Arcane Mage Compendium of Knowledge

[Cycobi]

Eh, I'm not an expert with this kinda syntax, as I said it could quite easily have various errors in it.

[Frosted]

You need to add Alter_time in there somewhere or none of those abilities have something to sync with, that must be why the error is there. once I added alter_time being used, it ran fine.

[Frosted]

You could build off something basic like this

Code: Select all

actions+=/alter_time,if=buff.alter_time.down&(buff.arcane_missiles.stack>1&buff.arcane_charge.stack=4)

I'm sure you'll want to add in checking for trinket procs too. IIRC the warlock module has some form of snapshotting implemented, so the syntax for responding to trinket procs should be in there.

[Komma]

Do you guys want to start a thread to discuss APL optimizations?

[Cycobi]

That's fine by me - if we get a good, accurate APL sims will actually be worthwhile \o/

[Kver]

Those haste weights might be GCD reduction, how many targets was that?

[voltaa]

It was three targets. And as for my own haste being near the brrakpoint this sim was doing a BiS model not my own gear.

[Persapien]

Hi, I have a nooby question about the rotation.

When I reach four arcane charges and have two missiles procs, is it best to use both procs to build up stacks of Profound Magic, or to switch between missiles and blast once each?

Thanks.

[Shangalar]

Heh that's one of the hardest questions around for Arcane.

I'd do it like this - if you have a haste+int proc then AM-AB-AM-AB. If you don't have any procs up your damage and mana regen is a bit lower so go for AM-AM-AB.

The bigger issue is what to do after that. If you get one more Missiles procs, then you use the Missiles and either clear with Barrage or use yet another Blast. How to tell what to do? It depends on your current mana level. If your mana is under 90% I'd just clear with Barrage even if I have 1 charge of Profound Magic. If I'm under 90% mana, but have Tempus Repit or a nice Intellect proc then I might go for Blast, but not always. That's up to your current emotional state.

[voltaa]

Updated the original post to be a little more up to date with talent choices and boss tips. Original content is still in the guide but struck out, if you feel something I struck out is still relevant, let me know why and we can possibly update it.

[Txivmagus]

Hi, new to trying out arcane. I dont understand the idea of using frost armor for single target. If haste is the best state for single target over mastery why not just stack it? And what is the point of using a dot breakpoint for haste if you are then going to use frost armor? or is the point to take the 7% into consideration for reforing haste (Ie you actually reforge less than 9552 to compensate for the fact you will have armor).

[voltaa]

Hi, new to trying out arcane. I dont understand the idea of using frost armor for single target. If haste is the best state for single target over mastery why not just stack it? And what is the point of using a dot breakpoint for haste if you are then going to use frost armor? or is the point to take the 7% into consideration for reforing haste (Ie you actually reforge less than 9552 to compensate for the fact you will have armor).

Haste and Mastery are about equal on a single target fight, but the way haste is calculated compared to mastery will give you more stats using Frost Armor compared to Mage Armor.

For example if I jump into game right now and put on Mage Armor, self buffed, my mastery will go from 94.83% to 105.8% which is a gain of 3291 Mastery.
But if I put on my Frost Armor then I go from 27.28% haste to 36.19% haste. This is less than 10% gain, but each percentage of haste gained takes more rating than a percentage gain of mastery. So I gain 3786 haste rating from Frost Armor.

The point of the haste breakpoint is that it covers two breakpoints in one, when I use Mage Armor it is a Nether Tempest breakpoint (9762) but it also by default covers the 9522 Living Bomb Frost Armor breakpoint, it goes a bit above it. So why not stack haste? The answer to that is there is only one fight this tier where you would use Frost Armor, which is Iron Juggernaught, every other fight has cleave/adds/multitarget/AoE and boosts the weight of mastery enough that the extra stats from Frost Armor are no longer worth it. Mastery wins out over Haste 99% of the time so there is no advantage to stacking it.

The individual stat calcs I used for Haste and mastery are as follows:
425 Haste = 1% Haste
300 Mastery = 1% Mastery

[Txivmagus]

Why cant i always get good answers to my questions. Thanks!

[Insoluble]

The point of the haste breakpoint is that it covers two breakpoints in one, when I use Mage Armor it is a Nether Tempest breakpoint (9762) but it also by default covers the 9522 Living Bomb Frost Armor breakpoint, it goes a bit above it. So why not stack haste? The answer to that is there is only one fight this tier where you would use Frost Armor, which is Iron Juggernaught, every other fight has cleave/adds/multitarget/AoE and boosts the weight of mastery enough that the extra stats from Frost Armor are no longer worth it. Mastery wins out over Haste 99% of the time so there is no advantage to stacking it.

I can't believe I never thought of this. So in AMR, haste should be soft capped with Mage Armor instead of Frost Armor @ 9762...

[Txivmagus]

2 questions:

Should i be swapping between mage armor and frost armor on garrosh depending on phase? (mage to start and in transitions, but frost rest of time)? Or is there a reason not to?

Assuming I only played Arcane on add fights (galakras, protectors, etc) should I not use the tier pieces? It seems like they boost single target damage quite a bit, but i find I can build most charges with arcane missiles rather than blast thanks to dot refreshing. So much so that I don't feel i need the 4 piece to get more missiles charges. i feel like it makes the tier bonus not worth it. Any thoughts?

[Cycobi]

2 questions:

Should i be swapping between mage armor and frost armor on garrosh depending on phase? (mage to start and in transitions, but frost rest of time)? Or is there a reason not to?

Assuming I only played Arcane on add fights (galakras, protectors, etc) should I not use the tier pieces? It seems like they boost single target damage quite a bit, but i find I can build most charges with arcane missiles rather than blast thanks to dot refreshing. So much so that I don't feel i need the 4 piece to get more missiles charges. i feel like it makes the tier bonus not worth it. Any thoughts?

If it's Heroic and it's progress, you're better off running Frost Armour for the entire fight. If it's normal and it's farm, you're better off running Mage Armour for the entire fight.
If it's Heroic and farm, run Mage Armour for P1-3, change to Frost Armour for P4.

[Vellox]

Just a quick question about your BiS lists, how much of an effect would being Human with Nazgrim's sword affect it? And, say, if I was able to swap my H Sword for a HWF Spoils Wand, would it be worth losing the hit?

I'm assuming since you're only swapping a tiny bit of mastery for a tiny bit of haste, that overall the 1% extra hit makes up for it, but I'm not entirely sure.

[Komma]

Just a quick question about your BiS lists, how much of an effect would being Human with Nazgrim's sword affect it? And, say, if I was able to swap my H Sword for a HWF Spoils Wand, would it be worth losing the hit?

I'm assuming since you're only swapping a tiny bit of mastery for a tiny bit of haste, that overall the 1% extra hit makes up for it, but I'm not entirely sure.

As a gnome I have a similar racial with swords and daggers, so I've been using Nazgrim's sword instead of the wand.

[Wilderness]

Is snapshotting still a thing for Arcane? I've read the analysis in the Frost section which showed it was a very slight dps increase at best, but didn't know if that's true for Arcane as well since there's at least the additional benefit of the chance of a missile proc when re-applying your bomb that Frost wouldn't have.

[Komma]

I haven't done the same analysis for arcane because setting up for snapshotting tests is a painful process. I would guess that similar results come from snapshotting with arcane though.