[Arcane]Underperforming In BRF. Need Help Please

[landsharks 0]

I am not performing up to my standard in BRF and I can't really figure out what I am doing that is killing my DPS.  I have gone over the logs and the only major deficiency I am seeing is that I am not casting Arcane Barrage enough, but I don't think that would make up for what I am seeing as a 6-7k DPS loss.  Can anyone help me figure out what I am doing wrong.  Here is my armory link and a link to our last 2 nights in Heroic BRF.

 

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/proudmoore/Sol%C3%ABil/advanced

 

Kromog - Somehow I made the whole fight with no Barrage

 

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/rqy71KHgGjLvmNAd#type=damage-done&fight=22&source=27

 

Gruul

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/dB2qCYwFx3GMvnWt#fight=11&type=damage-done&source=21

 

Feel free to poke around and tell me what you see.  I really don't like being a weak link, so I need to get this cleaned up before Tuesday's raid week starts over.

[Lausanna 4]

The most immediate thing I'd suggest is switching out overpowered for prismatic crystal. Overpowered doesn't really do anything for you since your arcane blasts should be enough to keep your charges up. Prismatic seems daunting at first but once you get the hang of it it's pretty easy, and it gives you a 30 percent damage boost while it's up.

 

As for how to use it, drop it as close to your target as you can and once you cast it it your target automatically switches to the crystal, so it's seamless. The only catch is that once it drops you have to manually switch back to the boss. It helps to have tank target frames or boss frames on your screen and just have your mouse hovering over it to quick click when the time comes. You'll want to switch targets when there is still a bit of power left, otherwise it drops before you finish your last cast and then you've wasted cast time. At first you may have some down time between crystal and tank, but with practice you'll learn to watch the crystal's power bar and know when it gets to a certain point to switch to avoid losing a cast. 

 

As far as arcane barrage goes, I don't get too hung up on it. If my mana is dropping too quickly because my missiles aren't proccing I'll use it to slow the bleed. Even though you theoretically get a 4x multistrike from it, if there's only one boss this doesn't mean anything. It's utility lies in slowing down mana loss between evocations. If you're really struggling with it you can try the spell flash addon, but keep in mind that you have to sometimes be smarter than it is. It wants me to use barrage a lot more than I actually do - you basically need to look at how fast your mana is dropping versus how soon your evocation is off cooldown and decide if dropping the damage bonus of your 4 stacks is worth the mana savings in that moment.

 

Other than that, some of your stats look a little low for you ilvl - you're 671 and I'm 672, and my mastery is 7% higher and spellpower is almost 700 higher so I suspect that is part of the problem. Your muliti/haste is higher than mine, but they are secondary to mastery. Now that reforging is gone it's pretty much up to the rng gods, but if you can get your hands on some socketed items and gem up your mastery that will help. If you can boost your mastery and keep that high multi=haste you'll be golden.

 

Some other minor changes that might help - switching from blazing speed to arcane floes. This can help you avoid downtime in high mobility fights, and I always always always cast it before evocating just in case I have to move. Keeping mana up is critical so you don't want to risk having to cut an evocation short because you suddenly had to run or got bumped by an aoe.

 

I always try to use rune of power whenever I can because it makes my dps less spiky. It's mostly impossible because of all the movement in raids, but once you get to know a fight it can sometimes be managed. Presence of mind makes a recast easy. I use it on Kromog because I know I'm basically moving back and forth in one line, so I lay two runes out covering my space and it gave me a bit of a boost. I plan on trying this in the halls on Oregorger this week to see how it goes. 

 

Your glyphs look fine. Arcane Power is really the only one we have that actually helps with dps. I have Remove Curse for the occasional damage boost though there aren't any curse situations in BRF that I've seen so far so I might switch it for something else. I also use Regenerative Ice to help out the healers when damage is getting out of control, and I have the talent Cold Snap for a small self heal which also resets the cd on the ice block. These are really matters of preference and have no effect on dps - really using ice block would lower your dps, so you have to be choosy about when to use it. If you're going to die, block. It's better than tanking the floor.

Edited March 1, 2015 by Lausanna

[tapif 10]

Hello Landsharks.

 

 

Few things i see in your logs.

 

-Use a second draenic intellect potion, during an arcane power phase.

 

-For Gruul, change your talents. Rune of power is a must have . And so it is for at least, the twins, flamebender, Kromog (if you don't move together), iron maidens, and beastlord. I take incanter's flow for Operator THogar and Oregorger since you move a lot (and always to new places). I don't know about the two last bosses.

Make sure you place the two runes of power where you are going to move (For Gruul, you should just move a little to avoid petrifying damage and overhead smash)

 

 

-Ice flows is also the go-to talent. Very few bosses requires another set of talents. Use it when you have to move, to gain some DPS.

 

-Prismatic cristal is pretty popular as well. However, i have no idea what Lausanna tried to say since overpowered extend you arcane power duration and has nothing to do with your arcane charges.

 

 

-You have a poor management of your mana. For arcane mages, we have two objectives : stay as long as possible at 4 arcane charges, and having our mana as high as possible because of how our mastery works, except if your evocation CD is going to be available. When i look at your mana, you spend the three quarters of the fight at roughly 66% of your mana, This is not how it is supposed to work. You are supposed to stay beyond 85-90% as long as possible, unless evocation is up, (where you spam arcane blase/arcane missiles until you reach 50% and then you use evocation). And this is where arcane barrage shines : If you are below 93% mana and you have no stacks of arcane missiles/super nova, then, use arcane barrage to burn your arcane charges and recover some mana. Learn how to do that and you will master 75% of the arcane mage gameplay.