Threat is an issue now in raids. I kind of didn't expect it after wotlk raiding. Its not big but it comes up from time to time. More than it used to I'd say, but thats probably a byfactor of lucky hot streak proc chain.

Anyone else notice they upgraded majorly the range on arcane explosion?

edit. never mind, read new sticky post.

It's a straight DPS improvement if you weave it into a boss-mob rotation.

in solo play, you can launch it with that first extreme range fireball on anything likely to live 12 seconds (ie, if you are soloing elites or pulling a pack...just switch your focus target to somebody else in the pack during the gcd)

It can be worked into any AOE pull that is expected to last 12 seconds.

It is a kiting tool, like any other DOT...and the more people chasing you the more effective a kiting tool it is, as you turn them all into living bombs.

As with all new tools, it will take time to find the best way to use it.

With such low hitpoints on dungeon mobs (bosses and trash) I can barely find a use for Living Bomb. For 10-man and 25-man, it could still be used on bosses and some trash. I'll have to wait to try it in ZA. Otherwise, it's main use for me has been in AoE grinding and PvP. I almost constantly have it on a target at all times. You don't have to be facing your target to cast it. It has an incredible range. The 12 second DoT ensures that if you throw it up and have to ice block, they aren't going to be bandaging.

On trash, I've been applying it mostly to the third target. By the time it explodes, the first target is near dead.

I've been hitting stuff I never thought I would.

As a side note, arcane has never been more viable or fun in PvP in my experience - even going back to the days of PoM/pyro and no spelldamage on gear. I'm not sure I can build a workable pvp/pve arcane spec - but as everyone is starting to realise.. the bosses are dying before too much of that is important.

I dont have cooldown mods yet - so can someone answer a simple one for me - Does haste effect the 3 second cooldown of arcane barrage?

Has haste ever affected the cooldown of anything (except the GCD of course)? I wouldn't expect it to affect arcane barrage.

So, Brutty Kill post 3.0

Would me using Mage Armor (currently glyphed too) instead of Molten and not evocating and not using a mana pot (using a haste one instead) have led to higher DPS?

Other thoughts?

MMO-Champion BlueTracker - Living bomb idea

I think your right when you say that an unlucky hot streak chain can cause aggro issues. But from my SWP raid last night I didn't really see an issue. Most of us had Omen turned off most of the night because it was adding to the lag we were getting in the zone. I pretty much went all out on everything and only got an aggro warning once from the in game threat meter. I think a lot of it also has to do with the tank.

How much +dmg% is the Arcane Blast Debuff now live?
In the patch notes it's 25/50/75, the tooltip says 15/30/45 when I checked yesterday.

Too bad the server is down at the moment, so I have no way to test it. :/

If I am not mistaken, 15/30/45 makes it a filler spell at best.

I honestly was pretty shocked about the changes last night, most of the encounters are such a joke now that it's beyond ridiculous. Killed Kalecgos in two portals, Brutallus in 2:11, Felmyst in 2 air phases, it just goes on and on. We ended up killing Twins in the time I went to take a piss. I ended up behind two rogues and two hunters on Brutallus at something like 2600 dps with just a flame cap, no flasks, food or anything.

Most of the encounters are so trivialized that I really am having a difficult time finding a solid use for Living Bomb. Probably the two best applications of it were during the Felmyst adds (which died before the first breath), and on M'uru. After we figured out that everything is an aoe pack, the mages each started lighting up their respective former sheep targets on the pull, as well. All in all though, I think I'm going to try the Focus Magic circle jerk from now on. Even where I figured LB would have it's best application (M'uru) the adds were dying before it would even proc. I suppose it was helping on Sinister Reflections, Orbs, ect on KJ as well - but like everything else, there really just wasn't enough time.

Oh, earlier someone mentioned that it seemed like the Blast Wave knockback was causing some amount of threat - I noticed that as well, or at least had the same experience where it appeared to.

This has been commented on many times in this thread - The knockback takes the mob out of melee range of the tank. Your actual threat values are not modified, only the amount needed to pull agro (which is reflected in the internal threat meter).

In ZA today I managed to push up to 70% threat at one point, but that really was the highest I managed to go. Thats as arcane with arcane's -threat talent.

On Arcane blast: the fully ramped (45%) cast is better than having 10 points in fire for fireball, but only if thats all you cast (due to the horribly restrictive debuff time). Meaning you can't use MBAM or ABar, basically nuetering the entire arcane tree, and even then you're still relying on a very fragile buff that will drop whenever you have to move. If they want mages to actually use it then it needs to be 20/40/60 really.

World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> Arcane Blast bug?

I decided to ask. Maaven said:

I'm hoping beyond hope that the 'for the time being' part means they're at least considering the buffed version for a future patch. I'm currently playing with arcane (AB x1 --> Abar --> AM on proc), it's fun as hell, but not quite potent enough to compete with fire, especially with living bomb up. I'm just waiting to see what happens at this point. So many things are so broken that I can't possibly believe anything is set in stone.

Threat was only an issue on trash for me. Even with the new tank AoE threat moves, if the tanks are dividing their threat between multiple targets, you can end up pulling a few times because the crits just kept coming. Not that it matters; whatever you pull will be dead before it gets to you, and we AoE'd the majority of BT trash in a record clear (for us) last night.

Just a heads up, but I wouldn't count on WWS any more. Lossendil hasn't played the game in more then 2 years, and has went MIA for several months at a time (ZA, 2.4 and now). Anyways, I tried out WoW Meter Online, and it works awesome.


Here's the detail breakout for mana gained from our 3 minute(ish) Brut kill:

Improved Water Elemental : 44 Times ( 2858 Mana )
Mana Tide Totem : 4 Times ( 2595 Mana )
Mana Spring Totem : 37 Times ( 925 Mana )
Judgement of Wisdom(R1) : 46 Times ( 9948 Mana )
Replenishment : 177 Times ( 4785 Mana )
Blessedness : 2 Times ( 330 Mana )

Not bad for raiding with hardly any mods and first time as frost in more then a year.

Here's the breakout:WOW Meter Online - More logs!!!!!!

It's free to boot. *please ignore my use of cooldowns / procs etc, as noted, first time frost in a long time, broken as mods*

EDIT: I'm too tired it seems. Please delete this post.

Did you have any resists at all, and did focus magic stay on you 100% of the time? How was your mana situation? I'm more of an empiricist than a theorycrafter, pardon the inquisition

11/50/0 14% is hit cap in raids with a spriest or boomkin.

Druid innervated me but I think I would have been ok without it.

Also had couple people pm me about how I got wws to load. There is someone that made a combat log converter to get the new logs to work. It is posted on the wws site forums.

Hmm, anyone know why Rawr show that having +10 intellect gems give much more DPS then havign +12 spell damage gems now? Did they change something to the intellect mechanic?

The spriest/boomkin thing slipped my mind when I originally posted, I edited it though after I re-read it Still adjusting to the changes! I think 11/50/0 will be my next endeavor, it's likely a larger increase to raid damage overall.

Most likely you've entered a mana limited scenario or forgot to enable Replenishment/JoW.

So I am at a loss now. I have always been arcane, done well in BC with it... but now with 3.0 live I am just unsure how to play the spec anymore.

Everything feels clunky and awkward. Is there a way for a lvl 70 arcane mage to do worthwhile dps in a raid now or is it just officially dead.

If it is possible... can someone enlighten me on just how? I've been trying to play with a rotation of ArB, AB and hit AM on MB procs. I am not sure if it's my just not knowing how to play the spec anymore or if the spec itself is just poor now.