Arcane Mage FC, Undead or Belf?

[Jambi]

I'm thinking about making an Arcane Mage for running flags for horde, and wondering which racials would best fit me. I've never played a Belf before, but I was thinking of going with them. Magic resistance seemed like it would be pretty useful, and I guess a silence would have its uses as well. I'm not sure how those would be compared to WotF and Cannibalize, as I've never really FC'd much. Thoughts?



And I'm assuming Engineering is still going to be useful, despite the fact I'm not using a Green Lens. Comments on this? I see a few FC mages going Mining for the extra stamina, I figured Engineering would be better though.

 

[Splenda]

Since the WotF nerf Undeads arent that good anymore.



I would take a belf for FC'ing. But an Undead for the awesomeness.

 

[Dye]

are arcane mages now a somewhat "go to FC" for the 39 bracket? Always thought/saw druids more so as FC's for their bear form and leet travel form. Or has it somewhat flipped recently?

 

[Druiddroid]

^ having played both an arcane mage and druid fc i'd say druid fcs are better for group/premade play but arcane mages are much better for soloing or being in a premade with very few people on D. arcane mages are better at kiting but druids are better for tanking.



to the OP, i'd go belf since extra magic resistance makes it even more overpowered than it already is, and arcane torrent is nice to have too. undead are kind of bleh for arcane mage fc imo



engineering is better if you use the items, ie iron grenades and the trinkets and all that stuff. mining is better if you are lazy

 

[Jambi]

Alright thanks for the help guys.

 

[Hargrove]

Undead tidbit...

Alright thanks for the help guys.

Just wanted to point out that another potential benefit to Undead is the option to gamble on slumming on your trinket for a second AGM, something Blood Elves can't do nearly as well. Also, arcane torrent doesn't have the range, for my liking, especially with 25 yd blinks.



Also, druids are bad at everything after the debuff. Arcane mages are, by far, the most fun to run flags solo.

 

[Druiddroid]

ehhh when i played a mage, fears and seduce were not a big concern for me, not as much as slows were. trading a trinket for 12 stamina is a bad idea imo. you should be kiting warlocks pretty well and the only thing they should land are their instants, and priests can be imp cs'd + poly/blink if needed. plus you have lots of resist in the worst case scenario when it's unavoidable.



i agree the range of arcane torrent sucks, but the extra mana you get out of it can be great, you can probably get in an imp cs + poly with the mana you get if you're OOM. idk now i'm just theorycrafting lol



also arcane mages during the debuff are easily the best at kiting but they are suseptable to burst. double debuff really hurts a clothy that relies a good bit on spamming mana shield. so it's good to have a stat set and then a stam set for the debuff.

 

[Hargrove]

ehhh when i played a mage, fears and seduce were not a big concern for me, not as much as slows were. trading a trinket for 12 stamina is a bad idea imo. you should be kiting warlocks pretty well and the only thing they should land are their instants, and priests can be imp cs'd + poly/blink if needed. plus you have lots of resist in the worst case scenario when it's unavoidable.

I'd add that the cds only delay the inevitable in the case of priests and locks if you're on cap. The primary reason to keep a trinket over WotF is blind. You need to be cautious about a 2nd rogue's cheapshot, but creative teleporting can help a lot with that. In PuG games especially, though, you often get bad calls to cap, and the issue is being able to stand there for 8-12 seconds (within which, you can only delay the fearbomb for so long - only the fears are an issue in that scenario, because you're already "stuck" in place, for the most part).

also arcane mages during the debuff are easily the best at kiting but they are suseptable to burst. double debuff really hurts a clothy that relies a good bit on spamming mana shield. so it's good to have a stat set and then a stam set for the debuff.

Yep, mana is almost useless at that point.

 

[Dye]

what debuff are you speaking of? just curious lol.

 

[Druiddroid]

^^



carrying flag debuff, reduces speed to a max of 100% and you take 50% (single debuff)/100% (double debuff) more damage

I'd add that the cds only delay the inevitable in the case of priests and locks if you're on cap. The primary reason to keep a trinket over WotF is blind. You need to be cautious about a 2nd rogue's cheapshot, but creative teleporting can help a lot with that. In PuG games especially, though, you often get bad calls to cap, and the issue is being able to stand there for 8-12 seconds (within which, you can only delay the fearbomb for so long - only the fears are an issue in that scenario, because you're already "stuck" in place, for the most part).

all depends on your style of play, for me if i'm in a pug game i typically don't just stand there for 8-12 seconds, i wait outside of the FR (and maybe run a bit) and if a return comes i blink to the cap. all depends on the situation, sometimes you do have to wait it out. i almost never got f eared anyways. /shrug



i guess an undead can be useful but i just think resist + extra mana + occasional silence/free rogue detect is better than getting out of a typically avoidable fear. i've never played a horde arcane mage though so i'm just theorycrafting here.