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With nerfs coming to fire in 7.15 I’m considering dusting off my arcane spec. My arc weapon has less good relics (averaging 850) and I don’t have nearly as many levels on it, but could catch it up pretty quick. Plus I'll have the easiest time switching spec since I don’t have fire mage specific legendaries of Rizzla and Blaz, and I’ve not been lucky getting any crit trickets (Raid finder version of wriggling sinew in bag, which may actually be an upgrade, but I can’t bring myself to equip it), so I’m behind anyway despite good overall iL.
Arc is already pretty strong, although not many play it since fire was the go to spec for Legion, prior to Arc buffs, by which time everyone had invested in the fire weapon. But maybe with 7.15 we’ll have more of a balance across the specs.
Obviously things can and almost certainly will change before 7.15 launches, but I thought I'd put it forward. I was in a mythic+ with a good arc mage last week and while I of course destroyed him in AOE on trash he was better DPS on pure single target and that's pretty important for a lot a raid bosses. Arc doesn't have bad AEO, just it's not insane like fire is at the moment.
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I wouldn't decide anything at this point Ele. It's fair to say all three mage specs are "broken" to an extent, with arcane probably the most, and are going through very heavy iterations. Its sounds though like you have already decided which I recommend against
I want to raise a few points of accuracy in your post too. Fire isn't being nerfed, the devs have said that they aim for it to do roughly the amount of damage it does on live. Fire of all the three specs is being changed the least, it is being changed to reduce the damage in combustion and increase the damage outside, plus reduce the over-reliance on crit - both sensible aims.
Secondly, arcane is not a strong spec, particularly ST. it is the weakest of the three. It is ok in m+ because of short fights and AE, but doesn't beat fire at anything or Frost ST. It's semi-viable in raiding because of mages abusing Quickening. Currently, it is losing Icy Floes and if there is no movement component added to arcane rotation it is in big trouble.
Personally I have capped fire and am working on frost/arcane equally, aiming to be around 35 on all three specs. If fire is about where it is now I will roll fire again because legendaries/relics/fun. if arcane or frost are OP I am set up to switch as easily as possible. My feeling is actually that with all the specs equal on AP, that we will be swapping specs to suit the fight again.
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Thanks for your comments Rizzla. You make some interesting points, many of which I agree with. Here are my thoughts:
First of as you say mages are pretty broken, particularly arcane, which is why it’s seeing such significant changes in 7.15. Typically you wouldn’t see that many changes outside of new expansions. Apart from the RNG of the legendary lottery that impacts all raiders, positively or negatively, I think there are 2 main mage specific problems.
1) Rune is more or less mandatory, to line up with our bursty phases, but with so much ground effects in raiding these days, it is very easy to pop everything and then 1s later have to move from rune or die. Arcane have this problem also with evocate, which if forced to move ruins DPS not just for the next 10s, but the next 2 mins. They have nerfed Rune from 50% to 40% in 7.15, but I don’t think that’s enough to make it non mandatory…
2) Scaling. Fire scales well, especially with high levels of crit, which it’s extremely reliant on. Arcane has typically been weaker, but we can’t really comment on numbers, because that is still being changed. In place of numbers my thoughts on Arcane’s viability is based on talent changes:
http://ptr.wowhead.com/talent-calc/mage/arcane/cIAc
Key talent changes
L2 row – Slipstream “Arcane missiles and Evocation can be channelled while moving” – OK, so this would replace Shimmer as the double blink off CD, but would give Arcane some much needed mobility, especially after the loss of Icy floes to all specs but Frost. It also makes losing Evo mid way a much less likely occurrence. Plus strafing while channeling missiles on a boss would feel soooooo good. Good change!
L1 – Amplification “+15% damage to AM per arcane charge” - This replaces Arcane familiar as the go to talent (+10% mana + small attacks on target). I hate arcane familiar as it constantly dies and need refreshing during fights. This talent should make missiles hit like a truck in burst and conserve phases, giving arcane a much needed single target boost
L6 Overpowered “+70% damage and -70% mana cost of spells in Arcane power” This likely replaces the problematic quickening talent and could be arcane’s version of combustion. Also the other 2 talents on this row all look to have their uses.
Still, we’ll only know in Jan what really works. I’ll likely follow your idea on weapons. I’m L33 on arcane weapon (34 tonight…) So I’ll get that to 35, then do the same with the fire one, which is at 31 at the moment. After all if Blizzard do well each spec will have the fights they shine on. Helya will definitely be a fire one! I just hope I don’t have to level frost weapon too. Having 2 weapons with shit relics is already enough.
Last edited by Elementios (2016-12-09 11:25:00)
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