Arcane and 4p vs HWF offset

[Fiftypercent]

Hello everyone!

I'm going to be switching to arcane on the upcoming lockout, and I would like to get a few more opinions on my current situation with the arcane 4p. In my frost gear, I had the HWF helm (crit/mastery) from Immerseus, and the hit/mastery HWF shoulders (though I don't remember off the top of my head the boss they drop from). Both of these are currently upgraded 4/4.

Also available to me are the heroic tier helm and heroic tier shoulders. Helm is 0/4, shoulders are 2/4, but I'll be upgrading the helm to 4/4 if I chose to go the 4p route. Unfortunately I do not have heroic legs, just 2/4 normal, but currently using 4/4 heroic Jugg legs.

What do you guys think? Worth using 4p with the current setup, or should I wait for a few better itemized pieces?

--Fifty

[Komma]

I recommend posting future gear questions like this to the Quick Fix forum! That being said...

The general rule of thumb is to keep 4pc unless you have the select BiS mastery pieces. In your case though, you are comparing 2 fully upgraded HWF mastery pieces and H IJ legs versus 2 non fully upgraded H T16 piece, and normal T16 legs. For your specific case, just to avoid spending unnecessary valor, I'd keep your current setup and stick with 2T16. You might want to reevaluate after you get heroic tier legs though.

[durrtygoodz]

The rules for using 2pc+WF is pretty specific, Voltaa made a nice write up of whether or not you should do it:

Have you killed Heroic: Garrosh Hellscream? If not, use the 4 piece.
Do you have Dou-Dou Chong shoulders, Fusespark Gloves and Ebon Ritual Hood? If not, use the 4 piece.
"But I have x,y,z warforged off-pieces can't I use those?" No, use the 4 piece.

[Fiftypercent]

The rules for using 2pc+WF is pretty specific, Voltaa made a nice write up of whether or not you should do it:

Have you killed Heroic: Garrosh Hellscream? If not, use the 4 piece.
Do you have Dou-Dou Chong shoulders, Fusespark Gloves and Ebon Ritual Hood? If not, use the 4 piece.
"But I have x,y,z warforged off-pieces can't I use those?" No, use the 4 piece.

I'm not sure what killing heroic garrosh has to do with the 4p, but yes, I've killed him.

Voltaa's hard and fast guide to the 4p was also not comparing 2/4 items to 4/4 items, hence me asking for others opinions in the first place.

[durrtygoodz]

HC garrosh is req for 2 reasons; number 1 as I understand it is that using 2pc+3WF is purely for pad damage rather than progress. 2nd, 1 of the items you need is the head from Garry hc.

Basically if you don't have those 3 items upgraded then it's not worth it

[Komma]

It's hard for us to give specific advice without knowing your actual progression, what your goal is, or even look at your profile to see the rest of your gear. Durrty's advice is the general rule of thumb, and reflects how we usually recommend 4pc for mages during progression.

[Ghanjo]

I would like to know if Voltaas miniguide is still accurate as well. I just killed Garrosh HC for the first time yesterday in frost spec, but I would like to go back to arcane next time I face him.

You can see my armory in my sig, it's the same gear I use for arcane, but gemmed and reforged for mastery ofc.

Regarding the three offpieces, do they need to be warforged, or would normal hc versions of them still allow for switching your 4-set for a 2-set if you have all three of them?

Edit: I have the hc wf shoulders, but I don't have the gloves or the hood yet. So I'm not going to swich right now, but would like to know if 2-set is viable with normal hc offpieces or only wf offpieces.

[durrtygoodz]

They need to be warforged, the stat gain from using the WF items is what makes it better than the tier bonus since tier can't be WF obviously

[Ghanjo]

Okay thanks.