Improving Arcane - An Idea

[Soggs]

The state of the basic Arcane toolkit in BfA at the moment while not bad leaves many people unsatisfied.The roles of of Arcane Blast and Arcane Missiles are currently not well defined which leads to either of them making up for over 70% of the total damage depending on certain outside circumstances. A more balanced damage distribution would be desirable where Arcane Blast provides about 35% of the total damage and Arcane Missiles provides around 45%.

The following proposal of changes is meant to make Arcane Missiles the rewarding high damage cast while Arcane Blast drives the spec at the baseline and is working horse. I will first list the individual changes to the different spells in the Arcane toolkit before explaining the overall goal. Any numbers mentioned are for illustrative purpose only.

Arcane Charge
No longer increases the damage or mana cost of Arcane Blast. Instead it increases the damage of Arcane Missiles. It still does reduce the cast time of Arcane Blast. Additionally you have 15% less mana regeneration per charge.

Arcane Blast
Now first and foremost is meant to build Arcane Charges and to regenerate mana while building charges.

Arcane Missiles
Consumes 30% Mana per Cast. Acts as the only notable mana spender.

Arcane Barrage
Consumes all Charges on use and increases the damage of the next 1-4 Arcane Blasts based on Arcane Charges consumed by 40%.

Clearcasting
Each 5000 mana spend, reduces the cooldown of Evocation by 2 to 5 seconds.

Evocation
Now has 2 Charges. Also generates 4 Arcane Charges on use. Boosts mana regeneration significantly while channeling. Guaranteeing full mana at the end of the channel.

Arcane Power
Increases your damage and doubles your mana regeneration. No longer reduces the mana cost of spells.

Basic rotation idea is regenerate mana while building Arcane Charges with Arcane Blast. Spend that mana on Arcane Missiles and then reset the cycle by using Arcane Barrage. The damage bonus granted by Arcane Barrage to Arcane Blast and the reduced mana regeneration per Arcane Charge is there to incentivise Arcane Barrage use and cycling through charges. So that casting Arcane Blast at maximum Arcane Charges is not worth it. The idea is that one cycle of Arcane Barrage -> 4x Arcane Blast regenerates enough mana for roughly one and a half casts or Arcane Missiles. This should grant Arcane a bit of flexibility on when to spent mana, maybe holding a bit of mana for an upcoming add.

Arcane Power is meant to remain the primary damage cooldown. The move from mana cost reduction to mana regeneration is there so that Arcane Power no longer undermines Clearcasting.
Evocation is the secondary cooldown and brings a random element into the rotation by the cooldown reduction via Clearcasting. If used it sets you up for an on-demand burst with Arcane Missiles. The charge system is there to provide some leeway around Arcane Power.

Mastery should swap over to buffing Arcane Missile damage per charge instead of Arcane Blast everything else can remain the same.
Some Talents obviously need to be changed around but quite a few would just easily fit in.

As for AoE damage, the current implementation of Arcane Explosion would fit into the concept, though it probably will require some changes to adjust mana consumption.


TL;DR
The vision of the proposed changes is to go into a sort of charge-discharge cycle with Arcanes mana with defining the role of Arcane Blast as the charge mechanic and Arcane Missiles as the discharge mechanic. As for the cooldowns Arcane Power prolongs the discharge period and Evocation accelerating the charging.

[Maywtf]

Hi there,
There's quite a lot of changes you proposed. First of all, I agree that Arcane spec is bland and dull. Maybe if we gather enough feedback here we could compile it and present to the Blizzard forum?
I think I kind of understand what you'd like to achieve,
I'd like to suggest something perhaps less radical but still get's the job done.

How about we had the Kilt lego built in into Arcane Barrage? Hear me out.
Basically make Arcane Missiles much stronger and much more expensive, like suggested by Soggs. That way, there would be a clear and consistent play to burn your mana, or have damage-on-demand that Blizzard so much wants. They could even redesign Missiles so the channeling time is like 10 seconds, but burn 10% of your mana each second. Then Clearcasting would let you cast Missiles for 2 seconds for free.
The basic rotation would consist of 4x Arcane Blast -> Arcane Barrage that would actually regenerate some potion of your mana each cycle. Arcane Missiles to burn mana.
For AoE rotation, we would also increase damage and mana cost of Arcane Explosion, so 4x Arcane Explosion -> Arcane Barrage would also regenerate some mana, and we could burn mana for more damage by just spamming Arcane Explosion.

Damn I'd play that.