Arcane Missiles Spam

[Sylar Hao]

My arcane mage is only an alt, but it's the alt I enjoy the most. Since the prepatch I've seen several arcane mages whose rotation consist on spamming Arcane Missiles nonstop, not a single Arcane Blast. I asked one of them intrigued and he replied that it does more dps than the standard rotation, and that's even stronger to do so in the mana burn phase, but he didn't explain me why is that. He also didn't explain me how he managed mana spamming Missiles.

What am I missing here?

Thanks.

[pkm]

Not missing anything. Those mages are retarded. Read some guides, it just isn't true.

[Deiae]

If you want to check what actually does the most dps on live at any given time it helps to check for high ranks on for example warcraftlogs. There you can look up what kind of abilities, buffs and trinkets are used and copy that.

[Sylar Hao]

AB does more dps at 4 charges. They are probably reading the tooltip and concluding that AM does more damage. AM does damage per cast but the cast time of AM is much longer than AB now. Ultimately AB at 4 charges is your go to burn for higher dps. It might be confusing because in the earlier patch AM did more damage both per cast and per second but not anymore since AB cast time is much shorter now as it is reduced with each arcane charge you have.

That's exactly what I thought, but since I've seen already a few mages doing the AM spam thing I was wondering if I was missing something from the prepatch changes I didn't know about. It also didn't make sense to me as if the AM spam was the way to go then AB would have no point to even exist.

[Segus1992]

My arcane mage is only an alt, but it's the alt I enjoy the most. Since the prepatch I've seen several arcane mages whose rotation consist on spamming Arcane Missiles nonstop, not a single Arcane Blast. I asked one of them intrigued and he replied that it does more dps than the standard rotation, and that's even stronger to do so in the mana burn phase, but he didn't explain me why is that. He also didn't explain me how he managed mana spamming Missiles.

What am I missing here?

Thanks.

For a while on beta, Arcane Missiles WAS stronger than Arcane Blast (or at least comparable) while at 80%+ mana due to a tier 1 talent. That's since been changed and now there's literally no reason to spam it.

[TLH]

I think arcane worked best and flowed best for wotlk.

Arcane missiles felt better because on proc they would cast at half speed so you saw the missiles both be free (and btw, they seemed to proc a lot more often) and fire at a rapid clip.

The sound effect as they tapped into the enemy sounded great too. it's like you would hear the sound of them leaving your palm, volm-volm-volm-volm - and then - TAT TAT TAT TAT !!!!!!

Very satisfying.

The primary rotation was not arcane blast spam either, it was mage armor on for more regen, build up arcane charges with arcane blast, fish for procs, then fire missiles and fish more arcane blast until oom, then evo, then repeat the burn, then it was arcane blast to max but at 4 stacks, if there were no procs, you dumped the stacks with arcane barrage then it was a basic rotation of arcane blast to max or highest level of stacks available and arcane barrage. And it did competitive damage.



I guess there is still arcane blast spam then too, I think arcane needs to be reworked.

[Trix09]

I saw this post back when it was first posted, and my mage was sitting at around level 86. I desperatly wanted to level it to max level, but struggled with every spec and just couldn't do it.

After reading this post i gave it a try, and just spammed arcane missiles on every single mob. I was very surprised to see that not only did it do good damage, but the mana was not being too much of an issue either.

Sure at first i had to eat every now and then to restore health and mana, but normally only after pulling too many mobs. So, while leveling this whole arcane missile spamming did work, and now sitting at 110 it is still working fine. Mana regens quite quickly, and arcane missiles are hitting hard enough to kill with two uses.

The only problem i can foresee is I've set myself up for this way of playing now, and once i get to leveling in BFA i no doubt will run into serious mana issues and will have to learn the whole conserve/burn phase

[Nyel]

Who even can stand playing BfA Arcane? It's the worst this spec has ever been in the last 4, 5, 6, 7 years.

[Samin]

AB does more dps at 4 charges. They are probably reading the tooltip and concluding that AM does more damage. AM does damage per cast but the cast time of AM is much longer than AB now. Ultimately AB at 4 charges is your go to burn for higher dps. It might be confusing because in the earlier patch AM did more damage both per cast and per second but not anymore since AB cast time is much shorter now as it is reduced with each arcane charge you have.

There are 2 azerite traits that buff AM damage, one gives bonus damage per Arcane Charge, the other gives an additive damage bonus per "wave". Maybe they just read a guide intended for 120/raid preparation. No idea if those traits actually cause AM to outperform AB at least with launch tier gear, just an idea.

[CptEgo]

Who even can stand playing BfA Arcane? It's the worst this spec has ever been in the last 4, 5, 6, 7 years.

Arcane has grown on me, and now I enjoy it. It feels less clunky to quest as Arcane I think. But my first thought was "whaaat the hell is this bullshit half-assed spec?".

[Unforgivenn]

Who even can stand playing BfA Arcane? It's the worst this spec has ever been in the last 4, 5, 6, 7 years.

Actually, for leveling (1-100 at least) going arcane and spamming arcane missiles is faster than going frost/fire


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[kheath812]

Actually, for leveling (1-100 at least) going arcane and spamming arcane missiles is faster than going frost/fire


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a spec only being good for leveling makes it a bad spec.

[Casperite]

a spec only being good for leveling makes it a bad spec.

He didn't say it's only good for leveling, but that it's the only good one for leveling. Still fine at max level too.

[Nyel]

Actually, for leveling (1-100 at least) going arcane and spamming arcane missiles is faster than going frost/fire


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Well that wasn't my point though. I meant how can that be considered fun? For leveling it works maybe but for content that's a bit more challenging? I played Arcane for like 10min and switched back to Frost because it was incredibly dull.

[Dhuzgan]

Arcane is amazing fun in PvP. I feel like I can skirmish much more effectively.

[metzger84]

Spamming arcane missiles is a good strategy for PVP, for when you want to do damage instantly.

[CptEgo]

Well that wasn't my point though. I meant how can that be considered fun? For leveling it works maybe but for content that's a bit more challenging? I played Arcane for like 10min and switched back to Frost because it was incredibly dull.

That's not at all long enough to learn to understand the deeper strategies of Arcane, mana management; burning and conserving mana. I thought the same as you at first, it's not as easy as it looks. And you can easily complicate your rotation further if you wish, through the talent tree.

[Unforgivenn]

Well that wasn't my point though. I meant how can that be considered fun? For leveling it works maybe but for content that's a bit more challenging? I played Arcane for like 10min and switched back to Frost because it was incredibly dull.

Yeah, its isnt fun, but spamming am in lvling is way Better, u kill mobs in 4-6 seconds, and thats the only class i am aware that can kill that fast now.

Ofc its going to be boring and wont teach u how to play ot properly, but who cares about that on lvling?


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[BlueRemedy]

Arcane is fine, I kind of liked the old missiles better but this works too.

I want challenge to come from an encounter, not a 54 hotkey monstrosity that only exists in a genre that is largely shit.

[Nyel]

That's not at all long enough to learn to understand the deeper strategies of Arcane, mana management; burning and conserving mana. I thought the same as you at first, it's not as easy as it looks. And you can easily complicate your rotation further if you wish, through the talent tree.

When the basic gameplay boils down to Arcane Missiles / Arcane Blast spam no CDs that increase my damage or any other stat will significantly improve my gameplay. I know that there's more to learn but the entire spec mechanic is incredibly boring to play (imho).