I would settle for some bandaids right now. Gaping wound or not.
Frost had a 9% damage boost on Jan 11th and a 3% boost on Feb 1st, which brought it into viable margins for pve content. Meanwhile, Arcane is further and further left behind by everyone’s progress in Nathria. Is a little love between patches too much to ask for now? That’s what this thread is really about.
I can’t argue with that, but preventing the boat from sinking isn’t what we need right now, we need a new freaking boat, although anything is better than nothing.
I would say Arcane needs a good deal more than 5% on single target. Arcane should be one of the best single target specs in the game by design, if you play around mechanics well enough to plop down and be a turret and do all the mana maintenance stuff properly. At the VERY least, Arcane should beat out Fire and Frost for single target, it’s freakin unreal to that it’s basically the worst rn. As someone who first played mage in Cata specifically because of Arcane, then didn’t play mage again until BFA… big sad 
Oh and very nice buff ideas 
A spec that is as punishing and immobile as Arcane should reward skilled players for being able to minimize movement and find windows to freecast during mechanics. Immobile specs should have exceptional damage to compensate for the challenge of playing them in the current raiding environment, yet this is far from reality.
Case in point: Fire
It is extremely mobile (completely mobile during combust and execute), and it has the shortest, most frequently available, and most powerful cooldown which offers consistent damage every use. You’d expect it to be tuned a bit lower in exchange for its mobility and ability to quickly adapt to mechanics, yet it has top-tier damage.
Now don’t misunderstand me. I am not asking for nerfs to mobile specs like fire. I am simply asking for immobile turret specs like arcane to be brought up to the level where the reward is worth the risk. They should be tuned higher to reward players who are able to properly execute the spec in a raid tier where the spec’s design falls apart.
Yes, it needs a redesign, but that would have to wait until an expansion. It needs something, anything to keep it afloat until then.
Fire and frost are proc based specs not resource based specs. Which is why I used examples of resource based specs. Let’s say they renamed the mana bar for arcane to “arcane energy”. Mana is the resource for arcane similar to how astral power is for balance Druids. The way you conserve and spend it may be different but that’s what makes arcane unique for a resource based spec.
Buff, sure, but man I really think Arcane needs some new abilities and a new overhaul. They never really seemed to put much time into the spec.
buff clearcasting proc rate!
My point was and still is, call it mana/power etc, it’s managing a resource which is complexity that neither of the other two specs have to make the effort to deal with. With the extra work should come a bigger reward. If the spec is as immobile as it is, then moments where we can stand still should equal enormous burst potential to make up for the shortcomings of lack of mobility and extra work involved to hinge said burst potential around a myriad of cooldowns and a resource. Arcane currently gives no reward for any of this, that’s the biggest problem I have with it.
arcane needs more than a buff, it lacks really any flow or movement right now. The way clear casting works feels awful compared to legion version.
This is one of my points about the spec. If we are intended to sacrifice mobility for viably over the top burst for when and IF we can ever stand still for more than 10 seconds it should be rewarded with performance that reflects the lack of mobility. Right now it does not do that.
Arcane mages need help with casting on the run. We dont need higher numbers so a straight % buff to damage wont work like it did for frost. Castle Nathria is so movement and reaction intensive half the time we are scrambling to regain mana especially if our evocation is interrupted. The fact that our major rotation in icy veins specifically requires to weave in Evocation (when we do 0 dmg) in order to maximize our dps hurts too much this raid tier. It also doesnt help our major AoE is essentially melee ranged so we get all the disadvantages of melee this raid tier.
Arcane Mage definitely needs a damage buff. It sims 5% below Balance Druids, and 8% below Shadow Priests.
Mobility isn’t even that big of an issue, to be honest. No bad luck protection on Clearcasting and Clearcasting only lasting 15 seconds is the main thing that needs to be addressed.
Except both of those are fast-recharging resources, while mana is finite. Druids and Shaman can continue to keep using spells and abilities if they don’t have their resource, while Arcane cannot and actually deals less damage when their resource is low if you take that talent. It’s also worth noting that for both Druid and Shaman, the biggest issue is them being resourced capped rather than “I must save this to use at the perfect time”. So really, mana is nothing like those resources.
Arcane to an extent is also proc-based. The difference between CCs proccing and lining up with TotM and not is pretty major.
Sure, but that’s what makes arcane unique. It’s still a resource based spec, the resource just functions differently. The idea still remains the same though. Misuse the resource, however that resource works, and you will be punished for it. For example spend to much Astral Power outside of the Balance of all Things legendary proc and you’ll do awful as a balance druid. The fact that arcanes resource is mana is no justification for buffing it over any other spec.
Arcane is proc based the same way that elemental shaman is proc based, it is primarily a resource based spec. The damage of arcane without using any CC procs compared to frost or fire not using their procs is not comparable.
I don’t disagree with making movement less punishing, although with that logic destro locks should get the biggest buff. Arcane has (with slipstream) CC procs, evo, barrage (also comes with a 50% speed buff with talent), orb, AE and AB with PoM during movement. Compared to destro with conflagrate? And burning rush for movement? Yet destro crushed the logs in BFA and are performing significantly better than arcane currently, according to logs. Paying attention to timers, in raid at least, should allow a good arcane mage to keep a couple options available as most heavy movement is predictable. Aura buffs are always difficult for turret specs as the top end players will deal with mechanics and movement much better then the rest of us, and these are the people blizzard has to balance the game around.
I think making changes to reduce CC proc RNG makes the most sense. I’ve been messing around with arcane in CN a bit and CC procs are much less consistent and reliable then anything frost or fire deals with and this can be frustrating with bad RNG. Increase proc rates or add a proc or 2 into ToTM/evo channel or another spell.
These are my imaginary patch notes
ARCANE MAGE 9.1 PATCH NOTES
Developer’s notes:
With this patch we have focussed improving weaknesses/issues with the arcane specialisation:
SPELL CHANGES
TALENT CHANGES
1st row:
2nd row:
3rd row:
Unchanged
4th row:
5th row:
Unchanged
6th row:
Supernova removed, is now a baseline spell
Arcane Echo has been moved to this row
7th row:
Enlightened adjusted:
Increases arcane damage dealt whilst above 70% mana by 12% (up from 8%), and mana regen whilst below 70% increased by 40% (up from 20%)
We will continue to iterate on the changes above depending on performance on the PTR over the coming weeks. We thank you for your continued feedback as we work with the community to help deliver improved class & spec balance.
Another day of silence from Blizzard. Is a little communication too much to ask for?
Even something as simple as “working on it” or “working as intended” would be enough. Just 3 little words. Then players would be able to make an informed decision to either stick it out or make the switch to something else.
This is the definition of comparing apples and oranges. Mana is nothing like any of the other resources you describe, or any other DPS resource for that matter. Mana is a slowly regenerating resource designed with the singular purpose of limiting output and forcing a strategic choice on how and when to expend it. This works very well for the healer archetype because it is all about a reactive play style.
However, a DPS player can’t afford to be reactive because the current iteration of the game is built in a way that demands constant and consistent output of damage. Therefore, any DPS spec that relies on a resource which is not built or generated in a dynamic fashion will always be handicapped and even outright punished where other specs are rewarded e.g. any time you get a major haste buff.
There is a reason why Arcane has consistently struggled over the years and is one of the most underperforming and underplayed specs in the game. It is the same reason why the devs have been incapable of fixing it no matter how many fixes and bandaids they throw it. And that reason is Arcane’s mechanical reliance on mana, an utterly dysfunctional and outdated system that is simply ill-suited for what the modern game requires of a DPS spec, period.
Until that changes, until Arcane is divorced from its reliance on mana and redesigned into a modern builder/spender spec it will continue to struggle. Frankly, I am baffled by and completely fail to understand the desire to continue holding on to the past for the sake of “uniqueness” when the current model simple does not work and hasn’t for a very, very long time.
I mean for crying out loud, literally every single caster DPS spec started off being tied down to mana in exactly the same way as Arcane but ALL of them have long since been severed from that, why do you think that is? Because it simply doesn’t work. But let’s continue hitting our heads against a brick wall because and call ourselves “unique” instead of the odd one out. And by all means let’s keep giving Blizzard a pass for not touching the spec in any meaningful way and letting it rot on the vine expansion after expansion… /s
I’ll be honest: at this point I will be happy with only QoL changes like baseline slipstream and longer, more frequent and/or predictable clearcasts. Arcane is supposed to be the master of perfected magical performance and instead we’re begging on the streets for a clearcast proc so we can still be useful while dodging massacre and chorus while also chasing the boss through a mirror. Honestly, I feel like 90% of the time in phase 2 Sire I’m spamming arcane explosion to try and squeek in some damage on the boss all the while my cooldowns rot because I literally don’t have time to cast more than one spell into Magi because I need to move to an add or dodge a pile of death.
To be clear, I’m not complaining about the boss mechanics directly. It’s the last boss of the raid, and frankly I think it’s fun to a point. What I am complaining about is that we have to rely on a damage proc with a franky horrendous proc rate in order to be useful during any of the millions of move or die mechanics in the fight. Meanwhile fire pops their main damage cooldown, does 15k dps during that cooldown and dances around like a sugar plum fairy while doing so with literally 0 repercussion. As a comparison if I don’t take slipstream, there is a near 100% chance that I lose the ability to cast Evocation during the fight, and these comparisons are just fine with blizzard.
That fight is a nightmare as Arcane.
Phase 1 and 3 aren’t too bad, but 2 is awful.
I feel like I barely contribute on the second phase unless I just tunnel the boss or only focus on aoe’ing the melee adds. If I try helping on the ranged adds, I get the added fun of trying to stay in range of both my rune and the ranged adds while simultaneously trying to dodge the impale, massacre, and crescendo while also not standing in front of the boss as the tank aims him towards the ranged add to hit them with the cone.
Sure, I can stare at the boss timers the entire phase and plan my every gcd around the constant flood of mechanics while also looking at the boss to verify which direction he is facing every single second, but why should I have to when no other spec in the game has to?
Arcane’s design completely falls apart on that fight.
An easy fix for pvp would be to give Arcane mages another school of magic to cast damage. Right now they get locked out of everything offensively and defensively if they cast anything. And all their defenses are easily countered by dispel spamming classes. Oh… and they have to stand still to cast their big damage spells.