Arcane Arcane, why oh why Arcane :(

[KoolKidKaos]

Spamming 1 button won't yield you the highest single target DPS, which is the point I was getting to. In all fairness, go ahead and spam one button, I'll be in the corner using arcane missiles to clear my stacks giggling with glee as you run OOM 4 minutes before I do.

---------- Post added 2010-10-16 at 06:03 PM ----------



That's what arcane is, not about what damage source has the biggest number produced. Your argument goes against itself because priority and cool down usage have NOTHING to do with a rotation.

Name fights in ICC that are longer then 3 minutes with a decent guild, LK? PP? Sini? Princes? Fights you would def go fire for, so with that being said, Arcane would be top single target dps on a (short fight) didn't say it was the best spec in the game. Didn't say you wouldn't stop your stacks ever during the fight, because I'm sure if you have to move and evo, you would lose your stacks anyways, again, I'm asking suggestions on stat priority, anything else you have to say, please I really don't care

[Deleted]

However right now i much prefer Fire spec because my scorchs cost no mana and im easily doing 6k DPS JUST by spamming scorch so if i use fireball, living bomb, combustion, cooldowns etc etc: ill do lots and lots of dps and the good thing about this is great mana control

[Underskilled]

You're either blind, or it's too early in the morning and you're slightly retarded, maybe a mild case of downs, because I'm complaining that it's dumb down for single target, not that it matters to you oh High and mighty Lord of mages everywhere. But spamming 1 only does so much, and I was looking for ideas on stat priority for this spam 1 spec. You can leave it at that. <3 Chaos

Don't fall for it again Swizzle.

On topic, I would almost say for stat prio Mastery > Haste > Intellect, because Arcane mages are more about their mana pool now than before.

[KoolKidKaos]

Don't fall for it again Swizzle.

On topic, I would almost say for stat prio Mastery > Haste > Intellect, because Arcane mages are more about their mana pool now than before.

Thanks for your input

[Swizzle]

3 FAQ threads, 1 devoted ENTIRELY to 4.0.1, 1 devoted ENTIRELY to Cataclysm, and 1 devoted ENTIRELY to PvE. Why are people making threads asking about things?

[Toriankel]

Fire is a blast right now, and I really hope they make it viable for raiding come cata. Arcane boils down to a boring spec, both in terms of rotation and visually (ab is basically invisible, you only get to see the misilles pop once a while). If blizzard believes an invisible nuke is better than hurling balls of fire and blowing up stuff, they are really missing something here.

That being said, if arcane is the main raiding spec, I'm gonna be lava burstin' with my ele shaman this xpac.

And don't know if you heard, but it came to me earlier on this week that mages have THREE specs , now how about that ! And you know what ? The third one is mind blowing, complex rotation, high dps, big numbers and overall much fun than fucking arcane.

Now go respec 3/2/31, L2P and come back with a smile

[chrion]

So Arcane is ofc the best single target spec, and literally went from a 2 button rotation, to a 1 button spam..sigh, so which stat is better, in theory Mastery > Crit > Haste, but how much Mastery and Crit is needed for a soft cap? Any theories?

You have alot to learn, heres all the answers to every question you could possibly have, and proof that you thinking arcane is a skilless 1 button thing to do....
http://elitistjerks.com/f75/t106141-...pdated_4_01_a/

TADA!

[Drakoes]

because it does too much damage

on my lvl 68 mage, I could do 10k-13k crits. In BGs, one spell global'd ppl. Nice.

[Deleted]

Fully buffed and all procs active with hero i hit about 90k too bad that this will be nerfed as said in the new build

[Swizzle]

I don't think I have seen you post anything helpful in the past 6 or so months actually. You're one of the reasons why people who ask advice on these boards just turn into worse players.

@ OP

Swizzle is half right, there is no definitive answer to your questions just yet since everything is still in a state of flux. From my own personal DPS tests and experience in ICC heroics the old gearing strategy is still viable.

I pulled 21k DPS on Saurfang, 22k on Festergut and 19.5k on Rotface this past Thursday.

I swapped out my 2 blue gems for my meta with veiled (since there are no raid hit buffs besides Drae we now need 17% spell hit).
I changed all other gems to brilliant (I had a few reckless).
I kept all my enchants the same (black magic on weapon).
I reforged Crit to Hit (to hit the hit cap) then reforged any remaining crit to mastery. The one Spirit item I had was reforged spirit to hit.

My haste is still some ridiculous number, if you have seen the in game gear score thingy I am at 276. So being that your gear level is really what decides how you go about gearing you may or may not be able to viable do what I did. Hope some of this helps you out though.



Because you're a troll and everyone knows it. How stupid would you have to be to read something written by a known troll and take it seriously? C'mon.

You cut me deep sir, you really do. On that note, my 95% full inbox would like a word with you.

[Deleted]

Arcane getting nerfed in next patch so go fire its going to be the new best spec around.

[Deleted]

And don't know if you heard, but it came to me earlier on this week that mages have THREE specs , now how about that ! And you know what ? The third one is mind blowing, complex rotation, high dps, big numbers and overall much fun than fucking arcane.

Now go respec 3/2/31, L2P and come back with a smile

I wouldn't count on blizzard making frost raid viable, especially if it retains the absurd amount of control it has, as it may very well rip people apart in pvp. I imagined that was pretty obvious, but apparently there's still people who need special explanations for everything

[Toriankel]

Arcane getting nerfed in next patch so go fire its going to be the new best spec around.

Why doesn't anybody even consider's frost ? On a full run ICC I did very slightly less than my fire mage mate, and just switched back fire on lk hm 'cause, yeah, pyromaniac and impact rulez

[Div]

I see these arcane mage threads all the time with people arguing that arcane is just a 1 button mash and others arguing that it's so much more complex. Here is the truth coming from someone that has playing almost all the class/spec combinations since vanilla (seven level 80s and my brother has 80s of the other classes I don't). Arcane mage is THE most simple dps rotation/priority list in the game. There is no point in arguing of it's complexity because there is none. Mana management is extremely simple compaired to what other classes/specs have to manage. This isn't a stab towards the intellingence of someone that plays arcane so don't take it so personally when someone calls your spec simple. It is how it is.

[Skarrd]

WoL parse from a rather organized ICC25 pug that went 10/12. I messed up on a number of occasions mostly because im rusty and a little bit because I'm not super used to arcane at all, and the newer arcane moreso. It's a bit imperfect but some fights I felt I actually did fairly well in terms of dpsing correctly. Also, blink moved me 0 yards 4 times on rotface, it was pretty neat. I was (and am) fully reforged from haste into mastery. Mastery was at 20.5. Analyze away dudebroskis.

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-bu4me4i8m89cbdyr/

[edit] Also regular mode dps records on WoL are terrible. #3 mage on BQL and VDW with that parse, 10 overall for BQL. Lol? BQL was probably my least well performed fight and I /snooze through VDW every time I do it :x

[edit2] note: I took burning soul over piercing ice because pushback annoys me and I don't really care about my regular mode pug dps.

[KoolKidKaos]

You have alot to learn, heres all the answers to every question you could possibly have, and proof that you thinking arcane is a skilless 1 button thing to do....
http://elitistjerks.com/f75/t106141-...pdated_4_01_a/

TADA!

Never once did I state it was a skilless 1 button thing, I said I don't like spamming 1 button, it's def a challenge to manage mana doing so.

---------- Post added 2010-10-16 at 02:09 PM ----------

But personally I love fire, and even though I only topped fights like, Saurfang,marrow, and Princes, where my combustion spreading was at it's best, I do want Arcane for Single Target Burn fights, like Fester/Rotface/BQ. I'd like to play frost, but I suck hardcore at using the right spell when mutliple things proc at once, haven't really tried to play it, or test it even.

[Skarrd]

You have alot to learn, heres all the answers to every question you could possibly have, and proof that you thinking arcane is a skilless 1 button thing to do....
http://elitistjerks.com/f75/t106141-...pdated_4_01_a/

TADA!

That EJ thread is a good read, but because I think most people here don't care to waste their time actually reading that thread, here's a quote that sums up the "difficulty" of arcane rather well. Syncing cooldowns with a bosses burn phase mechanic is easy, syncing 100% mana with it as well will take a new measure of skill.

Optimizing the "Burn" phase
One of the things you will want to optimize during burn, is maximizing the number of AB4+ casts while being under the influence of both AP and Mana gem, and being at high mana.
Due to this, it is suggested that you actually start your burn phase at or near an AB4 cast, i.e. you pop your AP and gem to get back to 100% mana while already at an AB2/3 stack, so as to start the burn phase near 100% mana with AP and MG popped, casting AB4s.
Furthermore, optimal use of the Burn phase is also now directly related to fight mechanics. I.e. you will need to adjust both the "conserve" phase and "regen" phase in accordance to fight specific mechanics, e.g. synchronize a 'burn' phase to the point where a boss becomes vulnerable or to a point where you can successfully execute an evocation without interruption.

[danoob777]

Okay I'm gonna post this since the only thing close was the link to EJ forums.

Arcane mages highest DPS rotation is 1 button AB spam. We will call this burn phase. It lowers your mana incredible fast, in the course of minute you will likely be OOM. You only want to burn phase when evocation is off cooldown (or nearly off when you get a feel for how long it takes to burn to 40%), save all your other click buffs for this burn phase.

After each burn phase evocate back to 100% and go into conservation mode. This rotation will be different based on your gear. I find that I can safely ABx2-3 and then dump, which usually nets me a AM proc. You goal is to not lose any mana and stay as close to 100% as possible. If you slip down a little it is fine.

As far as stat priority I agree that in my limited testing Int>Mastery>Crit>Haste. I choose to gem for socket bonuses. I did about 20min of testing with my gear in it's 3.3.5 setup (IE haste) reforging gemming only to meet the new hit cap. After reforging all slots haste to mastery that I could I noticed a significant dps increase (in the lines of 600dps). I was using the burn/conserve method.

Questions I have yet to test (that maybe you can answer).

Is it worth swapping to Molten Armor for burn phases?

Will it be possible to do equal dps by just having massive mastery and maintaining 90-100% mana the whole fight (doesn't seem so in my limited testing)?

Personally although the burn phase is simple I think there is a fair amount of stuff to keep track of and a nice feel to the spec. I also enjoy that arcane PvP seem extremely viable right now, though this will be mitigated due to it's effectiveness leaning on sheep stuns and high burst to force players into turtle mode.

Really though fun for me doesn't come down to which buttons I push and it what order. Fun for me is the blink talent (OMG, really, i can fit that into a raid spec.... as long as there are not a lot of interupts or raid damage in cata) and the big numbers. I have always liked big numbers.

---------- Post added 2010-10-16 at 07:30 PM ----------

WoL parse from a rather organized ICC25 pug that went 10/12. I messed up on a number of occasions mostly because im rusty and a little bit because I'm not super used to arcane at all, and the newer arcane moreso. It's a bit imperfect but some fights I felt I actually did fairly well in terms of dpsing correctly. Also, blink moved me 0 yards 4 times on rotface, it was pretty neat. I was (and am) fully reforged from haste into mastery. Mastery was at 20.5. Analyze away dudebroskis.

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-bu4me4i8m89cbdyr/

[edit] Also regular mode dps records on WoL are terrible. #3 mage on BQL and VDW with that parse, 10 overall for BQL. Lol? BQL was probably my least well performed fight and I /snooze through VDW every time I do it :x

[edit2] note: I took burning soul over piercing ice because pushback annoys me and I don't really care about my regular mode pug dps.

DPS looks good but I have a few comments.

1. Why not use a wild magic pot on the pull? My assumption is you chose to wait till you stacked your AB and got all your buffs up so it would be active for your first burn phase. Have you found this to be a dps increase over popping one on the pull and another 1min later?

2. After your first burn phase which is very obvious your dps seems to stay pretty steady. Shouldn't you have went into another burn phase late in this fight and ended on low mana?

[Skarrd]

Okay I'm gonna post this since the only thing close was the link to EJ forums.
DPS looks good but I have a few comments.

1. Why not use a wild magic pot on the pull? My assumption is you chose to wait till you stacked your AB and got all your buffs up so it would be active for your first burn phase. Have you found this to be a dps increase over popping one on the pull and another 1min later?

2. After your first burn phase which is very obvious your dps seems to stay pretty steady. Shouldn't you have went into another burn phase late in this fight and ended on low mana?

1) I think i prepotted some of the fights and then just didn't pot again cuz it was a pug and I have a hard time remembering that I'm supposed to care about regular modes in a pug because I'm testing my DPS. I tend to not focus so well in anything that isn't progression or something hard. I don't think I potted on my first burn phase for any, though I don't think I waited to 4 stack to blow cooldowns either (bad).

2) Definitely. Like I said, I played rather imperfectly. I "forgot" how long my mana lasted with the new arcane and facerolled "old arcane" on a few occasions. I had 20k mana and evo with 10s left on it once and facepalmed in my mind a little bit. I definitely could've done a lot more dps on some of these fights as I made a number of mistakes, mostly from lack of focus honestly.

[edit] Also, AP glyph doesn't allow you to macro mirrors to AP, as it doesnt seem to load your AP buff in time and for the mirrors cast to benefit and you still get a GCD for them. I removed it from the macro after saurfang or something I think. I also forgot to reflask till about halfway through BQL and that made me a little bit sad, but I fucked my dps hard on her anyway so I cared a little bit less at the end. Though the 24 other people still touched my epeen a little bit 8)

[Lobstarrr]

Havent you heard? SwizzleLOLOLOLDERPLOLOLOL owns the mage forum.