My arcane DPS is sucking huge ones!

Here's the overall problem:

I'm an arcane spec. Build is 57/3/11(AP/IV). I was getting about 2.5k dps. HORRIBLE!!!!!
Followed a fellow guildies tips i gemmed SP and was still at 2.5-2.8. I switched to more haste gems and now it's around 3.4k while hes doing 6k dps+ with SP gems. I'm so lost. I'm 5k gs and idk what I'm doing wrong.
My hit raiting is only 7% which I know should be more. Is that the route i want to go instead of haste?

I've followed a few guides for LB/FFB or LB/FB spec and was getting around 2.5k dps. Seems the arcane build with haste has brought it up a little but still I'm not happy. I need some help here.
Where do I want to be at as far as DPS? What is the gem route I should be heading in?

I ask for rude posts kept to yourselves. I'm looking for some decent advice here. Not the occasional "dewd you so n00b L2P bruh!!!!".

Hey,
I'll try to help but, the information you gave is a bit lacking. A character armory would be much more helpful, however I understand if you do not want to disclose it. Regardless of that:

1.Talents
I'll assume you have the standard spec, or some slight variation of it. Little reminder here to not forget your glyphs of Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles, and Molten Armor.
You might want to think of incorporating Incanter's Absorption, Magic Attunement and Magic Absorption to your spec once you get the hang of it and obtain better gear, but for now you can work with the standard cookie-cutter one.

2.Gems
You should be gemming +23sp on red sockets, 12sp+10haste on yellow sockets, and 12sp+10spirit on blue sockets.

Some also prefer to gem +23 sp on items with poor socket bonuses (i.e +5 sp or less). While preferences may vary, you should always consult a spreadsheet or RAWR to give you a better, less subjective verdict.

3.Hit rating
You mentioned trying FFB and FB specs as well, but since the thread title is about your arcane dps, I'll stick to that.
The hard cap for spells is 17% hit.
You're very close to the soft hit cap. As Arcane, you reach your soft hit cap at 8%. This varies depending on how many points you put into Arcane Focus and Precision. Assuming 3/3 on both, you get 6% hit from talents. In raids you get another 3% from Balance Druids/Shadow Priests.
This leaves you with 17-9=8% hit to be obtained from gear.

While missing 1% hit might seem trivial, depending on your (mis)fortune, it can impact your dps greatly. A missed spell does no damage, and considering your gear level, that's ~2.1 seconds wasted per missed spell.

4.Enchants
A little 50 spellpower here, a little 30 spellpower there, in the end it adds up.
If gold is an issue, try to at least get the faction-specific enchants(i.e Kirin Tor, Sons of Hodir), and enchant those pieces of armor you do not plan on changing soon.

5.Rotation
Make sure you're doing the correct rotation!
Your default Arcane rotation should be 3 Arcane Blasts -> Arcane Missiles.
If,however, you do not get a Missile Barrage proc, do NOT cast Arcane Missiles. Keep casting AB until you get a proc.
Do not go with 4AB->AM rotation as your default, it will drain your mana while not granting you any additional dps.
When you obtain your 2 pieces of tier10, you will want to start incorporating the 4ab+am cycle to your rotation, but until then it's not worth it.
Do not clip your spells! Make sure you're letting all missiles fly and not clipping them. Try to steer clear of [nochanneling] macros, unless your latency is well below 100ms.

6.Gameplay
Sometimes this is just as important as doing your rotation right.
Position yourself well. Move as little as possible. Always be casting.
Arcane is the least forgiving spec of the 3 when it comes to this.
Interrupting casts or generally moving a lot is detrimental to your dps.

I'm sorry for the long reply, but since you can't tell what's wrong from your post, I just went over every potential setback you might be encountering that I could think of.
Hopefully you find something that applies to you and might help! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Erronius

Well, for starters Arcane just got nerfed in the September 27th update. It's still good dps of course, but it ought to be back in line to where Fireball TTW is competitive with it (previously Arcane was just clearly higher dps).

To my knowledge this is the highest dps spec in general: http://armory.warmane.com/character/...ecrown/talents

All you do is pickup gear with haste, gem spellpower and cast 4 arcane blasts then 1 arcane missiles if you have the buff (arcane barrage) for it. If you run oom a lot then do 3 arcane blasts instead. You shouldn't be using or skilling arcane barrage.

Arcane is really simple -try not to overthink it :)

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Would you gem 23+SP in blue slots or just find the best blues you can for sp for the item bonus?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sky

Hey,
I'll try to help but, the information you gave is a bit lacking. A character armory would be much more helpful, however I understand if you do not want to disclose it. Regardless of that:

1.Talents
I'll assume you have the standard spec, or some slight variation of it. Little reminder here to not forget your glyphs of Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles, and Molten Armor.
You might want to think of incorporating Incanter's Absorption, Magic Attunement and Magic Absorption to your spec once you get the hang of it and obtain better gear, but for now you can work with the standard cookie-cutter one.

2.Gems
You should be gemming +23sp on red sockets, 12sp+10haste on yellow sockets, and 12sp+10spirit on blue sockets.

Some also prefer to gem +23 sp on items with poor socket bonuses (i.e +5 sp or less). While preferences may vary, you should always consult a spreadsheet or RAWR to give you a better, less subjective verdict.

3.Hit rating
You mentioned trying FFB and FB specs as well, but since the thread title is about your arcane dps, I'll stick to that.
The hard cap for spells is 17% hit.
You're very close to the soft hit cap. As Arcane, you reach your soft hit cap at 8%. This varies depending on how many points you put into Arcane Focus and Precision. Assuming 3/3 on both, you get 6% hit from talents. In raids you get another 3% from Balance Druids/Shadow Priests.
This leaves you with 17-9=8% hit to be obtained from gear.

While missing 1% hit might seem trivial, depending on your (mis)fortune, it can impact your dps greatly. A missed spell does no damage, and considering your gear level, that's ~2.1 seconds wasted per missed spell.

4.Enchants
A little 50 spellpower here, a little 30 spellpower there, in the end it adds up.
If gold is an issue, try to at least get the faction-specific enchants(i.e Kirin Tor, Sons of Hodir), and enchant those pieces of armor you do not plan on changing soon.

5.Rotation
Make sure you're doing the correct rotation!
Your default Arcane rotation should be 3 Arcane Blasts -> Arcane Missiles.
If,however, you do not get a Missile Barrage proc, do NOT cast Arcane Missiles. Keep casting AB until you get a proc.
Do not go with 4AB->AM rotation as your default, it will drain your mana while not granting you any additional dps.
When you obtain your 2 pieces of tier10, you will want to start incorporating the 4ab+am cycle to your rotation, but until then it's not worth it.
Do not clip your spells! Make sure you're letting all missiles fly and not clipping them. Try to steer clear of [nochanneling] macros, unless your latency is well below 100ms.

6.Gameplay
Sometimes this is just as important as doing your rotation right.
Position yourself well. Move as little as possible. Always be casting.
Arcane is the least forgiving spec of the 3 when it comes to this.
Interrupting casts or generally moving a lot is detrimental to your dps.

I'm sorry for the long reply, but since you can't tell what's wrong from your post, I just went over every potential setback you might be encountering that I could think of.
Hopefully you find something that applies to you and might help! :)

---

WOW! Very thorough! Love it! Ty for this!

Get your hit caps, and enchant and gem your stuff up.

From my experience, Mages that underperform DPS-wise usually do so because they have a lot of dead time spent not casting a spell. The arcane rotation is an exceedingly simple one so apart from that most of what it comes down to is simply keeping the casts coming. Make sure you're also using Blink and Fire Blasts to occupy any downtime caused by movement. You also want to know your encounters well such that you're able to position optimally in spots from which you would not have to move so much.

At your level of gear the upgrades come quickly, so keep your eyes peeled for them. Get your t10 2p ASAP; the bonus is an amazing increase. These are what should be your first major purchases with your Frost Emblems. Make sure you run VoA weekly on both difficulties for the chance at a tier piece too. Arcane is still putting out a bit too much DPS but if and when that gets fixed, at some point in the distant future you'll eventually want to make the transition to Fire.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DarkenedHue

Get your hit caps, and enchant and gem your stuff up.

From my experience, Mages that underperform DPS-wise usually do so because they have a lot of dead time spent not casting a spell. The arcane rotation is an exceedingly simple one so apart from that most of what it comes down to is simply keeping the casts coming. Make sure you're also using Blink and Fire Blasts to occupy any downtime caused by movement. You also want to know your encounters well such that you're able to position optimally in spots from which you would not have to move so much.

At your level of gear the upgrades come quickly, so keep your eyes peeled for them. Get your t10 2p ASAP; the bonus is an amazing increase. These are what should be your first major purchases with your Frost Emblems. Make sure you run VoA weekly on both difficulties for the chance at a tier piece too. Arcane is still putting out a bit too much DPS but if and when that gets fixed, at some point in the distant future you'll eventually want to make the transition to Fire.

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I agreed with him.

Main reason why unexperienced mages underperform when they playing mage is that they moove too much.

A tips : before starting a fight against a boss, see the overall fight in your mind, This must be a 2 steps thnking. First step : see where will be your target during the whole fight, and then determine the better location to be for spare your movements. When you have this location in mind (your placement assuming the distance from your target), yet come the next step, against see the whole fight but focus on the location of your teammate. You must see which path/ways casters melee and healer will probabily follow and then be sure your location (the one of the 1rst step) in not on a 6 feets radius from the path of your teammates.

Yet i'll explain why these 2 steps : The first is obvious the objective is to always be able to hit your target during the fight without moving to maximize your casting time during the fight. The purpose of the second step is less obvious, the objective is to reduce your chance to be hit by a boss attack which force you to moove, as puddles or area projectiles. Because the boss always target a player, so if you are alone you have 1/25 chances to be target and to have to moove. If you are 2 in your area you double this chance etc. (The 6 feets radius follow the idea that most of aoes from the boss have a 5 feets radius)

When you have done these two steps you have find you perfect location make sure you engage your fight there, and if it's not possible make sure your reach this place asap.



Others random tips :
- Do not hesitate to determine more then one perfect location to be able to adapt during the fight to the unusuals mooves of the boss
- At the beginning play with the arcane barrage this will give you 1 second to moove it will "only" cost you half of you damages feasable on the same time and can cost you your AB stacks if you have and emergency to moove and you use it (in the case you have no hurry you can channeled your AM and Arcane Barrage after it) (to give you and idea, even if i'm probabily way better arcane mage then you, i'm not considering myself as an expert on that field and i continue using the arcane barrage spec even if i only use it link 3-5 time in a fight where mooving is mandatory).
- Mooving less and casting more will cost you a lot more mana that you are used to, remember to always have your 3 gems and use them well.
- try to do not have to evocate during the fight except if you have blanks when no target is at range (On Sindra or during the LK Frostmourne)
- for increasing your ability to dps, gain mana or moove faster do not hesitate to lvl up Engineering, it give you : 1 Haste CD for casting faster + 1 speedboost to moving faster + The ability to craft and use injectors which increase the mana given by your potions + The ability to craft and use saronite bombs which give you at least 2500 extra damages every 1 minutes (this is an aoe so you can do more assuming the number of targets you hit) + The ability to craft and use Saper charges which are an aoe around you who hit every targets found around 5K damages, usable every 5 minutes and only by goblins engineers.
- There is the spec i advice you to use at your level of knowledge of your class/spec :
> With a Paladin Heal on concentration aura and with the proper spec : link
> With a Paladin on concentration aura without the spec whih increase it : link
> Without Paladin : link
- Try always to go out of a damages area with the global cooldown of your arcane barrage. Use your blink only if the distance to go trough is too long.
- Wait atleast the 4T10 and more then 48% crit to switch of fire if you want to do it. (assuming you continue to gems as mention above (23sp/12SP 10spirit/12sp 10crit(if you switch or fire you will use crit to remplace haste in arcane))


I hope it will help, I may have more advices on specific fields so do not hesitate to ask question here on this post or by PM.


See u


Tiny.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DarkenedHue

Arcane is still putting out a bit too much DPS but if and when that gets fixed, at some point in the distant future you'll eventually want to make the transition to Fire.

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What do you mean by that? What else is bugged with Arcane? I am planning on playing ttw mage but that's interesting to hear

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Luccix

What do you mean by that? What else is bugged with Arcane? I am planning on playing ttw mage but that's interesting to hear

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The Arcane Blast buff is stacking incorrectly with a couple of other damage multipliers, including things like the Arcane Power ability and the Spell Impact talent. In conjunction with a few other major bugs that have since been fixed, it was causing Arcane to do a lot more dmg than intended, although most of the other issues have since been fixed.

is hit rate 11% + 6% from talents or so?

8% + 6% talents + 3% shadow/boomy for 25m