Pianoforte
New Member
your PM box is full again, so I'm putting the update to the Arcane Mage guide here. If you get a chance to copy-paste this load of garbage over there sometime, that'd be great. =D
At the end of the introductory section, I need to add: NOTE: As your gear improves, Arcane begins to decline. This is largely due to a lot of scary numbers that I won't bother you with, particularly the diminishing returns on Crit Rating for Arcane and the homogenization of healing and dps gear. As a decent watermark, once your wow-heroes gearscore gets to around 3k, you will likely find it more beneficial to spec Fire.
The Incanter's Absorption section needs an overhaul:
Incanter's Absorption: at its best, this talent was insanely OP. At its worst, it can be a giant waste of talent points and character movement. It only works with your own absorption mechanics, however, and this is a huge problem. Even with extremely high spellpower, Frost Ward and Fire Ward can no longer give you enough of a spellpower bonus to make this talent worth it. Using Mana Shield to proc this talent is not a good idea, either, as Arcane is, was, and may well forever be, the most mana-inefficient spec in the game. This talent is now more of a flavor option than an actual dps boost, and its use is mostly for PvP.
The Arcane Stability section needs to read as following:
Arcane Stability: There are many, popular builds that pick up 2-3 points in this talent. I, for one, wouldn't recommend using any more points than that, especially if you have a reliable Holy Paladin. With Improved Concentration Aura, which most Holy Paladins will have, 3 points will provide 100% pushback reduction.
The link "Pianoforte's Spec" needs to link to this, now instead: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#ofhifz0czxGuMtebcZMhf0o:Niz0Vc
New Section: Macros
The "I Win" Button: This is 90% of why Arcane Mages exist in the first place. This ties everything you have into one, big, scary kaboom that will light up Recount for about 30 seconds.
/cast Arcane Power
/cast Icy Veins
/use Potion of Speed
/use 13
/cast Mirror Image
You MUST make Mirror Image the last thing in your macro, as it starts a GCD and anything afterwards will not cast on your initial click. If you use this at the beginning of a fight, make absolutely, 100% sure that your mirror images pop before you lay into the boss. Your Mirror Images cancel all of your aggro and disperse it amongst themselves. If you pew pew away on the boss right off the bat without your Images up, you will pull aggro and die. Period. No tank can hold AP, IV, Trinket threat alone. NOTE: /use 13 is a popular way to set up the macro as long as you always keep your on-use trinkets in that slot. You can simply shift-click your current trinket into the macro, if you prefer.
PoM-AB: This macro is for the lazy Arcanist. I used it. Yeah. Implications...
/cast Presence of Mind
/cast Arcane Blast()
This macro makes sure that you always use PoM on CD, which is good. If you want to be super awesome and have like...50 more dps or whatever, you can cast 3 ABs and only use this macro to instantly cast your 4th one. I just stuck this on button 1 and was happy.
PoM-Flamestrike[/U: Not really important, but it gives a little boost to your AE dmg by casting and instant Flamestrike once per minute.
/cast Presence of Mind
/cast Flamstrike()
Ice Block: This is a nifty trick that will prevent you from accidentally dispelling raid buffs while trying to get out of Ice Block. It also allows you to remove any and all debuffs on yourself quickly and easily, and it particularly useful in PvP and when fighting Festergut. With this macro, you just click it to use Ice Block and click it again to remove it. NOTE: This is not good if you're a button masher. Be careful to only hit it once to activate and wait until you're truly ready to remove the buff before you click it again.
#showtooltip Ice Block
/stopcasting
/cancelaura Ice Block
/cast Ice Block
New Section: Gearing Up
Okay, have a seat. I'm about to tell you something extremely, extremely lame. The best, and, to be entirely honest, only way to gear up your toon with any efficiency these days is to run random heroics. Yes, it sucks. It really does. It sucks even worse for you, because your specs are dps, dps, and frost. (C wut I did thar?) As such, your heroic queues will last an average of 15-20 minutes alone. In this time, a tank has already queued, ran Heroic AzN, and gotten into H FoS. So, your best option is to queue up alone and start begging in trade chat for a tank or healer to piggy-back to a better queue.
That being said, let's start at the very, very bottom. If you just hit 80 and you're running around in a bunch of quest reward blues and greens, you might experience difficulty getting into heroic groups and, even worse, finishing them in decent time. This is a product of the new LFG system's gear-matching mechanic. It attempts to place you in groups that are at approximately the same gear levels as yourself, yet still good enough on the whole to finish the dungeon.
A quick head-start to raiding is crafted gear and, if you're feeling particularly rich, there are some simply great options out there for you. The first one I will highlight is a piece that you'll likely want to break down and spring for, as cloth wrists are entirely too hard to come by. Bejeweled Wizard's Bracers are made by Tailors and is a decently common recipe. (I have this recipe, for those who want it made.) The mats include 8 Spellweave, 4 Crusader Orbs, 1 Eye of Zul, 1 Majestic Zircon, and 1 Cardinal Ruby. What's that you say? Those mats are stupid? Why yes, yes they are. However, Spellweave runs cheap and Piano usually has a surplus supply that she'd be more than willing to donate to just such a cause. The gems are easily obtainable for decently cheap. The only part that will be expensive is the Crusader Orbs. I promise you, though, this piece is worth it as not only is it an excellent piece, it will save you a great headache in trying to get some decent bracelets.
Now, if you're feeling REALLY rich, you can have Merlin's Robe, Deathfrost Boots, and Leggings of Woven Death all Tailored for you, as well. These recipes are very expensive, but also very worth it if you have the gold just laying around. In fact, the pants are Best in Slot for Mage.
NOTE: RUNNING REGULARS IS ONLY NECESSARY IF YOUR GEAR IS PARTICULARLY WEAK. I would suggest skimming through this next section and seeing which pieces fill slots you need. If a piece you're wearing is below ilvl 187, you will likely want to do some regulars. The only piece you absolutely do want to skip, however, is the trinket from regular ToC.
A good way to get around failure heroics is to spend some time living in Regular ToC, FoS, and PoS. But alas, this is not so bad a fate, as these instances actually hold some key upgrades for you!!!
One of the first items you'll be after is a trinket from regular ToC. Yeah, that's right, an ilvl 200 trinket can and will carry you all the way into ICC. I'm not playing. No, really. Just trust me. The piece is called Abyssal Rune and has a 15% drop rate from either Eadric or Confessor Paletress in regular ToC. This is a lifesaver for you as, not only is it an easy farm, but it saves you a lot of badges that you need for other things.
Other nifty stuff drops in regular ToC that you aren't necessarily "farming" but you should snatch while you're there if they drop.
Next up is Regular Forge of Souls. In here, you'll find another piece that you can carry all the way into ICC, although there is an off-chance that you might luck into an upgrade along the way. Essence of Anger is a really sweet ilvl 219 belt that drops off the Devourer of Souls at a 16% rate. Once you've farmed that up, and grabbed anything else that fell in your lap, move on to Regular Pit of Saron.
Unspeakable Secret is the hidden gem of Regular Pit of Saron and is a nice replacement to that thing you're carrying around from Amphiteater of Anguish. No need to go to Regular Halls of Reflection. It's entirely too difficult and the gear won't last long.
So, you're ready to start Random Heroics. You're feeling beefy, your dps is over 2200 and it's time to really ramp up the gearing process. Random heroics give you Emblems of Triumph. You need these. Lots of 'em. I'm going to enumerate, here, a list of stuff you want to buy with your Triumph badges. Don't be intimidated. It's not as daunting as it sounds.
First, start working on your Tier 9 set. These items are all ilvl 232 and are the most important thing in your gearing up process and you'll want 4 of the pieces. Mage T9. Skip the chest piece if possible, because it's, well...pretty bad. It's terribly itemized and generally not worth the badges. Getting 4 pieces will run you 160 Emblems of Triumph, which isn't as bad as it seems, considering the reward.
After that, get this stuff in whatever order you so choose: Band of the Invoker for 35 badges.
Talisman of Resurgence for 50 badges.
Brimstone Igniter for 25 badges.
That's it. That's all the Triumph badges you need to spend on gear. No, do NOT get the trinket with a zillion hit on it. You don't want it, you don't need it. It's horrible for mages, especially those of the Arcane flavor.
Now, while you're farming all those darn badges, there are some key pieces you'll want to snatch along the way that you'll use all the way into ICC 10.
Weapon: Seethe and Shriveled Heart is the best possible combination. However, the off-hand comes from Heroic HoR, which is a horrifically difficult dungeon, especially with a PuG group. So, if you get a chance to grab Engraved Gargoyle's Femur along the way from Heroic PoS, do so, because farming the Heart will make you cry. I'm serious.
Chest: Ancient Polar Bear Hide is your best bet, with a 14% drop rate from Ick on Heroic PoS. If you can't get a hold of this piece, and you've got all the other badge stuff you need, the next best option is your T9 chest.
Belt: Braid of Salt and Fire is an awesome, awesome piece that shares a drop with the Chest listed above. So, farm H PoS like mad, because this makes 3 pieces you can get from it that you can march into ICC wearing.
Neck: Arcane Loops of Anger drop from Devourer of Souls on Heroic and share a drop with Seethe, thus making H FoS your next best farming spot after PoS.
Boots: Boots of the Crackling Flame drop in Heroic ToC and are more than good enough to last you until ICC and are the only cloth casting dps epic boots that drop outside of raids in the entirety of Northrend. (Lame, right?)
Cape: Here you have an interesting choice. Fluttering Sapphiron Drape drops in Onyxia 10 and is a really nice piece if you can find a group for it. However, there is a surprisingly easy alternative. Titan-Forged Cloak of Ascendancy is available from the Wintergrasp Vendor for a mere 25 marks of honor. You could also snatch Wrathful Gladiator's Cloak of Subjugation from the PvP vendor in Stormwind for 52,200 honor.
and lastly, Ring 2: Wrathful Gladiator's Band of Ascendancy is available in Stormwind for 26,100 honor and Sinner's Confession drops in H ToC. Either one is a suitable option.
P.S.: Thank you so much Goodwone. I love you. It'd be really cool if you could match the formatting and whatnot of all this to the rest of the guide, but it's not the end of the world if you can't.
At the end of the introductory section, I need to add: NOTE: As your gear improves, Arcane begins to decline. This is largely due to a lot of scary numbers that I won't bother you with, particularly the diminishing returns on Crit Rating for Arcane and the homogenization of healing and dps gear. As a decent watermark, once your wow-heroes gearscore gets to around 3k, you will likely find it more beneficial to spec Fire.
The Incanter's Absorption section needs an overhaul:
Incanter's Absorption: at its best, this talent was insanely OP. At its worst, it can be a giant waste of talent points and character movement. It only works with your own absorption mechanics, however, and this is a huge problem. Even with extremely high spellpower, Frost Ward and Fire Ward can no longer give you enough of a spellpower bonus to make this talent worth it. Using Mana Shield to proc this talent is not a good idea, either, as Arcane is, was, and may well forever be, the most mana-inefficient spec in the game. This talent is now more of a flavor option than an actual dps boost, and its use is mostly for PvP.
The Arcane Stability section needs to read as following:
Arcane Stability: There are many, popular builds that pick up 2-3 points in this talent. I, for one, wouldn't recommend using any more points than that, especially if you have a reliable Holy Paladin. With Improved Concentration Aura, which most Holy Paladins will have, 3 points will provide 100% pushback reduction.
The link "Pianoforte's Spec" needs to link to this, now instead: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#ofhifz0czxGuMtebcZMhf0o:Niz0Vc
New Section: Macros
The "I Win" Button: This is 90% of why Arcane Mages exist in the first place. This ties everything you have into one, big, scary kaboom that will light up Recount for about 30 seconds.
/cast Arcane Power
/cast Icy Veins
/use Potion of Speed
/use 13
/cast Mirror Image
You MUST make Mirror Image the last thing in your macro, as it starts a GCD and anything afterwards will not cast on your initial click. If you use this at the beginning of a fight, make absolutely, 100% sure that your mirror images pop before you lay into the boss. Your Mirror Images cancel all of your aggro and disperse it amongst themselves. If you pew pew away on the boss right off the bat without your Images up, you will pull aggro and die. Period. No tank can hold AP, IV, Trinket threat alone. NOTE: /use 13 is a popular way to set up the macro as long as you always keep your on-use trinkets in that slot. You can simply shift-click your current trinket into the macro, if you prefer.
PoM-AB: This macro is for the lazy Arcanist. I used it. Yeah. Implications...
/cast Presence of Mind
/cast Arcane Blast()
This macro makes sure that you always use PoM on CD, which is good. If you want to be super awesome and have like...50 more dps or whatever, you can cast 3 ABs and only use this macro to instantly cast your 4th one. I just stuck this on button 1 and was happy.
PoM-Flamestrike[/U: Not really important, but it gives a little boost to your AE dmg by casting and instant Flamestrike once per minute.
/cast Presence of Mind
/cast Flamstrike()
Ice Block: This is a nifty trick that will prevent you from accidentally dispelling raid buffs while trying to get out of Ice Block. It also allows you to remove any and all debuffs on yourself quickly and easily, and it particularly useful in PvP and when fighting Festergut. With this macro, you just click it to use Ice Block and click it again to remove it. NOTE: This is not good if you're a button masher. Be careful to only hit it once to activate and wait until you're truly ready to remove the buff before you click it again.
#showtooltip Ice Block
/stopcasting
/cancelaura Ice Block
/cast Ice Block
New Section: Gearing Up
Okay, have a seat. I'm about to tell you something extremely, extremely lame. The best, and, to be entirely honest, only way to gear up your toon with any efficiency these days is to run random heroics. Yes, it sucks. It really does. It sucks even worse for you, because your specs are dps, dps, and frost. (C wut I did thar?) As such, your heroic queues will last an average of 15-20 minutes alone. In this time, a tank has already queued, ran Heroic AzN, and gotten into H FoS. So, your best option is to queue up alone and start begging in trade chat for a tank or healer to piggy-back to a better queue.
That being said, let's start at the very, very bottom. If you just hit 80 and you're running around in a bunch of quest reward blues and greens, you might experience difficulty getting into heroic groups and, even worse, finishing them in decent time. This is a product of the new LFG system's gear-matching mechanic. It attempts to place you in groups that are at approximately the same gear levels as yourself, yet still good enough on the whole to finish the dungeon.
A quick head-start to raiding is crafted gear and, if you're feeling particularly rich, there are some simply great options out there for you. The first one I will highlight is a piece that you'll likely want to break down and spring for, as cloth wrists are entirely too hard to come by. Bejeweled Wizard's Bracers are made by Tailors and is a decently common recipe. (I have this recipe, for those who want it made.) The mats include 8 Spellweave, 4 Crusader Orbs, 1 Eye of Zul, 1 Majestic Zircon, and 1 Cardinal Ruby. What's that you say? Those mats are stupid? Why yes, yes they are. However, Spellweave runs cheap and Piano usually has a surplus supply that she'd be more than willing to donate to just such a cause. The gems are easily obtainable for decently cheap. The only part that will be expensive is the Crusader Orbs. I promise you, though, this piece is worth it as not only is it an excellent piece, it will save you a great headache in trying to get some decent bracelets.
Now, if you're feeling REALLY rich, you can have Merlin's Robe, Deathfrost Boots, and Leggings of Woven Death all Tailored for you, as well. These recipes are very expensive, but also very worth it if you have the gold just laying around. In fact, the pants are Best in Slot for Mage.
NOTE: RUNNING REGULARS IS ONLY NECESSARY IF YOUR GEAR IS PARTICULARLY WEAK. I would suggest skimming through this next section and seeing which pieces fill slots you need. If a piece you're wearing is below ilvl 187, you will likely want to do some regulars. The only piece you absolutely do want to skip, however, is the trinket from regular ToC.
A good way to get around failure heroics is to spend some time living in Regular ToC, FoS, and PoS. But alas, this is not so bad a fate, as these instances actually hold some key upgrades for you!!!
One of the first items you'll be after is a trinket from regular ToC. Yeah, that's right, an ilvl 200 trinket can and will carry you all the way into ICC. I'm not playing. No, really. Just trust me. The piece is called Abyssal Rune and has a 15% drop rate from either Eadric or Confessor Paletress in regular ToC. This is a lifesaver for you as, not only is it an easy farm, but it saves you a lot of badges that you need for other things.
Other nifty stuff drops in regular ToC that you aren't necessarily "farming" but you should snatch while you're there if they drop.
Next up is Regular Forge of Souls. In here, you'll find another piece that you can carry all the way into ICC, although there is an off-chance that you might luck into an upgrade along the way. Essence of Anger is a really sweet ilvl 219 belt that drops off the Devourer of Souls at a 16% rate. Once you've farmed that up, and grabbed anything else that fell in your lap, move on to Regular Pit of Saron.
Unspeakable Secret is the hidden gem of Regular Pit of Saron and is a nice replacement to that thing you're carrying around from Amphiteater of Anguish. No need to go to Regular Halls of Reflection. It's entirely too difficult and the gear won't last long.
So, you're ready to start Random Heroics. You're feeling beefy, your dps is over 2200 and it's time to really ramp up the gearing process. Random heroics give you Emblems of Triumph. You need these. Lots of 'em. I'm going to enumerate, here, a list of stuff you want to buy with your Triumph badges. Don't be intimidated. It's not as daunting as it sounds.
First, start working on your Tier 9 set. These items are all ilvl 232 and are the most important thing in your gearing up process and you'll want 4 of the pieces. Mage T9. Skip the chest piece if possible, because it's, well...pretty bad. It's terribly itemized and generally not worth the badges. Getting 4 pieces will run you 160 Emblems of Triumph, which isn't as bad as it seems, considering the reward.
After that, get this stuff in whatever order you so choose: Band of the Invoker for 35 badges.
Talisman of Resurgence for 50 badges.
Brimstone Igniter for 25 badges.
That's it. That's all the Triumph badges you need to spend on gear. No, do NOT get the trinket with a zillion hit on it. You don't want it, you don't need it. It's horrible for mages, especially those of the Arcane flavor.
Now, while you're farming all those darn badges, there are some key pieces you'll want to snatch along the way that you'll use all the way into ICC 10.
Weapon: Seethe and Shriveled Heart is the best possible combination. However, the off-hand comes from Heroic HoR, which is a horrifically difficult dungeon, especially with a PuG group. So, if you get a chance to grab Engraved Gargoyle's Femur along the way from Heroic PoS, do so, because farming the Heart will make you cry. I'm serious.
Chest: Ancient Polar Bear Hide is your best bet, with a 14% drop rate from Ick on Heroic PoS. If you can't get a hold of this piece, and you've got all the other badge stuff you need, the next best option is your T9 chest.
Belt: Braid of Salt and Fire is an awesome, awesome piece that shares a drop with the Chest listed above. So, farm H PoS like mad, because this makes 3 pieces you can get from it that you can march into ICC wearing.
Neck: Arcane Loops of Anger drop from Devourer of Souls on Heroic and share a drop with Seethe, thus making H FoS your next best farming spot after PoS.
Boots: Boots of the Crackling Flame drop in Heroic ToC and are more than good enough to last you until ICC and are the only cloth casting dps epic boots that drop outside of raids in the entirety of Northrend. (Lame, right?)
Cape: Here you have an interesting choice. Fluttering Sapphiron Drape drops in Onyxia 10 and is a really nice piece if you can find a group for it. However, there is a surprisingly easy alternative. Titan-Forged Cloak of Ascendancy is available from the Wintergrasp Vendor for a mere 25 marks of honor. You could also snatch Wrathful Gladiator's Cloak of Subjugation from the PvP vendor in Stormwind for 52,200 honor.
and lastly, Ring 2: Wrathful Gladiator's Band of Ascendancy is available in Stormwind for 26,100 honor and Sinner's Confession drops in H ToC. Either one is a suitable option.
P.S.: Thank you so much Goodwone. I love you. It'd be really cool if you could match the formatting and whatnot of all this to the rest of the guide, but it's not the end of the world if you can't.
