Alrighty, Arcane It Up

Today I’m going to talk about Arcane. This blog has been depressingly devoid of arcane knowledge, and I mean to remedy that before Rash of the Itch King goes live.

So. Arcane. A tree that through the ages can best be described as “wonky”. A tree that, more than anything else, leaves one with both an impression of sheer awesome and utter bewilderment. A tree that can make you say “YEAH! AWESOME!” and a split second later “Huh? What the hell was that?”.

It’s a tree where you the end tree talent could just as easily be “Arcane Rage – instantly kills your enemy and all of their loved ones” or “Epic Slow Fall – while under the effects of Slow Fall, you throw feathers at your enemies, causing them to be delighted or annoyed, depending on race.”

The history of arcane is a… strange one. Way, way back, long before Burning Crusade, there really wasn’t such thing as “arcane mages”, because the tree simply was not capable of standing on it’s own. Arcane was nothing more than a support tree for either fire or frost. Both of those trees were far superior in both PvE and PvP.

It’s key talents were Evocation (yes, you read that right), the ability to make Arcane Explosion instant cast, and the silence effect for Improved Counterspell (thankfully, some things do stay the same) and of course the always awesome Presence of Mind and Arcane Power.

But things have changed, oh how they have changed. Arcane Blast, it’s safe to say, changed everything.

At first, mages didn’t really know what to do with Arcane Blast. Was it for PvP? Speedy casting would make sense there. Maybe you could fit it into a spell rotation for raids?

And then someone discovered that, if you waited until almost the very end of Arcane Blasts’ debuff… buff thingy, you could cast one for 1.5 seconds, but because it finished casting after the buff faded, you would only be charged the minimal mana cost.

And so the rotation [Arcane Blast, Arcane Blast, Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles, Scorch] was founded.

This bumped up Arcane to a viable raid spec, if rather lackluster compared to fire and frost. It could almost, but not quite, reach parity with the other two of the mage had two pieces of the T5 set.

And then along came Icy Veins, changing everything. Again.

From the very announcement of this ability, raiding mages were drawing up specs that could utilize it. Frost raiders rejoiced, non frosters decided that 7 or 10 wasted talent points in the frost tree was worth it.

Well, ’cause, you know, it was.

And arcane evolved. It evolved into something where a spell rotation was no longer desired, but derided.

The idea changed from using filler spells to sneak in an almost free Arcane Blast, to using Arcane Blast, one after the other, as long as possible.

The idea became on of keeping Arcane Blast chain casted for as long as physically possible.

While fire mages were figuring out how to avoid using mana potions so they could use a flame cap instead, arcane mages were figuring out how to convince the druids in the raid to use Innervate on them, rather than a healer.

And then somebody figured out you could put 21 points into frost, and have a spec that is simultaneously mana efficient enough to make Paladins cry, and yet still able to spend mana faster than a raid wipe on Leo if everyone stands right on top of him.

And yet, somehow, in both modes able to produce significant numbers.

Both fire and frost are limited by how fast they can cast there spells. Mana is largely a non issue for them.

Arcane mages are restricted by how much mana they have. Casting speed is largely irrelevant (and in Wrath, will be completely so).

A supported arcane mage (some would say babysat, but I’ll get to that tomorrow) can produce intense numbers, but it really does need that support to go anywhere.

All it takes is for people to get their heads out of their own asses, and start thinking.

Stay tuned, I’ll be talking about Arcane all week.

But don’t constantly hit F5, that’s just creepy.