First Impressions of the Arcane Mage Changes in Patch 11.0.5 - Guide Writer Feedback

In a strong resurgence in popularity since the War Within launch, Arcane Mages have received some additional changes in Patch 11.0.5. Our Arcane Mage Writer, Porom, discusses the changes in Patch 11.0.5 including Nether Precision, Aethervision, Hero Talents, and more.

Arcane Mage Guide

Our Class Writers share their expert opinions based on rigorous testing and theorycrafting in hopes of contextualizing the changes coming in future patches of the War Within. Check out all of our released editorials in our new Editorial Section.

Wowhead Editorials

First Impressions of 11.0.5 Arcane Mage

Since the release of The War Within, Arcane has seen a resurgence in popularity, largely driven by the hype during beta over it's redesign, specifically Spellslinger, and, above all else, it being tuned significantly higher than all other specs prior to the expansion's launch, specifically Sunfury Arcane. This popularity has also brought a lot more developer attention from Blizzard it seems and Arcane has been regularly evolving over the last 5 months, mostly weekly.

The Nether Precision Saga

Early on in Beta there was a major change to how one of our core buffs work, Nether Precision, which added Arcane Barrage to the short list of spells that benefit from this buff. This instantly changed the rotation towards double dipping the buff, so when you get Clearcasting, use it, you get 2 stacks of Nether Precision, you could then spend one stack with Arcane Blast, then cast Arcane Blast again and immediately follow with Arcane Barrage, because both spells were cast simultaneously, they could both benefit from the last stack of Nether Precision. This works still as of writing this article and is extremely satisfying to perform, not just because it feels like you're exploiting the game, but because you were excercising some mastery over the spec's toolkit.

At the very end of August, 4 months after introducing the above double dipping mechanic and the community-at-large talking Read more on wowhead.com