What do you think about Arcane since 5.0.4?

[MisterSheep]

I was really scared at first. I really hated the idea of bombs and applying a DoT every 12 seconds.

But once the patch came out and that i had a chance to test it, i was actually impressed!

I can see what they meant by ''Easy to learn, hard to master''

The basic rotation is easy, but to maximise your DPS, you have to manage your procs properly. You can simply spam AM as soon as it procs, or you can save a charge (if you get a second charge of AM use it now, or else you risk loosing a proc) and cast it when you reach 4-6 arcane charges, so you get the most potential out of your AM without costing you tons of mana.

For the bombs, i picked Frost Bomb. It has a cast time, has a cooldown, and is my second highest hitting ability (right under Arcane Barrage) The rotation also feels a lot more smooth. The rotation felt clunky when i picked Living Bomb or Nether Tempest.

I still have to do some practice and testing with the spec, but i really like it! and Arcane will remain my main spec in MoP!

[Ohana]

Arcane was my fave spec all along, but sadly its dps falling way behind Fire right now

[Tirilka]

As of DPS, it is too soon to judge, because the talents are balanced for 90 lvl.
But the gameplay itself is excellent! 6 stacks provide room for more styles of play, and I'm sure that with the last tier of talents, Arcane will become much deeper.

[Gracin]

I went through and tested every dps spec for each class yesterday and was surprised to find how much I enjoyed the subtleties of the spec now. I even found myself enjoying frost, but I was bored out of my mind with fire.

[Aquamonkey]

Arcane was always easy to learn, hard to master. It's just that the DPS bar for "easy to learn" was higher than normal (I've run into plenty of mages who couldn't even get this part right). Mana management, timing of CDs, and knowing when/where to move were important for maximizing DPS as Arcane. You needed to know how much of a miniburn you could do (w/ or w/o AP) and how long it would take to regen that mana in a mana positive rotation.

Here's an example 4.3 H Spine, 0% debuff: With 4T13, you can pop AP at 10 stacks for a mini burn against the Amalg (no gem or evo). Go into mana positive rotation and be full b4 it's time to pop the plate. Use Mana Shield and Mage Ward for the SP boost unless you're 30s from popping the plate. As the Amalg is dying go to 4 stacks of AB and keep it, pop Mana Shield, pop Mage Ward, refresh AB, pop Flame Orb (for more Clearcast procs), then PoM AB onto Tendon when it pops to prevent stack from dropping, pop trinket/AP/Mana Gem and spam AB, pop Mana Shield when it comes off CD during AP (should have AP glyph).

And that's just for the first pop. Regening your mana isn't a set formula for Evo since your raid's DPS would determine how low you got on the 2nd pop. Your Mana Gem won't be off CD for the start of the 2nd pop. If your raid's DPS is high, you should save the Gem for 1st pop of next plate.

In pugs on normal Spine, I see Arcane mages doing Arcane Missile against the Tendons. /facepalm

[NPI]

I always loved arcane and I like these changes.
However, as mana-management is only issue for arcane mages, I fear, that there will be 3 "sub spec" for arcane, with different rotation and different stat priority.

[Imnick]

I don't know about stat priority but Blues have explicitly confirmed the former.

[Shangalar]

Well it's possible that with Rune of Power, Haste gains a tiny bit in value, but essentially I doubt anything will dethrone Mastery as Arcane's leading stat. With Invocation and Ward Mastery gets even stronger because of the nuke potential and great short-term dps boosts. Unfortunately, Crit isn't worth that much as it doesn't affect gameplay in any way (like it does for Fire and Frost). I love having high Crit in Arcane, but last time it was useful was in ICC before Mastery was introduced. But who didn't love seeing the insanely amazing crits during the superbuff + burst phase moments on Majordomo Staghelm Heroic?