Moderator note: merged into the main PTR thread.
Hello Altered Time's community,
As I have just registered I'll would like to introduce myself.
My name is Florian and I play on the German RP-PvP Realm Kult der Verdammten and its Realmpool.
I've started Legion as a Vengeance DH but soon rerolled into a class I was used to play to back then when I again started playing WoW after a break from Cata to Mid-End of MoP. I've always enjoyed the Mage as a class itself as I like magicians overall ( I actually kinda like fantasy themed books etc)
All the themes the WoW Mages could get into, Pyro... Frost and Arcane were kinda unique in each way of playstyle.
Beside the fact I kinda suck at playing Pyros Combustion thing, I surely think each specc has it's own niche of player who would enjoy playing the specific Specc and try to make it their own. Learning by doing... be one with the class u are playing and make the best effort out of it.
I have serously enjoyed learning the Arcanespecc in Legion so far. One point of it was actually that none else played Arcane- well not none but not as much as Frost... don't talk about the overfilled Pyro group (at least on my Realmpool).
Arcane was a specific theme I really enjoyed learning as the Legionchanges made the Arcane unique to other current DPS Classes. The Arcane is the only DPS Specc which has to fckn care bout his Mana- the Mana of the Arcane is it's damage. Any mistakes end in penalty of huge dps loss. None other class beside the StM-Priest have such a high risk to just one single mistake. Other DPS Classes... well who the fck uses mana these days? Shaman? Nope... Moonkin? Nope... Hunter ... Warlocks... okay they have indeed mana- but lifetappin' and it's fine =)
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Well whatever i've got away from I was originally intended to do as the reason I registered just here....
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Regarding the upcoming changes to Arcane I was browsing through several boards and threads... and was shocked 'bout what I've seen...
Not the changes themselves made me wondering... just the people thoughts.
Just before I start I want to say that I really like to play Arcanemage and I'll never want to play Pyro or Frost as Mainspecc. But Arcane in it's current form is just static- eventhough challenging but static.
The current Arcane Mage has a kinda predefined Talentset...
What I mean by that:
Tier 1 Talents..: Is there every any Reason not to take Arcane Familiar? Presence of Mind gives 2 Instant Casts of Arcane Blast... :clap clap clap: Words of Power ... for every X% Mana unspent you have >>1%<< higher procc chance of Arcane Missiles... :wohoo:
Let's see what Arcane Familar does... It increased your Maximum Mana - increasing your Masterystats efficiency as you have more mana before you run OOM in your burnphase whilst regenerating mana. Arcane Familiar increased due it's 10% Manabonus the damage from Mark of Aluneth and aswell deals damage frequently itself.
So why should I pick the other Talents?
Tier 2. Shimmer is in my eyes a must have in most situations (except maybe Helya to soak Tentacle twice where u might use Cold Snap instead). Why the heck i should pick cauterize? To not instantly die but burn to death if I may not recieve any heal and Ice Barrier and Ice Block are probably on CD?
As I said ColdSnap is an option to take... but in most cases Shimmer is just better =) (Having 4 Blinks in total with Displacements are kinda sick)
Tier 3:
The first tier you may decide what kind of playstyle you prefer. Passive waving increase of damage, a high-cd spell (i've never tried out on Arcane) and that kinda cute rune of power which I prefer most as I may set it in times where i want to increase my damage harder just in that moment and not by the random factor if Incanters Flow just gives highest amount of damage increase or lowest. But it depends on personal preferences.
Tier 4:
Supernova is a kinda nice spell- it may interrupt several abilitys due its hard-cc and deals a good amount of damage. (To bad it doesnt CC many of the current Legions Dungeoncreeps nor Raidcreeps when needed... yes i'm looking to you MoS...)
compared to that there is Resonance which gives a 25% up to 125% damage increse to Arcane Barrage depening on enemys hit (max reached at 5 Targets at 4 Arcane Charges- 4 Arcane Charges which will increse the damage of Arcane Barrage itself before...) and makes it incredebly good for Mythic+ in my opinion.
What's that- a lost son of whatever none wants to have: 'Charged Up' - gaining 4 Arcane Charges by an instant.
Although I like this Talent- it seems like many don't as they don't see any use in it. Overall I like it in several situations in where i have to ''quickstart'' my Burnrotation again...
Tier 5:
Any reason for picking another Frost Nova or Ring of Frost? Nope, Ice Flows will always be best as it allows you to walk while casting e.g. Evocation.
Tier 6:
Oh again... the 2nd Talentrow where you may decide on you playstyle.
Using Unstable Magic for a chance of adding high damage singletarget (or even a little bit of cleave) to Arcaneblast is kinda sick as mine sometimes crits from 1-2M damage. 50% extra is insane. Just the low Proccrate makes it a little bit unattractive.
Nethertempest is so far a kinda cool Talent. Not that high in Damage but may procc every trinket effect with every wave of damage it deals... i mean wtf... Aran's Relaxing Ruby (no internal CD) can procc so absurdly often with it... and even many others.
Erosion in my Eyes is also an option- specifically for myth+ again (where Unstable Magic would fall off in my opinion) and Nether Tempest would only be best with already mentioned Aran's. Incresing the Damage Enemys take by up to 8% sound not that much, but seen in a huge group of enemys it is kinda worth as Mark of Aluneth rapidly stacks it through whole enemy groups. Many people called me names for taking Erosion... as if I would care =)
Now the Tier 7 Talents..:
On those i've read the most cry-cry-cry threads with the upcoming 7.1.5 changes.
This tier is aswell so fixated on Quickening. Overpowered which increases your ''Arcane Power'' by 2 Seconds each Arcane Missile you use... which means you first have to get arcane missiles to benefit from a 90sec CD spell a little longer. The Problem here: w/o Quickening u would never had enough haste to get as many Arcane Missiles to benefit from it. As already mentioned you only profit from this Tier 7 Talent if you have BOTH- Arcane Missiles and Arcane Power. Arcane Orb is an overall joke so far... not even worth to mention the 20sec Low-Damage Spell which does nothing but giving you Arcane Charges per Target hit... If i would want to have Arcanechages by an instant why not picking ''Charged Up'' ? ... Srsly wanna know who thought about that...
Quickening is an overall benefit in every situation as you might always increase your haste w/o beein' reliable on 2 conditions as Overpowered. And it's kinda get broken when combined with a timewarp (i for myself have the Exodar Ring which means a free Timewarp every 5 Minutes (or even twice in one bossfight if group has another bloodlust)) as you may absurdly fast stacking quickening as you already have increased haste. The only problem here: The more haste you have, the faster you blew away your mana. Making any mistake here (blew away too much mana in no time or even resetting your arcane charges) would cause a huge DPS loss whilst either not beein able to cast anything more due no mana or having your quickening buff lost by Arcane Barrage...
I can't see any sense in a talent which sets you on a high-risk play potential while beein' a talent you have to choose as the others are not worth taking.
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Those are the Talents so far.
The Upcoming changes to Arcane Talents I see finally as a possibilty to vary the playstyle of Arcane to each players preferations.
U don't have to take Arcane Familiar anymore (which i start hating hard atm... it always despawns on teleportation sequences or random in fights AoEs... or random at the end of a fight ... I mean what the fck- just because it's programmed as a pet it doesn't mean it should disappear randomly... it should be classified as a buff... not a ''guardian'' as the nametag says... whatever)
With the new
New level 15 Talent, Amplification: Arcane Missiles deals an additional 15% damage per Arcane Charge.
spell u finally have an alt talent. I like Amplification and i see a huge profit regarding the T19 Set from Nighthold.
With Presence of Mind made baseline this spot got free to finally add a choise in talentcrafting.
Level 30 Talent Cauterize removed from Arcane an Frost... well I don't really give a shit
Cool new Level 30 Talent Incoming: Mana Shield giving the Prismatic Barrier which replaces Ice Barrier no CD but drains 20% Mana of the damage Absorbed... i freely will to pay this mana for absorbing damage in most cases.
Think about it: 1Million Damage just costs 200k Mana. Insane.
But you might aswell take Slipstream here... making you able to move while casting Arcane Missiles or Evocation and give back the Ice Flows whose were made frost-only without having use an additional spell- well okay just for 2 Abilitys but hey- it's better than nothing.
Although the Rune of Power nerf i think in level 45 Talents it will remain best choice for well timed damage boost.
The level 60 talents are fine in my opinion and they didnt got changed that far. There is enaugh diverty in deciding so i guess its fine to choose based on playstyle/situation.
The level 75 section...
Many people criticied Ice Flows beein' removed due higher-risk Evocation (interruptable by knock-backs etc)- well it got to be a level 30 alternative Slipstream- i won't miss 'em much.
Another nice addition for Mythic+ i guess is the new
Chrono Shift - Arcane Barrage slows enemies by 30% and increases your movement speed by 30% for 8 sec.
Which allows you to abort burnphase, faster repostioning and start the rotation all over again.
With Quickening removed the penalty for using Arcane Barrage isn't as high as before so it's sure worth taking.
Or you might take the Additional Frost Nove or the Ring of Frost for CC blocking of creeps as both aren't that worse compared to previous Ice Flows and might see some viablity just by not beein' overhelmed of a mainstream talent which is best choise in all situations.
With the Level 100 Talents I see the best changes ever- i've never expected to choose between those Talents there.
There never was a reason picking Arcane Orb before- but look- it got buffed and now deals atleast damage
Overpowered is now viable aswell as it's no longer bound to 2 conditions and just increased Arcane Power's power.
The new level 100 Talent Temporal Flux which decreases Arcaneblasts Casttime by 5% per Arcane Charge is also a viabilty for any who will miss Quickening to atleast increse Arcane Blasts Casttime.
I finally see options in mastering my own vision of Arcane Mage and not a predistined Version everyone plays just on a different level.
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The overall Damage Buffs are currently kinda nice- although not needed tho-
But the Manacostdecrease is something i'd really liked to see coming.
Before the ''buff'' as many called it (Increasing Base Damage of Spells whilst increasing Manacost) [Yeah i still call it a nerf] the Manacosts increased that much that it wasn't any kind of manaefficient to cast several Arcane Blasts on max Arcane Charges although it gave the max DPS output. With maximum Mana and 4 Arcane charges u can cast about 8 Arcaneblasts before running OOM. U pay additional 500% mana for just base 240% + 0.5*Mastery(%) which was compared to pre-nerf 400% Mana for the same amount of damage increased (if i aint missed something bout mastery scaling there... hopefully i did not)
With the Additional Manacost decreased to 60% its 240% Mana to 240% + 0.5*Mastery(%) damage which is a huge damage buff compared to before as you may cast more constantly and less throw away mana in no time.
But actually this is a huge nerf to the Arcane Mages Legendarys, Waist and Legs as you are not longer reliable on that much mana.
With the legs gettin' nerfed (as i have takin it from someones thread here in AT) from 4% MaxManaregain per Charge to 3% it isn't even that huge nerf as you might expect. U don't need that much mana as before so you dont have to regain that much while still dealing same (or even higher) amount of damage.
Another Legendary that'll get nerfed (and additionally with the Manacostreducion) are the wrists which are actually kinda cool. But procc rate will get nerfed to 18% from 25% ( information from the same thread here on AT as the Legs nerf) Additionally nerfed due the fact as the free cast of Arcaneblast won't safe as much Mana as before (500% Manacost to 240%) which is still okay as a nerf as it may procc more often as you can cast more arcane blasts which may result in more arcane missiles which may result in more freecasts which gets us back into more arcane missiles again.
EDIT: My bad- those informations seemed to be just an Datamining Error =( Should have informed on that better
Watching to the T19 Set we will even have a higher Proccrate of Arcane Missiles AND Arcane missiles will reduce Evocations Cooldown significantly. The Wrists which are currently the BiS Legendary for Arcane will get balanced this way but still remain as a huge benefit especially regarding the T19 Set... it would have been broken w/o those adjustments.
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Whatever- i hope i said all i wanted to...
Remember guys- those are MY thoughts about the upcoming changes. I might be wrong at some or many point. But I see those changes as a possibility to evolve Arcanes Playstyle in a positive way!
You are all freely invited to criticise any of my opinions as long it remains constructive.
I aint no perfect player- neither are you. we all can make mistakes.
But whatever you do... please don't blame my grammer etc ._. ... english is neither mir proper language, nor i am used to write as huge topics in english language before. Hope you may forgive me =)
Greetings-
Enderised
i might correct some statements of me then- i'll do that somewhat tomorrow =) 