What spec should i choose if i only want to aim for Mythic+ and Heroic raids?

[Deleted]

Hey all,

Just interested to know your opinions on what spec i should choose if i'm only interested in doing Mythic+ and Heroic raids? I don't want some crazy hyper APM build on the cutting edge of DPS, just something that does respectable damage and is easy to maintain.

Thanks.

[Holovik]

Any of the specs will do just fine. Pick what you enjoy more. Fire has great AOE, Frost has pretty good AOE and great single target, Arcane is pretty good at both. Just play what you find most enjoyable as they are all very different in playstyle.

[Droptoss]

Despite what the complaining on mmo champion would suggest, blizzard has done a pretty good job on balancing specs. You should choose what spec to play entirely by what you enjoy the most.

[Deleted]

Any of the specs will do just fine. Pick what you enjoy more. Fire has great AOE, Frost has pretty good AOE and great single target, Arcane is pretty good at both. Just play what you find most enjoyable as they are all very different in playstyle.

Despite what the complaining on mmo champion would suggest, blizzard has done a pretty good job on balancing specs. You should choose what spec to play entirely by what you enjoy the most.

Thanks for the replies.

I mainly want to play a spec that isn't overly taxing. I want to be able to just sit back and enjoy, rather then being on the edge of my seat to squeeze out 3% more DPS.

Back in Vanilla i mainly played a Frost Mage, but Fire looks like it could be great fun though.

[Ambereldus]

From a "feels" perspective, I can try to summarize the specs for you.

Frost: My personal favourite. Its all about combos and planning them around your procs. It tends to be fairly fast-paced and reactive, and you'll need to think quickly on the fly. You have good control over enemy movement, and can kite for days if you keep them slowed. If you take damage, however, you're in a bit of a bind since you don't have a reliable way to sustain. Fantastic all around spec, I don't switch out of it for any reason.

Fire: Played until NH. Fire used to be entirely centred on your burst window of Combustion+RoP. Your rotational focus is to get as many instant Pyro's as possible, and you have to play very reactively in order to capitalize on your random crits. I found fire's rotation to be very smooth and intuitive, and it gets better with high crit. Oddly enough, it tends to be quite methodical for an RNG based spec, and you'll spend most of your time fishing for procs to react to while biding your time to go HAM with cooldowns. You can actually sustain relatively well in the world, but you'll also take lots of damage.

Arcane: Played on-and-off casually. Arcane is practically the definition of methodical, and is quite calm in comparison to the other specs. I found mana management to be stressful because I would always underestimate my consumption. Your playstyle will revolve around your burst windows, alternating between saving and spending mana. Pump as much damage as you can into your short +dmg window, burn mana until you Evocate, then save mana while waiting on cooldowns, repeat. I feel Arcane is the most succeptible to disruption by boss mechanics, so you'll need to plan further ahead than the other specs. When questing, you basically explode things into powder. Anything that takes longer than a few seconds to kill may start to hurt, but you can juke well much like Frost.

[nukie]

Thanks for the replies.

I mainly want to play a spec that isn't overly taxing. I want to be able to just sit back and enjoy, rather then being on the edge of my seat to squeeze out 3% more DPS.

Back in Vanilla i mainly played a Frost Mage, but Fire looks like it could be great fun though.

Fire is fantastic if you dont care about Mythic Raiding. It feels good and looks good. It works well in mythic+ trash farming and i burst well on m+ bosses too.

If you are looking for super simple, you have come to the right place with fire/frost spec, theres no mana/resource bar or combo points/runes to worry about here. Just react to procs. You can legitimately go lonely winter as well and dump the extra work of managing the frost pet for an even easier time.

[Deleted]

In terms of damage any of the specs are fine for what you're planning to do.

A little more detail on Arcane:
Without the Leg Legendary, Arcane feels, imo, not that good to play. The legendary softens up the strict your mana management must be, and provides a sizeable damage boost.

You also need to be in (almost) melee range to perform AoE. I don't mind it, but I know some do. However, the AoE rotation is almost only instant casts so you can jump around like a mindless melee. You also have Blink+Displacement, so it is easy to get into melee and back out again when you need to.

While on movement, you will definitely pick Slipstream. It will prevent you from getting screwed up by boss mechanics that interrupt your Evocation cast, and if you save your AM procs properly for incoming boss mechanics, you can maintain your rotation even when you have to move.

I also think that Arcane has the best utility and survivability cooldowns available to them over all the mage specs. As mentioned earlier, Blink+Displacement, but also slows for days. They also have the best barrier, Prismatic Barrier, reducing magical damage and duration of harmful abilities (which is especially useful in Nighthold). Lastly, but most importantly, Arcane have Greater Invisibility which reduces damage taken på 60%. Most notably, I've been able to solo-soak my Bonds of Fel on Gul'dan using GI, Primatic Barrier, and Blinking to instantly breaking the bond.

[SFBayGamer]

In terms if Heroic Raiding for NH and assuming TOS, any mage spec will work. In terms of pushing M+ keys, any spec will work.

But in terms of starting from scratch with zero legendaries, frost would be the easiest to gear up as it appears to be the least leg dependent spec.

Fire has the highest bar for BIS legs and Arcane somewhere in the middle of those 2 I guess.

[henningsen]

Play whatever spec you feel is your gamestyle, i just rerolled from balance druid to arcane mage, and with 904ilev and 47 traits my overall damage for m+ is ranging from 800k - 1.1m, i find it fun with the mana management where you need to burn enough mana to deal serious damage but still dont go oom and not beeing able to do anything. Id say check out some guides on youtube, if it looks fun, go for it! Also keep in mind some rebalance may or may not vome for 7.2.5, as far as legondarys go i just got the kilt and the gameplay became mutch more intense!

[Ilara]

Fire is pretty dependent on bis legendaries, while arcane/frost perform better without it

[Sylvaeres]

Hey all,

Just interested to know your opinions on what spec i should choose if i'm only interested in doing Mythic+ and Heroic raids? I don't want some crazy hyper APM build on the cutting edge of DPS, just something that does respectable damage and is easy to maintain.

Thanks.

I would say play frost with a fire offspec. That way you can play a spec that's amazing at 1 and 2 targets (frost), and then switch to an Aoe spec when needed

[davesignal]

If you have the right kind of mindset, Arcane is super relaxing. It helps if you've played a healer and acquired a good handle on mana management.

If you don't have the right kind of mindset, I hear Arcane is incredibly stressful. It's something you really ought to try out yourself.

[Deleted]

If you have the right kind of mindset, Arcane is super relaxing. It helps if you've played a healer and acquired a good handle on mana management.

If you don't have the right kind of mindset, I hear Arcane is incredibly stressful. It's something you really ought to try out yourself.

Not really, Arcane is really fluid spec. You can play it in so many ways You are mobile, you have survi, and i think it is the best spec for HC raids / M+ due to his ST burst and AoE dps.

[Niwes]

in the first place i would say it dont matter much.

after that i would say fire has good snap aoe for i.e. m+. arcane give you good sustained aoe on the move, also good for m+. frost is very good in heroic raids and also not thaat horrible bad in m+.

i would go with frost at the moment. but its really up to you. you cant do it that wrong regardless what you choose.

and remember: you deal WAY more dmg when you can PLAY a spec and its yours, than the few percents one spec is behind the another one. also this is dependent on balancing of next patch and on situational aspects (st/aoe, heavy move, etc), whereas your performance keeps always the same, when you are "in love / synced" with a spec.

or in short: in first place play what you like most, have fun. in second play what you are good at. if new to the class try all specs and go with, what feels "natural" or easy for you.

- - - Updated - - -

Not really, Arcane is really fluid spec. You can play it in so many ways You are mobile, you have survi, and i think it is the best spec for HC raids / M+ due to his ST burst and AoE dps.

yep. i agree a bit. most ppl are too harsh or flat when thinking about arcane.

[fiestatastic]

Despite what the complaining on mmo champion would suggest, blizzard has done a pretty good job on balancing specs. You should choose what spec to play entirely by what you enjoy the most.

This isn't true at all. Fire is a huge % below other specs in raids and not balanced at all, and that's including requiring IDEAL legendaries it is still terrible, Blizzard has done an awful job with that and Droptoss is writing fake news for you. For certain bosses if you are pugging you will be asked what your spec is and if your reply is fire then you will not be invited, for good and completely valid reason, because you cannot choose what spec to play based on what you enjoy the most and Blizz has done a terrible job with spec balance this xpac.

However, fire is GREAT for trash and mythic+. If you are leaning more towards raiding go frost, if mythic+ go fire or arcane.

[Droptoss]

This isn't true at all. Fire is a huge % below other specs in raids and not balanced at all, and that's including requiring IDEAL legendaries it is still terrible, Blizzard has done an awful job with that and Droptoss is writing fake news for you. For certain bosses if you are pugging you will be asked what your spec is and if your reply is fire then you will not be invited, for good and completely valid reason, because you cannot choose what spec to play based on what you enjoy the most and Blizz has done a terrible job with spec balance this xpac.

However, fire is GREAT for trash and mythic+. If you are leaning more towards raiding go frost, if mythic+ go fire or arcane.

At the end of the day WoW is a game and the OP clearly is not trying to push mythic Guldan and even if he was, the first mythic Guldan kill had a firemage. Op says he wants to do HC NH. The dps requirement for HC krosus is 400k dps~~ which every spec in the game can smash by rolling their face over the keyboard.

Choosing your spec by what is overpowered at the moment is absurd because by the time you gear up for it the meta will have moved on. In one month we get a balance reshuffle from patch 7.2.5 so we can't use current warcraftlogs to determine what spec is the best in the future.

EDIT: Recently my guild has been wiping because raiders would dps whore instead of cleanly doing mechanics, so this lets do 5% more dmg attitude is grinding my gears.

[pies1]

Frost Glacial Spike is currently the best mage output on PTR.
t. alteredtime

[Deleted]

Frost Glacial Spike is currently the best mage output on PTR.
t. alteredtime

If you would read it more carefully you would know that is still not recommended for end-game raiding.