I've used arcane for every fight in heroic Uldir and for 3 mythic Uldir fights with no issues.
Even Mythic Zek. Time it right with lust/Second pot and blow your load after catching the orb and you’ll see the numbers fly
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/zone/statistics/19
Mythic logs show them as only beating ret pallys. Doesn't mean Arcane isn't unplayable, but could probably use some buffs? I know I struggle a bit to keep up on AoE in M+.
With the Charged up talent, there really isn't a ramp up time for arcane.
Cast Charged Up, boom you're at 4 charges. Maximum single target damage level reached. And with good self control, you will be at that level or very close to it for as long as you need to be.
Other specs have more tools to do a lot of upfront damage (frost: comet storm, frozen orb, spam ice lances, etc...) but then they hit like wet noodles until either stuff comes off CD or they get the right procs to do something big. But Arcane is just grinding hard the entire time with hard hitting blast after hard hitting blast.... And when the boss dies 4 minutes later, an arcane mage may have done just as much or even more total damage.
Frost and Fire can sure look sexy and flashy. Arcane can get the job done just as well.
No rework in sight. Not even on the radar. Shocking that the devs have nothing to say about mages in BfA. It's Legion all over again.
Oh wait! Frost nerfs ... my bad.
Overall logs never tell the whole story. Arcane is among the best single target dps in the game, and that is always valuable in raids. For example on vectis, fetid, zul, mythrax, ETC. there is a clear priority target that you need to kill quickly. Arcane has insane burst with no ramp up and is one of the best at taking out these priority targets, even if they don't cleave on other targets at the same time.11/14/2018 07:56 PMPosted by MajykaSo, if Arcane is competitive, what makes the logs post Arcane as just about the worst raid dps in the game? Just curious what the logs are missing, because other specs down at the bottom are begging for buffs, but I rarely see Arcane mages doing the same. I'll never raid mythic, so not going to cry, but definitely see Arcane falling a bit behind in M+, mostly on the AoE side.
Arcane also has pretty great aoe, you just don't have much occasion to spec into it for raids because of the loss of single target damage that comes with it.
(ugh can’t include links)
If you change that warcraftlog filter to each of the other difficulties, arcane doesn’t look so bad
(Found a workaround to the link restrictions)
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/zone/statistics/19#difficulty=4
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/zone/statistics/19#difficulty=3
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/zone/statistics/19#difficulty=1
If you’re going to make a decision based on stats, then clearly you shouldn’t play a Mage at all. You should be a Frost DK.
Play the spec if it feels good to play. If you’re going to use logs, then use them to make yourself a better mage not to measure your dps against anonymous guys you’ll never meet.
Edit: To include a link when you’re not at the allowed trust level put the link between these `
Well, this is BfA, none of the specs feel good. lol
But, yeah, was mostly curious, but, really, no one wants to have their spec be that one at the bottom that no one wants to invite for anything. I’m really struggling to find anything I enjoy playing right now - Arcane was my first choice but it just feels sooo bad right now.![:sob:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/sob.png?v=6" ":sob:")
I can only name one time when I knew for sure, 100%, that my spec got me denied an invite to a M+ group. And that’s because the group creator decided to troll me after declining the invite. Real class act he was.
“What’s a fire mage? LoL didn’t think Blizz allowed anyone to play fire cause it sucks. You suck”
Yes, I joined as a fire mage
He really said that. Who knows if he said more because I blocked him immediately.
This was in October, post all the buffs to fire. And if you look at warcraftlogs now for mythic+ what’s the best mage spec (according to it)? Fire. Yes, he was an idiot. I kind of feel lucky that I didn’t get into a group with such a toxic a-hole. It would have been a miserable time.
Unless you are getting whispered or told in voice chat or whatever then you have absolutely no idea why someone declined your invite request.
DPS is a dime-a-dozen group. Mage’s just as cheap. I could swing a dead cat by the tail in Boralus and smack 20 mages in the face.
This week Explosive m+ affix makes range dps less valuable because those things spawn in melee and you need 1 if not 2 melee dps to take them down in your group. And sometimes the decision is simply based on the group leader deciding to take a better mage then you.
If you’re having issues with ramp take the Charge Up talent. Then you can pop that, rune, AP, and go nuts.
Arcane is very good for H and M0 dungeons, once you’re in higher keys and trash lives longer frost will start edging it out. However, if you’re pugging keys you’ll want to be frost, regardless of your preference, because people want a mage for the slows. I’ve been invited or whispered and then invited after they’ve confirmed I was frost, so while ymmv frost is expected by most groups for keys.
In raids, with the exception of Vectis, M Mother, M Zek, M Zul they both seem to be competitive. Those 3 fights in particular allow Frost to abuse their AoE. I haven’t tried them as arcane, but that’s because I just don’t see how it could reasonably compete. Arcane is basically required for M Fetid for the burst ST damage on the adds, and as I haven’t home Myth or G’huun yet I can’t really comment on them.
Yes, we’ll see how Frost is with the massive nerfs. Damage and slows were hit really hard, so I see them being somewhat less popular.
The problem with Arcane is you have the problem of being forced into a ST spec or an AoE spec, and you will underperform on the other. I don’t want the solution to Arcane lacking be to play Frost. Arcane needs to be fixed to be competitive.
Frost is really not that good on Vectis; it’s doing worse than both fire and arcane. Zek is whatever and aoe isn’t really what gets the fight done (fire is better than both anyway). Mother depends on your strat, though dps is not even a factor on that fight. And on Zul you probably want 1 frost mage for the slows, but you really can’t bring more than 1. Any other mages should be arcane to burst Zul.
^ Exactly this. We won’t be topping charts since most fights in Uldir are add based, but almost all those fights require a focus target too which is where Arcane shines. When I look at my logs, I usually look at the stats for the focus target and I am usually in the top few of my guild whereas the overall log I may be in the middle or lower middle.
For Zul as an example, we do the burn to push phase 2 and CC the 2 casters that spawn after you kill the first one. So when I look at damage just done on Zul, I am up there but the overall log middle/lower middle.
arcane is fine. just takes practice in mana management and know when to rop.
Zul is a good example, only 1 frost mage is needed (if that) … more than 1 and your rogues will be pissed. I am usually near the top single target on zip, but basically at the bottom of the meters overall.
One of the commentators (the one with the super sized afro) for the Blizz Arena World Championship Tournament made a really good point, if you play a class, play every spec don’t just be an arcane mage (for example). Every spec has its strengths and weaknesses and some situations will call for arcane, sometimes frost, etc…
This is possible to do from a practical point-of-view, you play each spec to get a feel for it and carry around a few extra pieces of gear and you can really switch at a moments notice.
Arcane does fantastic in Single Target situations that don’t have huge amounts of movement. If you choose the right talents, your AOE can be at least respectable if not great but sacrifice single target damage to do that. It can be still fairly good in movement heavy fights.
Frost is the undisputed king of AOE and has good Single Target but it’s single target damage can suffer a lot from forced movement.
Fire is unbelievable in movement heavy fights, especially if you’re using Searing Touch. It has good cleave and pretty good single target damage too.
I haven’t done much pvp myself, but from watching the Arena Tournament matches I saw a lot of Frost and Fire mages and maybe 1 Arcane mage. But I have read a lot of comments here where arcane mages have enjoyed success in pvp.
Arcane has very good AOE and very good single-target.
However, we also have virtually no cleave. As others have mentioned, on fights like Zul heroic my dps is far down on the meter overall, because I’m not cleaving or AOEing. But in terms of damage to Zul, which is what really counts for the burn strat for that fight, I’m in the top 3.
Similar for Vectis, my damage on the adds is very high, but my damage overall is quite a bit lower. When I swap to the adds I’m not cleaving into the boss.
With the proper talent setup, arcane’s AOE is quite competitive for damage. I have no trouble with it AOEing mythic keys, raid trash, and raid fights like mythic Zek.
I’m 388 ilvl and 8/8M. I play Arcane spec for 6 of the 8 boss fights in Mythic Uldir. It’s viable for all fights on heroic.
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I saw the slow nerfs for frost- They felt aimed more toward PVE than PVP, but if I’m wrong, and it’s also rolling into PVP than that is very very scary for frost. I didn’t see any additional nerfs to frost’s damage? If it is, how big is the damage nerfs?
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Arcane feels unfinished. It’s viable, sure. But is it strong? No. Is it fun? Hardly.
Blizzard gutted all of arcane’s damage boosters for PVP in the launch of bfa season 1, so as to remove any ‘cheesy’ builds, which is fine. But TBH, as far as pvp goes, that’s all arcane had going for it for BFA pvp.
Arcane needs a serious update/overhaul- To make it thematically more engaging. (Mana management should either be removed or worked into the spec to make it more engaging and rewarding to manage your mana/certain thresholds. Charges should be usable on more than just barrage. AKA adding more abilities in that either feed into the charge system as spendors or big abilities that feed into rewarding your for good mana management)