I have been totally against arcane since it became obsolete in ICC. Reminiscing on the ToC days I never wanted to go back lol, BUT since the fire aoe nerf, idk, I once again have love for arcane. IMHO if you play it right, manage your mana, use CD's properly it's far superior on at least 75% of the raid content out today. So personally I'm going Arcane/Fire, only because my guild's aoe capabilities are lulz @ best, otherwise I'd be Arcane/Pvp Frost for off nights. :S

[velias1234]

Most mages have not , don't make bland statements like that without at least reading the above comment (le sigh) the top DPS mages for all fights (except Sinestra) are still showing fire first.

Is arcane more reliable ? Possibly but you cannot do the majority of your DPS while moving. You don't have the WHOPPING AoE that is fire example is here this is top fire dps on that fight check that with arcane here and you can see that the TOP arcane mage wouldn't even fit into the top 200 fire.

I could do that for a lot more fights if you want but I'd be pointing out the obvious. Fire is not consistent to an exact number but it stabilises out you're never going to be in a case where your DPS is so hugely different that you're like 'wtf?' also you can CONTROL fire to reduce the 'RnG' but it comes down to knowing how to play fire and what to do and when you need to do it....

With better gear fire becomes even less 'RnG' as you call it. Please don't misread me Arcane is not bad but just don't make stupid statements like the above without at least trying to prove it.

If you say so bro, look at the logs for ALL OF THE MAGES in the top 10 USA and they all went arcane this week or last week. Gentlements club, midwinter, vigil, exodus, i could go on, but basically except for a couple everyone went arcane. Look at WOL for proof. I have parsed top 20 multiple times for fire spec and anyone who's played both specs for more than a minute since the release of 4.1 knows that arcane is higher for single target.

Arcane does put far more single target dps and arcane is more consistent, and less luck reliant than fire. On heroic malorik I don't have to pray for a hot streak, and then do a blastwave / flamestrike / flamestrike only to NOT get an impact proc. Stuff like that happens with fire now and then and its just annoying that the stars have to align to do your best. That is not the case with arcane, it is consistent dps with less reliance on star alignment.

No offense to you but your guild isn't 13/13 yet. All the mages in the top guidls have gone arcane.

[Cebel]

If you say so bro, look at the logs for ALL OF THE MAGES in the top 10 USA and they all went arcane this week or last week. Gentlements club, midwinter, vigil, exodus, i could go on, but basically except for a couple everyone went arcane. Look at WOL for proof. I have parsed top 20 multiple times for fire spec and anyone who's played both specs for more than a minute since the release of 4.1 knows that arcane is higher for single target.

Arcane does put far more single target dps and arcane is more consistent, and less luck reliant than fire. On heroic malorik I don't have to pray for a hot streak, and then do a blastwave / flamestrike / flamestrike only to NOT get an impact proc. Stuff like that happens with fire now and then and its just annoying that the stars have to align to do your best. That is not the case with arcane, it is consistent dps with less reliance on star alignment.

No offense to you but your guild isn't 13/13 yet. All the mages in the top guidls have gone arcane.

This guy is pretty much correct... finally a mage on these forums thats not in a top guild but understands wtf hes talking about. +5 internetz

Arcane is more reliable DPS, and as of this patch, on a majority of fights... more dps. WoL does not reset their rankings on a new patch, and thus most of the fire parses you are seeing, are either from a pre-nerfed form of fire, or the boss. If you look through a majority of the top guilds logs, arcane mages are beating their fire mages consistently.

[KoolKidKaos]

Even though top guilds have access to the best gear for arcane, still doesn't matter, arcane still ownts fire, sadly, Arcane is the shit atm, so gogo Mastery > crit > haste people.

[Cebel]

Also, my GM ran the numbers again last night as of 4.1 for Focus Magic dps values...

#1 dps gain - Fire Mage
#2 dps gain - Arcane Mage
#3 dps gain - Shadow Priest

So basically, give FM to a fire mage if you have one, or swap it with another arcane mage. If neither of those are possible, give it to a shadow priest.

[Deleted]

This is for HEROIC bosses only - also the WOL records aren't always the most recent figures, it's just a general overview. This isn't set in stone it's just from my own experience and world of logs average, some fights are much more straight forward in which spec is better ie.. halfrus others are role dependent like conclave. This is just for people who say "GO ARCANE FOR EVERY FIGHT" cause let's be real about it, if you're having a discussion on which spec is better and you want to get the MOST Out of your char you are looking at heroic raids... and you are looking at comparing DPS with the best. Not retarded "DUH GO ARCANE" please stop saying this people

Magmaw - depends on your role , I reckon fire will still win on DPS on this fight potentially with the head phase Arcane could but I doubt it the top fire vs top arcane arcane rankings are recent fire are not so meh could be up for debate but I think with the option for spreading which you should always do and keep the fire haste buff up you'll win.

ODS - fire will be better , I'm not even convinced arcane would have the mana to spellsteal stacks and keep up with fire with spreading again. here :P

Maloriak - too much aoe that you can't afford to be arcane here imo not to mention if you have a lock/rogue/frost DK another melee is going to chain people in black puddles and with fire you can range do more AOE than arcane and move pretty far while still aoe'ing (logs showing fire wins again)

Atramedes - personally I'm clicking gongs here so fire is going to be optimal for me personally, you'd have to consider the tactic you use also, I have used 3 different tactics and all of them require a lot of movement so fire would work more optimally under normal circumstances however if you want to stand on your own off to the side of the raid and go arcane you could potentially do more DPS but I think both specs would be pretty equal here.

Chimaeron - Arcane, little to no movement hell you could even ask your raid to stack on you as the stack up spot and not move for the entire fight. This fight is always random depending on how many slimes you win but I think Arcane would win out on this fight.

Nef - Personal opinion on this only as I think this fight is completely random but I reckon fire will win out because of the buff you get when you get channeled fire has the potential to top this fight but if I had to pick from experience I'd say n/a this fight is a pain :P

BWD; Fire = 3 / Arcane = 1 / Tie = 1 / N/A = 1

Halfrus - Don't be silly and don't be arcane, like I said earlier arcane can't even touch fire on this fight.

Double Dragons - on logs it's a draw and that's what I'd give it, if you are put inside the twilight realm(as I am) be fire you can move and dps the adds. Arcane isn't viable as you have to move a stupid amount sometimes. If you are outside and get to nuke go either they are both beneficial on this fight (if you are fire you can put scorch and LB on both dragons for extra DPS and you'll bump your balance druid and SPriests damage too). I'd call this one a draw because you don't have to do a lot if you are outside and it's pretty even.

Council - We use one tank as I'm sure everyone else does, 1 tank means spreading to both adds. Phase 3 will be pretty close but since you have the option to spread dots to another add all the time I'm going to say fire pushes just ahead on this but not by much (logs also show fire slightly ahead on average).

Cho'gal - Not even a contest, be fire get the debuff and win if you don't use the corrupted tactic still be fire cause you can't aoe the blood of the old god adds from melee range so AE is not great but flame strike/blast wave is Also fire just more on this fight especially in p3 so yeh fire wins hands down again.

Sinestra - Arcane wins. I haven't gotten too far into this fight to give a full commentary but I can see the benefits during P3 and it's going to be arcane, there are 0 recorded kills from a fire mage doing this fight who knows I might give it a go as fire for the lols :P

Bastion; Fire = 3 / Arcane = 1 / Tie = 1

Conclave of winds - Logs are messy on this fight and from personal experience I'd say it wouldn't matter too much again job dependent, mine is kill adds with the frost DK on anshal and being melee can be dangerous so fire is better for me but I'd push towards a tie for this fight for the simple reason that apart from those adds it's pretty much just nuke happy so it's balanced enough.

Al'Akir - Arcane has the single highest but over average fire's DPS is higher I actually couldn't imagine personally being arcane on this fight with the amount of movement but if you don't have to deal with the adds or you are not in a zone where you have to move (I deal with adds and am the person in my zone who needs to move) Arcane could be pretty good especially in phase 2. I'd say it averages out logs showing fire slightly higher but the most recent arcane kills are high enough and I think it'll balance out a good bit

ToTFW; Fire = 0 / Arcane = 0 / Tie = 2

OVERALL: Fire wins 6 fights / Arcane wins 2 fights / Tie on 4 fights.

So it's 10 or 8 fights.

This doesn't mean Fire is better it just means from my own experience and the average of world of logs... fire is more optimal on 6 fights (I'd say more but I haven't done enough testing) Arcane is more optimal on 2.... Keep this in mind when you are posting please, it's not written in stone and we will see even more people testing out Arcane in the near future (I'm doing it tonight on every fight except cho'gal and halfrus) so I will give my opinion of my findings

---------- Post added 2011-05-04 at 03:04 PM ----------

Also can I point out just because someone in the top guild in the world does something doesn't mean jack shit.

2 things I'll point out.. My guild are 87th in the world not great but not bad either. Saying I don't have 13/13 is pointless.
Am I in the top logs in the world on some fights ? Yes , A hunter in my guild holds the world number 1 spot for survival hunters on all but 2 fights heroic. So does that mean he should stop what he's doing and copy what paragons hunters are doing?

Someone even went and made the comment that all the top guilds have access to the BEST ARCANE GEAR AVAILABLE.
Yet on nearly every fight (except 2) Fire is still the top DPS spot of the 2.

Logical debate with links anyone??? Oh mine is above wheres yours ?

You should also pay attention, I already told you I even spec'd Arcane since the patch to try it out. I found fire to be optimal on the majority of fights.

One FINAL thing READ my posts I'm not saying fire is better I'm saying from what I can see it's ahead on the majority of fights. ALL the proof is above, if you want to prove me wrong PROVE me wrong don't just spew nonsense.

---------- Post added 2011-05-04 at 03:09 PM ----------

I should also point out I'm speaking from a 10man point of view only. I have no idea what 25man raiding is like. Hence why in EVERY post I've made I stated it's role dependent.

[Cebel]

This is for HEROIC bosses only - also the WOL records aren't always the most recent figures, it's just a general overview. This isn't set in stone it's just from my own experience and world of logs average, some fights are much more straight forward in which spec is better ie.. halfrus others are role dependent like conclave. This is just for people who say "GO ARCANE FOR EVERY FIGHT" cause let's be real about it, if you're having a discussion on which spec is better and you want to get the MOST Out of your char you are looking at heroic raids... and you are looking at comparing DPS with the best. Not retarded "DUH GO ARCANE" please stop saying this people

Magmaw - depends on your role , I reckon fire will still win on DPS on this fight potentially with the head phase Arcane could but I doubt it the top fire vs top arcane arcane rankings are recent fire are not so meh could be up for debate but I think with the option for spreading which you should always do and keep the fire haste buff up you'll win.

ODS - fire will be better , I'm not even convinced arcane would have the mana to spellsteal stacks and keep up with fire with spreading again. here :P

Maloriak - too much aoe that you can't afford to be arcane here imo not to mention if you have a lock/rogue/frost DK another melee is going to chain people in black puddles and with fire you can range do more AOE than arcane and move pretty far while still aoe'ing (logs showing fire wins again)

Atramedes - personally I'm clicking gongs here so fire is going to be optimal for me personally, you'd have to consider the tactic you use also, I have used 3 different tactics and all of them require a lot of movement so fire would work more optimally under normal circumstances however if you want to stand on your own off to the side of the raid and go arcane you could potentially do more DPS but I think both specs would be pretty equal here.

Chimaeron - Arcane, little to no movement hell you could even ask your raid to stack on you as the stack up spot and not move for the entire fight. This fight is always random depending on how many slimes you win but I think Arcane would win out on this fight.

Nef - Personal opinion on this only as I think this fight is completely random but I reckon fire will win out because of the buff you get when you get channeled fire has the potential to top this fight but if I had to pick from experience I'd say n/a this fight is a pain :P

BWD; Fire = 3 / Arcane = 1 / Tie = 1 / N/A = 1

Halfrus - Don't be silly and don't be arcane, like I said earlier arcane can't even touch fire on this fight.

Double Dragons - on logs it's a draw and that's what I'd give it, if you are put inside the twilight realm(as I am) be fire you can move and dps the adds. Arcane isn't viable as you have to move a stupid amount sometimes. If you are outside and get to nuke go either they are both beneficial on this fight (if you are fire you can put scorch and LB on both dragons for extra DPS and you'll bump your balance druid and SPriests damage too). I'd call this one a draw because you don't have to do a lot if you are outside and it's pretty even.

Council - We use one tank as I'm sure everyone else does, 1 tank means spreading to both adds. Phase 3 will be pretty close but since you have the option to spread dots to another add all the time I'm going to say fire pushes just ahead on this but not by much (logs also show fire slightly ahead on average).

Cho'gal - Not even a contest, be fire get the debuff and win if you don't use the corrupted tactic still be fire cause you can't aoe the blood of the old god adds from melee range so AE is not great but flame strike/blast wave is Also fire just more on this fight especially in p3 so yeh fire wins hands down again.

Sinestra - Arcane wins. I haven't gotten too far into this fight to give a full commentary but I can see the benefits during P3 and it's going to be arcane, there are 0 recorded kills from a fire mage doing this fight who knows I might give it a go as fire for the lols :P

Bastion; Fire = 3 / Arcane = 1 / Tie = 1

Conclave of winds - Logs are messy on this fight and from personal experience I'd say it wouldn't matter too much again job dependent, mine is kill adds with the frost DK on anshal and being melee can be dangerous so fire is better for me but I'd push towards a tie for this fight for the simple reason that apart from those adds it's pretty much just nuke happy so it's balanced enough.

Al'Akir - Arcane has the single highest but over average fire's DPS is higher I actually couldn't imagine personally being arcane on this fight with the amount of movement but if you don't have to deal with the adds or you are not in a zone where you have to move (I deal with adds and am the person in my zone who needs to move) Arcane could be pretty good especially in phase 2. I'd say it averages out logs showing fire slightly higher but the most recent arcane kills are high enough and I think it'll balance out a good bit

ToTFW; Fire = 0 / Arcane = 0 / Tie = 2

OVERALL: Fire wins 6 fights / Arcane wins 2 fights / Tie on 4 fights.

So it's 10 or 8 fights.

This doesn't mean Fire is better it just means from my own experience and the average of world of logs... fire is more optimal on 6 fights (I'd say more but I haven't done enough testing) Arcane is more optimal on 2.... Keep this in mind when you are posting please, it's not written in stone and we will see even more people testing out Arcane in the near future (I'm doing it tonight on every fight except cho'gal and halfrus) so I will give my opinion of my findings

ODS - Arcane easily has the mana for spellstealing, and will beat fire unless the fire mage has a dedicated healer and can dps through toxitrons shield.
Atra - Arcane is best obviously
Maloriak - Fire is good at the aoe, arcane destroys it in p3. If you need AoE, go fire, if you need p3 dps, go arcane.
Chim - Arcane, no discussion
Nef - Arcane will beat fire with same amount of mind controls.
Magmaw - Depends completely on your strat, if your not aoeing parasites, arcane wins. If you are, fire wins.

------

Halfus - Arcane is beating fire currently for overall DPS and damage done.
V&T - Arcane has been beating fire since 4.1, if you notice no fire parses post-4.1 have beaten the top arcane parses.
Council - Fire allows for the heavy movement of the fight, but is lack luster in p3 ( aka the part of the fight where your dps matters ). I choose arcane.
Cho'gall - If you get 100% corruption... go fire... if your raid has very minimal AoE.... go fire... otherwise go arcane.
Sinestra - Arcane

----

Conclave - Arcane
Al'akir - Arcane and Fire are pretty much equal, Arcane taking a slight lead over fire for the majority of players since 4.1


TOTALS:

Arcane - Viable on 13 fights
Fire - Viable on 5 Fights ( ODS with healbot, Chogall with corruption/heavy need of AoE, Al'akir, Council, Maloriak )

[Deleted]

Read again what I said please edits included.
Also you posted no logs to back your argument. If Arcane is better on all those fights you listed why is Fire ahead on logs?
If 25man is a different story I'd completely understand again I'm posting 10man POV only. Not 25s , 25s is easy as hell anyway you can go what spec you like and do what you like.

You actually just made bland statements with no backups
"Nef - Arcane will beat fire with same amount of mind controls." If you don't have anything to back that up it's just your opinion.

---------- Post added 2011-05-04 at 03:21 PM ----------

Halfus - Arcane is beating fire currently for overall DPS and damage done.

Really? I'm going to assume you mean 25man heroic cause on 10man fire beats the piss out of Arcane.

Oh wait... it's the same for 25man heroic also, why lie? fire is here Arcane is here how is Arcane ahead here ??? REALLY ???

---------- Post added 2011-05-04 at 03:22 PM ----------

The reason there isn't fire parses since 4.1 is because people wanted to test Arcane personally, it's what I've been doing... That doesn't mean it's better.

---------- Post added 2011-05-04 at 03:23 PM ----------

32 Madux

Peachy Keen US-The Underbog 101897
29 739 874 11.0 % 05-03 04:51

Most recent Fire mage above.

2 Bottles

We Know Girls US-Arygos 89067
25 200 076 9.3 % 05-03 04:42

Most recent Arcane mage above.

[Kuni Zyrekai]

Whoever is saying Frost is a dps spec for raiding should quit. Arcane is Burst IMO u need to learn how to play it wisely for Raid Boss\'(s). Fire is a Single Target Spec for PvE aswell, But when u get that Impact/living bomb off it spreads. Never ever go frost for 1 single fight. I\'d Kick somebody if i saw they were frost

Get out because you clearly don't know mages. Frost will beat the shit out of fire for stand and nuke single target and arcane for movement. It's a great spec for a compromise between the two.

BiS DPS results, stand and nuke.

BiS DPS results, HelterSkelter.

[Wilderness]

Too many people are acting like there are set answers to whether Arcane or Fire is better, or which spec you should always reforge for but the answer is simple - your main spec and your reforging should be for whatever the hell fight you are progressing on. Different specs are better for different fights. You could reforge between every fight but really that's just a waste of time or gold because the difference is not that big between being Fire in Arcane gear or Arcane in Fire gear and if its a farm fight it doesn't matter.

[Cebel]

Reading dates is hard when checking parses. HERP TO THE DERP! I dont need to go hunt down a bunch of parses to satisfy my point, the logs are there, go find them yourself if your that butt hurt about it.

[Deleted]

I agree with you completely Wilderness the reason I'm making a fuss is that some people are saying just go Arcane it's better for every fight This is a lie and lying to people will hurt mage DPS overall

---------- Post added 2011-05-04 at 03:49 PM ----------

Reading dates is hard when checking parses. HERP TO THE DERP! I dont need to go hunt down a bunch of parses to satisfy my point, the logs are there, go find them yourself if your that butt hurt about it.

You are arguing what I said , I made a point and I backed that point up with logs. I also showed you the MOST recent parse and it showed fire > arcane . You STILL argue against that with no proof, therefore you are wrong. Maybe you got carried by your 25man guild? With statements like butt hurt and herp derp I think you'd best concede to being wrong friend You just look like a child now.

[velias1234]

I agree with you completely Wilderness the reason I'm making a fuss is that some people are saying just go Arcane it's better for every fight This is a lie and lying to people will hurt mage DPS overall

---------- Post added 2011-05-04 at 03:49 PM ----------



You are arguing what I said , I made a point and I backed that point up with logs. I also showed you the MOST recent parse and it showed fire > arcane . You STILL argue against that with no proof, therefore you are wrong. Maybe you got carried by your 25man guild? With statements like butt hurt and herp derp I think you'd best concede to being wrong friend You just look like a child now.

If you have a fight where you can pad meters and make the stars align with a hot streak at the right moment along with getting an impact proc from bwave/fstrike fire can be better. But then again if you dont get a hot streak proc, a good ignite, and can't get an impact, lol you're screwed.

Arcane is better single target and arcane aoe got buffed, HEAVILY. You can easily aoe adds on maloriak green phases or swills and they generally melt pretty fast anyway. Arcane aoe is viable now.

I gotta laugh at the guy who said fire is better for heroic nef. Gimme a break. Arcane after a mind control completely destroys that fight.

Arcane is just the better spec overall. Fire has the potential to do more aoe damage if you line up 3 rng procs but other than that, arcane is the better spec with MORE CONSISTENT results. Like I said earlier, all the top mages in all the top guilds are already doing all fights as arcane.

I wish it wasn't this way. I wish fire was the better spec, its more fun to play. I had a blast playing fire in ICC, but there's too much reliance on getting the stars to align. I mean, I can't tell you how many times i've done 3-4 flamestrikes after a blastwave to not get an impact proc. Or fireball to get a hot streak in tandem with a combustion spread, just to NOT get a hot streak. Its just annoying and not consistent. Arcane is CONSISTENT.

[Zecora]

Too many people are acting like there are set answers to whether Arcane or Fire is better, or which spec you should always reforge for but the answer is simple - your main spec and your reforging should be for whatever the hell fight you are progressing on. Different specs are better for different fights. You could reforge between every fight but really that's just a waste of time or gold because the difference is not that big between being Fire in Arcane gear or Arcane in Fire gear and if its a farm fight it doesn't matter.

Yep, I think you're right. The fights are too different to categorically state that this-or-that spec is best, and in addition, everyone seems to forget the biggest contributer to high dps...Knowing and liking your spec.

So, with Fire and Arcane (and Frost to a slightly lesser degree) being more or less equal, play what you enjoy. Doing so may give you the small edge your spec doesn't.