Is there a best cast sequence during AP? Rawr uses averaged cycle to model AP, so is it possible to use a better than average cycle to gain more dps?

Frostbite can be harmful in certain situations. For instance, consider the Swarm Scarabs in the Anub'arakh encounter. Frostbite procs can cause the scarabs to attack those in melee range, generating at least one stack of the debuff that could have easily been avoided. The same situation applies to fights in Ulduar like Thorim or Freya. If someone in melee range dies because the mob was momentarily rooted, that's on you.

I'm curious how you, a 57/3/11 arcane mage, would be proccing Frostbite on Anub'arak, Thorim, or Freya.

And 2/5 Imp Frostbolt is neither a trend nor "the common choice". I just checked a dozen Armories and nobody's specced that way. Those two points are completely throwaway.

remove please

Given the above statement, is it useful to spend a talent point in ABarr at all? For what I read in this thread, you shouldn't use it in any situation but when you're forced to move AND you know that when you stop you won't have the time to renew your AB stack with a new AB or a POM+AB or clear the AB stack with a procced MBARR / full AM. That would be a very rare case in most fights, and you could spend better that point in Arcane Stability for pushback or Magic Attunement for range...


On an unrelated note, does anyone know if Magic Absorption triggers IA? AFAIK resistances mitigate damage, while IA requests it to be absorbed to proc, so IA shouldn't proc from MA. I'm not totally sure about it tho. And if MA triggered IA, would it be profitable to spend 2 points there (considering that I use 3/3 IA and wards whenever I can, for the awesome SP buff and honestly for the fun of it too), or would it be only a slight dps increase?


--
Ivlivs of Blade's Edge
http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...+Edge&n=Ivlivs

I think the jury is out on whether you're better off just removing ABarr altogether. As you mentioned, the only time you should ust it, in terms of max DPS, is when you are moving and you don't believe that you'll be able to refresh Arc Blast. You can get away with not using it altogether, but there are still times when having an instant nuke (with the same arcane range) could be beneficial, i.e. Icehowl stun and you need to run him down, being chased by multiple mobs in faction champs, landing one last nuke before wurm burrow, or running from fire for more than a few seconds.

Ultimately, it seems to still be a judgment call based on your play style. If you're fine with using fire blast and judicious use of the blink spell, then the lack of Abarr shouldn't be a big deal.

As for IA and MA, IA requires that the damage be "absorbed," there is a difference, in terms of the IA proc, between "absorb" and "resisted." So no, if the spell is resisted, you won't see an increase in spellpower.

Edit: In response to Chubby below, "mana dumping" is the same as what you referred to as fishing for an MBAM proc, i.e. continuing to cast arc blast after stacking it four times.

What's a simple definition of the term "mana dumping"? I just switched to Arcane from fire and saw an incredible increase in DPS. After trolling the forums here I agree that Abarr after stacking AB is not a good idea but I'm not sure what is meant by "mana dumping". My rotation is currently AB till 4 then Mbarr. I'll fish for the proc while stacked usually and it seems to work out fine. Any mana issues are solved with an icy veins pop for the last of my mana then a last minute evocate as stated many times here before. I'm not sure I'm clear on what "mana dumping" is though. Thanks guys

The theory behind this is that any mana you have at the end of a fight is DPS that you could have used but didn't (for arcane mages). So if you're at 5% health or so (for example) on a boss and still have 40% mana, you should "dump" that mana by spamming something such as AB, thus ending the fight with as close to zero mana as possible, and thus doing as much damage as possible.

im a 57/3/11 arcane mage on Blood Furnace and all the other mages in my guild are the same spec and was looking at different specs and i heard that there is a spec that takes out AB all together and you just fishing for the Missile Barrage proc and it ups your dps by a significant amount and was wondering if anyone else has heard about it?

Phoenixrisng, if the answer to that question isn't immediately apparent to anyone that sees it, they will never become a first-class mage.

The abbreviation for Arcane Barrage is A-Barr.

Yes, there are specs that do not include A-Barr. From my experience the point spent in A-Barr has more value is spent elsewhere. I went arcane after the recent changes, picking up A-Barr, and found that it amounted to less than 1% of my damage (usually zero). The usefulness of A-Barr can be likened to Fire Blast as a FB/FFB mage, only useful on the move when other better options are unavailable. It is not part of any optimal rotation what so ever.

Casting A-Barr at the end of MBAM is not effective anymore because it does not gain from the AB debuff.

Casting A-Barr to wipe AB stacks is sub-optimal. The reason you wipe stacks is to conserve mana. What most mages who use this tactic do not realize is that A-Barr is worse DPM and MPS than an unhasted Arcane Missiles. If you are looking to wipe AB stacks you are better off casting unhasted Arcane Missiles for 2 reasons. 1) You get more bang for your buck on the AB stacks using missiles than A-Barr (more DPM), and 2) the passive regen you get while casting missiles equates to more MPS.

In practice, fishing for MBAM is best. Even if you burn some mana. With proper use of gems and evocation mana should not be an issue.

As far as where to spend that point, you have 3 options: Incanter's Absorption(IA), Student of the Mind(SotM), or Magic Attunement.

The most valuable in practice is IA. 2/3 points is acceptable, but i choose 3/3 because it then requires less damage for me to reach maximum spell power. Unless your set up Rawr properly it will not assign value to this talent.

The second most valuable (some say the most valuable) is Magic Attunement. Arcane has a short range to begin with and being able to get in range of the boss faster equates to more DPS. You can argue that range talents are situational (melee need to be up the bosses ass to do damage, why do I need range?) But we are RANGE DPS. I find extra range useful in pratice. Again, Rawr gives this talent no value.

SotM comes in a distant third. I do not spec it. The value of spirit, and therefor crit, is minimal. Off the top of my head I recall maxing out SotM to be less than a 1% DPS increase. Very expensive at the cost of 3 talent points.

For those of you who are thinking about Arcane Stability should know that most, if not all, unavoidable damage for new content does not interrupt casting. (correct me if I am wrong)

And just to be thorough, I see some arcane mages picking up Ice Shards instead of Frost Warding. Frost Warding becomes very valuable to the arcane play-style with the proper use of wards. You are using wards to increase your damage anyway, now those wards also offer a 30% chance to restore mana equal to damage absorbed. Seems like a no-brainer when your only other choice is spending points to increase frost damage.

Good Luck!