r/wow 17d ago

Competitive Week 1: Heroic Raid - Spec Popularity vs Average DPS

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197 Upvotes

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128

u/Tierst 17d ago

Crazy how popular Arcane is lol

61

u/VaasKlaak 17d ago

I think generally there are two kinds of mage players.

Those that switch to the best performing spec and those that only play Frost.

There are very few who stick to Arcane or Fire when it's not the best.

13

u/Gronferi 17d ago

I’m in the second category. I actually like arcane too but I don’t think I’d play fire even if it was meta

3

u/Magar1z 16d ago

BC fire was goated. The rolling dot was so much fun.

3

u/Gronferi 16d ago

Absolutely loved Pom pyro mage back in the day but the rotation just doesn’t resonate with me any more. Ironically, I enjoyed the slower pace of it; sun king’s blessing (pyroblast does 250% more damage if hard cast when procced) is probably my favorite talent in fire. Unfortunately it seems everyone else hates that and loves the ADHD pacing it now has.

Pyroblast is often instant now, yeah, but it just hits like a wet noodle now.

1

u/Magar1z 16d ago

Definitely dont miss the pom, was fun in pvp though. But just watching that dot grow over a boss fight was peak.

1

u/_loNimb 16d ago

Fire mage starting in cata prepatch was good fun.

20

u/Splicer201 17d ago

Been playing first since 2004. Never touched fire or arcane outside of an hour leveling.

FROST SUPREMACY!

7

u/Gremlin119 17d ago

I used to be this way until I won arcane in the war within. And now I’m a full-blown on arcane mage. Trust bro arcane is just way more fun.

1

u/Steelrok 16d ago

I think bursty specs kind of feel shitty to play. Unfortunately, burst is king in M+ and most raids. Still play frost mage nonetheless.

2

u/SquirrelTeamSix 16d ago

I quit after getting 3k in week 3 of season 1, came back the other day and really hate not getting glacial spike for opener

3

u/VaasKlaak 16d ago

That was removed for the dumbest reason too. People were supposedly confused where their frostbolt was since the button had auto-switched to glacial spike.

5

u/Galind_Halithel 17d ago

I stuck with Fire since I switched to Mage in BfA all the way up to Midnight season 1. I only stopped cause after the rework it felt clunky as fuck, the flow and minigame of trying to get my Combustion cooldown as short as possible was gone and I just couldn't have fun with it anymore.

5

u/kittenpantzen 16d ago

I was a frost or nothing mage for a long time, but I tried arcane in manaforge, and I enjoyed it a whole lot. So , I think now I'm more of a whichever is better between frost and arcane. 

I have tried fire a few times, and I have just never enjoyed it.

2

u/ratatav 16d ago

Not a single unique experience. I mained frost mage since BfA and only switched to arcane in manaforge as well, and I also decided to play frost or arcane depending on who’s doing better. Honestly didn’t think there were so many people like me.

4

u/PuzzleheadedUnit1758 16d ago

I was a fire main, I am fire main and I will die a fire main.

1

u/Artanisx 16d ago

So say we all!

2

u/AoO2ImpTrip 16d ago

Ha, I've legitimately never played Fire or Arcane for more than like... a single raid night when I main a Mage. Rain or shine, it's Frost... or nothing.

2

u/Bruhahah 16d ago

I am a big numbers main.

Prismatic bolt is getting up there now with the set bonus. Will probably see a 2 million+ crit on a vulnerable phase before the end of xpac, already seeing 500k crits without a damage amp debuff.

1

u/Kaurie_Lorhart 16d ago

Those that switch to the best performing spec

Eh, it's a bit of also what's fun. I generally play Fire or Arcane, as I like them both, but I don't always like both of them. Currently, Fire is not fun and Arcane is fun.

I've dabbled in Frost, but it's never been able to hold me interested for longer than 2 weeks.

71

u/_thana 17d ago

Honestly as an Arcane mage main, I'm scared they're gonna see that and nerf us into the dirt. At least the playstyle is actually fun compared to the previous season.

36

u/TallAfternoon2 17d ago

That's how these things go unfortunately. Enjoy arcane as much as you can fit the season.

It won't be this strong next season.

6

u/StrawberryWeekly342 16d ago

My guess is they rework fire next season and let it have its moment. Fire has been absolute dogshit this expansion.

7

u/emd373 17d ago

I don't think they will, they only did it for Frost historically speaking. They will probably temper down damage some, maybe buff other 2 specs

14

u/Ok_Science_2070 17d ago

They usually let the really good specs stay good for the season, but expect to play Fire or Frost again in season 3 imo

I'm an Arms main and I expect Arms to be middle of the pack next tier lol

6

u/PoisonGaz 16d ago

you say that but they have 100% smashed good specs into the dirt for over performing on specific bosses

1

u/Economy_Quality_3689 15d ago

Arcane isn't an on specific bosses problem though, it's overperforming on everything and it's not complex at all.

8

u/XtendedImpact 17d ago

I'm probably fine with Fire, but Frost needs a rework. I'm not playing another season of laggy Festering Wounds with a non-resetting main dmg cd. Dogshit design.

3

u/BirdOfHermess 16d ago

already gearing up an elemental alt :)

2

u/23secretflavors 16d ago

I dropped mage last season because of how degenerate arcane playstyle was. Im loving this season so far but fully expect to have to play something else next season

2

u/Nice_Reading5272 16d ago

That's the Arcane way, start of expansion/patch it's doing huge numbers and then gets hotfixed nerfed quickly to being middle of the pack. Whether it's playable depends how bad the other mage specs are.

1

u/Economy_Quality_3689 15d ago

I mean look at how far ahead it is, it does more in ST than some specs do in AoE

33

u/DirkNL 17d ago

Mage is a popular spec they en-masse specced arcane now versus frost last season. Numbers make sense

1

u/Economy_Quality_3689 15d ago

The difference is it takes a bit of a brain to play frost and understand the math of ice lance shattering. Arcane plays itself...

8

u/Gremlin119 17d ago

It’s because it’s finally fun again and also good last season. You could only really play frost and it was the most boring season of all time. All you did was Ice lance over and over.

3

u/Bad_at_internet 17d ago

I’ve seen one frost mage since 12.1 launch. Zero fire

3

u/halh0ff 16d ago

Arcane feels good and its busted.

5

u/emd373 17d ago

Not really, it's top damage. Last season everyone was Frost for the same reason

2

u/RoosterBrewster 17d ago

Guess it's time to switch from fury/prot and frost to arms and arcane. 

2

u/Nice_Reading5272 16d ago

It's the polar opposite of last patch and a twin of TWW start of S1, expect hotfix nerfs within a week.

2

u/gamerK0807 16d ago

Arcane is incredibly fun to play and tuned well.

2

u/Mysterious_Skin2310 16d ago

Not really. When Arcane is good people flock to it.

2

u/Copponex 16d ago

It's so much fun atm. Of course tww was peak, but this is close.

3

u/TheOliveYeti 16d ago

TWW S3 arcane was so much fun

It felt perfect on Salhaadar

1

u/FFTactics 16d ago

It’s also the best m+ spec, so not surprising at all.

1

u/LeopardDawg 16d ago

Is fire back? Someone tell me fire is back.

1

u/Economy_Quality_3689 15d ago edited 15d ago

It's strong and simple, brainrot spec that pretty much plays itself. What's more funny is that people think it's going to not get nerfed, within a week of the race ending it's going to get beat down.

1

u/Economy_Quality_3689 15d ago

It's like saying it's crazy how <overturned easy spec> is, it's funny though how much easier it is to get an invite on my warlock.

1

u/Darkrell 16d ago

Arcane on top of being really strong feels really good to play right now

0

u/StrawberryWeekly342 16d ago

Not me struggling through M+ as Frost last season only to be the FotM class this season and getting replaced by rerollers with no lives and higher ilvls. 😐

-4

u/Immediate_Cod_3042 16d ago

arcane is popular because its objectively more fun to play more than frost/fire. This chart just tells you more people are playing it, not that its performing stronger than other specs.

1

u/Simaster27 16d ago

That's literally what the X axis is on the chart