As I am a solo player for various reasons and no dungeons or raid my Gear etc is below what it should be. Just mention that in passing.
I got my Arcane Mage out of the cupboard to build up all specs in world quests and ran across, for me, a serious problem. At this stage of the game it is just about impossible to play without The Prismatic Barrier, well for me it is, having two hitting you from the front and one from the back means certain death without the barrier.
In short, it works intermittent, when I just walk or sit around it works for the supposed 1 minute. Otherwise it drops out any time 10 sec, 15 sec, 25 sec, whatever.
Example, before I attack my target I turn on Prismatic Barrier, on top of the screen the countdown begins, 59,58,57 sec etc. ⌠after getting one or two hits from the enemy it disappears and I have to reset it it goes on until I or the enemy is dead. very hard to play this way, at times impossible when one or more enemies are involved, were you have to keep one finger, or the mouse cursor on the button to reactivite the Prismatic Barrier, Stressful
And Yes, I have plenty of Mana when that happens. My Frost Mage has the same problem, "Turned Mana Shieldââ on and off in ââTalentsââ without any Luck.
Is this normal or do I have to do anything special to keep the Prismatic Barrier up for 60 seconds, providing there is enough Mana.
there is nothing you really have to do to keep your barrier up, i think the amount of damage your barrier absorbs is just very little because of your gear.
having crowd control abilities like frost nova or slows help prevent enemies from getting in range and hitting you⌠and you can counterspell enemy casters so they canât cast. that being said, iâm not sure what type of cc arcane mages have as iâm a frost mage. i know counterspell is across the board for all three specs.
you can also try getting azerite gear with a defensive ability called eldritch warding, it increases the amount of damage your barrier absorbs.
Like all mage shields, Prismatic Barrier has a cap on how much damage it can absorb per casting. Once this cap is reached the shield drops and you have to recast it. It only lasts 1 minute if you donât take enough damage in that time to exceed the cap.
Because you are undergeared, your shield absorbs only a small amount of damage before dropping. If you take one or two hits it will drop.
My recommendations:
Change tactics:
Recognize your limitations and adjust tactics accordingly.
Youâre low-geared and must play differently from a well-geared character if you want to do well.
Donât stand in place trying to âtankâ mobs. You donât have the health or damage output to do that.
Avoid attacking groups of mobs - at higher gear levels, an arcane mage can cheerfully wade into groups of 10+ mobs and come out at full health. But at ilevel 341 that simply isnât an option.
Basic single-target sniping:
stand at max range from a melee target, cast Slow, then spam arcane blasts at with arcane missiles on proc. Do not cast barrage as you want to keep your stacks high. Hopefully it dies before it reaches you and you donât take any damage. Since youâre not taking damage, your shield shouldnât drop. As soon as the target dies, sit and drink back to full.
Learn to kite - âkitingâ is the art of attacking a melee mob with ranged attacks while moving faster than it to stay out of its range.
The speed advantage is gained either by increasing your own speed (through blink or barrage with chronoshift), or by slowing or rooting your opponent (through slow, chronoshift barrage or Frost Nova).
Single-target kiting - shoot and scoot. Same as the sniping strategy above, but if your target gets close and isnât dead, slow it and move out of range before resuming attacks. This lowers your damage output, but can greatly increase your survivability. As long as the target can be snared, has no ranged attacks and your mana holds out, you should be able to kill it no matter how much health it has.
Multiple target kiting - Spam up to 4x arcane explosions and then barrage. Barrage slows targets while giving you a brief sprint. Using that you should be able to kite 3-4 targets simultaneously so long as mana holds out. The goal is to keep your targets just inside arcane explosion range, while youâre just outside melee range (stay at 5-10 yards from targets). You may take a couple hits, but still far less than trying to tank.
Other tips:
Drop the talent âmana shieldâ - you may think it improves your survivability, but the reality is you shouldnât be taking that many hits. And the drain it puts on your mana can be dangerous.
Gear up - ilevel 341 is very low. You can easily get much higher than that just by doing casual single-player content.
You can buy ilevel 400 pieces for many slots from the auction house for just a couple thousand gold each. Very cheap. Buy some and equip it. Also kill the world boss in Nazjatar or Uldum each week for a chance at 445 loot. It shouldnât take you more than a day or two to raise your overall ilevel to 400.
The reality is until you gear up, content is going to remain difficult for you. ilevel 341 is far below even âentry levelâ for this tier.
