Best mage spec for pve

Hiiii all i wanted to know what is the best spec for mage at lvl 120 for pve fire frost or arcane also for raiding and mythic + dngs

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At the moment Fire is the go to spec for PvE in terms of raiding. Frost does more reliable AoE for dungeons but with how much damage Fire is doing at the moment you’re probably better off just playing Fire in all environments. Fire needs talented AoE outside of combustion so it’s a bit harder to pull off but it’s certainly no slouch. This may change with the new essences next patch, but right now, Fire is the top dog

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Don’t play Fire in M+ unless you’re playing with a tank that’s pulling around your Combustions.

It is flat-out garbage otherwise, pulling respectable damage on bosses/during Combustion, but then tank-level damage for most of the trash, which is effectively most of the dungeon.

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THX ALL for the tips

You shouldnt tell ppl that. Only because some ppl cant get fire work in m+ it doesnt mean its trash.

I pug a lot with fire and i get a lot of different tanks, just adapt. But iirc you had another thread telling you have problems with fire (and did some major mistakes e.g. Lb and vop). So to me it seems that not the specc is the problem.

I did a 19 underrot with double firemage/dh yesterday and we 2 chested it. It was the first and only time i played with that tank.

I recommend fire in nearly every pve situation. Arcane can do even in st raidboss fights since it got buffed and frost is nice for things like necrotic. But besides of that, just go fire.

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I think you can play any spec right now, arcane is pretty decent and frost too. Although you need to know what you are doing have somewhat good gear as Frost to deal damage, Fire mage only becomes strong once you have the required essences and certain gear.

Only arcan. Very strong.

Frost good vs 3-10+ targets, but very bad vs boss.

Fire dead.

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In what world is fire a dead spec? Arcane sims higher than fire since that 8% buff sure, but fire mage is by far the best all round mage spec right now

IMO.

Arcane - very high dps, spec does good if you can stand in 1 place.
Frost - Good dps, esp AoE, overpowered slows built in spec.
Fire - Very fun rotation, very high dps with very high ilvl gear.

are we talking after 8.2? :o

on logs currently, arcane is one of the worst DPS in both M+ and Raids currently? o.O is there some buff in 8.2 Beta which is Saying Arcanes about to overdo fire?

I do see many fire mages nowadays :fire::fire::fire:

Arcana>all. Sometimes frost seems to outdamage, because of overgear and AoE talents, but otherwise Arcana easily beats all others specs in any category(AoE damage/Single target/utility).

I don’t know if the situation in LFR is different, but arcane is not even close to fire when it comes to mythic raiding.

Arcane does very comparible damage to fire in a straight single target setting in target dummy scenarios. Add adds and actually doing mechanics to a fight and fire is the best mage spec for raiding. Frost orb build in M+ is good in lower keys, but actually pushing keys in an organised group where the tank will pull around your combustion and fire is the best spec there too

My best “Mythic+” so far is only +6, with 412 ilvl, but my char easily out-dpsing any other mage spec, except for frost. And overall i hasn’t yet met even a single fire-spec who could capable to pull more dps on pack of mobs than my char. And all what it takes to over-dps fire is just Arcane Explosion+Barage+Sphere+Barage+go to 1. Not even trying to dump on fire too much, i just honestly hasn’t seen, even a one fire mage capable to do even at least same damage. I suspect that the reason why fire can’t keep up with Arcana in lowlevel mythics, like ones i done, is due the fact that all Arcane AoE is instant, but Fire is designed around “burning”. So, im just killing everyone before fire had a chance to score some damge with burning.

get good

2 button spec, 1 button spec when leveling

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Gittin’ gud might not be the issue. I think it’s probably a misconception.

I used to think Fire was trash, because I played it the way it’s supposed to be played and had been played in Legion.

If you don’t have the right traits/essences/stats/talents/mecha bracers, Fire is an absolute joke of a spec. But once you’ve got everything you need nothing can really compete with it.

Even with everything perfect, you’ll be doing stupid high burst but then tank level damage the rest of the time, which can lead to misconceptions of Fire being bad.

Like in M+, if a tank doesn’t pull around your Combustions, it’s not worth playing FIre, since instead of evaporating 2-3 packs at once, you’ll evaporate the first pack, then the next two you’ll be competing for bottom spot with the tank.

God knows what they’re gonna do for Fire in Shadowlands. They’re operating off of a minimal changes mantra but everything that makes Fire playable is tied to BFA and will be gone when Shadowlands drops.

+6 dung and suboptimal gear is for sure the best benchmark…

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I just want to say something else as well, I see a lot of people saying; Arcane is best, Frost is best, Fire is best.

All 3 specs are doing decent now for CERTAIN mechanics in the game, Arcane is really good at Single Target if you can stand still a lot of the times.

Frost remains good in AoE and ST if you know what to do.

Fire is overall the best spec for mage right now if that is what you seek as an answer. They have extremely good AoE/Cleave and do really good in single target as well.

Fire is the strongest spec right now however you have to be well geared and have to do more homework. Good cleave and AoE require mobs to stay alive for a decent amount of time.

Frost is a good all rounder. It has 2 viable builds based around different traits and stats when you really want to push your dps. It’s talent choices are the best of the 3 specs making it very adaptable. Its constant slows are good in m+ but it doesn’t have an aoe interupt like fire’s dragon’s breath.

Arcane can do a lot of damage however the ST rotation doesn’t allow you any movement outside of shimmer OR slipstream. You can gear to do a ton of aoe dmg in dungeons but at the expense of your ST dmg. Also has a very simple rotation that gets dull.