Looking to start up a mini mage. What’s the major differences between arcane, frost and fire when it comes to damage output and what they are all better than each other for?? Is there one that stands above others??
I’m mainly looking to do solo with some dungeons and stuff. No raiding or anything like that!
Also, I looked up on icy veins but you know how it is…every spec all claims to be better/best and the most viable, so it’s hard to say which is truly better for solo stuff!
I can’t speak for frost as I’ve never had interest in the spec so I can’t help you there sadly. For fire it’s fun but pretty gear dependent(even outside the three azerite pieces)and it’s got a pretty skill intensive rotation and burn phase that can be really unforgiving if you even mess up as much as once. That said it’s got the highest dps of the three specs if you can play the spec right(I haven’t fully mastered it myself and don’t have much interest in doing so since I find Arcane to be so much fun)but going off of your first post you don’t intend to do much higher end/group content all three specs would work fine for the purposes you’re seeing to fulfill. I have a very informative and well written post from someone else in another thread that I’ll make a 2nd post for since they broke everything about Arcane down very well.
Some tips for arcane
Credits to Mistwynd for the the pretty detailed breakdown.
Thanks for the very detailed message! It sounds like arcane is a bit to get used to. I think I may stick with fire for now, just for ease of learning the class a bit. But then again, if I start on arcane from 1-120, I’ll certainly know the spec better.
Gnome mage, respect…
Frost offers the best control. Fire offers the best pure DPS output. I haven’t played Arcane in 8 years but I’ve heard that it’s the most “fun.” DPS was Fire > Arcane > Frost, but Frost is getting a 5% buff in damage across all abilities on Tuesday, so that might bring it closer to the others and maybe even surpass Arcane.
Frost has a couple different builds, one (no Ice Lance) is pretty simple. It’s proc based and doesn’t offer great sustained burst damage, and it takes some ramping up time because Glacial Spike accounts for 40-50% of its damage and requires five Frostbolts plus a proc to use. Frost and Fire have very good cleave damage, again I can’t speak to Arcane because I know next-to-nothing about it.
Fire has a more reactive and intensive rotation which is more of a conditional rotation based on crits, cooldowns, and hp % of the target. It’s bursty because a good chunk of dmg comes in a 10 sec window while Combustion is up, which has a two minute cooldown.
Frost suffers more DPS loss from movement than Fire because Fire can cast Scorch, Fire Blast, and instant-cast Pyroclasms while moving, whereas Frost only has Ice Lance basically which doesn’t do great dmg compared to the normal Glacial Spike rotation.
Both Fire and Frost are dependent on having the right Azerite traits, at least for the no Ice Lance Frost build. However Fire also requires specific gear in the form of on-use trinkets and bracers from Mechagon that have an on-use ability. Another way to put it is that Fire has more top-heavy gear (a couple gear items that account for a lot more dmg than other gear for that slot), whereas more gear options are viable for Frost.
I tried Fire for a while and just didn’t like the rotation, so I stuck to Frost. But Fire has been the top raiding spec in 8.3 by far.
Welcome to Gnomanity!
I have a preference for Fire & Frost over Arcane, I really want to enjoy it, though I just can’t wrap my head around the current rotation and abilities. Too much work for too little payout. The mages who do play Arcane love it though, so give it a fair trial and see for yourself.
I like Frost for the control elements, and the rotation allows for individual creativity based on your encounter. It’s predictable, and that’s not a bad thing.
Fire is my go-to, simply because I love roasting baddies. A burst specialization, it boasts good mobility and high DPS. A little more trait dependant than the other two, though nothing serious.
Let us know how it all goes for you, and good luck!
Yeah, after reading through icy veins, I’ve decided to go fire for sure. I leveled frost on a horde mage to 50 once, and found the lack of burst damage and being extremely reliant on procs to do any significant damage to be annoying. I like procs a lot, and with this shaman it’s fun to dance around with different abilities, but the ability to burst damage is just too valuable, and I think fire sounds like it will have more to offer there than frost.
Do you follow an AOE Spec for levelling? Single target it fun just to see how quick you can burst down mobs, but I’m guessing for levelling the aoe capabilities of fire mage will win out for speed?
So if you enjoy burst and adapting to mage I would HIGHLY suggest Arcane first. Even at 120 in open world content. Arcane is actually very simple, but can be punishing if people don’t understand the mechanics of the class. It is likely the best dps spec in terms of pure output while leveling.
Get the heirloom caster trinket that restores mana after a kill (use two of those).
You can either play Arcane as you would at 120 (I.e. take Rule of Threes, RoP, Touch of the Magi; Do a Burn/Conserve) or what many people do for leveling:
ST: Take Amplification talent
Simply spam Arcane Missiles (using Arcane Power and Rune of Power for burst).
AoE: Charged Up + Rune of Power + Reverberation Talents
Charged Up for 4 Arcane Charges —> Rune of Power —> Arcane Power —> Arcane Barrage —> Spam Arcane Explosion until 4 Charges —> Arcane Barrage
AoE damage is primarily focused on Arcane Barrage at 4 Arcane Charges. Your goal is to get to 4 Charges as quickly as possible and dump those charges with barrage. Hence why you have 4 Charges and dump them with barrage at the start of burst (RoP + Arcane Power).
The trick with Arcane is just being mindful of your mana AFTER Evocation. However, at lower levels this shouldn’t matter all that much, just drink when you are low and the heirloom trinkets will help quite a bit.
The main reason I am saying go Arcane over Fire is that not only is it easier and better damage at lower levels, but I think that Fire will leave you feeling very dissatisfied. Fire damage output is heavily reliant right now on a few things at max level (to even feel like a complete spec): 3x Blaster Master Azerite Traits, Memory of Lucid Dreams R3 Essence, and the Mechagon Bracers.
If you didn’t enjoy Frost leveling, you’ll likely be in the same boat with Fire in a sense… the spec revolves around your Combustion which is a 2 minute cd. Damage output outside of it, without stacking mastery/haste will be lower in dungeons and feel pretty terrible. Not only that, but you will be fishing for Heating Up procs (extremely similar to the RNG aspect you didn’t like of Frost), with Arcane there is no RNG (both while leveling and at max level).
Lastly, Arcane plays virtually the same from 1-120 with very little variation (if you don’t do the Arcane Missiles for ST leveling, but many people do). Fire on the other hand can be much more complex and dynamic, but it is going to feel very lackluster before 120 and proper essences, Azerite traits, and gear—once you have all of that Fire will also have variations on how the spec plays. You will also hear people say not to even touch fire at max level without 3x Blaster Master and at least R1 Lucid Dreams (and people will hesitantly tell you that it’s not worth it even with 3x BM and LD without the Mech Bracers).
What I’m getting at is that if you are actually wanting to play the spec for its burst and for learning the spec, I do not believe that Fire will achieve those goals. It goes through some variation at max level (while Arcane doesn’t really), and Arcane is going to perform better in pretty much all aspects except potentially PVP before 120, and I say potentially because I think it is highly unlikely that the other two specs beat Arcane in lower level PVP, but I’m not 100% certain, I’m sure there is an outlier here and there. I mean if you search hard enough you will find people hard QQing about Arcane Mages deleting them in lower level BG’s using only Arcane Missiles and how it should be nerfed.
Ok, so I had to reply to this suggestion today.
I read your post last night before I went to bed. I played for about 30-40 min and got my gnome mage up to 9, and figured I’d hit 10 today and pick my spec. But I’m not gonna lie, I had decided on fire already, and was pretty set on playing it.
I had looked over arcane and felt it looked complicated. The burn phase, recovery phase and everything in between just sounded hard to learn, and I was afraid it was too much for a first timer to learn to arcane.
I got to level 10 today, and I was hovering over my spec selection. I was gonna click fire mage…and I couldn’t. I decided to be spontaneous and see how hard arcane was. So I jumped into it and approached some wendigos. Remembering one time I levelled frost mage, I expected it to be a slug fest of 3-4 spells per mob, u know same old routine.
Cast arcane blast twice and it was dead. Third blast I cast on the next mob was insta kill. I figured I should clear my arcane charges and threw an arcane barrage out, expecting average damage. Killed the third mob instantly as well.
I probably ran through the entire cave in less than 4 minutes, insta nuking every mob in one hit while keeping arcane blast maxed out. And then I got arcane mistakes and things got REALLY insane. Just keeping arcane charges at 5 and bringing down anything in seconds.
So I say thank you good sir, and the first poster to suggesting arcane mage. While I’m sure I won’t remain this OP forever, it has improved the level grinding by 10 fold. It’s exactly what I wanted, which is a great damage dealer where I can feel like I’m making a real contribution when I start doing dungeons and group stuff!!
Actually you will be pleasantly surprised I think. Arcane is one of the best ST specs in the game at max level (it also can hold its own with AoE—just requires talents and Azerite traits). The issue is that is only the case when the rotation is played without error with no movement. With that said, for open world content, farm content, prior expansion content, lower level keys . . . Arcane will still feel like a powerhouse in most cases. For example: I run my horrific visions in Arcane even though I’m maiming Fire currently.
All three specs at max level are very Azerite Trait Dependent; however, I would say functionally that Arcane doesn’t change much with the optimal gear. IE: it still has the same rotation (aside from staying above 75% mana during conserve because of its Azerite Trait), and while its damage output is effected by not having its top Azerite, you won’t feel the difference in the play style (unlike Fire which feels noticeably different without the optimal gear, traits, and essences and also does less damage).
I’m definitely not saying not to give Fire a chance, but like I said earlier, I would hold off until you have the optimal gear so that you don’t get a bad taste based off of initial impressions. I think you’ll find that both of the specs can start to feel stale sometimes, Arcane can feel discouraging (during progression), but I end up eventually switching it up when I’m really missing one, bored with one, or its just not optimal for the fight.