Full transparency: I hate it.
Seeing Rune of Power as the go-to, best choice for Fire and Arcane is part of the reason I don’t stray from frost for very long, where Incanter’s Flow is the preferred choice. Having to pop two globals before you can DPS (RoP, Combustion/Arcane Power, not to mention certain essences, too) feels bad. Being forced to stand in it to maintain the buff feels bad, especially when mobility is so vital, and we’re already a class who, at our basic level, has to stand and cast. Nothing feels worse than thinking you’re safe to plant RoP only to blink out of it because of an ill-timed mechanic.
I’m hoping to see it tweaked in Shadowlands—or better yet, removed and replaced with something I actually want to use that synergizes better with Fire/Arcane burst windows. Now seems to be the time for Blizzard to make those class revamp choices, so I can only hope.
Maybe I’m just missing something and better mages enjoy it?
44 Likes
I enjoy RoP.
Having to think not just about a rotation, but boss mechanics and positioning adds an extra layer to the class. Knowing when to use RoP alongside other CDs to maximize damage on valuable targets is a fun part of the learning curve, and it’s really satisfying to melt a dangerous add in raiding and M+ alike. The rune is also much larger than most mechanics that would force you out of it, so even if you do botch the timing, you can just scoot to the edge of the rune.
3 Likes
I don’t enjoy RoP. Actually I despise it. I don’t find it fun, I find it annoying. There’s no mistaking the value of it compared to IF (especially) during burn phase for Arcane. However, with particularly annoying movement fights I started using it less and less this raid tier. Then when I became depressed with Arcane as a whole (Pre-buff), I just went IF all through Heroic not really caring about min-maxing with RoP.
23 Likes
I hate, hate, hate Rune of Power.
It’s not fun at all. And it’s the antithesis of what Classic mages were all about. Pre-Rune of Power mages were all about being mobile dps. You had to “shoot and scoot” to be effective.
After Rune of Power we’re all about being immobile gun-turrets. YUCK!
35 Likes
I love RoP, it adds more depth to the class by making people think about their surroundings instead of just dps rotation.
And it definitely fits people who are interested more in burst rather than sustained damage which is a play style I enjoy compared to ultra mobile tiny burst or just sustained damage. And the fact that the area is huge is good thing since you can literally be near the edge of the rune and still get the effect so the effective area is around double the visual circle.
Though it definitely has negatives like feeling so boring when you have to activate other cool downs thanks to the gcd change and the fact that it imo isn’t strong enough. You are limiting your movement so the reward should be vast but I guess they wanted it to not be that far ahead of other talents.
2 Likes
I can can kind of understand how RoP fits in with the current Arcane spec, but it definitely doesn’t go with Fire or Frost.
I can also appreciate where Keestus is coming from. There absolutely needs to be reward for smart play. I loved the positional requirements for Fire in Legion M+ (cinderstorm and DB helm) for example. I just don’t feel that RoP is the answer.
Personally though I loathe the talent. I hated it in MoP, I hated it in WoD, I hated it in Legion and I hate it now. Sadly it looks like I’ll get the chance to hate it again in Shadowlands. For me it’s a combination of a few things.
I’m not a fan of the mechanics of it. I’m fine with the range of movement, but I dislike the cast time (plus wasted time on other cds) and feeling restricted. I like to blink a lot or stand on our Priest to try get him killed so even 8 yards isn’t enough for me.
I also dislike what it means for our sustained damage. Having such a large increase tied to a cooldown just doesn’t feel right. For that matter I still think we should just get a whole new row of talents in that tier. I dislike having a percentage of our normalised damage come from a buff talent. I’d much rather a baseline buff to all damage and then a row of talents that change a spell or play style (like the Frost level 90 row does). Plus we’d get Mirror Images baseline back at 5%.
In addition to this, I don’t like cooldown-stacking. I hated it in WoD with PC, RoP and the legendary ring. A long time ago someone at Blizzard said they wanted to move away from cd stacking and instead reward sustained good play as opposed to someone who is good for 15 seconds or can macro well (their words). That’s my preferred play style, but maybe it’s just me.
6 Likes
I dislike it so much that I have stopped maining this mage that I have played since BC.
9 Likes
I’m happy to see I’m not alone, and those that do like it as a talent have given me something to think about. I like IF because I tend to favor passive buffs over activated ones (if I didn’t macro my on-use trinkets with my spells I’d forget about them!), so that’s maybe my bias. Then throw in your pre-pot and azerite essences somewhere in there, the number of things I have to activate before engaging in a fight seems like a lot.
Proper positioning is a good challenge to have to optimize your play, but Arcane and Frost already have to keep positioning in mind since we aren’t as mobile as Fire. Two GCDs of stacking dps cooldowns before you can actually dps is… unexciting.
I leveled a mage on alliance as arcane and am dedicated to trying to make arcane work for me as a new challenge. Hence why this frustration with RoP came to the forefront. With Shadowlands seemingly early in development, and with the opportunity of 9.0 to revamp classes, now seems like the best time to voice our thoughts on this talent in particular.
If we scrapped the rune, what would we replace it with? A baseline buff? Something baked into Icy Veins/Arcane Power/Combustion?
3 Likes
I would prefer they remove both RoP and IF. Maybe also make Mirror Image baseline but build in a bit more synergy with each spec. Then they could use that entire row as one more area they can use for their attempt at unpruning.
I could hardly care less about the unpruning revealed so far for frost and arcane mage. At least frostbolt may get a bit of use for soloing as fire. An entire row in which to look at adding past spec specific passive and active abilities would be much more interesting.
2 Likes
Haven’t used RoP since Nighthold and don’t have any plans to use it anytime soon.
I dunno … I think as a fire mage arcane explosion will be a nice addition to the mix for leveling anyway.
The unpruning only helps arcane mages with Fireblast as they will get to cast Fireblast on the move. Frost mages kinda got screwed.
1 Like
I hate RoP. When I was arcane and fights had less movement I could tolerate RoP. As fire things say I should use it but in simming it wasn’t much of a dps loss for me to not use it so I don’t.
5 Likes
I have never been a fan of rop. I dont think it should necessarily be removed being there are players who enjoy it, but it should at least be balanced with theother talent choices for fire and arcane. Rop always wins and that’s a huge downer for those of us who don’t like it.
5 Likes
While I’m glad they made RoP a cooldown rather than a buff you had to maintain like in MoP, I still don’t like it.
While I understand and somewhat agree with your point: it adds a little something to Arcane, makes it not so mindless . . . two of my quips with it are this . . .
Arcane already feels so preparation filled that it is a bit overboard. You have your pre-pot, your on-use trinket (If using font), Azerite Essence, Charged Up, RoP, Arcane Power, and PoM all to cram into AP. It’s just a lot of preparation time and abilities.
While this doesn’t specifically bother me, but I can 100% see how it could really affect someone newer to Arcane, it is an ability that adds to Arcane’s unforgiving nature. Mess up RoP/AP and you are just legitimately flatlining. Mess up your second AP and your damage is going to probably border unrecoverable compared to most other specs and their sustain capabilities. Mess up Evocation and you are screwed. Like I said I don’t necessarily mind Arcane’s unforgiving nature, but mixing in RoP can be annoying.
Yes it really makes you consider when certain mechanics will be coming into play and your positioning, but on fights like Ashvane where you are trying to get her down asap after the first shield, the last thing you want to be dealing with is getting Arcing Azerite as soon as you’ve placed a Rune down, when every bit of the DPS can count.
1 Like
For those that don’t like it, if RoP was instant and off the gcd would it be fun?
I hate ROP. In practical terms it’s not a dps boost and it’s harder to use. I have not used it in ages
1 Like
Even if you are used to that it definitely isnt good design.
Literally for that amount of preparation one should do ridiculous dps way above all other classes but instead it is just a big higher than most and imo that is bad design.
Preparation and things like cd stacking in the current gcd era and runes should be something that IF timed well they should be a ridiculous dps boost because not only you would need to time them well, you would also need to be at the right place at the right time to get the full value out of them, and if that is done right the person does deserve to have dps above others who dont have to deal with such a complicated and limited mechanics.
Sadly that isnt the case and most likely because blizzard wants to classes to be near each other dps wise even if one class requires a lot of thought and the other is a melee mongo
For me the main reason i enjoy RoP is simply because it opens up for a more bust based playstyle compared to a more sustain dps based playstyle and that is definitely an important choice that needs to remain
1 Like
It is a huge dps gain over IF, though.