Arcane mage or balance druid?

I would like an arcane caster (Just for aesthetics) Which one would you recomend me and why?

I don’t care about numbers just fun and not being useless in pvp and pve

Man, that’s not even a question… Go druid

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I would like a more constructive answer please?

Between those two choices, Balance Druid. Arcane Mage is a bit tricky to play and not fun in dungeons, I personally think the spec needs an overhaul.

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I have to agree. I love playing a mage, but Arcane is boring as heck. I’d rather play a Balance Druid if I couldn’t play Frost or Fire Mage.

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Is arcane so bad as all people says?

No, it’s worse.

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Arcane is so neglected. At least balance has convoke.

Arcane is not very good at the moment, but Balance Druid is going to inevitably get nerfed (9.1 BOAT nerf, etc) in terms of power.

Balance is also super, super boring to play outside of Convoke. Though, Trinket-Incarn-Convoking someone sure does feel nice…

Arcane is fine, it’s just not flavor of the month.

Arcane damage is not as good as Fire is now, because it’s the current meta and Blizzard is bad at balance, so Arcane is not played much because that player would have to make the choice to NOT be fire first.

Right now as of the April 13th rankings…
BALANCE is 1st place
FIRE is 4th place
ARCANE is 6th place.

This is NOT a big difference at all.

EDIT - Balance can do more with a healer and tank spec though, so keep that in mind.

Arcane can be a bit lacklustre sadly. It just feels very…discount? Like sparkles but no boom

Allow me to play devil’s advocate.

Portals. Illusion. Time Warp. Food. Intellect. Being able to understand all in-game languages. Strong covenant choices no matter who you go with, so you can pick for aesthetic. Six-digit crits with Arcane Barrage as Kyrian. Skeletal mage and huge damage as Necrolord. Faerie dust for huge cooldown reduction as Night Fae. Pew pew pew pew as Venthyr.

Multiple Clearcasting procs. Arcane Orb. Alter Time. Mirror Images. Invisibility. Mass Invisibility. Arcanosphere from Mass Invisibility come 9.1, which is a knockback that goes through walls and is doing over half of people’s HP on the PTR.

Spellstealing BoP from paladins. HoTs from druids. Shields and combust from meta fire mages. Major cooldowns from every other caster, too. Spellstealing buffs in the current dungeons that do things like grant 100% haste for 10 seconds. Spellstealing in Torghast to make them look like chumps. Literally OHKOing bosses in Torghast.

Only three class specific legendaries so you can’t really screw up. Some build variance if you like that. The privilege of getting kicked from groups who demand Fire mages. The feeling of being clowned for playing arcane. The awe people will have of you when you top meters over the Balance druid in M+ anyway.

I. Want. YOU!
points at Mandrius
To play an arcane mage.

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My Balance Druid is a bank alt at lvl 37 or so. My Arcane Mage is lvl 60, and I’m still wondering what house I want to be sorted in to. (It’s a meaningful decision, after all.)

For whatever reason, I find the play style of Arcane to be more fun than this incarnation of Balance. Who knows what that will be in the next expac.

That said, Druid has stealth capabilities for when you don’t want to fight, and travel form, and cat form in general for moving around inside at higher speed. There’s a lot of good reasons that aren’t combat to choose Druid.

The best Arcane mage I’ve seen in an M+ with absolutely dumped on the best Balance druid I’ve ever seen in an M+ that I’ve been part of.

That said, most Balance druids are really bad at the game, and most high end Arcane mages are dedicated specialists.

Arcane mage? Never. You won’t be picked for anything. Balance druid 100%, convoke instant delete button and uncapped AOE.

I don’t think balance is as boring as arcane does. Arcane is boring AF

It’s not bad, just middling and clunky. It’s worse than the other two mage specs right now (less damage than fire, less utility than frost) so you’ll rarely see it.

But clearly you do want to play it, so why not give it a go? It might fit your playstyle like a glove. Balance is getting nerfed anyway so I wouldn’t get too attached.

P.S. if your concern is getting anything done in the game, well, let me inspire you a bit.

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Druid is fun, but it does come with some pretty big negatives. Personally, I think the boomkin just looks dumb. I do like the Kul’Tiran druid forms and actually grinded out unlocking them despite being a Horde main, the stellar form is OK I guess, but it’s still not the greatest look IMO.

It doesn’t bother me all of the time, but there are times not being able to see my gear bothers me. In MoP I took the time ot unlock the CM druid armorset, and honestly it’s one of my favorite CM armorsets but I don’t really play Resto so it’s like I never see it. Like I said, this doesn’t always bother me, but it does from time to time.

Arcane has always been my favorite mage spec, it’s simple but I like that it’s gimmick with the burn/conserve phases .

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I agree with pretty much all of this. It’s why I have such a hard time playing druid. I’ve never had one max level despite how much I like Resto. I get close and never cap out.