Arcane Suggested Changes (Sunfury & Spellfire)

Classes Mage
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Hey Kaivax/Blizzard!

Here are some thoughts regarding Arcane and how to make it fit both Sunfury and Spellslinger. Specifically, I’d like to focus on:

  • Nether Precision stack overcapping risk with Sunfury
  • Clearcasting and it’s use in AoE for the Orb Barrage build/Spellslinger
  • Siphon Storm and possible alternatives
  • Rule of Threes suggested changes
  • Arcane Harmony suggested changes
  • Orb Barrage suggested changes
  • Arcane Missiles and theme w/ Spellslinger

:dracthyr_love_animated: :dracthyr_love_animated: :dracthyr_love_animated:TL;DR List of Suggested Changes :dracthyr_love_animated: :dracthyr_love_animated: :dracthyr_love_animated:

Sunfury-related Changes
Nether Precision Over-Capping Solution
  • Nether Capacitor (new talent): Consuming Clearcasting procs now only grants 1 Nether Precision stack, but can stack up to 4 times. Arcane Blast can no longer consume Nether Precision. Arcane Barrage will now consume all stacks of Nether precision to increase its damage (max +120% damage at 4 stacks of Nether Precision). Choice node with Leydrinker
  • Developer’s note: The intent here is obvious: make Nether Precision no longer an over-capped ressource and focus on its use with Arcane Barrage, which fits with the Arcane Harmony build. This would come at the cost of 1 Nether Precision stack per CC consumed, likely decreasing our Arcane Blast damage significantly with this build, but would increase our Arcane Barrage damage substantially in exchange. Arcane Blast no longer consuming Nether Precision is also there to ensure that Arcane Blast remains a filler which you use to generate Clearcasting.
Arcane Harmony Solution
  • Arcane Harmony:
    • Current: Each time Arcane Missiles hits an enemy, the damage of your next Arcane Barrage is increased by 5%. This effect stacks up to 20 times (max + 100% damage)
    • Suggested Change: Each time Arcane Missiles hits an enemy, the damage of your next Arcane Barrage is increased by 2%. This effect stacks up to 32 times. (max +64% damage). At 32 stacks, your next Arcane Barrage is guaranteed to critically strike. Stacks regenerate out of combat (1 per second, does not reset when pulling raid boss or starting M+ dungeon).
  • Developer’s note: The intent here is to fix several problems with Arcane Harmony. Raising the cap from 20 to 32 fits the Sunfury narrative of wanting 4 Arcane Missiles (32 missiles total) before consuming Burden of Power with Arcane Barrage. The guaranteed crit chance is added only at max stacks to prevent stack munching and reduce the frustration seen in Shadowlands when Arcane Barrage did not crit with the Arcane Harmony build. The total damage increase at max stacks has been reduced from +100% to +64% to compensate for this guaranteed crit chance. Lastly, the stacks-when-out-of-combat is meant to alleviate the awkwardness of the Arcane Harmony build when first pulling the boss with no Arcane Harmony stacks, and thus normalize the pull.
RNG Clearcasting Proc Rate Solution
  • Rule of Threes:
    • Current: When you gain your third Arcane Charge, the cost of your next Arcane Blast or Arcane Missiles is reduced by 100%.
    • Suggested Change: Every third cast of Arcane Missiles generates a Clearcasting charge. This effect cannot proc off itself.
  • Developer’s note: The intent here is simple: if you can get at least 3 Clearcasting proc, you’ll finish out your set of 4 by picking up this talent, which is a little outdated at this point (even decreasing the cost of Arcane Missiles, which no longer has a cost given that it can only be cast with Clearcasting active).
Spellslinger-related Changes
Clearcasting in AoE and Orb Barrage RNG
  • Orb Barrage:
    • Current: Arcane Barrage has a 10% chance per Arcane Charge consumed to launch an Arcane Orb in front of you.
    • Suggested Change: Arcane Barrage has a 10% chance per Arcane Charge consumed to launch an Arcane Orb in front of you. If Clearcasting is active, this chance is increased to 100% regardless of how many Arcane Charges were consumed.
  • Developer’s note: The intent with this is to provide a way for Splinterstorm’s Clearcasting procs to be consumed in AoE by Orb Barrage in order to guarantee its proc rate. At 5 Clearcasting stacks consumed, the next Clearcasting proc would instead be used on Aether Attunement-empowered Arcane Missiles, which is the one of two times where Arcane Missiles is worth casting in AoE (the other time being for Arcane Harmony). One thing this would incur is that it would result in Nether Precision proc munching (although not as severe as for Sunfury), but this can’t be altered since Nether Precision is tied to Splinter generation for Arcane Blast as well, so changing it for Arcane Barrage would also weaken or strengthen the single target use of this, which is not desired.
High Haste Theme w/ Arcane's Restrictions on Haste
  • Mana Siphon (new talent): Evocation’s channel time is reduced by 50% and its cooldown is removed. Choice node with Siphon Storm.
  • Developer’s note: Spellslinger clearly fits a theme of high haste to throw out a rapid flurry of spells, but Arcane unfortunately cannot support that due to the fear of running OOM. One solution is to remove the cooldown of Evocation so that you can run high haste-focused builds to create that theme without going completely OOM and ruining your chances of single target damage as a result. I think this should be a choice node with Siphon Storm since Sunfury will likely use Siphon Storm for its burst, while Spellslinger will instead prefer Evocation use for mana purposes due to high haste.
Arcane Splinter Generation

  • Current: When you consume Nether Precision, conjure 2 Arcane Splinters that fire at your target.

  • Suggested Change: Every 2 Arcane Missiles fired conjures an Arcane Splinter at your target. Every 4 Arcane Charges spent conjures an Arcane Splinter at your target

  • Developer’s note: The idea behind this change comes from a thematic persective. Arcane Missiles fits the theme of Spellslinger a lot better than Arcane Blast, especially when you use Arcane Missiles with Aether Attunement in AoE. Furthermore, focusing on Arcane Missiles provides the possibility from Spellslinger Arcane Mages to be entirely mobile during their Arcane Surge windows with a bit of good RNG, since this change would allow every cast of Arcane Missiles to proc a Splinterstorm during Arcane Surge (4 Splinters per AM → 8 during Surge), giving them a 20% chance to proc Clearcasting as a result. With the Slipstream talent, Arcane Mages could become as mobile as Fire Mages during their cooldown windows as Spellslingers as they spam Clearcasting Arcane Missiles (provided they get lucky with procs). The 4-charges spent is meant to maintain Arcane Barrage’s ability to proc Splinters in AoE alongside Arcane Orb. Also note that the above change to Splinters still favors consuming Clearcasting procs on Orb Barrage in AoE, since you generate the same number of Splinters on 4 targets with Orb Barrage as you do with Arcane Missiles.
Arcane Splinter Secondary Stat Scaling
  • Current: Conjure raw Arcane magic into a sharp projectile that deals (70% Spell Power) Arcane damage (direct damage does not scale with Mastery: Savant). Arcane Splinters embed themselves into their target, dealing (41.6% Spell power) Arcane damage over 16 seconds (DoT does not scale with Mastery: Savant or Haste). This effect stacks
  • Suggested Change: Conjure raw Arcane magic into a sharp projectile that deals (53.8% Spell Power) Arcane damage (direct damage scales with Mastery: Savant). Arcane Splinters embed themselves into their target, dealing (22.7% Spell power) Arcane damage over 16 seconds (DoT scales with Mastery: Savant and Haste). This effect stacks
  • Developer’s note: The purpose of this change is to allow Arcane Splinters to scale with secondary stats so that they are not in a position where they are strong in the early patches due to tuning and lower secondary stats but weaker in the later patches due to higher secondary stats. The nerf to the direct damage is roughly ~23% decreased damage, which means with about 36% total mastery (mana component; which is equivalent to 30% Arcane damage increase) the damage goes back to (70% Spell Power) Arcane damage. For the DoT, the damage is nerfed more severely to ~36% decrease to account for the same Mastery damage buff from scaling as well as roughly ~20% Haste scaling. The reason for the importance in the haste scaling here is that Splinterstorm deals the DoT damage instantly, so Splinters placed during Lust phases, for example, will do significantly more DoT damage than Splinters not placed during Lust phases. I believe the damage and scaling should reflect that, even if the DoT damage has to get nerfed further.
Splinterstorm Secondary Stat Scaling
  • Current: Shatter all Embedded Arcane Splinters, dealing their remaining periodic damage instantly. Conjure an Arcane Splinter for each Splinter shattered, then unleash them all in a devastating barrage, dealing (70% Spell Power) Arcane damage (direct damage does not scale with Mastery: Savant) to your target for each Splinter in the Splinterstorm. Splinterstorm has a 20% chance to grant you Clearcasting.
  • Suggested Change: Shatter all Embedded Arcane Splinters, dealing their remaining periodic damage instantly. Conjure an Arcane Splinter for each Splinter shattered, then unleash them all in a devastating barrage, dealing (53.8% Spell Power) Arcane damage (direct damage scales with Mastery: Savant) to your target for each Splinter in the Splinterstorm. Splinterstorm has a 20% chance to grant you Clearcasting.
  • Developer’s note: Same as the above change with Arcane Splinters, this makes Splinterstorm scales with Mastery at the cost of a base damage nerf.
Splintering Orbs Target Cap Optimization
  • Current: Enemies damaged by your Arcane Orb conjure 2 Arcane Splinters up to 4. Arcane Orb damage increased by 10%.
  • Suggested Change: Enemies damaged by your Arcane Orb conjure 1 Arcane Splinter up to 4. Arcane Orb damage increased by 10%.
  • Developer’s note: The purpose of this change is to keep the peak value of Orb Barrage at 4 targets, where Orb Barrage procs regenerate the full 4-Arcane Charges. Regardless of whether you choose to buff the cap to 8 or nerf the generation to 1 per target, I think this talent should incentivize using Orb Barrage at 4 targets, otherwise you risk creating a scenario where at two targets it is worth using Arcane Barrage just to try to get Orb Barrage procs that only get 2 Arcane charges but generate 4 Splinters (the same as for 4 targets).
Other Arcane Suggested Changes
Crackling Energy, Improved Arcane Missiles, Chrono-Shift and Supernova
  • Crackling Energy talent removed
  • Improved Arcane Missiles talent removed
  • Chrono-Shift moved to Improved Arcane Missiles’ current position
  • Supernova moved to Crackling Energy’s current position
  • Developer’s note: The purpose of this change is to remove this point dump that we currently have in Crackling Energy and Improved Arcane Missiles and instead give back fun utility spells like Supernova and Chrono-Shift.
Mastery: Savant and Prodigious Savant

Mastery: Savant:

  • Current: Increases your Mana regeneration rate and maximum Mana by 9.6%. Arcane Charges increase the damage of Arcane Blast by an additional 4.8% and Arcane Barrage by 2.4%. Increases all other Arcane damage by 8.0%
  • Suggested Change: Increases your Mana regeneration rate and maximum Mana by 9.6%. Increases all Arcane damage by 8.0%

Prodigious Savant

  • Current: Arcane Charges further increase Mastery effectiveness of Arcane Blast and Arcane Barrage by 20%.
  • Suggested Change: Increases your Mastery by 5% and gain 10% increased Mastery from gear and effects.
  • Developer’s note: The purpose of this change is to remove the confusing damage calculating aspect of Arcane Mastery when accounting for Arcane Blast and Arcane Barrage, simply making it increase ALL arcane damage by X% (instead of spells having one of 3 different ratios of spell damage increase). Changing this would also requiring changing Prodigious Savant, so I mirrored Fire’s Critical Mass and Frost’s Winter Blessing.
Arcane Battery
  • Current: Consuming Clearcasting grants 1%/2% increased spell damage for 25 seconds, stacking up to 5%/10% (2-point node)
  • Suggested Change: Consuming Clearcasting grants 1% increased spell damage for Arcane Missiles for 25 seconds, stacking up to 5% (1 point node)
  • Developer’s note: The purpose of this nerf is that a 10% damage buff to your overall damage might actually create a scenario where you may want to pick up Arcane Battery but not Aether Attunement simply because the overall damage buff is worth more while it stands than Aether Attunement can provide by consuming the buff, since Aether Attunement also gets rid of the 10% damage buff provided by this talent. I suggest making it buff only Arcane Missiles so that it culminates into more damage for the Aether Attunement proc, as well as decreasing its overall damage to 5%. As a compensation, this was switched to be a 1-point node from a 2-point node to make up for these changes.
Concentration
  • Current: Arcane Blast has a small chance (2 rppm) to make your next cast of Arcane Blast free.
  • Suggested Change: Arcane Blast has a small chance (2 rppm) to make your next cast of Arcane Barrage refund 4 Arcane Charges
  • Developer’s note: The current iteration of Concentration in TWW suffers from the same problem that Rule of Threes does: not having a mana-cost prevents you from generating Clearcasting procs. Rather than focusing on that, I would recommend changing Concentration to instead give you a free cast of Arcane Barrage that refunds Arcane Charges, giving you the equivalent of a free Arcane Blast (that does slightly less damage in ST) but gives you back mana with the Mana Adept talent.

:fire: :fire: :fire: Sunfury Arcane :fire: :fire: :fire:

Click here for Sunfury Suggested Changes
Theme and Fantasy

Sunfury, at least to me, feels like a spec that should explode with power. Arcane Surge should feel like a giant burst of damage as you and your phoenix demolish your enemies with high power spells. For this reason, I think the following spells/talents fit very well with this theme:

  • Siphon Storm (increases burst damage windows)
  • Arcane Harmony (gigantic burst of damage from single Arcane Barrage)
  • Magi’s Spark (big burst within Touch of the Magi window)
  • Arcane Surge (big cooldown window preceded by big burst of damage)
Arcane Harmony and Sunfury

I believe that the Arcane Harmony build fits best with Sunfury for several reasons, described below. The gist of my thought process is that Sunfury offers significant benefits to singular uses of Arcane Barrage (Burden of Power) while also incentivizing Arcane Missiles dumping (for Spellfire Orb procs, Burden of Power procs, Glorious Incandescence, Mana Addict, etc). Here are some of the details discussed:

  1. Burden of Power (+30% Arcane Barrage or 15% Arcane Blast damage after spawning a Spellfire Orb)
  1. Sunfury Execution (Arcane Bombardment increases Arcane Barrage bonus damage to 130% in execute)
  2. Mass dumping of Clearcasting Arcane Missiles is desired due to:
    • Mana Addict (3%/6% bonus haste per Clearcasting spent for 10 seconds; stacks up to 2 times
    • Spellfire Orb (every 4 procs of Clearcasting spent conjures a Spellfire Sphere)
    • Conjuring a Spellfire Orb procs Burden of Power, which then procs Glorious Incandescence (Arcane Orb spawns 4 meteorites) when consumed.
Theorized Goal Rotation for Sunfury

Based on the statements made above, here is my suspected “goal” rotation behind the Arcane portion of Sunfury. Note that a lot of it is based around spamming Clearcasting as much as possible to proc Spellfire Orbs, maximizing singular uses of Arcane Barrage damage (Burden of Power, Sunfury Execution) and using Arcane Blast as a filler and attempt to proc Clearcasting. Also note that this rotation would be the same in both single target and AoE, since Arcane Barrage provides significant funnel with more targets (capped at 5 targets):

  1. Arcane Surge
  2. Touch of the Magi (w/ Magi’s Brand)
  3. Arcane Barrage (w/ Arcane Harmony and Burden of Power since Codex of Sunstriders spawns a Spellfire Orb; consumes the Arcane Barrage portion of Magi’s Spark)
  4. Arcane Orb (to consume Glorious Incandescence)
  5. Arcane Blast (consumes the Arcane Blast portion of Magi’s Spark)
  6. Arcane Missiles (consumes the Arcane Missiles of Magi’s Spark, detonating it and proc’ing Nether Munitions)
  7. Continue casting Arcane Missiles (with Arcane Blast as fillers if no Clearcasting proc)
  8. After 4 Arcane Missiles are cast, use Arcane Barrage to consume Burden of Power
  9. Arcane Orb (to consume Glorious Incandescence)
  10. Return to #7
  11. During Arcane Soul, spam Arcane Barrage until 3 CC procs have been had, then consume 1 CC proc and cast another Barrage to refresh it.
  12. Once done with Arcane Soul, return to priority of Arcane Missiles > Arcane Blast
Problems with Arcane Harmony + Sunfury

There are unfortunately a couple of problems with mixing Arcane Harmony and Sunfury, which I’ll talk about below. Most of these problems are based on over-capping on resources/charges:

  1. Nether Precision: This build unfortunately focuses on casting Arcane Missiles to such a degree that you would very easily over-cap on Nether Precision Charges
  2. Arcane Harmony: While it is clear that you would ideally want to cast Arcane Barrage w/ Arcane Harmony after 4 casts of Arcane Missiles due to Burden of Power proc’ing after 4 Arcane Missiles proc (+30% Arcane Barrage damage), that means that you are only getting 20 stacks out of 32 missiles fired (wasting 12 stacks of Arcane Harmony.
  3. Arcane Harmony still suffers from the fact that you can’t start a fight or pull at max stacks; and you instead have to fish for Clearcasting procs at the start of a pull or M+ dungeon before entering your cooldown phase (this held true in Shadowlands and S1 of Dragonflight)
  4. Arcane Harmony also still suffers from the RNG problem of significant DPS loss without landing a crit on Arcane Barrage.
  5. RNG problem: Terrible RNG can sometimes make it hard to get 4 stacks of Clearcasting consecutively, and will likely lead to frustrations on rotations when only 3 are proc’d during an Arcane Surge window due to bad luck/RNG, which is extremely frustrating.
Solutions for Arcane Harmony + Sunfury

Here are some solutions to the problems described in the previous section:

Nether Precision Over-Capping Solution
  • Nether Capacitor (new talent): Consuming Clearcasting procs now only grants 1 Nether Precision stack, but can stack up to 4 times. Arcane Blast can no longer consume Nether Precision. Arcane Barrage will now consume all stacks of Nether precision to increase its damage (max +120% damage at 4 stacks of Nether Precision). Choice node with Leydrinker
  • Developer’s note: The intent here is obvious: make Nether Precision no longer an over-capped resource and focus on its use with Arcane Barrage, which fits with the Arcane Harmony build. This would come at the cost of 1 Nether Precision stack per CC consumed, likely decreasing our Arcane Blast damage significantly with this build, but would increase our Arcane Barrage damage substantially in exchange. Arcane Blast no longer consuming Nether Precision is also there to ensure that Arcane Blast remains a filler which you use to generate Clearcasting.
Arcane Harmony Solution
  • Arcane Harmony:
    • Current: Each time Arcane Missiles hits an enemy, the damage of your next Arcane Barrage is increased by 5%. This effect stacks up to 20 times (max + 100% damage)
    • Suggested Change: Each time Arcane Missiles hits an enemy, the damage of your next Arcane Barrage is increased by 2%. This effect stacks up to 32 times. (max +64% damage). At 32 stacks, your next Arcane Barrage is guaranteed to critically strike. Stacks regenerate out of combat (1 per second, does not reset when pulling raid boss or starting M+ dungeon).
  • Developer’s note: The intent here is to fix several problems with Arcane Harmony. Raising the cap from 20 to 32 fits the Sunfury narrative of wanting 4 Arcane Missiles (32 missiles total) before consuming Burden of Power with Arcane Barrage. The guaranteed crit chance is added only at max stacks to prevent stack munching and reduce the frustration seen in Shadowlands when Arcane Barrage did not crit with the Arcane Harmony build. The total damage increase at max stacks has been reduced from +100% to +64% to compensate for this guaranteed crit chance. Lastly, the stacks-when-out-of-combat is meant to alleviate the awkwardness of the Arcane Harmony build when first pulling the boss with no Arcane Harmony stacks, and thus normalize the pull.
RNG Clearcasting Proc Rate Solution
  • Rule of Threes:
    • Current: When you gain your third Arcane Charge, the cost of your next Arcane Blast or Arcane Missiles is reduced by 100%.
    • Suggested Change: Every third cast of Arcane Missiles generates a Clearcasting charge. This effect cannot proc off itself.
  • Developer’s note: The intent here is simple: if you can get at least 3 Clearcasting proc, you’ll finish out your set of 4 by picking up this talent, which is a little outdated at this point (even decreasing the cost of Arcane Missiles, which no longer has a cost given that it can only be cast with Clearcasting active).

:snowflake: :snowflake: :snowflake: Spellslinger Arcane :snowflake: :snowflake: :snowflake:

Click here for Spellslinger Suggested Changes
Theme and Fantasy

Contrary to Sunfury, Spellslinger feels like a spec that flings a massive number of smaller damage spells in rapid succession, focusing on high quantities of small damage instance to focus down their enemies. Some of the spells/talents that fit this theme very well include:

  • Arcane Echo (lots of damage procs)
  • Arcane Familiar (lots of little procs of damage)
  • Arcane Missiles (lots of little procs of damage)
  • Orb Barrage (casting 2 spells at once when proc’ing this off Arcane Barrage)
Orb Barrage and Spellslinger

I believe that the Orb Barrage build fits best with Spellslinger for several reasons, described below. The gist of my reasoning is that Spellslinger benefits from builds that maximize consuming Nether Precision due to Splintering Sorcery (like Arcane Barrage and Arcane Blast) and casting Arcane Orb due to Splintering Orbs:

  1. Splintering Sorcery (consuming Nether Precision by casting Arcane Barrage or Arcane Blast conjures 2 Splinters on the target)
  1. Splintering Orbs (Arcane Orb conjures 2 Splinters on the target, up to 4 per Orb cast)
  2. Augury Abounds (during Arcane Surge, Splinter conjure rate is doubled)
  3. Splinterstorm (after 8 splinters are active, automatically cast Splinterstorm)
Theorized Goal Rotation for Spellslinger

Based on my statements above, here is my theorized “goal” rotation for Spellslinger Arcane. Note that unlike with Sunfury, this rotation would different depending on the number of targets (<4 vs >=4 targets). The main reason for the difference between <4 and >=4 targets is because at 4 targets an Orb Barrage proc will allow you to immediately cast another 4 Arcane Charge Arcane Barrage, which is more likely to proc another Orb Barrage:

Single target Rotation (<4 targets?)

  1. Arcane Surge (conjures Splinterstorm)
  2. Arcane Barrage
  3. [u]Touch of the Magi (w/ Magi’s Spark, Arcane Barrage consumes it with the previous cast)
  4. Arcane Missiles (to generate 2 stacks of Nether Precision and consume the Arcane Missiles’ portion of Magi’s Spark)
  5. Arcane Blast (to consume Nether Precision and consume the first stack of Nether Precision, implanting 4 Arcane Splinters (d/t Augury Abounds))
  6. Arcane Blast (second proc of Nether Precision, 4 more splinters, auto-cast Splinterstorm)
  7. Continue priority of generating Nether Precision with Arcane Missiles, and consuming with Arcane Blast
  8. Once at 30 stacks of Unerring Proficiency, cast Supernova
  9. Cast Shifting Power (with Shifting Shards, generates 16 Splinters during Arcane Surge; 2 Splinterstorm)
  10. Any casts of Arcane Barrage that proc Orb Barrage is beneficial since that Orb will generate 2 Splinters from Splintering Orbs

AoE Rotation (>=4 targets?)

  1. Arcane Surge (conjures Splinterstorm)
  2. Arcane Barrage
  3. [u]Touch of the Magi (w/ Magi’s Spark, Arcane Barrage consumes it with the previous cast)
  4. Arcane Missiles (to generate 2 stacks of Nether Precision and consume the Arcane Missiles’ portion of Magi’s Spark)
  5. Arcane Blast (to consume Nether Precision and consume the first stack of Nether Precision, implanting 4 Arcane Splinters (d/t Augury Abounds))
  6. Arcane Barrage (second proc of Nether Precision, 4 more splinters, auto-cast Splinterstorm)
  7. Continue priority of casting Arcane Barrage at 4 Arcane Charges, either proc’ing an Arcane Orb from Orb Barrage or using Arcane Orb (both of which generates 4 splinters per cast on 4+targets)
  8. Splinterstorm out the wazoo
Problems with Orb Barrage + Spellslinger

There are unfortunately a couple of problems with mixing Orb Barrage with Spellslinger, which I’ll talk about below. Most of these problems are based on inability to effectively use Clearcasting procs during AoE rotation and the theme favoring high haste to cast a lot of spell w/ Arcane’s haste conflict due to mana issues:

  1. Clearcasting generation in AoE by Splinterstorm: As silly as it might sound, this is actually a problem since the removal of Reverberate make Arcane Explosion a poor spell to cast, even in AoE. You will likely generate a lot of Clearcasting procs that are not likely to be used in AoE since Orb Barrage will likely do significantly more damage and generate more Splinters.
  2. RNG problem of Orb Barrage: As previously described by Azuna (source: https://youtu.be/z7KTQlgwkd0?si=0YsVqXRxN9PWX2MD&t=8899), Arcane suffers from a severe RNG problem in AoE due to Orb Barrage being extremely inconsistent. Sometimes this procs all the time and you outdps everyone in the key by a mile, and sometimes it doesn’t proc at all and you feel like swapping specs. I think it’s ironic that Fire, which used to be the gambler spec w/ critical strikes to proc Hot Streak, is not out-gambled by Arcane in AoE, since unlike Fire mages, Arcane has no way to guarantee Orb Barrage procs once Arcane Orb charges are depleted.
  3. Theme favors high haste: The playstyle and theme of Spellslinger heavily favors casting lots of spells in quick succession, thus favoring high-haste builds. Unfortunately, Arcane doesn’t do well with high haste, especially in single target due to mana issues.
  4. Arcane Splinter Generation: Arcane Splinter is currently generated by consuming Nether Precision with Arcane Blast or Arcane Barrage. I believe that Arcane Barrage fits the theme of Spellslinger fine, but Arcane Blast does not, since it is a single damage hit. Arcane Missiles, which shoots lots of little hits, fits the theme far better than Arcane Blast, especially with Aether Attunement, as you (spell)sling Arcane Missiles like crazy to a bunch of different targets.
  5. Arcane Splinter Secondary Stat Scaling: Currently, Arcane Splinter does not scale with Mastery (for the upfront damage or the DoT portion) or Haste (for the DoT portion). This is dangerous because like all spells that lack secondary scaling, they will be strong early in the expansion and weak later in the expansion when secondary stats are more copious (similar to Windwalker Monks in prior expansions). Note that the point about increasing the DoT damage (w/ Haste and Mastery) for Splinters matters because the DoT damage is dealt instantly when Splinter is removed with Splinterstorm.
  1. Splinterstorm Secondary Stat Scaling: Similar to the above, Splinterstorm’s damage per Splinter does not scale with Mastery.
  2. Splintering Orbs: As it is currently designed, Splintering Orbs currently favors using Arcane Orb on 2 targets for maximal Splinter generation benefit. While this fits well with Arcane Orb, this risks creating a problem with Orb Barrage where it may be beneficial to Arcane Barrage on 2 targets just to try to proc an Arcane Orb for the Splinter generation. The problem is that at 2 targets, Orb Barrage only generates 2 of your 4 Arcane Charges, which makes the rotation feel clunky and awkward.
Solutions for Orb Barrage + Spellslinger

Here are some solutions to the problems described in the previous section:

Clearcasting in AoE and Orb Barrage RNG
  • Orb Barrage:
    • Current: Arcane Barrage has a 10% chance per Arcane Charge consumed to launch an Arcane Orb in front of you.
    • Suggested Change: Arcane Barrage has a 10% chance per Arcane Charge consumed to launch an Arcane Orb in front of you. If Clearcasting is active, this chance is increased to 100% regardless of how many Arcane Charges were consumed.
  • Developer’s note: The intent with this is to provide a way for Splinterstorm’s Clearcasting procs to be consumed in AoE by Orb Barrage in order to guarantee its proc rate. At 5 Clearcasting stacks consumed, the next Clearcasting proc would instead be used on Aether Attunement-empowered Arcane Missiles, which is the one of two times where Arcane Missiles is worth casting in AoE (the other time being for Arcane Harmony). One thing this would incur is that it would result in Nether Precision proc munching (although not as severe as for Sunfury), but this can’t be altered since Nether Precision is tied to Splinter generation for Arcane Blast as well, so changing it for Arcane Barrage would also weaken or strengthen the single target use of this, which is not desired.
High Haste Theme w/ Arcane's Restrictions on Haste
  • Mana Siphon (new talent): Evocation’s channel time is reduced by 50% and its cooldown is removed. Choice node with Siphon Storm.
  • Developer’s note: Spellslinger clearly fits a theme of high haste to throw out a rapid flurry of spells, but Arcane unfortunately cannot support that due to the fear of running OOM. One solution is to remove the cooldown of Evocation so that you can run high haste-focused builds to create that theme without going completely OOM and ruining your chances of single target damage as a result. I think this should be a choice node with Siphon Storm since Sunfury will likely use Siphon Storm for its burst, while Spellslinger will instead prefer Evocation use for mana purposes due to high haste.
Arcane Splinter Generation

  • Current: When you consume Nether Precision, conjure 2 Arcane Splinters that fire at your target.

  • Suggested Change: Every 2 Arcane Missiles fired conjures an Arcane Splinter at your target. Every 4 Arcane Charges spent conjures an Arcane Splinter at your target

  • Developer’s note: The idea behind this change comes from a thematic persective. Arcane Missiles fits the theme of Spellslinger a lot better than Arcane Blast, especially when you use Arcane Missiles with Aether Attunement in AoE. Furthermore, focusing on Arcane Missiles provides the possibility from Spellslinger Arcane Mages to be entirely mobile during their Arcane Surge windows with a bit of good RNG, since this change would allow every cast of Arcane Missiles to proc a Splinterstorm during Arcane Surge (4 Splinters per AM → 8 during Surge), giving them a 20% chance to proc Clearcasting as a result. With the Slipstream talent, Arcane Mages could become as mobile as Fire Mages during their cooldown windows as Spellslingers as they spam Clearcasting Arcane Missiles (provided they get lucky with procs). The 4-charges spent is meant to maintain Arcane Barrage’s ability to proc Splinters in AoE alongside Arcane Orb. Also note that the above change to Splinters still favors consuming Clearcasting procs on Orb Barrage in AoE, since you generate the same number of Splinters on 4 targets with Orb Barrage as you do with Arcane Missiles.
Arcane Splinter Secondary Stat Scaling
  • Current: Conjure raw Arcane magic into a sharp projectile that deals (70% Spell Power) Arcane damage (direct damage does not scale with Mastery: Savant). Arcane Splinters embed themselves into their target, dealing (41.6% Spell power) Arcane damage over 16 seconds (DoT does not scale with Mastery: Savant or Haste). This effect stacks
  • Suggested Change: Conjure raw Arcane magic into a sharp projectile that deals (53.8% Spell Power) Arcane damage (direct damage scales with Mastery: Savant). Arcane Splinters embed themselves into their target, dealing (22.7% Spell power) Arcane damage over 16 seconds (DoT scales with Mastery: Savant and Haste). This effect stacks
  • Developer’s note: The purpose of this change is to allow Arcane Splinters to scale with secondary stats so that they are not in a position where they are strong in the early patches due to tuning and lower secondary stats but weaker in the later patches due to higher secondary stats. The nerf to the direct damage is roughly ~23% decreased damage, which means with about 36% total mastery (mana component; which is equivalent to 30% Arcane damage increase) the damage goes back to (70% Spell Power) Arcane damage. For the DoT, the damage is nerfed more severely to ~36% decrease to account for the same Mastery damage buff from scaling as well as roughly ~20% Haste scaling. The reason for the importance in the haste scaling here is that Splinterstorm deals the DoT damage instantly, so Splinters placed during Lust phases, for example, will do significantly more DoT damage than Splinters not placed during Lust phases. I believe the damage and scaling should reflect that, even if the DoT damage has to get nerfed further.
Splinterstorm Secondary Stat Scaling
  • Current: Shatter all Embedded Arcane Splinters, dealing their remaining periodic damage instantly. Conjure an Arcane Splinter for each Splinter shattered, then unleash them all in a devastating barrage, dealing (70% Spell Power) Arcane damage (direct damage does not scale with Mastery: Savant) to your target for each Splinter in the Splinterstorm. Splinterstorm has a 20% chance to grant you Clearcasting.
  • Suggested Change: Shatter all Embedded Arcane Splinters, dealing their remaining periodic damage instantly. Conjure an Arcane Splinter for each Splinter shattered, then unleash them all in a devastating barrage, dealing (53.8% Spell Power) Arcane damage (direct damage scales with Mastery: Savant) to your target for each Splinter in the Splinterstorm. Splinterstorm has a 20% chance to grant you Clearcasting.
  • Developer’s note: Same as the above change with Arcane Splinters, this makes Splinterstorm scales with Mastery at the cost of a base damage nerf.
Splintering Orbs Target Cap Optimization
  • Current: Enemies damaged by your Arcane Orb conjure 2 Arcane Splinters up to 4. Arcane Orb damage increased by 10%.
  • Suggested Change: Enemies damaged by your Arcane Orb conjure 1 Arcane Splinter up to 4. Arcane Orb damage increased by 10%.
  • Developer’s note: The purpose of this change is to keep the peak value of Orb Barrage at 4 targets, where Orb Barrage procs regenerate the full 4-Arcane Charges. Regardless of whether you choose to buff the cap to 8 or nerf the generation to 1 per target, I think this talent should incentivize using Orb Barrage at 4 targets, otherwise you risk creating a scenario where at two targets it is worth using Arcane Barrage just to try to get Orb Barrage procs that only get 2 Arcane charges but generate 4 Splinters (the same as for 4 targets).

:dracthyr_yay_animated: :dracthyr_yay_animated: :dracthyr_yay_animated: Other Arcane Suggested Changes :dracthyr_yay_animated: :dracthyr_yay_animated: :dracthyr_yay_animated:

Click here for other Arcane Suggested Changes
Crackling Energy, Improved Arcane Missiles, Chrono-Shift and Supernova
  • Crackling Energy talent removed
  • Improved Arcane Missiles talent removed
  • Chrono-Shift moved to Improved Arcane Missiles’ current position
  • Supernova moved to Crackling Energy’s current position
  • Developer’s note: The purpose of this change is to remove this point dump that we currently have in Crackling Energy and Improved Arcane Missiles and instead give back fun utility spells like Supernova and Chrono-Shift.
Mastery: Savant and Prodigious Savant

Mastery: Savant:

  • Current: Increases your Mana regeneration rate and maximum Mana by 9.6%. Arcane Charges increase the damage of Arcane Blast by an additional 4.8% and Arcane Barrage by 2.4%. Increases all other Arcane damage by 8.0%
  • Suggested Change: Increases your Mana regeneration rate and maximum Mana by 9.6%. Increases all Arcane damage by 8.0%

Prodigious Savant

  • Current: Arcane Charges further increase Mastery effectiveness of Arcane Blast and Arcane Barrage by 20%.
  • Suggested Change: Increases your Mastery by 5% and gain 10% increased Mastery from gear and effects.
  • Developer’s note: The purpose of this change is to remove the confusing damage calculating aspect of Arcane Mastery when accounting for Arcane Blast and Arcane Barrage, simply making it increase ALL arcane damage by X% (instead of spells having one of 3 different ratios of spell damage increase). Changing this would also requiring changing Prodigious Savant, so I mirrored Fire’s Critical Mass and Frost’s Winter Blessing.
Arcane Battery
  • Current: Consuming Clearcasting grants 1%/2% increased spell damage for 25 seconds, stacking up to 5%/10% (2-point node)
  • Suggested Change: Consuming Clearcasting grants 1% increased spell damage for Arcane Missiles for 25 seconds, stacking up to 5% (1 point node)
  • Developer’s note: The purpose of this nerf is that a 10% damage buff to your overall damage might actually create a scenario where you may want to pick up Arcane Battery but not Aether Attunement simply because the overall damage buff is worth more while it stands than Aether Attunement can provide by consuming the buff, since Aether Attunement also gets rid of the 10% damage buff provided by this talent. I suggest making it buff only Arcane Missiles so that it culminates into more damage for the Aether Attunement proc, as well as decreasing its overall damage to 5%. As a compensation, this was switched to be a 1-point node from a 2-point node to make up for these changes.
Concentration
  • Current: Arcane Blast has a small chance (2 rppm) to make your next cast of Arcane Blast free.
  • Suggested Change: Arcane Blast has a small chance (2 rppm) to make your next cast of Arcane Barrage refund 4 Arcane Charges
  • Developer’s note: The current iteration of Concentration in TWW suffers from the same problem that Rule of Threes does: not having a mana-cost prevents you from generating Clearcasting procs. Rather than focusing on that, I would recommend changing Concentration to instead give you a free cast of Arcane Barrage that refunds Arcane Charges, giving you the equivalent of a free Arcane Blast (that does slightly less damage in ST) but gives you back mana with the Mana Adept talent.
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Amazingly written, love reading your posts on mage!

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I’d be happy if they just removed Siphon Storm, honestly. 30s buff duration is bigger than our major cooldown and forces us to channel Evocation at full mana to enable damage, which is both boring and goes against the original purpose of Evocation.

Maybe the 5% extra Mastery is quite weak considering Arcane scales higher with mastery than Fire or Frost iirc, but I like that each spec gets their own version of Critical Mass.

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This guy does the thing!

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Man this guy LOVES to mage! What a good guy!

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This guy loves THE CREAM. bites lips Rubs tiger nipples

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Good write up as always. I definitely agree that something needs to be done to resolve the tension between Clearcasting and Nether Precision procs, that’s the biggest problem facing the spec right now and it will only be exacerbated in TWW. Having NP apply to ABarr instead of just AB would be one way to do it but then we are once again facing Arcane’s oldest nemesis: not wanting to cast ABarr in ST because rebuilding Arcane Charges with AB is a slog.

It seems to me the best way to resolve all of these problems is to move away from AB spam at four Charges being the ST default and instead to relegate AB to the role of a simple filler and builder. Both it’s damage and cast time should be significantly reduced and that power shifted over to ABarr so that the goal is to always spend your Charges with an ABarr even in ST scenarios. Ideally, a ST alternative to ABarr should also be introduced so that there is a clear ST and AoE Charge spender but that isn’t required.

I really don’t see another viable solution that wouldn’t also run into other problems. This is both elegant and simple. Anything else is just needlessly overcomplicating things and creates more problems than it solves.

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Reworked NP works for both, so that problem is solved in TWW.

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I meant to write “instead of just” I will edit my post to reflect that. I fully understood what they changed but it doesn’t solve the underlying problem, specifically in ST. All this is is a minor AoE QoL change.

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I did try to introduce a talent that would allow a choice to ONLY have NP on Barrage:

This is mainly for Sunfury w/ the Arcane Harmony build where it would be beneficial to cast 4 Arcane Missiles to generate Burden of Power (which also buffs Arcane Barrage), but in the process would also address the fact that you would overcap on NP procs; all of it to culminate into a giga-Arcane Barrage (similar to SL) with the following change:

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I haven’t been paying too much attention to the hero trees, so I can’t say much for your solutions to the Sunfury problems, but I agree that we need a way to force a max-harmony barrage to crit and that harmony is awkward during the first burst of a fight.

Back in the day, arcane had a problem like that but instead of Harmony stacks it was with Arcane charges - it didn’t feel great when we needed to burst immediately because we had to spend time building charges. A solution to that was the Charged Up talent - an instant cast, 40 second cooldown spell that immediately granted max arcane charges.

How would you feel about bringing something like that back, but for harmony instead? I know it’s another button to press in order to burst (it could be off-gcd / castable while another spell is casting), but it could give us a little more control over the start of a fight.

I know you suggest “does not reset when pulling raid boss or starting M+ dungeon” but I don’t have much faith in Blizzard to be able to pull that off. Even if the ability has a 5+ minute cooldown I think it would be workable should Blizzard be unable (or unwilling) to do the “does not reset” logic.

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MAN! The knowledge this guy has about mage just makes me think about my name nonstop. Wish this guy was my dad