You press Missiles, then you press Barrage, you have now successfully clipped.
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Not only do you not understand how clipping works, but the content you do is so far below when that kind of thing becomes ânecessaryâ that itâs ridiculous. Just put the one button assistant on your bars and accept your reality.
Even if you donât use a stopcasting macro for AM or a weakaura to tell you when to Barrage the very fact that itâs optimal to truncate a channeling ability that is also the main proc for the spec is unintuitive and bad design. You have to understand that just because this stuff is second nature to you because youâve played Arcane forever doesnât mean a new player will grasp it or would want to play that way even if they do.
If Blizzard want the main attraction to be NP then they simply need to make that the proc and completely detach it from AM. If they want AM to be the focus they need to find a way to make it more attractive to finish the channel, which they have so far never been able to do. The current situation is ridiculous and, again, just because youâve adapted to it doesnât change the fact that itâs objectively bad design.
I mean, WW Monk and Shadow Priest also have had times where they clip channeled spells rotationally (including Void Torrent right now), we arenât the first.
Even if you detached NP and other resources from Missiles weâd just end up never casting it because itâs generally considered a DPS gain to generate and consume resources and procs, Missiles would have to do the most amount of damage ever conceived to offset the spending of aforementioned resources and procs, thatâs just how modern WoW is.
I agree with you btw that itâs bad that Missiles is getting clipped constantly, but I wouldnât say itâs harder than not clipping, in fact Iâd say itâs easier to clip as it eliminates gaps in casting meaning less time spent not doing damage (the downside of channeled spells in WoW not allowing you to spellqueue off of them).
Gonna add in the argument here that the difference between clipping your missiles and not clipping your missiles is NOT going to stop a new player who hasnât read a guide from being able to complete casual content.
To be honest, you could probably complete a decent amount of actively competitive content without clipping missiles. Itâs not a necessary part of the rotation, just an optimized part. And there will always be an optimized way to play.
I do agree that itâs poor design, but Iâd also argue that itâs not even the most poorly designed part of Arcaneâs kit right now. Should something be done about it? Yeah, probably. But Iâd rather see them put work into the whole âdoes mana matter or doesnât mana matter?â problem or the usefulness of Arcane Explosion or the âI have a dozen different modifiers for Arcane Barrage and donât know when to cast itâ problem.
Frostâs best build for some time involved not even casting one of your procs at allâŚ
You can guess which spell Frost wonât cast for a patch or xpac and you probably have a 25% chance of correctly guessing which one and a lower chance of being correct if you guess that theyâll use all of their rotational abilities.
I can attest to that because I donât clip them and I can do Heroic MFO just fine, lol.
True but I was focusing on it because thatâs what this thread started off about. There are definitely a lot of other things to work on and hopefully Arcaneâs time in the spotlight atm will shine some light on the more glaring issues as more and more players flock to the spec because itâs the fotm.
I wouldnât say itâs harder either but itâs still a weird thing to have to do. And with the risk of getting poked fun at again, I will say I donât relish the button mashing frenzy that inevitably results from these types of rotations. I was playing without headphones for some reason the other day and, my god, if I didnât live alone my keyboard would have been thrown out the window after whoever lived with me hit me over the head with it first. And I canât say I would blame them because the sound is like having needles stuck into your brain (and that was without the clipping)! 
Did you know there are people who think a keyboard is bad if it isnât loud on the clicks?
Clipping felt fine to me once I got used to the idea that not every channeled spell should have to always be completed all the time, not having forced gaps in my rotation was a nice change once I was aware of it all. Having to sometimes clip and sometimes not with Aether Attunement feels arbitrary for sure though.
I have been made keenly aware of that, yes. By literally everyone Iâve complained to about it, lmao! 
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If it doesnât sound like youâre swinging a metal hammer on to a steel bell it isnât worth buying.
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