Berlinia's Arcane Mage Guide for T17 (Highmaul Update)

[TLTeo]

From MMO champion, according to Frosted:

~12% DPS increase for Fire, which does not bring it up to pre-buff Arcane levels.

Arcane buff brings it up to just sliiiightly behind Frost DPS on single target.

[smartys]

Since in my opinion it was nearly compatible to frost on single target patchwork fights arcane should now be better for fights like the butcher for example.. on cleave fights like twin ogron or brackenspore, frost should be still ahead..

But arcane should be in a good spot right now. So no excuse for Komma anymore

[pyrostorm]

Every night since hitting 100 I have run with the same group of people to gear up mains and alts for raids. I had saved a set of mastery and crit gear along with MS gear in hopes that Arcane or Fire were buffed so I could have a break from playing Frost.
Tonight I gave Arcane a shot I am happy to say on a single target fights I managed to out perform my previous dps records as frost, and wasn't too far behind frost on multi target fights. However I should note that our BM hunter who is 10 ilvls below me was able top multi target fights with no issues, and keep up with me on single target.
That said fights didn't last more than a few minutes and were heavily influenced by arcane power with overpower, so I'm still worried about the spec in a raid environment considering many bosses have more than 1 target and last quite a bit longer than your average 5 man boss.

[Neuroburner]

Got a question about burn phase.
I'm playing with PC and in the most cases when AP expired I'm stuck with ~85% mana? so when I tried to use burn scenario it was dps loss. In 12 second of crystal I can cast 2 Novas, 3 blasts(1 with PoM), 2 AM(conserving at least 1 before crystal and with 4 casts there is high chance to get second). Am I wrong with this rotation ?

[Emmerde]

Even though buff was anounced, arcane is still a piece of junk.

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/rankings/6 ... pec=Arcane" target="_blank
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/rankings/6 ... spec=Frost" target="_blank

I'm pretty sure I did my best here yesterday, so did Komma and other arcane mages, but the gap is still about 25%. Twenty five god damn percent. Frustrating like hell.

[ShaObito]

Even though buff was anounced, arcane is still a piece of junk.

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/rankings/6 ... pec=Arcane" target="_blank
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/rankings/6 ... spec=Frost" target="_blank

You should probably take into account the iLevel differences there as well. I don't know how that site pulls iLevel, but it looks as if Frost has a 10ilvl advantage over the arcane specs. Once the gear evens out a bit more, I'm sure the numbers will come closer together. Although I'm not happy about the difference, as frost is the devil, I'd rather see fire get more attention than Arcane. We're fine for now.

[TLTeo]

Even well geared mages like Komma couldn't quite make the spec work. Gear isn't the issue here.

[Komma]

Even well geared mages like Komma couldn't quite make the spec work. Gear isn't the issue here.

I'd say it worked fine. I don't think I played that well, either. Frost is ahead as predicted, but Arcane is performing more or less as I expected - more than well enough to kill all bosses on Heroic, too.

We'll see what happens for Mythic.

[Emmerde]

You should probably take into account the iLevel differences there as well. I don't know how that site pulls iLevel, but it looks as if Frost has a 10ilvl advantage over the arcane specs.

I had 653 with two 665 trinkets and 655 mastery/crit gun, stats balanced. Site records ilvl player had on kill. No mistake here, this 10ilvl difference you've noticed comes from spec balance, ffs.

And that's solo target +- stationary fight, best case scenario for arcane, gap will widen if there's movement (as frost has better burst and suffers less from losing tunnel damage) or multi target.

We'll see what happens for Mythic.

Arcane will go extinct w/o fix. Waste of time. In order to be competitive (or be at least significantly better on fights like Kargath), arcane needs ~45% percent buff, as it's still much worse on fights with movement, and there's no way that would happen. You don't believe that would happen either, don't you?

[ShaObito]

I had 653 with two 665 trinkets and 655 mastery/crit gun, stats balanced. Site records ilvl player had on kill. No mistake here, this 10ilvl difference you've noticed comes from spec balance, ffs.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here? You just agreed with me about the iLevel discrepancy? Thanks? Plenty of us did just fine in the fights as Arcane in our gear levels.

Arcane will go extinct w/o fix. Waste of time. In order to be competitive (or be at least significantly better on fights like Kargath), arcane needs ~45% percent buff, as it's still much worse on fights with movement, and there's no way that would happen. You don't believe that would happen either, don't you?

I think you're being a bit doom and gloom. The spec wont go extinct. A 45% buff would be ridiculous right now. The logs are showing that Arcane is doing just fine, but frost is doing as well as expected. Meanwhile fire. But this thread isn't the place for this conversation, you should probably take the whining to the official forums rather than Berlinia's guide.

[Emmerde]

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here? You just agreed with me about the iLevel discrepancy?

I'm trying to say that something is definately wrong with the numbers.

Plenty of us did just fine in the fights as Arcane in our gear levels.

Well-dressed 653 didn't make arcane do any better. Take a look @ sims: picture doesn't change up to Mythic ATM.

I think you're being a bit doom and gloom. The spec wont go extinct.

8:54am here, 7th December 2014. 125 arcane mages recorded for Kargath Heroic compared to 4200+ frost mages. Extinction? Extinction.

Meanwhile fire. But this thread isn't the place for this conversation, you should probably take the whining to the official forums rather than Berlinia's guide.

1. Who the hell cares about fire?
2. Well, I was a little bit too emo at the time of the initial post, you're right. Still the goal is not to whine, but to find the reason why the gap is that big, while Simcraft shows much closer numbers even with 630 preraid gear. It's not about ilvl at all.

And this information is definately useful for people choosing arcane as their WoD mage spec ATM.

A 45% buff would be ridiculous right now.

Did you take into account that current BoE items give frost additional advantage? For example, yesterday I was able to obtain 670 cloak & belt (mastery + multi), 655 gloves (crit + multi). Gloves with stats like that seem useless for arcane, while frost may use all 3 items. 655 gloves also give you 1 additional slot for crafted item.

If there's a way to cope with this crap, we have to find it. Seriously.

Try to keep threads OT please. - Cycobi

[Chev]

We are a bit off topic here. The OP was a guide on how to play Arcane with this expansion, not a discussion on how it is or isn't failing to meet expectations. Can I suggest that if you want to continue down that route, a new thread be opened. This thread should be more about suggestions on how to play this spec as optimally as possible or congratulating and thanking Berlinia on the work he has done in putting the guide together.

[Songette]

So, we got some amazing buffs yesterday. Any thoughts about it?

Simcraft says we're over the top (yay), but there's lots of moderate/high movement fights in Highmaul. I wonder if that'll still make it more viable than fire or frost.

http://www.simulationcraft.org/reports/Raid_T17N.html" target="_blank

[Shangalar]

I approve of Arcane simming highest because that means we will be decent in practice considering the amount of movement included in Highmaul, hello Tectus, Twins and Imperator.

I don't need to be top dps on all fights, but top 5 on stationary fights should be the norm for Arcane and I think with these buffs that we're there where we should be. Looking forward to testing it in practice.

[Cycobi]

People who are looking at Sims need to realise this is still done for BRF gear, NOT Highmaul gear, and is therefore inaccurate (for current content) anyway.

[Berlinia]

People who are looking at Sims need to realise this is still done for BRF gear, NOT Highmaul gear, and is therefore inaccurate (for current content) anyway.

What he said

[supervixen]

So our rotation has not changed even with our new buffs?

[Toytoy]

So our rotation has not changed even with our new buffs?

And now that Arcane Explosion has been buffed, will it be added to the AOE spell prioritization or will we still follow Berlinia's initial guide?

[Berlinia]

updates incomin

[supervixen]

awaiting Thank you!