Join the Cynical Arcane Mage Union. Dues are free and meetings are as-needed.
Sad thing is with SL making essences and azerite non-functional, frost and fire are looking really bad when SL starts with Flash Freeze, Lucid Dreams, and Blaster Master going bye bye. REALLY sad that the functionality, such as it is/was, for mages this expansion was so gear dependent and losing said gear literally guts the spec. Arcane is the only spec of the three that was actually compensated for losing Equipoise and the AoE damage from azerite traits.
Can’t see how an extension to the spells that crit for frost or adding Phoenix Flames as baseline is going to make up for the losses. Arcane may be the only viable mage spec at the start of SL.
Sad times. Another expansion of being red-headed step child. Oh joy, oh bliss …
Dare to dream. Would certainly be a good option giving both additional AoE damage in keys and additional cleave damage during raids.
With conserve phase now extended due to AP being on a 3 min CD, arcane mages will be doing a lot more barrage spam in raids. Having that extra cleave damage would go a long way … even if it IS RNG-based.
While I’m critical of the spec, with Flash Freeze, Blaster Master, and Lucid Dreams going away the minute we step foot in Shadowlands, Arcane is looking like the only initially viable spec for the new expansion. Where fire is only getting the major change of Phoenix Flames added baseline (which won’t make up for Dreams and BM and what they bring to the damage meters) and Frost only getting 2 spells affected by the crit strike chance, Arcane is getting Equipoise as a talent and the buff to ALL spells from mastery (which addresses the ST vs AoE debacle in BfA).
Add to that the not-functional-but-still-better-than-it-has cleaving from Arcane Orb (which is now a viable choice), more Barrages, and Touch of the Magi (which needs tuning), I’m probably going to start SL as Arcane and see how it goes.
Won’t be going Necrolord though. That Covenant ability is raid pigeon-holed and the conduits for mages if they choose Necrolord are awful.
This all dependent on them addressing the 9-15 sec ramp up time. If they leave that as is, not sure what spec I’ll main to start off.
Wait a hot minute… So quickly? No way, this “chorus of insanity” (pun intended) is what the spriest community has been chanting ever since the beginning of BfA and we were literally told to hang on with the band-aids and a rework would come next xpac.
Then it took all the alpha + a bit of beta of desperate feedback because there were no changes. The spriest rework is the bare minimum they could’ve done to the spec.
I’m trying. Well I’m mostly waving my hands around while nothing noticeable happens…hey I’m an arcane mage IRL too.
Serious note though I do think that the Shadow Priest community is right: we as arcane mage players need to ramp up the pressure and keep it up in order to get any sort of attention to the issues.
Yes, you didn’t hear me wrong. So quickly. Plenty of specs have been chanting just as long as the SPriest community. The difference? We weren’t told to wait for a patch or an expansion. Mum is the word. The Shadow Priest community complained about the spec being a hot mess and not feeling good to play, you all were still extremely viable all through BFA, and now you’ve got your rework. It was quickly compared to most specs that need a rework just as much as SPriests, and that aren’t as viable (not saying they aren’t viable, but in terms of comparing to SPriests).
Tbh i know arcane’s rework looks underwhelming, but i’m actually far more concerned about frost’s half baked one that solves 0 problems and appears to lock in no IL builds as the de facto winner. No Il feels awful to play anywhere except group content, and even then can suck.
The reason being is i’ve actually heard people who played arcane say it feels better in SL. It definitely doesn’t sound like everything is fixed with arcane, but it might be better.
I’d argue more than functional cleave a passive cleave mechanic would be nice. That is what every other spec and class has that Arcane mages don’t: a cleave they get to use on demand without spending heavy resources into it.
Even with Barrage currently it simply shouldn’t count as a cleave you know? For the most part it is a resource management skill (at least when specced Single Target). However, even at 4 charges I would consider it at the lowest end of the spectrum for effective cleave because it isn’t sustainable and takes significant timeto build it up. Of course, it can be decent AoE though if setup correctly.
Nether Tempest is such a joke that I don’t even consider it a skill in its current state. It has its uses for PvP though, but mainly to force a dispel, and prevent a stealth.
Exactly. For barrage to even be passable or decent it requires investment into charges and buildup with a low payoff if we’re being honest on a spell that uses up a full gcd. That’s the other thing to consider with barrage. The gcd. Barrage is not the same as cleave any other spec has. It is just not built in and requires resources to even masquerade as cleave. You put it best: it is a resource management tool.
Those poor people’s cholesterol levels. Lol I threw my jealous temper-tantrum and I’m over it. Actually happy for Shadowpriests, still fearful for Arcane (even more
so for Fire if I’m being honest), but at least I now have a backup alt that won’t be another Mage.
Also, I just want to say, I’m sure you will see or have seen (this is a new Mage I am forum posting on), some bitter, cynical, love-hate posts from me with Arcane. In a weird way, I care about how you perceive my posts, because I actually have really always looked up to you and Thefailedwizard on these forums over the past two years. I just wanted to let you know that, and also while I have lost a lot of faith in Blizzard when it comes to their views on Arcane and how in touch they actually are with the spec, I value your optimism deeply . . . I might oppose it in every word I type out, but it is because I actively avoid holding out hope; and I always try to expect the worst, so that dealing with the disappointment is easier, but it makes the times when I am wrong much more enjoyable when those times come around.
So thank you, I know I’m not too recognized here and it might seem like I have a lot of negativity towards Arcane and Blizzard, but I care about the spec wholeheartedly, and my posts come more from a place of fear than anything. You are a wonderful Mage and although we have never really interacted all that much, I look up to you in some ways; your optimism, insight, and knowledge has consistently kept me thinking that I can be wrong, and that I want to be wrong, all throughout BFA and now for the future in Shadowlands.
We just care about Arcane a lot, and that includes pointing out all the good things among all its faults. Usually the latter only gets emphasized.
Hopefully our optimism is not misplaced, but so far things look good overall assuming there’ll be some answer to the major issues brought up such as the GCD issue.
Edit:
And if I’m being completely honest. I don’t think Fire was a big priority for Blizzard either throughout this expansion. I think it was a fluke that it ended up as great as it did.
This is likely true; the interaction between Fire and Hyperthread Wristwraps came out of no where. Hyperthreads were on no one’s radar because they were garbage for every single spec except for Fire Mage.
Which I can begrudgingly live with, but if Fire once again outperforms or is marginally competitive with Arcane and “feels better” then once again I’ll be abandoning the GCD King. I love the spec, but I learned my lesson when it comes to being incredibly hostile towards the idea of changing to a spec and holding out hope for the others to fall in line mid-expansion haha.
I know NT on paper looks like Hot Garbage. But it’s actually gold on ST if you have a bunch of damage proc effects on your azerite/neck. Not for its damage, but the extra damage it procs. It’s a nice, cheap filler.
Shadow had high profile outrage mongers like preach complaining for them. Mage doesn’t really have someone who makes a living making WOW = BAD videos complaining for them.
