I have a good recommendation for a better change to Arcane Barrage for SOD P4, than the current version of PTR!
A bit about me
I’m currently 15th in the world for SOD P3 Arcane Mage dps
I’ve played Mage (all 3 specs, but mostly Arcane) since 2005 for every expansion and version of Classic WoW except for Season of Mastery
Solution:
Keep Arcane Barrage as the spell but change the mechanic.
Arcane Barrage
Can only be cast 1 time after a full channel of Arcane Missiles (Either with the Arcane Missiles Barrage or Hard Cast), or after reaching 9 stacks of Baelfire. Fires multiple missiles all at once! (Damage is equal to 3 fully channeled Arcane Missiles)
This would encourage the use of Arcane Barrage over Overheat (FireBlast), and give a slightly more interesting rotation to a pure arcane build, and still keep it relatively simple in the spirit of Classic Wow.
A rotation would look like:
Arcane Blast x4 (or until Arcane Missiles Barrage procs) > Arcane Missles > Arcane Barrage.
Visually, I’d love to see the spell artwork simple look like Arcane Barrage with the ‘missle halo’ effect that is on Baelfire and Spellfrost has for SOD.
I believe this simple change would be interesting for the Arcane Mage player, and help bring Arcane Mage DPS back into a competitive rank.
NOTE:
It might be fun to also allow this version of Arcane Barrage to become castable 1 time after getting to 9 stacks of Baelfire! This would feel nice as it adds slight rune synergy and it would feel like a final burst of damage for reaching that 9 stack pinnacle of Baelfire in a raid setting!
I dont really like this. Arcane barrage being spam-able as a mage healer is a huge welcomed change… Previous there was no way to move and cast… now if we could missles while moving, then I like your suggestions
However, I think arcane surge being a completely dead rune, that needs a rework, or some sort of change. Maybe these suggestions could play a part. Since this rune is competing with mass regen (which is by far mage healers best heal), its a good candidate to set arcane mage dps apart from arcane mage healer.
Well there’s the beauty in this change: it’s still really good for Healing mages because they still get tons of Arcane Missile Barrage procs from Arcane Blast casts. So the proposed version of Arcane Barrage would essentially be a huge burst heal / dps boost
The main purpose is that Arcane Mage DPS only realistically has the Fire Blast (Overheat) rune as an option, and Arcane Mage dps has been severely lacking compaired to Fire or Frost/Frostfire. So much so, that most progressive guilds will bench you if you’re an Arcane Mage vs a Fire or Frost/Frostfire mage, since both Fire and Frost bring a considerable utility to the rest of the raid with the Scorch debuffs (% more of any Fire dmg done to target) and Winter’s Chill (% more crit chance with any Frost dmg) debuff.
As it is, arcane doesn’t bring anything to the raid other than strictly pure dmg without giving any benefit to the rest of the raid, so arcane needs something to pump the Damage output WAY up, or some kind of benefit to the raid unique to Arcane.
This version of Arcane Barrage at least brings a significant damage boost to deep Arcane specs, at least to justify having a pure Arcane Mage vs a Fire or Frost/Frostfire.
Thank you for commenting though! What sort of change would you recommend for runes for Arcane Mage DPS? Lets keep in mind that the less complicated, the better - in the spirit of Classic WoW vs Retail.
I don’t like the fact that arcane missiles take so long to recharge. Other than barrage and a flame, nothing is instant. And the barrage spreads out even when you need to hit a single target. The missile change is NOT my favorite change.
Arcane blast is so clunky
Arcane missles even with 4x charges AND proc dont deal enough dmg
Arcane barrage dps is cool in Pvp but AWFUL in Pve
Arcane talents are bad in general to boost arcane dmg and viability compared to fire and frost
Sadly classic isn’t build for arcane mage, even though its a lot of players fav mage spec like myself
Lets keep in mind that the less complicated, the better - in the spirit of Classic WoW vs Retail.