Curious arcane mage looking for any help !

[Ripsta]

Hello all,

I played fire all through cata and at the start of mop until they got nerfed and thought i'd go arcane because of all the hype surrounding it. Problem is i don't feel like im pulling the dps an arcane mage should be pulling, ive read up alot on the spec and it is all just starting to confuse me. I use ROP on most fights which allow me to due to movement, (i rarely have to worry about my mana decreasing with it) get my 6 charges and arc barrage, and use AM whenever i've got 2 stacks of it..

I dont have any logs to show you guys atm and i still cant link armory if you guys are kind enough to have a look and tell me if you spot anything wrong, name : Rìpsta (numeric code is alt+141) realm : Barthilas

any help would be greatly appreciated !

[Saegno]

You aren't hit capped, for starters.
Also you have scorch but mention you are dumping your 6 charge with Abarr. Don't use Abarr unless you are moving and about to lose you 6 charge.
The accepted method of play for mastery stacking is sit on 6 charges, use scorch to keep above 84% mana and to proc more AM, and using AB to keep mana from capping/keep stacks from dropping/damage when no AM procs are up.

Also, glyph of Fire Blast is pretty meh when using Nether Tempest. I wold swap it for glyph of Arcane Power which, infering you get to use the full duration of it, is a DPS increase. Also the shadopan trinket is pretty meh.

You could reforge your boots to mastery from haste, instead of from hit, your pants to hit from haste and that should put you pretty close to cap. If not then you should reforge your chest to hit from crit instead of haste from crit.

Also, I would macro in your synapse springs into AB. As much as lining it up with other procs and such is, letting it sit unused for too long is a DPS loss compared to using it on CD.
#showtooltip Arcane Blast
/use 10
/cast Arcane Blast
Edit- His armory
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...Cpsta/advanced

[Ripsta]

thank you very much !

The hit cap was caused from an item i got the other night and forgot to reforge :P but the rest ive changed around and will test out tonight !
once again thanks appreciate your help

[Shmeh]

In your gear I would value haste higher than mastery. In the end, it's up to you as they're both very close. But I've personally found that I do better rolling haste with frost armor.

[Ripsta]

Raided tonight and did find a little increase in DPS, but i have been stuck with the decision of rolling with either haste or mastery. Also was curious to ask when it comes to boss encounters which consist of AOE dps would you guys consider dropping the 6 charges with Arcane barrage constantly ?

[velde046]

Since they are going to make Scorch weaving less interesting I'd follow:
- Build up AB stacks to 6 (most of the time you'll have 2 stacks of AM ready to go, and at least 1)
- Cast Nether Tempest (will often fill in the 2nd AM proc)
- Use the AM proces
- Finish with ArBarr

If 6 stacks is too much for mana, then just do 5, most important thing is that once you get to the part where you complete the 2 AM casts, you need to be back at 100% mana when you cast ArBarr. That is the main thing to watch for.

Repeat (mixing in cooldowns etc). Usually, you will be at 100% (even if you cast AB a 7th time) by the time you throw out the ArBarr. Also you'll have the Nether Tempest up almost all the time, since you can almost complete a full cycle during the ticks.
Make sure you mix in the trinkets and Arcane Power etc when off cooldown.
I'm not claiming to be the best player around, but I usually am in the top 3 during LFR's, so not too bad either... There will be plenty of people who disagree with me but it works fine for me.

I stack Mastery over Haste btw... maybe the rotation is suited for it, but when I went haste my dps went slightly down...

[Ripsta]

So if i was to roll haste>mastery, the 6 stack camping wouldn't apply and i would just be dropping stacks with Arc barr once im near 100% mana ?

[royals]

Stack camping is in practice currently better than dumping for haste or mastery. Veled was describing the barrage dump rotation that is currently not as high dps as scorch weaving with 6 stack camp. In 5.2 all bets will be off, but for now... Arcane blast way while keeping your mana as high as possible with scorch and missiles

[phoenix927]

I did the same as you. I always played fire, but switched to arcane to try something new after the fire nerf. I actually love arcane. I'm still learning but from what I've found is you really have to find a way to scorch weave and use arcane missiles to keep that 6 stak up as long as possible and keep your mana above 84%.

It's different and it's a whole lot of fun.

[Ashbear]

One tip that no one has mentioned (that wasn't obvious to me) was proper Alter Time usage.

Ideally, you want 2 Arcane Missile procs and have 6+ seconds left on Arcane Power. Always cast Arcane Barrage right before Alter Time expires as it resets your stacks to 6.

Also, on Alter Time, just make sure you are never casting it right before Bloodlust/Heroism or any kind of predictable buff. You lose it after Alter Time ends.