I realize there are a ton of competing ideas for how Arcane should play right now, with many calls to restore double dip, calls to change Arcane to a previous iteration, and so on. However I wanted to give some suggestions on what Blizzard could do to fix Arcane asap without fundamentally changing our spec (yet again), aimed mostly at number tuning rather than rotation-changing. The goal here is to 1. bring Arcane mage’s DPS up to more competitive levels, especially single target and mass aoe and 2. fix some of the dead talent zones in our spec tree without radically changing how we play.
- Number Tuning
Proposed Changes:
Arcane Blast → Base damage increased significantly i.e. +25%
Arcane Barrage → Base damage increased significantly i.e +40%
Resonance → Damage bonus significantly reduced i.e. 5% per target
Arcane Bombardment → Damage bonus significantly reduced i.e. 50% (65% Sunfury Execution)
Intuition → Damage bonus slightly reduced i.e. 40%, duration increased i.e. 6 seconds.
Reasoning:
Arcane’s single target damage is significantly behind, with too much of it’s Arcane Barrage damage tied up in cleave and execute situations. These changes would significantly boost Arcane’s base rotation in all situations without pushing their cleave and execute damage too high.
I am also recommending a duration increase to Intuition, since the correct play is to only Barrage after an Arcane Missiles. Currently 3 seconds is an extremely tight window to play around and sometimes results in having to end Missiles early.
- Talent Changes
Presence of Mind → Gain Intuition and Clearcasting. 3 Charges. 30 sec cooldown
Now placed row 5, column 5 (where Slipstream is).
Reasoning:
Presence of Mind currently does not see play. My proposal is to change it so the player has some agency on Intuition bursts, particularly with Touch of the Magi and Magi’s Spark which wants the biggest hit it can get.
Prodigious Savant → Your Mastery is increased by 5%. You gain 10% more of the Mastery stat from all sources. 1 point talent.
Mastery update: Arcane Charges gain 40% more benefit from Mastery baseline.
Now placed row 5, column 3 (where Presence of Mind is).Slipstream
Now placed row 4, column 2 (where Arcane Familiar is).Arcane Familiar → Merged with Energized Familiar. No longer has a chance to grant mana.
Now placed row 5, column 2 (where Energized Familiar is).
Reasoning:
Currently Prodigious Savant is badly undertuned and I would argue does not fit its positioning on the right side of the tree, which is mostly aoe themed talents. This change would also increase the value of Mastery for Arcane, and grant Arcane a Mastery % stat boost which would complete the cycle of stat boost talents that Frost and Fire have.
Dematerialize → Now a 2 point talent.
Now placed row 8, column 6 (where Prodigious Savant is).Arcane Reconstitution → No longer RPPM.
Now placed row 9, column 6 (where Leydrinker is).Static Cloud
Now placed row 5, column 6 (where Leysight//Aether Fragment is).Leydrinker
Now placed row 6, column 6 (where Dematerialize is).Leysight//Aether Fragment
Now placed row 7, column 6 (where Energy Reconstitution is).
Reasoning:
Currently the bottom right chunk of talents is a dead zone that sees zero play. A big reasoning for this is that the rest of the bottom of the talent tree is very powerful with heavy hitters like Aether Attunement, Arcane Harmony, and Magi’s Spark. My proposed changes here has Arcane Savant being swapped with a more powerful 2 point Dematerialize that can be a competitive flex talent, while the talents below it are focused on finally providing Arcane a powerful mass AoE option through an unchained Energy Reconstitution as a capstone. It would likely need some balancing but I think giving Arcane Mages a chance to cause mass Arcane Explosions for AoE would be really flavorful and fun. If balancing proves problematic, the explosion damage for Energy Reconstitution could be based on the power of the Dematerialize dot rather than just a mini Arcane Explosion.
This would also give the rest of arcane the chance to play with Leydrinker and Leysight//Aether Fragment.
Note: there would be one open talent spot left over on row 7, column 7 (where Static Cloud is). This can be used to have a new talent move in, or possibly separate one of the choice talents i.e. Arcane Tempo//Big Brained or Leysight//Aether Fragement. Static cloud could also be left where it is, especially if Energy Reconstitution is changed to be a burst based on Dematerialize damage and not an Arcane Explosion.