What spec to play in 7.2

[sawbossnl]

So with the upcoming patch 7.2 and all the change to spec/weapon what do you guys think will fire be the one or frost or even arcane ? Is it wise to switch to a other spec and farm for legendarys ?

[Dakodai]

It's still pretty early to tell, but Frost is going to be in real good shape from the looks. Especially if you manage to get a gear setup that includes the 2p bonus of T19 and the 4p bonus of T20:

T19
2 pieces (Frost) : Frost Bolt has a 10% increased chance to trigger Brain Freeze.

T20
2 pieces (Frost) : Frozen Orb increases your critical strike damage by 30% for 10 seconds.
4 pieces (Frost) : The cooldown of Frozen Orb is reduced by 5.0 sec whenever you gain Brain Freeze.

I think you could pull off some really cool things with a good TV build wearing that.

[Makz]

Most fights on PTR are still strongly favoring Frost over Fire, but it has been a long time since Fire received ANY real changes. As much as I love it, Frost feels better and better every day.

[Doty]

To be honest, I fear a frost nerf, or rather a Tv nerf.With the T20 4 set, the cooldown of frozen orb will be pretty low. If we add the reduction of blizzard on top, the uptime of Icy Veins will be skyrocketing.But am just guessing!!!!
Did someone actually test this ?

[sawbossnl]

Will frost realy be that strong tho im wondering as they mentioned fixing the dubble ice lance thing

[Doty]

Maybe its a feature with high haste
Jokes aside, I think frost will get some changes. I just hope they will balance it, and not nerfing the specc into the ground.

[Mage]

THere is nothing unbalanced about frost atm.

[sawbossnl]

I kinda hope they fix fire single target soon as fire is now its just sad

[Arob1337]

Still hoping that all specs have a relative niche fight(s) as to not get bored playing one spec.

[Mage]

All the bosses apart from KJ have been tested on PTR.
3 of them will likely be dominated by fire/arcane due to waves of adds, rest is pure ST or some form of cleave, aka frost paradise.
From a padding perspective, you will most likely want to play fire on those 3. Whether adds kill times will pose any problems in mythic remains to be seen. If it is anything like NH, there will be zero point playing fire on any of the bosses.

[Katsumi]

I don't quite understand the question. Isn't the main point of 7.2 that we can have multiple specs rather close in AP-related DPS increases? So the answer would become "it depends on the fight".

[yziemon]

I don't quite understand the question. Isn't the main point of 7.2 that we can have multiple specs rather close in AP-related DPS increases? So the answer would become "it depends on the fight".

I reckon most people will be targeting legendaries for the single 'best' spec until they have all the ones they want, and will be dumping all of their AP in to that spec's weapon until it's maxed, until they want to try something new, or Blizzard changes things around so another spec is dominant. A DPS increase, even if modest like the infinite trait, is still an increase.

[partyunicorn]

I don't quite understand the question. Isn't the main point of 7.2 that we can have multiple specs rather close in AP-related DPS increases? So the answer would become "it depends on the fight".

Did I miss something in the patch notes? I don't remember reading anything that insinuated this at all, I was under the impression that it was going to be the opposite of this actually, and with 50 more bonus traits (vs the current 19) we'll be very much more drastically funneled into choosing ONE spec with no options for even considering spec swapping.

Did I miss something somewhere that said we'll be able to swap ap around specs? That would be amazing if so.

[Smaiki]

It's funny how "balanced" the new 1/1 single target traits for each spec are.
Arcane's Aluneth Avarice gives 24.5k DPS.
Frost's Glacial Eruption gives 12.6k DPS.
And last (and least) Fire's Warmth of Phoenix gives 1.9k DPS. AMAZING .

Maybe this will help you finding the right decision.
Source: 7.2 trait comparison from the spec threads.

[MooseJuice]

It's funny how "balanced" the new 1/1 single target traits for each spec are.
Arcane's Aluneth Avarice gives 24.5k DPS.
Frost's Glacial Eruption gives 12.6k DPS.
And last (and least) Fire's Warmth of Phoenix gives 1.9k DPS. AMAZING .

Maybe this will help you finding the right decision.
Source: 7.2 trait comparison from the spec threads.

Its crazy how underwhelming Warmth of the Phoenix is. I really like the idea of the trait but it is so massively undertuned and I really hope they up crit amount.

I don't quite understand the question. Isn't the main point of 7.2 that we can have multiple specs rather close in AP-related DPS increases? So the answer would become "it depends on the fight".

Did I miss something in the patch notes? I don't remember reading anything that insinuated this at all, I was under the impression that it was going to be the opposite of this actually, and with 50 more bonus traits (vs the current 19) we'll be very much more drastically funneled into choosing ONE spec with no options for even considering spec swapping.

Did I miss something somewhere that said we'll be able to swap ap around specs? That would be amazing if so.

I thought the purpose of the 50 points worth of Concordance of the Legionfall was that aside from getting the initial first point, you'd be better off getting your other artifacts leveled and filled with their new traits to serve as viable offspecs for certain fights. The AP requirements vs the dps benefit of getting 50/50 are hardly worth it. Pretty sure their general idea for 50 point trait was, you're crazypants if you think you're going to grind all 50 points like people did with the old 20 point one.

[FenFillMage]

Depends on what you prefer for yourself. It's looking like Frost is what a lot of people think, and it is a fairly balanced spec, but if that isn't what you prefer then try something else.

[Drozzy]

It's funny how "balanced" the new 1/1 single target traits for each spec are.
Arcane's Aluneth Avarice gives 24.5k DPS.
Frost's Glacial Eruption gives 12.6k DPS.
And last (and least) Fire's Warmth of Phoenix gives 1.9k DPS. AMAZING .

Maybe this will help you finding the right decision.
Source: 7.2 trait comparison from the spec threads.

I'm not a fire mage... but:
If I recall, Warmth of the Phoenix also buffs 4 allies, so wouldn't it be valued somewhere closer to like 9.5k dps? I also liked when I read about the new traits for fire, it seemed to HEAVILY encourage not using PF for you combustion burst phase. The way I read into it, is that Blizzard is trying to encourage fire mages to make meaningful choices about saving their PF for aoe situations.

You honestly seem like you're just trying to look for scapegoats, because you're not even equally comparing the 1/1 traits. Fire's other 1/1 trait allows for extra AOE burst with PF, b/c it now chains to 2 extra targets, all of which AOE if I understand correctly. Frost's other 1/1 trait conditionally saves .5s when using blizzard. Frost's Freezing rain is basically a quality of life change worth no dps (and it comes before glacial eruption, so glacial eruption may as well require 2 points). Arcane's other trait gives arcane explosion a 20% damage buff.... if they live and stand relatively still for 6 seconds. All in all, it seems like they're pretty reasonably balanced. Not perfectly balanced, that's not possible. But, they all provide opportunities for the player to look at their new trait, and make meaningful choices based on those traits about how they're going to make the best use of it. Which is, in my opinion, good design.

[sawbossnl]

It's still pretty early to tell, but Frost is going to be in real good shape from the looks. Especially if you manage to get a gear setup that includes the 2p bonus of T19 and the 4p bonus of T20:

T19
2 pieces (Frost) : Frost Bolt has a 10% increased chance to trigger Brain Freeze.

T20
2 pieces (Frost) : Frozen Orb increases your critical strike damage by 30% for 10 seconds.
4 pieces (Frost) : The cooldown of Frozen Orb is reduced by 5.0 sec whenever you gain Brain Freeze.

I think you could pull off some really cool things with a good TV build wearing that.

Im just wondering were you woult fit in your legendary gloves? Or woult you take ring instead?

[sawbossnl]

I don't quite understand the question. Isn't the main point of 7.2 that we can have multiple specs rather close in AP-related DPS increases? So the answer would become "it depends on the fight".

Did I miss something in the patch notes? I don't remember reading anything that insinuated this at all, I was under the impression that it was going to be the opposite of this actually, and with 50 more bonus traits (vs the current 19) we'll be very much more drastically funneled into choosing ONE spec with no options for even considering spec swapping.

Did I miss something somewhere that said we'll be able to swap ap around specs? That would be amazing if so.

This more like at the point you gona reach farming in frost or fire the 1/50 traits its wiser to spent your ap in the other artifact weapons to get it up to the same lvl as your main weapon as the increase of 1 point into the 50 is so small compared to how mich ap you frm for the other weapon that cost 7 times as less ap for example

[pyretics]

I assumed the lower damage of fire's gold trait was to compensate for the fact that it's also buffing other people in your group.