So why is Arcane mage not “viable”?
because it didn’t have PoM + Pyroblast 
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Its viable for leveling, just don’t use arcane missles.
arcane is not a spec, its used to complement frost or fire. frost mages have more points in arcane than frost for raid
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The main Frost DPS spec is actually mainly Arcane, raids usually take 4-5 or so of those and 1 true Frost Mage as support as they apply a frost damage crit rate up debuff.
Arcane Power Frost - 31/0/20
https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/mage/2300450310031531--053500030013
Winter’s Chill Frost - 19/0/32
https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/mage/230045200003--05350013122301051
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Are you referring to using arcane rotations?
If so, that’s because the only spell would be arcane missles and most times you’ll wind up clipping it. There’s also no talents in the fire or frost trees to compliment it.
Now as for speccing arcane, frost can spec deep arcane for lots of benefit.
They discuss some of that in this podcast interview with Vanilla lead class designer Kevin Jordan at around the 40 min mark.
47 into Arcane, 4 into Ice (2 into frost warding, 2 into Ele precision)
Arcane missiles is your long range spam, arcane explosion for close range spam.
Alternate your Mage armor / Frost armor depending on engagement
Use PoM for Firestrike if using Arcane explosion, or for an instant sheep if in pvp, or use it on a Fireball or Frostbolt, your choice.
In pvp
Against all other casters, have mage armor up, you have 25 natural magic resistance against all types of magic dmg, not counting what you have on items/racial, OR if against heavy physical damage (both melee and ranged), switch to Ice Armor and become respectably tanky (all armor + mana shield) while maintaining respectable dps.
Counterspell is invaluable in pvp, and can be powerful in pve, esp combined with a 4 second silence from the talent.
Amplify/dampen magic can be used smartly in both pve and pvp. Put amp magic on the main tank in areas where theres alot of melee enemys and not alot of magic enemys, and watch the healing numbers skyrocket.
I dunno, it just seems to me, more people prefer ice/fire because its easier. With arcane you have to be alot smarter and on your game, but the outcome is powerful.
DISCLAIMER, I never played a mage in vanilla, so this is all theorycrafting, based off of numbers.
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Even then, you’d probably be better off taking 2 points out of Arcane Focus and taking another in Elemental Precision and probably Improved Frost Nova.
Keeps your spell hit caps for Fire, Frost and Arcane all even that way.
I mean, you could easily remove 1 point from wand spec, and put it into ele prec. And if ur spamming arcane spells, why reduce the chance to hit with them?
https://classic-wow.fandom.com/wiki/Spell_Hit_Chance
I don’t believe there are any mobs above level 62 in Vanilla.
bosses are 3 levels higher. thats how they are treated in the equations that determine hit/crit etc
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Guess it comes down to how much spell hit your gear naturally has then. If it’s +10%, then yeah you don’t need that extra in Arcane Focus. If it’s less than that then sure, but you won’t be at fire/ice hit caps and you showed intention of using Flamestrike.
NOT COUNTING FOR ARMOR/ITEMS And only comparing main spamming spell
Arcane Explosion Rank 6
GCD 1.5
can hit multiple targets
Mana cost 390
249(min)/270(max)
5129.46/5562 over 30 seconds
Mana spent 7800 with 20 casts
Arcane Missiles Rank 8
5 Second Channel
Mana cost 655
1184.5 Damage over 5 seconds
7107 Damage over 30 seconds
Mana spent 3930 over 6 casts
Arcane spell +stats
Crit chance +9%
Chance to hit +10%
Threat reduced 40%
Fireball (with burn added in)
684.1/788.5
6841/7885 over 30 seconds
mana cost
410 / 4100 with 10 casts
Fire spell +stats
Threat reduced 30%
Crit hit chance +6%
Chance to hit +6%
Frostbolt
Mana cost
290 / 3480 with 12 casts over 30 sec
545.9/ 588.3
6550.8/ 7059.6 with 12 casts over 30 sec
Ice spell +stats
threat reduced 30%
chance to hit +6%
crit chance, too many variables for late night math.
NOTE ALL STATS ARE COMPARING STRICTLY THE DAMAGE OF THE SPEC’S MAIN SPAM ABILITY
Seems to me Arcane spells are leading the dps…AND mana efficiency, please check my math cause i did all that while tired AF.
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Well a raid mage won’t have Shatter anyway, so that 50% crit chance is off the table. Freeze would be broken before you got your next frost spell off.
But even still, Frost Mage can rack up quite high crit chance (+10% for every other mage in the group just for having one mage who can apply Winter’s Chill) and they can talent for +100% critical strike damage. And still make it down to Arcane Power on top of it.
Maybe you can find a way to boost your Arcane Missiles to that extent, maybe not. I won’t try to stop you.
Arcane is a great spec, you just wont be casting arcane missiles very often, except in niche situations like Vael, PvP, etc…
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If you want to do an Arcane build, do it. Keep in mind the terminology, which isn’t just semantics, but integral to the game: There are no specs, but rather “builds.”
As a mage, you’ll always have frost, fire, and arcane spells at your fingertips. It’s just that you have 51 talent points to enhance (or build into) certain trees.
Over a decade ago, some dudes crunched the numbers, and figured out what to build into, if you want to get the highest damage for the lowest effort. But if you don’t mind running out of mana more often, or taking another 10-20 seconds to kill a mob, or being more vulnerable (or less), and if you aren’t raiding, where you’ll (more or less) have to build as others want you to, then the talent tree is all yours.
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It is Viable for pvp, just not as much for pve.
PoM Pyro, 3 min mage is quite popular arcane spec.
Same with PoM Frost… less popular though.
Where are you getting any of these numbers from exactly?
Ok
PVP, Arcane 101
1v1, solid. Shield+Missiles+silence+Nova and Fireblast will win you most melee and caster duels. You win with solid control and damage.
Open pvp, you’re going to die if you stop. All the enemy stealthers are watching you, waiting for your missiles like the dinner bell just rang.
Raiding. You’re out of mana. You’ll end up casting as many lower rank frost bolts as a frost mage. Boss fights, you’re burning all your gems. That story changes T3 but it’s still just not as good as what you can make with fire or frost.
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