Arcane Mage PvE Guide

[me28791]

I have been playing around with arcane last few weeks (love the fact I can swap to frost decently for bad fights) I had some questions about the opener Should I cast barrage at 4 stacks if I been uplucky with missiles or just keep blasting/dotting to try to force the missile procs like I know on the front page says to fish but yea not sure perfect way to fish would be

[Deleted]

I have been playing around with arcane last few weeks (love the fact I can swap to frost decently for bad fights) I had some questions about the opener Should I cast barrage at 4 stacks if I been uplucky with missiles or just keep blasting/dotting to try to force the missile procs like I know on the front page says to fish but yea not sure perfect way to fish would be

Good question, I'm looking forward to the answer. Personally, I just follow my gut most of the times. Sometimes I waste a GCD on another NT, other times I cast that 5th AB to see if something works. All depends on my mana tho. Combined with Alter Time you can gamble a bit, knowing that after six seconds you'll end up with the original mana.

Depends on some factors tho, whether you have BL up or not, etc. Wouldn't dip into your mana pool too early too often tho. You can always consider yourself unlucky, drop the charges and rebuild. Still, wondering how more experienced arcane mages do this.

[Arctroni]

Good question, I'm looking forward to the answer. Personally, I just follow my gut most of the times. Sometimes I waste a GCD on another NT, other times I cast that 5th AB to see if something works. All depends on my mana tho. Combined with Alter Time you can gamble a bit, knowing that after six seconds you'll end up with the original mana.

Depends on some factors tho, whether you have BL up or not, etc. Wouldn't dip into your mana pool too early too often tho. You can always consider yourself unlucky, drop the charges and rebuild. Still, wondering how more experienced arcane mages do this.

The way I do it (currently using tier 15 4-set) is to drop my stacks at 2/3 if I have no arcane missile procs. It's deathly important to get your alter time sequence out under as many trinket and enchant procs as possible. Usually if I drop my stacks at 2, I have everything up with 1 or 2 missile procs and couple stacks remaining on wushoolay's as I get to 4 charges and pop my alter time macro. Depending on how long I had on wush when I started alter time, I can get my mage bomb on with everything up and 10 stack wushoolay's right after my alter time ends as well.

Now without T15 4-set, it's not as much of a gamble to fish for an arcane missiles proc at 3/4 stacks without clearing before going into AT, however I'm entirely used to T15 4-set at the moment and so someone else's input regarding this would be a lot more helpful.

In the end, it all comes down to what procs and what doesn't. I know that a lot of times my immerseus trinket doesn't proc in the time it takes me to get to 4 charges and I either blow an AM proc and re-bomb to hopefully get the trinket up and blow cooldowns. Note that with 5 spells casts (one mage bomb and 4 arcane blasts) the chance of immerseus trinket not proc'ing is about 44%, so pretty high. Add a mage bomb and one AM proc (I only do this if I have two), that takes the chance of it not proc'ing down to about 32%, which is still pretty high. Getting that trinket to proc with two AM procs on the pull will for now be the bane of my existence. However when it does happen, oh boy, no one can catch me for the remainder of the fight.

[antiscian]

How are you guys feeling about the T16 4PC? I've read the posts and certainly some good tips here in terms of the change to rotation. I recently switched from T15 normal to T16 normal and it was a moderately good increase overall for me. Wondering how other mages are fairing..

[Deleted]

Hello guys , quick question . Ive got http://www.wowhead.com/item=102300#see-also http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/item/104675 and http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/item/102310 . Wich Combo should i use.. Also i have http://www.wowhead.com/item=102303 , i suppose i could use it on some fights with many adds . Wich Combo should i use from first 3 trinkets . (all of them upgraded) . Thank you in advance .

[Zavri]

I guess you're running 25? This situation you describe where you simply have 4 set T16 to swap to, as an off spec, would be miraculous in "terrible loot 10s". I would venture its not "very easy", its highly unlikely to have this with other vanq users present in a 10 man raid.

It hardly matters what spec you are in 10m. Any mage unfriendly fight you would simply swap the mage out.

Even so, it's been over a month since this tier launched, I would find it very unlikely at this point that you wouldn't have 4set T16 by running Flex/Celestials/Coining.

[Kenbud]

Even so, it's been over a month since this tier launched, I would find it very unlikely at this point that you wouldn't have 4set T16 by running Flex/Celestials/Coining.

I don't. I have a heroic chest only so it's not that hard to believe I guess.

[Zatetic]

The way I do it (currently using tier 15 4-set) is to drop my stacks at 2/3 if I have no arcane missile procs. It's deathly important to get your alter time sequence out under as many trinket and enchant procs as possible. Usually if I drop my stacks at 2, I have everything up with 1 or 2 missile procs and couple stacks remaining on wushoolay's as I get to 4 charges and pop my alter time macro. Depending on how long I had on wush when I started alter time, I can get my mage bomb on with everything up and 10 stack wushoolay's right after my alter time ends as well.

Now without T15 4-set, it's not as much of a gamble to fish for an arcane missiles proc at 3/4 stacks without clearing before going into AT, however I'm entirely used to T15 4-set at the moment and so someone else's input regarding this would be a lot more helpful.

In the end, it all comes down to what procs and what doesn't. I know that a lot of times my immerseus trinket doesn't proc in the time it takes me to get to 4 charges and I either blow an AM proc and re-bomb to hopefully get the trinket up and blow cooldowns. Note that with 5 spells casts (one mage bomb and 4 arcane blasts) the chance of immerseus trinket not proc'ing is about 44%, so pretty high. Add a mage bomb and one AM proc (I only do this if I have two), that takes the chance of it not proc'ing down to about 32%, which is still pretty high. Getting that trinket to proc with two AM procs on the pull will for now be the bane of my existence. However when it does happen, oh boy, no one can catch me for the remainder of the fight.

I find it procs in my pull rotation about 8/10 times and if it doesnt, it procs during AT and then resets and pops again at the end of AT.

As for AT, If I get no am procs, I still blow my AT macro and cast 2-3 blasts then usually i'll have a missile proc to use then barrage and when AT resets i'll refresh dot and barrage again. It kinda limits my burst but not by enough to be a huge issue.

[Minimemage]

It hardly matters what spec you are in 10m. Any mage unfriendly fight you would simply swap the mage out.

Even so, it's been over a month since this tier launched, I would find it very unlikely at this point that you wouldn't have 4set T16 by running Flex/Celestials/Coining.

I wouldn't switch for anything but heroic anyhow. I have one piece of T16H.

[Zavri]

I don't. I have a heroic chest only so it's not that hard to believe I guess.

Alright then in that case you just stay arcane until you hit siegecrafter progression. No biggy

[Kenbud]

Alright then in that case you just stay arcane until you hit siegecrafter progression. No biggy

Nope just going to smash my face against him as arcane until he dies.

[Deleted]

RNG sucks when RNG sucks. I've done every single bosses possible every week and I haven't gotten a token or even a trinket (we've seen only 1 out of the 4 caster trinkets loot since the beginning of 5.4 in out 10m raid)

[Deleted]

Alright then in that case you just stay arcane until you hit siegecrafter progression. No biggy

If you're not on belt duty Arcane's 100% fine on Siegecrafter. It's actually pretty strong. Arcane's shit for belt duty though, and Fire is 100% better in that regard.

[Zavri]

If you're not on belt duty Arcane's 100% fine on Siegecrafter. It's actually pretty strong. Arcane's shit for belt duty though, and Fire is 100% better in that regard.

idk man, there is such a huge potential for fucking up and dieing on siegecrafter if you are arcane. There is just soo much shit to avoid and deal with, as with fire you can move freely with scorch and not being tied to a rune.

[Deleted]

Could we hop back on the ideal rotation for T16? For example, I have this log of myself, doing heroic Fallen Protectors. As you can see, I barely cast barrage (12 times in 9 minutes), as I'm just keeping my 4 charges up and freewheeling AM > AB > AM > AB > NT > AM > AB, etc.

World of Logs - The Fallen Protectors 10HC - Keejos

Any thoughts on that? Barrage is pretty nice, but feels like I'm on top of it when keeping 4 charges and doing AB/AM, rather than dropping it and going to rebuild my stacks. Should I do something different? What would you do in this fight? If you haven't done heroic, just tell me what you would do (different) on 10N or 25N, it doesn't really matter as the fight is pretty similar.

[Makarena]

idk man, there is such a huge potential for fucking up and dieing on siegecrafter if you are arcane. There is just soo much shit to avoid and deal with, as with fire you can move freely with scorch and not being tied to a rune.

arcane is really easy for siegecrafter, icy flows to good. You might opt for a frost bomb aswell coz thats gonna help with mines

[Deleted]

arcane is really easy for siegecrafter, icy flows to good. You might opt for a frost bomb aswell coz thats gonna help with mines

25man sure - haven't seen a single 10 man strat yet where arcane would be more viable than fire.

[antiscian]

Can someone take a look at my logs? Just recently switched from T15n to T16n. Still working on adapting the rotation per the arcane thread. Wanted to see if any glaring issues are present that I am not seeing. I will have legendary gem next week and cloak soon after. I feel like I am doing pretty well considering but I also feel there is room for improvement, especially on multi-target encounters.

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/u...um/damageDone/

Armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...lenis/advanced

- - - Updated - - -

Could we hop back on the ideal rotation for T16? For example, I have this log of myself, doing heroic Fallen Protectors. As you can see, I barely cast barrage (12 times in 9 minutes), as I'm just keeping my 4 charges up and freewheeling AM > AB > AM > AB > NT > AM > AB, etc.

World of Logs - The Fallen Protectors 10HC - Keejos

Any thoughts on that? Barrage is pretty nice, but feels like I'm on top of it when keeping 4 charges and doing AB/AM, rather than dropping it and going to rebuild my stacks. Should I do something different? What would you do in this fight? If you haven't done heroic, just tell me what you would do (different) on 10N or 25N, it doesn't really matter as the fight is pretty similar.

I need to do this fight more like yourself. Thanks for posting.

[Sephurik]

I've been avoiding posting this, but I have yet to find any solid info that isn't buried in huge threads. My question is, are there any BiS lists or data lists on whether or not we for sure 100% don't want T16 as arcane? Also, that trinket list on the first post is a bit confusing because there isn't any context listed for it, and I'm not sure how to read it, especially since I've seen some people suggest that the Garrosh trinket is better than the totem. I also don't know if that list is compiled based on using T15 or not.

[Deleted]

I've been avoiding posting this, but I have yet to find any solid info that isn't buried in huge threads. My question is, are there any BiS lists or data lists on whether or not we for sure 100% don't want T16 as arcane? Also, that trinket list on the first post is a bit confusing because there isn't any context listed for it, and I'm not sure how to read it, especially since I've seen some people suggest that the Garrosh trinket is better than the totem. I also don't know if that list is compiled based on using T15 or not.

My personal experience of T16 is that it plays better in practice than the theory might suggest. With T15 the one thing that was easy to do whilst in a pressure situation was get rid of far too much mana. T16 can get some beautiful proc streaks