Monday, August 4, 2008

It’s all about concentrating

The War of the Wizards is still running. While I was absent Critical QQ made a couple of brilliant posts about arcane spec, Oh, the arcanity! and Alrighty, arcane it up. I must admit that he didn’t clearly state that arcane spec is to prefer, but at least he shared some very inspiring numbers about the potential of damage dealing (provided we’ve got a decent mana support). They speak for themselves, don’t they?

Gnomeaggedon is still alone in his corner, desperately throwing some longranging flames, hoping something will ignite. Actually I must admit that I DO miss the longer ranging fire balls, being an arcane mage. The 30 yard range of Arcane Blast was driving me nuts when I just had respecced. Suddenly I had to be a bit careful placing myself for the Prince fight. Just as an example. But you actually get used to it.

Zupa is taking this fight pretty seriously and has done some very interesting calculations to prove the grandness of the Improved Frostbolt. (Actually I’ve got that talent myself, so I don’t really have any objections).

Krizzlybear did some experimenting on his own, and seems to have seen the light – sort of. He actually admits that my spec 40/0/21 IS capable of doing some freaking good damage. But just as many other frost mages he fails because he just can’t face standing alone in a fight, he needs his little element pet to cuddle with. What can you say about that? Time to grow up?

I guess it’s my turn to throw a spell into this fire. So I put myself into a state of meditation, focusing, using my superior intellect, thanks to Arcane mind. (By the way don’t you just LOVE the way they’ve named the arcane talents? It gives back the mysterious dimension of the mage class).

Yes I feel it, here it comes: Arcane Concentration it is!

A talent so after sought that many fire mages and frost mages realize they can’t live without it. This is heavenly manna bringing us the fuel we need to keep nuking the bosses forever. A free cast, every now and then. Could you really ask for anything more?

Actually this talent really IS about concentration, just as the name tells you. To make full use of it you’ve got to pay attention to it when it comes and react quickly. Change from frostbolt or whatever mana efficient spell you were into and go for arcane missiles or some other high consuming spell. You’ve got to be on your toes, since it fades off as quickly as the wolf runs after you at Opera. Be prepared and you’ll be richly rewarded.

And as if that wasn’t enough you look a bit further down in the tree and you find the companion to this spell: Arcane Potency, which will increase the critical chance of any spell cast while clearcasting with 30 percent.

Your spell will be free and it will probably hurt. A lot. What more could you really wish for?

Over and out from your arcane defender.

6 comments:

Darkhorse said...

once upon a time this GNOME said to someone "do you think its time you GREW UP"

and I LOL'ed :)

but she was talking to another GNOME so perhaps she was onto something!

Anonymous said...

See, this is the kind of thing that I expect from a spec war! Gnomeaggedon let us down today. I QQ'ed.

-- though I'm still clinging to my own Frostly love. Mind you, I haven't quite raided as anything other than Fire and that one the significant other's mage, but zee love of zee frost, eet ees so divine! I'm trying to get him to respec Arcane, however, so that I can bumble around with that for a bit.

Green Armadillo said...

I don't ever see myself doing without the frost elemental, since I am pretty much exclusively a solo player. I will say, though, that stopping at 41 Frost and going for nice goodies like POM and Arcane Conc/Potency may end up being more attractive than sinking 51+ points in frost come the expansion.

Anonymous said...

Don't worry Cynra, more fire on the way... I'm not scared of these puny Arcane Mages and their trumped up Potency....

I will return with a quick jab of the fire variety... just waiting on mana regen.... /sigh

Anonymous said...

@I guess being a tiny little gnome you could use a big elemantal buddy to protect you from the evil monsters. But once you grow up to a human you could expect you to stand on your own...

@Cynra and Green Armadillo... So you're on the frosty side as well???? I start to feel almost as lonely as Gnome does with his fire obsession.

@gnome: I bet you are... Sweet Jesus, I'm sort of running out of mana. The posts from you other guys are just awesome and you actually seem to grab this thing with theorycrafting. Myself... I feel like a fake. But I haven't given up. I'll have to meditate a bit more after those last attacs I've received and see what I can do about it. But any help from other arcainists is greatly appreciated!

krizzlybear said...

Don't worry about it, lar. We're all fake in the end anyways. It's like rap music, it's all about who can boast their qualities more, and make it look like they're living the high life (in the WoW sense, this means top spots on the DPS charts).