Current PTR numbers

Arcane

* One Target

1. Kyrian     7,660
2. Venthyr    7,538
3. Necro      7,188
4. Nightfae   6,887

* Three Target

1. Necro      11,762
2. Kyrian     11,316
3. Venthyr    10,873
4. Nightfae   10,759

* Five Target

1. Nightfae   17,732
2. Kyrian     17,141
3. Necro      17,105
4. Venthyr    16,908

Fire

* One Target

1. Nightfae    6,989
2. Venthyr     6,765
3. Necro       6,585
4. Kyrian      6,566

* Three Target

1. Nightfae   11,078
2. Venthyr    10,773
3. Necro      10,367
4. Kyrian      9,764

* Five Target

1. Nightfae   16,899
2. Venthyr    16,308
3. Necro      15,794
4. Kyrian     14,659

Frost

* One Target

1. Venthyr     7,414
2. Kyrian      7,101
3. Necro       7,083
4. Nightfae    7,004

* Three Target

1. Venthyr    14,729
2. Nightfae   14,550
3. Necro      14,518
4. Kyrian     13,895

* Five Target

1. Necro      27,192
2. Venthyr    26,800
3. Nightfae   26,722
4. Kyrian     25,932
2 Likes

Sheesh. Frost just toppled fire.

Frost mages time to shine :astonished:

1 Like

I remember a time not so long ago before a launch of a certain expansion where frost was looking super S-tier. A few minor tweaks later and it was all of the sudden bottom of the barrel at launch. Meanwhile fire was being called dead on arrival heading into launch, but yet it became the go-to.

Too early to tell what will happen for sure, but all of this just gives me pre-SL vibes.

5 Likes

I think I do remember people talking about fire being too powerful and then seemingly nerfed where people thought it was dead… but then the raids released and… yeah. I also remember a similar situation with dks where many swore up and down that frost was leagues better than unholy. The raids releasing didn’t shut them up, but it definitely showed that no one should judge before the raids, at least. These numbers he posted seems promising, but we’ll see. I might even main this mage again over my dk since I’ve been having way too much fun getting back into my comfort zone for the past couple of weeks.

Yeah, the problem with judging spec performance (specially in raid) also comes down to how well the spec can handle the mechanics.
So, if there’s heavy movement again like in Nathria I doubt arcane’s gonna pull those 7k

2 Likes

Sssshhhhhh. Don’t let Blizzard know, or they’ll nerf Frost by another 20% before 9.1 is released.

I’m also not convinced about those numbers. I’ll believe it when I see it, but I severely doubt Frost will be double the other two for 5+ target and I doubt Arcane will be the go-to ST spec on anything baring a patchwerk.

2 Likes

These sims are similar to live sims in terms of where each spec sits. Currently, on live, arcane sims highest ST with frost being just behind and fire coming in last. Frost 5T sim on live is also significantly ahead (like 6-8k dps ahead) of arcane and fire when simming with the GF legendary. However this doesn’t take into account any fight mechanics and the mechanics in CN and uncapped AOE in m+ is what makes fire the top spec on live. For m+ you’d typically want to sim for 5T which isn’t where fire sines in m+ with the uncapped AOE. This is why fire sims worse but dumpsters frost with big pulls in coordinated groups. I’ll wait until some data from logs comes in to name any spec the best for the next raid…

Also the last ST sims I saw for frost on live showed them around 7200 dps. Your sims show it at 7414 for 9.1. What ilvl were you using for your sims? A dps gain of <250 after greatly increasing main stat and hitting crit cap doesn’t seem right to me…

1 Like

Is Arcane getting a nerf to their AoE for 9.1 cause those numbers are almost half what they do right now.

1 Like

Yeah, but… Frost and Arcane have simmed higher than Fire this entire tier and Fire is still king. This sim is only a 200dps loss from where fire is now.

Sims don’t account for the value of Burst. There is huge value in being able to deliver large portions of your total damage during fights where mechanics or limited uptime may interrupt you or vulnerability phases may alter the value of your input.

The values for aoe here are probably also sustained, even though AOE is hardly ever sustained (when was the last time you really had nonstop 5 target cleave for a full 3 minutes?).

It takes 10 seconds for a Fire mage to combust, and thats most of their damage. It takes 10 seconds for an Arcane Mage to AP and that burst is great, but much more of their damage is in the longer mana burn phase. An Icy Veins window can easily last longer than a minute.

I’m not holding my breath that all these bosses will let us blow stuff up uninterrupted for minutes at a time.

2 Likes

I’ve seen all of the boss fights and the only one that would kind of be safe is Kel’thuzad, teragrue, Val’kyr and the guardian… arguably.

1 Like