They got me being a play -tester! While I do resent that on one level, I also like having some influence on what comes next.
Right now, the 2-set bonus is really just a passive “Incanter’s flow” spell dmg bonus in disguise. I actually kind of like it that way. It’s an easy way to just, in general, boost damage across the board and as long as I keep consuming a clearcast every 15 seconds or less, I can keep Spell damage at +10%, so that’s not bad at all, if you ask me.
The 4-piece is in a pretty weak place. They need to boost arcane missile baseline damage like 100% or more to make it work as is. Also the trigger is just far too long between procs. The downside is you “undo” the benefit from the 2-piece bonus when you activate the 4-piece bonus. That’s great if the payoff is some awesome damage output, but it’s nowhere near that now. You end up throwing a lot of missiles (visually fun), which hit like a water balloon and resetting your overall dmg to -10%
Any other arcane mages out there trying it out on PTR? What’s your thoughts? If they go with it as is, I might just run 2-piece and craft the rest of the gear to max lvl.
I think the 2 piece is decent but needs a fix with either a duration increase or fix the interaction on it. Currently only gives you the buff on consuming clearcasting which for people who want to play harmony (the obvious incentivized talent this tier is aiming to go for), the concentration talent has a bad interaction with it which means if you get a proc and press missiles trying to keep up the 2 piece, itll just end up dropping sometimes because it doesnt actually consume clearcasting.
4 piece feels a bit lack luster besides in M+ or 3t+ scenarios. Been testing it for a while, it’s kinda insane with harmony cause essentially you can barrage dump harmony stacks, orb-> use artillery missiles to instantly full stack harmony again and dump again. In execute range the mobs will essentially get one shot if barrage crits on targets resulting in INSANE execute damage which is where I think the tier will shine the most. I think 4 piece needs some numbers adjustment, and 2 piece need to drop the consumed part and change it to just using clearcast and i’d be content with it.
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I’m gonna have to give this a try. Is it reliable enough to use for every Mythic pack pull? As a sort of finisher each time? Cause I’d be down with that. Hold for last 15% of health and unload the execute rotation you describe above.
But even then your main damage is coming from barrage/harmony and not directly from the missile burst (which makes me sad). The missiles just end up being a setup and prep for the killer barrage.
yeah, you can get an artillery proc into every TOTM if youre actively casting and using clearcasts etc. I’d say you wouldnt want to 100% hold until end of healthbars (35% for bombardment), arcane does enough damage in its burst that depending on key level, starting to stack spark to 3, surge, then barrage on 4 w/ tempest → totm → artillery → barrage → missiles dump echo procs into TOTM → barrage again etc the mobs and use orb → arcane barrage → orb → arcane barrage is some nasty damage to get a mob down to execute on its own. It’s definently a challenge to play around, if you get your 4pc proc later into the TOTM it works out well aswell cause it helps get extra damage into barrages. Playing around execute damage varies alot though, cause depending on your group and CD’s used mobs could hit execute in mere seconds or sometimes way later. I’d say just feel it out group by group, but when it lines up with your burst and hitting execute near middle or end of TOTM it’s pure dopamine to see 800-1m crits back to back
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The 4 piece being a tool to use harmony and not much else is just idk… sad? Like imagine if the 4 piece made touch apply to all targets within 40 yds (excluding cc’d and in pure st situations just double or triple touch dmg) and also made missiles cleave to all targets currently touched. It would be so much fun to bank clearcasting and then just unload cleaving missiles back to back all over the mobs.
I guess playing with harmony will be alright but idk I feel more use for missiles outside single target, and even in ST missiles are so weak we just cancel anyways, is always fun but we’re still not really using the missiles we’re using harmony/barrage.
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Right, I do kind of feel that way, but if it proves to be the Harmony backbone, we’ll all have to run it, even if we aren’t fans. I used to run Harmony in Shadowlands when that was the top build, so I guess it’ll be fine.
If I had a choice I’d drop harmony altogether and add a new capstone around missiles that made them the main show.
Idk, I am ambivalent about it. The 2 piece is whatever, just a minor passive damage boost you can’t really play around effectively. The 4 piece looks nice visually but is kinda underwhelming in practice especially because they’re aren’t nearly enough consistent AoE/cleave scenarios (outside of M+ which I personally no longer engage in) where it can shine. Something that lets Clearcast Arcane Missiles cleave (without boosting their damage) would make for a great talent though. As usual they have some good ideas but for whatever reason either hold back too much or don’t iterate on them enough. Par for the course.
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It looks like they took most of my advice from the PTR feedback thread, so making me feel good there. I have to play test more to see if I like it, but every 3 clearcast instead of 6 should make things better.
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Good work! Now talk to them about building in part of this past tier into a talent or just passively into Arcane Surge. Arcane has been a lot of fun to play this season. Not fully looking forward to next season, mostly just due to uncertainty.
4pc causing buffed missiles to also generate arcane charges would be fun and maybe make things feel a little smoother. But maybe that’s just me.
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