Best mage spec in Cata?

[HeatM1ser]

I'm presently arcane, and love it....but I was on the PTR the other day and it didnt seem like my DPS on the heroic target dummy was too good. It ranged between 8200 and 9500 DPS. Is arcane going to be a viable raiding spec come Cata? If not, what spec would be best for raiding, and could someone provide a talet tree example for that spec? Also, if arcane WILL be a viable raiding spec, could you show me the talent tree that you would suggest in case I made a mistake in my build on the PTR?

Thanks!

[Gamdwelf]

probably frost

[lookerr]

play with all 3 specs and see what suites your play style

I would think all 3 specs will be raid capable between now and Cata, and I would think some things will get change around over the next 2 months

I have been arcane for the past 2 years, but after playing around with it on the ptr, i will most likely dual spec fire and frost

[Anobix]

As with everything it will depend on the content level and the gear choices available.

[Deleted]

I think, overall the speccs will be a lot closer performance wise than they were in the past. So Fire will have a place in PvP and Frost in PvE.

The old strengths will still remain though:

-Frost: Extremely mana-efficient in PvE and good damage. Arguably the best PvP specc in game/
-Fire: Will probably draw ahead of Frost once people start raiding. Otherwise better AoE and probably better damage too overall.
-Arcane: Potentially very bursty but will remain a niche specc for most parts. Some people might make it work, but it takes a bit more foresight to play well.

For early 5 mans and heroics, Frost will probably serve you best. Once you get better gear though and start raiding, Fire will become increasingly attractive.

[Finalwish]

id probs say Fire will have the best aoe and be a little behind frost in single target, but frost has more mana efficiency.

Dont really have anything to say for arcane because I dont really think people will play it when its exactly the same old boring spec as wotlk.

as for when people have gear, fire will pull ahead with all the crits going off.

[Slavrick]

You can't use the normal arcane rotation on live, with ilvl 333 gear, it just completely destroys your mana

[SunnyDayRealEstate]

All 3 specs "seem" to be raid viable, but of course we won't know that for sometime. Given that Cata is featuring MC 2 and BWD, I think it would be a nice call-back for the mage spec to be Frost. Also, the whole "fire" nature of these raids makes me wonder about mob immunities.

[Slavrick]

All 3 specs "seem" to be raid viable, but of course we won't know that for sometime. Given that Cata is featuring MC 2 and BWD, I think it would be a nice call-back for the mage spec to be Frost. Also, the whole "fire" nature of these raids makes me wonder about mob immunities.

there was a blue post that said they wouldn't have immunities in the raids in cata.

[Nitros14]

I'm astonished people think Arcane is at all the same spec.

Arcane has the most thought put into it. If anything FIRE is the same old boring spec.

I've been playing a lot of arcane on the beta in heroics and it works beautifully. 11114 is GONE. Never to return.

The main changes are Arcane Blast does about 50% more damage than previously, and the buff no longer affects anything but arcane blast. Furthermore Mage Armour now restores a TON of mana, especially glyphed. And you do more damage at high mana.

So typically you'll start off with all cooldowns and arcane blast spam to 20% mana, then evocate to full. Now you need to conserve mana and you have choices for your blast stack clear. Arcane barrage will cost a bit more mana than arcane missiles but has more DPS. Arcane missiles costing zero mana can cause you to gain mana at a rapid rate. So do you glyph Barrage or Missiles? Do you 2-3-4 Blast stack? Is it worth it due to mana adept? This will change based on how much mastery you have. You'll probably want to switch to a higher blast stack when your trinkets and cooldowns come up. You'll want to burn low again when evocate is coming up, or when the fight is ending.

Arcane has CONTROL. When you need high DPS at a certain moment in a fight, Arcane adapts better than any spec.

As an aside, Arcane explosion is really good. Talented it causes almost no threat, and with mage armour doesn't use any mana. Its damage is on par with flamestrike and blizzard. Due to the nature of threat limited AoE tanking in Cataclysm the threat modifier is a huge factor.

[SunnyDayRealEstate]

there was a blue post that said they wouldn't have immunities in the raids in cata.

Sigh. Guess I'll keep my Onxyia scale cloak in the bank.

[HeatM1ser]

I guess my DPS on the target dummy was low because I wasnt fully raid buffed. Also...you can't use arcane missles unless arcane blast procs?

[zephid]

I guess my DPS on the target dummy was low because I wasnt fully raid buffed. Also...you can't use arcane missles unless arcane blast procs?

Nope, AM is only usable when you get the proc.

[enoesiiw]

I guess my DPS on the target dummy was low because I wasnt fully raid buffed. Also...you can't use arcane missles unless arcane blast procs?

Nope, AM is only usable when you get the proc.

But a lot of spells can proc it.

I'm astonished people think Arcane is at all the same spec.

Arcane has the most thought put into it. If anything FIRE is the same old boring spec.

I've been playing a lot of arcane on the beta in heroics and it works beautifully. 11114 is GONE. Never to return.

The main changes are Arcane Blast does about 50% more damage than previously, and the buff no longer affects anything but arcane blast. Furthermore Mage Armour now restores a TON of mana, especially glyphed. And you do more damage at high mana.

So typically you'll start off with all cooldowns and arcane blast spam to 20% mana, then evocate to full. Now you need to conserve mana and you have choices for your blast stack clear. Arcane barrage will cost a bit more mana than arcane missiles but has more DPS. Arcane missiles costing zero mana can cause you to gain mana at a rapid rate. So do you glyph Barrage or Missiles? Do you 2-3-4 Blast stack? Is it worth it due to mana adept? This will change based on how much mastery you have. You'll probably want to switch to a higher blast stack when your trinkets and cooldowns come up. You'll want to burn low again when evocate is coming up, or when the fight is ending.

Arcane has CONTROL. When you need high DPS at a certain moment in a fight, Arcane adapts better than any spec.

As an aside, Arcane explosion is really good. Talented it causes almost no threat, and with mage armour doesn't use any mana. Its damage is on par with flamestrike and blizzard. Due to the nature of threat limited AoE tanking in Cataclysm the threat modifier is a huge factor.

Fire is different! I swear it!! I mean, it's like they built the T8 4 piece into the spec (hello chain-gunning pyros, again!) :P If anything, though, Fire is the most mana efficient, because you cannot beat free, instant scorches (aka Fire will never hard oom again).

This sounds a lot more like Pre-BT/Hyjal arcane (Hello T5?) except with the damage buff instead of the haste buff.

[Oigonnahappen]

On beta all specs are raid viable although each is suited for a specific scenario:

-Frost is best for long fights where mana consumption comes into play.

-Fire is best for fights that sustained dps is needed and also great for AoE

-Arcane does the best damage(for me) though i go oom very fast and need to evo and mana gem everyfight

This is just me and my opinion though =D

[enoesiiw]

On beta all specs are raid viable although each is suited for a specific scenario:

-Frost is best for long fights where mana consumption comes into play.

-Fire is best for fights that sustained dps is needed and also great for AoE

-Arcane does the best damage(for me) though i go oom very fast and need to evo and mana gem everyfight

This is just me and my opinion though =D

But as stated by many others in countless threads, the purpose of arcane is to hit 40% as fast as possible, evo, and then find your sweet spot to hit 40% again so that you hit 40ish% as evo comes back up. and then straight burn as the boss is dying so you hit 0% as he dies.

[Deleted]

As many have already pointed out, we will see when people start raiding.

But it looks like Fire is going to be badass, especially on 3+ mob pulls (max out LB and combustions) the damage is insane atm in beta.
Frost is and always will be kinda lame in PvE, sure manaefficient like hell but not close to fire in damage.

Arcane is the tricky specc where it can excell in certain situations and suck in drawn-out fights (many hard heroic-bosses tends to). Very niched.

[nerfproof]

Actually Artic on the PTR frost is doing the same about of dps as fire and arcane. It is no longer "lame" for pve anymore as u said. While fire seems to be the top spec overall, there wont be much diff in dps between the 3 specs to make that much of a diff, which will be nice because its gotten old quick seeing nothing but arcane mages chilling in dal.

[tamlus]

Well deep freeze will crit for upwards of 30k and considering the target dummys dont get effected by that deep freeze damage, its looking nice.
Im going to go frost it looks fun and does great dps more for me on the beta anyway.

[nerfproof]

Yea Deep Freeze is doing massive amounts of dmg. Im not sure how our characters are going to be stat wise once the servers are up, but my mage has just under 3k spell power and 1050 haste. On the ptr i got just over 3.1k sp with 35k DF crits and that was with T9 gear. Since my mage has much better gear than the premade i used on the ptr im excited to try BF out on a raid boss.