Now that we’ve gotten two iterations on Arcane, we’re in a better spot overall. Some of our talents are still lacking (Supernova and Nether Tempest) but I see a pattern of improvement.
There’s a renewed emphasis on “thematic” tiers, with the developers outright emphasizing the new tier of “Resonance/Echo/Nether Tempest” focused on AoE.
This leads to the question of Enlightened and Arcane Orb.
On T100, you have:
- Overpowered (General / Damage Modifier / Mana )
- Arcane Orb ( AoE / Direct Damage / Charges )
- Time Anomaly ( General / Damage Modifier / Mana)
On T90 you have
- Reverberate ( AOE / Charges )
- Enlightened ( General / Damage Modifier / Mana )
- Supernova ( AoE / Direct Damage / Control )
It seems that Enlightened would be a better fit in T100, swapped with Arcane Orb which in turn looks like a better fit in T90.
Not only does it make sense thematically, but Enlightened has a similar impact to our gameplay to that of Time Anomaly and Overpowered with a focus on sustained throughput increase over the burst (OP) and random (TA) that the other two talents provide.
Meanwhile Arcane Orb would compete with another talent that provides bonus charges in AoE (and therefore indirectly more damage via Barrage) and… well… despite Supernova not being impressive, also shares an AoE component with control mixed in.
Many Arcane Mages also dread the potential of having to float mana over a percentage for burst, and would prefer to take OP/TA anyway. With tuning this hopefully wouldn’t matter as much.
And people can finally run Arcane Orb (a popular talent) with the t100 talents that typically dominate it in scenarios that aren’t AoE.
Everyone wins.
18 Likes
Anything that let’s me have arcane orb AND overpowered at the same time is a win.
8 Likes
I can see myself running all three t100 talents with AO, but yeah OP + AO would be pretty fun.
2 Likes
Outside of AO being made baseline, i think this is a good compromise and makes more sense for the talent tiers and their uses as you have described them. Here’s hoping that NT and SN also see some tuning to give them a defined identity too.
3 Likes
This is a great idea. Arcane’s had to pick between aoe and single target for years now, just give the spec a break.
2 Likes
If only they would read this and give us this one last (long overdue) change …
1 Like
I like it. In SL I think it would create two distinct builds… an OP build and an enlightened build. OP build doesn’t need to stay over 70% mana, and can make more use of haste to pump out as many AP windows as they can manage. Would probably pair best with arcane echo. Enlightened build would stay in conserve rotation for a greater amount of time, and pair best with resonance. Maybe enlightened for keys and OP for raid?
2 Likes
Agreed. I genuinely think that swapping the two talents would lead to more workable combinations for the spec.
2 Likes
Now give us the arcane version of splitting ice and we’d be set.
I’d settle for unstable magic back
Glacial spike but Arcanne Beam or something
1 Like
I’m down for Greater Arcane Missile. One big Missile but we have to say “Ha-DO-ken!” when we cast it.
1 Like
I loved Unstable Magic for Arcane when it was added since the proc rate was high.
Love this suggestion, and so simple.
Yeah this makes too much sense and should be a thing.
2 Likes
No way! I’d much rather talent for single target or AoE, and not throw all of my options for either build on a single row. That’s just silly.
What’s wrong with COLUMNS?!
AoE vs ST isn’t a choice. It’s a situation.
T100 is already generic. AO sticks out.
T90 is AoE. Enlightened sticks out.
3 Likes
You can see the future blizzard did this on the latest build.
Get them to make frost and fire changes now plz 
4 Likes