Arcane mage

Classes Mage
1

Can we do something about arcane mage please? How did this go from one of the best specs to literally dead last.

I get they wanted to “simplify” the spec, but all they did was nerf tbe absolute hell out of it. Arcane missiles is literally USELESS. The correct ability for the spec since forever isn’t even worth being on your spellbar. This spec relies on arcane orb clearcasting procs. No buffs or changes in site.

Is blizzard really looking at their numbers and horrible gameplay and saying “yep. This is fine.”

Frost is fun, but there is literally not a single reason to play another mage spec right now. Hell, pyroblast on fire mage is so weak it doesn’t even do as much damage as a 5 stack shatter on frost mage. Wtf is that about?

8 Likes
2

We seem to always have unintended “bugs” that work out to be fun, and decent damage( i don’t think its ever been crazy damage) but i guess the bug fixing AI is better then the balancing AI.

1 Like
3

The lack of meaningful changes, or even acknowledgment, for mages makes me think that they know it is garbage and are preparing some major changes for Season 2.

Either that… or we are screwed. I prefer to remain hopeful.

3 Likes
4

Signs of Kelani just posted a new video for the next patch where tanks get fixed but, again, zero for arcane.

2 Likes
5

I was one of the people who loved Magi’s Spark (duplicate spell damage then a detonate when all three spells where used – Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles and Arcane Barrage). It felt so satisfying.

On-Demand burst and a fun interaction – especially with a juiced up Aether Missile and fully stacked Arcane Harmony Barrage.

Instead, we get Arcane Noodle Missiles, nerfed Arcane Soul duration, weak Arcane Blasts and machine-gun like orbs.

1 Like
7

I wont say anything about the pruning as that was the design intention no matter if i like it or not and has happened across the board…BUT…

How arcane was changed WITH the pruning really hurt the class in its playability. In M+ and Raid you have 2 generators (Pulse and Blast) that are 2 second casts and at 19% haste its 1.9 seconds, with 4 charges its 1.3 seconds…the problem with this is i need 20 stacks of salvo before i can do anything. So starting cold, it takes 10 seconds to reach 20 stacks as a baseline ( a little less with full charges after first 4 casts) but this does not include having to move out of ground circles and other abilities that lead to spells cancelations all to restart again. Our other avenue is to use a clearcasting proc of ORB (if you get it) to help your salvo generation, not efficient but it has to be done when trying to time your cooldowns with an impending Lust/Hero while other class are already well within their cooldowns. Talk about feeling bad.

Fix: Make our first hit or the start of entering an agro table create a proc of clearcasting. Its not the perfect solution but it would help the rng at the start of pulls in both raid and M+

Why aren’t any of our defensives off GCD, especially being a class that uses massive 2sec casts for the majority of our spells. This leads to more canceling of spells midcast to quickly hit a defensive or taking the risk on surviving the hit (pretty sure we all know how that turns out).

Fix: barrier at the very least should be off the gcd to quickly be placed on when in trouble.

Clearcasting orbs come out as 3 separate instances instead of one, meaning if you have to move while the 3 are coming out, each orb has a chance to shoot out to narnia wasting damage and endangering the group with errant orbs being slung out.

Fix: Make the clear cast orb one instance of Orb so that they always come out together in the same direction every time.

During naked TotM its hard to get 2 fully charged barrages out because its based again on a proc of clear casting. No proc, you wont get two fully charged barrages out because you will have to generate 15 stacks natty. I think I have to send a 16 -18 charged barrage at the very end of touch.

fix: increase salvo charges generated or clearcasting proc rate during touch of the magi (doesnt need to be much)

Why has missiles been so eradicated to the point I have no need have it on my bar at all? Im scared to even ask this because history has shown that you will change the skill in away that it becomes mandatory to use even if its effectiveness and efficiency is less than desired.

Fix: possibly design our tree where either Orb or Missiles is our Aoe/Single target alignment. Or maybe increase the amount of salvo charges it generates but for this please allow slipstream to always be applied to clearcasted missiles without the talent.

I can think of many other issues but i think these are the biggest. I think the damage numbers are OK but my issues in playing the class and how clunky it can feel most of the time in making it work.

1 Like
8

talking from m+ specifically and with others classes/specs in mind.
if the numbers themselves are indeed OK (except noodle missiles), they should at least make Pulse reduced damage from 8 (instead of 5) and rework barrage to not be capped at 5 (like barrage hit up to number of discharged arcane charges x2 (min 1))
moving these caps from 5 to 8 would make a huge difference on massive pulls and that’s all => but that’s one of the reason you don’t pick a mage for higher key…

1 Like
9

Honestly, this is a missed opportunity for Blizzard to put some ACTUAL talents in our tree.

A talent that increases Pulse’s damage cap to 8 or doubles the number of targets that barrage can hit would provide some actual decision making when we’re selecting nodes in our tree.

Right now we swap out what, maybe 3 talents in our spec tree depending on the situation?
Give me a tree that requires me to consider the content I’m doing before I make my talent selection.

2 Likes
10

I agree with that whole heartedly, feels like arcane was put together hastily.

1 Like
11

Yup, there is absolutely no build variety. Because you have to ignore all the AM talents you have enough points to take virtually everything else and then you just swap out between the AoE and ST talents in the exceedingly rare case of a purely ST fight of which there are none this tier except maybe L’ura but even that has short periods of cleave so it wouldn’t really be worth it to swap.

12

I’ve always played arcane mage until legion remix. After playing leveling all classes to level 80 in legion remix. I feel arcane mage is the most frustrating and rewarding class to play. Playing arcane mage week to week in midnight I get better gear only to have the bi-weekly update come out and gear ment nothing just kept getting weaker and weaker. I agree they could bolster the glass canon a little bit. As I’ve learned more on how everything gets tuned, it all gets tuned towards raids which doesn’t what makes any sense to me at all.

13

We have this baked into TOTM.

I don’t think that actually solves the core problem. Most of us are using it — it just gets drained quickly. It was designed to cushion big spikes, but instead we’re burning it just to survive baseline rot because our health pool can’t support the damage intake very well.

We kind of have that already with the splitters, and haste does improve it. Players avoid haste because it sims poorly, but it definitely makes the rotation feel smoother.

I think the spec already has everything it needs — it just needs some tuning. The real problem is that they boxed themselves in with Pulse. We’re clearly a burst‑and‑funnel class with TOTM , but the moment you push single‑target too high, Pulse becomes irrelevant. At that point it’s not supporting the kit, it’s limiting how much they can safely buff. Honestly, they should scrap Pulse entirely and repurpose those nodes into something that actually reinforces Arcane’s identity, then just tweak the rest of the tree.

14

Exactly this. Barrier needs to be tripled and then just not apply in pvp.

15

We have this baked into TOTM.

Only for touch of magi, we should not have to use a 45sec cooldown to start building to use the same cooldown.

I don’t think that actually solves the core problem. Most of us are using it — it just gets drained quickly. It was designed to cushion big spikes, but instead we’re burning it just to survive baseline rot because our health pool can’t support the damage intake very well.

No it doesn’t but gives us something to use in the middle of casting our long 2 sec cast spells, and yes i agree baseline our defensives are lacking compared to other classes ive played, even my priest with flash heal + fade feels more tanky.

We kind of have that already with the splitters, and haste does improve it. Players avoid haste because it sims poorly, but it definitely makes the rotation feel smoother.

I think the spec already has everything it needs — it just needs some tuning. The real problem is that they boxed themselves in with Pulse. We’re clearly a burst‑and‑funnel class with TOTM , but the moment you push single‑target too high, Pulse becomes irrelevant. At that point it’s not supporting the kit, it’s limiting how much they can safely buff. Honestly, they should scrap Pulse entirely and repurpose those nodes into something that actually reinforces Arcane’s identity, then just tweak the rest of the tree.

the splinters help but no enough unless you are in Surge but outside of it really hurts, especially on the first big pull or boss start. Sometimes you get starved out there just trying to make the class work as apparently intended. I dont mind pulse as much as you do but i do miss the quick use of Explosion if just for a quick way to get charges back up. If i got more salvos from blast over pulse i might use it more often than pulse but there is no reason to other than to conserve mana in aoe.

I agree it needs tuning not a complete overhaul, less on damage numbers and more on timing of abilities. Refunds of salvo are nice but I need refunds on mana more as that can be harder to manage. 2% per barrage is pretty much a joke. 10 barrage farts with no charges gets me 20% mana?? whew save me.

1 Like
16

Without redoing everything, because we know they won’t, if they would add the damage mod on our lvl 2 apex talent to orbs (since we have no chance of getting our missiles back apparently), make it so when we CC we equally get a charge of orb with it so we aren’t sitting starved to hit the button at multiple times, and revert the double dipped orb nerf, we could actually stand a fighting chance w/o breaking the bank.

Right now, it just feels bad that 1/3 and apex talents are devoted to a spell we don’t press (mind you, no either spec does that at all); equally put, our set bonuses are garbo, just straight gutted nerfed with no reversions yet UDK can go thru full cycles of reverts when they cry.

We just shouldn’t be a class with three dmg specs with only one being viable or evenly spread. I mean, hunters just got two of their specs buffed, and Rogues had a full round of buffs as well. What exactly are we missing here that is preventing us from getting even the slightest bump so we aren’t sitting dead last?

1 Like
17

Patch after patch since release nor Arcane nor Fire are even mentioned.

Two specs that pushed past Frost simply being viable to giving the mage class an optimal option with Fire or Arcane.

18

The first talent buffs Touch of the Magi.

The second talent buffs Arcane Blast, Arcane Pulse, Arcane Barrage, and Arcane Missiles.

The third talent buffs Touch of the Magi.

I don’t disagree that Arcane isn’t in a great place and that our Apex talents could use some work, but I do want to point out that the second talent buffs more than just missiles.

19

And yet it DOES buff missiles, which is a direct comparison to orb in this context.

20

My argument is that a talent that buffs 4 separate abilities somewhat equally doesn’t qualify as “devoted” to one particular spell. It’s not a useless talent.

I’ll agree with pretty much all the other points, and I’d add in that I don’t actually like our Apex talents at all, despite what it does or does not buff.

21

Before we even get into that we have to ask why it was designed to only buff certain spells to begin with instead of applying to all arcane damage dealt.

And then we get into the final part of the apex talent node and the secondary rune which ends up at least partially wasted 90% of the time unless you’re fighting a boss or an insanely beefy trash mob.