So I’ve got some decent fire stuff, been pushing it fairly well I think. But I’m curious, is arcane fun at all? Viable numbers?
More forgiving than fire no doubt.
Just like to hear from some raiders, mythic plus etc, who pushing heroics and plus 10 or better. How does it hold up
I don’t raid at all, but I’ll answer from personal M+ / PvP perspectives.
M+: I have a 475 fire mage with everything except the font trinket. I have an aoe arcane set as well. In a pug key, I probably average 10k or more overall dps higher as arcane than fire. Obviously fire dps spikes super hard on the combusts, but arcane’s consistent and mobile aoe just fits pug playstyle much better.
PvP: Arcane is super fun with the mobility, but fire is just way more versatile with the 3 schools you can use. I don’t care how good you are at faking, you’re gonna get kicked occasionally and when you do arcane is super punishing.
Overall, I jump between arcane and fire a lot on my main mage. I find both really fun in different ways. If you’re pugging keys, trust me arcane is really good.
if you’re doing low keys, like 10-15 range, frost and arcane are both gunna pull ahead just from low health pools.
personally i find arcane clunky in pve but lots of fun in pvp, ymmv.
Arcane does fine in heroic raids and M+ keys (I usually do 15-17 range) in my experience.
It really sucks at cleave and has a pretty inflexible play style if you’re running Equipoise, which is the highest single target build by a decent margin. AoE builds are nice and easy in M+ but can be awkward dealing with the melee range restriction.
Fire seems a lot stronger at the highest levels of PvE content, but it doesn’t sound like you’re aiming for that, so I’d say Arcane should be just fine. I’d encourage giving it a try and seeing how it works for you.
My experience with arcane so far:
One last question, for firemages with all the trimmings, do the rings from mech really help that much?
And I’m noticing bigger dps gains from 460-470 than I have the whole time I’ve been gearing. Is that part of fire’s insane need for higher, specific gear, or just increased comfort with rotation?
I do enjoy fire, but I’m curious about other specs. I may have to just make multi sets of gear
It might be comfort with rotation, better corruptions/stats, or both. Personally, I look at the rings as a potential nice little bonus. However, ring choices will come down to stats, sockets, and corruptions. Mech rings will not make or break a fire mage’s dps.
The Mech Bracers, on the other hand, are an entirely different story…
Arcane’s main problem is it only ever excels at one thing: either single target or a semi decent multi target. It’s also extremely punishing if boss fight mechanics screw up your burst or conserve phase GCDs. Mistwynd’s post pretty much summarizes the spec in its current state and also explains why it’s quite a rare sight in PvE.
One of the most ongoing and glaring issues with arcane is that more and more fights in raids have become cleave fights and arcane lacks direly in the cleave area over fire and frost.
I was initially excited about the posted changes for arcane. Specifically:
Overpowered no longer being the go-to due to the change from “one big burn” to “one kinda big burn and mini-burns.” If Arcane Orb isn’t going to be baseline (don’t get me started) then at least making it a talent you could actually select (especially as one of arcane’s only cleave abilities to a point) then yay to that.
Mana regen built into barrage. This was such a game changer in arcane in Legion when the spec started to feel “good.”
Missles stacking up to three times again allowing for that big burst of damage again and allowing you a bit of strategy to the spec instead of just a one button spam.
Mastery buffing all spells to balance out the ST vs AoE damage loss issue in BfA.
However, after reading the initial review, seeing what’s being discussed on the Mage Discord, and talking to a friend who’s playing it on alpha (I think just because she knows how much I long to go back to playing it), I’m not very hopeful.
It seems that while their intentions are well-meaning, the devs are proving once again that they don’t know how to handle arcane as both a charge build/spender and mana management spec. The issues (for those that didn’t read the review):
Still no cleave. Seriously. The only caster class with zero cleave ability. This will continue to make arcane undesirable for high end raiding as more and more encounters have almost mandatory cleave.
Tough of the Magi now and active spell, Mirror Image now baseline (and no interaction with the spec mechanics), and Covenant ability meaning a 9 sec ramp up of “buffing” before you even start to do damage (13 if you don’t have/use charged up). This is going to feel awful.
Yes clearcasting can stack up to 3 times and thanks to some talent changes missiles may be an actual viable damage doer but the proc rate of clearcasting is based on mana consumed which is counter to the spec during conserve phase so the chance of building three charges before the first one drops off is going to be a challenge.
I really hope the devs learn from the their past mistakes and actually listen to feedback this time. I still say the best solution for arcane is go back to Legion style for the core mechanics and then add things like functional cleave, mana regen from barrage, etc.
If they don’t address the problems with the core mechanic changes that came with BfA, I don’t see how the spec will be anymore desirable to play in SL.
Just my opinion as a 7 year arcane mage who would really like to play it again.