Where in a arcane mages skill order would this ability be used? Beginning for damage output? At the end for mana regen after using up all your mana??
In DF you will be using it on the 3rd stack of radiant spark then using nether tempest into barrage into TOTM while barrage is in the air. But in pre-patch you just use it before radiant spark.
Ooof, just reading that sequence made my head hurt. Most folks, myself included, probably won’t even be able to execute that while sitting in front of a dummy let alone during a complex, movement and mechanic heavy boss fight.
As far as I am concerned Radiant Spark is an abomination and I would never needlessly complicate my life trying to use it in a rotation regardless of how much more DPS I can squeeze out of it. There’s a point where the cooldown stacking burst meta just gets out of hand and this is it for me. I drew the line at having to go Kyrian in SL and quit rather than being forced into that playstyle so there’s no way I am doing it in DF.
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Arcane is always intimidating, but then once you sit down and try it for a few minutes, it becomes a lot more clear and easy.
So many cd stacking makes me want to 
, I hope another build becomes viable.
I hate nether tempest. It feels like a DoT, we are not a DoT class/spec.
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I know, I know, I’ve been playing it since before it was a proper spec and that’s never stopped me before but since SL it’s gotten too much even for me. I don’t even recognize the spec anymore, tbh.
It’s not necessarily that’s it’s gotten worse, in fact there have been some core changes over the years that were quite nice, but this fixation with the cooldown stacking and burst meta that Blizzard can’t seem to get out from under is just driving me away more and more. Almost every DPS spec is like that now it’s just too much pressure and no fun to play.
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Yeah I don’t like dots either and I am honestly surprised Nether Tempest triggers Arcane Echo. I guess technically it isn’t a dot but I certainly never thought of it as a direct damage ability either. Also, it’s been unviable for so long I had forgotten how silly it looks. It looks more like confetti going off rather than a “tempest” lol.
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Yeah it does not look like a Tempest at all, and it is not fun to press.
Arcane does not need to have a complicated rotation with stacking cd to be fun.
I disliked arcane Harmony in SL because there is nothing on the UI that lets you know when you reach maximum stacks, but it was passable.
Hoping Orb Barrage will be fun
I just swapped Arcane Surge with Arcane Power from my previous rotation.
so Arcane Surge → Radiant Spark → Touch of the Magi → 4xAB → ABar → then whatever is up until buffs run out.
Rotation for the 45-second mini-burn is the same except replace Arcane Surge with Rune of Power.
I’ve abandoned any hope of being “good” at arcane anymore. I just don’t like how the “optimal” setup plays now. It’s too much micromanagement and too focused on its burst windows.
I basically have a build that has Incanter’s Flow (cause Rune of Suck can go pound salt), builds up 4 arcane charges and spams AB and AM while staying at 4 arcane charges virtually indefinitely barring bad rng streaks of Temporal Anomaly giving too much time warp and not enough surge. Barrage is for aoe only except in cases where I have to drop my charges which is rare.
Skipped Shifting Power/Meteor, Harmony, TotM, Spark and all the related nonsense. Skipped Orb Barrage cause I have better places to spend my talents (imo). All I do is build up my first 4 charges and never dump em in most cases. This ends up making the Impetus talent a 10% chance to get 10% more damage for 10 seconds since I am always at 4 charges when it procs.
I have familiar even though it’s weak, but I’d rather get the 1.5% more dps from that then waste a point on a 2nd charge of Arcane Orb (cause Arcane Orb can also go pound salt and I am bitter I am forced to waste a talent point on it just to get deeper in the tree).
I’m not saying my spec is good, it’s clearly not, but I am done trying to keep up with the circus arcane has become in my eyes. I’m old and not as nimble physically or mentally as I once was. With this spec all I have to do is spam AB till I get missile procs, and use AM followed by 2 AB’s to get Nether Precision’s bonus. This nets me about 12.5k dps right now. At 70 on the beta with the starter gear they give you for 70, i can do about 20k. Maybe it’ll get better with better gear, I dunno. I’ll just not raid, not do mythic+, and not subject others to my mediocrity.
Here’s the spec I am using in case anyone is curious:
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Hear, hear! I am also going to try out a none Kyrian Harmony build and if I end up liking it despite it not doing the numbers I am probably still going to stick with it and just play casually the entire expansion or until they decide to do something about this hot mess they’ve turned Arcane into. If not I can always default to my Destro lock or maybe even give the Evoker a whirl.
One thing is clear though: I am not playing Blizzard’s ridiculous cooldown stacking burst meta bs. It’s not an ideal situation but I have to say it’s really liberating to break free from the optimizing chains and just have fun instead.
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That’s how I feel. With the spec I set up, I play like old school WOTLK arcane. I use Surge whenever it’s up, spam AB to get clearcasts, use em for missiles, eat up the Precision buffs and either use another clearcast or AB if I don’t have one. Periodically I Evocate/Mana gem for mana (and get a nice buff in the doing from siphon storm or the mana gem), and that’s about the extent of it. I just have to manage my mana like the old days, and good rng from Anomaly helps make that a lot easier. I don’t even have to drop my charges most of the time.
No worrying about runes, or stacking cooldowns, or burst windows getting screwed by fight mechanics. It’s simple and not stressful.
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I have messed around with arcane alot on the beta and noticed you can be constantly in burn mode. With cd reduction on EV and Arc Sge vua Shifting power I very rarely use Barrage. Just weave in your burst wondows every 40secs and your good to go.
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Interesting build, I have leaned in a little more with barrage, with the recent buffs and its ability to execute, its hard to ignore.
in execute, Using Surge then dumping orbs into fast executes seems to be a way to hedge your bets with crits, with still having a combo if you can fit it in, depends on the movement at the time. I do like having more options.
Yes, it’s definitely possible now, especially if you take both Evocation and Mana Gem. You would have to use Arcane Surge with little to no mana left but honestly it doesn’t do that much more damage if used at full mana anyway and lbr the real power comes from the buffs you get after casting it not the damage it does.
I am definitely thinking of trying out a build like this instead of Kyrian Harmony 2.0 which I loath. Of course the numbers will not be there because they’re is no way to compete with the cooldown stacking burst profile but it’s sure going to be a hell of a lot more fun. Plus if I have to be perfectly honest I just don’t think I am capable of executing the Kyrian Harmony rotation well enough to get optimal results out of it anyway.
I like to experiment with playstyles. I think an AB playstyle is in the cards, but i think TOTM would be hard to passup in its new form being a “charged up” and instant ability (not on the GCD.)
POM and TOTM can be a macro with your AB if you don’t want extra buttons.
I would think the build would use orb,POM and ToTM, to keep juggling charges and dumping them to keepup arcane tempo and Impetus, I would include barrage execute as a strong passive. I would think this to be a more haste based build, as its your charges that interact with your gains.
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It can be ideal enough. It’s also a notion some of us picked up and have been preaching for years. I’m an off meta player and aim to enjoy the game first and for most. It’s nice to see more people break away from being sheeple. You do get new meta from off meta after-all.
True. I’ve never been chained to the meta myself but sometimes if you want to do higher end content there’s no other way sadly. Like in BfA when I wanted Jaina’s water elemental mount. The things I had to do for that mount (talking about putting up with how awful Arcane was in BfA, of course, lmao).
I made a version of my build that has TotM + Echo, and performs about 5-10% better (hard to judge when rng with anomaly procs can swing wildly), it just adds more micromanagement. I don’t want to deal with all these dps “windows” to funnel as much as you can in a few seconds. That’s the primary reason why Rune of Power is so good.
I want the old simplicity of pew pew pew, pop arcane power, and pew pew pew harder for a little while. None of this Prismatic Crystal in sheep’s clothing BS. That’s all TotM is at the heart of it. The build I came up with may suck as far as “optimal performance” goes, but it’s way more fun and relaxing to play for me.
Do I miss the instant 4 charges of Charged Up? Absolutely. I wish I could have the old Charged Up talent as a utility option.
Do I want to hit TotM every 45 seconds and hopefully not have to move and stop dpsing during that “window”? No. It’s too stressful and frantic for me.
I’ve just resigned myself to being “bad” but enjoying how I play, because being “good” isn’t fun for me.
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So you would totally abandon TotM simply by fear of not fully optimizing it when it’s pop ? Why not see it as a Charged Up with some more potential.
It does happen sometimes to prepare for a big burst and dang!, you are targeted by a mechanic and have to move. Without Ice Floes you are limited to your Slipstream clearcast but still you can charge your TotM some. Doesn’t mean you should totally abandon the idea of TotM ? It’s up to you, but I wouldn’t.