Arcane Mage 7.3

[h4x2tehm4x 0]

Regarding Tarnished Sentinel Medallion, when is the best time to use it beyond the opener?  It's got an extra 30 seconds CD compared to Arcane Power.  Is it worth delaying the burn phase to utilize the trinket?  Is it worth delaying until Time Warp?  Or should it just be used on CD?

[Furty 51]

On 7/22/2017 at 3:15 AM, h4x2tehm4x said:

Regarding Tarnished Sentinel Medallion, when is the best time to use it beyond the opener?  It's got an extra 30 seconds CD compared to Arcane Power.  Is it worth delaying the burn phase to utilize the trinket?  Is it worth delaying until Time Warp?  Or should it just be used on CD?

It's very contextual based on encounter length or whether there will be a phase with increased damage (e.g. Maiden P2). Generally you will not delay Arcane Power, but if you won't get an extra usage anyways (short encounter) or there is a phase of increased damage (e.g. Maiden P2), then you can delay for overlap.

[Athalos 1]

I have a question (or two) regarding the resonance opening sequence.

I have a macro for my burn phase since many of the abilities don't share a cool down.

#showtooltip Arcane Power
/cast Arcane Power
/cast Presence of Mind
/use Tome of Unraveling Sanity
/use Mark of Aluneth

So, my opening sequence is just two things.

 - Pre-pot with Potion of Prolonged Power 2 seconds before the pull, while simultaneously putting down Rune of Power, (no, I didn't macro that even though I should since they don't share a cool down).
 - Use my macro, (I call it "Arcane BOOM").

Then I go right into my rotation.

CAVEAT: I have the 2 piece T-20 bonus in which Presence of the Mind grants 4 arcane charges and increases damage by 10% for 15 seconds. Charged Up talent, to me, became unnecessary, so I replaced it with Resonance.

It also made Presence of Mind part of my cool down rotation as well.

It has a 60 second cool down (the same as Mark of Aluneth). I currently use Mark of Aluneth when there is a Rune of Power available, and Presence of Mind together during cool down phase, and capitalize on the 20% mana return when it explodes to control my mana pool, and 60 seconds later, everything is up for my next burn phase.

That being said...

Is there much of a DPS increase/decrease between using Mark of Aluneth before or after Rune of Power?

I ask, because when I started using the macro, my DPS went way up since I'm into my burn phase rotation much faster than when I was firing off one at a time.

Between casting Mark of Aluneth, then Rune of Power, then popping all of my cool downs, took 3 or 4 seconds (longer if I ended up having to move), before I could get into the "meat" of my burn with arcane blasts and missiles.

That's the old way.

When I do it with the macro, I'm right into arcane blasts and missiles a second after the pull.

It added 300k dps to my rotation.

So again, the question.

Rune of Power first? Or Mark of Aluneth first? Because that will change my macro from

#showtooltip Arcane Power
/cast Arcane Power
/cast Presence of Mind
/use Tome of Unraveling Sanity
/use Mark of Aluneth

to

#showtooltip Arcane Power
/cast Arcane Power
/cast Presence of Mind
/use Tome of Unraveling Sanity
/cast Rune of Power

Thoughts?

[Valks 2,375]

3 hours ago, Athalos said:

Thoughts?

Aluneth prior to Rune. You should be casting it in the opener to go off as soon as the boss is pulled, so it shouldn't make much difference.

[Guest Slystaler]

One the Easy-Mode and Stat Priority are different Statements about the stats.

[Valks 2,375]

On 8/5/2017 at 7:34 PM, Guest Slystaler said:

One the Easy-Mode and Stat Priority are different Statements about the stats.

Because they are two different guides. From the EM guide:

Quote

This section is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty, or simply want a more straightforward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous priorities and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.

Easy Mode prioritises Mastery because it aids mana generation and essentially allows the spec to be more forgiving with mana management.

[Valks 2,375]

We are currently in the process of updating all guides as required for the 7.3 release. Please be patient as we make the necessary changes. You can keep an eye on the changelog to know if the guide has been updated or not. 

[Valks 2,375]

This guide has now been updated for the 7.3 patch. If you have any questions or comments, you can always ask them here. If you find any errors in the new changes to the guide, let me know and I'll get the writers to update it ASAP.

Good luck in the Shadows of Argus!

[Rhaagola 1]

Curious why there is no mention of double ring for the legendaries?  Currently, top Sims and DPS charts show double-ring as the best combo to use for Single Target, but you need to be very aware of how to do burn/conserve phases.

Additionally, for the OWL & Arcane Power... I have been under the impression it is best to always save Arcane Power for Owl (as well as double RoP), with the minor exception of a fight you know will be between 6:30 minutes long allowing 4 APs and 3 Owls.  If nothing else, when doing double ring with OWL, definitely delay an Arcane Power for your 2nd Lust as the damage increase is significant.

[Valks 2,375]

12 hours ago, Rhaagola said:

Curious why there is no mention of double ring for the legendaries?  Currently, top Sims and DPS charts show double-ring as the best combo to use for Single Target, but you need to be very aware of how to do burn/conserve phases.

This is mentioned in the guide and, as said there, it is only true on specific time-frame bosses:

Quote

The best combination of legendaries is currently  Soul of the Archmage combined with  Mystic Kilt of the Rune Master. The second best combination is  Shard of the Exodar combined with  Mystic Kilt of the Rune Master, which may even surpass the aforementioned pair on certain encounters (particularly extremely short fights where you could potentially double your  Bloodlust/ Heroism uptime).

On the second part of your comment, yes, you should try to save cooldowns to combo assuming you don't reduce the number of uses. A 6:10 long fight would allow 5 full uses of Arcane Power, assuming you cast it perfectly on cooldown. If you delay for a total of 10 seconds with the first 4 uses, you immediately lose the 5th cast. I agree on delaying AP/Owl for 2nd Lust though.

[Rhaagola 1]

What I'm referring to is:  Soul of the Archmage combined with  Shard of the Exodar.

The below mentions combining with the Kilt. But on almost any fight length between 2 minutes to 8 or so (if I remember right), double ring is the top DPS for primarily ST fights.  Using both rings you lose the mana regen of the kilt, but you gain 2 piece T19 and 4-piece T20 capabilities, you can double or triple up on lusts synced to your Owl/Arcane Power.

6 hours ago, Blainie said:

The best combination of legendaries is currently  Soul of the Archmage combined with  Mystic Kilt of the Rune Master. The second best combination is  Shard of the Exodar combined with  Mystic Kilt of the Rune Master, which may even surpass the aforementioned pair on certain encounters (particularly extremely short fights where you could potentially double your  Bloodlust/ Heroism uptime).

[Valks 2,375]

21 hours ago, Rhaagola said:

What I'm referring to is:  Soul of the Archmage combined with  Shard of the Exodar.

The below mentions combining with the Kilt. But on almost any fight length between 2 minutes to 8 or so (if I remember right), double ring is the top DPS for primarily ST fights.  Using both rings you lose the mana regen of the kilt, but you gain 2 piece T19 and 4-piece T20 capabilities, you can double or triple up on lusts synced to your Owl/Arcane Power.

But that's why we mention that it may surpass it. In 7.3, our statement has become even more true. On most fights, you will be using either Kilt + Ring or Kilt + Shoulders. If you have a crazy short pull on something like Goroth, you might see double ring do better, but it has to be a very specific pull duration and setup. Take a look at the parses for 7.3:

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/rankings/13#class=Mage&spec=Arcane

Even in 7.2.5, things were drastically weighted towards using Ring + Kilt over double ring.

[Razor64 1]

On 8/29/2017 at 5:05 AM, Blainie said:

This guide has now been updated for the 7.3 patch. If you have any questions or comments, you can always ask them here. If you find any errors in the new changes to the guide, let me know and I'll get the writers to update it ASAP.

Good luck in the Shadows of Argus!

Easy mode section is about "Players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty, or simply want a more straightforward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous priorities and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play." Why is it then in a section being stated as such that in the talent choice section does it say "Rune of Power presents a significant increase over Incanter's Flow when utilized correctly. It is worth becoming familiar with this talent even if you do not have time to optimize other parts of the specialization."? If the person reading this section wanted to play to the utmost they'd read the rest of the guide and not just the "TL;DR" section. If they wanted optimal play they'd skip this part and go to the more in-depth section of the guide. Which in turn means that the rotation section of this guide would need to be updated as well.

Edited September 12, 2017 by Razor64
Forgot a sentence.

[Valks 2,375]

19 hours ago, Razor64 said:

Why is it then in a section being stated as such that in the talent choice section does it say "Rune of Power presents a significant increase over Incanter's Flow when utilized correctly. It is worth becoming familiar with this talent even if you do not have time to optimize other parts of the specialization."? 

Passed it on to the writer.

[Tigersharrk 4]

Ok so here's a question, legendary Shoulders just dropped for me which is said to be best on fights like Mistress and Host but what legendary pairs good with it for those fights? 

I'm currently using Soul and Kilt for those fights but didn't have shoulders till last night so now I am trying to figure out what to use with them or not to switch at all. 

Any suggestions?!?!

Edited September 20, 2017 by Tigersharrk

[Valks 2,375]

8 hours ago, Tigersharrk said:

Any suggestions?!?!

Shoulders + Kilt will be best, for sure.

[Razor64 1]

Just noticed in easy mode rotation that nether tempest and supernova are listed as part of the multi target rotation when they aren't suggested as part of the easy mode build.

[Valks 2,375]

4 hours ago, Razor64 said:

Just noticed in easy mode rotation that nether tempest and supernova are listed as part of the multi target rotation when they aren't suggested as part of the easy mode build.

Passed this on to Furty.

[username22 0]

I'm going to disagree on Temporal Flux being given an 'x', but I am glad its usefulness in questing is briefly acknowledged at the top of the talent article. Look, until your ilvl is decent and you've stacked enough Haste for Arcane Blast to not be slow as balls, don't bother with Overpowered IMO. This mostly refers to the leveling process. You simply can't cast quick enough for Overpowered to be worth it unless your leveling gear is extremely good. I was taking more damage than doing it just waiting for Arcane Blast's casts. So I'd say until its cast time is about 1.60 area, just use Temporal Flux.

[Guest Magey-poo]

Is there a reason why the regular stat priority page lists

1. Haste;
2. Versatility;
3. Critical Strike;
4. Mastery;
5. Intellect.

While the Easy Mode lists :

1. Versatility;
2. Critical Strike;
3. Haste;
4. Intellect;
5. Mastery.

Granted it's just a change up of the top 3 (which remain the same but in different orders), but I'm wondering if there's 'real' reasoning behind the difference - as that can help me figure out what to do with my character for different situations.

[Furty 51]

On 10/8/2017 at 4:09 PM, Guest Magey-poo said:

Is there a reason why the regular stat priority page lists

1. Haste;
2. Versatility;
3. Critical Strike;
4. Mastery;
5. Intellect.

While the Easy Mode lists :

1. Versatility;
2. Critical Strike;
3. Haste;
4. Intellect;
5. Mastery.

Granted it's just a change up of the top 3 (which remain the same but in different orders), but I'm wondering if there's 'real' reasoning behind the difference - as that can help me figure out what to do with my character for different situations.

New/lower item level players (which Easy Mode is intended for) will generally bankrupt themselves if they stack Haste as they lack the judgement, experience, and/or AddOns to properly manage their Mana cycles. 

[Tigersharrk 4]

On 10/8/2017 at 1:09 PM, Guest Magey-poo said:

Is there a reason why the regular stat priority page lists

1. Haste;
2. Versatility;
3. Critical Strike;
4. Mastery;
5. Intellect.

While the Easy Mode lists :

1. Versatility;
2. Critical Strike;
3. Haste;
4. Intellect;
5. Mastery.

Granted it's just a change up of the top 3 (which remain the same but in different orders), but I'm wondering if there's 'real' reasoning behind the difference - as that can help me figure out what to do with my character for different situations.

From what I gathered on my discord forum is those three at the top need a type of balance between them; from what I gathered you want:

35-40% Crit

22-25% Haste

30-35% Mastery

5-10% Versa (at least 5%)

But this is also talk for the secret dual ring spec with no mana leggo, if your running the suggested Kilt/soul or Kilt /Shard then you can cut back on mastery and go for more versa/haste.

Speaking of the dual ring combo, how come that's not mentioned in the legendary section of the guide? 

A lot of Arc mages are running it today or trying too.

[Valks 2,375]

On 10/10/2017 at 10:58 PM, Tigersharrk said:

Speaking of the dual ring combo, how come that's not mentioned in the legendary section of the guide? 

A lot of Arc mages are running it today or trying too.

Asking Furty.

[Guest Lala]

Hey can you ask maybe me a pawn string ? 

 

[Valks 2,375]

On 10/27/2017 at 10:36 PM, Guest Lala said:

Hey can you ask maybe me a pawn string ? 

 

If you're looking for stat weights, you'll always find them more accurately by simming it on your own character. The simplest way is through using RaidBots: https://www.raidbots.com/simbot/stats