4.3 Arcane Compendium

[Swizzle]

This is an all inclusive Arcane PvE thread to be updated for the remainder of Cataclysm to trim down on the amount of question threads popping up every day asking the same thing. I'll try to cover as much as my pretty little brain can muster.

Talent Choices:

31/7/3

The above is highest mathematical DPS spec choice for Arcane. There are, in reality, four free points for Arcane to play with and the choices made depends on your raid comp and the type of fight faced. Below is a list of the talents you can choose from to customize your spec.

Improved Blink (1/2 or 2/2):

In my opinion, this is the weakest choice out of all the fillers in Arcane for PvE. The movement speed granted after Blink is, for the most part, unnecessary and goes to waste to a Mage playing well. If you need to move more than the distance of Blink, then you are simply out of position and you shouldn't spec to fix a player fault. A case can be made for cases of prolonged movement (take the dance from Heigan as an example). In those cases, the movement speed increase won't grant any additional DPS. On a priority level, out of the four talents to choose from, this one falls at the bottom.

Improved Arcane Explosion (1/2 or 2/2):

This talent ups Arcane's minimal AoE capabilities to a less...bad level. You can use this on fights that require heavy single target but also have short AoE phases that can be used to pad meters (from all reports I get, this sounds like Lord Rhyolith). It's extremely situational and will provide no additional single target DPS. Pick it up for the gimmicks listed. This talent falls above Improved Blink in the priority.

Nether Vortex (1/2 or 2/2):

This one is harder to quantify since it doesn't grant anything fancy looking for people to notice. It provides a possible DPS increase in that it can put up Torment the Weak before a tank, but again, that's hard to quantify. It provides possible raid utility in providing snares to something that a tank hasn't picked up yet (think Blood Beasts from the Saurfang encounter in ICC). The biggest argument I can think of for this talent, is that the Slow proc can grant an additional chance for Arcane Missiles to proc which increases your DPS slightly in the conserve phase. Out of the filler Arcane talents, this one provides you the most utility for single target, but you may get problems when there is more than one Arcane Mage with the talent in the raid.

Fire Power (1/2 or 2/2):

This is the only talent in the bunch that actually grants more DPS. It increases the damage of your Flame Orb, which is handy, and it grants the possibility to to have an explosion. If you want to min/max your single target DPS, this is the talent to get, though it eludes most Arcane Mages...since Fire talents aren't Arcane talents. I'd recommend this one the most out of the four listed.

Gearing Choices:

Below is a repost of my work on the 4.3 BiS lists, only listing Arcane here since the others are superfluous.

Arcane:

Helm: Time Lord's Hood
Neck: Opal of the Secret Order
Shoulders: Time Lord's Mantle
Back: Nanoprecise Cape
Chest: Time Lord's Robes
Bracers: Bracers of the Banished
Gloves: Gloves of Liquid Smoke
Belt: Cord of the Slain Champion
Legs: Time Lord's Leggings
Boots: Janglespur Jackboots
Ring 1: Infinite Loop
Ring 2: Ring of the Riven
Trinket 1: Shard of Woe
Trinket 2: Will of Unbinding
Weapon: Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest
OH: N/A
Wand: Finger of Zon'ozz

~~~~~~~~~~

The listed scale factors are ONLY FOR THE PROVIDED SET. I added them not to show what everyone should have, rather to show how the secondary stats fare when you are perfectly itemized. This is a BiS list, as in it covers the best possible items for each slot. If you cannot obtain items due to some constraints, look at the items and see what they favor and go for, and try to duplicate it for your progression level.

To note, when you are gearing up, your tier chest should include two Brilliant gems since you will most likely be above the Hit cap. However, when your gear mirrors (or almost mirrors) the one provided here, you will need to gem a Veiled gem in the blue socket to maintain Hit cap. At this point, you want to add in an Artful gem to pick up the bonus. This combo beats out double Brilliant gems when you need the Hit, so keep it in mind.

Rotations:

Wait...is that a "s" at the end of that? AHMAGAWD PLURAL ROTATIONS?!?!?!?! Yup, I went there. Though if I hear the word rotation mentioned herein, I will not be so kind. Arcane has no set rotation and functions as a dynamic priority list, keep that in mind when posting in the thread

Burn Phase:

When you have your cool downs up, including Evocation, Arcane Power, and Mana Gem, AND your mana is at or near max levels, then you want to enter your burn phase. At this point, you want to...wait for it...spam Arcane Blast until a full Evocation brings you back to full. There is no set amount of Arcane Blast or any set duration on how long this should last, but this is where the majority of your DPS comes from. DON'T MESS IT UP!

Conserve Phase:

This comes after your burn phase and again has no set duration on Arcane Blast usage. The point of this phase is to maintain your mana near max levels so you can enter your burn phase sooner. Try not to fish for Arcane Missile procs past four Arcane Blasts, you'll lose too much mana that way. Arcane Barrage can be shuffled in if no AM procs are available.

Tips and/or Tricks:

Incanter's Absorption

This is an overlooked skill in most raid scenarios. Primarily, you want to activate it with Mage Ward and not Mana Shield for best results. To give an example on how to best use it, think about Sinestra's conal Fire breath. This is on a timer slightly longer than the CD of your Mage Ward and deals Fire damage. Prior to her cast finishing, you can pop Mage Ward and absorb the damage to help your healers and gain a nice chunk of Spellpower worth the GCD incurred. If you have a scenario like that, use Mage Ward. If it's something new no one has ever seen before...think about it then judge for yourself whether the SP gained outweighs the lost GCD.

Haste Soft-Cap

This is one that is, for whatever reason, controversial. The debate has come down to an argument about Haste and Mastery. While there is non clear answer (since both stats are actually very valuable), I can explain both sides of the argument and state my personal opinion on the matter. First and foremost, if you're in BiS gear, you'll be at the soft-cap whether you like it or not. So for a fully progressed Arcane Mage, this isn't an issue. However, the problem comes up for people asking what stat is better and what they should go for. Again, you shouldn't pass up one stat and hinder the other. If anything, Crit is your weakest stat so it should be cut before the other two, but that's neither here nor there.

Now, Haste is awesome for Arcane simply due to the play style of the spec. It only has casted DD spells to deal damage. Logically speaking, maximizing your cast output is a great DPS gain, which makes Haste good for the spec. To that end, Haste also reduces your down time due to GCD reduction and a sped up Evocation. The down side of Haste is that it burns through mana quicker due to not speeding up Mage Armor ticks, but at higher gear levels, the complaint, while real, is almost trivial.

Mastery, on the other hand, simply increases your damage done. While the text makes it seem more complicated than it really is, the fact of the matter is that the stat increases your damage at all mana levels, but to slightly varying degrees. The higher your Master, the higher the max cap is when scaling down. It's a lot less complicated than Haste so I'm not going to go deeper into it. There is also no down side to Mastery so yay, another paragraph skipped.

Now, some people make the claim that the two stats are inherently counter productive, but that's not true. Haste doesn't change the mana cost of spells, so in reality, you still get the same number of spells out under the same mana levels, Haste simply gets them out faster. So, while it may seem you're spending less time under max mana, you're really not...you're just doing more damage since you can fit in more spells per fight. For me, Haste is the better stat than Mastery up to a point, but you should never forgo one for the other. That's all I'm including on this topic for now.

Flame Orb Usage

This is a tricky issue to address since I have not been playing for about six months now and can't grant "real world" examples. In any case, it should be noted Flame Orb has amazing scaling with both Mastery and Arcane Power. Whether you use it during burn phase or conserve phase almost seems like a personal choice. I would use it directly after my CDs to max its damage, but it grants a near infinite amount of Arcane Missile procs to help the conserve phase, so...test both and see which grants better DPS then get back to me.

Flame Orb is best used the global right before you start burn phase, since then most if not all FO ticks will benefit from Arcane Power and Mana Gem. Every tick FO does is calculated as a cast on its own, it doesn't benefit from the effects that you had when you cast the spell like all others, every tick has its own calculation. I also disagree with the mini burst phase, it just isn't worth it unless you have a damage multiplier for a short time or something along those lines. I personally only do this (in T12 content) during the last 2/3 of the sparks on rhyolith, before burnout on Alysrazor since I'll get all my mana back in no time anyway, before flame orbs spawn on Fandral because I know I'm gonna lose a lot of dps either way, and during meteors/roots on Ragnaros P4.

Trinkets

Standard List for Trinkets: Heroic WoU > Shard of Woe > Heroic IotCM > Heroic CotC > WoU > IotCM > CoTC ~ H VPLC >DMC:V/MWC
Soul Casket and all trinkets of that level...are terrible for Arcane.
Now...stop asking about trinkets.

Gemming

I know, I know, this should be up with the gear, but hey, I have things to drink. Anyway, for Arcane there are two scenarios (three I suppose if you want to be technical) that warrant not gemming Brilliant gems.

Scenario 1: Single Blue Socket

In this scenario, the socket bonus needs to be a minimum of +10 Intellect to justify picking up this gem. This applies to Red+Blue pieces and solo Blue pieces.

Scenario 2: Single Yellow Socket

Here, the bonus needs to be a MINIMUM of +20 Intellect to justify gemming the Orange gem. This applies to Red+Yellow pieces and solo Yellow pieces.

Now, in case you have a Yellow+Blue piece, you need to be able to use the Hit in order to gem this AND the bonus needs to be at least +20 Intellect to justify picking it up. Outside of the listed scenarios, you should gem +40 Intellect in all sockets sans Meta.

Well, that closes the OP for this thread now, post questions below and discuss away. It will be updated to reflect changes in 4.3 and possibly beyond. Enjoy.

[Wilderness]

Hahaha incoming trinket questions because you didn't give them a definite list. What about the JC trinket? What about Shard of Woe, is that any good? What about that green trinket I picked up from that one quest when leveling? How does that stack up to no trinket at all? You know they'll still ask.

On the subject of IA: It was my understanding that even when Mage Ward is fully absorbing the damage and giving you the max benefit that it is never worth the GCD from a strict dps standpoint. If you are moving and it will get used, obviously go ahead and pop it. If its a tough healer fight and you can help mitigate some damage, certainly use it. But from a standstill dps standpoint the benefit doesn't outweigh the cost of a GCD.

FO usage: From what I've read on EJ I believe it was determined that using FO to regen mana wasn't worth it - ie burning down somewhat during your conserve phase and then spamming AM from all the FO procs. Since it has our highest DPET, you basically want to use it on CD but not to do a "mini-burn" phase.

Haste cap: How about a table listing of what the soft-cap is for different people (goblins, non-gobs, with 5% haste, without, etc). Either that or show the formula so that people can plug their own situation in and figure it out without having to create 12 threads about it.

[Kinmaul]

There's a great site that breaks down the haste cap for Arcane Blast as well as a bunch of other spells. Why do all that math when someone has done it for you! Here's the link:

http://milamber.ch/spellhastecap.html

[Deleted]

You mentioned that you have to start the burn phase when your evocation (and other cooldowns) are up, but in fact you should be able to predict when to start burning so that you'll have evocation up right as you hit the right amount of mana (35 % or less I believe).

[Heilige]

You mentioned that you have to start the burn phase when your evocation (and other cooldowns) are up, but in fact you should be able to predict when to start burning so that you'll have evocation up right as you hit the right amount of mana (35 % or less I believe).

You pretty much resume a burn phase as soon as your mana gem comes off CD. Swizz knows this, just poor word choice.

[Deleted]

You pretty much resume a burn phase as soon as your mana gem comes off CD. Swizz knows this, just poor word choice.

Oh I see, sorry about that then.

[jedistump]

why is haste so great when adding more of it - instead of mastery or crit - reduces the length of the burn phase and increase the length of the conserve phase while the burn cds remain static? dps during burn phase >>> dps during conserve phase. sure haste will allow you to cast more spells in the same amount of time, however that time is the conserve phase waiting for cds not the burn phase. haste wont add more abx4 casts to the burn phase.

[Heilige]

why is haste so great when adding more of it - instead of mastery or crit - reduces the length of the burn phase and increase the length of the conserve phase while the burn cds remain static? dps during burn phase >>> dps during conserve phase. sure haste will allow you to cast more spells in the same amount of time, however that time is the conserve phase waiting for cds not the burn phase. haste wont add more abx4 casts to the burn phase.

The soft haste cap gives you 1.000 second Arcane blasts, which in turn allows you to get 15 arcane blasts off with each Arcane Power, instead of 14 or less (depending on how low your haste is). Mastery and Haste are both amazing stats for arcane... with Mastery slightly winning out. However through picking up heroic gear your haste will naturally rise towards the soft cap while eventually exceeding it even after reforging.

ATM I'm sitting on 1377 Haste, 1933 Mastery.

[Swizzle]

why is haste so great when adding more of it - instead of mastery or crit - reduces the length of the burn phase and increase the length of the conserve phase while the burn cds remain static? dps during burn phase >>> dps during conserve phase. sure haste will allow you to cast more spells in the same amount of time, however that time is the conserve phase waiting for cds not the burn phase. haste wont add more abx4 casts to the burn phase.

It doesn't reduce the duration, just the time of your burn phase, since you're still casting the same amount of spells. It allows for less down time and more casts per fight. having 40 additional ABs per fight will trump 2% increased damage from Mastery. Note that I even said that it was my personal opinion that Haste is more valuable, but I gave reasons for both being good.

You pretty much resume a burn phase as soon as your mana gem comes off CD. Swizz knows this, just poor word choice.

Hey, I had to at least pay some attention in my Torts class, so feel free to clarify the language Neil.

[Nasia311]

The way it works out is after your first burn phase you can put your 2nd Flame Orb in use to proc am's during conserve. When Ap links back up with Mana Gem, wait another 15s for evoc to be at 20s left on CD, also allowing your 3rd Flame orb which will have about 9sec left when mana gem comes off cd, to be ready right when evoc is around 20sish left. Giving you Ap, Gem, Fo, Evoc at 20s. Also lines up well with on use trinkets. I usually let evoc dwindle down to 20-25s left on cd before initiating the next burn phase.

[jedistump]

can you give some evidence for why haste is so awesome when it only adds extra spell casts to the conserve phase?

[Kinmaul]

I would address the Mini Burn stratedgy that people often bring up, and incorrectly use, somewhere in your post. Based on what I've read at EJ and graphs that I have no clue how to read the only time a Mini Burn is viable is if there is a fight mechanic that is going to greatly increase your damage during your conserve phase. In this scenario it is an overall dps gain to chain cast AB's during that buff and use FO/AM spam to return back to ~95% mana. In all other cases it's a dps loss.

can you give some evidence for why haste is so awesome when it only adds extra spell casts to the conserve phase?

More spell casts and AM/Evo channel faster with more haste. Remember that encounters, and even your conserve phase, last a finite amount of time so the more casts you can get in before they are over the higher your dps; this is how haste increases your dps. Mastery increases the damage of each spell cass and obviously harder hitting spells equals more dps. It's not like Swizzle is being endorsed by Haste, he ran simcraft and it told him haste is better so he came here to spread the knowledge. Obviously at different gear levels and different gear sets your stat weights are going to be different. Since there is basically no limit to the amount of gear combinations people can come up with it is recommended that you sim your character and find out what is best for you with the gear you are currently wearing.

If you want a generic answer that may or may not be right for your character: Haste to soft cap > Mastery. If you want an accurate answer that is customized to your character and the gear it's wearing download simcraft and do it yourself.

[Swizzle]

can you give some evidence for why haste is so awesome when it only adds extra spell casts to the conserve phase?

Do I really have to defend extra Arcane Blasts? Really now? Mastery ups your damage by what? 2-3% max if you stack it instead of Haste? As I stated in a previous thread, if the amount of bonus damage you gain from Mastery outweighs the bonus damage you get from additional casts, then get that Mastery. But forgoing Haste is just stupid, sorry to put it bluntly.

---------- Post added 2011-09-23 at 08:19 PM ----------

I would address the Mini Burn stratedgy that people often bring up, and incorrectly use, somewhere in your post. Based on what I've read at EJ and graphs that I have no clue how to read the only time a Mini Burn is viable is if there is a fight mechanic that is going to greatly increase your damage during your conserve phase. In this scenario it is an overall dps gain to chain cast AB's during that buff and use FO/AM spam to return back to ~95% mana. In all other cases it's a dps loss.

I can't speak for mini burns since I haven't experienced it, so if someone that doesn't teach Math but can read graphs (you really are the worst math teacher I know man), feel free to elaborate.

[jedistump]

you are going to defend your compendium with the word "stupid?"

need evidence please. my thinking is that haste will only add 1-3 stack blasts/4 stack missles to the end of a conserve phase.

[Swizzle]

you are going to defend your compendium with the word "stupid?"

need evidence please. my thinking is that haste will only add 1-3 stack blasts/4 stack missles to the end of a conserve phase.

It's mathematical.

Let's say your AB is at 1.5 seconds prior to getting Haste. Over the course of a 450 second fight, the most you can get is 300 AB during the fight. If you bring it down to 1.3 seconds, you get 46 more AB during the same fight. Let's just say that each AB only did 15,000 damage before Mastery, let's factor 3% damage from that...they go down to 14,550 damage.

300 x 15,000 = 4,500,000 damage
346 x 14,550 = 5,034,300 damage

That's a very crude generalization, but that's the logic behind Haste being a favorable stat for Arcane. Note though that I'm not saying ignore Mastery, I'm simply giving the reasons why both stats are good.

[Kinmaul]

It was a joke. If people can't figure out that standing in fire is bad how do you think posting long formulas and graphs is going to work? Here is the synopsis from the mini burn discussion on EJ.

In general it appears if the multiplier is 6% or more we can at least break even using a full duration Flame Orb regen cycle. Obviously this analysis was made with a very specific gear set, but it should give a general idea of the impact mini burns have on dps. I should note again that the above assumes ideal conditions for mini burn and that it assumes all regen falls inside Flame Orb duration. If you burn more than can be regenned with Flame Orb the benefits will be lower.

The way I read it it sounds like the stars have to align to get any dps increase out of a mini burn.

[Valanna]

Flame Orb is best used the global right before you start burn phase, since then most if not all FO ticks will benefit from Arcane Power and Mana Gem. Every tick FO does is calculated as a cast on its own, it doesn't benefit from the effects that you had when you cast the spell like all others, every tick has its own calculation. I also disagree with the mini burst phase, it just isn't worth it unless you have a damage multiplier for a short time or something along those lines. I personally only do this (in T12 content) during the last 2/3 of the sparks on rhyolith, before burnout on Alysrazor since I'll get all my mana back in no time anyway, before flame orbs spawn on Fandral because I know I'm gonna lose a lot of dps either way, and during meteors/roots on Ragnaros P4.

I also like Imp. Blink, because most distances in Firelands are longer than 20, or 25 glyphed, yards. It also allows for some fine adjustments more easily. I don't think Nether Vortex is all that fantastic either. I personally have blink/AE spec as standard, and then I switch to NV/blink combo when I progress on fights where there's an actual use for NV. Right now, there is only one add the whole of firelands where a DK or tank won't go on it at the same time as or earlier than you, and that's the spinners on Beth'tilac. I used NV on beth'tilac when we progressed on that. Other than that, if you're standing out on Rag in P2, imp AE is gonna be more valuable than to have an auto slow on your add after aoe is finished.

I'd also add Invocation as an optional talent. While it's nigh 100% worthless in Firelands, it might be useful in the future. Like it has been on Elemental Council, ODS, Maloriak, Atramedes, Nefarian and Halfus in T11.

E: Forgot to mention. Great to see you back on the forums once again Swizzle, and finally as moderator! I think I can speak for anybody who hasn't been offended by your awesome comments after having asked a stupid question that you're the perfect candidate for the position, even if you're inactive from the game right now.

The way it works out is after your first burn phase you can put your 2nd Flame Orb in use to proc am's during conserve. When Ap links back up with Mana Gem, wait another 15s for evoc to be at 20s left on CD, also allowing your 3rd Flame orb which will have about 9sec left when mana gem comes off cd, to be ready right when evoc is around 20sish left. Giving you Ap, Gem, Fo, Evoc at 20s. Also lines up well with on use trinkets. I usually let evoc dwindle down to 20-25s left on cd before initiating the next burn phase.

With 20s you're gonna have evo off CD a very very long time. Taking Ragnaros as an example for now, since that's the boss I do over 50 times a week right now. I almost always evo exactly 55 seconds after initiating burst phase in P1 without bloodlust. Only time I'd recommend holding off with burst phase for right after mana gem has come off CD is if your last burn phase had bloodlust or was interrupted for any reason.

[Frostbites]

WHen is it best to use presence of mind?
After Evo to keep 4 stack?
AB to 3, pop PoM and start burn phase?

[Swizzle]

WHen is it best to use presence of mind?
After Evo to keep 4 stack?
AB to 3, pop PoM and start burn phase?

Well, the optimal thing to do is pop PoM before the pull (after you've killed all trash and are buffing and getting ready), then clear the buff. That way, PoM goes on CD and you retain the bonus crit chance. Other than that, I'd need someone with more recent experience to speak up, but don't waste it on your 4th AB. If you do that, you only get one at 4 stacks. If you get to four stack and then pop PoM, you get two ABs back to back at 4 stack. If that's clear.

[Valanna]

I'd say right now, always save PoM for movement. There isn't one fight where it isn't useful for movement.