Best Races for Arcane Mage

[ministry 0]

I know this isn't the most interesting subject to cover, however I'd like to start some discussion since I have terrible problem chosing the race.

from wowhead:

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 Trolls have the best racial bonus (Berserking) for Arcane Mages on the Horde side, followed by Goblins (Time is Money) and Orcs (Blood Fury). For the Alliance, Gnomes (Nimble Fingers), Humans (The Human Spirit and Every Man for Himself) and Draenei (Heroic Presence) are the top choices. That said, there is less than a 1.5% difference between these races, so most Mages should just play what they want.

- I don't like long cooldown skills, thus I picked Gnome. Haste and mana buff make perfect sense - mana lets us have a bit longer rotation, haste proccs Rule of the Three and generally makes sense since it helps building charges faster. And so I thought I picked the "best" race (even though I dislike gnomes very much....).

 

But I read the icy veins walkthrough:
 

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The following is a good guideline for stats for Arcane Mages:

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

Intellect is by far the best stat, which means that in almost any cases, an item of higher item level will be better. All of the secondary (non-intellect) stats are very close in value, despite the way they are ordered on our list. We encourage players to sim themselves, if possible, to determine what stats you should aim for according to your current distribution, as this may change depending on your current values. This is because a deficiency of one stat will often cause it to become high in value, relative to the others, until you reach a "normalized" value. A sim can be very easily run by almost anyone using the Raidbots Stat Weights tool."

 

- so, Crits are a bit more important than Haste?? Or maybe it doesn't matter if I pick 1% haster or 1% crit, because later on I'm going to adjust my equipments to find the 'equilibrium' point of stats (where they are all "averaged"). If so, what about racial perks like the perks of the Forsaken?

 

I think I'd like to play undead mage or worgen mage (roleplay + personal preferences). However I also want to pick best/good race. I think I'm going to reroll that gnome mage - I don't like gnomes and it doesn't seem that they are the supreme arcane mages as I thought before. I'm lost. All the help is very appreciated.

[Mikeskies 0]

I'd say Void Elf has the best racials for Arcane Mage. Entropic Embrace procs during your opening burn phase, which gives a concentrated 5% damage boost.  Preternatural Calm ensures your spell casts are not delayed by taking damage. 

As for stat weights, I've found there is a Haste breakpoint around 500 haste rating. If you are under 500 haste, haste will be your best stat by far. If you are over 500 haste, haste will be your worst stat by far.

Haste (until 500 rating)>Crit>Mastery=Versatility>Haste (over 500 rating). 

Edit: I am ilvl 345 and sim myself after every gear upgrade. 

Edited August 30, 2018 by Mikeskies

[Dutchmagoz 30]

1 hour ago, Mikeskies said:

I'd say Void Elf has the best racials for Arcane Mage. Entropic Embrace procs during your opening burn phase, which gives a concentrated 5% damage boost.  Preternatural Calm ensures your spell casts are not delayed by taking damage. 

As for stat weights, I've found there is a Haste breakpoint around 500 haste rating. If you are under 500 haste, haste will be your best stat by far. If you are over 500 haste, haste will be your worst stat by far.

Haste (until 500 rating)>Crit>Mastery=Versatility>Haste (over 500 rating). 

Edit: I am ilvl 345 and sim myself after every gear upgrade. 

Troll is the best race because it allows you to fit another Arcane Blast into Arcane Power + Rune of Power.

Aside from that, there are some haste breakpoints (I will update the guide with more info about that during the weekend, since the breakpoints are kind of variable and complex) so yeah in some cases you will see haste jump to the best stat, and then back to the worst a bit later.

The best advice I can give is to use the top gear setting on raidbots, instead of actively looking at stat weights. Stat weights are more of a guideline for finding new gear, than a way to judge upgrades.

[Mikeskies 0]

23 minutes ago, Dutchmagoz said:

Troll is the best race because it allows you to fit another Arcane Blast into Arcane Power + Rune of Power.

Aside from that, there are some haste breakpoints (I will update the guide with more info about that during the weekend, since the breakpoints are kind of variable and complex) so yeah in some cases you will see haste jump to the best stat, and then back to the worst a bit later.

The best advice I can give is to use the top gear setting on raidbots, instead of actively looking at stat weights. Stat weights are more of a guideline for finding new gear, than a way to judge upgrades.

For Alliance players, Void Elf beats out Dark Iron Dwarf. Troll is best for Horde. 

I'm interested in additional haste breakpoints for sure. The Arcane Blast cast time breakpoints are 1.4 s for 7 casts, 1.165 s for 8 casts, 1 s for 9 casts (assuming you use Presence of Mind for Arcane Power + Rune of Power 9 second burn.

For Raidbots, using Top Gear plus Gear Compare is helpful. As sometimes, the most optimal setup requires changing Ring enchants from crit to haste and vice versa depending upon the stats of the gear you are considering replacing.