Arcane Mage PvE

[positiv2 950]

This thread is for comments about our Arcane Mage Shadowlands Guide.

[Alamain 0]

I realize the updates to classes/specs is expansive, however, I just wanted to point out the Talent Choices for Arcane Mage and the Talent Cheat Sheets for Arcane Mage show conflicting data.  

Thank you for all of your time and efforts!

[Dutchmagoz 30]

2 hours ago, Alamain said:

I realize the updates to classes/specs is expansive, however, I just wanted to point out the Talent Choices for Arcane Mage and the Talent Cheat Sheets for Arcane Mage show conflicting data.  

Thank you for all of your time and efforts!

Hi Alamain,

Thanks a lot for your comment, you are correct, there was a mistake in the screenshots / talent choices overview.

An updated version with this fixed will go live shortly!

[Guest FightinFaerie]

I'm a little confused. You have Touch of the Magi as an important part of the rotation, but it requires Aluneth to use. I thought we left behind the artifact weapons at the end of Legion. I haven't played since before the end of BFA and hadn't done much with Azerite power, so I feel like I might be missing something. Should I actually still be using Aluneth?

[Dutchmagoz 30]

5 hours ago, Guest FightinFaerie said:

I'm a little confused. You have Touch of the Magi as an important part of the rotation, but it requires Aluneth to use. I thought we left behind the artifact weapons at the end of Legion. I haven't played since before the end of BFA and hadn't done much with Azerite power, so I feel like I might be missing something. Should I actually still be using Aluneth?

Hi!

The Shadowlands pre-patch re-introduced Touch of the Magi as a baseline spell, without needing the Legion artifact. (https://www.wowdb.com/spells/321507-touch-of-the-magi)

I see however that our tooltips are linking to the old version, instead of the new version. We will update it so the new tooltip will be used instead of the old one, to avoid any confusion.

Thank you for the feedback!

Dutchmagoz

[Guest DeepsShadows69]

Talent 50: Overpowered seems to have the wrong description. In game it says "Arcane Power now increases damage by 50% and reduces mana costs by 50%". 

[Dutchmagoz 30]

On 11/1/2020 at 3:11 AM, Guest DeepsShadows69 said:

Talent 50: Overpowered seems to have the wrong description. In game it says "Arcane Power now increases damage by 50% and reduces mana costs by 50%". 

Hi!

I am not quite sure where you are seeing the incorrect description. On our talent page it's described the same as you did above. Could you further expand on this?

Thank you!

[Narcoma 0]

Just for clarification: in the burn phase, how is it ever possible to get to the "Cast Arcane Orb if you do not have 4 Arcane Charges." part?

The burn phase requires you to have Arcane power and Touch of the Magi ready, so TotM will always be ready at the start of the burn phase. Then, when I cast it, it'll provide 4 Arcane Charges. Does the AO part only get relevant when you would have to use Arcane Barrage before, but TotM still on CD?

[Dutchmagoz 30]

4 hours ago, Narcoma said:

Just for clarification: in the burn phase, how is it ever possible to get to the "Cast Arcane Orb if you do not have 4 Arcane Charges." part?

The burn phase requires you to have Arcane power and Touch of the Magi ready, so TotM will always be ready at the start of the burn phase. Then, when I cast it, it'll provide 4 Arcane Charges. Does the AO part only get relevant when you would have to use Arcane Barrage before, but TotM still on CD?

Hi!

This is mostly as a backup if you run out of Mana before Evocation is back up. At this point, you will have to cast Arcane Barrage, which you can then follow up with Arcane Orb.

Hopefully this clears it up. If not, feel free to respond again!

[Guest Maerlim]

Quote

There is an inconsistency between two sections of the Rotation page.

On 4.2.2 It is stated that 

"When you begin casting Arcane Missiles between the last two ticks of an Arcane Missiles cast, the final tick of the first cast will be 'transferred' to the second Arcane Missiles cast."

But on 5.4 it is stated that

" Arcane Missiles, however, fires off an extra missile every time it ticks throughout the channel, making it extremely beneficial to fully complete your channel before queuing up the next spell. Many players will accidentally clip the last tick of the channel, cancelling the final missile and robbing them of a noticeable amount of damage."

So 4.2.2 tells to cast the next AM between the 2 last ticks, but 5.4 tells to cast the next AM after the last tick. Which is it?

 

[Maerlim 8]

There is inconsistency between two sections of the Rotation page.

On 4.2.2 It is stated that 

"When you begin casting Arcane Missiles between the last two ticks of an Arcane Missiles cast, the final tick of the first cast will be 'transferred' to the second Arcane Missiles cast."

But on 5.4 it is stated that

" Arcane Missiles, however, fires off an extra missile every time it ticks throughout the channel, making it extremely beneficial to fully complete your channel before queuing up the next spell. Many players will accidentally clip the last tick of the channel, cancelling the final missile and robbing them of a noticeable amount of damage."

So 4.2.2 tells to cast the next AM between the 2 last ticks, but 5.4 tells to cast the next AM after the last tick. Which is it?

Edited November 11, 2020 by Maerlim

[Dutchmagoz 30]

9 hours ago, Maerlim said:

There is inconsistency between two sections of the Rotation page.

On 4.2.2 It is stated that 

"When you begin casting Arcane Missiles between the last two ticks of an Arcane Missiles cast, the final tick of the first cast will be 'transferred' to the second Arcane Missiles cast."

But on 5.4 it is stated that

" Arcane Missiles, however, fires off an extra missile every time it ticks throughout the channel, making it extremely beneficial to fully complete your channel before queuing up the next spell. Many players will accidentally clip the last tick of the channel, cancelling the final missile and robbing them of a noticeable amount of damage."

So 4.2.2 tells to cast the next AM between the 2 last ticks, but 5.4 tells to cast the next AM after the last tick. Which is it?

Hi, thanks for your question.

It is a bit confusing, however, the first paragraph (4.2.2) is specifically relating to chaining Arcane Missiles into another Arcane Missiles, whereas the 5.4 section is for more general use. (e.g. Casting Arcane Missiles into Arcane Blast).

I will update the 5.4 section to properly reflect that this finishing off the channel is only relevant when you follow it up with a non Arcane Missiles.

Thanks for your feedback!

[Guest Infamous]

It would be great if baseline Blink would have 2 charges (like Shimmer ) and have Alter Time, Slipstream and Displacement and as the three talent choices for the second row.

[Mugendai 48]

it would be nice to have an update on the rotations with the covenants now, also to have things like the arcane orb>barrage>night fae skill>arcane orb> barrage combo.

Also, some of the text is outdated, for exemple it says "it is important to realize, that this is not Mana neutral, so you will eventually run out of Mana when keeping this rotation up for prolonged periods of time. " in the AoE rotations. But it's not the case anymore as arcane barrage gives you mana back now and you can AoE for a very long time

Edited November 28, 2020 by Mugendai

[Dutchmagoz 30]

5 hours ago, Mugendai said:

it would be nice to have an update on the rotations with the covenants now, also to have things like the arcane orb>barrage>night fae skill>arcane orb> barrage combo.

Also, some of the text is outdated, for exemple it says "it is important to realize, that this is not Mana neutral, so you will eventually run out of Mana when keeping this rotation up for prolonged periods of time. " in the AoE rotations. But it's not the case anymore as arcane barrage gives you mana back now and you can AoE for a very long time

Hi Mugendai,

I agree that some combinations / tricks with covenant abilities could be added than the current descriptions. I'll look into some more of those that are relevant in many situations. (like the orb nf combo).

Regarding the second section: This AoE rotation will definitely still eventually OOM you, although it will take a bit longer. This is why I left it in for the people who are looking for an AoE rotation that you could in theory spam for 5 minutes straight on dummies.

[Mugendai 48]

1 hour ago, Dutchmagoz said:

Hi Mugendai,

I agree that some combinations / tricks with covenant abilities could be added than the current descriptions. I'll look into some more of those that are relevant in many situations. (like the orb nf combo).

Regarding the second section: This AoE rotation will definitely still eventually OOM you, although it will take a bit longer. This is why I left it in for the people who are looking for an AoE rotation that you could in theory spam for 5 minutes straight on dummies.

Yeah, I understand what you mean, thank you for your answer.

At the moment i'm still struggling at understanding when to pop my NF skill, especially during boss fights, I haven't done mythic yet, but in heroic fights are so short that it doesn't seem worth it to use it during the fight. I'm hoping for more detailed use of the covenant skills.

Thanks a lot for your work !

[Guest DevOrp]

One stack of Runecloth Wrappings is enough to oneshot any boss as Arcane mage. 

Here's how.

Steps 

1. Use Touch of the Magi and Arcane Power at the same time
2. Cast invisibility
3. Wait for Boss to reset
4. Start casting Arcane Blast
5. As soon as Arcane Blast finishes casting use arcane power and instant cast another Arcane Blast. 

https://imgur.com/a/vqwRpai 

[Guest Rïtz]

I have a question about the opener section.

With arcane echo and orb talented, I like the point to get some procs before the burn phase but if you keep spamming arcane blast the time that rune keeps active, you run out of mana before bursting. How can we manage this? Should we keep the mana at 50% or use arcane barrage?

If we use arcane barrage to keep the mana, we lose the dmg of the rune and arcane blast cast time increments to 2secs.

 

I don't understand well how to manage this to keep my mana up to use arcane power after trying to get procs of arcane missiles.

[Dutchmagoz 30]

16 hours ago, Guest Rïtz said:

I have a question about the opener section.

With arcane echo and orb talented, I like the point to get some procs before the burn phase but if you keep spamming arcane blast the time that rune keeps active, you run out of mana before bursting. How can we manage this? Should we keep the mana at 50% or use arcane barrage?

If we use arcane barrage to keep the mana, we lose the dmg of the rune and arcane blast cast time increments to 2secs.

 

I don't understand well how to manage this to keep my mana up to use arcane power after trying to get procs of arcane missiles.

Hiya,

This is a great question.

While the Rune is active, you should not run out of mana from casting Arcane Blast only, especially not if you use your mana gem. (Unless you have Bloodlust + the Time Warp ring effect active, but i'll get back to that later) You should end with at least 20% mana left or so. <- Is this not happening for you? Are you oom before initial rune ends?

Then when rune ends and you are on 20% mana, you will Arcane Barrage, giving you mana back (arcane barrage gives you mana back), bringing you to around 30% mana. After that, you also spend 2 seconds casting Touch of the Magi, further regenerating mana. With the Overpowered talent, you will have no issues with mana as long as arcane power is active. Especially because you are also sitting on multiple stacks of clearcasting meaning your first couple of arcane missiles are completely free.

The only exception to the above is if you are running the Time Warp legendary, and you are stacking Bloodlust + Time Warp effects. In this case, you will run out of mana near the end of your initial Rune, but this is fine, as you will use Evocation and then go into Arcane Power.

[Guest Rïtz]

3 hours ago, Dutchmagoz said:

Hiya,

This is a great question.

While the Rune is active, you should not run out of mana from casting Arcane Blast only, especially not if you use your mana gem. (Unless you have Bloodlust + the Time Warp ring effect active, but i'll get back to that later) You should end with at least 20% mana left or so. <- Is this not happening for you? Are you oom before initial rune ends?

Then when rune ends and you are on 20% mana, you will Arcane Barrage, giving you mana back (arcane barrage gives you mana back), bringing you to around 30% mana. After that, you also spend 2 seconds casting Touch of the Magi, further regenerating mana. With the Overpowered talent, you will have no issues with mana as long as arcane power is active. Especially because you are also sitting on multiple stacks of clearcasting meaning your first couple of arcane missiles are completely free.

The only exception to the above is if you are running the Time Warp legendary, and you are stacking Bloodlust + Time Warp effects. In this case, you will run out of mana near the end of your initial Rune, but this is fine, as you will use Evocation and then go into Arcane Power.

Got it, thank you for your answer. I'll check but I'm sure I have at least 20% of Mana, I just thought it wasn't enough.

I'll give you feedback about it.

Thank you again!

[Guest Taekuri]

I'm curious about the conserve pahse, why would you cast rune of power after Touch of the magi is active on target, my initial feeling would be to cast rune of power before touch of the magi to have largest amount of time spent dealing damage during the Touch of the Magi?

[Ravenclaw89 27]

8 hours ago, Guest Taekuri said:

I'm curious about the conserve pahse, why would you cast rune of power after Touch of the magi is active on target, my initial feeling would be to cast rune of power before touch of the magi to have largest amount of time spent dealing damage during the Touch of the Magi?

I think it's because RoP it gives you more damage than TotM.

[Dutchmagoz 30]

On 12/5/2020 at 12:12 PM, Guest Taekuri said:

I'm curious about the conserve pahse, why would you cast rune of power after Touch of the magi is active on target, my initial feeling would be to cast rune of power before touch of the magi to have largest amount of time spent dealing damage during the Touch of the Magi?

Hi,

It definitely feels counter intuitive, but this is because Touch of the Magi boosts the damage you do by 25% (a bit more when using Arcane Echo) and Rune of Power boosts your damage by 40%, so by using Touch of the Magi first, you lose 1 global worth of 25% bonus damage, whereas if you were to use Rune of Power first, you would lose a global of 40% bonus damage.

[Guest koops]

hi, i think the rotation of the burst phase is bad and i want you to help me test it(though i have quite tested it).

During burst phase, with touch of the magi and all, you just spam and mash as quick as you can missile arcane. Of course when clearcasting comes out you cast the entire channeling. Good timing is required(with bl celerity is important), but not difficult. When touch of the magi is done, you start casting explosions until the end of burst phase. 

The many times i tested this against the normal explosion focused rotation, this does quite more damage. This burnt more mana but it is worth it as arcane power reduces a lot the mana waste.

Can you help me test this?

[Dutchmagoz 30]

On 12/9/2020 at 10:44 AM, Guest koops said:

hi, i think the rotation of the burst phase is bad and i want you to help me test it(though i have quite tested it).

During burst phase, with touch of the magi and all, you just spam and mash as quick as you can missile arcane. Of course when clearcasting comes out you cast the entire channeling. Good timing is required(with bl celerity is important), but not difficult. When touch of the magi is done, you start casting explosions until the end of burst phase. 

The many times i tested this against the normal explosion focused rotation, this does quite more damage. This burnt more mana but it is worth it as arcane power reduces a lot the mana waste.

Can you help me test this?

Hiya,

The opener and burst has been theorized a lot by myself and multiple other theorycrafters, and compared to many other openers via simulations and in-game testing.

Mashing Missiles does not do more damage than letting the channel finish the entire way (as long as you queue the next spell between the last 2 ticks), it only costs more Mana. Using missiles instead of Arcane Blast during Touch of the Magi is the correct play, but only if you let the channel finish all the way.