The word I use to describe Arcane is “Unfinished”, Not easy or noob spec; because even BM hunter, a spec touted as being easy has more substance to it than Arcane. So Unfinished, in need of improvements which is why I’m suggesting a rework here.
The core elements intended of Arcane appears to be 2 major things: mana management, and Arcane Charges. So with those two ideas in mind, my Arcane design would juggle mana by managing use of Arcane Charges. I also don’t want Arcane to be the “1-button” spec it has been in the past. When your most damaging spell is also a filler, that means your design has failed at being more than 1-dimensional. I aim to make a spec that is moderately varied but still is basic enough that it can be learned from just regular playing.
Table of Contents:
-Basic Rotation
- Single Target
- AoE
-Burst Cooldowns
-Talents
-Ramping Animation
The BASIC ROTATION is the foundation from which the spec build upon, and allows for growth and adjustment.
For SINGLE TARGET, you’d have to abilities to work with: first we have Arcane Missiles, a hard hitting but very expensive ability mana cost-wise, Then we have a new ability called Arcane Bolt, a very mana efficient ability but with lower damage output, especially compared to Arcane Missiles. Essentially you cast AM, when you have high mana, and ABolt when you are low on mana. Since Clearcasting exists, Clearcasting would make AM free and automatically generate an Arcane Charge at the end of the channel.
Generating Arcane Charges would now randomly occur from doing damage with your basic abilities, using a similar system that is used for Affliction Warlock’s shard generation; excluding of course the Clearcasting procs.
As for spending Arcane Charges on single target, you would cast Arcane Blast; a 1.5 second cast ability that costs 1 arcane charge per cast. Arcane Blast would also apply a 5 second buff called Arcane Empowerment that increases the damage dealt by Arcane Blast and Arcane Barrage by 15%. Arcane Empowerment will stack up to 4 times.
For AREA OF EFFECT (AoE) you’d use Arcane Explosion primarily. AE would always generate an Arcane Charge if you strike atleast 3 targets. It will generate an additional charge for every 2 more targets struck.
As for spending Arcane Charges, you’d use Arcane Barrage, which similar to Arcane Blast would use 1 Arcane Charge per cast, but would have no base cooldown. Arcane Barrage will only grant the Arcane Empowerment buff if you strike 3 or more targets with it.
Talking about BURST COOLDOWNS, they would be largely unchanged from the current iteration with the 1 exception being Arcane Power. Arcane Power currently is a flat damage increase with mana costs being increased; frankly a rather weak ability especially when consider that Arcane already has many ways to increase damage dealt. To me, a proper burst cooldown minimizes or eliminates a spec’s weakpoints briefly. Arcane Power would now remove the mana cost from your abilities and generate 1 Arcane Charge every 3 seconds for 15 seconds.
For TALENTS I’d suggest a few different ideas to spice things up. Arcane Magic has a bunch sub-schools tied to it according to the lore, so talents that touch on bits and pieces of that lore is a direction to go in. In addition to AoE talents to spice cleave up, I’d suggest some unique single target options to help with mana if its an issue, or to buff damage at the cost of mana if you find yourself with an excess.
Level 15 Talent: Mana Rift- Arcane Bolt has a 10% change to open a rift into a realm of magic for 5 seconds. The chance is increased to 40% depending on how low your mana is.
Standing in this rift regenerates 5% of your mana every second and increases your damage dealt by 12%.
Level 15 Talent: Mana Tap- Arcane Blast consumes 3% of your maximum mana and deals that amount as arcane damage to your target.
Level 100 Talent: Divergent Timelines- You and another version of you engage the enemy target in combat for 10 seconds. Your opposite will cast the inverse spell you cast (Arcane Bolt vs. Arcane Missilies, Arcane Blast vs. Arcane Barrage) on your target. Certain things are similar such as Arcane Explosion, Clearcasting, and Arcane Charge generation.
After 10 seconds the timelines converge, increasing your haste by 10% for 10 seconds.
Level 100 Talent: Rune of Blasting- Apply an arcane rune to your target for 30 seconds. Upon damaging your target with Arcane Blast, the rune will count down over 10 seconds after which it will deal up to 4% of your mana to the target, plus an additional 4% for each time you cast Arcane Blast during the countdown.
PvP Talent: Absolute Focus- Arcane Bolt’s cast time can now only be interrupt by an interrupt; being stunned will not stop the cast. Presence of Mind now affects Arcane Missiles, causing them to be instant cast but to incur a 5 second cooldown when used this way.
PVP Talent: Time Loop- Instant cast, after 3 second’s, target is sent back to their prior location. 30 second cooldown. Usable on yourself, allies, and enemies.
For some added “bling” and what I call spectacle, I’m proposing a RAMPING ANIMATION in relation to Arcane Blast and its use with Arcane Empowerment. Basically, as you get more stacks of Arcane Empowerment, the spell effect played for Arcane Blast each it is cast becomes more “complex”, signifying an increase in power or strength. I’ve made a crude drawing in MSpaint to give you a visual representation of what I’m talking about.
(Since I can’t post images on the new forum but could on the old one, here is the link chopped up with dashes, just put it together to use.)
https://-im-gur.com/d-uuVuW0
As you can see, even though the image is simple, the more Arcane Empowerment you have the more fancy the spell looks, which is what I’m going for.
In Conclusion, I’m not saying that this design should be used 100%, rather using it as a reference or a place to build your own ideas. Concerning BFA, and the fact they clearly rushed bits of it, I’d rather you either delay release or delay dungeon releases than kick class design to the proverbial curve. Because BFA is now out, you’re working against the current to make any major class fixes because content releases are now in the docket. Thank you for time, and have a good day!