Arcane mage help

[Deleted]

hey all,

I've been playing arcane mage for quite a bit and I would love to continue playing it, but with my dps outcome being quite low despite not being that awefully geared from what I can see, I am in need of some help to continue playing arcane and not having to switch to fire because of that seeming to be the raid spec nowadays... I do around 9 - 12k dps in raids and it just is way too low in my eyes...

I would like to know is what the stat priority for the arcane mages are right now and how I can best improve my stuff.

stats (selfbuffed):

5829 sp
13.2% crit
8.3% haste
14.1 mastery
13.4% hit

eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/bloodscalp/ayvren/advanced

I know there are some things still unenchanted and without a gem, two are because of the fact I just got them new yesterday and hadn't had time to gem/enchant it yet (hand and feet) and the others...cause i wasn't all that sure yet.

Thanks in advance for all the help ^^

[Rigaldo]

I would say for an Arcane Mage the stat priority would be Hit (to cap) > Crit > Mastery > Haste.

Spell power comes from Int so just gem red slots with Pure Int and Gem for Int + Crit.

Also remember we have a Burn phase and a Recover phase (ABx3 then AM/ABarr)

Hope this helps! ^_^

[Roostor]

You'll want to make sure you're hit-capped, which is 17% or 1742 hit rating. Keep reforging until you get there for sure. You can enchant bracers with Precision and either gloves or boots with +hit as well, which will bump you up another 100. Mastery is always nice, so feel free to reforge haste/crit into mastery whenever you can. You seem to have found an overabundance of haste early, and since I am typically an advocate of stat balancing, I'd reforge haste into mastery before crit, regardless of what other stat values say.

As an aside, once you're hit-capped and stats are roughly balanced, try not to focus so much on gear as the issue. Are you using Arcane Power burn phases as many times as possible during a fight? Are you ending the fight with 0 mana? Are you slipping additional ABs in when you're in the Conserve rotation as Clearcasting/good mana regen ticks allow? Are there any points to optimize movement? You'll find large returns in optimizing your burn phases, so just keep an eye out for opportunities where you don't have to move for 20ish seconds. Also, many bosses have additional mechanics that'll heighten your burn further (Magmaw's head on a spike, ODS's Arcanotron pools/shield buff spellsteals), so keep those in mind.

Best of luck.

[Deleted]

I'll reforge, gem and enchant to make sure I can get the hit capped. Around what percentage of haste is good for an arcane mage? because 8% doesn't seem that much to me.

I am having a burn phase just about every 2 min when my evocation is up to be used... (and when possible of course, if I have to keep moving, then burn phase isn't all that easy to do)

[owsley21]

I'm having a similar problem,tho I'm fully hit capped. stats are all fairly balanced. 6k spell dmg. 17% crit,8% haste, 14% mastery yet I'm still doing 10-12k on average and i feel it should be higher.
I know there isn't any "rule book" to follow. but I'm really interested if anyone has a few numbers to shoot for as a general guide.

For example... "dude your totally stupid if your not rocking X amount of mastery".
or
"i wont step foot in a raid till my haste is at X amount of %

I think most of us raiders know we need 17% hit. But I'd really like to hear some opinions on the other stats, and what other raiders here consider the minimum of a stat to maximize raid dps.

[ynkesfan2003]

I'll reforge, gem and enchant to make sure I can get the hit capped. Around what percentage of haste is good for an arcane mage? because 8% doesn't seem that much to me.

I am having a burn phase just about every 2 min when my evocation is up to be used... (and when possible of course, if I have to keep moving, then burn phase isn't all that easy to do)

go check the "hit is no longer king" thread running rampant on the warlock forums, it applies here too. gem int over hit and don't sweat it if ur sitting at 16.8% hit. i'd make all of ur gems and enchants if possible have some form of int on them, even if that means grabbing orange and purple gems instead of pure red to get socket bonuses and such

[Deleted]

Thus far I am doing this for my gems: pure int in red sockets, int+mastery in yellow sockets, and int+hit in blue sockets.

I am at 14.84% hit right now and when I feel like hit is alright (or capped) then I am going for all int on the blue sockets.

I also reforged stuff and enchanted diffently, making my haste at 5.5% now.

[Roostor]

go check the "hit is no longer king" thread running rampant on the warlock forums, it applies here too. gem int over hit and don't sweat it if ur sitting at 16.8% hit. i'd make all of ur gems and enchants if possible have some form of int on them, even if that means grabbing orange and purple gems instead of pure red to get socket bonuses and such

.2% chance to miss is quite low, of course, but suppose you miss a 4-stack AB during a burn. You're potentially losing out on 50k damage. That 20 extra int, supposing you get a full 1.00 coeff on that 20 spell damage (you don't), you will need to cast 50000/20 or 2500 spells to catch up to that damage. Missing a re-application of a DoT and losing out on one tick for 4000 damage might not be so bad, but for Arcane, I can't help but disagree.

Also, for blue sockets, you might as well gem int/hit, as Stam won't really do you any good, realistically.

EDIT - Also, I don't think there's really a magic number from a haste/mastery/crit perspective. I focus on mastery, then try to keep haste/mastery looking reasonable. Like I said before, I would focus more effort on optimizing fights once hit is capped.

[Deleted]

Is there a cap on how much mastery before it doesn't do much good anymore?

also, I am not using stamina on any gems? where did you get that info? XD

[Bolt]

If you're not worried about a gear/stats response, but rather a play style response, then I have few suggestions.

Make a macro for your burn phase... Get arcane power,a trinket, mana gem and mirror images on one button, use it early, and use it every two minutes thereafter (yes, mirror images will not be up on the second use).

Don't be scared to be a little bit aggressive... it's ok to burn down around 75% mana, ill especially do this when i get a 10 seconds to get a few consecutive arcane blasts off after a mage ward has just been broken, just know what rotation will get you within about 15k mana from full by your next burn phase. And speaking of mage ward... use it when you know you are guaranteed some fire/frost/arcane damage to the face. Use parts of the fight where you have to run/move to burn a global cool down for mage ward instead of an ice lance. When you stop running it will be worth it.

Don't start a burn phase at 100% mana, start it at about (100% - 15k mana), your mana gem and a tick of mage armor will bring you back to full.

If you ever enter a burn phase and have to start running, use flame orb, it does a lot of damage when you have all your cooldowns blown for very little mana.

Last thing i can think of is that despite arcane mage mastery, you never want to end a boss fight close to 100% mana. Find out how long it takes you to get from near full mana to empty. You want to start arcane blast spamming when you estimate the boss has about that much life time left to live.

(One final note: put the song "Stereo Love" on repeat while raiding/doing heroics... instant 500-1k dps increase =P)

[Hotaro]

I had a simular problem with arcane, i followed guides, gemmed/ reforged and enchanted right but nembers were still down. Frost is the entry raiding spec to be in currently, but blizz has said arcane and fire dps is far too low and there looking into it. I hate frost and played through Icc as arcane, but with all the changes its left me confussed on dps in cata, slowely getting it together but i cant wait till arcane is buffed back to where it should be.

[Deleted]

Thanks for all the help guys (and maybe girls) ^^

With all the help thus far I've been able to maintain a constant dps outcome during the regen phase, instead of dropping down from 14k dps from burn to 7-8k during the regen phase I now get 14k back to 10-11k during hc dungeons, didn't get higher than 8k normally during burns there, haven't been able to test raids yet, might be tonight that will be tested.

I already got that macro ^^ I use both my trinkets during that, but not the mana gem in it, I rather be able to do that myself. Also with being a blood elf mage, I am happy to have gotten Arcane Torrent, which also gives me back around 4% of mana when used at the right time ^^ I use that first, then go to around 85% of mana, then use the macro and then the gem.

[Redtree]

Here is what Ive been able to do for my mage. First let me say, dont be to scared to grab those caster pieces of gear (if healer doesnt need) that drop that have spirt on them, yes spirt is worthless unless reforged, but trust me the pure caster gear for clothies certain seems rare to me (my exp).

I have read a lot of the threads that say INT>HIT and have experimented with both, what I saw was more consistant dps, but lower numbers with more INT and Less hit. More than ever with Cata, gear does matter and dont think your going to walk into your first hero and place anywhere near the the top of the dps meter. Once you get over the fact that you can just spam you way to the top anymore, then you start to relearn your class. Which honestly is a bit refreshing.

Here is what worked for me.
Get you hit as high as possible gems, reforge (spirt>haste>crit), where able gem INT/other stat, I found mastery kind of showed up for the ride without having to do much effort. Use Mage armour, not molten armor still some arcane dudes out there rolling with the molten.

Someone said it above, but be smart and look at time when you can burn your mana, know how much you can burn and get back to 100% with evo. Arcane power should be on ever time its up, slow cc'ed mobs, it wont break the cc and will give you a jump on the break.

Last night I felt very comfortable in all 3 heros I did. Ilevel 345, 16%hit, and 82k mana, kind of the goal I have set for myself is hit capped and 85k mana, which know im thinking 90k.

Good Hunting all.

Whats everyone enchanting there weapon with?

[Mitak]

For all you arcane lovers out there, me included. Its not you, arcane is just a bit low on damage atm, even blizzard admitted it. They will buff it in the next patch, whenever that will be.
Fire is the raiding spec now, so if you want to do real damage switch to fire. Im personally staying with arcane, but the fact is that when i switch to fire, im gaining ~2K sustained DPS. Usually in heroics im on 8-9K sustained, with peaks 13K on burn phase and trash mobs. If i switch to fire im doing easy 10K sustained and 11-12K on bosses.
Frost on bosses is also great I had deep freezes for more than my usual 4AB blasts (more than 50K) and mana in forst is no problem.
My char is Enacra- anachronos EU.
P.S. I found that mastery is a very nice stat by the way. Unfortunately ill have to sacrifice it for hit once i start going to raids. :-(