Arcane: A Word to Blizzard

[Artistry 0]

I pretentiously speak for the Arcane community when I say: Blizzard, hear our cry.  We are not many, and sometimes we go unnoticed. However, it is time for us to unite, for the sake of our spec, and reach out to the Blue above.  Blizzard, please, reconsider the 7.1.5 PTR changes you have made to arcane. Let me explain.

We of the Arcane pride ourselves in our play. We absolutely relish the high risk, high reward style. We are always looking for ways to improve, ways to master our spec, and for a way to squeeze out just a tiny bit more DPS. Arcane mages push it to the limit, to the very edge of death or a DPS downfall, in order to maximize our performance. This is why Quickening was so important. Broken? Yes. Do the playstyle and talent choices need changes?  Yes. But please, Blizzard…not like this.

Currently, on the PTR, Arcane has been slowed down. Not *just* slowed down, but for the lack of a better term, “dumbed down”. To me, personally, it’s heartbreaking.  I started Legion as Arcane because it wasn’t mainstream, because it wasn’t the flavor of the month as they say, but because it provided a challenge. It was a deep spec, with a high skill ceiling and a low floor. Now, the spec has been completely revamped for the worse. There are no mechanics for us to constantly weave and monitor, there is no complex rotation with demand for adaptability. The PTR shows us a watered down, basic, “entry level” spec that overwhelms us with the feeling of boredom more than anything else. It’s uninspired, and it doesn’t speak to our community.

We WANT that high risk, high reward spec. We want a difficult playstyle, with DPS consequences for making mistakes. Arcane is not a spec that is meant to hold your hand. Our community does not want permanent training wheels; a tight corridor style of play with hardly any room to push the limit, to play “outside” the box.  Quickening, while seriously flawed, provided the opportunity for advanced play and theorycrafting. The mechanic of Arcane that gives us high DPS and the satisfaction of knowing we played perfectly, while severely punishing us for making mistakes, has been removed. And that, Blizzard, is what I want back.

I don’t want to feel like I can do a simple rotation and get max DPS. There is no depth to the PTR changes because the difficulty of arcane has been removed. The flavor and personality of our spec is now gone. I feel like these changes, at least some, have been done simply because of PvP, and the PvE consequences are becoming appallingly apparent.

Blizzard, let’s rethink this. We aren’t the type to just give up, to just reroll, or switch to another spec. We chose Arcane just as much as it chose us, and we want it back.  Let’s come together, players and developers, to arrive at a correct conclusion about the best path for arcane. Consider adding an altered version of Quickening back, or give us a different combination of talents. I don’t have a simple solution that is going to fix this spec, but I speak for all of us when I say:  We need to change the direction this is going.  It’s slow, boring, too easy, and uninspired.  Work with us, and give us our advanced, complex playstyle back. For anyone still reading, I thank you.

 

Make Arcane Great Again

Artistry - Stormrage

[Rambunxious 1]

Might wanna post what ur bitching about...we cant read your mind.

[Tigersharrk 4]

He's talking about the removal of Quickening, which punished the crap out of Arc Mages if they weren't paying attention. I personally don't care if its gone or not more now with it gone I will probably have to re-gear. I did care much for it but dont think it needed to go just needed a slightly longer timer from 6 sec to 10 sec, which they did and then some aaaand then deleted the whole thing. I do like how Overpowered is now true to its name and useful. Dont know if the buff to Mirror Images is going to be of any benefit to us, prolly not but would love to get that back to base line instead of a talent choice. Lastly, can they seriously do something with the lvl 75 talents they literally switched one talent for another without giving us any new OPTIONS on that line, put those on the pvp talent tree where they belong and give us some options for god sake!

[Belicosa 11]

I have, after playing arcane since Wrath, come to the conclusion that Blizzard hates arcane mages and only suffers them to exist so they may torment them with momentary bursts of power, only to take them away a semi-patch later.

I know he's "gone," but I still blame Metzen.

[Rhostam 0]

I won't speak to the theory crafting side of playing an arcane mage, but I would like to contribute my two cents.  I, too, would love to play my arcane mage and know that Blizzard wanted me to love my class.  In fact, I waited to create a mage until Night Elves mages came "out of hiding."  Unfortunately,  even with some of the positive/ interesting/ controversial changes made across classes, arcane always seems like an after thought.  I figured, okay, with Legion we'll definitely see more fun play style/ dynamic and awesome spells/ animations.  We didn't get that, really.  I remember when I got to play with nether tempest and supernova. They are fun and interesting spells, certainly.  But those aren't spells that are regularly part of our rotation, and builds don't favor taking them in the grand scheme of things.  With the introduction of the shal-dorei I hoped that spells used for NPCs would some how make it into the world of arcane mages. Alas, tis not the case.  Boomkin druids have more beautiful arcane spells than we do and that makes me sad.  :) Maybe just redo the animation for arcane blast if we're going to be spamming it to no end; then perhaps making it interesting would make playing this class more bearable and distracting.  For such a lore significant class, you'd figure they'd show some more love.  Want a model mage? Look at Thalyssra!

[Vayra 12]

On 6/30/2017 at 10:27 PM, Rhostam said:

I won't speak to the theory crafting side of playing an arcane mage, but I would like to contribute my two cents.  I, too, would love to play my arcane mage and know that Blizzard wanted me to love my class.  In fact, I waited to create a mage until Night Elves mages came "out of hiding."  Unfortunately,  even with some of the positive/ interesting/ controversial changes made across classes, arcane always seems like an after thought.  I figured, okay, with Legion we'll definitely see more fun play style/ dynamic and awesome spells/ animations.  We didn't get that, really.  I remember when I got to play with nether tempest and supernova. They are fun and interesting spells, certainly.  But those aren't spells that are regularly part of our rotation, and builds don't favor taking them in the grand scheme of things.  With the introduction of the shal-dorei I hoped that spells used for NPCs would some how make it into the world of arcane mages. Alas, tis not the case.  Boomkin druids have more beautiful arcane spells than we do and that makes me sad.  :) Maybe just redo the animation for arcane blast if we're going to be spamming it to no end; then perhaps making it interesting would make playing this class more bearable and distracting.  For such a lore significant class, you'd figure they'd show some more love.  Want a model mage? Look at Thalyssra!

I'll have you know that Arcane currently is one of the more dynamic and most mobile and versatile specs in the ranged DPS camp. I don't understand why so few people play it. Its just really crappy in PvP, but other than that, extremely viable in PVE and heaps of fun to play. Is it super intense? No. But it really does punish you for bad timing and cooldown management and greatly rewards you for lining everything up.