MoP Arcane Mage - Extensive Updated Weaving Guide

[pyrostorm9001]

I see no reason to change the play style of arcane away from its current form simply because a talent is being used in an "interesting way". Blizzard have allowed many things to continue to function in a way that was unintended and have even gone on to accept and improve them, providing they were not game breaking and the community found it fun.

Seems like it would take too much development time that could be better spent elsewhere at this point.

[Methusula]

I see no reason to change the play style of arcane away from its current form simply because a talent is being used in an "interesting way". Blizzard have allowed many things to continue to function in a way that was unintended and have even gone on to accept and improve them, providing they were not game breaking and the community found it fun.

Seems like it would take too much development time that could be better spent elsewhere at this point.

The issue here isn't that the talent is used in an interesting way, it's that it is essential to the spec. It's the same with Rune of Power. They are talents that if you don't have "you're doing it wrong" which Blizzard hates to see.

[pyrostorm9001]

Oh please. RoP is not the only talent that doesnt fit in with the "choice" aspect of the new talent trees.
and agree to disagree on the removal of scorch from arcane. too much of a pain in the arse to remove it. the QQ would be out of this world (already killed fire doing this to arcane wont be good either) and really who wants scorch removed from the rotation? it would serve no purpose other than to piss people off.

[Deleted]

Oh please. RoP is not the only talent that doesnt fit in with the "choice" aspect of the new talent trees.
and agree to disagree on the removal of scorch from arcane. too much of a pain in the arse to remove it. the QQ would be out of this world (already killed fire doing this to arcane wont be good either) and really who wants scorch removed from the rotation? it would serve no purpose other than to piss people off.

They won't remove Scorch from Arcane; they'll simply change the mana cost so it's too expensive to continue with the current playstyle without making it too detrimental on the move or for Fire/Frost.
Currently, Scorch weaving allows Arcane mages to stand free and clear in single target DPS and if there's little movement involved in a fight, dominate the meters to a ridiculous extent. It wasn't the playstyle Blizzard intended for us to use and therefore they haven't properly balanced us for it, that is why it will be changed.

[dementor]

Scorch weaving does approximately the same DPS as dropping stacks with barrage. It isn't game breaking. Doubt it will be changed.

[Deleted]

I found out one thing that seemed to increase my dps, after you've alter timed, while you're still in your arcane power and have 0 missile procs, using a mana gem with the glyph of loose mana (minor) will passively greatly increase your mana regen to the point where I can freecast 4 blasts, each of them cast at 95% + mana (my haste is low, sub 20% raid buffed).

Also one thing you failed to mention is delaying your arcane power until you've gotten your trinket procs, at the start of a fight.

[Deleted]

I am pretty sure I mentioned this, plus I mentioned that waiting for it may sometimes create problems as you might try to fish for Arcane Missile procs, so you can do the Alter Time - Arcane Power combination, and weave scorches for so long, to get these trinket procs (that sometimes don't line up), then lose these procs of arcane missiles. Furthermore, fishing for them with scorch weaving so you don't go to low mana when at 6 arcane charges is such a dps loss that it's really not optimal to wait for ages for trinket procs.

[Charlooo]

2. Mage Bomb – For single target fights, Nether Tempest is your best option. If you take Nether Tempest, then only cast it once it fully runs out, otherwise you lose 1 cast of Arcane Blast every 15 seconds and most likely a tick of the dot itself.

Just want to know if this is correct? Because everywhere else I have read says to refresh the bomb before it runs out. Would this also apply for living bomb aswell?
I have been refreshing nether tempest around the 1 sec mark and letting living bomb go off but dunno if that is right or not.

[DreamSpyre]

The issue with NT refreshing is that in order to do it before it falls off without losing any ticks is that you have to do it right before the very last tick. Now, NT already ticks so fast that with haste your window for doing that is very very small. I think with raid buffs I have to refresh between .6-0 seconds left on the dot. It's not worth waiting and not casting for that point, and it's not worth worrying about it falling off for a small portion of time. Rule of thumb I follow, is if after the cast I finish, NT has less than a second before falling off I'll refresh and accept maybe losing a tick, otherwise I'll let it fall and refresh at the end of the next cast.

Living bomb is a different beast altogether. Your window for refreshing it before that last tick is much more forgiving, and easier to do by far than NT is while maintaining the same rotation.

[Deleted]

In my opinion, Nether Tempest with around 490 item level ticks for on average 10-11k. So for me it feels like if I clip the dot every time because I do not wait for it to fall off, I am doing two things wrong.. I am losing the damage from that last tick and I am clipping the dot and so wasting time by recasting it early (Which adds up to losing a lot of cast time over the fight).

I'll give a crude example to illustrate my point. If the fight lasts roughly 7 minutes, so 420 seconds. Nether Tempest depending on haste will last for around 12.1 seconds. If we take into account that there are around 14 ticks in this period, with 1 at the last instance when the dot falls off, then lets assume that you clip a tick every time if you refresh the dot with 1 second or so left.

In a 7 minute fight, you can get off around 30-35 Nether Tempests. Lets say you clip a tick every time, this would be an overall loss of around 350k damage. Furthermore, considering that you are clipping it 30-35 times, that is around 30 seconds of cast time that you could have put into something else. Which is in itself around 17-19 casts of Arcane Blast (Being 1.6s cast) which is in itself a loss of around 2 million damage. (Average hit of 140k at 6 Arcane Charges).

TL : DR: Clipping Nether Tempest before it runs out (Or before the last tick is executed) Overall is a net loss of around 2-2.3m damage in a fight - Quite a significant amount.

[mrgreenthump]

Am a big noob at the current DoT mechanic, but my understanding was that if you refreshed a dot before the last tick the next DoT would be x+1 and if you refresh that dot before last tick its going to be another x+1.. So you shouldn't loose any ticks?

[DreamSpyre]

You're forgetting a few things. First, if you clip the last tick of the dot, that tick rolls over into the new dot, and you lose nothing.

Second, you forget that you will also lose ticks from the downtime where you don't have the dot on your target.

If you successfully clip just the last tick, you next dot is longer which takes away from that 30-35 seconds of lost cast time you're accounting for. If you were to successfully clip only the last tick every time, you would lose no NT ticks, or lose any cast time. Now based on how this actually works in reality, there's really no way you can do that without sitting and waiting for the right time without casting. But nor can you really expect to refresh the dot right as it expires without losing ticks. Ultimately in practice, the best results will come from refreshing before the last tick goes off so that it rolls over if possible, or letting it drop and refreshing as soon as your next cast finishes.

[Tezra]

When popping your major CDS (ap/alter time) what is the most ideal rotation in a raid. Missilesx2->blastx1->barrage? Will there be enough time to do that full 'combo' or is it only possible during Time Warp? It would be terrible if I throw the barrage half a second to late and my stacks reset when alter time fades

[Deleted]

Check the guide about half way down, it says about the rotation you should do for various values of haste.

@DreamSpyre - You were right, I did overlook the ticks rolling over. However, I still feel that it is easier to simply refresh it once it has fallen off instead of risking the chance for you to lose overall cast time. I know it makes me seem like a fan boy, but Blatty from Method is doing exactly what I said ^^

[DreamSpyre]

Honestly, I can see prioritizing AB's over NT when fully mastery stacked, since you can hit like an absolute truck with AB sometimes, especially during High Damage phases. Mastery and high damage phases are perfect for each other because the damage increase scales like crazy, especially with AB popped, that you'd almost have to get lucky to get enough casts in and enough AM procs to really even out that damage. It's like double dipping in extra damage.

Here's the thing with what I said though, and I think I explained this before in another thread, but the problem with how I do things, is that's its very exact, and very hard to reliably do. Reason being, especially with haste, NT ticks just so god damned fast, that you have to basically be perfect to refresh before the last tick since you'll have less than about .5 seconds to do it, as compared to LB where you have almost 2 seconds. In that case, letting it fall is just easier, less risky way of doing it, just not necessarily the Optimal way, but doing a perfectly optimal rotation in raid is damn near impossible. I just prefer to have NT up and possibly lose a tick by refreshing a split second too early, than by having it off for a bit longer than losing 1-2 ticks that way.

[Kamel]

My rotation is equal this topic and i'ts perfect... i'm really enjoying play with Arcane.

I would like to see some advices in Garalon fight... I'll appreciate some advices and some commends about how make a good dps with Arcane there. =)

[Soulstrike]

Does this also apply to LB on cleave targets when you use Glyph of Fire Blast?

you need to wait the other LB to detonate before you fireblast otherwise its a complete waste and need to wait Fireblast cd to come back up to spread T.T

[Jimm3]

So using NT to fish for AM procs is a DPS loss?

[Shangalar]

So using NT to fish for AM procs is a DPS loss?

It's a dps gain if you do it just before the last tick. It's a huge dps loss to do it at any other time because you waste an entire global cooldown along with part of the entire DoT.

[Eggimannd]

My rotation is equal this topic and i'ts perfect... i'm really enjoying play with Arcane.

I would like to see some advices in Garalon fight... I'll appreciate some advices and some commends about how make a good dps with Arcane there. =)

Take Incanter's Ward and use it on cooldown. Get in those blue circles near the leg as quickly as possible to get "Weak points" (do 100% more damage to the legs) and get down to business on those legs. Ranked 13 on WoL arcane on normal by doing this.