In M+ specifically. I miss my Mage, but I stopped playing her after the frost mage nerfs. I’ve been trying fire but I can’t wrap my head around enjoying SKB. I keep thinking if I try it just a little longer I’ll be okay with it. So far that theory isn’t working.
I’ve tried Arcane in the past and it seemed to do alright. But that was over a year ago. Are you all playing Fire in M+ and if not, how is it working for you? 
It gets better with haste! Never ending combusts are a lot of fun. I will probably play around with arcane again at some point, I really like the kyrian/harmony bursts. Unpopular opinion in this forum specifically I guess, but I’ve never had more fun with mage than the last couple seasons with 2-3 viable, fun builds available
How much haste would you say makes it feel less like a mess lol
I’m at 35% now and it starts feeling better imo about halfway through a shrouded key. Idk what exactly makes it feel messy for you, just from my own experience not enjoying skb initially (I started playing it with 28%)
edit: and I’ve seen other mages say that haste seems to be what makes it more fun, which is why I suggested that could be it for you too
You should go back.
Necro Frost Mages really do some work. That burst window gets insane.
Give this page a look for some tips:
Interesting, I have 28 now myself. I’ll up it some more and see what that does. I wish I knew WHY I don’t like it, but I can’t put my finger on it. It’s just a thing.
Because it’s actually a slow spec overall.
You’re waiting on Pyro/Combust windows and in between it doesn’t feel like it’s doing much.
Could be the case. Frost is always fishing for a proc of sorts and it picks up and then you throw in IV on top. . it could just be the difference between that style and one that is a predetermined mode where dps occurs.
Go Necro Frost. It’s not like that right now.
All you’re waiting for is your CD and once it does you can spam Frostbolts. I’ve gotten up to 20K with Rune and IV down, and my mage isn’t even that well geared. It only has 2/4 of the set right now because I didn’t have enough currency at the time to upgrade the other two pieces.
Also depends on your Leggos with Frost. I’m using Slick Ice and Unity (Death’s Fathom) right now.
When you pop Deathborne, Rune and IV and start spamming Frostbolts, you can spam them about as fast as you can press the button. Even if I’m behind on DPS I can usually catch up rather quickly during this window.
I also have the ability that drops a Comet Storm randomly on the group because of the 2 pieces of the set. The 4 piece causes (up to) 10% increased damage after the Storm, so that’s another nice bump if you get one in that window.
I am a arms plated mage.
I’ll take a look into this and try it as well. I’ve not played Necro Frost, I think I retired her well before that became the thing with the double leggos and all lol
I played Arcane almost exclusively this expansion. Got all ports (timed 20s) and often went into 22-23 keys before getting bored chasing IO. I love Arcane. I just got a Synapse staff and two good passive trinkets (BiS combo). I can’t wait to give that a go (though it’s 288, so I’m not looking forward to grinding 3000 valor to upgrade it).
I just started trying fire, after getting my ports done last week, because it’s supposedly meta this season. So far, it feels pretty bad (32% haste atm). I’ve yet to be in a great group, which is maybe the problem? Lots of small-ish pulls. Arcane does quite well in small pulls and amazing at 4-5 pulls, but not as good as fire on big pulls. It just feels less effective except in perfect circumstances. Maybe it’s just because I fumble abilities often? I guess I’ll see. Arcane seems much simpler to do well in. It’s just about being able to plant you feet/react without interrupting your bursts.
I’m going to give it a go next, once I get home. I tried necro frost and while the animation is quite fun, spamming frost bolt is. . Not. And then waiting for another IV and Deathborne to pop up just feels like a worse iteration of Venth Boomies.
It’s sad because I adore my mage. But I’m a million weakauras deep on fire and still feel like I’m not performing where I should. Albeit, my mage is 255 with only a 3pc and that might be the biggest issue here. Once I grab a 4th piece it might all come together on all the specs and all this frustration will have been for nothing.
Frost. I also dabble in arcane from time to time. My suggestion is this: play what you think is fun, and if it’s not, cancel your sub and take a break. Blizz only listens to dollars and to me, it feels like the current mage dev(s) have a very rigid view of the class and how it should play, and which specs should be viable, the only way to get them to listen (Potentially, mages aren’t very popular nowadays) is to use dollars.
I main spec arcane because unless I know the tank will pull big mobs around combust I feel arcane has better damage every 45 seconds
This is 100% it. Fire is the most gear reliant spec of the three. Not having fourset is really going to hurt you on the current skb rotations.
So since this post I’ve gotten to 266, and got 4 piece for fire/frost but not arcane. I ran fire in an iron docks and it was. . . Alright? I’ve been running arcane and producing better numbers, probably because the pulls aren’t big enough to even warrant playing fire. And I find when something happens and I lose my skb stack that I get irrationally annoyed.
My gripe now is that arcane burst is very much hold still and fire and sometimes I choose the absolute wrong moment to do that because I’m not used to having to. It’s more enjoyable than Frosts FB spam in DB, but I definitely need to garner better timing. I’m hoping I can fine tune this and maybe get some better numbers, maybe? If I had to pick based on enjoyment then arcane wins I’m just hoping it doesn’t turn into a hindrance for my group as I progress.
Fire was only fun back when it was a dot spec not this semi mini game crap. And frosty mage is my love idc if it’s not meta cause being meta is needle dick mode.
The tier sets will change when you change spec, you don’t need 3 different sets (if I’m reading you right). I haven’t done it myself but I can totally see arcane being more fun in content where things are dying quickly or the pulls are less predictable. I know some arcane mages are running slipstream to combat your point about feeling so rooted, though it’s a little adjustment if you’re used to running shimmer. Cool to see you finding a groove
Oh, I know they run across the specs, I just mean that the slots I have allow me to run 4pc in fire and frost with their respective legendaries, but not with arcane as my shoulders and legendary and I have tier gloves
I recently switched to slip stream so we’ll have to see how it goes l!