Arcane Mage 4.0 reforging/gear/ideas

[Enderfish]

Hey guys I've been pouring over EJ, wow forums, and here for the last few days trying to learn everything I can about the new arcane mage. I've come up with a few ideas and a few questions and I'd love to hear what you guys think!

Ok to start we're definitely reforging everything to mastery. My question is whether we should be reforging crit or haste. This is assuming of course that you are at hit cap. I tried to keep my crit at around 33% and but reforged crit to mastery for everything above that. I'm seeing discussions on crit being better than haste now that we are all about staying at max/near max mana for anything other than burn phase so faster spells don't always mean more dps anymore. I'm going to try reforging all my haste to mastery today and try to see how that looks. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on a sweet spot for haste, or a number we shouldn't go below. I'm at around 810 haste atm after reforging and about 33% crit unbuffed. My damage was awesome of course but maybe it can be even better if I reforge my haste instead of crit.

This also brings me to my question on trinkets. I'm keeping my 277 DFO (reforged to mastery) but for my second trinket I can use 251 spyglass, 245 reign, 245 talisman.. or *drumroll* I can buy http://www.wowhead.com/item=50357. I always hated that trinket but now I'm wondering if it might be very useful. We have our burn phases every 2 mins and the 716 sp would be a wonderful addition to that. I could reforge the hit to mastery and that would allow me to reforge hit to mastery on another piece instead of crit (so all that hit wouldn't be wasted etc). I would think the only competition with the quill would be the talisman because it provides int (sp and crit) and the same 2 minute increase in sp for our burn phases, even though it is less sp. I also saw that we can reforge gear we buy from vendors and still be able to return it in 2 hours, so I will be doing some testing later.

I also wanted to mention on EJ someone said we could use our molten armor during burn phases since mana regen isn't an issue, and then switch back to mage armor for conserve phases. I'm thinking we could add "/cast molten armor" to our burn phase macro (with our MI, AP, Mana Gem etc) and then add a "/cast mage armor" to an evocation macro so we switch back for regen phase. I'm not sure it would work on one GCD though so macroing it might not work, but just an idea.

So what do you guys think? I'm so excited about arcane now even after the nerfs and just can't get enough of it!

[Maeleena]

Just remember you need 446 hit to be at the cap now, which for Arcane mages, means you probably needed to get 234 hit, because you only needed 212 before. That is alot, so change your int/spi gems to int/hit ones, and then reforge whatever crit you need to hit to get to 446, and after that, have at the OP's comments.

[Enderfish]

Ya I magically got my hit to exactly 17% and am hesitant to even change anything cuz that is so beautiful to see haha. But of course above all other stats make sure you get 17% hit first and foremost (16% if you are a draenei).

[Lausten]

Ive just reforged all of my crit into Mastery.. I cant wait for tomorrow to test it out..

[Anobix]

for arcane mages you will want to be reforging some of your haste into mastery, not your crit.

From what I've read you want your crit over (about) 33%.


the importants of haste for arcane now is a lot lower as it is more important to get bigger casts off while waiting for your next burn phase. From what I have read:

reforge haste into mastery
regem blues into int/hit
keep crit above 33% self-buffed (you will be using mage armor, so glyph for that).

[Deleted]

Ok so im curious, the first thing i did when servers cmae up was to go to reforge master and changed crit > Mastery. Got 17,72 Mastery / 26% 33% crit and 20% Haste Can't get much better than that? Im currently pullin 16k DPS on H dummy.

[Shaisty]

What is your rotation? I am starting out on boss fights-dummy, Potion of speed, trinket, mirror image, PoM, FFB, Arcane Power, Arcane blast x3 then arcane missles and if no proc, arc barrage then repeat starting at arcane blast.
Also starting with molten armor and switching to mage armor at 50% mana.

[Deleted]

My rotation? well it consists of 1 spell.. Arcane blast. I do everything you said XCEPT for using Arcane missile / barrage i just keep spamming Ablast.

[Balo]

My rotation? well it consists of 1 spell.. Arcane blast. I do everything you said XCEPT for using Arcane missile / barrage i just keep spamming Ablast.

and how long can you keep this up. AB at 4 stacks is pretty mana intensive

[Deleted]

I can keep it up for about 2½ minute with evo at 40%~~ Obviously gets even better in raids due to replenishment and innervates. Besides bosses fights shouldnt last that long now.

Obviously using mana pots & Gems during the fight aswell forgot one 1, not using molten armor wiht this type of nuking.

[Deleted]

What is your rotation? I am starting out on boss fights-dummy, Potion of speed, trinket, mirror image, PoM, FFB, Arcane Power, Arcane blast x3 then arcane missles and if no proc, arc barrage then repeat starting at arcane blast.
Also starting with molten armor and switching to mage armor at 50% mana.

What's the meaning of using PoM and FFB as an arcane mage? Never using them in my PvE rotation.

And what if missiles don't proc after x3? Use arc barrage and then start from the beginning without firing arc missiles?

I'm asking this coz most of the times u use arcane barrage, missiles r procing. And the question is, use arcane missiles every time they proc, even after arc barrage or skip them and start the rotation from the begining?

[Shaisty]

Reason why u use FFB with PoM is b/c it CAN crit for just as much as arcane blast, if not more plus u have the dot

[Deleted]

Eh? FFB is garbage for arcane, comes no where close to AB crits

[Shaisty]

Also, this is the spec I am using currently: wowtal.com/#k=lsnaAb4.a5o.mage.

[Deleted]

Agree with Xzard, never heard anyone using FFB and PoM as an arcane. You are losing some vital time and mana using those spells, instead of keep spamming AB which crits to hell.
I was just wondering if there was such a big change in arcane rotation after 4.0.1, but according also to EJ this is not happening.

On the other hand I would like to see arcane having a more complicated rotation sometime. Too many people respeced in fire due to the boredom, arcane rotation got them.

[Palegod]

Personally I think traditional "complication" like what we have with fire or frost is just tedium and that's far worse than sometimes being bored. I'll take Mana Adept-style "complication" where you actually have to think about what you're doing even though it's still just 2-3 buttons anyday.

And yes, throwing out PoM FFBs is a horrible idea. Use PoM on an AB4 during your burn phase.

[Enderfish]

Well I reforged all the crit to mastery instead of haste and was around 39% crit unbuffed with 17.5% haste or so. Man my AB felt soo slow going at like 2.07 unbuffed. In raids it was 1.97 though I believe. I definitely noticed the crit increase, we didn't even have a 5% spell crit buff and still with raid buffs and FM I was loving the amount of crits I was getting. I found that I rarely used anything else besides AB. Most fights AB was around 97-98% of my dmg. It felt like I couldn't get rid of mana. I also tested the talisman and it put me at around 40k mana raid buffed. I'm still very curious about the quill and didn't get a good change to test it today. I also realized I had deleted my talisman a while back so I am hesitant to pick it up permanently.

I pre-PoM a minute or so before the pull and took off the buff but still got the 2 clearcasting procs set up for the start. I also started with molten armor and switched to mage armor before evocating. I didn't switch them again later in the fight though, it will be something I need to get used to doing. I'm also thinking of using potion of wild magic instead of haste potion for the extra crit/sp during burn phases.

I'm definitely still in love with arcane, the only thing I'm thinking is maybe 17% haste is a bit too low and maybe something like 20 would be a good number to aim for, but this has no math behind it. Maybe the lower the better and I just didn't like the feeling of casting in slow motion lol.

[abulas]

So how much haste should 1 aim for? I have around 950 with crap for crit and I think I have a 5600 GS(and I hate GS as much as u) but I do 13k on heroic 5mans and did 18k in ok with bloodlust second place did 3.5 all I do is POP mana gem at start POP all cds and spam AB till I hit 40% which takes forever to happen then after I evocate I do the old rotation till all cds r back up. Ima try reforgeing haste to mastery since I'm only have 9 master atm, any advice on wether or not I should change my rotation is welcome. Sorry for run on sent it sucks to post off my phone.

[Satyne]

I'm definitely still in love with arcane, the only thing I'm thinking is maybe 17% haste is a bit too low and maybe something like 20 would be a good number to aim for, but this has no math behind it. Maybe the lower the better and I just didn't like the feeling of casting in slow motion lol.

I'm sorry, maybe i missed something, but isnt 17% still THE hitcap for casters or has that changed? If not, I dont see a reason to go beyond 17% (including raidbuffs).

[Spellweaver]

I'm sorry, maybe i missed something, but isnt 17% still THE hitcap for casters or has that changed? If not, I dont see a reason to go beyond 17% (including raidbuffs).

He's talking about haste, not hit. Also, there are no longer any raidbuffs that give hit. (misery/improved faerie fire have been removed, draenei racial no longer affects the party/raid)