Wanted to check with the community on arcane mage spec. I really like the playstyle and find it very visually engaging too. I’ve always main’d fire though but want to try arcane. My problem is it feels kind of intimidating from a rotation and mana consumption perspective. Is it hard to master or is it pretty easy once you get used to it? Compared to fire, it feels much harder but maybe not?
no, it’s usually one of the best and super easy rotation. it’s just garbage right now.
the mana consumption is a problem with arcane but they also give you a spell that restores full mana in seconds. arcane is slow with long casts, to conserve mana pacing is important. It’s hard to go from fast paced instant cast fire to slow pace heavy hitting arcane.
really? garbage in what way? What sucks about it?
what are you using it for PVP, PVE or leveling?
It used to be top PVP spec but now it seems to have been nerfed in favor of Fire. Shadowlands favored Arcane in PVE but now Frost is a better option. It seems to rotate by season.
I’d prefer it for pve. PVP I don’t think it would be as ideal as fire.
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it was really fun in PVP in Battle for Azeroth, it was one of the more overtuned class. It just boils down to tuning, right now it’s undertuned but it will hopefully get better in DF (but what’s currently coming out of the Beta is not very promising)
So it’s more of a tuning question vs rotation etc?
Also is the rotation easy to master and work with? Does it just take getting used to?
the rotation is pretty easy, You arcane blast to build arcane charge stacks, once the arcane bar is filled Arcane Barrage will consume those charges with a big hit. Arcane Missiles are low mana low dps alternative that you spam, occasionally depnding on your talents, you can a proc that makes arcane blast instant, clearcasting makes arcane missiles castable while moving. Arcane explosion is close range AoE and there’s at least two long range AoE talents you can build into, one being arcane orb.
Arcane orb will give you two stacks of arcane charge if it hits the targets, so that cuts down on mana and there’s also a cool down spell that will give you a full arcane charge instantly if you’ve just used arcane barrage. So you can back to back arcane barrage.
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That’s not at all the current meta playstyle for Arcane. Even the lower dps’ing alternative with Venthyr and Siphon Storm legendary isn’t that straight forward.
In Dragonflight, Arcane gets even more complicated with more button bloat from damage modifiers (which change their order in the rotation because of the new talents).
Old Arcane style is what you’ve described.
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As you can see I have not played Arcane in Shadowlands. I’m still only level 50, but from what I have heard and seen Arcane was the best in early seasons of Shadowlands. 9.0 mostly.
Yea i was just on PTR tinkering with it and there’s so many different spells to use (assuming you pick in the talents). That’s what intimidated me.
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Well I was an arcane mage main from MoP to BFA … BFA changed the playstyle and I didn’t enjoy it so went frost and then fire. Came back to arcane in SL but it was drastically underperforming at the start and then the Kyrian build came along (which can seem complicated at first but you get used to it eventually … even if it’s mind numbingly boring to play imo).
Problem I have with it is the rotation itself requires so many extra buttons/damage modifiers which is unlike any other class I play. I’ve yet to understand why they add to many of them to a spec that’s already harshly punished by movement.
The current build is also heavily RNG-based. If your barrage crits you’re laughing. If it doesn’t, your damage is meh.
Now DF is coming adding more active damage modifiers, a more involved button-bloated standard rotation, and changing the positioning/timing of the modifiers we’ve spent this expansion getting used to.
I honestly don’t even think, much like the Kyrian build being meta, they even KNOW how all the new talents were going to pan out. I’ve come to believe that the devs don’t actually have much insight in playing a mage or how the gameplay is for any of the three specs and the players and theorycrafters end up coming up with the best rotation for the convoluted mess the devs create.
For Dragonflight, they took things from the last three expansions and threw them in as talents without remembering that the playstyle has been different for each of those expansions … leaving us with the current hot mess that Arcane seems to be in Dragonflight.
I was hopeful, as I was in SL, that I might return to maining an arcane mage but seeing them double down on the new Harmony missile spam playstyle AND removing ANY mana management by turning Evocation into a DPS CD (i flipping hate Siphon Storm) while increasing he button bloating ramp up to the rotation … Dragonflight may be the first expansion in the 8 years I’ve been playing where I don’t bother playing a mage at all with Arcane being a hot mess, Frost being hedged again on Thermal Void/Ice Lance (so boring) and Fire being fire (never cared for it).
I enjoy fire and think it’s well designed personally. Frost is also a decent spec though I just have more fun with fire. Arcane is the only one I have always been meh about. I may give it a try still in the expac but probably end up back to fire or go druid boomy which is extremely fun right now on PTR
Im an arcane mage main right now, and have it on beta doing the proper rotation. Unfortunately it is nowhere near as simple as a few have said above lol.
That being said, it isnt complicated at all, it is very scripted rotation wise. The skill comes in from knowing which target is going to live long enough for your burst, properly maintaining harmony stacks in between pulls, and then executing the rotation properly.
In dragonflight, it is a very similiar rotation with a few more buttons added but essentially works the same, load in to your touch of the magi window and have it pop.
I can help you in game better than here, there is also a lot of arcane mage guides on youtube. Just google “arcane dream WoW” (commonly used term for wanting arcane to be good and stay good). You will find plenty for shadlowlands and dragonflight beta.
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My goodness, stop! Don’t comment on things you have no idea about.
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Right? Why even bother posting at that point if you haven’t played the class in 2+ years, no one cares about BFA tuning at the end of shadowlands.
Back on topic though. Arcane in SL isn’t that complicated but it is very punishing if you mess up your burst windows so it’s more about know timings and when to pop CDs. So I’d argue it is difficult because it requires you to know the dungeon/boss fights very well to get the most out of it and that takes time.
Arcane in DF in my testing so far is pretty fun but even more complicated than in SL imo with way more buttons and CDs to manage.
Uhh what?
If you are playing arcane properly with gear then there isnt a mana issue.
So please stop giving advice on a spec you havent played in SL or DF.
By all means, instead of chiding me share your knowledge to OP instead.
It honestly feels like DF arcane took Kyrian and Venthyr arcane and smashed them together and then added arcane surge.
It does feel like that from my test of it on ptr. That’s why I was curious about the ease. It felt very cumbersome and confusing but it did look fun for pve. PvP I think would be really bad but could be wrong.