Best Mage dps spec?

[Batraaf 0]

Hello, 

I was wondering wich mage spec is the best pve spec.

I've ask a couple of people and in general fire mage is the spec to go they say, but there were also some who said that arcane and frost get some major buffs on the hotfix wednesday, so now I don't know wich spec to choose.

Can anyone help me with this issue?

[HenrikLAWL 0]

Fire PVE.

Frost PVP

I must warn you that fire can feel unrewarding and mediocre at lower ilvl. But it's all about that crit. If you got low crit you will have low damage. This changes as crit increases, When this happens I think you can argue that fire mage is the best range dps in the game in general.

With that said both arcane and frost is playable in PVE. It's not like you will have problems with finnishing any of the content as far as I know. Also, people kinda assume you play fire when you look for group as a mage. And when you are in and start throwing some spells around I don't think anyone will complain.

This is based on my own observations and not any statistics.

[Valks 2,375]

The new updates mean that it looks like Arcane is now miles ahead of Fire on ST when using the NT build. This is from the early sims, so it could still change drastically. Keep an eye on WarcraftLogs to see.

Also, moving this thread to Mage forums.

[Mute 0]

9 hours ago, Blainie said:

The new updates mean that it looks like Arcane is now miles ahead of Fire on ST when using the NT build. This is from the early sims, so it could still change drastically. Keep an eye on WarcraftLogs to see.

Also, moving this thread to Mage forums.

 

 

Just wondering if there are any updates on this. Arcane has always been my favorite spec, but Fire was just doing crazy damage so I switched. Still enjoy it a lot, but if Arcane is truly viable, I'd love to switch. Currently, we have 3 fire mages raiding and it's pretty crazy, wanted to switch it up. 

That is IF arcane can match Fire, if not I want to stay in my flame game. The power of it really helps the guild. Looking at Simcraft lets me see that Arcane is really viable.

 

Edited September 26, 2016 by Mute

[Sycirlin 0]

http://www.simulationcraft.org/reports/Raid_T19P.html

Thats the link to simcraft. NT build is getting nerfed, so forget about it. But standard build is also miles ahead now. So... Im respeccing to arcane and keeping fire as a 2nd. 

Frost is still low. 

im surprised they buffe arcane so much after saying they didnt want to change the Jerarchy etc. But this is what we have.

However ill wait to decide on thursday. The hotfix comes on wednesday. So thursday morning ill check the logs and see what happened. And ill keep track for a couple of days before making a final decision.

Sorry for bad english. 

Edited September 27, 2016 by Sycirlin

[Zadina 923]

NT spam was nerfed today and may it rest in pieces.

The sim Sycirlin is linking is with 840 gear, basically pre-raid gear. As far as  Arcane is concerned, the guys at the class Discord found out that it drops immensely with heroic Emerald Nightmare gear, even below Frost. Overall, EN gear doesn't favour Fire or Arcane.

Anyway, all three specs will be very close to each other in Single Target, merely with a 10k difference, Fire being the first for now. Frost has very good potential for ST and cleave fights and has the advantage of having favorable gear dropping in EN. Basically, if you are not in a hardcore raiding guild or if you don't want to minmax your damage, you can play all three specs now (as opposed to before). Still, if you want to find which one is the best, Fire is slightly ahead in all kinds of situations and benefits from the mobility that the spec enjoys. Plus, if you have invested a lot in your Fire artifact, you should stick to it.

That's what has been determined so far. People are still testing/simming both Arcane and Frost.