Arcane Mage needs help in PvP

Classes Mage
1

Arcane mage is currently the least represented DPS spec in arena. There are currently 0 mages within Rank 1 range in either EU or NA.

The biggest challenge facing Arcane Mage is our consistent damage is very low compared to most specializations & our burst is very unreliable.

A couple of challenges we face:

  1. Arcane Missiles & Clearcasting is a huge source of our consistent damage. Unfortunately, Clearcasting is dispellable & has a really short buff duration. Increasing the duration of Clearingcasting to 20 seconds and making it undispellable would go a long way to helping Arcane Mage pools procs and find moments to burst more consistently in PvP.

  2. Arcane’s strength is the fact that it’s a very mobile spec with Chronoshift (Pivotal talent for Arcane in PvP). This doesn’t synergize very well with Rune of Power & having to stand still with only 1 effective school of magic. If a Fire or Frost mage gets kicked on Rune of Power, no big deal, back to spamming damage. If Arcane gets kicked on trying to set up a Rune of Power it’s completely shut down (No rune, no damage, no poly).

Currently, there’s a PvP nerf on Incanter’s Flow, a talent that got a nerfed in BFA. This change may have been justifiable at the time but since the recent changes to Rune of Power, (automatically dropping when you use an offensive CD), Rune of Power has become leaps and bounds better than Incanter’s Flow ever was. I know it might not seem like much but reverting the Incanter’s Flow nerf in PvP would possibly help give Arcane Mages more options that better fit their playstyle and help with their consistent damage.

  1. Overall damage of certain talents is quite low, a PvP damage increase on spells like Arcane Orb & Super Nova (Which do very low damage currently) could go a long way in increasing the consistent damage & fun of the spec.

Arcane Mage has been my favourite spec since Legion and has really gotten little love the past couple of expansions. Going into 9.2 with some positive changes might encourage more players to try it and help the viability of the spec in PvP overall.

Thanks for hearing me out, please help us :frowning:

35 Likes
2

I agree, a lot of arcane mage’s strengths don’t synergize well with PvP playstyle. Clearcasting procs getting dispelled and having to Arcane Barrage to get Chrono shift when your legendaries discourage using Arcane barrage freely (to save charges for 10 stack harmony or bombardment execute) and having to move out of a rune of power instantly after dropping it feel very clunky and awkward. Removing the nerf on Incanter’s Flow would be a big step to helping it flow better.

3 Likes
3

This post is so accurate and well-written. Incredible stuff Venruki. Blizz should not only be listening to this, but also thanking you for the thorough research.

1 Like
4

I agree with these suggestions.
There are also more possible improvements for Arcane Mage, highlighted in these threads (I’ll post links to them here so that if devs do read this thread, they can find all the suggestions at once without necessity to search the forums):

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/arcane-in-next-expansion/1178472

1 Like
5

I think those are definitely some reasonable takes, Numbing has been an advocate for Arcane for some time, one of the few that plays it at a high level. Definitely some good insights.

2 Likes
6

I agree. These threads contain good suggestions in both opening posts and their comments and can be a good source of information for devs about what players want to be improved / changed in Arcane playstyle in both PVE and PVP.

7

Good suggestions. I remember when frost DKs were dealing with a similar issue of low consistent damage. Many posts were made about the topic and what could be done.

Blizzard responded by nerfing chillstreak and that’s all they changed. I am still confused about it.

1 Like
8

The amount of mobility and purges and dispels in the game now after all these years its painful playing a mage sometimes.

Even our Damage buff CDs can be dispelled as well as our actual damage itself can be dispelled.

Mages need to be looked at in pvp by a dev while working with actual mage pvpers to fix this.

The majority of mage baseline abilities being on arcane also hurt arcane. You get kicked on poly on fire or frost you can at least cast abilities. On Arcane you might as well throw out a 100 damage frost blast to tickle them just jump and run away.

1 Like
9

Supernova is on an awkward tier list with two abilities that can give arcane charges. It’s weird that not only does it not give any at all, the damage is bad. It doesn’t make any sense to be on that row. A damage buff would go a long way, and perhaps add an arcane charge per target hit.

The playstyle of Arcane seems really confused to me. Back in the day, you’d be rewarded for being able to hard cast Arcane Blast because it would do a lot of damage, but now? Not really. You’re not rewarded at all for being able to (not that you’d be able to anyway). But the more modern playstyle of being a very mobile class got hurt badly with the nerf to Incanter’s Ward, and the buff to Rune of power pushes it towards a more stationary turret. But we CAN’T do that in this game. It benefits fire most of all, and fire does not need more help. Incanter’s Ward being reverted back to BFA would help. Another idea would be to give it a lock in option, an on use ability (like rune of power), that would lock it in place at the maximum value so you can at least have your goes be a bit more consistent.

On the last tier list we have Overpowered, Time Anomaly and Enlightened. Overpowered is really winning out because not only is Arcane Power now undispellable, we can reduce its cd with a conduit. Time Anomaly is fun, but without it proccing Time Warp, the talents pretty much dead in pvp. Finally, we have enlightened. This talent goes really well with the mobile playstyle of Arcane, and synergizes well with Incanter’s Ward. Unfortunately, you fall below 70% mana pretty easily just trying to get Clearcasting procs. Change the damage increase threshold to 50% mana, and increase the mana regen a bit when under that threshold.

One School. Arcane only have one school to cast from is fatal. Futhermore, I feel like the nerf to the Venthyr soulbind ability Familiar Predicaments hurt Arcane more than anyone else. If we’re sticking with the one school, give Arcane a passive interrupt reduction so we can play the game too, please.

Mobility feels lacking too. I don’t understand why Displacement was removed.

Some other things to consider: Make Temporal Shield baseline, revert the Arcanosphere change (it used to go off even when interrupted, and my reasoning for allowing that is it’s a channel. It goes on CD as soon as it is used, and is there another channel in the game that gets no value whatsoever if interrupted? If you interrupted at the beginning of Arcane MIssiles for example, at least 1 still went off to do damage).

Some older stuff the spec used to have that might be interesting - Polymorph stun, Greater Invis removing 2 dots, Mana Gem increasing spell damage. There’s so much more I can’t remember, but I hope Blizzard isn’t against looking at older stuff and seeing if any of it could work now. The game has a treasure trove of deleted abilities, and while I don’t know if any of them could save Arcane, I sure as hell would like to see someone try.

P.S. Buff Clearcasting.

tl;dr: buff supernova, look at last row of talents, make temporal shield baseline, give arcane interrupt reduction.

4 Likes
10

This also have PvE implications. Supernova would be a fantastic disruption tool in M+, but you have to give up Arcane Orb, a massively better ability since it does significantly more damage and gives Arcane Charges. I don’t understand why they couldn’t bump the damage up a bit and also allow it to grant charges. Nothing insane.

I don’t know how strong it’d be in PvP, but I imagine it’d help push Arcane’s ability to control/disrupt in PvP.

11

I dont see why each spec has its own orb/nova baseline anyway. Arcane definitely needs displacement back. I’d love to see a return of Evanesce. Clearcasting shouldn’t be dispellable. I would LOVE for PoM to affect other spells instead of just AB. Similar to how Thunder Focus Tea empowers multiple spells for MW. An interrupt reduction or cd to provide temporary immunity would also be very beneficial.

I’m a huge believer that talents should, for the most part, modify spells and improve them. You know, to show mastery and improvement over those class specific abilities compared to the other specs.

1 Like
12

after the pre-bfa nerfs in late antorus, I stopped playing arcane. It hasn’t been fun since.

ToS arcane was at the peak. Bring back the shoulder legendary and bring back legion arcane during ToS and we’ll be happy :slight_smile:

1 Like
13

Well, at the very least Arcane Orb should be baseline. It’s incredible how much difference it makes in PvE, and even in PvP it’s also very good, so no reason for it not to be.

3 Likes
14

If orb was baseline I could actually have another instant cast. Granted supernova would still do only like 2k damage… it would be better than pressing barrage with no charges and only hitting 1.5k

15

Hey Ven, love your stream and zero to hero. Totally agree with all your points. Arcane needs HELP! I made a similar post here: Arcane in PvP

16

As a LONG time arcane mage main (Since wotlk) I’ve got all my exp as arcane, and it’s almost in the worst state its been. Wod season 3 for arcane was amazing, then everything about it didnt just get nerfed- it got removed. Evanesce, spellsteal glyph, arcane power set bonus from pvp, clearcast proc gurantees with pvp setbonus, this made arcane just viable enough to be a viable spec in 3s. It was again in legion, granted watered down and made to spam explos all the time.

Ramble enough, I’d love to see the arcane mage spec get some seriously needed love, in it’s blind, headless, directionless, clunky current design, it’s awful. Inb4 “just play fire” xd nice meme

p.s. bump

2 Likes