Hello all! This is the post that would describe issues and possible improvements for Arcane Mages in War Within and suggest solutions and options for them. Most of these suggestions are independent and there can be various solutions to presented issues, so if Blizzard would want, they could implement their own solutions instead.
Like posts for 2 other specs, it is split into PVE and PVP subsections for better readability with some possible overlaps.
PVE issues and suggestions
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Large ramp-up and amount of CD stacking
Arcane Mage is notorious lately for amount of modifiers it wants to stack and burst preparation abilities it has to execute. It might be not extremely complex, since often they are used in a same particular order, but that gives them a profile that often is badly compatible with situations they are in - for example, by the time Arcane Mage would just setup his burst and start blasting, other classes could have already killed some of targets or these targets are on the deathās door. This amount of CD stacking was pretty much the reason for Retribution Paladinās rework earlier and Arcane Mages have similar issue that should be addressed. Here are some of the abilities that contribute to this issue and possible solutions / suggestions for them:
Siphon Storm - causes up to 3 seconds of additional ramp-up and turns Evocation from intended mana management tool into a channeled analogue of primary stat trinket. Some people might still like such playstyle, but there should be at least an alternative to it.
Suggestion: Make Siphon Storm a choice node with Mana Attunement - a node that would still provide 50% faster channel time for Evocation (so that alternative to Siphon Storm build does not have to channel it for 6 seconds), but would provide X% increased damage and Y% increased mana cost (without increasing chance to proc Clearcasting though) for damaging spells. This would provide an alternative to Siphon Storm more sustained damage and mana management based playstyle - you would have less spikey burst phase, but often would have no necessity to initially use Evocation, so would also have less ramp-up time. That would allow Arcane Mages to pick an option they prefer or is more suitable for the situation.
Arcane Surge - has too long cast time. Pretty much all other specs that have major CD as casts have about 1.5-2 seconds cast time for them and Arcane should not be an exception. Even though Surge does decent AoE damage, it already has trade-offs of requiring high mana level for that and initially disabling damage bonus from Enlightened, so such long cast time for it is not justified. Shorter cast time for it would also reduce Arcaneās ramp-up time in PVE and make the ability easier to use in PVP.
Radiant Spark - since it is already being used with Touch of the Magi windows, it could just be turned into a passive effect attached to it. That would reduce amount of both keybinds and CDs to be stacked by 1 and help reduce Arcaneās ramp-up time a bit. -
AoE issues and possible improvements
While Arcaneās AoE significally improved after the 10.1.5 rework, it still has issues that could be improved - heavy reliance on RNG of Orb Barrage for good performance, necessity to stay in melee range to perform AoE rotation, Nether Tempest both being a mandatory pick and a questionable design and so on. Here are the description and suggestions for these issues:
Orb Barrage - good addition, but lacks any kind of bad luck protection that can lead to Arcaneās AoE damage performance being low not because of making mistakes, but just being not lucky enough. That could be addressed.
Suggestion: Add a bad luck protection mechanism - after spending X Arcane Charges without getting an Orb Barrage proc, next time Arcane Charges are spent the proc is guaranteed to trigger.
Nether Tempest - is undertuned on its own (used mainly for Arcane Echo triggers), is mandatory to take even for single-target builds that might not need it and adds a dot management component to Arcaneās spec that is badly compatible with it (as it has pretty much no synergies with other tools aside from Arcane Echo).
Suggestion: Move Nether Tempest into a more optional spot in the tree and change it to have a 30-45s cooldown, but deal significally more damage. That would allow Arcane Mages that enjoy the ability or its synergy with Arcane Echo to still use them together, but also allows people who donāt want to use it to skip it.
Touch of the Magi - while decent, its increased duration in Dragonflight causes frequent situations when enemy it is applied to dies earlier than it detonates, making a lot of its stacked damage wasted. This is less of an issue for bosses and more for Mythic+ packs, that is why it is covered in AoE section and there is a possible solution.
Suggestion: Allow Touch of the Magi to be detonated and release stored damage early by pressing its input button while it is active (in a manner similar to Cloudburst Totem). That would allow Arcane Mages to still get value from it even if target is killed earlier than it would expire or is about to die and additionally would provide more control over it in general.
Arcane Explosion - decent ability, but necessity to stay in melee range to use it for a ranged spec is a massive drawback, especially if there are mechanics or damaging pools present. There could be a solution for that.
Suggestion: Add an optional talent in Arcane tree that would allow to use Arcane Explosion on selected enemy from range, dealing damage to target and other enemies nearby. That would be a fair trade-off - depending on preferences and situation Arcane would be able to take it via sacrificing a talent point that could be put into other node or skip it.
Arcane Barrage - is decent, but its 5 target cap can be a massive detriment that limits Arcaneās performance against higher target counts. Consider adding an optional talent in Arcane tree that would allow to increase this target cap - that would allow Arcane Mages to better adapt to larger target counts, but would still require a separate talent point invested as a trade-off. -
Clearcasting cast cancels and Presence of Mind cooldown desyncs
Arcane has some issues with these two mechanics too - mainly early cancels of Clearcast Arcane Missiles for a dps increase and Presence of Mind CD desynchronization with other CDs. These can be addressed:
Clearcasting Arcane Missiles - you could just buff their damage or buff damage of Arcane Missiles in general, but other option is to make them channel 40% faster instead of current 20%. That would make their channel time equal to GCD in most situations and remove benefit from cancelling them early regardless of their tuning.
Presence of Mind - its cooldown starts when all stacks are consumed, making it trigger a bit later and a bit desynchronized from other 45s cooldowns. To address that, its stacks could just get 30s duration and cooldown be triggered immediately on usage. Additionally, 2 stacks of instant spell are a very low amount even compared to other specs - for example, Holy Priests get 3 stacks from Empyrean Blaze, Balance Druids get 3 stracks from Warrior of Elune and so on. Consider increasing Presence of Mind to 3 stacks too - that would both bring it more in line with other classes and help with Arcaneās mobility options. -
Reduced survivability compared to other Mage specs in PVE
Even though Arcane has Prismatic Barrier and its upgrade talent, it is not much compared to 2 other specs, who have double Ice Block and Cauterize respectively. To bring them more in line, consider making PVP talent Temporal Shield into baseline ability for Arcane - that would give them their own analogue to mentioned abilities in PVE and keep their survivability on similar level in PVP. Other option could be to move Cauterize and Cold Snap into general tree and turn them into a choice node for all 3 specs like in earlier expansions, so that all of them can pick a preferred survivability option. -
Utility vs throughput nodes issues
One of stated goals for Arcaneās rework was possibility to take some of its utility nodes. However, its tree both has too many important throughput nodes to allow that and even if some of them were pruned / reduced in cost, the issue would remain - people usually value throughput more than utility and would pick former over the latter in most cases. However, there is a solution that was already applied to Shadow Priests - 1st gate talents. Shadow Priests have 6 throughput and 4 defensive / utility nodes there and since you require 8 points spent to open second part of tree, they need to pick 2 of 4 utility options and these donāt hinder their damage output and donāt compete with their throughput. That is a decent solution and it could be applied to Arcane Mages too. Here are possible options for that:
- Remove both Crackling Energy and Improved Arcane Missiles and move their damage bonus baseline. That would allow to both free some talent points to spend on utility nodes and reduce amount of throughput nodes in first part of tree to 7, allowing to spend 1-2 points (2 if you donāt need some of throughput nodes there, like Reverberate in single-target encounters) on utility nodes without harming your damage output.
- Add 3+ utility nodes to pick from to first part of tree and place them in places of removed Improved Arcane Missiles and Crackling Energy and in middle of currently empty 3rd row (since all these 3 nodes are good positions for optional utility talents, as all talents in following rows can be accessed from other talents too). For example, these utility nodes could be:
- Chrono Shift - Arcane Barrage slows enemies hit and increases your own movement speed - similar to current.
- Choice node between Distant Explosion and Foresight:
Distant Explosion - Arcane Explosion can be cast at enemy target from range and does damage to both affected target and other enemies nearby.
Foresight - standing still for 5 seconds activates Foresight, allowing to cast while moving for 2 (or 2.5) seconds.
Such choice node allows to provide utility options that are useful in different situations - for example, Distant Explosion is useful for AoE situations, but provides no value in single-target fights and Foresight can be useful in single-target fights, but could provide low value in AoE fights, where packs can move. 5 seconds duration to trigger for Foresight is less risky and more realistically applicable than current 10 and 2-2.5 seconds duration of casting while moving instead of current 4 allows to both keep stand-to-move ratio on similar to current level and still cover all Arcaneās cast times including Arcane Surge and non-Clearcast Arcane Missiles. - Arcane Singularity (as a separate ability or a choice node with Supernova) - creates a warp of arcane energy in selected area, pulling enemies in it to its center and slowing them by X% for Y seconds. N seconds cooldown. This could be a good spec specific tool for Arcane Mages to justify bringing them in party as analogue to passive cleave of Fire Mages and passive snares and roots of Frost Mages.
Note: Improved Prismatic Barrier could be an option / choice node option here too, but it is both likely to be too oppressive as a choice (as it is valuable in much bigger variety of situations than other utility nodes) and it does not feel right for Arcane to require spending a talent point to get full effect of its Barrier when 2 other specs get it baseline. As such, I would suggest to just remove Improved Prismatic Barrier and incorporate its effect into baseline ability.
- Underused talents and possible improvements / additions
Arcane has several talents that are either not worth their talent point cost, too niche or not competitive enough and could use improvements. These are:
Rule of Threes - its effect is harmful for Clearcasting generation (since free spell does not trigger Clearcasting) and has to compete with both mana boost and dps output of Arcane Familiar, so it is not played much.
Suggestion: Make it refund mana cost instead of nullifying it (so that is does not harm generation of Clearcasting) and additionally increase damage of affected spell by X% (to be more competitive against dps output of Arcane Familiar).
Improved Clearcasting - is just a talent that provides basic quality of life feature for Arcaneās class mechanic (which other specs usually just get baseline) and should either be baseline or additionally increase damage of Clearcasting affected Arcane Missiles / Arcane Explosion by X% - that would both justify spending a talent point on it and help make Clearcast Arcane Missiles more viable as a dps / burst option.
Supernova - is not competitive enough with throughput nodes in Arcane tree, so should either be moved to first part of tree like suggested above or even to general talent tree, where it would compete with other utility instead of throughput.
Mana Adept and Arcing Cleave - while they are picked currently, they have too low effect on their own and require spending 2 talent points to just return Arcane Barrage to its original pre-talent trees effect. Consider just merging them into 1 talent and replacing freed spot with some other talent, for example suggested above talent that would increase target cap for Arcane Barrage and its damage a bit (so that this talent would provide value even if there are 5 or less targets remaining). To prevent Resonance bonus from getting too high with this talent, Resonance could just have a damage bonus cap equal to current maximum (50%).
Illuminated Thoughts and Concentration - both are not viable enough and accordingly also make Arcane Harmony not viable lately too. At the same time, many Arcane Mages like season 3 tier setās Arcane Artillery effect and would like to keep it in War Within. Since this branch is already Clearcasting themed and synergizing, it could be a good place for such talent instead of not impactful and not reliable Concentration - Arcane Artillery would synergize with both Illuminated Thoughts that would buff its trigger chance and frequency (as it is based on Clearcasting procs) and Arcane Harmony, which would get more stacks and allow to finish Arcane Missiles AoE assault with an empowered Arcane Barrage. Here is a possible way for its implementation:
- Buff Illuminated Thoughts to make it more competitive on its own and provide better synergy with talents that would follow it.
- Replace Concentration with modified Arcane Artillery - after consuming X Clearcasting stacks, Clearcasting stack is reactivated and your next Arcane Missiles deal X% increased damage and hit N other enemies near main target, dealing Y% increased damage. That would be a good QoL feature for Arcane Artillery effect and would keep an element of replaced Concentration in this talent too.
Mana Gem - does not provide enough offensive value currently, so its damage bonus could be increased (to make it more competitive in PVE) and made undispellable (to make it more competitive in PVP). Cascading Power could use a boost for competitiveness too (for example, it could additionally increase damage bonus from Mana Gem). Additionally,Mana Gem has an issue that in long fights it might expend all charges and need reconjuring mid-fight, which is not good. Consider increasing its number of charges to 5 or even making it have unlimited charges to address that.
PVP issues and suggestions
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Easy to shutdown in large scale PVP
Most of Arcaneās damage tools and even its major offensive CD require hardcasting from its major Arcane school. While in 1v1 and even arena settings Arcane can get around that with Precognition, in large scale battles like battlegrounds and world PVP Arcane is quite easy to shutdown - there can be many crowd control effects flying around or many enemies around who can notice you are casting Polymorph or Arcane Surge and quickly switch and disrupt it and use micro-CC / non-interrupt disrupts for that to avoid triggering Precognition. There could be a solution in form of a PVP talent that might help with this issue.
Suggestion: Consider returning Arcane Power as a PVP talent that replaces Arcane Surge in a manner similar to Ice Form replacing Icy Veins. It would give Arcane Mages that have issues with large scale or general PVP disruptability an option to pick and reliably use and would still have a trade-off in form of spending 1 PVP talent slot for that and not having initial burst damage hit and guaranteed Clearcasting stack generated. -
Too big or no longer needed PVP modifiers
Arcane still has several PVP modifiers inherited from earlier seasons that might be no longer needed, especially after Stamina boost in PVP - 60% PVP nerf to Arcane Bombardment, 50% PVP nerf to Siphon Storm, 15% PVP nerf to Presence of Mind affected Arcane Blasts, PVP nerfs to Arcane Surge and Prodigious Savant and so on. Consider reducing or removing some of these modifiers. -
Underused PVP talents and possible additions
Arcane has several PVP talents that are either too niche or not impactful enough to be picked over regular talents and they could be looked at. These include:
Kleptomania - after it turned into a channeled ability that still replaces Spellsteal, its usage was reduced significally - not only enemies can disrupt the channel, but also by doing so they prevent Arcane from dispelling anything for up to 20 seconds. It also costs a PVP talent slot, so no wonder that this talent is underplayed.
Suggestion: Keep the channel (which provides fair counterplay measures for it), but make this ability no longer replace Spellsteal, just as for example Mass Dispel does not replace regular Dispel Magic for Priests. That would allow Kleptomania to be used as a niche tool against HoT and buff heavy comps without breaking Arcaneās regular possibility to dispel, but with counterplay measures against this tool still being possible.
Master of Escape - does not provide enough value to be taken much, so could use a boost or better use cases. For example, it could provide lower CD reduction for Greater Invisibility, but also dispel X damage over time effects from Mage when it is used, turning it into a good escape tool matching its name and a decent option against damage over time based specs and comps instead of removed earlier Dampened Magic.
Additionally, Arcane Mage could use a form of reliable offensive CC, which would allow it to do better offensive goes without relying on their partners. Fitting tool for anti-caster themed Arcane could be a silence PVP talent - it matches the anti-magic theme, does not overlap with niches of other Mage specs and does not make Arcane stronger against most melee specs, into which it is already decently strong. Since it is a PVP talent that would require sacrificing one of other currently picked PVP talents, it also would have a fair trade-off.
This sums up the list of suggestions. Feel free to add your own if you would want to and thank you for reading!