WOTLK Mage PVP, Arcane or Frost?
My ultimate aim for my mage has always been some serious PVP but with WOTLK looming and the new level cap and talents I’m torn. I see two potentially excellent PVP builds; a very deep Arcane build http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=ofcVfhMhdeGzMtcdbZbIh0o that takes advantage of POM+Arcane Power and the 51point instant nuke Arcane Barrage or a very deep frost build http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=ocZZAIfIofuhfdgfst that would have ridiculous CC potential, great survivability and high, frequent crits along with Deep Freeze which is also an instant nuke, with a stun mechanic.
Based purely on this I’m swaying towards a deep frost build. Deep Freeze’s base damage is 1189-1381 and Arcane Barrage is 936-1144. Both are instant. But Deep Freeze has a stun mechanic and thanks to Shatter and Ice Shards would crit more often and for 300% damage.
The maths, using 500 as +spell damage again.
Arcane Barrage:
Arcane gives +spelldamage boost of 15% so say 575
936+(575×0.43)=1183.25
Assuming Arcane Power has been popped percentage multipliers give +33% damage
1183.35×1.33=1573.7225
Assume a crit, about 40% chance due to talents (assuming clearcasting or POM). Spell Power increases crit percentage to +150%.
1573.7225×2.5=3934.30625
So minimum crit is 3934 for Arcane Barrage.
Deep Freeze:
1189+(500×0.43)=1404
Percentage multipliers give +16%
1404×1.16=1628.64
Assume a crit on a frozen target (Deep Freeze only works on frozen targets), 60% chance assuming Winter’s Chill is at full effect, 50%+ if not, +200% damage due to Ice Shards
1628.64×3=4885.92
So minimum crit for Deep Freeze is 4886, 952 more than the minimum crit of Arcane Barrage and it’s a minimum of 10%, a lot of the time 20%, more likely to crit.
Burst damage will probably still be better with the Arcane build because for 15 secs of POM and Arcane Power you get 30% more damage to all spells and +30% chance to crit, using instant casts till you run out and on the 15th second casting an instant Pyroblast that would have +30% chance to crit and do 30% more damage. There’s potential in the arcane spec for 15 seconds of nutty burst damage. Oh and this used to be known as the three minute mage (3min cooldown on POM and ArcP) but thanks to Arcane Flows it’s now the two minute mage. Yeah.. maybe a little OP. But as far as the 51 point talents are concerned Deep Frost is superior and I would prefer to have the added CC, survivability tricks and to be honest, skill factor. Deep Arcane will require either a few button pushes, or just a single Macro. Click to win for 15 seconds and Ice Block till your now empty mana pool refills seems like a wanker’s approach. If you see me in 80 PVP I’ll probably be Deep Frost. Unless it turns out I’m just gimping myself..
Edit: it occurs to me that when PVPers start stacking some lvl 80 stam and resi gear the heavily crit dependant 15 second burst won’t be enough to kill many players. So there’s a good chance the Deep Arcane build is going to go the same way as the old POM Pyro spec. Down the tube, when all of a sudden the easymode mages find themselves manaless but their opponent is still kicking and don’t have the skill or intuition to deal with it.
Edit: Deep freeze is no longer a nuke 
just a stun mechanic. Still pretty useful just to have a stun if you ask me. Furthermore it represents 3 or 4 Ice Lances. If they crit thats a big chunk of anyone’s health.
That’s all folks.
A
Its all fine, people can read this, and we can use it if we just go HTTPS. or use proxy or whatever, is cool.
maths and pvp dont mix well bro
REMEMBER IF SPELLS HIT AT THE SAME TIME IN FROSTNOVA THEY BOTH GET AFFECTED BY SHATTER, HENCE THE TERM “SHATTERCOMBO”
frostnova-> summon pet-> (frostbolt/icelance/petbolt combo in FN)->nova breaks-> petnova->(frostbolt/deepfreeze)
player just got combo’d for about 6k damage before deepfreeze even started. the burst chains with deep freeze are fucking endless.
YUMMY
bugger… bugger… bugger… I so love the look of Arcane
don’t dipair reaper, for one thing you can fire of an instant nuke every 3 secs with the current deep arcane tree, which has a high chance to turn your arcane missiles into a very quick nuke as well. +ArcanePower, POM etc there is potetial here to dump your entire mana pool as one FAT lump of damage on your foe nice and quickly. Just pray they don’t survive.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=ofcib0McdxGuMtjdfcbco with a rotation along the lines of Slow -> AP+POM macro -> Arcane barrage every 3 secs with any other instant casts woven in -> Pyroblast on the 15th second of POM, will be a big chunk of damage. After that 15 secs you can still spam Arcane Barrage and Arcane missles when Missile barrage procs. I’m not discounting Arcane entirely, frost just looks better to me.
And just because Arcane Barrage is 18% of your base mana don’t think you can’t spam it. That’s 403 at level 70 and 588 at 80 not too shabby.
base mana on mages is little so 18% wouldnt be a lot as mana efficiency doesnt really count in pvp
[...] WOTLK Mage PVP, Arcane or Frost? My ultimate aim for my mage has always been some serious PVP but with WOTLK looming and the new level cap and talents [...] [...]
Top Posts « WordPress.com said this on October 20, 2008 at 1:16 am |
61 Arcane and it is amazing. Number crunching aside, the actual gameplay is so fun with 3 enhanced instants Fireblast, Barrage, and Ivelance in rotation for maneuverability with powered up arcane blasts for when you can heavy hit, and an instant sheep for taking on two unprepared, or an instant arcane blast for the extra scare edge is just sick…plus I love having about twice the armor as I had before, and instant invisibility makes invisibiity actually useful…but I hope everyone goes frost again because I like being in the minority
. But if anyone wants to take the time to give it a try, and you love the idea of feeling like a REAL wizardy type, arcane is just so fun and versatile while giving you the ability to really feel in control of your abilities…and Barraage just looks so cool and does so much…I used to be deep fire, but am completely sold on my new love 
isn’t it lovely when someone gets a bit of real happiness from wow
instant invisibility is the main attraction of arcane i gotta admit, I play a rogue and that’s almost as good as vanish. Atm patch 3.0 arcane is king coz in 2v2 if you don’t realise their arcane before they open your dead in under 10 seconds 
But as I’ve said, by 80 you won’t be dead in those 10 seconds and the mage will have an empty mana pool. Frost on the other hand; the correct spec is going to give the FATTEST effing icelances and deep freeze makes stun/cc combos practically endless. Shatter combo is going to gain a whole new meaning when 2v2 double frost mage teams start appearing.
alguien me puede desir.. como puedo poner a mi mage..en arcane.. para q pege casi todo critical.. yo tengo 2800 de spell y cuando se activa mi trinket tengo 4002
i love the arcane mage (L)
I do believe all of the ideas you’ve offered in your post. They’re very convincing and can definitely work. Still, the posts are too brief for starters. Could you please extend them a bit from next time? Thank you for the post.
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