Arcane was promised a “significant redesign” in the initial Shadowlands Class Update… IS THIS IT?? If you go to warcraft logs, arcane is the bottom parsing spec across every skill level in M+, it has consistently been a low ranking spec for nearly as long as I can remember. It has been a mechanical mess for as long as Spriests have. In the BFA beta, tons of feedback was given about arcane and was ignored, it appears this beta will be no different for the rarely played spec… What is upsetting is that it really wouldnt take much to make it feel ok to play.
- Arcane has no functioning cleave.
- Numerous dead talents which havent ever been touched (im looking at you nether tempest, arcane familiar, supernova…).
- Arcane could be one of the highest ST spec, but that never happens because movement is extremely punishing for arcane mages.
- The amount of time it takes to even get going is absurd, currently on the beta it takes 9-15 seconds of buffs to even start casting
- Evocation… No other spec is punished more than an arcane mage which has to move or gets kicked or messes up an evocation… Other specs can do SOMETHING when out of resources, arcane mage is literally a rock if you get screwed over casting evocation
- Arcane only has a single spell school, if you get arcane locked, there just about nothing you can cast. I cant think of another caster which is completely unable to cast a spell when getting interrupted in one of your schools
- Arcane doesnt really have any good defense. Yes all mages get ice block… But fire has cauterize and frost has cold snap… arcane doesnt have anything outside of that one immunity
- Arcane is the ONLY ranged spec which has to be in melee range to do aoe
- speaking of AOE, arcane can either do AOE or ST, there is no in between. Your ST damage will be abyssal if youre specced into aoe, and vice versa. A hybrid build will result in sub par damage in both
- Why on earth is arcane losing displacement?? Alter time is NOT a replacement. Alter time is a defensive CD, I never once recall using it for movement.
- Arcane’s talents are an absolute mess. Go check them out and see if you can see some sort of coherency between each talent row… bet you cant.
Im sure I missed more problems, theres almost too many to count. What are some simple easy fixes you may ask? (Theres a near unlimited amount of awesome ideas in the mage forums)
- Arcane orb baseline, no question… I dont think ive seen a more popular request for arcane mages.
- Clearcasting proccing off spells cast, not mana… This is how it was in legion, but changed… The change made our conserve phase even longer and gave us less overall procs
- Please do something about the dead talents (supernova, familiar, mana shield, time anomaly, nether tempest)
- Legion legendary shoulders would make an awesome baseline change
- Evocation castable on the move
- For the love of god please do something about the ramp up… the rotation is something like this: charged up, mirror images, rune of power, touch of the magi, arcane power, covenant ability… then you can cast
These are super fast easy fixes, theres a lot more awesome ideas for ways to make the spec feel like a powerful mage. As an arcane mage, you wield the language the titans used to forge azeroth… why doesnt it feel or look like it? With so many amazing animations in the game, why doesnt arcane have one outside of like arcane explosion?
67 Likes
I love arcane it just can’t compete. Hope the fix it soon.
13 Likes
Forty Six percent of all Feedback on the official mage beta testing forums is about the issues only related specifically to arcane. This doesn’t include any complains about fire frost or general talents. Yes I was bored and so I did the math.
Blizzard has to know at this point that there is issues. I think the best Arcane Mages are ever going to get is a statement from Blizzard saying we would rather you didn’t play arcane.
29 Likes
Let us channel our hope together for a brighter future for this spec. With the launch of Shadowlands being so near, it seems unlikely we will see any further changes before the launch.
Bit of a reoccurring theme of why even bother playing this spec going on for arcane.
I like arcane visuals for a lot of their spells. It’s a shame Blizzard makes Arcane mages spam a spell that barely has a visual. Some talent options have some nice looking effects like arcane orb, supernova and arcane tempest, but they are bested by passive talents.
Doesn’t help that arcane is also boring AF to play. Having your rotation being two buttons and watching a mana bar is only a little bit better than watching paint dry. You could add some abilities via talents, but they suck compared to the passives.
Performance wise, arcane kinda pales compared to the other mage specs, especially when movement is needed.
Why bother…
7 Likes
To add something here. I think Evocation should keep it’s animation and duration but move from channel to either a protected channel or a self buff. Something so core where you become “a rock” until it’s back if it doesn’t work should be unstoppable.
Your point about a lost evocate was devastatingly accurate.
13 Likes
Only time I can remember Arcane being enough good is at the end of wotlk. This seem close to it as far as i can tell. Not bad yet not good either.
6 Likes
It’s my favourite flavour of mage and will always be. I hate that all my favorites are constantly the worst options. (Demo warlock is also one)
11 Likes
60% DR while invisible and for 3 seconds after you break invis on a two minute CD. That’s a significant defensive.
As for the rest? Carry on. Just wanted to point that out.
1 Like
Arcane orb baseline : a chance to reset orb CD on barrage ?
Arcane explosion as projected spell on the mob if u have a target: being forced to melee for AOE isnt flavour is annoying and no1 wants to deal with a mage on melee (M+ , raids ect)
Touch of Magi 1.5s cast / 45s CD
Applies Touch of the Magi to your current target, accumulating 25% of the damage you deal to the target for 8 sec, and then exploding for that amount of Arcane damage to the target and reduced damage to all nearby enemies.
What a bandaid to a wound shoot…on 45s CD noneless
the ramp up has been already explained , no1 wants to use 6-7 spells to spam 1 spell harder (arcane blast) is the antithesis of FUN
Tons of things wrong with Arcane , but hey u have fire/frost right?
3 Likes
Good news for arcane mages, in SL they will be one of the few classes to not have an AOE cap, so in terms of AOE dps they should be top dawg.
I would like to see them get more involved with the true power of arcane. The ability to manipulate time and space. Maybe let them create a time disortment field which slows down time for the enemy in a sense. They move slower, have slower cooldown times, cast speeds. Arcane could also get a a dot which is based on rapidly aging the target. I don’t know… isn’t arcanes most powerful stuff suppose to deal with time and space disortment?
2 Likes
I kinda like it the way it is now.
One button to kill things is plenty.
1 Like
I love farming old raids and dungeons using a Barrage+Darkflight macro and a Explosion+Shimmer macro with my simple 5 buttons mouse, no keyboard needed.
Otherwise I never try using it to do current content before, I’m not even sure what’s the point of using Arcane Blast when you can spam Arcane Missile the whole time.
TBH, when they introduced mana management as being the core mechanic to the spec, I’ve tried it once or twice and never stuck with it for more than 5 minutes. Nothing screams excitement like “MANA MANAGEMENT”! Do you want to manage your mana efficiently??? This is the class and spec for you! I get some people like it, but I bet most don’t.
Why a ranged class needs an internal battle going on with mana while you’re dodging 16 shadow circles, aoe damage, volcanic, and movement in M+ is beyond me. You have evocate as the single most important ability/ timefame for an Arcane Mage, and at its core, that is a very boring and utilitarian spell. You hit evocate and wait. Not exciting.
Bring back Wrath-era Arcane and people will play it more. Not trying to detract from OPs point on spec changes, but IMO this is much deeper than that.
12 Likes
I play arcane quite a bit In M+. Most of what you said is true (especially about talents) but disagree that the spec is somehow broken. 2 days ago I finished a ML 15 at 128k dps. I have two sets of azerite (ST and AoE) but normally run with explosion x3 in M+. The damage is insane.
Thanks to corruptions (a bandaid… I know) my crit is over 80% and my ST damage is still very high. Blasts hit for over 200k without equipoise. I don’t use RoP either.
It’s an easy rotation and we aren’t the jack of all trades, but I find it more fun than fire.
2 Likes
I would like my Cata arcane mage back, thank you very much.
Barring that, either much faster self-healing or a significant healing spell would be nice.
5 Likes
That sure is what it feels like they’re going to do. I was shocked to see such a massive rework for spriests… I don’t think arcane will ever get the same luxury. It’s always been a rarely played spec
The ramp up time is completely unnecessary… Fix that and at least we might be tolerable. 3m CD for AP is why again?
I just can’t wrap my head around why they think having to pop all these CD’s and then spam AB is a good thing… I really can’t.
Covenant abilities just add to the bloat… Necro or Kyrian…
Blizz PLEASE do something about this. 
1 Like
