Getting into Arcane... again

As I mentioned, I now have the two pieces of my Tier-5 armor which gives me the bonus of 20% increased damage and mana for my Arcane Blasts. I spent a little bit of time in Battlegrounds last night, and I saw that 20% increase in mana in action. I was spamming AB to protect one of our flags, and all of a sudden, I was out of mana. Since I was mostly just messing around with it anyway, it wasn't a big deal. Heck, I haven't even respec'ed back to Arcane yet, but I do recognize that there's going to be some big play style changes.

Most of my ideas for my future respec come from Dreamweaver of Kel'Thuzad on the official Mage forums. Read the article for full details, but it's basicly a 40/0/21 spec. His "explosion" damage comes when he hits Icy Veins and Arcane Power, and then spams Arcane Blast with 3 debuffs on it. He hits a mana gem/potion at 50% (not sure if he mant one or the other or both), and then hits evocation when there's about a second left on the IV. (The theory behind the last second evocation is that you get a fast cast for evocation.)

WOW! That's a lot of mana. And especially for an arcane mage that gets an increase in Intellect through talents... But according to Man Out of Time, in theory, it's something like 2,000 DPS. Fully raid buffed, it's closer to 2,600 DPS!

After that, you go through your normal rotation of AB x 3, Frost Bolt x 3. The Frost Bolts are used as the filler to get rid of the AB debuff because they're more mana efficient than Arcane Missiles, and with Ice Shards and a decent crit rate, they'll actually do more damage as well.

So, that's the theory. As for Leiandra, she still needs to get a replacement for her Spellfire Robe. (It's the only one I have left of the set; and, as you can see, it does Arcane and Fire damage only.) I was thinking of farming the Scalet Sin'dorei Robes instead of the 100 Badges (of which I now have 4) for the Tormented Demonsoul Robes. I'll still have enough + spell hit from my Belt of Blasting, Boots of Blasting and other gear to be able to hit bosses with the Frostbolts. Still... I'm still pretty high on Frost damage that I'll probably be okay without it... for now.

Remember: Tomorrow starts the 3-day holiday of Guild Leadership Appreciation Day. Spread the word. Get your kind words of appreciation ready.