Returning mage -
Really likeing Frostfire Frost, and fire even, but I’m struggling with either of the arcanes. I recall having slow built-in to arcane barrage, but that’s been removed? Now I have to single-cast slow on each mob I pull, which wasts precious GCD time before i can actually kite/burst.
Any tips for solo arcane in open-world or delves?
Save yourself the trouble and do this stuff as Frost. You still have access to Chronoshift (slow on Arcane Barrage), although that’s a PvP talent now, but Frost is seriously a lot easier.
As Spellslinger Arcane, I find myself using all of my buttons. Slow is helpful, but I also use Supernova, Blast Wave, and Frost Nova to keep mobs from beating on me. Use your Prismatic Barrier, Ice Block (with Cryo-Freeze to heal), and Mirror Image. If you’re good at timing, Alter Time is a great tool. If you are just trying to survive and aren’t pushing for raid damage, you can also take Ice Nova. I also recommend taking Mass Barrier so that you can refresh your Prismatic Barrier if you’re being harassed. Also, don’t be afraid to use your Time Warp, Touch of the Magi, and Arcane Surge cooldowns when needed to kill the enemy before it kills you. If you’re facing overwhelming odds , use Greater Invisibility to escape and chow down on conjured food.
Honestly, just cycle through all of your cooldowns and hope whatever you’re fighting dies before you do, there is just nothing else you can do before you gear up more. Mages are incredibly dependent on gear since all of our defensives scale with health and our damage isn’t high enough without a good chunk of secondary stats so you can reach the respective breakpoints.
Soloing as a mage at the start of an expansion has always been a pain. Doing the same type of open world content on virtually any other caster will be much easier and if you do it on something like a Fury warrior it’s so much easier it’s like you’re playing an entirely different game. So much for balance, lol.
Use mirror image and mass barrier together. You have the health of four images +3.5m in sheilds. Use prismatic barrier. If you used all your toolkit and you know a big scary mob is coming to smack you, use alter time, shimmer twice, blast the mob until it reaches you, then continue blasting until youre at like 50% health, alter time two shimmers away and back to full health.
Generally I just evo and surge and kill anything before it gets to me. If it has a lot of health i use my defensices as described above.
Ive completed several delv 8s solo as arcane and havent had any issues.
Generally, you can solo elites and rares as arcane pretty easily.
Generally though, it sucks fighting normal mobs at times, because you’re praying for this crits with arcane blasts lol. Use slow as well if you want to create distance, since chrono-shift is an honor talent.