Arcane Orb on operator thogar

[kazamski]

Hello All,

After messing around with fire for awhile in BRF I think i need to just play arcane on all fights.

To that end, I am looking at logs of arcane mages in the operator fight and I see that they are using Arcane Orb. I am hoping someone can tell me what they are doing there? I would assume they are using it on add trains and dumping arcane barrage with 4 stacks into the adds? But it seems like PC and SN would work better using arcane explosion as filler?

Why don't more people use NT on a fight like operator?

Like I said I am still ironing out allot of this, if these questions seem simplistic I apologize.

Thank you
Kaz

[Shangalar]

I had some really good results sith Barrage -> Orb -> Barrage -> Explosion spam and then continue with one more Barrage if time allows it or go back to single target priority. Then I got killed by bombs while telling the melee to move away from bombs, but I managed to maintain 42k dps before my accident

[madindehead]

I used SN as the adds are fairly squishy. You want burst AoE. So at the add phase I dump a 4 charge Barrage, drop AO Supernova x2 on adds (DK grip ftw) and Barrage again. Then AE until AO is back up. But the adds dies fast.

[ShaObito]

On a fight like Operator, you don't want the adds to be up for a length of time, it's a very quick paced fight. Majority of the adds are squishy and able to be burst down through AE and SN while the other two more tanky adds are high priority in that you don't want them up for long, especially if you're going into a split. If your raid group has enough warrior/rogue/warlock AoE for the smaller adds, PC would probably be a fine choice, although you'd be forsaking all of the free AM charges by launching an AO through the adds along with the ability to consistently low charge times. If you do bring PC, SN is really great in conjunction.

[Chev]

NT is good AoE when you need sustained AoE E.g. If the Twins in Highmaul were tanked together for 100% of the fight (which is not the case due to the Whirlwind mechanic). SN is burst AoE so this makes it great for using on PC or when you get add waves as you can bank changes to use at an optimal time such as an add wave or when Twins are back together.

Orb is very strong in add waves as well. Not only can you Barrage into a wave of adds as they spawn, you can then send the Orb into them getting straight back up to 4 stacks to be able to Barrage immediately (if the adds will not live that long) but for each add the Orb hits, you have a 30% chance of generating an AM proc which can be used to tunnel a single target if needed. E.g. Beastlord between add waves.

Some limitations of Crystal is after amplifying damage done to it, the damage is split evenly among the targets.

E.g. You use AB which does 1000 damage and there are 5 targets within 8 yards. This would 1000 * 1.3 = 1300 / 5 = 260 damage per target. Missles will hit a bit stronger again and also using SN will do more damage as well but you only have 12 seconds to get as much damage as you can into the Cyrstal as you will then have to wait 1.5 minsutes before you can do it all again. If the tank is kiting the adds around to limit damage received, you may have even less time on the Crystal.

If you used Arcane Orb, then you will be looking to Use Barrage as much as possible when you are at 4 stacks and Orb is off CD (every 15 seconds). E.g.
Arcane Barrage, you would do roughly 622 damage to the main target (assuming the same spell power as used for the AB example and ignoring versatility in both examples) and 310 damage to 4 additional targets. If you average this out that is 622 + (4 x 310) = 1862 / 5 = 372 damage per target. You can then use the orb to repeat the process and then use any Am Procs generated the orb to pummel the main target. An additional bonus is if the add pack moves, as long as you have not just casted your Orb, you can always turn to face them and still get the benifit from having selected the orb.

[Boomop]

I use NT/AO on it. Seems fine to me. So does PC/SN.

There's really not much difference in overall performance. The biggest difference is how you think about the fight.

PC/SN -- The biggest advantage of PC/SN is the opener. Most guilds Hero off the top. And you have a good 30+ secs of single target DPS before the first train that causes you to move comes out. This is probably the overwhelming reason why you see PC/SN.

The weakness of PC in this fight is split dmg. After the opening it gets a bit harder to line up PC with a window where Operator is alone. Plus cannon duty.

AO/ NT -- The advantage of this is mobility and generally higher AoE. I personally just like the interaction between AO / NT. It does do weird things to your rotation, as it generates more AMs and leaves you at higher mana levels. If you're still used to MoP style Arcane, this may be what you prefer.

Honestly, I just like that both ways are viable, and add to depth to Arcane that it hasn't had before.

[kazamski]

Thanks all, that was super helpful. I will try out AO with SN first so I can change one thing at a time on beast lord and operator.

So just to be clear I will be using something like:

-- reg rotation for single targets plus if it will be more than 30 seconds to next add phase use AO after Arcane Barrage to generate a quick 3/4 AP

-- then when adds up - something like Arcane barrage - AO- Arcane barrage- SN - SN - Arcane Explosion, until 4 charges - Arcane barrage

?

thanks for all the help!

[Chev]

That sounds about right. You may also want to through in a glyphed Cone of Cold with the adds as well.