Seems it's been in the shitter all expansion, I hardly ever see any either. Just how terrible are they? It looks fun but that doesn't matter if it's really that much worse then frost and fire
Seems it's been in the shitter all expansion, I hardly ever see any either. Just how terrible are they? It looks fun but that doesn't matter if it's really that much worse then frost and fire
Proud far-left Democratic Socialist
Conservatism is a plague on society.
There is like a semi megathread on front page right now about it if you wanna check it out.
Are you pushing for world first mythic kills? No.
Are you doing anything else? Yes.
The fact that you actually have to ask this question rather than being able to determine it yourself suggests that you don't play a game at a high enough level for the question to actually be relevant. That's not an insult; the vast, vast of players do not play the game at a high enough level for it to matter, and simply cargo cult whatever the top 0.05% of raiders do.
If you enjoy arcane, play it.
It's good on Antoran High Command, Portal Keeper Hasabel, Defence of Eonar and Imonar the Soulhunter. Other than that pretty bad.
The point they were making was that the grand majority of people don't play their favorite spec to 100% effectiveness, let alone whatever one is doing the "best" at the moment. It doesn't matter that frost is 2% higher than arcane if you can only play frost to 85% of its effectiveness to begin with.
In other words: If you aren't a mythic world first raider, it literally doesn't matter in the slightest because you likely have a bunch of other things you could improve to gain dps rather than change spec, and if you are a world first raider you already knew the answer to this.
If you consider top-15 world viable, yes.
Yeah, but I'd say the advantage for the "shittier" player is whether a spec is easier to play and less punishing towards mistakes. It's less important what's top possible performer, if that spec is much harder to play. I've seen this in Tomb, lots of people jumped on sub rogue bandwagon and then had no clue how to play it, while for example assassination was simpler to play. However with mages I don't think frost is hard to play at a decent level, and it's also considered a "go to" spec for raiding, so it might be hard to prove to your raid leader it's worth playing something else. Anyway if you aren't bottoming the meters that should be enough of a reason to be accepted into at least 1 guild, and you don't need to be universally accepted, just find 1 place where you're fine. On my server there is a mythic raiding outlaw rogue, surv hunter, vengeance dh and whatever else is generally considered "non viable". But they have guilds that accept them.
There are no dps specs "completely garbage" no matter what doom and gloom is said, but there can be specs that can't cheese their way into high ranks, that are more punishing than the alternatives within the class, that are weak on specific boss and so forth. For example why play demo lock when other 2 specs of lock can do dps on 2 targets and the raid has a few council type of bosses?
Arcane falls between Fire and Frost
More Aoe/cleave than Frost, less then Fire
More ST then Fire, less then Frost
Issue is most fights are either all aoe/ckear or all ST so just play those 2.
After an extensive testing, i can fairly say that yes, it is viable. It is far better then it was during ToS, and can definetly be played in Antorus on all difficulties. That said, the spec revolves around short vital burst phases that cannot be screwed nor delayed, and provides roughly the same numbers the other 2 specs can dish out.
However, the other 2 specs can do so much more easily and with less risk of mechanics messing with your results.
All in all, it's a spec that requires much more preparation and better understanding of the fights you are facing, but can generally provide good results. So if you are invested in that kind of effort, you can definetly kill bosses with it and be satisfied of you skada/recount/whatever meter you are using. Mostly because everyone expects you to be totally crappy.
Fire doesn't come even close to arcane on AoE, 2/3 target cleave possibly.
Outside of a frost Mage having an absolutely insane pull, 99% of the time I'm either miles ahead of them or even.
This, contrary to what everyone seems to believe arcane is probably the hardest raiding spec in the game. Has quite a bit of upsides for playing it correctly but any minor mistake during any of your bursts pretty much turns you into a useless lustbot.
You think you do, but you don't ©
Rogues are fine ©
We're pretty happy with rogues ©
Haste will fix it ©
This is incorrect, but only because you're speaking too broadly.
Arcane is, in terms of actual physical execution, much easier than most specs-- it's one of the lowest APM specs in the game, and I love it for that. Some people see this and think it's a low-effort spec. But, in terms of actual encounter knowledge, decision making, and situational awareness, it's quite high. Arcane rewards planning and prediction, unlike other specs which require little forethought but otherwise possess high mechanical requirements.
Most people playing Arcane at a high level probably play it for exactly that reason: it rewards planning ahead and proper resource management, not high-precision button mashing.. which is why it's one of the least played specs in the game.