Arcane for raiding

Dunno bout the tanking thing... how much fun can it be staring at the crotch of a boss for the remainder of time the DPS guys have to nuke him down.

DPS there is a bit of hefty competition at least, with tanks, there is just yourself. Cant see myself playing a tank.
 
That is what attracts a lot of people towards tanking, it's not that competitive. Not everyone wants to race another class DPS wise then e-peen. Especially considering the whole "Lets buff one class out the ass and leave other classes with broken DPS specs" approach Blizzard seems to enjoy doing.
 
If i ever get my druid to a raid level i will be healing. Dps does bore me to be honest, and im really not a fan of staring a boss's ballsack for the entire fight.
 
Arms has the most demanding rotation/priority system if you want too do decent dps. Fury is so easy its funny.

Muti rogues have a kinda hard rotation as well. Melee have too move in like 80% of all fights. Fights u dont have too move in at the moment are

Ulduar
Kologram (just changing targets)
XT (still have too move a bit)

ToC
Jaraxxas (a bit of moving)
Anub (depending on frost patches)

So yes melee is the hard working people :p

Massing buttons is hard work!

Dont have too look into a bosses crotch btw zoom out the camera so u can see wtf is going on around u. Tanks have too react and move etc So you need too know what is going on around u. Tanking is barely standing still these days u know. Sure a few u dont have too move a inch but a good amount where u have too move etc.

twixt said:
Feral druid rotations ftw!

I stand corrected feral kitty rotation is full of pure awesomeness thus if you master it ur dps is awesome ;)
 
Feral is piss easy. Look for a library for Face Smasher called Kitty Roller. mash buttons as they appear on screen, do amazing DPS. The only thing that ever made the feral rotation that difficult was the fact that there is no rotation, it's mainly a priority list and that was pretty new to most players.

Also my mistake, I intended to say Arms warriors instead of Fury.

In regard to movement, I meant movement intensive fights like Faction Champs. The odd run 10 yards to the left once in a while isn't going to kill melee DPS.
 
Depends, FFB is better early on but Fireball ends up scaling better.

If you're in Naxx/Ulduar gear try FFB out, if you're in late Ulduar/TotC gear Fireball is better. Remember tho FFB and Fire are 2 different specs.
 
I picked up my mage again and respecced out of FFB and into Arcane.

Notes

-More mana efficient than before, but still easy to go oom if you arent careful
-Rotation hasn't changed much. Stack 4 AB's instead of 3 and MB as soon as it procs (mana efficiency) or at 4x stacks (firepower). ABarr still useful to unload 4x stacks if MB hasn't procced and for mobility, but on the whole it's used a lot less than it used to be
-Strong sustained and burst single target DPS. Definately raid viable.
-The spec is still very fluid and flexible to fit most any situation, which is it's strongest point. Need burst? You can burst on command. Need to scale back for the long haul? No problemo.

Whether or not Arcane is the new and bestest raid spec to go for, I'm not sure. I think Fire and FFB mages might eke out more overall raid dps and damage done due to Living Bomb and the fact that most encounter these days involve extraneous mobs and whatnot, but for huge single target dps-race fights, I think arcane may edge the others out. Mages increasingly have a choice of how they want to go about their job instead of being shoved down one path.
 
Cant see myself playing a tank.
You should try it out sometime. I've tanked as a druid in BC and as a DK in Wrath. Out of all the roles - healing, dps, tanking, i found tanking the most satisfying from a high-stress high-enjoyment standpoint. You get your thrills from tanking for the same reason you might enjoy skydiving or bungee jumping. One mistake and boom, you and everyone else dies. And a well geared and well played tank commands respect, and is a resource always in demand. The tank is the lynchpin. The tank is THE man. It can be pretty cool to be THE man.

But it's not for everyone. I like doing it but it's also a role that requires a ridiculous amount of time and personal investment.
 
http://code.google.com/p/simulationcraft/wiki/SampleOutputT9

Theoretically Arcane isn't just competitive, it is _the_ best pve spec currently. Also FFB is slowly falling far away as Fire just scales way better due to TotW.

EDIT

The reason Arcane is so popular now days is largely down to TotC fights. On demand burst, coupled with quick target switching and C/D abuse, as well as clever use of game mechanics is what is making arcane so friendly. That and the spec is incredibly easy to play.
 
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Oh i love it if healers fail at keeping me up the raid dies...fun too see that happen xD
 
Dunno bout the tanking thing... how much fun can it be staring at the crotch of a boss for the remainder of time the DPS guys have to nuke him down.

DPS there is a bit of hefty competition at least, with tanks, there is just yourself. Cant see myself playing a tank.

Prefer the off-tank role. Requires a lot of situational awareness to pick up adds spawning, save some nab mage etc.:p Off tanks usually need to tank many mobs at once more often than MT, which makes it more fun. Also you can be the hero when MT dies by picking up boss. If that doesnt save the day, then you arnt considered the failure because everyone more or less gave up when MT died anyway.:D

The only thing about tanking is that your gear always has to be topnotch. The best gem, enchant etc. No second rate stuff. While as dps, for a raid or 2 you can have that crappy gem to fill the slot while you grind out more cash.
 
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Very valid points zippy :)

Does sound like off-tanking is more fun than being a MT.

Just looking at how hard it is to find tanks nowdays... since Blizzard went over to the "bring the bandwidth not the player" errrr I mean "bring the player not the class..." All hybrid classes that can tank + dps just refuse to tank.

They seem to enjoy dps more... makes you wonder why no-one enjoys tanking anymore.
 
The other day when we did nexus heroic the healer lagged a bit and the main tank died. so me with my druid i switched from kitty to bear and tanked the 2 mobs. everyone was impressed and grateful except the main tank that clearly stated i was not the tank.
 
So I ran a test today to compare the damage and dps between mashing arcane blast and doing arcane blast with the missile barrage after the 4th AB.

Things to consider in this test.

-Im a noobier than noob lvl 80, so my gear is very very carp. Im not joking... its bad.. but its the best I have done so far and will be improved on. Ive still got loads of blue and even green items. My armory link (for you guys to laugh at).
- I have the following arcane build and glyphs: http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?mage#8LAeNP4mkG0Xy,-RYHQO,9551
- I tested my dps on the heroic dummy in Ironforge.
- When I started each test I hit icy veins and mirror image (once at the start for both tests).
- I used no potions, gems or anything else to recover mana. The test was to see how long I could sustain the attack before I was out of mana... and what effect it had.
- I used recount to measure scores.

First test was odoms suggestion of bashing AB all the time.

I had a dps of 2626 I was able to do 81990 damage over 33.29 seconds before I was OOM.

2nd test was the more conservative blast barrage combo.

I had a dps of 1594 I was able to do 230001 damage over 2 minutes 27 seconds before I was OOM.

I really really cant wait till I have the gear to sustain mashing AB all the way.

What gear should I be looking for? Any suggestions.. and what gems should I fit with that gear?

Re the tanking.. due to be there being so much DPS... I am busy building a Protection Paladin.. and a Resto Shaman :D Just so I get more game time.. but for some reason.. my guild has too many tanks.
 
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http://code.google.com/p/simulationcraft/wiki/SampleOutputT9

Theoretically Arcane isn't just competitive, it is _the_ best pve spec currently. Also FFB is slowly falling far away as Fire just scales way better due to TotW.

EDIT

The reason Arcane is so popular now days is largely down to TotC fights. On demand burst, coupled with quick target switching and C/D abuse, as well as clever use of game mechanics is what is making arcane so friendly. That and the spec is incredibly easy to play.


Mmm so why is/are/was the lock(s) QQing exactly again? I see purple there to the top. Clearly I don't want to hear what other classes have to say. :0
I also see mage TTW/FIRE there close (which is what my mage alt prefers btw)

U are right why Arcane is so popular atm. I it will probly change with the next content again.
Lets just leave it @ TOC crap sux mkay thx
 
Prefer the off-tank role. Requires a lot of situational awareness to pick up adds spawning, save some nab mage etc.:p Off tanks usually need to tank many mobs at once more often than MT, which makes it more fun. Also you can be the hero when MT dies by picking up boss. If that doesnt save the day, then you arnt considered the failure because everyone more or less gave up when MT died anyway.:D

The only thing about tanking is that your gear always has to be topnotch. The best gem, enchant etc. No second rate stuff. While as dps, for a raid or 2 you can have that crappy gem to fill the slot while you grind out more cash.

I love being a wittle gnome tank. :D Im still gearing so only manage about 32k HP but def is standing at the non-crittable 540 barrier. I've MT'ed some HC's and have to say, I can't see playing anything else much. I'm just having too much fun, except when you get some idiot in a pug that keeps pulling aggro and blames the tank for not holding. :rolleyes: (I just tend to slack in pulling the aggro off them when they start getting whiney. Much more fun for everyone else when their dead. :D )
 
I really really cant wait till I have the gear to sustain mashing AB all the way.
That's never going to happen. The mana price at 4 stacks is just way, way too much. No matter what gear you get, you'll never have enough mana regen (you shouldnt ever be stacking mp5 or spirit anyway) and mana pool to just spam AB. The point of AB spam is that for short periods of burst, sure, you can unload for a couple seconds to maybe burn down a mob quickly. But for long sustained dps, you *have* to drop that stack as soon as you 4x. Maybe with the sickest of gear you could put out a 5th or 6th AB before dumping, but unless you want to plow through your mana in 30 seconds and then sit the rest of the fight wanding, that's probably just not a good idea.
 
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