Can someone explain to me what makes each mage spec different and unique from the others?
When I compare it with other classes the mage specs seem just too equal to each other. All three are (or feel like they are) direct damage, all three depend on procs, the only difference I see is that the arcane has to manage its mana (but not really) and the fire is a submachine gun, frost. It doesn’t really have anything special (or does it?)
I’m not kidding, I really fail to see the appeal of a class with 3 specs whose biggest difference seems to be the color of their spells.
So you who have a broader experience, enlight me please.
Frost is largely proc-based, specializes in two-target cleave/funnel, and has a more sustained damage profile. Works largely by extending uptime on its major cooldown. Somewhat complex at the high end but arguably the “easiest” spec to jump into.
Fire at its core isn’t really “proc-based” insofar as it really only manages crits as a proc outside of Combustion, and you can basically force the procs. This changes with talents e.g. Pyroclasm and is more of a stack-management spec with SKB/Feel the Burn/new tier, but is pretty bursty in Combustion where you’re crit-chaining with (mostly) instant cast spells. Specializes in single target with uncapped spread cleave that significantly ramps up the longer the main target stays alive. Works largely by chasing the next Combustion/mini Combustion via SKB and CDR. Can be very complex with a lot of priorities to manage and pretty unforgiving should you fudge a single SKB.
Arcane is majorly burst-focused and focuses on squeezing a ton of damage modifiers into a tight window for huge damage. Pretty complex to get the rotation down and highly unforgiving of a single miskey. Mana is no longer really a huge part of it - it’s really about encounter/rotation knowledge/memorization and knowing when you can get your burst off uninterrupted. Great at ST with cleave baked into its burst.
The way they deal their damage differs, fire builds up a massive ignite for AOE, frost just hits the enemy consistently for an even amount of damage, with a small peak near the start due to rune of power, and arcane has massive peaks and troughs around hitting barrages for upwards of 500k.
They all play differently, frost consistently around its procs at high haste cast to cast, arcane on a 45/1.5 (but really 33/1.15m) cd cycle with periods between of relative unimportance, and fire building up to each combust and hardcasting long hard hitting abilities between swift combos of chaining instant cast spells.