Arcane Mage (DPS not FC)

[deebombish]

Hey guys,



Well over the past few months on my BG group Reckoning there have been a handful of arcane mages who have proven that Arcane is a great FC spec. However I was wondering whether anyone knows of a viable arcane DPS spec. My plans would be either to arcane missile or arcane explosion groups of people but I am not sure of the viability of either. If anyone knows of a good arcane DPS mage or wants to toss around some ideas plz do some in this thread

 

[EvilTail]

I play arcane mage for 39 bracket. 28/2/0 is my spec, you can check my armory.

Malacoda, US Velen server.



[char=Velen]Malacoda[/char]



It is a ton of fun, way more fun then frost or fire. I've been thinking about moving the 2 talents from Improved Fireblast to Ice Flows, or Frostbite, but Im not sure. I recently specced out of Arcane Concentration, 5 points just seemed too much. The 1 to 1 hp per mana for mana shield is great, i could never go back



My gear could be a little better, no SoJ, but all in all, Mal is a great toon to play. I can kill all classes with an instant fireball up my sleeve, i usually time it with the cooldown of fireblast so its a pretty nice little 1, 2 combo.

 

[Dye]

i personally don't see how arcane can be considered a mage 39 spec for dps. Your burst damage is basically reliant on Presence of Mind and you are extremely easy to shutdown in comparison to a frost or fire mage. i always thought fire and occasionally frost mages did much better as DPS and utility in 39. Thats my opinion tho, and if arcane dps floats your boat then go for it.

 

[Cookíes]

I'd have to say neg to this idea, but respect to you my good friend for wanting to try something new

 

[EvilTail]

I dont know what you mean by arcane being easier to "shut down" then other specs. Shut down how? Not sure what Arcane lacks in utility, i think it has more personally. Imp blink, imp counterspell, magic attunment, arcane shielding...ect.



Arcane missiles does insane damage, each one has a seperate chance to crit, mine hit for 140+/- per missile no crits, x5 thats around 675 damage if nothing crits, oh and no knockback at all on that. Fireballs dont hit for that much when they dont crit, and no firemage hard casts pyro and if they do its on a target fighting someone else. Frost has unmatched control, and I cant touch that, but I can out dps frost. So the real question is between fire and arcane. The only two big dps abilities that matter for either spec are ignite vs presence of mind. It is a close call, myself I like the instant fireball to kill that stupid ret pally holding off on his bubble for "just one more minute" and then lol as I take his insignia. Or you can run away with blazing speed



Bottom line is play however you like, respeccing only cost a few gold and its worth a shot. This works very well for my play style, yours might be different, but your DPS will not suffer, and you will probably die less, take it from an arcane mage. Aim for 2k hps and dont sweat the mana, youwill probably have 2300-2500 or so.



P.s instant sheeps are pretty helpfull too. Sucks to blow POM on em, but it can save your skin.

 

[Dye]

I dont know what you mean by arcane being easier to "shut down" then other specs. Shut down how? Not sure what Arcane lacks in utility, i think it has more personally.

Lets see... Have you ever heard of something called kick? How about kidney shot? What about scatter shot, counterspell, or intercept? Thats what I meant by "Shut Down" when you sit there casting your arcane missiles at me all I have to do is click counterspell and then your counterspell is shutdown and i can just sheep/pyro you will you sit there fuming over how your "ARCANE DPS FTW!" didn't beat me. That is just one of the many ways you can, will, and should be shut down if you play twinks and players in the 30-39 bracket that actually know what they are doing. My 2 cents anyways :/. Atleast with fire i have more instant casts then you in arcane. And, lets face it, when is presence of mind gonna save you? 1 every 2 minutes MAYBE. If you through at me a fireball i would just iceblock it or soak your fireball and wait to shut your arcane tree down. Or i can just sheep you after faking your counterspell out with frostbolt.

 

[Druiddroid]

I dont know what you mean by arcane being easier to "shut down" then other specs. Shut down how? Not sure what Arcane lacks in utility, i think it has more personally. Imp blink, imp counterspell, magic attunment, arcane shielding...ect.

blast wave is incredibly versitile, as well as having a stun for fireblast.

Arcane missiles does insane damage, each one has a seperate chance to crit, mine hit for 140+/- per missile no crits, x5 thats around 675 damage if nothing crits, oh and no knockback at all on that.

same with fire magi, unless they cast it with someone on them.



otherwise they're throwing out scorches that do great DPS and have typically a much higher chance of critting.

So the real question is between fire and arcane. The only two big dps abilities that matter for either spec are ignite vs presence of mind.

not true.



fire has many different dps talents that 'matter'. sure, they aren't huge, but they are better for DPS than arcane.

Bottom line is play however you like, respeccing only cost a few gold and its worth a shot. This works very well for my play style, yours might be different, but your DPS will not suffer, and you will probably die less, take it from an arcane mage. Aim for 2k hps and dont sweat the mana, youwill probably have 2300-2500 or so.

true, play whatever is fun.







i have witnessed a couple of the most talented fire mages around, so perhaps that swings my opinion. but fire is very very good for dps, while arcane seems better for a safer form of DPS, with PoM allowing for a bit of burst.

 

[EvilTail]

Ug relax bro. Everything you just said is very very true, and would shut down arcane, but it would do the same to fire as well, and frost too. You are no longer talking about damage and are now talking about how to pvp against a mage, arcane frost or fire. Great discussion, we could have a whole thread about that, probably two, but this one isnt about that.



Druid, blast wave is a great point. Very good damage there. True fire can stun, but i think of it more as a 90% chance to not stun rather then a 10% chance to stun.



I havent seen many good mages at all, retaliation isnt a strong bg, not even trying to argue that I am, just saying arcane is a very sucessfull build. Pure dps, just stand and shoot, i concede fire is more, which is the ultimate question in this thread.



To the threadstarter- dont go out of your way to arcane blast groups, it gets you killed. do it only if you have no other option or when dying, take a few of the suckers with you

 

[Druiddroid]

ok, i will agree that arcane DPS can be sucessful. of course at 39 there aren't many bad builds.

 

[Aristeia]

IMO I'd much rather be fighting a dps arcane mage than a dps fire mage

 

[Ymir]

Arcane missiles is fun for spell pushback. My 19 mage demolishes warlocks due to that, and her gear is terribly terrible.

 

[Tidal]

Then those warlocks suck, really. I have fought a (mediocre) warlock twink in 3.09 a few times, me having perfect gear and technique. I beat him once with 19 hp to spare purely due to bad play, he won the other fights. Arcane Missiles is no good when you're getting fear locked.

 

[Ymir]

Then those warlocks suck, really. I have fought a (mediocre) warlock twink in 3.09 a few times, me having perfect gear and technique. I beat him once with 19 hp to spare purely due to bad play, he won the other fights. Arcane Missiles is no good when you're getting fear locked.

That's exactly why arcane missiles is good. Fear isn't so devastating when it takes over twice as long to cast. Did you think I was using it to push back corruption? CoA?

 

[Tidal]

I think you can't cast anything while you're feared

and even if you are referring to the first time they cast it, 2.5 sec is not "over twice as long" as 1.5.



I do agree that once the fear lock is over, AM helps vs immolate, searing pain, and the barrage of pet attacks you get, but since you will be at half hp easily while the warlock is full, that won't ever justify the term "demolish"...

 

[Ymir]

I think you can't cast anything while you're feared

and even if you are referring to the first time they cast it, 2.5 sec is not "over twice as long" as 1.5.



I do agree that once the fear lock is over, AM helps vs immolate, searing pain, and the barrage of pet attacks you get, but since you will be at half hp easily while the warlock is full, that won't ever justify the term "demolish"...

Looking at it from your perspective, whos mage is probably much better geared and comparing himself to warlocks with much better gear, then yes, I can see where you are coming from.



From a 900hp 57 sp mages perspective, fighting comparable locks, if you AM the fear, trink, AM the second fear, just keep chaining the AMs until they're not using cast time spells, then start throwing in some fireblasts, they're the ones who are starting the fight at half health. Having to use spells that I can push back is what's costing them. Even with the dot stack on, their health is dropping way too fast while they try to get their fears off.



When you start talking 225 herb, runecloths, and agms, they have too much time to recover, assuming they want to use those cooldowns, or just have the kind of health pool that tends to come with that level of gear. Without that, they get chewed up too fast by AM while trying to fear. Of course, I haven't played the mage much since the leg patches were nerfed (in fact I forgot I even had her), my AM is down to 49-50dps without crits, from the 75 or whatever it was before. Like I said, my mage is in crappy gear, and rolls locks. I'll film a few if you like.



To put it another way, if they spend 2.5 seconds casting a fear that I trinket, then 2.5 seconds casting the next, they've spent 5 seconds to cc me for 5 seconds. Not devastating. Assuming they put up a pair of instant dots first, they've taken 350-400 damage if I didn't crit at all. Before the leg patch nerf it was more like 500-600, without crits.



However, all that aside, I guess the point I was really trying to make is not to overlook the fact that AM spam provides more spell pushback than an SS rogue with a slow offhand, and close to as much as a hemo rogue with a fast OH.