Arcane needs more rotational spells

[Nitros14]

It's really not. You can't cast AM while moving unless you have the proc and talent slipstream.

It's a shitty one for sure.

[halfawake]

I think with arcane anomaly and reverberate should fix any mana problems while aoeing... Coupled with Time anomaly which was apparently already simming very close to overpowered for st and better for aoe, it's kind of an interesting build. Heavily m+ focused and a bit rng but at least we can react to something. Arcane was too predictable and definitely not easy for certain encounters but if we also take incanters flow with that build it could make it much easier to pull off while still being interesting to play. I'm really hoping that ends up being the top m+ build. Time anomaly was so much more fun than overpowered when I tried it but it would be so nice if overpowered were baseline. Also did they take out getting more clearcasting procs the lower mana you are? That could change play style a bit more too...

oh this is an old post... doh

[Droptoss]

I feel like what lets arcane down is its lack of ability to cleave. A fun way to fix it could be add an ability like arm’s sweeping strike. This new ability would copy arcaneblast and arcane missiles to 2 nearby targets doing 60% dmg the both for 12 seconds.

It would look really cool when using missiles and cover arcanes biggest weakness.

[Deleted]

Arcane flat-out needs more rotational spells. We have 3 actives in our talents, only Arcane Orb is remotely viable and that's on AoE (and snowflake single target).

What it really needs is just something to give the rotation more value. A few of us on the Arcane Dream discord were talking about a longer casted nuke and perhaps a casted DoT that gives mana regen. It really does just need something, as currently we're just pressing Arcane Blast and pressing AM when clearcasting lights up.

There are many other passive interactions that could be very interesting - for example Arcane Barrage leaving a debuff that allows arcane missiles to also hit those targets (this could actually give us a reason to use AM outside of CC).

The issue at the moment is that we're trying to work around Blizzards "design" of mana=damage. We know that they CANNOT balance this, historically and currently. If they were to move away from it it'll be a fundamental spec design change, but it could be for the better.

[Deleted]

the spec is no more fun in BFA

[Amaterasu65]

A splitting ice talent for AM woule be good for cleaving. A less tedious AB gameplay should be implemented, scrap arcane charges, make Arcane Blast faster and have its damage fixed, give it a chance to proc a buff that increases arcane barrage damage and targets affected depending on the stacks of said buff. Make missiles a proc again which would work with a new mastery. The new mastery would work with mana in a new way, increasing the chance of all procs the more you continuously spend mana without using a free mana cast spell. Evocation would replenish mana and give 2 procs of arcane missiles.

These are probably bad ideas but what we have now is depressing.

[Deleted]

Arcane plays fine.

The only thing Arcane needs is some number tuning and maybe some help regarding mana regen out of combat to increase M+ viability.

They should bake the legendary legs into the Arcane Barrage talent.

[Nitros14]

Arcane plays fine.

The only thing Arcane needs is some number tuning and maybe some help regarding mana regen out of combat to increase M+ viability.

They should bake the legendary legs into the Arcane Barrage talent.

You already basically have kilt with rule of threes. With both that's way too much mana.

[Deleted]

Arcane plays fine.

The only thing Arcane needs is some number tuning and maybe some help regarding mana regen out of combat to increase M+ viability.

They should bake the legendary legs into the Arcane Barrage talent.

Arcane does NOT play fine. Your only management is mana, you press Arcane blast, you press AM when it lights up. The ONLY thing you have to manage is a) not being below ~30-40% mana when you're going into your burst, and b) don't get interrupted in evo.

It's actually shocking when you say it's fine, if you play with Arcane Orb you'll see what I mean when I say it needs more actives - just having that one spell makes the rotation a lot more interesting (but it does do less DPS than full ST talents in BFA). Overall we need a fundamental redesign or an actually interesting change to bring the spec up to the standard they've shown us for Warlocks.

[A Chozo]

It's actually shocking when you say it's fine, if you play with Arcane Orb you'll see what I mean when I say it needs more actives - just having that one spell makes the rotation a lot more interesting (but it does do less DPS than full ST talents in BFA). Overall we need a fundamental redesign or an actually interesting change to bring the spec up to the standard they've shown us for Warlocks.

Arcane is fine for some players because they like that type of gameplay, and Mages got two other specs for people who want complexity.

It hurts those who like the theme of the Arcane Mage, but benefits Mages seeking simple, glass-cannon gameplay.

[Deleted]

Arcane is fine for some players because they like that type of gameplay, and Mages got two other specs for people who want complexity.

It hurts those who like the theme of the Arcane Mage, but benefits Mages seeking simple, glass-cannon gameplay.

I mean, Arcane has commonly been the most complex out of the three (recently). Frost and Fire are not particularly complex, Frost is push the buttons that light up, and as long as you understand how Flurry/Shatter combo's work you're basically playing it optimally. Fire is similar to Arcane in that you need to hold things for burst, but for fire it was Fire Blast/PFlames rather than mana.

Arcane could be considered to be a technical spec, but the gameplay around those technical aspects (mana management) are very poor.

[Deleted]

Arcane does NOT play fine. Your only management is mana, you press Arcane blast, you press AM when it lights up. The ONLY thing you have to manage is a) not being below ~30-40% mana when you're going into your burst, and b) don't get interrupted in evo.

It's actually shocking when you say it's fine, if you play with Arcane Orb you'll see what I mean when I say it needs more actives - just having that one spell makes the rotation a lot more interesting (but it does do less DPS than full ST talents in BFA). Overall we need a fundamental redesign or an actually interesting change to bring the spec up to the standard they've shown us for Warlocks.

yawn

a spec and a rotation is not defined by pressing many different buttons

[Deleted]

yawn

a spec and a rotation is not defined by pressing many different buttons

No shit, a spec is meant to feel fluid and pressing Arcane blast & doing 80% of your damage as Arcane blast is not what you consider a good spec. Go try the spec out.

[Deleted]

No shit, a spec is meant to feel fluid and pressing Arcane blast & doing 80% of your damage as Arcane blast is not what you consider a good spec. Go try the spec out.

Maybe you need to get off your high horse and stop pretending you speak for everyone.

[Deleted]

Arcane mages have enough rotational spells, let people enjoy their simple spec and go play something else if you don't like it, thank you very much. It feels so smooth and satisfying. Needlessly button-heavy rotations suck all the balls.

I'm pretty sure he's not asking for an entire overhaul of arcane, just for some number tweaks so if you don't want to play it extremly simply (maybe he just really likes the spec fantasy) he doesn't have to, to which i agree. I also agree with you to a certain degree though, most hardcore arcane mains don't want a bloated spec with too many fluff-abilities.

- - - Updated - - -

At its core, Arcane should be about mana management and giving us the tools to make mana our plaything. As of now, it seems like mana management is becoming rather 1-dimensional. You Burn with AB until you run out of mana, then you Conserve with AB4-ABar until you can Burn again, using Clearcasting rarely if ever. AoE is even more cumbersome, AE4-ABar until oom in 5-6 cycles without any reasonable way to Conserve. (Sure, AB2-AE2-ABar is ok for mana, but hardcasting in melee? Too much of a liability.)

IMO, many of the problems could be solved simply by giving AM a significant damage boost relative to our other abilities. Now you make Clearcasting a valuble proc we want to use. Now we have a hard-burn and a soft-burn to utilize based on our mana situation (think Temporal Flux and being able to burn ALL of that excess mana). Now we have another way to manage how fast/slow we go through our mana bar so we can sync AP and Evo correctly.

If given AOrb baseline, we'd now also have a way to conserve mana more efficiently. It lets us cast fewer high-stack AB's while still getting a reasonable amount of damage in. It also helps for AoE because you have that extra GCD where you aren't hard-burning your mana, and the ability to burst some AoE from range via ABar-AOrb-ABar.

I don't think it would be a bad thing allowing us to have more control over our mana.

I like your ideas.