Anyone At Higher Levels Running Deep Arcane On Mages?

I've been having some issues dungeon grinding on my 2x Pally, 3x Mage team, mostly with Blizzard not doing much damage and having a hard time using any kind of kiting strategy while multiboxing. (Being new to it/not great in general yet obviously doesn't help). I could do small AOE packs and single target about anything, but my xp/hour is suffering... sometimes only 7-9k per hour in Stocks.

In any case I've started focusing more on Arcane Explosion now and am doing more damage. I also specc'd out of my Improved Blizzard Spec and have gotten as far as 3/3 Improved Arcane Explosion. (Team is only at level 25). I'm considering sticking with the whole Arcane thing and just spamming Arcane Explosion during my dungeon grind. Left is my current spec and right is where I'm thinking of going.

https://www.dual-boxing.com/attachme...tid=2237&stc=1https://www.dual-boxing.com/attachme...tid=2238&stc=1
https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/mage/25000503 (Now)
https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-c...1--05300033132 (At 60)

Looking for tips on what higher level Mage comps are using (or did use) to have success during the dungeon grind. I've scoured these forums and found some good stuff, but am wondering if anyone has went deep into Arcane before getting back into frost? Seems like there is a lot to like with the mana buffs, 3% more damage and crit with arcane stability, and arcane power buff to pull a big pack every 5 minutes. Any feedback is much appreciated!

Im running with a Paladin tank and 2 mages and I specced my mages 31/17/3 with improved flamestrike. Arcane Power and PoM give me the posibility to do big and risky pulls often and also let me deal with certain bosses that need to be bursted down, read aggro reset bosses that you cant taunt as paladin .

Going in fire I realy like the dps of flamestrike, while casting it it gives my paladins consecration a couple more seconds to build threat. And with going in fire and getting the Reduced threat talent so far I havnt lost aggro to the mages yet on any pull. And I prefer to just aoe all down instead of putting sheeps out.

Also arcane power cd is only 3min so can do a big pull more often than the 5min.

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Originally Posted by Groene

Im running with a Paladin tank and 2 mages and I specced my mages 31/17/3 with improved flamestrike. Arcane Power and PoM give me the posibility to do big and risky pulls often and also let me deal with certain bosses that need to be bursted down, read aggro reset bosses that you cant taunt as paladin .

Going in fire I realy like the dps of flamestrike, while casting it it gives my paladins consecration a couple more seconds to build threat. And with going in fire and getting the Reduced threat talent so far I havnt lost aggro to the mages yet on any pull. And I prefer to just aoe all down instead of putting sheeps out.

Also arcane power cd is only 3min so can do a big pull more often than the 5min.

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Very good point on being able to better handle the lack of taunt better with Arcane Power and PoM. Seems like fire may very well compliment Arcane better with my playstyle than Frost would. After reading this I'm definitely leaning that way. I'm reluctant to abandon the snares that come with Frost, but with proper play my Paladin should have plenty of threat and the slow effects won't be a big deal (perhaps even wasted points since I'm not kiting at all).

yea I am deep arcane on all my mages. Seems like the logical thing to do if you are not trying to blizzard grind and you are just doing AE spam. I can use the arcane power every other pull and stuff just dies quicker its definitely noticeable.

I have pretty much one of each spec with all of them leaked into the Arcane tree up to Arcane Explosion. Fire is the most impressive, due to the stun from the first row talent. I Flamestrike into Arcane Explosion spam, and I always have at least 1 mob stunned from it. Once I iron out my specs and get all the talents I want for each Mage, I'm gonna get that talent for the other 2 Mages.

I find Frost is useless pretty much because there is no need to kite, AoE packs die so fast it's a waste of time and energy fooling around with trying to slow, snare, kite, etc. Even on single target the slow isn't needed because things will still die before they reach me.

I only keep my 1 Mage as Frost because he is my skinner/herber. I go on him solo from time to time to level those professions, which is relaxing not having to lug the rest of my team around. It's also nice to be a normal player from time to time, and be able to go into cities and zones without being followed and harassed as a boxer.

Thanks for the feedback. Going frost for my whole team definitely seems to have been poor judgment. Arcane is working out so far. I just need to decide between hitting fire right now or continuing to go down the arcane line. Fire does have some nice features with the stun and perhaps blast wave? But I'm a lot closer to arcane powers huge buff.

I am 49 now and changed out of frost into arcane and fire. It seemed to help me a lot..not only killing packs ( with the flamestrike to start..followed by arcane explosions and 3 blastwaves. ) but also solo mobs, not using pyro as i do not have PoM yet. But with flame blast and fire balls..bosses die in record time..if mobs are resistant to fire ( like stuff in searing gorge and burning steeps ) i use arcane missiles.

Am I the only one that's diggin deep frost for free crit? My 60 plan is going 31/17/3 to try it out because it seems good. In the 30-45 range though everything in SM runs away except bosses. Every other spec is ass for that and I haven't figured out how to round robin frost nova.

edit: I'd also be very interested in a video of someone running a trinity comp using AoE to anything looking like good effect. I'm running Warrior/Druid + 3x mage + pally. The warrior straight up CANNOT hold aggro unless I just sit there long enough to get off 1-2 sunders and a few shouts and by that point I could have just tab targeted them down and not bothered.

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Originally Posted by Celosar

edit: I'd also be very interested in a video of someone running a trinity comp using AoE to anything looking like good effect. I'm running Warrior/Druid + 3x mage + pally. The warrior straight up CANNOT hold aggro unless I just sit there long enough to get off 1-2 sunders and a few shouts and by that point I could have just tab targeted them down and not bothered.

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I have been able to run Pally/3 Mage/Priest to some positive results. I am definitely not tearing through levels at this 50k/hr experience rate but it is still fun. I believe the Paladin helps immensely due to the salvation on my other 4 toons and the aoe tanking ability with ret aura/cons. Depending on the Arcane explosion rank vs paladin I do sometimes wait for a second consecration cast to tick a couple times before I flamestrike/AE spam. With new ranks on the paladin, I can drop cons and the only time necessary is the cast time on flamestrike.

I went into fire at level 32 im now 51 still farming ZF. I will stay here to 52 and probably go to ZF... 5/34/3 Combosion when it the cd is up, flamestrike *2, blastwave and finish with arcane explosion, the rest of my points will go to Arcane now.

Im still thinking of changing spec into deep frost at 52 llooking at a video post earlier on https://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/...zard-AE-in-BRD

Frost spec might be a safer bet in BRD, ive never played frost as a boxer only as a solo player in vanilla. Still not sure if ill change or not

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Originally Posted by Celosar

Am I the only one that's diggin deep frost for free crit? My 60 plan is going 31/17/3 to try it out because it seems good. In the 30-45 range though everything in SM runs away except bosses. Every other spec is ass for that and I haven't figured out how to round robin frost nova.

edit: I'd also be very interested in a video of someone running a trinity comp using AoE to anything looking like good effect. I'm running Warrior/Druid + 3x mage + pally. The warrior straight up CANNOT hold aggro unless I just sit there long enough to get off 1-2 sunders and a few shouts and by that point I could have just tab targeted them down and not bothered.

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https://youtu.be/7zSfq13ZNR8

That's the video I modeled my whole play style after. With practice I can pull this smooth and dungeons are an absolute breeze, the only difference is I have a Priest instead of a Paladin healer.

I'm just collecting talent points until I get PoM though. Imagine 3 Mages with an Instant cast Pyroblast. Follow by 3 Fireblast. All with the chance to stun. WPVP will never be the same.

Lol, I can't do that though because my two tanks are warrior or druid neither of which has pally level AoE aggro. Maybe I'll switch the pally to tank and the druid to heals and level the warrior solo.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Celosar

Am I the only one that's diggin deep frost for free crit? My 60 plan is going 31/17/3 to try it out because it seems good. In the 30-45 range though everything in SM runs away except bosses. Every other spec is ass for that and I haven't figured out how to round robin frost nova.

edit: I'd also be very interested in a video of someone running a trinity comp using AoE to anything looking like good effect. I'm running Warrior/Druid + 3x mage + pally. The warrior straight up CANNOT hold aggro unless I just sit there long enough to get off 1-2 sunders and a few shouts and by that point I could have just tab targeted them down and not bothered.

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Here's a pretty good video from MiRai (who's literally my hero btw lol), that I used to help setup my Round Robin Frost Nova. I'm pretty noobish in ISBoxer and this worked well even for me: https://youtu.be/q-ADHcJky2k?t=2213

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Originally Posted by Mmrwowboxer

https://youtu.be/7zSfq13ZNR8

That's the video I modeled my whole play style after. With practice I can pull this smooth and dungeons are an absolute breeze, the only difference is I have a Priest instead of a Paladin healer.

I'm just collecting talent points until I get PoM though. Imagine 3 Mages with an Instant cast Pyroblast. Follow by 3 Fireblast. All with the chance to stun. WPVP will never be the same.

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Thanks for sharing! Somehow I missed that one. Good stuff in this thread so far. Feeling a lot more confident about the dungeon grind.