Arcane Mage Rework in BfA

[Seneca]

Played around a bit on alpha, it feels weird but a bit different. 10 sec on AP feels too short, but being able to spam arcane missiles through it is fun. Not to mention we can start our cooldowns whenever without having to have charge stacks. Being able to cast AM whenever is fun, especially with slipstream, but boy does it eat through your mana (though arcane missiles procs clearcasting a lot due to cost). The mana cost on explosion makes me worried about our ability to AoE away, but its clear their intent for arcane is great single/aoe burst when you want it but not sustainable.

We really do feel like a burst spec, where if we push too hard (single or aoe), we're screwed on our sustained damage.

How does it feel to have a 2.5 sec filler and a 3 sec pseudofiller? The longest casted fillers in the whole wow caster roster I guess, and by a long margin afaik.

Stuff like 2 casts in 6 sec is what worry me most, or things like casting only 3 AM during the whole AP duration. Yeah I know about temporal flux and haste but I worry the gameplay could still feel extremely slow.


Personally, would not mind both a damage reduction and a cast time reduction to both abilities. Or atleast a difference, feeling wise, between the 2 spells, e.g. AB 2.5s and AM 1.75s, or AB 1.75s (and no temporal flux) and AM 3.00s. You got what I mean I guess.

[Ryken]

How does it feel to have a 2.5 sec filler and a 3 sec pseudofiller? The longest casted fillers in the whole wow caster roster I guess, and by a long margin afaik.

The test char has 22% haste. It makes Arcane blast cast 1.84 sec with 0 charges. Cast time is decreased per charge, down to 1.7, 1.55, 1.4, and 1.25 respectively. Arcane blast actually feels super fast and at 4 stacks costs 2750 mana with half cast time as missiles (which costs 3600 at test values). So Blast is very fast and very mana intensive, so no worries with the flow there.

Arcane missiles has a 2.5 cast time with the test char. It feel slow as heck -but- you can cast it whenever you want, so with slipstream, you can always have an option to cast while moving, although your mana will suffer. But leveling/questing atm, choosing the extra 2 missiles above 80% talent, it feels fun. Who knows about other aspects atm though.

[davesignal]

They changed the base cast time for AB to 2.25 seconds in the latest build, I think.

[Vathoren]

I too would like to see Arcane Explosion removed, it feels powerfully stupid to be in melee spamming a spell, especially when there are fights which will require melee and ranged to be in distinct places. Personally, I'd like to see Arcane gain something like the D3 Wizards Disintegrate spell, perhaps with some interplay with mana and/or arcane charges, I think it'd fit the fantasy and be pretty bitchin'.

[davesignal]

I don't think AE is really ever going to leave us, considering Destruction just had Hellfire re-introduced to their kit via a talent. But hey, maybe that's a solution: make an AOE talent row and put Arcane Explosion on there as a high risk, high reward talent option, while also giving Arcane some sort of baseline ranged AOE.

Like, say, give Arcane a spell they can toggle on or off like Blade Flurry, which increases mana costs by 20% but gives your Arcane Blast a 20% cleave-- let's call it, I dunno, Overcharge. Then your AOE talent row can be a.) Arcane Explosion (replaces that toggle ability), b.) a passive that removes the mana cost of Overcharge, and c.) Nether Tempest, because some people like that spell, I guess.

[Pigglix]

I would love to see Arcane Explosion removed and turned into "Arcane Ray" having a visual/sound and effects like the D3 desintegrate spell.... *drools*

make it a channeled spell, idc, just make it happen blizz, pls? <3

[Staplecrab]

Seems like Arcane Explosion no longer scales with nor generates Arcane Charges on the alpha. I wonder if that indicates that Arcane will be getting a new spell for AoE.

[davesignal]

I think it indicates that Arcane Explosion is the AOE equivalent of Arcane Missiles, as Clearcasting also affects Arcane Explosion now.

[gurudox]

I love the synergy of the Mantle of the First Kirin'Tor in our AoE rotation in Legion. With the death of Kilt, and the separation of Arcane Explosion from the charge system, wouldn't it be neat if Blizzard decided to give us Arcane Orb as a baseline skill with a 20-second cooldown, and it returned x-% of our mana per target hit? It would be a nice secondary mana battery during single target fights, but also would help us better do the sustained AoE that we've gotten used to in Legion - not to mention just giving us another ability to use in our relatively limited kit.

[The Archmage]

I like what i am seeing, a lot. Eliminating Arcane Explosion from the charge system devalues the ability by a ton. However, we now need an other reliable way to gain charges through an AoE skill. A new one perhaps? A channel would be perfect. Diablo 3 disintegration style even better. We still lack visually impressive skills as Arcane.

Arcane Orb baseline would be another dream. We can use the ability while moving to do at least some damage and gain back some charges, and its AoE value is undeniable. Expecially if they give us (through azerite armor perhaps) something that has a chance to reset its cooldown, to in some way mimic what we have now with the legendary shoulders.

[Ryken]

Orb baseline would be amazing, and having it have a chance to reset per target it hits/or how many charges you spend would be fantastic.

Playing around on the alpha, pulling a few mobs it became clear we need a way to reliably make Barrage part of our ranged AoE toolkit again, now that explosion doesn't interact with charges. ABr sorta sucks as an AoE/cleave, the build up from charges required from blast makes it annoying. Pulling 4 mobs and explosioning is boring, and literally took all of my mana to AoE 4 mobs down (Though clearcast interaction with explosion is bugged atm). Arcane explosion feels like high risk (Close range), feels like it hits really weakly (can be tuned), and is an insane mana hog. Having a spec with mana conservation but requiring a high mana cost AoE screams for a conserve AoE option too.

[davesignal]

How much have you played around with other talent builds? I imagine with the squish and losing the artifact that conventional wisdom on talent choices is obsolete-- might be time to try out stuff like Nether Tempest and Supernova again, if you need more AOE damage.

[D3athsting]

How much have you played around with other talent builds? I imagine with the squish and losing the artifact that conventional wisdom on talent choices is obsolete-- might be time to try out stuff like Nether Tempest and Supernova again, if you need more AOE damage.

Meme tempest will be usable again?

[Ryken]

How much have you played around with other talent builds? I imagine with the squish and losing the artifact that conventional wisdom on talent choices is obsolete-- might be time to try out stuff like Nether Tempest and Supernova again, if you need more AOE damage.

Supernova damage is underwhelming atm , it does exactly the same damage to the main target as an explosion. Didn't try Tempest, though I haven't done any instances so haven't had a need to try it. With explosions clearcasting bug atm (it procs but consumes it right away and doesn't even make it free) its hard to tell how sustainable it is, on average tests I could Arcane explosion 15 times before going oom, 4-5 of those procced clearcasting, so realistically 20 explosions for ~30 sec of sustained aoeing before going oom.

Honestly its hard to provide feedback without seeing what they're doing with Azerite. ATM I love the feel of single target though, and AoE might be a tuning thing. Though its not implemented yet, the evo talent doesn't seem right at all, there's no way to remotely burn through your mana in 5 seconds for it be useful, let alone on the same tier as OP. I suspect once their focus testing on zones is a little more progressed they'll make a dedicated thread for class feedback (as the one on the forums is open to anyone to post and its a mishmash)

[davesignal]

Makes sense, isn't there only one zone open per side? Hard to test how the spec feels leveling in the world if the world isn't finished.

[infinitemeridian]

I've always loved the idea behind arcane and how bursty and mobile it is - hopefully they keep up the good changes and add even more with azerite armor. New animations would be a plus too, the new ones are pretty good but still seem to fall short of other casters/what you see in Nighthold.

[Nitros14]

I've always loved the idea behind arcane and how bursty and mobile it is - hopefully they keep up the good changes and add even more with azerite armor. New animations would be a plus too, the new ones are pretty good but still seem to fall short of other casters/what you see in Nighthold.

You must be talking about pvp, arcane is a turret spec in pve that suffers horribly on high movement encounters.

[Celebhil]

I would like to see blizzard at least implement a version of "arcane torrent", as a talent which replaces arcane explosion, that lets arcane aoe from a distance maybe as an aoe version of arcane missiles and burns a lot of mana as you channel it; an aoe version of magic missiles that forces you to stay channeling, which already would distinguish it from fire and frost aoe now.

[davesignal]

You must be talking about pvp, arcane is a turret spec in pve that suffers horribly on high movement encounters.

Spec into Slipstream and bank Arcane Missiles properly during your burn. If you're immobile, you're doing something wrong.

[Nitros14]

Spec into Slipstream and bank Arcane Missiles properly during your burn. If you're immobile, you're doing something wrong.

That's nice and all but consider arcane mage parses on highly movement heavy single target encounters.

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/statist...074&dataset=90 Last on 99th percentile as well if you're wondering.

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/statist...076&dataset=90 Right at the bottom.

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/statist...063&dataset=90 Dead last it is.