Berlinia's Arcane Mage Guide for T17 (Highmaul Update)

[Komma]

There's an anchor tag for making anchors, along with goto tags.

[Purplefrost]

First I'm gonna say I'm completely new to the mage scene. I was a Boomy for the longest time and decided in MoP to go frost mage for PvP, and for WoD I wanted to raid and REALLY wanted to Arcane,. so I'm pretty fresh to Arcane DPS, but I've been theory crafting for a long long time and its what keeps me addicted to pushing myself to be top DPS in everything i do

So I understand that in SIM's you get more DPS during a burn phase using AM, but don't you get more DPS by being able to link up your PC with AP and Evo every single time? By using AM during burn you are delaying the time it takes until you can Evo so if you don't get as many AM procs during your next burn phase then you're gonna have to fart around waiting for Evo to come off CD. I guess you can delay your burn phase, but don't you want to maximize as many burn phases per boss fight as possible? From my understanding the burn phase is where the majority of your DPS comes from so you want to be in your conserve phase for the least amount of time per fight as possible.

The only way I personally see using AM during your burn phase would be logical is if you're in a fight like Kargath and the timing of his Berserker Rush forces you to delay your PC drop and burn phase slightly every time it comes off CD, but from my experience there are only a few fights that work like that in each raid.

There might have been a more in depth AM description earlier in the thread and i might've just missed it >.< if i did i apologize, but the use of AM during burn phase is literally the only thing i can't really wrap my head around just yet.

[Berlinia]

It's been simmed and the optimal results are the ones mentioned in the guide

[Chev]

On page 7 is the results of not using AM during the burn phase. http://altered-time.com/forum/viewtopic ... 120#p10720" target="_blank

[Lyrik]

Hey everyone. Just recently rerolled from Mistweaver to mage and still got a few questions.
1. I heard I shouldnt be using the arcane power glyph when using crystal. Is there ever a scenario when you want to use the glyph with the crystal?
2. I've got myself a sandman's pouch and a copelands. In my opinion, I should always be using copelands when my DMF trinket procs. Since DMF trinket has a 2min cd until it can proc again, it should line up on the 4th crystal. Is this the right way to do it or should I change something?
3. Not too sure when to use the 2nd int pot.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Chev]

Hey everyone. Just recently rerolled from Mistweaver to mage and still got a few questions.
1. I heard I shouldnt be using the arcane power glyph when using crystal. Is there ever a scenario when you want to use the glyph with the crystal?

In most cases I would say this is not the case but this really depends on fight length and when you are going to be using your 2nd potion and / or Time Warp. E.g. The glyph doubles the length of the buff but also the CD essentially giving you to casts of Arcane Power with one button press. Using Butcher as an example which has a 4 minute enrage and assuming you used AP on the pull. Using the glyph will give you a total of 60 seconds with the buff as it will come off CD at 3 minutes and again at 6 minutes (after the fight has ended). Without the glyph, you will only get 45 seconds of the buff as the CD of the 3rd use will finish 04:30 seconds after the start of the fight.

If the fight is over 04:30 then they even out and you are probably better to sync up your AP with PC unless you are going to be using Time Warp / 2nd potion either on pull or around 3 mins into the fight so that your extended AP is synced up with TW and your potion.

2. I've got myself a sandman's pouch and a copelands. In my opinion, I should always be using copelands when my DMF trinket procs. Since DMF trinket has a 2min cd until it can proc again, it should line up on the 4th crystal. Is this the right way to do it or should I change something?

I wouldn't worry about this too much. If the RNG gods let them line up, more power to you, but nothing snapshots any more so it is generally seen as a loss to bank anything for more than a few seconds unless you know the target will be taking extra damage or you are currently in a state of moment and you know you will have a chance to stand still and nuke very soon.

3. Not too sure when to use the 2nd int pot.

[/quote]
This really depends on your fight. If there is a period of extra damage being received or you need to burn, that is a good time or when your AP comes of CD and you have it glyphed.

[Velerion]

Hey guys so I went Arcane tonight for Butcher and I'm actually really enjoying and topping out the meters. The only real issue I'm running into is sometimes my first burn phase lasts so long that by the time I get to the second one (or at least when PC comes off CD) I'm a bit behind on Evo. A couple times tonight I ended up dipping down to like 30% which obviously seems pretty terrible but I'm not sure what my alternative is. Delaying Crystal for Evo would F up the last AP burn, do I just do conserve phase on it or like just deal with dipping that low?

[Chev]

I use the Crystal during my conserve phase rather than delaying for my burn to be available.

Ideally you have managed to get 2-3 stacks of AM and have 1 charge of SN available with the next coming of CD within 8 seconds of putting your Crystal down. You might have to reset your AC stacks before spending all your AM stacks so you can bank them to use on the Crystal.

You then get back to 4 stacks, put the crystal down, spend your banked AM (4-6 seconds) before using SN (1.X second) depending on haste. SN will give you have a chance to get 2 more stacks of AM. Cast AB as you should be getting close to 100% mana now(2 seconds). Spend an AM stack if you have 2 stacks (2 second) and then use your 2nd SN (1.X seconds).

Depending on how many banked stacks you came in with, your haste and the number of AM stacks you were lucky enough to generate, the crystal should either be just about to expire or you might have another 2 seconds left. If you have any AM stacks left, use one of those as that way you get some damage in if the crystal despawns before the channel finishes else try and get another AB in and hope your haste is high enough to finish the cast before it despawns. If you have less than 2 seconds left on the Crystal and standard haste levels, just swap back to the boss. Because if you are casting AB, that has to finish while the crystal is still up to be better than casting AB on the boss or if you are channeling AM, you have to get over 70% of the channel into the Crystal before despawning to make it more damage than getting a full channel into the boss.

[Sakfu]

If someone is interested.. here is WA2 string for mana percentage text whcih changes color at 93%, 50%..

Code: Select all

dCuMfaGis5sKuJcuCkqPvPQOmlsvUfjPDrIFPQiggsogeTmGQNPQW0uv6AOsBtvvFdinosIZHs6DQkQMhkK7HsyFarDqaIfkQ8qqLMiqOlIs1gvHpcezKauDsukReaZeGYnrb7uf9turdfG0srH6PctfPUkPQ2RYFjvgSKdJyXGQESOmzu0LLAZe6ZaA0aLtRkRwvr61GkMnb3gvTBO(TknCqworpxKPt11H02rf(UOQXRQY5HW6bcMpkr7NYd5OxWVG5cMJEXpofftTVtvzLAbZxcsGGGU)5luNTidn5xE6(NVqefN5VlggynaSYkRSs4MreSINGjqwXcR4joyk8KFWqPNv6JFodembgnibcIwQblSw9jwXtCWu4j)GbPEwPp(5mqWegi)GrdsGGOLAWcRvFMviPO(CdaRSYkREIwXtWeiRazRy9dRCWASbGvwzLvwzLvwjBhvITsJLzhhuuhhuuAkkjx(WaveVsEIdJMAfrn9SINGjqWALIIvAQvRzayLvwzvlK6NOv8embYkq2kUuw5G1ydaRSYkRSYkRSs2oQeBLglZooooooOO0uusU8HbQiEL8ehgn1kIA6zfpbtGG1kffR0uRwZaWkRSYQwi1prR4jycKvmYkUuw5G1ydaRSYkRSYkRSs2oQeBLglZooooOOOO0uusU8HbQiEL8ehgn1kIA6zfpbtGG1kffR0uRwZaWkRSYQgZ0aOXmxGGtrXu77qvUGdkO)5Yk1hF5YLcCq)prv)(DXl7IxUfIxSFiqaMwWP(0agBNSVWLpGaB5OxCZJ5elGy5waDZ3shbuVtQfOPwh0nFlDeq9YTGzdpQOincOEbGdimMHd9bSfocOErYjoAAb0nFl1DHAjXVYfmIflAoASVaqV5B5c0uRdQLzn2HU5B5YTan16qXpF5wGj8DA07e5c2aIFEpFbkU5OX(ccQFxGMADq38TCWVaQLzn2HU5B5cKuulGAzwJDOB(wQ7c1sIFLlyelMVGzNioQK49GFH4f7lyxGd9zZQJl2xaw)acMVdqP(4VkG(N7FUGZLI6Rktu1VQSq4syo6fOPwhU5OLd(forOX(OxWJk4VrpF(Imbskn6fPhgOqVGbabKyF(c0uRltGKsl3c5vOh9cEub)n65ZxGMADjOoB5wKG6SrVi9Waf6DIC(c0uRl7YdpXxUfsswp6f8Oc(B0ZNpFH4f7Xde6Dco3fmFjibcIWjzWjTqDAHSb(UyAeq9cV)5ls(ldoiarujXFx8GFrYjzWjb3l2jpmFJ9fSDgSbISVaeUx(DsTGG63LBbHjZN)UyIGox(acSLPrpFXJ5cgiyIv09pFr(hthSDOYhG)N1)QakO)vHlYVC)prv)c6Ipfn5prelGl7N0SZ4fpmhTm1d(fOyx(acSLJEbk(5lGeiiA58fyuEA5diWwM2jYfjNKbNeGEFyFrooPP5KbgZgib40l8(Nd3RWvo6DICNi3j47e5o)yNi353DIC(8fPfGRqPWQcRl4yNi)co18na

[oomy]

So, chev, it's better to just use shards of nothing when it comes off CD rather than wait for PC or arcane power? Personally i've been waiting on the next set of cd's but is this a significant loss?

[Valounette]

Hey guys so I went Arcane tonight for Butcher and I'm actually really enjoying and topping out the meters. The only real issue I'm running into is sometimes my first burn phase lasts so long that by the time I get to the second one (or at least when PC comes off CD) I'm a bit behind on Evo. A couple times tonight I ended up dipping down to like 30% which obviously seems pretty terrible but I'm not sure what my alternative is. Delaying Crystal for Evo would F up the last AP burn, do I just do conserve phase on it or like just deal with dipping that low?

I used to have this problem. The solution is to Evocate earlier than 50% and/or Evocate while holding onto a Missiles proc.

The dps difference between evo@50/70% is much less a loss than having to drop to 30% and mess up the syncing of cooldowns.

i.e. if you're getting a ton of procs, try to just bank 1 Arcane missiles proc and keep blasting until lowish mana without taking up too much time. You get used to it.

It's actually fine to hold onto 1 Arcane missiles at the end of a burn phase. It's not getting the benefit of Arcane Power in said situation (since your burn has gone past that), and it will have a really poor mana mastery benefit. So just Arcane blast your mana a little lower without using the proc(if you keep using that last missile proc, your mana keeps regening and the burn goes on way too long); Evocate, get back to 4 stacks then use said missile charge(and any additional) at high mana.

You can still get really lucky with missile procs and munch while building up to 4 stacks again, but I get a feeling it's much better than the alternative (burning way too long, desyncing cd's, messing up next burn phase/evocate)

I don't recommend Evocating on any more than 1 missile proc banked though, since then you have a much higher risk on munching while generating 4 charges again.

[Komma]

Time for a guide review!

Arcane Mind which increases all Mastery gained from all sources by an additional 5%.

It's better to clarify that this only applies to Mastery rating.

•Enhanced Arcane Blast which slightly increases the damage per execute time and damage per second of your Arcane Blast, while additionally increasing it's relative mana cost on higher stacks of Arcane Charge.

This is a misleading description, because the mana cost doesn't change. It is better to just say "reduced cast time".

•Improved Evocation and the fact that Evocation is now an Arcane only mage spell, which turns the spec more into its original Burn/Conserve play style.

Evocation's CD doesn't really have anything to do with this.

•Arcane Charges now affect the mana regeneration provided by Evocation

I believe this was the case even in MOP, although everyone played with RoP anyway.

Update: An additional change is that racials now are more equal than they have ever been. Here is a visual representation using simcraft of Racial's strenght.

This doesn't seem like an Arcane spec change. Also, typo: strength.

The biggest change is one which you haven't mentioned: The return of burn/conserve, which is due to AC/AB/AM/ABar coefficient changes!

Single Target
Mastery: Mana Adept provides an incentive to remain at high mana levels.

Mana adept applies to all spells, not just single target!

• Arcane Explosion creates an explosion around your character which deals damage to all enemies it hits. It is your spamable AoE and furthermore resets the duration of your Arcane Charges whilst costing very little mana.

AE also gives Arcane Charges. Might want to rephrase this.

• Cone of Cold does damage in a cone in front of you so minor positioning adjustments might need to be made.

Should make a note that this applies only when glyphed.

The Burn Phase on the other hand is the practice of using the 400% increase to Arcane Blast's mana cost at 4 Arcane Charges to your advantage, in order to burn through your mana as fast as possible.

Typo: double space

This is the priority list tied to the Burn Phase. What this list essentially tells you is that you should cast Arcane Missiles as they proc, and then burn your mana until you have less than 50% mana.

While burning, you still want to follow the 93% rule. The only main difference is that you don't use Arcane Barrage.

These mana costs are as follows:

404 mana costs not found!

This is counter weighted by the reduced cast time of your mana consuming spells, but it still provides extra mana regen when you are casting non-mana consuming spells.

This is a misleading concept. Mana regen and consumption should be considered separately. Mana-consuming spells still take advantage of the extra regen.

It is our main stat, and the more mastery we have, the less relative damage our spells do at lower mana levels.

This description is a bit weird. Maybe' it's better to say "Higher mastery means more damage at high mana levels. This also means a heavy damage penalty at low mana."

There is a special correlation between Critical Strike Chance and Multistrike Chance.

There is no correlation. They are indepedent, and your example shows exactly that.

It is mostly a healing stat and you should avoid versatility gear.

...what? It's not a healing stat. It's not spirit. Versatility gear doesn't need to be "avoided" in the same way spirit gear was. Your stat priority section also provides enough information about how strong it is.

Ex: If you gain 20 int and lose 40 mastery, replace the item. If you gain 20 int and lose 50 mastery dont replace the item.

I don't think this is a good way to explain these things. Stat priorities are not stat weights. Mastery also isn't 2x the worth of the remaining secondaries.

However on this tool we haven't analysed trinkets. This is for the simple reason that a fellow colleague here on Icy Veins (Zagam) has done an excellent trinket analysis which can be found here:

I think at this time, his analysis (which concludes Copeland's Clarity as a BiS trinket) is rather outdated after the multiple hotfixes. It is probably time to remove this link. Even before that, we've had much better resources in terms of analyzing trinkets.

In Warlords of Draenor, gear doesn't have sockets.

Technical correction: "doesn't have sockets by default."

It can only block physical damage and thus is not as valuable as the other two.

This is wrong. It can block magic damage as well.

Ice Flows >= Blazing Speed > > > > > > > > > > > > Evanesce

Alter Time >= Ice Barrier > Flameglow

While this is a popular evaluation, I think it is misleading when the 3 talents server different purposes.

Level 45: The PvP Tier

'NONE CARES'

Ring of Frost works on Mar'gok's Volatile Anomalies. I believe Frostjaw interrupts Mythic Ko'ragh MC casts, and Ring of Frost on Ko'ragh adds. This is far from a "nobody cares" tier.

Due to the snapshotting of Arcane Charges, you want to always apply Nether Tempest at 4 stacks of Arcane Charges and always reapply when there are less than 3.6 seconds or less remaining on the DoT.

Reapplying earlier is an optimal DPS strategy, so as to get higher uptime.

Your highest priority however is still to never cap your Arcane Missiles! buff! The above practice should take place regardless of which phase you are on your rotation.

This seems a bit out of place in NT's description.

Unstable Magic
Unstable Magic is a passive ability that increases the damage of your Arcane Blast over the course of an encounter by roughly
0.30 * 0.50 = 0.15 = 15% on single target and slightly more on multi-target.

The proc rate for Arcane is 15%, not 30%. Your estimate is double what it should be.

It deals 400% of your spellpower on your target and 200% on all surrounding targets, putting it on top of your priority lists, even above the capping of Arcane Missiles!

With hotfixes, this has been inaccurate since mid-November. Currently, it is 380% and 190%. It is never above AM as long as you're not capped at 2 charges.

In general you will be swapping between Nether Tempest and Supernova. Nether Tempest for Tectus and Imperator Mar’gok, whereas Supernova is more appropriate for Kargath, The Butcher, Twin Ogron, Brackenspore, and Koragh.

This needs updating.

This will make you care more about movement and knowledge of an encounter will greatly help you pre-plan the positioning of your Runes.

Grammar.

If you are however familiar with the encounter, you can move during an IF low point in order to cast your spells at a high point. The gain you will have by doing this however, is not that big.

Unless you have an example and some evidence to support this, I'd recommend not including this section. However, you should still explain how the buff works.

If you have selected the level 75 Supernova you should always cast that at max stacks of Incanter’s Flow. Due to Supernova being your most powerful spell,

SN is in fact not our most powerful spell. AM has a higher spellpower coefficient and benefits from mana gain over the duration.

<continued in next post>

[Komma]

On a pure single target fight with a low duration, or a fight that requires you to blow up an enemy really fast, Mirror Images is going to provide a very useful tool.

This describes no raid boss in game, and I do not see any raid encounter in the future being designed to be short enough for this to apply. Since this guide targets mostly raiders, I think it is better to omit this.

Incanters Flow: Twin Ogron, Imperator Margok
Rune of Power: The rest.

This requires an update!

You do this with the hope that Arcane Missiles reproc's itself so that you can extend Arcane Power's duration even more!

AM cannot proc itself.

Overpowered is a strong choice

However it seems to be an inferior choice than the other two.

...what?!

It then instantly releases that damage spreading it among all enemy targets within 8 yards.

I think the word you're looking for is "splitting"!

This means that no matter the amount of targets, the damage you will gain is going to be the same.

Errr might want to rephrase this.

Arcane Orb

Lacking mention of how it generates Charges and can proc Missiles on each impact.

A common question people have, is when should I use what talent? In the Highmaul raid you will generally be swapping between Prismatic Crystal and Arcane Orb. You will be taking Prismatic Crystal on Kargath Bladefist and The Butcher, whereas you will be taking Arcane Orb for the remainder of the fights.

Requires update! I also don't think the choices are as clear as this.

4. Use Supernova twice or Nether Tempest once. This depends on which talent you picked for your level 75 Tier.

Using SN twice in quick succession is not optimal. I think you should include that information here, instead of the long paragraph afterwards.

5. Use Presence of Mind followed by Arcane Blast

Saving POM for the final GCD of PC is recommended.

5. Proceed with following the Burn Rotation.

Counting fail!

Concerning Nether Tempest, the Crystal remains for 12 seconds which is equal to the duration of Nether Tempest.

PC triggers a GCD. Strictly speaking, this is not accurate.

Prismatic Crystal is a controversial subject of the mage community. Here I shall try to elaborate on what happens when you pick the Prismatic Crystal.

A lot of this looks like original research, and should be reserved for a separate thread. Your conclusion, that Supernova is strong, has nothing to do with Prismatic Crystal's amplification, but simply due to SN itself being strong.

The 110% damage is SPLIT amongst all enemies so it means absolutely nothing if you hit 1, 2, 3 or 500 targets with it.

130% you mean?

I translated the Simcraft APL into a priority list.

This is not really a good idea - this information should be included as core rotation information!

This guide has quite a bit of work to do!

[Berlinia]

Thanks for the feedback. I guess the recent update didn't include all the changes so some incorrect info from pre-Wod Launch stuff is in there, together with some beta stuff (like PC and GCD).
Working on it!

[Berlinia]

Changed some stuff, updated with correct values/coefficients. Added some parts/removed some others. Kept a few for discussion because I'm not sure how to commit them to "paper" correctly.

[Emerys]

Hello there I've been doing some research personally and by reading and consulting with other mages.

I'd like to know your thoughts on the Burn Phase 70% rule. Where you don't cast AM unless 3 procs under 70% in Burn Phase anymore. So as to not prolong the burn phase too long and put all your CD's out of sync.

Thanks!

[Berlinia]

Because you cap Missilies!

[Wilderness]

Hello there I've been doing some research personally and by reading and consulting with other mages.

I'd like to know your thoughts on the Burn Phase 70% rule. Where you don't cast AM unless 3 procs under 70% in Burn Phase anymore. So as to not prolong the burn phase too long and put all your CD's out of sync.

Thanks!

What rule is this and where did it come from? Are there sims and data backing it up?

The burn phase is more dps than the conserve phase. If it wasn't, we'd conserve all the time. So having an extended burn phase because of good RNG is a good thing. Yes, it might delay when you use your CDs again later in the fight but that line of thinking is discounting that you got more dps from your 1st burn phase because it was longer. In the very specific and mostly unrealistic situation where you know exactly how long the fight will be and that you'll lose CD uptime b/c of that specific long burn phase, then you could adjust your use of Evocation to shorten the burn phase, but that's not a general rule nor would it be applicable to most fights. Also, if you are only using AM at 3 stacks during your burn below 70% then you are practically guaranteed to have 2 AM procs up after you Evo back to 100% and start your cycle again, which means you are very likely to either waste AM procs as you build up to 4 stacks, or have to use AM prior to 4 stacks to avoid munching. That's not an ideal situation.

[Chev]

The Arcane APL changed recently to include only using AM at 3 stacks if less than 70% mana to shorten the burn. Comparing the two (using all AM procs before evo), the 70% APL is around 200 dps more.

[Wilderness]

Ah, that's interesting.