Given that arcane missiles is one of our more visually interesting and quick to cast spells, and very tied to the spec’s visual flavour, I really have to question taking away the ability to just fling missiles willy nilly. Am I the only one who finds this change to be a little bit of a joy thief?
28 Likes
Yes. Reverting it back to being proc only is fine considering the majority of players use it during the proc anyway.
6 Likes
I liked using Arcane Missiles to fish for procs, but I guess that’s out the window. I’ll adjust.
1 Like
I mean when I’m doing current content yeah most of the time it only gets cast when it procs, but sometimes in group content you want to tag an enemy and arcane blast’s cast time won’t get the job done. Sometimes an enemy has a sliver of health left and a few missiles will get the job done. Sometimes you just wanna see a colorful spell go off to break the monotony of just pressing 1 over and over.
8 Likes
You bring up valid points and while I agree in principle, in practice Blizzard say that they can’t allow for Arcane Missiles to be castable at will without nerfing them to the point where it’s a DPS loss not to truncate them early. Now, most players don’t really care about that and let the full channel finish and use non Clearcasting AMs in the ways you describe but the top end players don’t and Blizzard only care about the feedback they provide and balance the game accordingly.
For what it’s worth though, even as an average player, I think making AMs a proc only as they were in Legion is the right call. That said, the current proc rate is too low and this was flagged for them months ago but they let it go live anyway. Hopefully once they see the live data they will bump the proc rate some more and that will alleviate most people’s concerns.
5 Likes
It was my go-to filler, so adjusting to the new normal now.
What has me dropping all missile talents is the super low rate of CC procs (maybe just in my head, but seemed like they rarely showed up for me). So one ability (missiles) that is dependent on CC procs, is fine unless CC procs are so rare, you never benefit from the cool missile stuff, which has like what 4-5 dependent talents, including one that requires 3 CC procs before it’s useful.
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Did they lower the proc rate of Arcane Missiles? I spent a bit of time on target dummies last night (on my alt), and I just wasn’t getting nearly as many procs. Maybe I need to adjust my talents.
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And guess what? When it does proc, you’re gonna get interrupted and locked out because in PvP, there are a million interrupts and it feels much worse now, because it can only be used during a proc. So lame.
6 Likes
I don’t PVP, but I imagine that would be frustrating.
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What is the point of being an Arcane Mage without missiles?
I do have Improved Clearcasting checked on my talent tree, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference.
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To top it off, to use Aether Attunement (spell ID 453600 – the proc that comes after using three clearcasting procs) requires, you guessed it… a clearcasting proc.
They still haven’t learned from the last season where it would make so much more sense if they treated the proc as a clearcasting. Because unlike before, YOU CANNOT even fire fire it like before.
Such trash.
Edit: I lost the entire buff, which lasts 30 seconds, because I could not proc a clearcasting to fire it off, spamming arcane explosion. Don’t worry, I got clearcasting three seconds later, after having lost it.
6 Likes
Yeah, Blizzard completely ruined how I play Arcane Mage by requiring clearcasting for Arcane Missiles.
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Yes, in the BETA testing they found that Spellslinger was too powerful so their answer wasn’t to nerf spellslinger, but to nerf arcane base toolkit and power (no idea how their minds work), and one key to that was reduced Clearcast rate.
Killing missiles they killed arcane mage…
Almost all fun is gone.
5 Likes
They did something today and it’s much better.
So basically we can’t even generate clearcasting outside of combat. Was that mentioned anywhere?
More infuriating is that we can’t even use our Aether Attunement without a clearcasting proc. Imagine a fire mage not being able to use PyroBlast! without having a hotstreak buff.
Fix Aether Attunement not requiring a clearcasting proc to fire. Please, Blizzard!
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Yes, several times. That was completely intentional and frankly overdue. Spamming AE or other spells like a maniac before a pull fishing for CC procs was inane in the extreme and annoying as all hell to everyone around the mage doing it.
Whatever they did yesterday to boost the CC proc rate did wonders. If they leave it like that things should be fine. However, since nothing has been mentioned officially and no changes documented in patch notes or hotfixes it’s anyone’s guess what the base proc rate is now since that information isn’t available in the game’s tooltips. Which means that they can mess with it going forward without us even realizing it until we see the results in person. That kind of opaque 
has never sat well with me but that’s how Blizzard run all of their games.
This thread is yet another reason why Blizzard should just nuke class forums. Missiles not requiring a proc caused so much damage to Arcane when it was done in BfA because you cannot tune it without killing either Blast or Missiles.
We’ve been asking them to revert back to proc only Missiles for over 6 years so the ability can do actual damage again and you guys want them to redo that change, I’m sorry but all of you just lost your right to give any feedback on Arcane.
4 Likes
Man I just want something to fast-tag quick-dying mobs. Missiles was a fun flavorful way to do that with one button press. It’s one of our fun spells, it should be available because it’s satisfying to cast, unlike arcane blast.
If they need to kill one or the other, I’d happily have them kill the timed-cast visually boring filler spell rather than the fun, visually interesting spell, but what do I know? I just want the spec to feel fun to play, maybe you’ve got other priorities.
1 Like