A few questions for arcane mages

[Molly702]

So I am fairly new to arcane I switched over from Fire because I was sick of the RNG. My DPS has been more consistent but I still feel that my DPS is lacking for example I did 24k DPS on Chim last night and I see other people pulling close to 30k as Arcane. My current ilvl is 366 so I feel that my DPS is behind where it should be for my gear level.

My first question is what do you guys hover your mana at during the conservation phase? Personally I aim for 90% or higher which generally lets me pull off 4-5 sometimes even 6 Blasts (With good clearcasting procs) before I need to use AM. Should I aim for keeping my mana at 95% or higher? If so is only doing 2-3 Blasts before clearing my stack worth keeping my mana at 95%?

I'm also currently using DMC:V and Bell of Enrage. When I pick up Mirror will this give me a significant increase in DPS (2-3k)? I have read up on Arcane and I feel that I can play Arcane decently but I don't feel that im playing it to my full potential and im a bit confused as to why this is.

[Deleted]

So I am fairly new to arcane I switched over from Fire because I was sick of the RNG. My DPS has been more consistent but I still feel that my DPS is lacking for example I did 24k DPS on Chim last night and I see other people pulling close to 30k as Arcane. My current ilvl is 366 so I feel that my DPS is behind where it should be for my gear level.

My first question is what do you guys hover your mana at during the conservation phase? Personally I aim for 90% or higher which generally lets me pull off 4-5 sometimes even 6 Blasts (With good clearcasting procs) before I need to use AM. Should I aim for keeping my mana at 95% or higher? If so is only doing 2-3 Blasts before clearing my stack worth keeping my mana at 95%?

I'm also currently using DMC:V and Bell of Enrage. When I pick up Mirror will this give me a significant increase in DPS (2-3k)? I have read up on Arcane and I feel that I can play Arcane decently but I don't feel that im playing it to my full potential and im a bit confused as to why this is.

Arcane hits those kinds of numbers with raid co-operation. Power Infusion and Innervate cast on an arcane mage at the right time is hugely effective.

But I wouldn't really gauge your level of skill at all from a fight like Chimaeron where there is nothing technical whatsoever for us to do.

[Sym]

Whilst I agree with what hawt09 says, I do think you can be pulling more in terms of DPS. However, from what you've said, I can't see what you're really doing wrong. It could just be bad CD timing, or just bad RNG.

[toranagasama]

Keep in mind that Chim is a gimmick fight....How many times did the 24k dps arc mage get hit w/ caustic slime (which reduces your hit drastically and makes you miss 2-3 casts) versus the 30k dps arc mage....and yeah also having a pocket "PI buddy" helps dps no question

[Molly702]

It appears that I got hit 32 times by caustic slime. Perhaps just bad timing on my CD's? I tend to just pop my CD's right away on Chim just to get more of them in during a fight and typically this lets me end the fight with 2 burn phases back to back because he dies as I go oom. I managed to get off 3 AP in last nights fight.

For Atramedes I only pulled 22k but I failed to spam myself oom towards the end of the fight which could have raised it a bit more. Magmaw I was doing 27.6k DPS which I feel is also pretty low considering we have a warrior pulling almost 41k dps...

Does anyone know how much of a DPS increase Mirror is and any suggestions on what I might be doing wrong would be helpful. Id really like to play Arcane better before 4.2 hits because currently I feel like a complete idiot who doesn't know how to play his class.

[Deleted]

When I'm in conservation phase, I use 'MagemanaBar' Addon to decide what mana % I should be on. For example, I dont check my mana to see an exact %, I always try to be above 90% ofc, but then I can let it get higher, but then if I get a clearcast procc, and I see that mage armor is about to tick in 2-3 secs, I use AB to go down so I dont waste any mana in case I get annother clearcast procc directly after an AM or something like that. Really helpful addon! recommended!

[zentenforius]

For cooldowns make sure you have mana gem and arcane power macroed. Basically make sure you hit 4 stacks of AB first then burn to about 90% mana and then hit that macro. At the start I pop mirror image and flame orb then hit my 4 stacks then cooldowns. Then evocate once you get near 20-30%. For me this has proven very effective and at a 358 ilvl I'm hitting upper 28k and into the 30s. Try testing ur dps on a fight like halfus where you go right into an all out nuke which arcane excels at.

If you could link your armory just to see what your stat priority is at as arc has a different priority than fire as far as reforging. Good luck!!!

[Loevty]

Armory kgo

[Molly702]

My hit rating is actually 16.20% in game. I do basically what you said except I have separate keybinds for mana gem.

us.battle.net/wow/en/character/tichondrius/ecstas%C3%BF/advanced

[Loevty]

My hit rating is actually 16.20% in game. I do basically what you said except I have separate keybinds for mana gem.

us.battle.net/wow/en/character/tichondrius/ecstas%C3%BF/advanced

Trinket's, get H TM and Soul Casket(it is better for Arcane, don't want to get into that argument). Reforging, Reforge Spirit>Hatse>Crit>Mastery>Hit into Hit>Mastery. Practicaly you won't hit hitcap in 372 gear, most top Arcane Mages are arround 14~16%.

[Griepen]

Keep in mind that Chim is a gimmick fight....How many times did the 24k dps arc mage get hit w/ caustic slime (which reduces your hit drastically and makes you miss 2-3 casts) versus the 30k dps arc mage....and yeah also having a pocket "PI buddy" helps dps no question

you shouldnt cast with caustic slime, you stopcast and time it exactly for when it drops off. I do around 31-32k on chim
also, shard of woe makes all the difference

[Molly702]

So Soul Casket > Bell of Enrage? I have it and have tried it out but I seem to do better in most cases with Bell what are other people's thoughts on this?

[LaplaceNoMa]

Are you running 10man? Don't forget that 25man is easymode where you have all the required buffs and the chance to get hit debuff is much smaller

[Molly702]

I am running 25 man and LOL... 10 mans are a joke bro but lets not get into that subject.

[Antueater]

I am running 25 man and LOL... 25 mans are a joke bro but lets not get into that subject.

Fixed.
If 3 People in a 25 man mess it up, well.. meh.. but still not that bad.
If 3 People in a 10 man mess it up.. next try.

Plus some random survey, which says nothing about how hard 10 vs. 25 man raiding is

[Deleted]

Love your gear, everything looks good with reforge etc. The only thing I think I'd change is your 372 Trink Bell of Enraging Resonance with a pure Int-trink. Stacking 321 Int with a Mastery Proc (Theralion's Mirror for example) is a good DPS-upgrade. On the other hand, you will loose some hit then, but prolly you get away with it as Loevty mentioned.

What does your fellow-guildy-mages say about it?

[Spleen]

Sorry for going OT - but it WAS in-thread...

Plus some random survey, which says nothing about how hard 10 vs. 25 man raiding is

Again with people forcing data to claim something it doesn't necessarily (the article, not you, Antueater)...

Especially since it was over the "last 7 days".

That data could suggest merely that 10 man groups have cleared the content longer than 25s. 25s would be more prone to attendance issues capping progress (or indeed running at all).

To suggest that data is saying that 10 mans are easier?

That's a bit of a strange suggestion since the data can't draw that conclusion at all (and single points of failure will doom a 10 man much more quickly than a single point of failure in a 25 as you've said, Ant)...

Just remember kids, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics...

Molly - let me guess, 25 mans are the only REAL way to raid, right? *snicker*

[Molly702]

@Nheo - I am the only Mage currently in the guild that raids and we have seen 1 Mirror drop which went to a Boomkin and the next one is probably going to a spriest unfortunately...

@Spleen - I don't think 25 mans are the only "real" way to raid I just feel that 10 mans are a lot easier now days then 25 mans in most cases.

A good example of this is how many 25 man pugs do you see in trade chat? Ok now how many 10 mans do you see? Another example is my guild hasn't downed 25 man H Ala'kir but we jumped in and did it in 1 night on 10 man. We also haven't downed 25 man H Cho'Gall and we jumped in with zero experience and took him down in 16 attempts on 10 man. As it stands right now in my opinion 10 mans are a lot easier.

@Antueater - You could argue that in 25 man 3 people messing something up is a big deal and not just "meh" for example kicks on H Nef in p2. You could also argue its a lot harder to get 25 people to do something correctly for a longer period of time thus making it harder in the end. Sure if someone messes up in 10 man in most cases its a bigger issue because you have less room for error but at the same time you have 60% less chance of someone screwing up in the first place.

[Spleen]

The disparity between 10 and 25 man pugs has more to do with the ease of getting 9 people to join you versus 25.

On BL, there are so many bads out there that even back in ICC days with people who knew what they were doing, 25 man pugs typically got 4 and out... if they were lucky.

I grant that you have an opinion, and you're welcome to it.

I'd grant that it's harder to get a 25 man group (PUG or guild) going than 10, but I believe the experiences therein are pretty similar, to be honest.

[Antueater]

As it stands right now in my opinion 10 mans are a lot easier.

And that's about it. In your opinion, 10 mans are easier. In my opinion, 25 mans are easier. I won't argue with someone over different opinions, especially about a topic, in which no data at all can give us a real result. There is no way you can ever compare 10s and 25s, because it depends heavily on your raids skill level and has almost nothing to do with more raid AoE capability or sth.

The only thing I really want to point out is, the lesser people you have, which fulfill a really important role, the higher the risk is that, if they mess up, the whole raid suffers. Out out pure logic (well, and some math, because 25 man are more than 10 man) that leads me to the conclusion, that this case is more present in a 10 man environment.

You could argue that in 25 man 3 people messing something up is a big deal and not just "meh" for example kicks on H Nef in p2.

Haven't done H Atramedes in 25, only in 10, but take for example the guy who gongs the searing flames. If he messes up, you better have a lot of stamina, damage reduction and some hell of healers behind your back.

You could also argue its a lot harder to get 25 people to do something correctly for a longer period of time thus making it harder in the end.

I totally agree with you here. I was in a very active and quite successful progression guild back in Vanilla. Lets not get into details about Vanilla <> Cata, but the coordination of 25 or even 40 man is a lot more work to do than just 10 man