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  1. #1

    Thok as an Arcane Mage

    As a new convert to Arcane after playing fire all last tier, I was hoping some of you could provide some insight on how you're dealing with Thok. We've already killed him, so its not critical, but I was unhappy with my performance on this fight and was hoping for pointers. How are you arcane mages handling the constant interrupts? Trying to time AB's in between? I have heard some are using AE and missiles to build stacks, and then dumping them with Abarr. Any insight on how to pull better numbers would be appreciated. We are not using the no transition strat. Thanks in advance.

  2. #2
    Deleted
    Probably not the answer you seek, but I found that frost in arcane gear works better than arcane for this fight. When the interrupts get faster you have instant procs to spend, as well as having an easier time in phase 2 (no out-of-rune casting or constant RoP re-casting)

  3. #3
    You weave in ABs and AMs with the occasional barrage and AE. Usually, there's slight downtime between the casts depending on your haste. In the event we manage to kill it, I'll post a vid so you can better see what I mean.

  4. #4
    untill 15 stacks, you can cast 1 ab betwean each interrupt, if you cast it as soon as the last interrupt goes off, after that its only instants
    IGN Joe FC: 1908 - 0405 - 5213

  5. #5
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by dracco4heads View Post
    untill 15 stacks, you can cast 1 ab betwean each interrupt, if you cast it as soon as the last interrupt goes off, after that its only instants
    wrong, aslong as the cast time of your AB and AM is under 1.5 seconds you can always get a cast off between the interrupts if you are fast enough casting after. If coming out of a silence dont try and cast, do AE and then on the next one start to cast again.

  6. #6
    Just go frost in arcane gear, not just for quicker casts and instants but also for easier phase 2 while kiting him. I always do better as frost here.

  7. #7
    All you need is <1.5sec arcane blasts and you can do it with no trouble.

    As for kiting, if he goes out of range of double rune placement, I dont chase.
    If I have a 4 stack, I keep it active on the add and barrage thok as he comes back past.
    I use double blink/blazing speed in case I get targeted.
    Temporal Shield before the screeches is really helpful.

  8. #8
    Just go frost. My dps is significantly higher as frost.

  9. #9
    You can keep casting during devotion aura, as well as when you're bop'd. So become friends with your paladin(s) and ask for one!

    You can also use fire blast and ice lance at times if necessary

  10. #10
    Yeah your raid should be chaining cooldowns, once the dev auras are being chained you can free cast for awhile, and like Spliff mentioned you can get bop'd and free cast during it.

    I believe most guilds that got their progression kill sat mages in favor of other classes.

  11. #11
    Go frost in your arcane gear. BoPs should be used for healers. There's really no other option.

  12. #12
    you also could probably get away with using frost armor instead of mage armor for this one fight which may yeild better results for your haste levels.
    Quote Originally Posted by Equim View Post
    I really don't see anything wrong with playing what you enjoy. Be it Frost, Fire, Arcane or Hello Kitty Island Adventure.

  13. #13
    Our mage was frost for progression on this fight and like others have said, chained devos and bops allowed her to DPS relatively unhindered for the majority of the 15-18 stacks we were pushing. If you don't have any pallies then well...GL.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Salystra View Post
    you also could probably get away with using frost armor instead of mage armor for this one fight which may yeild better results for your haste levels.
    its single target, you should be running frost armor + lb anyway

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Salystra View Post
    you also could probably get away with using frost armor instead of mage armor for this one fight which may yeild better results for your haste levels.
    It's a single target fight, you should be using frost armor and LB anyways.

    I managed to do around 245K on this fight as arcane.
    If you are going with the 9762 haste build you should have no issues getting an AB cast in between silences(should be under the 1.5sec cast limit). Make sure to replace rune before the stacks get too high. As soon as the silence ends start casting. What I usually do is cast AB then hit an AE, silence will go out right after and then repeat. Make sure to make full use of Dev Aura free casting time.
    If the stacks get to be too much for you just use AE and AM(don't full channel, be ready to move/use a stop cast macro) and dump with ABarr. I wouldn't bother with fireblast or icelance, AE hits harder.

    For tips, use G Invis and Temporal Shield. TS is off the GCD and helps the healers a lot on this, plus the 15% DR is nice. G Invis I would save for if you get a poison on you while away from healers dpsing the boss(if you happen to be), otherwise use it when stacks start getting real high. Glyph of iceblock lets you free cast for 3 seconds too after it pops.

    Quote Originally Posted by Lohe View Post
    If you're semi-hardcore or semi-casual what's the other half? To me, they're both the same thing.
    Canicus - 577 - Arcane Mage - US Mal'Ganis Horde - 12/14H T16

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Zatetic View Post
    its single target, you should be running frost armor + lb anyway
    and that lady's and gentleman is how you get pwnt on the forums, noted for future

    When I was arcane on this fight I just timed my spells between the interrupts but it did become problematic/impossible (that was if you hadn't guessed using mage armor still). Go with the masses and go frost for the fight
    Quote Originally Posted by Equim View Post
    I really don't see anything wrong with playing what you enjoy. Be it Frost, Fire, Arcane or Hello Kitty Island Adventure.

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Saegno View Post
    I wouldn't bother with fireblast or icelance, AE hits harder.
    Except for if you get spell locked for whatever reason, you're better off doing that than sitting there doing nothing.

    EDIT: I tend to get locked out a couple of times each time we do this boss, whether it's due to my poor timing or my awesome 250ms.
    Last edited by Spliff; 2013-10-04 at 03:55 PM.

  18. #18
    Extending this to heroic, my strategy so far (we haven't killed it yet) has been to conpletely reforge to haste, running frost armor, to have 1.3s ABs/AMs. With meta that goes down close to 1s. That cast time is overkill if you're playing perfectly, but I find that its quite hard to play perfectly most of the time, especially if you get locked and need to recover. There's human reaction time, latency and the GCD to take into account that affects my "flow", which is "Cast" > AE > "Cast" > AE > etc. when Thok starts casting every ~2s. AE's when Thok is casting (0.7s cast) right into a cast, repeat.

    The "cast" is a normal arcane priority rotation, just with AE every other step. My results so far are not topping the raid since this is an anti-caster fight, but I'm not THAT disappointed. Logs so far are here. I'm "only" about 25k dps behind the top so far.

    If anyone has some heroic experience as arcane I'd love to hear what worked well for them.
    Last edited by Minimemage; 2013-10-04 at 06:26 PM.

  19. #19
    Thats pretty much what you have to do Mini if you want to play arcane on that fight.

    But I mean if you have access to 2pc T16, you might as well just go frost for that fight since you're reforging into haste and using frost armor anyways.

  20. #20
    Deleted
    WTF why should he ever go frost for thok ?
    As arcane with the 9762 haste build you can easily get ab/am between each interrupt in case you fail once use ae and then back to ab/am.
    If you guild manage to kits thok good in second phase, then you can stand in range all time except third door, but then you can just help with jailar

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