Okay, i skimmed threw the past 3 pages and i did notice that arcane is still a competitive spec, but my concern is when i was reading in the Arcane thread that a lot of people said to macro Arcane Power with Arcane Blast. However i later read contradicting things.

So, im sorry if its been said, or if i missed it, or what have you...but a simple Yes/No please?

Also, i did read it was debatible to use the previous cast sequence of ABx3 AM Abar and now its ABx3 Abr and only AM on MBAM procs? wouldnt with the Glyph chance and the nerf to the coefficient of ABar it be better DPS to do ABx3 AM regardless? Or is the mana just going to be way to hard to control at that point?

Sorry, for the questions i just dont have time to play alot before raids, and they blocked your site at work so i cant read there.

The reason people are advocating for macroing this is because you will generally want to use it as soon as the cooldown is up as far as I understand. HOWEVER, the problem with all macros that consolidate cooldowns to your make nuke button is in a real boss fight, you might not always want to pop your cooldown asap. Sometimes you need to save it for a certain time, such as when the first extra drake appears when you do a Sarth +drakes fight. More common than that is when you want to save the cooldown for when you'll get the full duration. If you pop AP right before Saphiron takes a breath, then you're wasting your AP while you stand around behind an ice block, waiting to be able to dps again.

@ your question about spell rotation: the answer is in the arcane thread
http://elitistjerks.com/1099292-post1125.html

http://elitistjerks.com/1099308-post1128.html

The front page also summarizes the comparative dps of the different rotations, including ABx3 -> AM (regardless of MB proc).

The reason AP binding to AB was talked about was that it was assumed AP was on a 1 minute untalented CD, however it is 2 minutes or 1.4 talented.

Has there been any unannounced mana regen changes that anyone may have noticed? I typically run an 18/53 fireball build, and have no mana issues at all. Using it last night, with the exact same raid setup I have always had, I ran out of mana on the first few bosses, consistently. On Thadd, I was bone dry by 50%, after using 2 stones, a pot, and an evocate.

Had the normal regen, plus 1 in actuality. 2 hunters with 1 and 2 points into hunting party, 1 shadow priest (which was the extra), 1 ret pally. All the same players as usual. After Thadd, I ended up respeccing back to FFB just to ensure I didnt have the issue again. All fight lengths were relatively the same, if not quicker. We normally run with 21-23 members, and actually had a full 25.

Recently a guildie threw this link my way. SampleOutput - simulationcraft - Google Code

Is A Fireball build such as 18/53/0 actualy viable? I tried it out last night and our other 57/3/11 mage ended up beating me by a decent gap every fight.

Arcane is the superior spec right now, also if you look here you can clearly see that

SampleOutputCaster - simulationcraft - Google Code

Arcane, Fire, and FFB are all "viable" but viable is a lot different from the best.

I know they are all viable. I'm trying to say that simulationcraft shows Fire and Arcane to be alot closer than what I can actualy produce in practice.

One question regarding this website. Looking at the scaling comparison at the bottom of that site, FFB scales even better with SP than FB does. That's quite the opposite from what I've been reading in various different Forums.

Is this Site including the higher crit multiplicator for FFB and this ways expects a higher scaling and is this correct as it says on the site or is FB scaling better simply because of the longer cast time?

Has anybody else seen rogues topping the meters? Not necessarily topping meters, but topping mages in general without going HAT after their SnD/HfB/Mut changes?

I had a rough night in Naxx25 last night, not breaking 5k dps on patchwerk, unbelievable =( but I think that the kill was a bit faster than what I am used to, so my burn phase lasted very little =(

Wow Web Stats

Mages are usually top5 in our guild prior to this week, this week a geared Surv hunter joined and completely dominated us, as well as some of the rogues who were combat. Anybody else fallen to the middle or bottom of their guild meters?

Well here are my numbers for patchwerk yesterday for comparison.
Wow Web Stats
Your not like real undergeared or anything so I'm not sure why you are so low; as for hunters Bullszeye way out performed ours.

Hello guys i have a quick question i dont understand how [Gown of the Spell-Weaver] is better rated then...
[Heigan's Putrid Vestments] the only thing i can think of is for the +hit i also gemmed my Heigan's putrid vestments with [Mysterious Twilight Opal] and [Reckless Monarch Topaz] i also have +8stats on the chest, i am thinking of throwing +10 because i honestly think heigan's is better..idk though maybe i am missing something..can someone please explain why gown of the spell-weaver would be better? i am hit capped...as a arc mage already ...so i dont really need all that extra +hit thank you for your time and concern.

Does anyone know if the mana regen gained from the Pyromaniac and Arcane Meditation talents stack?

remove please

Does spell rezistance lower frost nova chance to brake in pvp?

How does spell penetration work for frost nova in pvp?

That would probably explain it.
The fights were the last few in 25man nax.

Out of curiosity why are numbers always based around 5mins fights? The only fight I can recall that long would be something like Sath 3 drakes.

Maybe because the numbers, specs, rotations etc. are only important when you are fighting a boss for whom you are not greatly overpowered?

Read the patch notes.

hi ,

I have try to make some research about the Fire Arcane build (18/53/00) but I cant find anything about that .

anyone have try this spec ? any feedback ?

Then you should do some more research. The Frostfire Bolt Thread has tons of information on that build as many FFB mages moved their 18 points from frost to arcane after the fixes /changes in patch 3.08.

The comparison between different raids show how the players vary in different raids.
In our Patchwerk Kill we managed nearly same time with 3 Tanks but the top dps classes where partly different.
Wow Web Stats
It seems that most Specs are really close together.

As you can see i tried to manage AB*3 AM, regardless of proc and iam unsure about thats the best normal rotation. I got the postings in the arcane thread and tried also to use Rotation AB Spam in IV/Lust with Evocation on last tick. But i think with arcane the ping is such heavy problem when its over 150ms.

So now, due to boredom, I've been trying to maximize DPS on Patchwerk even at the cost of less utility/AoE damage.

For example, last week I tried out the SampleOutputCaster fire spec of 20/51/0 and these were the results: Wow Web Stats

My guild has had everything on a 1 night farm for a while now so I've just been experimenting. I went over to the Optimal Gear thread and found I've got nearly BIS everything for 57/3/11 so I'm curious of how it'll go.

What's a good arcane spell breakdown for a ~2:45 Patchwerk kill? Spam AB until OOM and evocate and go back into a regular rotation (3xAB ([MB] or ABarr))? I've got every buff or pot at my disposal, along with Innervate (or 2) if I call for it. How long is AB spam maintainable if I had 2 Innervates during the course of the fight?

Right now I'm thinking spam AE to get Illustration to max before fight starts but drinking, too, so I start at max mana. Then ABarr as soon as the tank taunts/hits, then blow cooldowns (AP/IV/Gem) and spam AB 'til last second of IV and evocate, spam AB again til 40% mana, call for Innervate, then drop into regular arcane rotation 'til the end.

Or I could just start with regular rotation with blown cooldowns, save second set of cooldowns for Heroism (35-40% range), call for Innervates and spam AB at the end to dump mana.

Any thoughts?

Just me personally, I'd recommend AB spam until MB procs until heroism goes up. I'd have to load up rawr again, but if I'm not mistaken MBAM is the highest dps spell in your arsenal. I wouldn't pass that up unless you are in a heroism/burst phase. I believe one of the reasons for AB spam during heroism/AP/IV is reaction time. With sufficiant haste all you can really manage without wasting any casting time is AB spam. (Although a MBAM during IV/AP/Heroism is pretty fun.)