Arcane mage opening, 6+ seconds of no damage.

[Exeris]

Hi there, I just tried arcane spec for the first time in BFA so if I'm doing something wrong please correct me.

When opening on a rare mob for example I cast.. Charged up, Rune of Power, Arcane Power and start casting Arcane Blast, with the global cool downs and cast time of Arcane Blast that's a full 6+ seconds of no damage to the mob.

I'm also wasting some of the buff from Rune of Power and Arcane Power waiting for cool downs, I switched to Incanter's Flow to make the spec feel a little less awful.

Are arcane mages really supposed to be this way? Are no one else bothered by this?

[Niwes]

normally you do that „setup/rampup“ while 10s pull in raids.

look at it from this point of view (at least i do): while other more sustain-based classes do all the time around the same damage, you can go to a rare outdoor and do insane dmg by pumping you completely empty, just because after a minute or so the rare is dead and you can drink. additionally most of the time stuff is rdy at next rare (every 2mins) and you can go all out again.

besides that, the heavy burst and BL/Hero you have, allows you to do insane burst and being able to kill some rares others cant, because you are able to press enough dmg in a small time frame.

at least i like that.

[Deleted]

Charged up, Rune of Power, Arcane Power and start casting Arcane Blast...

Yes, and in raid you must wait until the pull, because pulling a raid boss resets your Arcane Charges so you can't cast Charged up before the pull. Luckily dungeon bosses don't do that.

[Exeris]

normally you do that „setup/rampup“ while 10s pull in raids.

look at it from this point of view (at least i do): while other more sustain-based classes do all the time around the same damage, you can go to a rare outdoor and do insane dmg by pumping you completely empty, just because after minute or so the rare is dead and you can drink. most of the time stuff is rdy at next rare and you can go all out again.

at least i like that.

I really like arcanes ability to burn a target, feels good.

What I don't like so much is the click and wait game when using Charged up - wait 1.5sec, Rune of Power - wait 1.5sec, Arcane Power - wait 1.5sec.

And by the time my first Arcane Blast hits I've lost about half the duration of Rune of power and about a third of the duration of Arcane Power and I just wanted to be sure I'm not doing anything wrong.

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Yes, and in raid you must wait until the pull, because pulling a raid boss resets your Arcane Charges so you can't cast Charged up before the pull. Luckily dungeon bosses don't do that.

I haven't tried raiding with it but if that's the case that makes it even worse.

[Aleksej89]

Oh wow that spec sounds like a blast in PVP xD
By the time you get a single point of damage in through all those stuns/interrupts you will be long dead.

It really sucks when blizz designs a spec to have such an obnoxious wind up time, makes it practically unusable unless you are fighting massive HP targets like bosses.

[cparle87]

I haven't tried raiding with it but if that's the case that makes it even worse.

Raid bosses do a lot of bad stuff like this. Like I have the boomy talent that causes me to build astral power in combat. So I can try starting the fight full. Nope, resets me to be the 50 floor the talent has. Same with combo points. Have four, pull boss with rake, go to get savage roar up, wonder why it only has 1-2 CPs of duration.

[Deleted]

Maybe I should add that sometimes when you cast Charged Up you will get only 3 charges. This bug has been around for so long that I think they should change the info text to: "Immediately grants 3 or 4 Arcane Charges". Then you would feel lucky if you got 4 and wouldn't be too disappointed if you got only 3.

[Elidan456]

The windup time in raid really sucks imo. Charge up should not be in GCD or at least we should not lose our charges if we pop them before engaging a raid boss.
If you lust at start, that is an insane amount of time lost, on top of being an arcane mage and just using all your mana faster. Than you have to spend another 6 seconds in evo while the rest of the dps pulls ahead in damage. You would think Arcane mage would destroy a target during lust, but the moment your AP is off, "sayonara" mana.

[Marrilaife]

Raid bosses do a lot of bad stuff like this. Like I have the boomy talent that causes me to build astral power in combat. So I can try starting the fight full. Nope, resets me to be the 50 floor the talent has. Same with combo points. Have four, pull boss with rake, go to get savage roar up, wonder why it only has 1-2 CPs of duration.

I remember when we had a druid tank and he'd pick the trash, we'd hero, then reset boss to get hero resetted and ready again, and his rage would reset in combat with the trash just because we reset the boss.

[Niwes]

I really like arcanes ability to burn a target, feels good.

What I don't like so much is the click and wait game when using Charged up - wait 1.5sec, Rune of Power - wait 1.5sec, Arcane Power - wait 1.5sec.

And by the time my first Arcane Blast hits I've lost about half the duration of Rune of power and about a third of the duration of Arcane Power and I just wanted to be sure I'm not doing anything wrong.

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I haven't tried raiding with it but if that's the case that makes it even worse.

problem with the high rampup time is blizzards new gcd philosophy. check internet for the rant

previously stuff like AP wasnt on the gcd. now it is.

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Oh wow that spec sounds like a blast in PVP xD
By the time you get a single point of damage in through all those stuns/interrupts you will be long dead.

It really sucks when blizz designs a spec to have such an obnoxious wind up time, makes it practically unusable unless you are fighting massive HP targets like bosses.

yes and no. in advantage an arcane mage can run around endlessly with 4 charges and spam blast all the way and quick drink after mobs. no othe spec can ST quest mobs each after another that fast down like arcane.

the spec isnt adjusted to have all cds up every pull (ofc) and would be massivelly OP if it has.

[Argorwal]

It actually sounds very "wizard like" to cast a few pre-damage buffs before unloading the deeps.

[Bullettime]

It actually sounds very "wizard like" to cast a few pre-damage buffs before unloading the deeps.

Problem is Arcane isn't exactly setting the world on fire either. It also doesn't feel good eating into your cooldown time with the GCD of stacked effects, along with Blizzard trying to cut down on cooldown stacking in BFA anyways.

[Polarthief]

normally you do that „setup/rampup“ while 10s pull in raids.

Good luck doing that with CU since you lose all ACharges on pull, and if you do RoP/AP first, you lose a global during them for CU.

OT: It's not really an issue, but if it's such a bad issue for you, play Fire or Frost.

PS: Use RoP. Don't use IF for Arcane. Most of your damage comes from the burst windows and having the full 40% over a fluctuating 4-20% is way better.

[Deiae]

you can use CU while you run up to the mob - so it is a little shorter than you described. also you could opt to use presence of mind for your 1st (and 2nd) AB in AP while you do world quest to tag the mob a little quicker - many don't live too many ABs anyway. that isn't optimal for long-living targets or raidbosses though.

I am not too unhappy with arcane doing open world stuff - like world quests. mass invis and instant invis come in very handy to avoid having to do pesky mobs that don't give you anything. get two pieces with vampiric speed and you don't even need leech.

[TyrianFC]

Basically, yes, it sucks and isnt fun.

[Nikkaszal]

The initial ramp-up isn't really such a huge deal and I don't know why people are making it out to be.

You start raid fights by pre-casting an AB to hit right after the pull, then Charged Up, then RoP into AP. You have 3 GCDs of no outgoing damage, and lose exactly one GCD of time on both RoP and AP since they both activate simultaneously. You then proceed to blast the everliving shit out of the boss with one of the highest burst windows in the game.

The specs are all tuned around having CDs on the GCD, so it's not like Arcane is losing out specifically.

Your burst is still astronomical, what exactly is the problem?

[TyrianFC]

The specs are all tuned around having CDs on the GCD,

That doesnt mean its fun though, even if the difference is psychological. Nobody wants to lose 30% of their amazing uberdps buff doing housekeeping, even if its been tuned for only 70% actual fully utilised uptime. It just feels shitty. Id rather AP be a 7 sec no-setup-needed buff (off gcd and castable between spells) than a 10 sec buff (in present form needing to waste gcds to setup etc).

[davesignal]

Problem is Arcane isn't exactly setting the world on fire either. It also doesn't feel good eating into your cooldown time with the GCD of stacked effects, along with Blizzard trying to cut down on cooldown stacking in BFA anyways.

The main problem with Arcane is that its two target cleave is almost non-existent. It has immense single target and good mass AOE damage (provided it can get in range for AE), but Frost blows it away for cleave with Splitting Ice and Glacial Spike.

Unfortunately, this new tier is almost entirely cleave fights..

[Elidan456]

The main problem with Arcane is that its two target cleave is almost non-existent. It has immense single target and good mass AOE damage (provided it can get in range for AE), but Frost blows it away for cleave with Splitting Ice and Glacial Spike.

Unfortunately, this new tier is almost entirely cleave fights..

As you said, just compare Splitting Ice VS Touch of Magi, one gives 80% damage cleave, the other is a random debuff that you can't control, and do a pathetic amount of damage due to the nature of the spell.

AM doesn't feel good, and dropping Ab doesn't feel good on any kind of Single target. Ice Lance feels better than Ab, and it doesn't have a cooldown. Gcd take 20% of your AP and you need a 4 seconds setup to start doing damage on top of having to waste time on Evocation. And the damage you get is far from being good enough for the extra time spent setting up your burst, or the chance of a bad Evocation. A missed Evocation for whatever reason is a death sentence in the dps battle.

Frost got better AOE utility, Better cleave, and around the same ST without giving up on your AOE. Try doing AOE with arcane without 3x Echo... You need to be in the face of mobs, deal with melee AOE, instant react if you get aggro and all of that for AOE damage that is only best when setting up a Rune+AP+Echo+2xAoe talents and blasting AE+Ab for 8 seconds. Or until a mob in raid or instance decides to one shoot you/force you to move away from the group you need to aoe down.

[Pentai]

I agree that it's a boring time for arcane, Arcane Power will hopefully get something extra to make it more interesting as mentioned in the Q&A, there are many specs suffering from this sort of downtime while powering up. Heck it feels worse on my fury war even if it's just for a global, it feels like slamming the breaks on a speeding car to make it go faster instead of some explosive boost.