A question for the mages

[Silverthorn]

Hi guys. First off, great job. You guys just keep on pushing content and making it look easy even though i know it is not.

I was wandering if i could pose some questions to the mages of the guild. I have always been frost specced other than a few stints as a POM/PYRO mage just for shits and giggles. I am probably going to be speccing fire tonight just for a change. I had noticed that several of your mages are heavy arcane. I have honestly never tried this and would like to know what the advantages and disadvantages of it are. I have decent gear but not great. If any of you know me then you know that i am not a nub mage and know my way around the class. Any input you could give me about the arcane spec would be great and possibly tell me if it suits my gear well. I do have a few specific questions that i would like you to answer if possible.

How is the mana-efficiency of arcane?
What is your main spell or series of spell rotation as this spec?
What is the DPS compared to the classic (yet somewhat boring) fire spec?
What different gear choices do you have to make as arcane.

Finally, how do i convince my fellow mages not to let me out dps them as frost?


Thanks in advance and keep up the good work. If you are ever on alliance side feel free to holler at me. If you see me in pvp RUUUUUUUUUUNNN :)

[Bazz]

I believe the main reason our mages went arcane is because the set bonuses on the T5 and T6 sets basically "make arcane viable" and even make it better.

It is somewhat of a mana hog, but if you manage your potion timers, and are lucky enough to get in a SP group, then you can expect to top meters with it.

[Tarron]

Hey, thanks for stopping by... Here's my 2 cents on the matter. I'm not a theorycrafting expert by any means but I've cobbled together a bit of information (and then thrown in all out the window by whoring T6 and then spec'ing fire, lol)

Cutting and pasting a little bit from my post in the mage forums.

Mana efficiency: Arcane is difficult to sustain without a spriest or chain chugging pots. The ideal max dps situation is having a good spriest and still chain chugging pots to sustain a good amt of AB spam.

Cycle: My normal arcane rotation was 3xAB->AM->Scorch repeat, that's pretty cookiecutter arcane. Your first AB of the next cycle will still benefit from the increased cast time but the debuff will reset. The one thing that I used to vary was whether or not I would interrupt casts when I got a CC proc. If I got a CC proc on the AM I would always cast another (all you lose is the fast AB at the start of the cycle). Sometimes I would try to interrupt the ABs on a CC proc but it was hit or miss, it def helps with mana and an arcane potency AM hits hard, but unless I was hurting for mana I would usually just keep up the cycle.

This is something that you'll be able to feel out for yourself pretty quickly. There are some fights (usually movement fights where I got a bit of OOC regen) where I will basically just spam AB at the start, use AP, pop a gem and a potion and go until I'm OOM. Then I evocate and start the cycle. I have a decent amt of spirit on my gear and carry an evocate staff and wand so I'll basically fill my bar, if you're not getting that much back you'll need to adjust.

The thing about arcane is that you need to be watching your mana and adjusting accordingly. You should be OOM at the end of every boss fight as arcane, if you're high on mana near the end, just spam AB.

As for damage output, its good, but not great, until you get the T5 2pc bonus. I'd say without bonus it will beat frost by a solid margin (but we haven't had anyone that raided frost since pre-Naxx) and played well it will be even with or exceed 10/48/3 fire.

Once you've got the 5pc bonus and solid arcane gear (more on gear below) its, imo, the best damage spec around.

For gear, you're looking to hit cap at 6% (the rest comes from talents) and then focus on dmg and crit, not sure what the exact relation is as far as value, maybe somebody else has done the math. When I switched to arcane I was sitting at 12+% hit so I had to do a lot of gear swapping and regemming. If you aren't near that cap you won't have nearly as bad of a time.

Since arcane rotations depend on timing the AB debuff you want to avoid things like the meta gem that decrease cast time, I think we all use the +3% crit dmg meta (yes it works on spells). However, there *may* be some major changes coming for arcane mages in regards to procs relating to AM ticks (I haven't kept up with it at all, check the EJ mage theorycrafting thread or maybe someone will post something interesting here).


As far as the other mages... well, I'd say a few whacks from the l2p stick should solve that. Honestly though, I've never really understood mages with extremely low dps, its not a tough class to put out decent damage esp as fire or frost. Unless they're spec'd something completely retarded or have really bad gear choices (biggest culprit here is very low spell hit, its a cheaply budgeted stat, there are gems for it, don't be under the hit cap unless you can't help it) Maybe its because we don't have an autoattack, if you're not paying attention or trying at least a little bit you're not doing any damage at all.

bah, ppl at work bugging me, might edit more in a bit.

[Bosch]

Silverthorn rofl.

how ya doing dude.

[Bazz]

Bosch is a fag. True Story.

[Bosch]

Bosch is a fag. True Story.

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u266/bobtheninja_photo/Fuck_your_theory.jpg

[Bazz]

I heard Bosch was a wrestler when he was younger... And I have Proof

[Bosch]

Uhhh dude....that's both of us.

Why did you just out us?

[Silverthorn]

Silverthorn rofl.

how ya doing dude.



Hey man. I am doing good. Actually loving the casual raiding thing. I must still be pretty good cause even though i dont ever ask to be in a raid they always invite me and ask me which mages to bring. Wish i had roll Horde to be honest so perhaps i could still be kicking karnage's ass in healing raids but i cant complain. The old OR days make me glad i dont push so hard anymore.

You really need to get lucky with the perfect set of folks to be a hardcore raid guild. I have never been lucky enough i guess.

Thanks for the info and I honestly know so little about gear these days that i had no idea what the T5 and T6 set bonuses were. I just looked them up. To be honest these days i dont know what drops off a boss till it drops. Playing arena with my brother on his new warrior. Shadez is not Chimera.

Anyway, I am bored at work and rambling. Thanks for the info again and good to see you still alive and kicking Bosch.



P.S. Any of you guys planning on moving to WAR or are you sticking with WoW. I love WoW, but not sure i can pass up a game that is based on pvp. I think we are going to resurrect the Shadez and Silverthorn combo on WAR.

[Karnage420]

i could still be kicking karnage's ass in healing raids but i cant complain.


hehe

yea u shoulda never rerolled with nef/shog :)

[Tarron]

I think a few of us are planning on trying WAR, but I don't think a full on pvp game could keep my interest.

[Xyebane]

just play eve for full time pvp imo

[Tarron]

just play eve for full time pvp imo

I really wish I had enough time to play both, Eve kicks ass.

[Bosch]

TORFI, WATCH OUT, THEY'RE SCRAMBLING YOU
oshi

[Xyebane]

Not like gate camping requires full attention tbh ;)

[Bosch]

Don't get us started in Eve.

Before boss pull: Hey hold on, we got shit inc to the gate, stop pulls.

[Xyebane]

i knew a guy that ran 9 accounts at the same time.

freaking psycho.

I usually spend the time flaming the forums, theory crafting new setups, writing guides, or looking at porn. Fucking alliances where the worst thing to happen to that game imo.