Wait a sec; how did I miss the fire mage preview. O.oArcane sounds like it has changed more than the other specs.
I Effing HATE arcane in its current state, and I mained it all though Legion - I loved it during legion.Now, i've entirely written it off and playing Frost.
Very interesting no doubt they nerfed our spec 1 day after prepatch giving us the worst talent in tree as bonus from leggo ring plus they turned off dmg buff to missiles and explosion from charges and what is now?Charges only gives buff to arcane blast,missiles are with basic dmg,explosion is with basic dmg and theorycrafter said interesting....strong dmg and more of these bull'hits wake up mate,they cripple our spec,i play Arcane since Wrath and its never been so weak like its now.I hope Azerite traits to buff our dmg cuz atm its at bottom of every dungeon and raid.1st day i was on top exactly cuz of time anomaly talent,and now i am on 4-5th place on dungeon just in front of healer....AoE is butchered,without barrage explosion what is the point to have more barrages?I think those theory crafters has no clue how it works arcane.I really hope blizz change their minds and bring back charges buff to our spells,cuz without them charges are worthless for half of our spells.What to do spam AB 100 times ?No surprise that everyone call our spec 1 button spec.Legion one was fine now its crippled.
nerf to everything by 30% incoming and Ion saying: we would rather not have you play arcane this expansion.
I really dislike what they did to arcane mage for BfA. I loved playing leveling her and playing her all through Legion. I've raided with her and done PvP and loved it. Now I feel utterly useless in both raiding and pvp environments, single target but especially aoe. I get where they were going for and how they wanted to give the spec a 'revamp' and I'm prepared to wait for 8.1 to see what they're going to do with the spec since growing pains are something that comes with a spec like this. But for now I'm really really disappointed in the revamp.
Arcane is a really weird spec, it's not so much about its rotation as it is managing your mana.It hasn't really changed, they've just made it even more boring, which is pretty impressive to me.
Never said any such thing
Arcane mage is really bad now. I played him in most of the Legion and i liked the huge damage when i had 4 charges. Now it feels so weak. I switched to Frost and regret not doing the mage tower challenge since it seems Frost will be the way to go in BfA unless they do something to Arcane.
I am playing Arcane Mage since the US open Beta in autumn 2004. So soon I did it for 14 years now. There has been only a short period of time (3 months exactly) where I used another Spec - Frost. It was in Vanilla when I made PvP Rank 14.Arcane Mage always was very "difficult" and interesting to play in regard to the relation between mana pool and the damage.I remember Vanilla, Burning Crusade - in all those years playing these WoW versions, I NEVER saw anybody else on my server playing Arcane Spec in Raids except myself. It was really tough to compete with the other Specs. But, I can proudly say: I did a very good Job, since I was always welcome in any Progress Raid. 😊In Wrath of the Lich King, more players used Arcane. The balance between the Specs was better than before. I didn't feel alone anymore with my "Dark Horse Spec".Since this Addon started, all Specs for Mages were wide spread. You always found all three Specs used in Raids. Of course there was one Spec preferred by the Community, but you could use any without beeing an outsider.The Draenor Addon was a kick in my ass when it started. I remember, that Arcane made not even half the damage of any other Spec. Also the worst Spec/Class had double the dps of an Arcane Mage. I was completely despaired. I tested everything I could. I dug deep into my pockets, but absolutely NOTHING helped. This was the first - AND ONLY - time, when I was thinking about changing my Spec for the future!BUT! Some weeks after this Addon started, a Patch came. The Patch had changes, which really were necessary to Arcane Mages.From this moment on until today Arcane Mage was always competitive. Not in every situation, not against every Raid Bos, but still a good Damage Dealer if correctly played.All in all, Arcane Mage was ALWAYS interesting to play. There was only a very short period of time, where the Arcane Mage was boring to play.So ... long text short conclusion: I think, the Arcane Mage like he is at the moment is a little weak in comparison to the last Addon. Most of you are right. But I am sure, there will be more Patches coming to balance this. We shouldn't forget, that maybe all Classes now seem weaker than before? I don't know, but I guess it's like that?What my main problem is with Arcane at the moment is: it became VERY boring to play like it is now. I changed the Skills and made some tests, but it doesn't matter, what I do: it is boring, and if there won't come any Patch where there are big changes how Arcane works now, it will be - in my opinion after all the time playing Arcane Mage - the most boring Addon with this Spec of all my WoW lifetime.
Arcane feels terrible now. It feels clunky and useless. Arcane missiles feels so slow and impactless, and arcane explosion feels like its just a souped up frost nova without the snare. Overall, it feels like I went from driving a porche to a bug. Arcane was fun for me in legion (especially with soul of the archmage) because I could weave together a bunch of combo's with charged up, pressence of mind, rune of power, arcane power, etc. I also felt like I could stay on the move and make plays. Not to mention arcane missiles felt fast and exciting (not the painfully slow series of missiles it has now-I honestly now just stand there counting them it's so boring). Now I feel like I have 1 button to press in all situations and I'm stuck into a 3rd grade formula that falls behind literally everything else I could play. I'm not sure what worries me more, blizzard thinking this is how arcane should be or that they just released an unfinished spec without any regard for how it'd affect arcane players. I was so excited for bfa - I only play mage. Now I'm going to have to learn frost and fire on raiding level just to participate ~ specs I just don't like
My 966 arcane gets outdamaged by some 940something fury warriors now.. coupled with the fact that our MASTERY only affects ONE spell makes it really un-fun.
While I’m not fond of the changes made it’s still a fun spec to play and I’m not following the herd to Frost. I’ve played Arcane since TBC. All they need to do is return the dmg buff and allow AM to be cast while moving regardless of whether you are talent spec for it. With Warmode on I’m lighting Alliance players up with AM. AB and AM are the only viable tools to use for pvp because I get slaughtered standing still casting Blast. Give us the dmg buff back, let AM stack and let us run while casting, make it happen Blizz.
I love Arcane for leveling on my Mage alt. It’s by far the most fluid and takes down monsters very quickly. I’m not sure where all the hate is coming from. Maybe in high end raiding or M+ it’s an issue? But you realize many things got royally screwed up in 8.0 and that things are tuned around 120 now? I’m not trying to make excuses for Acti-Blizz (god knows) but honestly, Frost seems VERY clunky to me and Fire, while good, runs out of buttons to press at times. Only Arcane is reliable in taking stuff down while questing.
THANK YOU!
I find myself spamming arcane missles now and Arcane Blast feels very slow by comparison.