Arcane shot rotation update

With the changes to Arcane mages in the latest mini-patch abilities making my Arcane guide obsolete. (Well, the shot rotation part of it. Arcane Shatter is no longer possible and Arcane missiles is bugged to not take advantage of the Arcane Blast glyph) I have been experimenting to try to get the most out of my spec.

Of the many shot rotations, the one that proves the most reliable is a variation on the original:

Arcane Blast x3

Arcane Barrage

Repeat

Any time Missile Barrage procs fire it and end the volley with an Arcane Barrage.

We actually decided to try for the achievement on the second boss in Arachnid quarter, and this meant that the DPS went as hard as they could on the boss, whilst the tanks bounced the aggro between them across the room so the boss was running back and forth between them – I ended up using a modified rotation that was this:

Arcane Blast x4, Arcane Barrage – Missile Barrage on proc, tagged with Arcane Barrage.

This is VERY mana heavy, the x3 rotation gets the buffs stacked, but then consumes it for the Arcane Barrage nuke. The fourth arcane blast costs too much mana to really use in most situations, but in this one it came in useful. The fourth Arcane Blast costs about 1200 mana to cost, and gets the full 45% (54% glyphed) bonus damage, and is very quick to cast. This is then followed up with the standard Arcane Barrage for a big cheap hit before restacking the buff.

If your very daring you could theoretically just keep spamming Arcane Blast, but I think I can only get 19 off whilst chain casting with my entire mana bar. (about 20k)

I don’t have figures for how much more DPS this provides, but we managed to get the boss down – although something we done stopped the achievement from being completed.

At the end of the run (4 bosses and onto Haigan the Unclean) I had a DPS in excess of 2800 – so I am still pulling about 400-600DPS extra on average, which is a good enough boost for me to stick with the spec. When they fix the bug with Arcane Missiles and Arcane Blast glyph buff, then those missile barrage procs will hit harder as more often than not you fire it off with one or two arcane blast buffs on.

I was hitting 3k sustained DPS on some bosses – which is very nice in my opinion! Same bosses I was pulling about 2600-2800 with the previous spec on same bosses.

Oh, one other bonus of the spec: More instant casts. During the safety dance I actually continue to attack the boss with instant casts. In this spec I strafe through the dance alternating Ice Lance and Arcane Barrage at him on the platform – and at the end of each run dance run (when you get to the 4^th quarter, and turn back to run to the 1^st position and before you change direction again) I can squeeze off a missile barrage.

We will get him Friday. Everyone knows the dance – we just got unlucky, we only had one disease remover, and it was the priest who kept getting caught by the dance waves due to lag.

REALLY looking forward to Loetheb… When these spells crit, they crit mercilessly. Talking 7, 8, 9k for each Arcane Blast, 13-14k for the Arcane Barrage and 3-5k (I think) for each Arcane Missiles tick. (used to be over 6k with the glyph…)

-V

Frostfire --> Arcane

I actually meant to put this post up yesterday, as I now have a follow up, but here it is!

Its been a long time since I delved into the arcane tree any depth, but after reading all the info from Euripides at Critical QQ – I decided to take the dive. After tonight’s raid, I plan to glyph up, respect and hit the target dummies.

Glyph of Arcane Blast stacks… I did not know this. That’s a 60% damage bonus to you when you have 3 stacks going. Throw in an arcane shatter combo with this (Arcane Missiles promptly interrupted at the end by Arcane Barrage) and both get the damage boost. With a Missile Barrage proc I would hazard a guess at 10k of damage from the missiles in 2.5 seconds, followed by a 10k crit Arcane Barrage.

Holy crap!

As FFB build, I do some nice damage. With a warlock at my side I can get 2.5k – 3k DPS on a tank and spank boss fight – regularly seeing Frostfire bolts and instant pyroblasts hitting in the region of 11k, with my fireblasts and Living Bomb detonations hitting 6-8k, or thereabouts.

I shall do some tests with FFB before changing, and record the data for all to see…

Do I sense a boost to my output in raids? *grin*

Hell… this is a PVP spec… I may even hit the battlegrounds!

Oh, note to self: Check the mind-flay macro for your priest! This stops mind-flays being overlapped and reduces mana wastage – it might work for arcane missiles + arcane barrage combos. (Barrage wont launch until missiles finishes channeling, assuming this doesn’t result in the buff dropping off.)

Glyphs:

Glyphs of Arcane Blast.

Glyph of mage armour. (got)

Glyph of Evocation.