Frost/Arcane mage assistance

[benjam1997 18]

Hello, i play a lv 90 human mage arcane/frost, (frost MS) and i am 504 ilvl, i am offering assistance to problems you may have with anything about the specs, my Skype info is on my page on this web, just click my name and its there, just add me, and when i approve we can chat.

hope i can help

[benjam1997 18]

i am still offering to do this guys, contact me for advice if you need it

[sanguinaire 3]

Very kind of you , here is my question I find it difficult to play alter time correctly and rune of power seems to me to be bad choice what do u think ? My english isnt great since i am french bear with me pls

[dragosbm 0]

Very kind of you , here is my question I find it difficult to play alter time correctly and rune of power seems to me to be bad choice what do u think ? My english isnt great since i am french bear with me pls

Alter Time is best used when most of your procs and cooldowns are on and you have 4 stacks of arcane charge and as much mana as possible. After Alter Time is activated, spam Arcane Blast (mana doesn't matter anymore because you will get it back). Less than a second before Alter Time buff expires hit Arcane Barrage to clean the stacks (and maximize dps). When Alter Time expires you are in a very good position to cast Arcane Barrage again. This seemed to me to be the best way to use Alter Time as arcane.

As of Rune of Power it seems pretty mandatory for arcane, as no other talent can boost your spell power and mana regeneration like Rune of Power. Precast 2 runes right before the pull. The distance between them should be a blink. Try to use it as much as possible, even if you move out of the rune, if you are unable to use the previous rune, cast another.

PS: I use WeakAuras to show me countdown on Alter Time buff and Rune of Power. Without tracking them very accurately you can lose some valuable DPS.

My question would be when (as iLvl progression) haste becomes more appealing to arcane than mastery? Is it necessary to have 2p or 4pT15 ?

Edited May 2, 2013 by dragosbm

[benjam1997 18]

hello sanguinaire, alter time is best used in two possible ways.

1. use it when you are procced with 2 fingers of frost and a brain freeze, also its good to use when you have trinks popped and always use this in conjunction with icy veins (frost) and TW, although the 3 min CD is good. as arcane use it with 4 charges of arcane and 2 arcane missiles, then use it to dump the procs inboth speccs then when it goes off, you can use the procs again.

2. you can also use the spell when their is high raid damage or just high damage to you, to regain the HP (providing you are still alive), or on the Iron Qon fight you can use it in the safe zone away from tornados, then when you get pulled, click it again and you are safe

and with your Rune of Power, bad choice for all specs, you want Invocation and keep the buff active 100% in each fight, as there is not really any fight that you remain in the same place for the fight so you cast rune all the time, losing valuable DPS whereas with invocation, you can cast evocation with the buff on 2 seconds left, refresh the buff then keep DPS'ing the boss.

[dragosbm 0]

benjam1997 , it seems you play more frost... and as I dont play frost i take your suggestions as good, Rune of Power could be recommended for frost maybe only on Megaera.

But arcane is already known to have quite zero mobility (the most you can refresh Nether Tempest or use Arcane Barrage, maybe Arcane Explosion). If you move, you almost certainly aren't doing any dps anyway. Using something else than Rune of Power seems to me quite impossible for arcane.

Invocation gives 15% Spell Damage, but also reduced mana regeneration with 50% meaning to my opinion that you barely make it to 4 arcane charges and you most certainly have to weave a tick or two of evocation here and there to keep the mana high. But the ticks of evocation also eat your charges if you have them.

Rune of Power gives also 15% Spell Damage, but also increased mana regeneration with 75% meaning in my experience that if you get lucky with Arcane Missiles procs you can keep casting at 4 Charges some 2 - 3 Arcane Blasts alternanted with Arcane Missiles before you have to dump them to avoid low mana.

Also I'm not saying the way I do is the best way to do it, but considering my playstyle it seems this way I have the best results.

[benjam1997 18]

a good point, the more arcane blasts used is more mana each cast, so yes, Rune of Power can be good for spec, although there is not many fights that allow to stand still and nuke, so you will be casting rune so much eating your dps, but invocation does have that issue with mana as arcane, and incanters ward is not used alot by players as you need precise timing with it, so yes, rune is the way to go probably

[myhammy 1]

As arcane you really should attempt to use Rune of Power whenever possible.

The entire play style of arcane is based around treating a full mana bar like an asymptote (a value you can get infinitely closer to, but never reach). Rune of Power is critical for this beacause of the mana regen. Invocation should never consideration if you want to play arcane at its maximum potential. The whole idea of burning your entire mana bar, and then replenishing it with a stacked Evocation is visibly (and mathematically) a DPS loss. You want to stay as close to 100% mana as possible without reaching it.

With this in mind, if you are faced with heavy movement fights and want to play arcane, using Incanter's Ward can be very effective. Unlike Inovation (which reduces your mana regeneration) the passive buff from Incanter's Ward adds almost the same amount of mana regeneration as Rune of Power. I have found this very helpful on fights like Tortos, where I can never stand still. That being said, the fact that mana management is tied to arcane's DPS makes it extremely difficult to min/max your rotation while moving - regardless of whether you need to sit in a Rune of Power or not.

Edited May 3, 2013 by myhammy

[Tarazet 144]

With this in mind, if you are faced with heavy movement fights and want to play arcane, using Incanter's Ward can be very effective. Unlike Inovation (which reduces your mana regeneration) the passive buff from Incanter's Ward adds almost the same amount of mana regeneration as Rune of Power. I have found this very helpful on fights like Tortos, where I can never stand still. That being said, the fact that mana management is tied to arcane's DPS makes it extremely difficult to min/max your rotation while moving - regardless of whether you need to sit in a Rune of Power or not.

On Tortos, the best advice I could have for an Arcane Mage is to stand in melee range with the tank and stay there. The turtles won't bother you, and you'll only have to move for Rockfalls. Leave the kicking to the Hunters or Warlocks that are able to do their full rotation on the move.