Arcane Mage PvE Guide

[Firebert]

you what? IW?

Yeah. Incanter's Ward. Arcane Mages have very little mobility as it is, I don't want to be locked in two rings as well, even if it is theoretically more DPS.

I also never use the shield, as the whole idea of Mastery stacking is to stay as high mana as possible.

[voltaa]

Yeah. Incanter's Ward. Arcane Mages have very little mobility as it is, I don't want to be locked in two rings as well, even if it is theoretically more DPS.

I also never use the shield, as the whole idea of Mastery stacking is to stay as high mana as possible.

I could see how it would be nice QoL wise but I don't know if I would want to sacrifice that much damage, I've only ever use it on tortos (and that was just to AE the bats like a scumbag)

[Firebert]

I could see how it would be nice QoL wise but I don't know if I would want to sacrifice that much damage, I've only ever use it on tortos (and that was just to AE the bats like a scumbag)

I've quit non-LFR raiding whilst guild drama blows over and work becomes more managable, so I've not seen ToT Normal.

I just prefer to crunch numbers (and enjoy myself when playing, which I feel RoP mitigates against).

[Deleted]

Ah, okay. I might try IW this week on Horridon. I've tried RoP, but I really don't enjoy it (again, for Horridon). Invocation's not a bad choice, but I don't really like the -50% mana regeneration on top of stack drop. Seems overkill.

I don't think many people enjoy RoP if I'm honest. But Blizzard will be Blizzard and won't realise that Mage design overall (not just limited to Arcane) is utterly terrible at the moment. Oh well.

If you're gonna try and compare IW numbers to RoP numbers, seeing as you can't use IW active anymore (turns out as massive overall dps loss) I think being able to stay in RoP for ~75% uptime or so is still higher DPS, so it's your call.

[Firebert]

ahh i see what your getting at i thought you where implying mages go find melee gear for expertise lol.

Even though you're a spam bot, Expertise is effectively the same as spell hit so it's fine to gem and enchant.

[Saegno]

So I finally did it, I got tired of the terrible RNG of ignite(even with close to 46% buffed crit) and gave up on fire. Thankfully the raid leader doesn't care what spec I play as long as I play it well. Finished out the raid week as arcane and loving it. Consistent damage, no RNG swings, better AoE/Cleave(yeah I know combustion spreading but that's still rng based and only a few times per fight compared to constant ABarr cleave) and overall more fun for me.

Now I had a few questions/concerns.
I'm currently using frost armor+haste stacking since I have 2 RPPMs(Just got a normal BotH to replace my Cha-yes) and the meta and it worked out pretty well. The issues I have with it is when we lust, if my meta procs or I activate the 2set bonus, I'm casting ABs at .7 sec cast times. Would it be better to swap to mage armor on the pull/when we lust to avoid this or is the extra haste on LvB/NT worth it?

I see a lot of mages with 2 RPPMs and the meta still stack mastery instead of haste. I'm curious if this is a playstyle preference or they know something I don't?

Offset item, outside of Ra-Den, is H Jinrohks pants or H Jikuns chest?

I know that RoP is better than IW, with Invo being pretty well out of the picture, but what about fights with a large amount of potential movement?
I ended up using IW on H Jikun tonight because I was worried about having to set up a rune at every nest/every time I was on platform. I managed 241k with IW so it wasn't terrible, but I am thinking I could of done better with RoP instead.
H Tortos is my main concern here as I've only done it as fire and later in the fight I find myself using scorch pretty much full time over fireball. I know that even with IW I will still need to find a spot to turret at, but at least my NTs and ABarrs while moving wont suffer as much.

Sorry for the long post, It's just been ages since I was full time arcane(Back in the old 1 1 1 1 2 Days). Armory is in the sig if that helps anything.

[voltaa]

Offset item, outside of Ra-Den, is H Jinrohks pants or H Jikuns chest?

Animus Head

[Saegno]

Animus Head

K, Figured the stats on that might be better + not having a crit socket bonus.
Out of the two I mentioned which would you suggest?
Currently using a 2/2 H Jikun chest as my offset but have the 2/2 H Jinrohk pants as well.

[Deleted]

K, Figured the stats on that might be better + not having a crit socket bonus.
Out of the two I mentioned which would you suggest?
Currently using a 2/2 H Jikun chest as my offset but have the 2/2 H Jinrohk pants as well.

Assuming you have tier chest, go with H Jin'rokh legs.

Also, if you're seeing Mages stack Mastery > Haste it's probably because they're at high gear levels. Mastery is still very strong this tier as Haste is only "truly" stronger in patchwerk/single target, but there's very little of that this tier.
The amount of multi-target that goes on means Mastery is still very strong, but personally I still run Haste to a breakpoint so that I'm benefitting from higher (even though it's only slight) RPPM uptimes.

[Saegno]

Assuming you have tier chest, go with H Jin'rokh legs.

Also, if you're seeing Mages stack Mastery > Haste it's probably because they're at high gear levels. Mastery is still very strong this tier as Haste is only "truly" stronger in patchwerk/single target, but there's very little of that this tier.
The amount of multi-target that goes on means Mastery is still very strong, but personally I still run Haste to a breakpoint so that I'm benefitting from higher (even though it's only slight) RPPM uptimes.

What are some reasonable breakpoints to aim for? Just extra bomb ticks or something else I should look for?

In my gear(533 Ilvl no cape), using the BotH I got last night 2/2 upgraded, going for a full mastery gem reforge setup I can hit 12.2K Mastery and 7.2K Haste.
Sticking with a haste build I can reach 5.7k Mastery and 13.7K Haste.

Also, mastery builds, Frost or Mage armor?

[Deleted]

What are some reasonable breakpoints to aim for? Just extra bomb ticks or something else I should look for?

In my gear(533 Ilvl no cape), using the BotH I got last night 2/2 upgraded, going for a full mastery gem reforge setup I can hit 12.2K Mastery and 7.2K Haste.
Sticking with a haste build I can reach 5.7k Mastery and 13.7K Haste.

Also, mastery builds, Frost or Mage armor?

If you can get to 9762 (assuming raid haste) without going below 10-11K Mastery I would probably say that's best.
With 9762 you're effectively using a "hybrid" build; run Frost Armor + LB in single target/non-cleave, run NT + Mage Armor everywhere else.

[Mizzet]

Also, if you're seeing Mages stack Mastery > Haste it's probably because they're at high gear levels. Mastery is still very strong this tier as Haste is only "truly" stronger in patchwerk/single target, but there's very little of that this tier.
The amount of multi-target that goes on means Mastery is still very strong, but personally I still run Haste to a breakpoint so that I'm benefitting from higher (even though it's only slight) RPPM uptimes.

A quick question, why is mastery stronger for multi target? The tooltip damage on my living bomb doesn't seem meaningfully different when I've tried alternatively going haste or mastery heavy. Infact, simc is telling me LB actually has more dpe/dpet when I'm gemmed and reforged for haste.

[Deleted]

A quick question, why is mastery stronger for multi target? The tooltip damage on my living bomb doesn't seem meaningfully different when I've tried alternatively going haste or mastery heavy. Infact, simc is telling me LB actually has more dpe/dpet when I'm gemmed and reforged for haste.

Because when I'm saying multi-target I'm talking about where you're benefitting from NT cleave. NT has different tick breakpoints than LB and 150% of NT will be > LB.
The thing is, gaining a tick on LB is far more important than gaining a tick on NT, NT already ticks very, very fast as it is, so reaching 1 extra tick for say, 18 ticks will only net you an extra ~35K or so DPET, whereas getting the other 17 to tick 10% harder (from being able to go Mage Armor over Frost Armor at the tickpoint) will net you ~59.5K DPET.

[Deleted]

Because when I'm saying multi-target I'm talking about where you're benefitting from NT cleave. NT has different tick breakpoints than LB and 150% of NT will be > LB.
The thing is, gaining a tick on LB is far more important than gaining a tick on NT, NT already ticks very, very fast as it is, so reaching 1 extra tick for say, 18 ticks will only net you an extra ~35K or so DPET, whereas getting the other 17 to tick 10% harder (from being able to go Mage Armor over Frost Armor at the tickpoint) will net you ~59.5K DPET.

:O That makes alot of sense. Just seen I am running with 9382 mastery & 9495 haste ^^;

Well worth my while swapping a 320 mastery gem to haste I am guessing ?

(Current progress is Iron Qon Hc)

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...panda/advanced

9495 haste is a terrible amount of haste to have lol - Just below all the NT and LB breakpoints both with and without Frost armour !!!

[Deleted]

:O That makes alot of sense. Just seen I am running with 9382 mastery & 9495 haste ^^;

Well worth my while swapping a 320 mastery gem to haste I am guessing ?

(Current progress is Iron Qon Hc)

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...panda/advanced

9495 haste is a terrible amount of haste to have lol - Just below all the NT and LB breakpoints both with and without Frost armour !!!

Yes, 100% worth it to do whatever it takes to get to 9762 Haste if you're sitting at those values and for IQ run LB w/ Frost Armor.

[Xiahz]

Re-posting this, since it was kinda lost amongst the other posts, I was wondering if anyone could give me advice on whether to go for the 9762 Haste breakpoint like Serene does.

This is my mage: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...AFnkz/advanced

Currently my mastery is 15983 with Mage Armor (without raid mastery buff), while my haste is only 7758. Is sacrificing the 2000 mastery worth it?

Thanks in advance

[Deleted]

Re-posting this, since it was kinda lost amongst the other posts, I was wondering if anyone could give me advice on whether to go for the 9762 Haste breakpoint like Serene does.

This is my mage: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...AFnkz/advanced

Currently my mastery is 15983 with Mage Armor (without raid mastery buff), while my haste is only 7758. Is sacrificing the 2000 mastery worth it?

Thanks in advance

Sorry! I must have completely overlooked this, my mistake. Yes, it'll be worth it assuming you get raid haste buff.

[Xiahz]

^ Thanks!

Oh yeah, another question. Does NT ticking faster than LB mean that it has a higher chance to proc BoTH?

[Deleted]

^ Thanks!

Oh yeah, another question. Does NT ticking faster than LB mean that it has a higher chance to proc BoTH?

Honestly don't know I'm afraid. Even if it did, the difference would be marginal.

[Saegno]

Honestly don't know I'm afraid. Even if it did, the difference would be marginal.

I know for frost mages most of them are using NT over LB when they get BotH. As you mentioned the difference would be marginal at best.