So basically then the answer to the actual question is “Look at warcraftlogs and see what the top mage spec is higher than the others”. IMO the question “what is the best raid spec” is subjective. You can’t really answer that except for “look at warcrafts logs and see for yourself”. Arcane can be #1 for mage but what if the OP is NF Arcane? It is going to suck for them therefore making it not the best. Or let’s say Fire is the best and maybe they don’t use combustion well as a fire mage. Telling them Fire (hypothetically) it is #1 yet the main dps busrt for fire is combustion when used correctly and if they don’t then it won’t work too well for them.
We have a frost mage in my guild who competes with an amazing Boomkin. IMO all 3 specs can perform greatly.
For this expansion, covenant can often be considered to be part of your spec. That’s why the advice for months is “Kyrian Arcane” is a top raid spec. It never mentions arcane with other covenants. Where a specific covenant is required, it is mentioned.
The intent of the “what is the best spec?” question as asking about the toolkit available to the spec… which is inherently objective.
It’s like a race car driver asking which car is better. One car has a higher top speed and corners better than the other. Its performance parameters are overall better for racing so is clearly the superior vehicle.
But if the race car driver is skilled enough he or she might still win a race even in the inferior vehicle.
Personal skill with any given spec is important (how good a driver you are), but is unrelated to the toolkit available to that spec (which race car you pick).
And I don’t disagree. But what if that mage you refer to was in a World First guild? Perhaps your super-skilled mage would perform even better playing the best spec?
They weren’t. He just knows how to play the spec very well. That is why “best spec” is subjective imo. Like Limit and others in the top 10 had only 1 mage and they were frost spec. IIRC they were frost throughout all the bosses in the world first race (I could be wrong as I didn’t see them do every boss).
The mage wouldn’t be on the forums discussing which spec is best… Besides, you don’t play at a level where spec matters. If you actually learned to play any of the specs better it would improve your dps, even the dreaded frost. You may not like being told to play the spec you like over the “best” but most times the person asking those questions will actually do better playing the spec they enjoy instead of trying to play the best. And again, spec has nothing to do with you being able to clear heroic or not.
What if my response to “Play what you enjoy” is “I enjoy doing the most dps possible. What spec should I play to maximize my raid dps”?
Are you just going to provide a worthless answer like “you’re an idiot who sucks at dps and will suck with every spec so it doesn’t matter which one you play”?
Your answer is also circular:
Question: What spec is best for raiding?
Answer: Play what you enjoy.
Question: The only thing I enjoy is doing the most dps possible. What spec should I pick?
Answer: It doesn’t matter. You aren’t a WF raider. Play what you enjoy.
Question: But I do not know which spec I will enjoy more. That’s why I’m asking here.
Your answer is completely useless to the reader, and it is insulting.
You’re basically just telling people that if they want the answer to their question they should consult Icy Veins or another mage guide. You’re not going to answer.
Considering you’re currently playing the “best” spec and can’t clear heroic, nothing anyone tells you on these forums is going to matter. Not to mention the shear idiocy of changing the question that was asked just so you can have something to support your response. The question wasn’t which spec has the highest dps potential.
And you can quit trying to put words into my or other user’s mouths. I answered the question, you just don’t like it and are acting like a five year old. The simple fact of the matter is that anyone who comes to the WoW forums asking about which spec to play isn’t playing at a level where spec actually matters. Those who play at that level don’t need to ask on the forums. They know where to look at sims, class discords, etc… without asking the person who hasn’t cleared heroic for their opinion.
And to drive this home… it’s been proven time and again over the years, players will often perform better playing the spec they enjoy and play better, even if it isn’t the best simming spec. You’re being a petulant child for no reason.
Ah yes… personal insults when you don’t want to respond to the point in question. My own raid accomplishments or lack thereof are completely irrelevant to the question asked in this thread.
For reference, I already knew what the best specs were for raiding before I entered this thread. I am not the OP and did not start this thread.
I jumped in, because I dislike it when a player comes to this forum with an honest question asking for advice and gets the useless answer of “You’re not a WF raider. Play what you enjoy.”
Maybe you should take some time and have someone explain to you the relevance of the answer. Your dislike isn’t relevant in any way, shape, or form. By the by, I also answered the question and even provided you the explanation of why it’s the best answer. You ignored all of it so you can post more drivel.
I loook at it as “if someone is asking what the best performing spec is” they most likely aren’t looking for the “play what you enjoy “ stupidity answer.
I wouldn’t call it stupid. But, I would say it would definitely help a lot more to inform someone with some more insight on what the different specs do and can’t do.
I get it, we see it a lot when someone of any class asks “what’s the best spec to play” and the response is “play what you like” and that’s it andseeingit doestend to be a bit frustrating. It’s not bad, but a bit more insight would help for some people.
Just because some players like yourself are limited to only playing one spec some people like myself can actually play multiple specs from one class just as equally well.
What that means is if someone can play arcane and frost just well they will still perform better as arcane.
Like no offense but you’re seriously out of depth in this discussion.
I’ll let you find someone to explain just how stupid this answer is… The fact remains those people aren’t coming to the forums to ask which spec to play.
I’d be interested to see as well, though from my understanding the covenant legendaries are absolute poo for Frost. I think they mentioned that new ones were being released in the new grind zone, but still. CD reduction on Mirrors is actually pretty bad. On one hand it reinforces the requirements to keep IV going at all costs to get a second MoT, while on the other it heavily punishes you if you let IV fall off or bosses have downtime which is already a major issue for Frost. Having two legendaries is going to be super powerful for some classes (MM Hunter for example, which already uses the cov legendary), while it’s pretty weak for all Mage specs.
I actually think Tier sets will play a bigger role in power for the specs, assuming they don’t completely mess that up too. Hopefully they actually do some testing and make adjustments, or just remove the covenant legenary restriction. I can however see them just going ahead with it and then blanket nerfing abilities because of OP combinations.
