Just finished downloading the PTR patch and hopping on. Missile Barrage tooltip hasn't been updated, but from testing it on target dummies, it is both free AND 100% hasted. So no fears that the haste part of the effect was removed.

AB cost:
Base - 215
1stack - 494
2stack - 774
3stack - 1053
4stack - 1333

Currently, Arcane Missiles are not benefiting from the 4th stack, but further casts of AB are.

AM damage:
Base - 1261
1stack - 1451
2stack - 1640
3stack - 1829
4stack - 1829

AB damage (approx):
Base - 3400
1stack - 3900
2stack - 4425
3stack - 4900
4stack - 5450

This was all without the AB glyph, which would add more damage per stack.

It sounds like they're making it easier to maintain an "optimal" arcane rotation.With 40% chance to trigger MB it's a near guarantee you'll have a MB proc by 3 or 4 stacks.Plus now AM will be free on top of dramatically less mana burden from AB spam with a stronger Arcane Missiles from an extra AB stack.

they made me excited to want to try an arcane spec again. Interesting.

I think this seems to be a step in the right direction in terms of getting back the old arcane feeling (pre 2.4, with AB spam and Frostbolts stuck in between, which, to me, was the most fun mage spec throughout the history of WoW).

The rotation will be universal: simply AB spam until MBAM, but the problem is when MBAM procs and you are at ABx4 stack, there is no advantage in spamming AB even further since using MBAM will BOTH be better DPM (zero mana cost) AND better DPS. So this takes the guesswork out of the equation which made pre 2.4 arcane fun to begin with.

However, if what Xentropy found is intended, as in, 4th stack of AB buffs AB but not AM, then this surely looks like the devs want the choice of using MBAM right away or saving it to be a more difficult choice, thus, in my opinion, making arcane more fun.

I think (hope) we can assume that this is not intended. It would defeat the purpose of increasing the stack to four if our follow up spells didn't benefit from it.

Whichever way you look at it this is a pretty nice boost for Arcane.

1. At 15% per AB stack and 3% per stack from the glyph Arcane mages will be pushing 72% increased damage at a full stack. Granted this won't equate to 18% more damage due to the restacking nature of Arcane but the final Blast (Blasts if you're still fishing for procs) and Missile Barrage will be seeing a hefty damage boost. As a complete guess I'd pitch being able to stack Blast to a fourth stack at around a 4-5% dps boost in it's own right.

2. With Arcane Blast having a 40% to proc Missile Barrage it is pretty close to guaranteed that at a full stack of Blasts you'll almost always be able to follow with a Missile Barrage. Missile Barrage is what carries Arcane dps. The most frustrating thing on live is getting a huge streak without procs and watching your dps plummet. This change essentially ensures our rotation can always be optimal. I would estimate near-guaranteed Missile Barrage procs could account for 2-3% in terms of dps boost.

3. The mana changes are frankly more than we could have hoped for. Our efficiency compared to live is going to be considerably up. With a fourth stack Arcane Blast costing the same as a three-stack on live, and Missile Barrage being entirely free, there are two implications. Firstly, we can spam Arcane Blast more to fish for procs because actually getting a free Missile Barrage will offset the cost of the extra spamming needed to fish for it. Secondly, we will need to fish for procs less anyway with the increased proc chance anyway, which in turn further aids mana efficiency.

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In terms of how Arcane playstyle will change I expect:

1. The standard rotation will be Arcane Blast spam until Missile Barrage procs. With the reduced cost of spamming and the fact Missile Barrage will now be free, it's almost counter-productive to cast a non-hasted Missiles due to its heavy mana penalty compared to a Missile Barrage proc.

2. For 'burn' rotations Arcane Blast spam might be more of an option. It now takes 4 stacks to get to full nuking potential so I expect spamming will yield more impressive dps results at 72% increased damage compared to spamming on live. Having to restack will be more noticable than it is now.

3. Arcane mages will have more freedom as to when they use Evocation. Right now it doesn't feel like a choice. Arcane is based around Evocating every two minutes. You have a very limited window in which you can actually Evocate. This increased mana efficiency should allow Arcane to plan their Evocation a little better around boss abilities. On live I sometimes feel forced into using Evocation at dangerous times because the window for use is so small. This should be less of the case in 3.2.2.

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What the changes haven't addressed:

1. Raid utility for Arcane. We know this is on the cards now as it's finally been addressed by blue posts. I'm hopeful they'll squeeze some utility into the patch notes before it goes live, especially given it was addressed in the same breath as increased Arcane Blast stacks and increased mana efficiency.

2. Talent tree bloat. A couple of the 5 point talents NEED reducing. Arcane Mind must surely be going down to a 3 point talent soon?

3. Arcane mages still don't like crit. Increasing our crit damage to 100% along with these latest buffs would render Arcane grossly overpowered I'm sure. 100% Arcane Blast crits at 72% increased damage would make 25k+ crits commonplace in PvE. Arcane's crit damage is likely not going to be addressed until the expansion and will most likely be combined with the removal of POM due to the PvP implications of this spell constantly infringing on PvE damage.

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I'd like to see some hard theorycrafting on the changes however before I get too excited.

These buffs are nice but it seems to make the spec less mobile and marginalizes ABarr even more. I wish they could have found a way to have ABarr play a more prominent role in the rotation.

As I said above, this might be intended, because it stands right now, using MBAM @ 4 stacks is a no-brainer, but if it were to not benefit from the last stack, this would make the choice between keeping on AB spam and using MBAM more difficult.

I just added 3.2.2 support for Mages into r3111. The initial implementation allows all Arcane spells to benefit from the full stack. However, I believe Sinless may be correct because the result is that Arcane is beating out deep Fire in my testing.

I'm handing it off to Lhivera from here to make the necessary tweaks to sc_mage.cpp as the exact mechanics become more clear.

I wouldn't expect it. When has Fire Blast ever been given any consideration? The instants seem to be, like you siad, pvp and mobility spells. I use fireblast a lot when I have to run and gun on hodir, thorim, mim but that's about it. same with ABarr when I was arcane. It would be nice to have a viable means of using these in more situations but Blizz has said they like having casters centered around one or two main nukes.

something is wrong here, 494 is not 215 + 130%

should be more like
Base - 215
1stack - 279,5
2stack - 363,35
3stack - 472,355
4stack - 614,0615

seems blizzard calculators work different or just tooltip errors?

I too am very concerned about Arcane Barrage's purpose simply fading away, it does pityful damage on the move and blizzard seem dead set on making Arcane Missiles the no-brainer finisher of the specc which is bad.

These changes will of course as stated further increase the penalty of movement for the specc which makes me think making Arcane Barrage the lesser, mobile version of Arcane Blast while changing Missile Barrage to reduce channeling time by 12.5% per stack would make the specc as a whole click a lot better.

By how much if I may ask?

215 * 230% (remember, the cost is going +130% each stack, not +30%) = 494.5. Tooltip stated 494. I should mention the spec I hastily threw together had 3/3 Arcane Focus (for -3% costs), but no other talented mana cost reductions.

Any talk about PVE Arcane Barrage improvements/changes needs to be carefully weighted against burst potential in PVP. No surprise, we all know it already. But Arcane Barrage at (4) stack, could create some very impressive burst DPS - which Blizzard wants to stem.

I don't understand why Arcane Barrage has to be a up-front Nuke anyway. Thats the main problem here: Arcane Barrage is a 100% damage up front, instant nuke that has access to great damage multipliers via the ABlast buff.

Why couldnt it be an instant spell (coefficient restored) that leaves a 3 second DOT on the target instead? Instead of 100% upfront damage it does now, it'd do 33% damage dealt over 3 seconds/spell cooldown. That would cleanly lower burst damage in PVP (spreading it across 3 seconds, also dispellable in that period) - yet allow us to bring the spell back into raid encounters.

Arcane Barrage is a fun spell. We'd like to be using it more. It's no surprise players are getting concerned that it's just being sidelined too far to 'used only in esoteric raid situations or pvp'. With this said, the proposed 3.2. changes are still most certainly welcomed.

I do think there would be an uproar if they were to introduce yet another dot to mages. People don't vision mage's as a class that would deal any significant damage through dot effects.

I do however think making it stack the AB debuff while obviously tweaking it's damage would help it's usability in PvE and discourage pure Abar spam or using it as a finisher in PvP.

Then people are silly. Most classes have dots now in pve, there's no reason mages shouldn't.

Dots are a good way to add interactivity to a class as well as providing pve power without making it bursty in pve.

The new arcane sounds a bit mind-numbing to me. It's like fire, except without living bomb or scorch. Spam A, hit B on proc?

It will still have the mana management element, it just won't be as important as it is currently. There's managing cooldowns for optimal dps on burst phases too. Fire might have a slightly more complex rotation but that rotation is the same on a 2 minute fight, a 10 minute fight or a burst phase. Arcane will still have more of an overall management feel to it than fire still.

By "esoteric raid situations" do you mean "whenever you have to move"?

I'm guessing this wouldn't work because people would get to an intermediate stack and alternate abarr/ablast to keep up the damage buff indefinitely.

Honestly, I don't know what to think about these changes.

I've been Arcane since late May (when I hit 80) up until 3.2, TTW/Fire is extremely static and boring to me compared to the dynamics of Arcane. While these changes will most likely have me re-speccing in a heartbeat once 3.2.2 hits live (assuming it is indeed close enough to TTW/Fire), I'm not sure how much of the dynamics will carry through. Before 3.2 I was using Abarr to squeeze out that extra DPS and was very much enjoying having to make up for it by perfectly managing my mana pool and cooldowns.

From the looks of it, come 3.2.2 we will indeed just be mashing AB and casting MBAM when it procs. Obviously the mana management will still be present and the CDs are the same CDs, but I can't feel but help that some of the attraction that the Arcane spec had will be lost.

Kyth:
As a new player, who knew in advance that mages don't deal as much damage as their stepbrother Warlocks, the appeal of the class was the direct damage dealing. if I wanted to base my damage on DoTs I would roll a Warlock or a Shadow Priest. Classes should be balanced according to their original vision, not by homogenizing them.

Anyhow, any chance for some math wiz to theorycraft and calculate just how much closer Arcane will be to Fire with BiS?

Yes but would that matter aside from improving mobile dps? It would still do less dps than AB spam and cost much more than the standard rotation with MBAM.

And if your choice is subpar DPS, or competitive DPS with a dot, which will you choose?

That was the point of my post. Not RP concerns about whether a dot feels right or not (remember a dot is just a spell with a cooldown. Think of LB as a spell with a 12-second cooldown if it makes you happier!) There's a reason dots have been added to almost every spec, including fire mages.

I just think it's silly to exclude all discussion of adding a single dot because it makes you afraid of being like a warlock (who has far more than one) when it's one of only a small number of ways to add PvE dps without introducing significant pvp concerns. (and to say that they are concerned about mage pvp would be a vast understatement -- it's almost amusing how concerned they are about mages having pvp burst.)

Ultimately I care most about a spec that does competitive DPS and is fun to play. Whether they do that with dots, rainbows, or birds flying out my ass, I don't much care.

As much as you may wish for the arcane (and frost) trees to maintain their direct damage component, dps based on direct damage presents a conundrum to developers wanting to balance PvP and PvE: Push the damage of a direct damage spec to match our dot (re:fire) spec and you end up causing too much burst potential in PvP.

At this point in the game, I agree with Kyth in that it's no coincidence that our (current) top PvE spec is heavily dot-oriented, and that shifting some of the up-front arcane and frost damage to dots would go a long way towards PvE parity among all our specs without causing balance issues in PvP.

Taking Xentropy's numbers (and adding in arcane blast and arcane missiles and assuming a 50% crit rate)

AB damage

Base = 3400
1stack = 3978 (7956 crit)
2stacks = 4556
3stacks = 5134 (10268 crit)
4stacks = 5712

sum = 31892

AM damage
base = 3400
4 stacks AB = 3175 (3 423 noncrit missiles and 2 741 crit missiles)

(31892+3175 = 35067)/(15 secs/1.11=13.41 secs cast time*) = 2615 dps
*Xentropy's haste listed on the armory = 11.83%

hmm seems underwhelming. I must be missing something.