Skill Mastery: Arcane Barrage
Aug 30th, 2008
Attention, Arcane Mages. No, not you, who only went far enough into the Arcane tree to pick up Improved Counterspell. Go breathe some Dragon's Breath or hug your Water Elemental or whatever. This is for Arcane Mages, those of you who have Slow and use it to help everyone else win in Warsong Gulch, you brave soldiers who have learned how to rotate Arcane Blast into your spell rotation properly.
There are those who would call your chosen school of magic a support spec, a tree to be used only to augment Fire or Frost. Just ignore these people; we'll be killing them in Wrath of the Lich King. How, you ask? A lot of reasons, really, but today we're spotlighting one of the big ones: Arcane Barrage.
The new 51 point talent in the Arcane tree, Arcane Barrage is simply awe-inspiring. The spell description...
18% of base mana
30 yd range
Instant cast
3 sec cooldown
Launches several missiles at the enemy target, causing 936 to 1144 Arcane damage.
...simply doesn't do justice to the practical impact of the spell . This is essentially a short-cooldown instant cast nuke with a high damage coefficient and base damage higher than a max-rank Fireball, all for a reasonable mana cost. To put it more simply: low-mana, high-damage, instant cast. Even simpler than that: win.
In PvP, this spell will be an Arcane Mage's most commonly used spell. You'll smack your opponent with it every time the cooldown is up, and use the 3 second wait to cast other instants like Fire Blast, a PoM-Pyroblast, Slow, Blink, Frost Nova, or something similar. You will be able to make very good use of the spell in Arena, alternating between sheeping your focus target and nuking your kill target with this and other instant casts.
In raid encounters, an Arcane Mage can look at this spell as a 3 second nuke, only one which you cast and then have a couple seconds in-between to cast other things. It should fit into several different rotations, including my personal favorite:
Spam Arcane Blast until Missile Barrage (more about this beauty in the Arcane Brilliance column later today) procs, allowing it to fit nicely into the cooldown between Arcane Barrages. Once it procs, cast Arcane Barrage, fit a nice 2.5 second Arcane Missiles into the gap, follow it with another Arcane Barrage, then back to spamming Arcane Blast. Wash, rinse, repeat. If Presence of Mind happens to be up when Missile Barrage procs, use it to start the round of instant cast spells, simply because with Arcane Potency each spell that doesn't consume PoM has an additional 30% chance to crit, and you'll be casting three spells in a row that take advantage of this buff before finally consuming PoM with a Pyroblast or other nuke of choice and resuming your Arcane Blast spam. That may have been the longest sentence ever. I don't know!
With no talents to reduce mana cost, Arcane Barrage will cost 403 mana at level 70, and 588 at level 80, so we aren't exactly breaking the bank with this spell. To put it in perspective, Fireball and Fire Blast will cost more mana, Frostbolt and Frostfire Bolt will cost slightly less, so the spell is about where it should be in terms of mana cost.
The thing I'm most excited about with this spell is that it is so flexible. There isn't a single aspect of the game in which this spell won't have its uses. What's not to like? I mean really, if you can think of something, let me know. Why shouldn't I love this spell?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
8-30-2008 @ 5:17PM
Kazin said...
You forgot one of the best parts of this spell: it has an 85% damage coeficient rather than the typical, much lower coeficient of an instant-cast spell. It's as though you were spending the three second cooldown time casting it, but not. Pretty awesome, :-D
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8-30-2008 @ 5:19PM
Saelorn said...
What is the justification for the high spellpower coefficient? It is instant cast, so it should get less than half of the spellpower as increased damage. Did the designers just break the rules for the sake of making a high-tier spell that's slightly overpowered so people will want to use it?
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8-30-2008 @ 5:27PM
Roxton said...
It's so that arcane is worth playing. If it had a crappy damage, then it would just be another fire blast. Nice, but hardly worth 51 talents.
8-30-2008 @ 5:27PM
tehvoid said...
well, that's beta. Expect it to be changed before launch ^^
8-30-2008 @ 5:39PM
Kazin said...
Probably, but as a mage I'm not complaining, ;-)
Honestly, with all the changes to every class going on in the expansion I'm not really sure what to make of any of this stuff anymore or how to compare things at this point. However, it looks like the final arcane talent is one that mages who go that far down the tree will want to have, which is great.
8-30-2008 @ 5:27PM
Roxton said...
Christian, I understand your ideas for the PvE spell rotation, and like them (I had come up with a similar idea myself), but doesn't the arcane blast spam send you OOM rather fast? Or have they finally fixed its curmudgeonly mana cost? Also, I wasn't aware that PoM was consumed after three non-cast spells - it _was_ OP before, so I suppose this balances it. Either way I agree that this is a very nice spell, and look forward to using it as much as possible in every possible situation.
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8-30-2008 @ 5:51PM
Jewbanks said...
stacking arcane blasts now does more damage not a haste effect so it doesnt break the bank nearly as fast
8-30-2008 @ 8:56PM
Christian Belt said...
First let me say I always appreciate your comments, Roxton. They are always thoughtful and intelligent, so thanks!
As for Arcane Blast, it's still rather costly, but when it's fixed (and it almost has to be), it should be reasonable, and the best damage-per-mana-per-casting-time spell Arcane Mages will have. But Missile Barrage procs frequently, more frequently than I ever thought it would, and when it does, you get a much-needed break from your AB spam to fire out some quick burst damage in the form of Arcane Missiles and Arcane Barrage. Overall, it should still b e fairly mana-intensive, but not to the point of being prohibitive.
As for PoM, it's only consumed when you cast a spell that will consume it, anything with a cast time, but it wouldn't be very wise in a raid situation to avoid casting your cast-time nukes just to keep it up indefinitely. In fact, I'll be surprised (pleasantly so, but still surprised) if it makes it live with the current mechanic. As it stands, you're right, it definitely feels a bit overpowered.
8-30-2008 @ 5:34PM
Dpebrithil said...
Looks like an awesome spell! As a mage who raids deep arcane (50/0/11) I can't wait to get this spell into my arsenal. Talents such as this, focus magic, netherwind presence, and missile barrage are just gonna make this amazing tree just so much better.
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8-30-2008 @ 6:44PM
Aigarius said...
Except they broke Arcane Blast and noone is sure how exactly that will look at release.
8-30-2008 @ 5:36PM
schwonga said...
Think of its high coefficient as the reason why this spell is a 51 pt talent. That is to say, what makes this instant cast spell special is its high dmg and longer range.
Otherwise you would just make it a new spell everyone gets and give arcane something else.
I like this talent. Before I knew about how much punch it had I was severely annoyed at blizz's "lack of creativity." It's still not the most imaginative spell ever, but it fills a very good spot in any arcane mage's heart.
I'm also hoping they make Arc Mis better than arc blast when speced into tho. So far as I can tell it really isnt worth it.
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8-30-2008 @ 5:37PM
James Jung said...
That...is truly...win...
I'm so going to roll a mage for WotLK
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8-30-2008 @ 5:52PM
Jewbanks said...
Im so happy that i can stay arcane.. and that my 2t5 will be useful leveling up
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8-30-2008 @ 5:56PM
Jewbanks said...
sorry to post again, but the change to replace arcane barrage with arcane blast in missile barrage just made the spec finally make sense
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8-30-2008 @ 6:00PM
Jewbanks said...
Im still very giddy.. and my bro just called me telling me he got a beta invite.. so unfair
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8-30-2008 @ 6:24PM
zetam said...
"There isn't a single aspect of the game in which this spell won't have its uses. "
Arcane Immune Mobs
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8-30-2008 @ 8:58PM
Christian Belt said...
True. Very true. You got me on that one.
8-31-2008 @ 10:14AM
Angus said...
"Arcane immune mobs"
Both of them...
Try being elemental and farming earth or air motes... ;)
8-30-2008 @ 6:24PM
Lazorx said...
These spell is genius and I love it and the ideas behind it.
I applaud blizz.
Its interesting, fitting for the spec and very versatile.
Plus, its viable.
Low mana cost
Good damage
Good scaling
Unique
Usefull
Its true to what a big talent skill should be.
I specially like how blizz dumped that silly and outdated formulas for values and just gaved these spell the coefficient it shoudl have for who it is rather than what the silly formulas say it should.
IDK if how much or in what way these will help Arc spec mages, but considering its an instant nuke it will probably be a lot.
Happy to see I migth fight more than Frost mages in the expansion.
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8-30-2008 @ 10:41PM
Distaris said...
Spellgasm!
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