How is Arcane?

[Gilthandir]

You can't fully use raid bots yet. If you don't change any of the settings and leave it on the top 100 parses of the last 2 weeks of course it will still be #1 since it hasn't even been 1 week since fire got nerfed.

You have to look at 1 week, not default 2. All parses not top 100 since it has only been 6 days since the fire nerf.

This is all parses of the past 7 days not top 100. Tomorrow we should be able to use top 100 since every day of the past 7 days will include the fire changes.

[Kiry]

Arcane is pretty good, if situational. Just like a previous poster, I use frost/arcane specs depending on the fights. My gear works well either way since its heavy haste/mastery.
Regarding arcane power, I'd go check out the how to play arcane sticky, there's a macro there for a mana gem/arcane power/alter time/AM combo. Pretty nice for some heavy burst.
I also agree with the 80 - 85% mana, barrage stack clearing.

[Brewswami]

Arcane is parsing as the best spec for 90% of the fights as a mage. When looking at fire parses remember to exclude it if it was before dec 1st. For every fire parse you probably will have to move a couple pages til you can find the top 10 since the nerf. Arcane is beating every other class on every fight except galaron and is on average the best aoe spec mages have. On wind lord 25HC mages are usually number 1 dps at 300+

[nimryas]

I don't mind playing fire, been fire for like the past year or so? if not longer! So it's a nice change, but i have to admit that i wouldnt mind being forced to play fire again if its the top spec

[Deleted]

I am playing frost atm.

Tried arcane tonight and its... dull !

6 charge camping is boring, the animations and feel of the spec is pretty dull.

I hope fire gets more balancing so I can go back to it tbh, and in the meanwhile I think I will play frost.

[matters]

You can not go by what a website is showing as the 'top' mage spec currently because all of the information is leaning heavily towards Fire since it was the top spec since the beginning. How do you expect to even see Arcane show up if no one played it until the recent Fire nerf? If a certain spec is the top spec for some time then the information will STILL show it as top because there isnt enough data in yet from mages playing Arcane. I thought something like this would be obvious.

[Bryntrollian]

Fire is still parsing as the top dps spec in the game, so idk how that is the ground.

Fire got nerfed to the ground in terms of simcraft

[Aquamonkey]

Raidbots since the nerf still has it as the top spec, while, now that arcane has been played by more people is meteorically rising, even though there are no mechanical changes to arcane.

I think, perhaps, you missed these Arcane changes:
The damage buff from Arcane Charge has been increased from 22% to 25%, and Arcane Blast's mana cost increase when affected by Arcane Charge is now +75% (was +125%).

[Sandwrong]

Sorry, but that's a load of rubbish. Fire in it's current state can't come close to evenly skilled/geared affliction warlocks or survival hunters for example.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

As a player of Both a mage and hunter, both equally geared, and I'd like to say that I'm equally skilled. I can testify that fire is MARGINALLY worse than survival hunters. But I think it's funny that you're QQing about your lowest dps spec being slightly lower than the hunter's Highest dps spec. (Surv and BM are on par with each other) Just makes me chuckle a little.

[azzgunther]

"Fire is still parsing as the top dps spec in the game, so idk how that is the ground."

"there are no mechanical changes to arcane."


You guys make it really hard on people who come to these forums for accurate information when you blithely say incorrect things. Luckily these statements were both corrected pretty quickly. We should really change the culture on these boards to expect a bit more thought and understanding of the things we state as fact, as they are a major resource for new players and those looking to improve.

[Gamdwelf]

"Fire is still parsing as the top dps spec in the game, so idk how that is the ground."

"there are no mechanical changes to arcane."


You guys make it really hard on people who come to these forums for accurate information when you blithely say incorrect things. Luckily these statements were both corrected pretty quickly. We should really change the culture on these boards to expect a bit more thought and understanding of the things we state as fact, as they are a major resource for new players and those looking to improve.

what mechanical changes were made to arcane then?

[azzgunther]

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...1#post19367848

[Deleted]

what mechanical changes were made to arcane then?

You are right, there hasn't been any mechanical changes. Although possible 'rotation' has changed due to number tweaking, this may be what people are thinking of. Speaking of rotation, before someone brings it up, there isn't a 'set' one for arcane, it all depends on your current mana etc. etc.

[Gamdwelf]

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...1#post19367848

those are damage increase, not mechanical changes.

[azzgunther]

those are damage increase, not mechanical changes.

Raidbots since the nerf still has it as the top spec, while, now that arcane has been played by more people is meteorically rising, even though there are no mechanical changes to arcane.

Semantics. Instead of worrying about defending your point just consider my main point. I didn't call you out by name with quotes because it's not about anybody's pride - just about not saying incorrect things.

Your post reads as though you believe that people are playing Arcane simply because they want to leave Fire, when the reality is that they've switched because Arcane became a drastically better spec two days before Fire got nuked. By the way go check Raid bots again and let me know which 'all parses' tables you find that shows that the fire spec isn't one of the bottom DPS specs in the game right now. I'm seeing 25n, 25h, 10n, and 10h all at or near the bottom, with LFR in the middle. And I think those numbers still include the last day of Fire being extremely OP so they might drop a bit more tomorrow.

[klaps_05]

id suggest getting the 500 int gem and 4pc tier, else arcane seems lacking to me. the thing with 4pc is that 10% is actually A LOT compared to combution/IV timers that you prolly wont end up utilizing the fullest.

[TheSerialSniper]

I swapped to frost since the nerf, at 475 ilvl i am doing close to the pre-nerf fire damage as frost, frost requires alot more attn than fire did, but the mobility makes up for it greatly imo.

I tried arcane first, and I hated it. Terrible mobility (due to heavy dependence on RoP to pull good #'s) and very little in the form of instant casts. Rotation is also very droll.

[Deleted]

I swapped to frost since the nerf, at 475 ilvl i am doing close to the pre-nerf fire damage as frost, frost requires alot more attn than fire did, but the mobility makes up for it greatly imo.

I tried arcane first, and I hated it. Terrible mobility (due to heavy dependence on RoP to pull good #'s) and very little in the form of instant casts. Rotation is also very droll.

What particular fights are you having problems with movement? I realise there is quite a few movement heavy fights. But others with more experience in these fights might be able to offer some advice! Personally, recasting RoP somewhere else and blinking to it (requires a little practice) can help alot. For example, on Feng I found this most useful this week. I'd try and offer tips myself, but my own Arcane specific knowledge pretty much only consists of Feng Hc , Gara'jal Hc and Elegon Hc. So I might not be of much use!

[mrtheshaggy]

I've been checking raid bot. It's taken account for the fact that fire got nerfed and seems to have dropped down by frost and is still dropping. Arcane on the other hand went from no one playing it to better than both fire and frost by like 10% on most fights and has leveled off.

I'll be trying it next week. My gear is HEAVILY fire oriented (crit!). However, most of my gear is LFR and easily replaced. Also sitting on about 3k valor.

I didn't know they had hotfixed fire for a few days and reinstalled wow and my addons trying to figure out why I was going from consistently ranks 1 to 3 on recount down to around rank 7.

[Vakna]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

As a player of Both a mage and hunter, both equally geared, and I'd like to say that I'm equally skilled. I can testify that fire is MARGINALLY worse than survival hunters. But I think it's funny that you're QQing about your lowest dps spec being slightly lower than the hunter's Highest dps spec. (Surv and BM are on par with each other) Just makes me chuckle a little.

Where was I QQ'ing? I was just correcting someone spreading misinformation. And on that note, if you're playing surv hunter with equal gear and only "slightly" outdps'ing the current fire mage, you're doing it wrong.