Alright guys time for some thread necromancy.
9.0 Arcane looks better than 8.3, but doesnāt work that much better, and once you get used to new visuals, you notice some glaring holes.
Arcane Missiles got good. So good, in fact, that AM spam is top DPS rotation. Forget Blast, AM is the new black in DPS department. I kid you not, as long as you have mana, short-term AM spam is stronger than AB spam, especially if you have that AM boosting azerite trait. The monkeys in development just couldnāt figure how to make procced Missiles better than AB but hard-casted Missiles worse than AB, when multiple solutions were right under their nosesā¦
8 quite strong ticks per cast on proc is FRICKIN AWESOME. Reminds me of Legion setups & that crazy burst gameplay where you were rewarded for using procs and not ignoring them. You know, like it SHOULD be always, not every 2nd expansion.
The downside is that youāre not going to get 3 stacks unless you burn half of your mana or more if RNG doesnāt like you. Currently you still get about 1 proc per 20% mana, which combined with more mana-negative rotation means you have to watch the blue bar more than earlier.
Speaking about mana, Arcane Barrage mana return per charge doesnāt kick in until 50+, so no mana positivity unless you really ease up on Blasts before dumping charges.
AoE got a bit better, but relies on CDs - 45s Touch and 20s Arcane Orb, unless you pick Reverberate which is better on sustained Explosion spam. Then itās back to ST turret.
ST/AoE divergence is still in. Resonance/Reverberate is a lot better in AE/AB spam, while ST+some AoE from time to time is better done by using Arcane Echo/Orb.
7th talent row is a mess. Time Anomaly: Still exists. Enlightened is Equipoise azerite trait. Still doesnāt really compete with Overpowered because OP still has extreme synergy with Rune.
Mobility got a BIG hit as Displacement got axed, Shimmer was nerfed to have 25s recharge (compare THAT to 10s on Fel Rushā¦), and Slipstream still isnāt even approaching usefulness because Missiles donāt proc often enough. See the part about roughly 1 proc per 20% mana dumped. Alter Time & Master of Time Blink CD reset shenanigans donāt make up for the fact that it still has too long CD and requires GCD to move around.
Until Shadowlands go live, Arcane Power is effectively nerfed as it still lasts 10 seconds but its cooldown went up to 2 minutes from 1:30. 1/12th uptime from 1/9th is a net loss even taking into account that itās not eating 1 gcd anymore.
Obligatory hateful rant about Focus Magic-related idiocy here: It still exists. In Rune of DPS row. Nobody sane will ever take it unless they like hurting their DPS. Especially now, when Rune was kinda baked into AP, ensuring its dominance because itās 1,5 x 1,4 = 210% damage for AP duration. And Touch is storing 50% of it for its duration.
āAll CDs onā burst still too strong, sustain still too crappy because rotation is more mana-negative without Rule of 3s so we have to cast Barrage more often.
Frostbolt is meh because Slow is better snare and Fireball does better dps in case of being kicked. Still no AoE snare. Wards that didnāt make it to the live game had more purpose as they made us harder to kill with frost/fire damage instead of just 1 more ability that is likely to end up never being used at all. I miss being able to use Cone of Coldā¦
ā¦and Blizzard, Flamestrike, or any other form of sustained ranged AoE. Itās dumb having to go into melee range being a squishy cloth caster. And outside mentioned CDs thatās what we have to do. Arcane Orb hits like a truck but 20s CD is a long time compared to say Blade Dance.
And about Wards, someone tell those airheads that in Cataclysm they were merged into Mage Ward, combining Fire/Frost absorb and adding Arcane too, as it makes sense that your character knows how to defend themselves from their own tricks.
Conclusion: 2 steps forward, 1 step backwards. Better than BFA, but this isnāt saying much. Still worse than Legion & Wrath incarnations of Arcane. At least now we have a proper proc using gameplay.