Arcane mage guide for raiding by Dutchmagoz! [6.2 updated]

[Dutchmagoz]

Weapons, WF > socket.

Trinket, depends. On the oregorgor trinket socket > WF, on the others, WF > socket.

[Allysonna]

Weapons, WF > socket.

Trinket, depends. On the oregorgor trinket socket > WF, on the others, WF > socket.

What about other gear, i.e., belt, feet, neck, etc.? Which way to go, warforged or socket?
I know that with the tier pieces, you get what you get. With other, non-tier pieces, we have more decisions to make.

Thanks!!
Ally

[Wilderness]

Outside of weapons/trinkets: Gem > WF

[Mejn]

Any tips for Blackhand Mythic ?

[Dutchmagoz]

Any tips for Blackhand Mythic ?

It completely depends on your strategy and group comp.

Ginvis helps with soaking fire in p2 and debris in p3. Make sure you remember how the tanks move the boss, and communicate with them on when to move/not to move if you feel comfortable doing that, to maximize PC usage. (PC really is the best talent if you can get the hang of it on blackhand)

With my kill timings I can PC + AP in phase one, PC right at the start of P2 and then PC+AP near the last 10% or so of P2, and again somewhere around 15-20% in P3. (this is where we bloodlust) But as I said, this depends a lot on your strategy and phase/mechanic timings.

[Charmander!]

There's two sorts of ways you can do blackhand:

1: 3 crystal P2
2: 2 crystal P2, save one and 2 crystal P3

This depends on your kill time and where damage urgency is needed. If you're soaking the first debris of P3 you probably won't be able to get two crystals in the phase unless your raid's P3 damage is rather weak. Either way you crystal the start of P1, and it comes off cooldown just as P2 starts. During early progression you may use a second crystal in P1 if pushing the phase is an issue for your raid, but it shouldn't be at the ilevels guilds are pulling blackhand with now. The common P2 strat of tanking siegemakers against a wall usually has the tank position the boss for the first P2 smash at the opposite end of the room from where the boss is tanked for the majority of the phase. Upon landing in P2, you should be able to cast one ice floes AB4 or AM while moving to your ranged camp position and while the boss is being moved, then the boss will be positioned for the first smash and will remain stationary until the smash which is exactly the duration of a prismatic crystal, so it should be used there.

Second and third P2 crystals can be used around procs and the timing of MfD/smash as no matter when you use them in P2 you'll get one full duration in P3. Ideally the tank won't have the boss positioned right next to the siegemaker, you should attempt to make sure your crystal is positioned in a way where it only hits the boss and doesn't accidentally splash onto the sieges.

I play the fight without AP glyph but it's really not much of a difference, other than AP glyph gives more P1 damage during progression. If you're using AP glyph with a typical early kill time (7:45-8:15) you'll get use of it in P1, second crystal of P2 and P3 crystal. Just glyph AP around where you want more boss damage (P1/P3 or P2).

[Allysonna]

Any tips for Blackhand Mythic ?

It completely depends on your strategy and group comp.

Ginvis helps with soaking fire in p2 and debris in p3. Make sure you remember how the tanks move the boss, and communicate with them on when to move/not to move if you feel comfortable doing that, to maximize PC usage. (PC really is the best talent if you can get the hang of it on blackhand)

With my kill timings I can PC + AP in phase one, PC right at the start of P2 and then PC+AP near the last 10% or so of P2, and again somewhere around 15-20% in P3. (this is where we bloodlust) But as I said, this depends a lot on your strategy and phase/mechanic timings.

Trying to use Prismatic Crystal on Blackhand fights gives me a whole new reason to hate my tanks

[Eryxus]

I am confused about Arcane Orb use. Several guides disagree with you on when's best to use it.

Shang's guide says:

...use Arcane Orb exclusively after resetting Charges with Barrage if it's ready. Only then. Even if it becomes available when you're at 1-2 Charges, don't use it, save it for the next cycle.

Lexi's WoD Mage Compendium says:

Arcane Orb is best used to skip the first 2 stacks of Arcane Charge so that you can have a higher uptime at higher stacks.

Cycobi's Arcane Mage guide says:

You should Arcane Orb just after you reset your stacks with Arcane Barrage

But your guide suggests:

[With Arcane Orb talented]: Cast it whenever you have no arcane missile stacks.

Which suggests I cast it at 4 stacks of charge when I have run out of missile procs, rather than after I Barrage. Also, to use it during the burn for more missile procs.

I am unsure who to follow here.

[Frosted]

They're all just poaching from the Arcane APL and have various degrees of the explanation komma gave for it.

Lexi gives the best description in this case - You use AO during conserve to skip the first two AC states, since AB is at it's lowest DPET there.

Cycobi says the same thing, with different words and less elucidation as to why you're doing it.

No clue why Dutch says what he does. Maybe he's assuming you're on a fight like darmac (since you only really use AO on those kinds of fights, so it's a fairly valid assumption I think for him to make) and abusing adds to generate missiles for more Single Target damage? In which case you're spending AO to force a lot of missile procs (which honestly you should just Abarr -> AO anyways, which would line up with what cycobi/lexi said).

Using it at 1 AC is fine.

Essentially, they are all saying the same thing:

Use AO to skip the First/Second AC state after dumping charges while in conserve, or to generate missiles if you're trying to abuse it when adds are present. Prolly should Abarr -> AO tho if there are adds, since you'll immediately regenerate 4xAC with the AO. You really should never use it during burn unless you royally fucked up and Abarr'd inside your burn - in which case you can use it to quickly recover AC stacks.

[Eryxus]

Hey, thanks for that. Just want to say I cut the quotes out of longer text to focus on the core of what they're saying. Some had more elaborate explanations.
Arcane Orb just feels really underwhelming as a level 100 talent. Simply used to get stacks faster is boring.

[Omnomnomlet]

I initially want to say great job Dutch, and thank you so much for an amazing guide that has vastly improved my understanding and performance of playing a Mage at a high level. As an aside, I have a couple of quick questions regarding the comparison between Rune of Power and Incanter's Flow.

1. What % uptime on Rune of Power do I need to merit it being BETTER than IF during an encounter, i've looked for this % often, but cannot find anything conclusive.

2. Is Incanter's Flow "snapshotting" (abusing stacks of flow in a certain way/starting burn at high stacks/low stacks) a thing? How important is it? What amount of a dps increase could you see if you snapshotted perfectly in an encounter vs. pure RNG winging it?

I appreciate any feedback you could provide and look forward to hearing a response. Thanks again for a great guide and improving my understanding of the class!

[Dutchmagoz]

I initially want to say great job Dutch, and thank you so much for an amazing guide that has vastly improved my understanding and performance of playing a Mage at a high level. As an aside, I have a couple of quick questions regarding the comparison between Rune of Power and Incanter's Flow.

1. What % uptime on Rune of Power do I need to merit it being BETTER than IF during an encounter, i've looked for this % often, but cannot find anything conclusive.

2. Is Incanter's Flow "snapshotting" (abusing stacks of flow in a certain way/starting burn at high stacks/low stacks) a thing? How important is it? What amount of a dps increase could you see if you snapshotted perfectly in an encounter vs. pure RNG winging it?

I appreciate any feedback you could provide and look forward to hearing a response. Thanks again for a great guide and improving my understanding of the class!

No problem! As to your questions:

1. It's not so much about the uptime, as it is about the amount of times you have to recast it. If you have to cast it more than like once a minute, it's not really worth it.

2. Snapshotting IF is really not a big thing, due to multiple reasons. First one being, even when done perfectly, it's only a minor increase. But more importantly, there's a very high risk that when you try to fit your, for example supernova's, all into high stacks of IF, you may end up casting it on lower mana or something instead, or having to drop charges earlier. I personally do track it and try to aim for using supernova on high stacks, but that's all I do. The risk vs reward is simply not really worth it. The reward is low, and the risk of messing something up is high.

[Killget]

2. Snapshotting IF is really not a big thing, due to multiple reasons. First one being, even when done perfectly, it's only a minor increase. But more importantly, there's a very high risk that when you try to fit your, for example supernova's, all into high stacks of IF, you may end up casting it on lower mana or something instead, or having to drop charges earlier. I personally do track it and try to aim for using supernova on high stacks, but that's all I do. The risk vs reward is simply not really worth it. The reward is low, and the risk of messing something up is high.

- I would agree, I think this is mentioned in another thread too, but the only time i would really 'snapshot' is during a conserve phase where you have a spare supernova to cast. Even still using it with a trinket/weapon proc would probably be better

I initially want to say great job Dutch, and thank you so much for an amazing guide that has vastly improved my understanding and performance of playing a Mage at a high level. As an aside, I have a couple of quick questions regarding the comparison between Rune of Power and Incanter's Flow.

1. What % uptime on Rune of Power do I need to merit it being BETTER than IF during an encounter, i've looked for this % often, but cannot find anything conclusive.

There are a few things to take into account. Incanters flow gives an average of 12% SP buff over a fight. RoP giver 15% SP buff with 100% uptime. So if you just look at it like that, ~80-85% uptime of RoP would work out the same as IF. Aslo, as Dutchmagoz mentions. you also have to cast RoP once/twice every three minutes on a patchwerk fight, on a hectic fight, this may be more, which means lots of wasted Global cooldowns and also potential deaths by trying to stay in your Rune e.g. Iron Maidens Bomb phase. Meaning that required uptime for RoP is even higher to warrant its choice over IF.

To try put this in perspective, On mythic difficulty, the only fights that i pick Rune of Power on are Gruul & Beastlord. EDIT: + Flamebender

Hopefully this gives some extra food for thought

[Firepants]

To try put this in perspective, On mythic difficulty, the only fights that i pick Rune of Power on are Gruul & Beastlord.

Why dont you use RoP on Flamebender? Playing with Greater Invis allows you to ignore the aoe phase and you can just stand out in your RoP instead of blinking in to the boss.

[Killget]

Yeah i do, just forgot it. , ive edited, thanks

[Eryxus]

Hello, please could you advise me when dpsing on burst aoe mobs, like Beastlord Pack Beasts.

AoE rotation: (5+ targets stacked up)
- [With Arcane Orb talented]: Use arcane orb whenever you have no arcane charges.
- Cast Arcane Barrage when you have 4 stacks of arcane charges.

From Cycobi's mage guide (AoE (4+ Targets) Rotation):

make sure you’re not Barraging without Arcane Orb off cooldown, otherwise you’re losing a lot of Single Target DPS (and overall DPS) by rebuilding stacks through Arcane Blast.

Based on these quotes, is it better to:

1) Barrage - Orb - Barrage; or
2) Barrage - Orb,

the Pack Beasts? I want to do max burst dps, but not at the expense of overall dps.

[Chev]

Option 1 is more if there is sustained 5+ targets. E.g. continuous waves of adds or 5+ targets with large health pools. As you are building your Arcane Charges via Arcane Explosion or Arcane Orb which do not benefit from the number Arcane Charges you currently have so it is not a DPS loss to use Barrage as soon as you hit 4 stacks.

With Beastlord, unless you have been given exclusive access to the adds, chances are other raid members are also trying to DPS whore as well and so the adds wont last long. In which case you are probably better off using option two. E.g. Use Arcane Explosion a few times while there are 5+ targets up and just before they die and Arcane Orb is off CD or ~1 second left on the CD, use ABarr and then straight away use the Orb to get get back up to 4 stacks so you can continue your single target DPS on the boss at max strength. Timing will be an issue because if the adds all die from you casting ABarr + raid damage, your Orb will only generate 1 AC on use and 1 for hitting the boss unless you can also get it to hit some spears as it goes past.

If you are due to reset your stacks because you are in your conserve phase when the adds come out, you will want to time it so you can ABarr, Orb to max stacks again and then Abarr again to reset stacks but don't forget there is also a travel time involved with ABarr.

[Wilderness]

Yeah, it probably depends if you are given the adds alone for your own ranking or if others are going to try to pad as well. In my own recent meter-whoring attempts, the best of which was rank 18, I was competing with others for padding and so the adds died rather quickly. I usually couldn’t stand all the way in where the adds were due to boss positioning, so as they spawned and I was moving towards them I would Abarr, AO, then spam AE until they died. All of the missile procs would let me spend a lot of time at 4 stacks while on the boss, keeping my dps up throughout the fight. I did have a few glyphed CoC’s in there as well, but I’m not sure what the threshold is for using that vs AE in terms of the # of adds.

If you have the adds to yourself then you can slow it down a bit, I’d probably do Abarr, AO, Abarr, maybe CoC, then AE and since they will take longer to die AE should build up at least a couple stacks for you.

[Eryxus]

Thanks. I'll go with barrage - orb then.

[Dutchmagoz]

I will hopefully update this guide for 6.2 this weekend! Fire guide will be first though, so depends how much time I have left.