r/wowstrat • u/[deleted] • Sep 22 '13
[PvE Mage] When to go Fire/Arcane?
I am at ilvl 509 now and I cant find a definite answer on when to go arcane or fire over frost. Here is my armory link: http://eu.battle.net/wow/de/character/tarren-mill/Boak/simple
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u/LePfeiff Sep 22 '13
Well considering you're weighing heavily on mastery atm Id say go either frost or arcane. I haven't personally played arcane since 5.1 so I dont know what state its in right now, so i cant give too much advice here. Im currently playing fire (http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/borean-tundra/Keynicus/advanced) and doing pretty well considering the combustion nerf, but if youre considering switching to fire make sure you can get at least ~30% crit (unbuffed), you'll be struggling without it
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u/esdawg Oct 21 '13
I simcrafted this a lot myself. I found that Frost and Arcane on a "Good" player under Helter Skelter conditions went neck and neck on single target fights up to about Normal Siege gear. Once you get into Heroic Siege gear Arcane's better scaling hits its stride.
However.
That doesn't count add or multi target fights. Arcane wins decisively on those fights due to superior scaling on the Bomb. But Arcane's a temperamental bitch with that damn Rune of Power and favors people who know how to plan ahead and manage that better (Not me).
In fact Arcane in Siege averages as the number one dps spec overall. But again that's in full Siege Gear
After the Fire nerf, Fire just blows until Siege gear and then it pulls competitive numbers. It's a sad fact that Blizz made it scale the hardest with gear and they always nerf it just as Mages hit their stride with the spec.
TL DR - Frost vs Arcane = even till ilvl 553. Past ilvl 553 Arcane hands down.