i can play either won’t be doing anything amazing that requires min maxing. the problem is i’ve played the hell out of frost and fire that they have gotten just so damn dull and to me the rotation feels the same as every single expac. not much really changes.
arcane i don’t know how to play too much at end game i know the jist of it but typically they are so undertuned that i always just end up going to frost/fire. why play an undertuned spec when i can play one i already know and still do better dmg?
any suggestions? like i said i can play either or i don’t need to min max so arcane is on the table and would keep me active longer i think due to less boredom. frost for me is only fun when im getting procs back to back non stop. outside of that it’s just FB spamming like hell. been a while since i played this mage in BfA though
Frost is very versatile, whereas Arcane is very one note. You’re doing damage. That’s it. At least with Frost you get added slows and a much better ability to kite if needed. Frost just feels more survivable overall.
Arcane is even worse than that. If you feel Frost and Fire are dull, you’ll HATE Arcane.
arcane has slow too but it sadly is not tied to AB like before i think via a glyph. so you have to deal with what 2 gcd’s? instead of just the 1 as frost.
been a while since i played arcane but yea it does get just as boring too with it’s conserve phase and burst phase. idk how they play rn though
yea i know i still think it will be better then arcane though. usually arcane is dead last of the 3 specs. and fire typically isn’t good until you can get high crit gear.
frost is typically good at everything st/cleave and aoe where as arcane i think only bursting?
Everybody wants to join on the Arcane bandwagon until they play it and realize how fkn boring it is. But leveling as frost is always gonna be the more dominant spec for control reasons. Endgame, fire is going to scale with gear and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Fire back as a top choice. But in all honesty, most of us are not in top raid groups vying for the top 5% and can play whatever spec we want to.
Arcane is better for open world PvE, assuming you don’t care about the “fun” factor because fun is subjective anyway. I say this as someone who loves Frost and spends most of his time as Frost. Arcane is just better for leveling, objectively.
Arcane has several key advantages over Frost:
It has Greater Invisibility which is on a much shorter cooldown than Invisibility and allows you to more frequently run around to collect quest stuff or to just drop threat.
Its PvP/warmode talents are much better: It can further reduce the cooldown of its Greater Invi, can unlock a group Invi (which is usable when you’re soloing as well), and gains access to Temporal Shield, which doesn’t take a GCD and basically negates any damage you take for 4 seconds so it’s great for a big hit/spell.
It unlocks Alter Time before Frost and Fire do - they only get this near max level level (58). Alter Time is in essence like a more controlled Temporal Shield. Instead of resorting to a kite (which you can do as Arcane by the way), Arcane is better if you choose to hold your ground because you can undo the damage you’re dealt over a course of 10 seconds (or prior if you terminate it earlier).
Arcane’s steroid - Arcane Charges, far surpass that of Frost’s steroid in Shatter because you don’t have to fish to procs as Arcane. You’re always equipped with your resources. Shatter can also not crit if you’re below the Shatter cap which is just depressing but not uncommon for someone still gearing up as Frost.
Arcane has better overall movement than Frost does because it has access to Chrono Shift.
Arcane does a short term burst on single targets of interest (rares, elites, a quest mob, bosses) much better than Frost does. Arcane Power is better than Icy Veins, and on a shorter cooldown
Frost has some great PvP talents that allow it to do well if you want to kite or do a short term AoE burst. With Frost being able to reset Cone of Cold via Nova and increase its damage, you have opportunities where you can CoC > Nova > CoC > Nova > CoC. But this means letting go of Frigid Winds as your talent to get the extra Nova charge. Frost also fares well with talents that allow it to randomly freeze targets in place and this talent pairs well with increasing Frostbolt’s damage on frozen targets.
The thing is, despite these tools available to Frost, while you’re kiting… Arcane on the same ilvl/gear will just probably kill the target outright. Frost’s damage is from its procs, and it always has to fish for these via Frostbolts. It’s just slower at getting the job done.
It’s all a matter of opinion. Arcane is pretty fun when you burst the crap out of something or you’re kiting that melee and machine gunning missiles into them. My point is that while arcane may be a 2-3 button spec for most content, frost being 3-4 buttons doesn’t really pack the “WOW THAT WAS FUN” either.
Agreed. While I love Frost, its current build is pretty much just 3 buttons if you don’t count shorter cds like FOrb and the ‘active’ talents add nothing but clunk (and sometimes a dps loss) to it.
I’m still undecided between Frost and Arcane. I haven’t played Arc since WoD (aside from some dungeon spamming in Legion) and I mostly enjoyed it then so it will be good if it has a similar plastyle to then. I’m somewhat hoping that gearing and the ability to play multiple specs means I can swap between them in raid…
In pre-patch I’m enjoying Arcane for the new zones. It’s much more efficient than Frost in getting stuff done, but if you were in mythic or 130+ before prepatch you can pretty much bulldoze your way through anything. With GS builds in the dust but Mastery gear, Arcane seems to fare better with my secondary setup. Currently at 48% Mastery.
I think in mythic+ Frost is still much better. Did a 20+ key as Arcane; great on bosses but given the tendency of keys to go from ST to full on AoE in a matter of seconds it’s better to do them as Frost. But I’m sure it’s doable as Arcane too. I don’t think I can safely compare my one time Arcane use to the rest of the Frost keys, lol.
This is what I was thinking as well. I came back to the game after a 6 year break because being a fire mage sounded fun. I came back as corruption went away so that wasn’t going to happen.
And frost doesn’t appeal to me at all, so that also wont happen. So that leaves Arcane, which I am enjoying. But looking at all of these guides, parses and youtube videos, it’s just… arcane missiles. How is that enjoyable? While on fire I’m hitting about 4x more the buttons and weaving of abilities (it feels like, not accurate numbers), while doing about 1k less dps.
tl;dr: Hitting ToM, AP and Arcane Missiles is effective, but at what cost.
I was excited initially when they announced the arcane changes (I was an arcane mage until BfA) and as much as I’d like to go back to it I’m just not sure I won’t be as disappointed as I was the times I tried playing it in BfA.
DEFINITELY not interested in just spamming missiles. While I would LIKE to think they’ll change it, this is also the team that left No-Ice Lance as the go-to build for frost for 2 tiers so I don’t hold out hope that any change to arcane being a one button spam spec for another expansion is coming.