Arcane in PvP

//Crosspost from Mage forum

Hi everyone!

My name is Fitzban and I have played Arcane almost exclusively as my main since 2011. I participate in all the content WoW has to offer, including Arenas, M+, and Mythic raiding. I even have my Spelltome mount! While I have tried the other Mage specs, Arcane is by far my favorite and I probably would not be playing Mage at all if it didn’t exist.

Our spec is pretty good in PvE, but I’m writing this post in regards to our PvP performance. This season I reached Duelist as Arcane for the first time ever. It was not easy. In fact, being 2167 in 3s and 2099 in 2s (I know) actually puts me in the top 30 Arcane players in NA - something that is a lot less impressive than it might sound as Arcane is currently the least played spec in arena (Source: Drustvar). I am by no means an expert PvP player, but when a spec’s representation on the leaderboards is 0.2% (Source: LudusLabs), it’s not exactly difficult if you have the patience to spend half of your time playing locked out of your only casting school.

With that being said, I would like this post to serve as megathread of sorts for brainstorming and constructive feedback about Arcane in PvP. I know I am not the first to do this - but I don’t know where else to turn to make my voice heard. I am not a game designer, but here are some ideas I’ve come up with to alleviate the frustration of playing the spec in PvP:

  • Allow [Presence of Mind] to be used to cast Polymorph like it was back in previous expansions. This was a great piece of Arcane flavor that was maybe a bit too strong, but it would be nice to be able to use it on something other than just Arcane Blast. Right now Arcane can be locked out of casting when using offensive spells or CC, as opposed to the other mage specs who can keep doing damage if they’re kicked while casting Polymorph.
  • Make [Arcane Orb] baseline. With the removal of [Charged Up], taking the Arcane Orb talent has become mandatory. Yes, [Touch of the Magi] does provide 4 charges, but it is not an instant cast and therefore is easily interrupted by a Shaman, whose [Wind Shear] is already a stronger version of [Counterspell].
  • Turn [Supernova] into a small stun or give Arcane access to [Dragon’s Breath]. Not sure which would be more fair, maybe a shorter 2 second stun on Supernova instead of the 4 second DB would be better. That would allow Fire Mages to keep their unique spell, but as it stands Fire can cast Frost Nova, Ice Block, and Ring of Frost… so I don’t see why an Arcane mage shouldn’t have access to Dragon’s Breath. Lorewise, Mages use Arcane magic to cast every spell, even those that use Fire and Frost. It makes sense that an Arcane Mage would have a larger toolkit than a more specialized caster.

Please let me know what you think and feel free to add your own suggestions below. Thank you for reading, you rock!

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There’s already a thread on this right here:

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Great minds think alike I guess!

if you don’t land the poly why are you bothering about trying to do dmg ?!

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I guess I should have mentioned it goes both ways, if you get kicked on damage other specs can still poly and interrupt. Not true for Arcane.

buff arcane

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This game litterally doesn’t let you play what you like to play, that’s the sad part of pvp in MMORPG games.

C’mon blizz open ur eyes!
I have the right to have fun with the spec I like like all other players

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Netflix is $10 a month. Arcane Mage is $15 a month and doesn’t work in 1/3 of the game. :thinking:

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Honestly, they should just bring back Classic/BC style talents. Arcane has some great tools but the dmg just feels weak to me. I messed around with it for all of 2 hours before i gave up. It’s as bad as frost. I know you mentioned getting locked out of spells while trying to sheep, frost gets locked out of ice block and gets you killed because you cant block. Fire is the only spec where you dont get completely screwed if you get silenced during a cast. I know mages are strong and people have their opinions of it, but i feel like we need some kind of stun or something to help with a go for all 3 specs. Dragons breath is a good tool to help get a poly off or used as an interrupt but it doesnt really help with a go. Arcane blast used to have a chance to stun the target. They could roll that back out. Frost used to have deep freeze, that needs to make a comeback. Fire blast used to stun the target, that could come back, or add a stun to meteor since fire blast has multiple charges now and would be a little too op. Theres a lot they could do, just seem to ignore the fact that our toolkit for killing someone in 1v1 situations is really bad.

This season had the most class/spec diversity that Ive seen and arcane mage is probably the only one not to make the cut.

I’ve only vsed 1 arcane mage over 2600 3s which was Destina. It seems like a gimmick spec for 1shotting people right now and it’s rarely been good in arena and i don’t see jt changing I’m afraid

I’m not so sure wind shear is better than counterspell.

They have different strengths and weaknesses.

Counter spell has a longer cd and longer duration.

Can’t tell you how many times I’ve landed a kill with CS, which simply isn’t as common with wind shear.

If your team has good awareness, you can easily spell steal a divine favor off an hpal and kick them and burst them down in 6 seconds and kill them without bubble. Shears not quite long enough.

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Wind Shear can lock out an Arcane Mage every 12 seconds for 6 seconds, on top of Grounding Totem - it’s pretty unbeatable IMO

As far as I remember, Wind Shear is a 3 seconds duration interrupt on 12s CD, but is still quite irritating, especially for Arcane Mages. After all, if they interrupt you on Arcanosphere, it still goes on CD. If they interrupt you on Radiant Spark after Touch of the Magi, almost half of ToTM duration is still wasted.

Back to the topic - I have just revisited what Arcane Mages had in MoP to better understand why many people consider it as one of the best expansions for many classes in PVP, Mages as well. Not only Mages including Arcane had Polymorph and Ring of Frost, but also Deep Freeze stun, Improved Counterspell silence and Frostjaw root/silence talent option. Maybe all together they were extremely powerful and that’s why got removed later, but times have changed, so it might be a good idea to bring something of these back or add some new hard CC to Arcane and maybe Frost Mages.

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Just my thoughts since 9.2 dropped. The only thing we can push for is a pvp damage modifier buff (arcane is still very undertuned). While I like the ideas in this post, they arent realistic for a hotfix. They won’t change arcane mechanically.

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It’s amazing, with the trinket bonus being changed Arcane now manages to be doing even less damage than before. We badly need a buff.

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bump it to the top :wink:

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Blizz only balances one mage spec a expansion bro. It’s been like this for years.
Arcane will have its turn again next expansion because fire has had the last two

this is the third in a row fire one. the pattern is not going to change

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lol what?

arcane was god tier BiS in Legion.

This is only the second expansion in a row fire was BiS

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