Is frost the way to go? For whatever reason, I really like the idea of Arcane. How viable is it? I believe arcane has great single target burst, but do they have any decent aoe?
I’d like to be able to pug so don’t want to pick a spec that isn’t wanted at all…
I think frost is S tier, but arcane for example have to be in melee for explosions. I don’t know if it can only dps in range cause it’s essentially mono but aoe is required in m+. Arcane do +25, so you can. Think fire is between on high keys.
If like me you only do +15’s, play the spec you like most. And the covenant you love 
All of our specs are viable in m+, currently frost is the best, but if you are doing at or below 15 keys frost becomes much worse. And yes arcane has pretty good aoe.
Is that because mobs die too fast?
Yep, so you don’t really get an opportunity to reset icy veins every pack. And especially getting into higher keys the mobs will live so long generally on fort weeks at least that a frost mage will end up doing about the same or more damage than a burst class. Anyways, all our specs are perfectly viable so dont feel bad if you want to main one. I’ve been wanting to try some more arcane myself because its burst looks really fun. If you need a guide for arcane in m+ Phosphorus on yt has a good one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vZCuZpOYcM&t=41s
Awesome, ty for the info!
As long as you understand Arcane’s mana management and your burst timings its very much viable in M+
All the specs are very much viable in any high M+. Frost slots in the best because it needs the least amount of team input/synergy/routing to do its thing.
Just starting this alt and have been getting into low keys as arcane.
It’s very fun. Mana management is a learning curve but isn’t that bad. Mikanikos in m+ is my preference soulbind wise. When you can just blast down a boss Bc you have all your CDs and time warp up….it’s juicy!
For Arcane, Pelagos > Mikanikos
Have read diff things in Arcane discords for m+ but I’m no expert by any means!
The soulbinds doesn’t matter.
Mikanikos is perfectly fine to use. Just make sure you are prioritizing your rotations with st and mt properly.
I don’t play frost on this toon but I can easily get into pugging 15s as arcane for weekly vault. If you are wondering about fire, I switched from arcane to fire for raid. When I tried fire a couple times in m+ this tier, I was reminded why I didn’t like playing it with pugs in 9.0 because most pugs pull conservatively and you’ll only have combustion up every other pull. Same deal with arcane but at least you will have RoP, RS, and TotM every pull when AP isn’t up.
Side note, I just saw the 9.2 ptr sims with double leggo. Kyrian arcane looking like the most versatile for single and multi target. The only drawback it seems is bombardment being way better than harmony at 5T. Frost is like a pick your poison type of deal with the different covenant and leggo combinations depending on how many targets. What is also concerning is fire and SKB simming higher multi target when in practice you will lose the stacks traveling from pack to pack in m+.
Both are workable, the potential burst via Pelagos is higher though, especially if his capstone goes off before you go for your Harmony burst. The rotation doesn’t rely on any soulbind though, but the default is generally Pelagos. Again, not a big deal.