Frost&Arcane legendary importance

[Cath]

Hi folks !

I have a little question about the class specs.
Atm I'm leveling a mage, but not decided yet which spec do I prefer. I like both frost and arcane, so I can't make a choice.

So I want to ask you about some details concerning gearing - first of all, I suggest to play in MM+ dungeons and raids up to Heroic (via lfg), so I'll never reach top mythic raid stuff.
Does this fact match both of specs chosen ? I mean, I don't want to pick a spec requiring Mythic stuff to be at least relatively good in term of DPS - hope that it isn't the case.
I don't need an overpowered spec, I just don't want to be never invited and stay in the bottom of recount all the time.

The second question is about Legendaries, as mentionned above. Which spec of this two is less requiring to obtain top legendaries ? As it's a pure luck, I try to avoid a spec that require to have specific legendaries to be at least comparable to others.

Thanks a lot for your help !

[Jezrien]

If your goal is not to take a part in a pve race (which is probably true) then pick whatever you want. Even without BiS legendaries you can show good results if you don't fail hard.

[Cath]

Hi, thank you for the answer !
But anyway, which spec between frost and arcane is more requiring specific legendaries to shine ?

[Greddy]

This is the general consensus:
Frost - best single target dps and cleave. Reasonable AoE, especially on mistress (I so love that fight).
Fire - very good single target dps (it really is pretty close to frost), good aoe and ability to do almost as much damage while moving (very handy, on some fights mandatory if you want to do the best damage you can as a mage - though we're talking mythic here, you can go all frost on Hero).
Arcane - beautiful burst, very reasonable single target dps, ridiculous AoE (if it's not taking too long, but maybe even then it's awesome), but you are very immobile. You can pick Slipstream (and lose Shimmer, which sucks) for the ability to cast missiles and Evo while moving, but movement still messes up your rotation and to keep doing damage you just have to cast those missiles that you were saving for upcoming Arcane power if you have to move. Anf if you don't have a missile proc, you're not doing ANY damage.

Personally I would advise to have your fun with arcane in dungeons and pick other spec for raiding. It takes a lot longer to learn arcane (to me anyway), to build the muscle memory, to get comfortable. Though, you will love the fact that you can do insane damage every 1.5 minute and delete group of mobs of your choosing and you don't really NEED any legendaries for dungeons (kilt helps). But unless you're pushing some higher key, you're fine and you are likely to win the dps race. But hey, you may love it and there certainly are mages even in mythic guilds that make it work beautifully

Legendaries :
Arcane and Frost share Shard of exodar as the BiS legendary on single target if you will be able to squeeze in one more Bloodlust with your cd's before the fight ends (which are most fights). This legendary is just best in terms of dps. And the fact that they are shared across spec loots is nice.
But then it just doesn't matter THAT much. Bracers are the second best legendary for frost, but that doesn't mean that if you get something else you're fucked. Same goes for the second best arcane legendary (Soul of the archmage). It's second best for single target (after Shard), but it's not like you lose that much by using something else.

Fire on the other hand is different:
- from the Fire mage compendium by Ezekielyo here on Altered time: ''Fire mage is heavily based on legendaries, specifically Marquee Bindings of the Sun King. You will notice huge differences in mages with and without Marquee Bindings of the Sun King, they are almost mandatory to play the spec competitively.''
So, if your concern is dps, you pretty much need the bracers. I don't have them, so I raid everything in frost while I'm switched to fire loot, hoping that I will get them.

BUT, as it was mentioned here thousand times - all the specs are so very close, that only thing that matters (if you're not gonna push for some world rank) is how much you enjoy the spec. It's a pleasant time to be a mage.

[Cath]

Thank you for this detailed answer, now I see better ! Had no time to play two previous weeks and didn't see your post, but now as I reached 110lvl it was nice to see such a deep explanation.