Focus Magic: Arcane In Endgame

Episode 2 of Focus Magic focused on playing an Arcane Mage in endgame PvE raiding and heroics.

Introduction

Greetings guildietypes! Welcome to Focus Magic Number the Two: Electric Boogaloo.

Wait, ELECTRIC Boogaloo? What the heck are we, Shamans? Let's try this again

Welcome to Focus Magic Number the Two: Arcane Boogaloo! I'm your host, Dahkar, but you'll hopefully know me better as OLD MAN FRANKS!

First of all, thank you all greatly for all the positive feedback for the segment. I truly appreciate it. As for the negative feedback, well, that was just from Ralcolus, and he's an undead monkey, so who cares about him?

In this week's segment, we're going to talk about something near and dear to me: Endgame DPS as Arcane!

What's Changed for Arcane?

|Patch 3.0.8 changed things greatly for Arcane Mages. Before that, a mage who wanted to go Arcane was pointed and laughed at by his Frostfire brethren, as they watched and gleefully exclaimed how high their newest Frostfire Bolt crit was. Things have changed quite a bit since then.

Thanks to a complete rework of Arcane Blast's debuff mechanic, Arcane was ludicrously powerful back in the early stages of that patch. A few nerfs have come out since then, attempts to make us not-so-overpowererd and bring Arcane more in line with Frostfire Bolt. First, Arcane Missiles now consumes the AB debuff stacks at the beginning of the spell, not the end. Previously one could "Clip" the end of Arcane Missile channeling with an Arcane Blast. This allowed both spells to benefit from the debuff. The second was a flat 10% nerf to Arcane Barrage's spellpower coefficient. The end result is that the two specs are now very close in DPS, with Arcane very slightly overall ahead.

Spellcasting rotations for Arcane have changed a lot with these nerfs, but the basic premise is the same. You want to cast Arcane Blast three times to stack the debuff as much as possible.

You may see some bloggers running around claiming that the Arcane Barrage nerf means it's no longer worth casting at all in PvE anymore. "It eats up too much mana and doesn't do enough DPS! You should just cast Arcane Missiles no matter what!".

This. Is. Not. True. Large amounts of testing by the fine folks at Elitistjerks.com have shown that Arcane Barrage is STILL a vital component of any Arcane Mage's rotation.

How to DPS as Arcane

Here's what you'll want to do as your standard rotation: Cast Arcane Blast three times to build the debuff. Then cast Arcane Missiles if Missile Barrage is up. Cast Arcane Barrage if it is not. Start stacking Arcane Blast.

Always always always try to stack Arcane Blast as much as you can before you fire off either of these spells.Let's say Missile Barrage has procced, and the timer on it is ticking away But you have to move positions. When you are in place, immediately start stacking Arcane Blast as much as you can before you fire off Arcane Missiles to use that proc. If that means you can only stack 2 of them before you have to use Arcane Missiles, do it. Don't waste that proc: Use it, but make sure you buff it as much as you can, otherwise it's still a waste.

Glyphs and Talents

Okay, so now you know what to cast. Let's talk Glyphs and talent choices.

The Glyphs of Arcane Blast and Arcane Missiles are your best first two choices. These offer the best DPS increases for the spec. The final Glyph is a bit more open, depending on what you need. If you find yourself running out of mana a lot, you might want to consider the Glyph of Mage Armor or the Glyph of Mana Gem. If not, you should go with Molten Armor for the extra crit. Between Evocation, our 3-use Mana gems, and a generous supply of Mana potions, you should be fine for mana most of the time. If not, try Mage Armor/Mana gem as your third glyph.

Arcane Tree Talents

Talent choices are a little flexible. I'll give you some recommended must-have talents, and let you decide for yourself.

• Arcane Subtlety is a 40% threat reduction for 2 points (the best out of our threat-reducing talents) and is a must have. Arcane Focus is a free 3% worth of hit, and 3% mana cost. 2 things the Arcane Spec needs a lot. Take these points. Arcane Stability is one of those spaces where spending talent points is heavily debated. Spell pushback is a big cause of DPS loss for us. We shouldn't be getting hit in groups and raids, but some bosses have random attacks that hit us regardless of threat. Put some points here if you can spare them only, or work it in if you find it necessary.

• Arcane Fortitude is a PvP talent. Don't waste the points.Magic Absorption can be useful for heavy resistance based fights, like Sapphiron, but 2 points for one fight is not worth it. Again, this is a PvP talent. Don't bother. Arcane Concentration is both a chance to get a spell off with no mana cost and the best place to spend 5 points at this tier. It'll benefit another talent later on down in the tree as well.

• Magic Attunement is your range increasing talent in the arcane tree, and is worth the points, as is Spell Impact, because it directly buffs your primary nuke, Arcane Blast. Student of the Mind is iffy right now. Yes, some extra spirit will give you some mana regen, which Arcane mages almost always need, but it's very hard to find the points to justify spending them here. I'd recommend skipping this until we see how 3.1 changes how mages use Spirit (which we are supposed to get more of a benefit from). Focus Magic is a wonderful talent spell. You cast it on another player, and it gives them 3% spell crit chance. Whenever they Crit, you get that same buff for 10 seconds! Pick this up, and toss it on any caster in your group that crits often. I recommend other mages, elemental shamans, Holy Paladins, or Balance druids.

• Arcane Shielding and Improved Counterspell are PvP talents. Skip them. Arcane Meditation is more MP5 that's always going rather than just when you aren't casting. Torment the Weak is extra damage for you when a target is Snared, and given that there are a lot more spells now that count as "snares", you'll almost constantly be getting this benefit. Pick both of them up.

• Improved Blink is fun, but it's a PvP talent. Presence of Mind is a hallmark talent of Arcane, even with it's recent nerf, it should be used as much as possible. Arcane Mind is just sheer additional mana and crit chance. Pick both of those up.

• Arcane Instability is a sheer damage increase Arcane Potency makes Clearcasting (and PoM) all that much more awesome. Get both of these. Prismatic Cloak is another hotly-debated talent. I personally love it because it makes Invisibility have zero-fade time, essentially turning it into a mage Version of Hunter's Feign Death. I've lived through a lot of wipes thanks to this, and I'm stubborn as hell about keeping it in my spec. However, you might want to put those talent points elsewhere, like Arcane Stability or in the frost tree towards getting Icy veins. I leave that to you, but I'm keeping it.

• Arcane Empowerment adds additional damage to your 2 best spells. Arcane Power, though it adds less power than it used to and cannot be used in concert with PoM anymore, is still a hugely powerful cooldown ability. Grab it. Incanter's absorption is primarily for PvP. You won't be taking enough damage to warrant it.

• Arcane Flows is uberawesome. With this, your Evocation is on a 2-minute Cooldown (and trust me you'll need it) and your Arcane Power is down to 1.4 minutes!! Get this, you need it. Mind Mastery is just free spellpower for getting any buff that increases intellect. No brainer.

• Missile Barrage is another no brainer, its required for a Arcane mage. Slow is another matter. In a group setting, so many other spells function as snares to allow Torment the Weak to activate, it's not worth the mana to cast it. It works very well for PvP though. I say skip it and use the point elsewhere, but you might want to try it for your specific need.

• Netherwind Presence is free Spell haste. Get it. Spell Power is more damage when you crit. Get it.

• Arcane Barrage is part of your rotation. Pick it up.

The other Trees

Now let's talk about the other trees. Fire uses to be the tree to go to for Synergy with Arcane, you wanted to get Pyroblast to use with Arcane power and Presence of Mind. Since those two no longer work in concert, you should skip that. However, for 3 points in Incineration, you can get an additional 6% crit chance for ARcane Blast. Definitely worthwhile for 3 points.

Over in Frost, Precision will give you an additional 3% hit chance, which as I mentioned last week, allows Arcane Mages to have 6% of hit rating towards the hit cap, something no other mage spec can achieve. However, you have to spend 8 points to get it. Ice Floes is a good spot to spend 3 of the 5 points needed to get there, the other two are up to you. If you have another three points to spare, you can get Icy Veins for the free spell haste cooldown ability. Very useful.

Outtro

Okay. You know your rotation, you've got yourself all glyphed out, and you have your talent points spent appropriately. You're ready to rock. Go forth and bring the pain. That's it for this week's Focus Magic. Next week, we'll talk leveling your mage! This is Dahkar, aka Old Man Franks, reminding you to help control the gnome population, roll a troll today!!