Hey all, was just wondering what the general consensus was on the best mage spec for leveling/end-game prior to Shadowlands release. I’ve been having a solid time so far as frost but would like to roll arcane @ 50 if it’s equally viable. Anybody have any advice/recommendations as to what’s best for a casual player once Shadowlands drops?
Frost or arcane, both in good spots. Fire is a mess.
I think Frost is feeling it after the chain of nerfs it has had. It’s looking and feeling like Arcane is pulling ahead at the moment.
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Blizzard won’t let that last long.
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Arcane is benefitting from the Pummeling azerite trait and the changes to the spec making missiles more viable. It’s doing well in pre-patch.
Once Azerite goes away on the 23rd, I’m not sure where Arcane will be in relation to Frost but from what I can read, seems it will be a viable spec to play in Shadowlands unlike it’s BfA incarnation.
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Mage just got a massive nerf yesterday, so none of the specs are good anymore. Mage is not a B-tier DPS like Paladin.
Fire and Frost got nerfed, Rune of Power is 12 secs down from 15, Arcane was not touched outside of this.
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Arcane/Fire/Frost all lost 4% of the dps across all spells. The changes you’ve mentioned were in addition to the flat 4% nerfs.
Wish people would stop with the “mages got nerfed so they bad now”…i’m not having any issues at all…
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Honestly, it is a good thing when you have some issues figuring out the most optimal spec overall. I like the paper/rock/scissors approach to balancing DPS with 3 specs. Each shining in different formats seems like a plus to me.
The problem with Blizzard is one spec shines for those who don’t play it. One spec shine for theory crafting and the last spec shines in actual game play.
Arcane’s spells weren’t touched outside of Rune of Power.
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Probably because the latest nerfs aren’t even live yet…?
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That style works really well when it’s relatively easy to swap specs between content/bosses. Legion and BfA were horrible for that due to massive gear variance, essences, azerite, artefacts and legendaries. SL isn’t really looking any better for it outside of casual play due to the lower gear drop rate making it only viable later in a tier. A few of the older expansions did it amazingly well - WoD for example allowed you to switch between all 3 specs without much drama.
I’ll see how the numbers are the week that the raid actually comes out, but it’s looking more and more like “apply AI then get drunk and run around in circles” for raid night.
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And they NEVER learn. People complained about Legiondaries pigeonholing people into one spec and they said they understood. Then we got Azerite…
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IMO it will likely be way worse in SL considering how switching covenants will be a huge pain in the you know what
Nice fake news lol
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New frost nerfs + Venthyr covenant = maybe I WILL go back to arcane
To have fun and play whatever you feel like since unless you are getting competitive, any of the 3 specs will do you just fine. Being casual opens doors, not closes them.
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mages did not receive an across the board nerf of 4% please stop with the rumors. look at the darn notes. the nerf is specifically under the frost specialization tab
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