I’ve been playing arcane mage on the pre patch and I am blown away at how many different things these guys can do. Insane pressure and crazy burst. Then I just to frost… the burst is obviously still there but I find the class to be so… boring to play. It’s a three button class it feels like. And since we’re bringing back some abilities from the past and making them unique to specs like Touch of magi, temp shield why can’t we give Frost deep freeze back? The ability was the height of frost mage play in the past. I can’t remember a time playing mage that was better then baiting someone into a deep freeze. It would add another element to playing frost which I feel it is currently lacking.
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Join the Arcane.
Join us.
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I agree, arcane seems to be actually fun to play now.
I’m less impressed with arcane in the pre-patch than I thought I would be.
At least against the target dummies, I’m actually getting better AOE and single-target damage with a frost packed ice build than I am with any arcane build.
Why spend the effort to try to manage mana when I get considerably more DPS much easier and in many more situations with frost spec? Frost seems to do everything better and it’s also easier to play.
Perhaps things are different at 60, but right now at 50 in the pre-patch I’ll likely stick with Frost.
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I actually kinda like the the simplicity and consistency of Frost. I don’t have to line up burst windows (which I hate doing), and I have more energy to just focus on the fight and what I should be doing rather than my rotation or cooldown timing. Frost is the nice steady one of the Mage specs, and I’m good with that. 
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I agree with your comment.
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Well you can always complicate things for yourself by adding in new spells from every talent tier: Ice Nova, Ice Floes, Focus Magic/RoP, Edonbolt, Ring of Frost, Comet Storm, Ray of Frost/Spike
Point being, the “boring” argument is absolutely pointless. What you find boring, others may find interesting, and vice versa. This is like complaining about the fact that you don’t like a flavor of ice cream so nobody else should.
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How many buttons do you press? 
I wish some of the spells whisper mentioned were baseline and the talents just altered the spells in some way making them different. I know some people hate the make things baseline argument. I just think some of them are fun but aren’t good enough vs the others. I don’t personally think it would be wrong to have another spell or two as baseline for frost. Something that helps break up the string of non procs.
A lot of the spells Whisper mentioned breaks up the string of non procs.
Ice Nova -> Ice Lance is a 25 sec CD shatter combo on freezable mobs
Comet Storm -> pet Freeze (or Ice Nova) is really strong AOE 30 sec CD combo
Ebon Bolt literally gives you a proc on a 45 sec CD
Comet Storm -> Flurry used to be a strong one for mobs that cant be frozen but the two stacks of the new Winter Chill means the whole Comet Storm can’t be shattered anymore so this one might have taken a huge hit with the prepatch change.
I don’t think people actually try new talents outside of whatever an online guide recommends. There are definitely viable uses for a lot of these active talents.
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i really like ice comet and ray of frost. I think they are fun. I see them used on occasion in pvp.
So many button to press lmao
Its not about how many buttons to press its when to use them to their full extent. Being proc based specs fire and frost gain priority windows which make them fun.
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I like frost mage cause I’m running around the whole time. I feel like I’m playing keep away or something. You probably don’t have to move as much as I do but I like to, feels very active to me for PvE and PvP. But I’m relatively new to the game and haven’t tried other mage specs so it’s possible the others are more fun
It’s weird because I think the opposite… I’d say I mostly play fire overall but I def have always enjoyed frost over arcane. The slowing and survivability is great. I think arcane is cool because of mana management and multiple unique things like… I dunno… Greater invisibility for example. But I despise the rotation, I don’t know, just doesn’t fit me. Haven’t really tried it since pre-patch though, is it really that much better now? (Fun wise)
Also I probably don’t enjoy it much because I find moving around while casting fun, and Arcane is probably the least mobile of the specs. (Explains why I like fire so much with scorch, and frost can throw ice lance/flurry procs when you need to move)
I do wish Ring of Frost was baseline for Frost, because of lore. Have Arcane and Fire access them via talents, but keep the ability baseline for Frost. Similar in concept to how Druids have the “affinity” talent tier. The other reason I wish it were baseline is to give Frost an option on that tier that increases its base speed. Frost doesn’t have that on the tier (but both Fire and Arcane do); it seems Frost’s answer to the lack of a movement speed increase is the stronger snare - which usually underperforms and sometimes backfires (eg: Sanguine).
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Except he isn’t saying “So nobody else should” He is just stating that the spec seems boring.
Using your logic, nobody would be able to have any opinion about anything because if you complain about anything, there is a high chance that someone won’t agree with you.
The boring argument is incredibly warranted. He can have his opinion.
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It isn’t. What you find boring, others may not. He’s entitled to his opinion, which nobody is arguing about here. But it’s not a valid complaint about the spec in terms of performance in relevant content. Nobody’s forcing anyone into a spec. We just offered a solution to make it not a 3 button rotation, which is in the game.
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Yes this incoming ice lance build is too simple. The simpler a spec is the less room for skill floor-ceiling gaps and combat depth which dumbs down player agency.
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