I decided to main enhance this xpac. but I decided to check my arcane mage.
Not only did blizz not make orb baseline. they put it on the same row as supernova. Who is in charge of making these terrible decisions??
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Supernova is one of the worst talents in the game for PvE, so it’s a pretty easy decision. If you’re talking pvp, then yeah, I guess you need to choose.
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The way they did it was a very good decision, imo. You’re still going to have orb, except in a few niche key cases where you might want the knock-up.
Super Nova can be used to interrupt non silence-able abilities. Its also fun and cool. Its crazy that we now have to choose between that and Orb. I dont like this talent change in Shadowlands.
OP might be the ONLY mage I know who thinks Supernova > Arcane Orb is a thing …
… oh, it’s a Shaman. N’mind. Troll post, clearly.
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Wut? I-…
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See personally I think supernova should be baseline. I totally agree that it has uses as an interrupt tool. It’s just never going to fit into a talent row unless they buff the damage by a ton and turn it into a button that you just use on cooldown for dps.
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I’ve never actually heard someone vie for this change (I’m sure there have been people who have posted about it), but I am all for it. I mean if Frost gets double IB and Fire has a cheat-death, I recognize GInvis is a nice damage reduction tool, but a semi-interrupt would balance out the utility a bit more between the three specs. Especially when taking Frost Snares and Fire’s Dragon’s Breath into account.
here sorry, let me post on my mage then. I think arcane orb is needed baseline since charged up isnt an option for a talent anymore. But I have always thought orb should be baseline.
Supernova is awesome and I ran it all the time. 2nd interrupt till you can break LoS in pvp or interrupt aurad casts and I thought it should have had its damage buffed so it hits more than a wet noodle.
Nether tempest is also high on my list, Amazing talent but its worthless because they dont want to buff the damage. keeps rogues from restealthing.
thanks for commenting.
I just dont understand why Frozen Orb is baseline, Arcane Orb is a talent, and then there isn’t even an Orb for fire.
Because Frozen Orb is integral to the base rotation for Frost Mage, Arcane Orb is not integral to Arcane therefore it’s a talent.
I feel like it would become integral if they made it baseline. I pretty much use it on cd in pvp at least, depending on comp. My two cents is that arcane orb and supernova should both be baseline. Too many fun abilities in the game are locked away as talents that are inferior choices 
But that’s arcane orb. Like you said, it has utility use as an interrupt. The difference between supernova and arcane orb in an ideal sim is only 150 DPS – far outweighed by an extra interrupt and AoE knockup, when it’s appropriate.
feels pretty integral. without charged up anyways. There is no way to build stacks other than hard casting blast or spamming explosion.
they either need to make orb or supernova baseline.
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Arcane orb is not used on cooldown for dps, you use it primarily to generate arcane charges and it has some flexibility in how you use it depending on your own talents and the number of targets
It also doesn’t have a cc component so you don’t end up feeling like you’re wasting damage potential by holding it for interrupts (or the other way around) like you do with supernova
Yes, arcane orb is used for dps. Even if it’s used for resources, that’s for dps. It does not have any cc components.