Blog Articles by keyword: arcane

Essential Addons: TellMeWhen

by Tachyon on Wed. 31. March 2010, 13:11

Filed under: addon, proc, buff, debuff, cooldown, tellmewhen, arcane, featured

Monitoring your AB stack, MBarr procs and cooldowns of your offensive and defensive abilities is crucial to optimize your performance, especially as an arcane mage.

If you just use normal buff/debuff bar addons (e.g. Elkano's Buff Bars) and cooldown monitor addons (e.g. CooldownTimers3), it's hard to make up specific buffs or debuffs, even more so if you're in a raid environment where you usually have 20+ buffs at a time on you.

But don't despair, there's an Addon out there that does exactly what YOU need.

TellMeWhen is an addon that adds a set of bars to your UI, where each slot can be configured to show a buff, debuff or cooldown, when active, inactive or always, with an optional timer.
I just love this generic approach, as the opportunities are unbounded, and if properly configured it serves all the information you need to use your abilities at the right time.

Before you start using it, make a concept of which things you'd like to have displayed in which bar. The bars can be individually scaled and moved, and in the latest versions of the addon they're dual spec aware (you can define which bars get displayed with each spec). My concept for the bars is as follows:

Bar1: Cooldowns for my most essential offensive and defensive abilities.
Bar2: Arcane Casting, showing the Arcane Blast debuff stack and Missile Barrage procs
Bar3: Powerups, showing active damage boost buffs and procs
Bar4: Target debuffs, such as Slow, Frostbolt snare, Frostbite, Living Bomb etc.

Setting up TellMeWhen

After downloading and installing TellMeWhen, go to ESC -> Interface -> Addons -> TellMeWhen. In these interface options, you can customize the number of bars, how many rows and columns they have and in which spec they're active.
Unlocking the bars will show all bars on the UI and allow you to customize them by right-clicking on a slot in the bar and configuring what cooldown, buff or debuff you would like to have displayed there. Note that in the latest versions, you have to check the 'enable icon' option for each slot for it to become active.

Here's a few hints on stuff you may want to display as an arcane mage:

BUFFS/PROCS:

Arcane Blast: Debuff, Player, When present, Timer
Missile Barrage: Buff, Player, When present, Timer
Arcane Power: Buff, Player, When present, Timer
Icy Veins: Buff, Player, When present, Timer
Pushing the Limit: Buff, Player, When present, Timer (Tier 10 set 2p bonus)
Quad Core: Buff, Player, When present, Timer (Tier 10 set 4p bonus)
Surge of Power: Buff, Player, When present, Timer (Dislodged Foreign Object)
Frostforged Sage: Buff, Player, When present, Timer (ICC revered/exalted Ring)
Black Magic, Debuff: Buff, When present, Timer (Weapon Enchant)

TARGET DEBUFFS:

Slow: Debuff, Target, When present, Timer
Frostbolt: Debuff, Target, When present, Timer (for frost mages or pvp spec)
Frostbite: Debuff, Target, When present, Timer (for frost mages or pvp spec)
Living Bomb: Debuff, Target, When present, Timer, only if cast by self (for fire mages)

COOLDOWNS:

(Name of 'on-use' Trinket): Cooldown, Item, Always, Timer
Arcane Power: Cooldown, Spell or Ability, When usable, Timer
Icy Veins: Cooldown, Spell or Ability, When usable, Timer
Presence of Mind: Cooldown, Spell or Ability, When usable, Timer
Ice Block: Cooldown, Spell or Ability, When usable, Timer
Frost Nova: Cooldown, Spell or Ability, When usable, Timer
Mirror Image: Cooldown, Spell or Ability, When usable, Timer
Counterspell: Cooldown, Spell or Ability, When usable, Timer
Blink: Cooldown, Spell or Ability, When usable, Timer
Evocation: Cooldown, Spell or Ability, Always, Timer
Mana Sapphire: Cooldown, Item, Always, Timer

If you use a non-english client, you have to use the localized names for the buffs, spells, items and abilities (e.g. 'Eisige Adern' for 'Icy Veins' in german clients). When in doubt, check your combat log or buff bar to find out which names the buffs have.

Once you configured the bars, unlock them in the addon settings so they become active. Don't forget to test if they work before heading into combat

T10 Arcane Rotations revisited

by Tachyon on Fri. 12. February 2010, 18:59

Filed under: arcane, t10, rotation, mage, set bonus, featured

Within the mage community, there is still no consens on which arcane rotation to use, now that most raiding mages have the 2xT10 set bonus.
Some mages still use the ABx4AM rotation, others stick with the Mbarr if AB>=4 rotation, and I still see lots of mages spamming AB when they have lots of mana left, or during AP/IV/Bloodlust.

The poor mages seeking help in the official WoW forums are hinted towards the one or the other rotation, without anyone caring to explain why this or that rotation should be used. Arguing about arcane spell rotations is almost a People's Front of Judea vs. Judean People's Front thing.

Now several weeks have passed since the introduction of T10 gear, in which I was able to verify my simulated conclusions on T10 rotations. I cross-checked my results with those of other mages, browsed damage log reports of other guilds, but haven't found anyone using my suggested rotations yet. Good news is: my suggested rotation works, and it works well.

I used the same simulation as before, with the same settings:

3000 Spell Power
Hit capped
20% Spell Haste before talents
50% Spell Crit including CSD

The casting strategies I used in the simulation are:

AB Spam
Just chain-cast Arcane Blast, nothing more.
ABx4AM
Cast 4x Arcane Blast, and the Arcane Missiles regardless of whether Missile Barrage procced (the chance that it procced is 87.04%). Using this strategy, you have a fair chance to use MBarr immediately when it procs, with the penalty to cast unhasted Arcane Missiles in 13% of all cases (impacting your mobility).
Tachyon A/B
This is a generic casting strategy, where you cast Arcane Blast, use the Missile Barrage Proc after at least A AB stacks, or clear the stack with Arcane Barrage when Missile Barrage didn't proc after B subsequent Arcane Blasts.
This time I only used configurations where we always keep casting AB until Missile Barrage procs (B->infinity, so never clear the AB stack with Arcane Barrage)
Tachyon A/B, lazy
The Tachyon A/B rotations have one big flaw: they only work in that form if your reaction time is 0. Or if you can see some seconds in the future, to know if Missile Barrage will proc. Assuming that you don't have those superpowers, you'll notice a Missile Barrage proc only when you're already casting the next Arcane Blast.
To model this effect, I created a lazy strategy, where you can't use Missile Barrage procs immediately.

Here's the simulated DPS and DPM for each of the casting strategies, evaluated by casting 1'000'000 spells with each strategy:

As the non-lazy Tachyon A/B rotations are only applicable withing a theorycrafting sandbox, and the lazy variants are more realistic, if faded out the non-lazy versions a little to make the chart more clear.

Conclusions from the simulation:

The DPS variance is relatively small, less than 4% from the best to the worst
AB spam has the worst DPS and atrocious DPM. Never ever use this again.
Waiting for 4 stacks of AB before using the MBarr proc yields the highest DPS
Using MBarr even before 4 AB stacks yields almost as good DPS, with way higher DPM
The Tachyon (A=0-2, B->Infinity, lazy) strategy has higher DPS and higher DPM than the ABx4AM strategy.

If you're below 50% case, you can start 3 spell casts of 2.5 sec base duration within the 5 sec 2xT10 proc uptime. With over 50% haste (and no lag), you can even squeeze a fourth spell start in, making maximum use of the haste buff.
During Bloodlust/Heroism, together with Icy Veins, it is therefore recommended to use the Tachyon A=3, B->Inifinity rotation (3xAB + 1xMBarr = 4 hasted spells if you're lucky with procs).

Detailled results for the simulated strategies:

AB SPAM
11500295017 Damage done in 1984126.98 sec, costing 1719996236 Mana
ArcaneBlast:
* casts: 1000000
* crit: 59%
* avg hit=7756, crit=14096, cast time=1.98 sec
ABx4AM
11236529338 Damage done in 1925358.18 sec, costing 647990080 Mana
ABx4, MBarr 86.98%
ABx4, AM 13.02%

ArcaneBlast:
* casts: 800000
* crit: 59%
* avg hit=5726, crit=10408, cast time=1.85 sec
ArcaneMissiles:
* casts: 200000
* crit: 53%
* avg hit=14753, crit=28825, cast time=2.24 sec
Tachyon a=0, b->infinite, lazy
11047912901 Damage done in 1854542.44 sec, costing 620598122 Mana
ABx2, MBarr 40.0076%
ABx3, MBarr 24.0845%
ABx4, MBarr 14.396%
ABx5, MBarr 8.6189%
ABx(n>5), MBarr 12.893%

ArcaneBlast:
* casts: 777500
* crit: 59%
* avg hit=5767, crit=10483, cast time=1.84 sec
ArcaneMissiles:
* casts: 222500
* crit: 53%
* avg hit=13144, crit=25686, cast time=1.89 sec
Tachyon a=4, b->infinite, lazy
11259815033 Damage done in 1870174.6 sec, costing 729463468 Mana
ABx4, MBarr 78.4767%
ABx5, MBarr 8.6218%
ABx(n>5), MBarr 12.9015%

ArcaneBlast:
* casts: 819377
* crit: 59%
* avg hit=5967, crit=10843, cast time=1.85 sec
ArcaneMissiles:
* casts: 180623
* crit: 53%
* avg hit=14753, crit=28825, cast time=1.98 sec

If you give the new rotations a chance, please let me know about your experiences with them. I know it feels weird to use MBarr before the AB stack is full, the numbers are not quite as high as they used to be, but they're way more frequent.

Tier 10 Set Boni from an Arcane Mage's Perspective

by Tachyon on Wed. 09. December 2009, 18:46

Filed under: arcane, spec, talents, sets, patch, 3.3, haste, tier 10

EDIT 2010-01-22: Tested and verified the mechanic of the T10x2 proc, added and corrected a few things in the article.

Patch day, 3.3 went live today in Europe. This time I refrained from summing up the changes (new raidwide 3% crit buff by Arcane mages, Fire and especially Frost get some small buffs) and instead point to WoW.com's patch 3.3 coverage.

Instead, I will focus on the new Tier 10 sets (presumably the last set we get before the next expansion) that are introduced by patch 3.3.

The Tier 10 armor sets come in three flavours, with an item level of 251, 264 and 279 respectively.
The starting set items are bought with Emblems of Frost, and can be upgraded with normal and heroic (Vanquisher's) Marks of Sanctification.

Emblems of Frost
Emblems of Frost can be obtained from the following sources:

(3) as loot from killing any boss in Icecrown Citadel
(3) as loot from killing Toravon the Ice Watcher in Archavon's Vault
(2) as reward for running the first Daily Heroic Random each day (new in 3.3)
(5) as reward for completing the Weekly Raid Quest (new in 3.3)

Mage Tier 10 Set(s)

Bloodmage's Regalia Set Boni:

2 pieces: Your Hot Streak, Missile Barrage, and Brain Freeze talents also grant you 12% haste for 5 sec when the effect of the talent is consumed.
4 pieces: Your Mirror Image ability also causes you to deal 18% additional damage for 30 sec.

Mage Tier 10 2-pieces bonus

After each MBarr cast (Arcane Missiles on a Missile Barrage proc), you gain a buff called Pushing the Limit, which increases your haste for the next 5 sec by 12%.
Note that you gain this buff after channeling Arcane Missiles finishes (or is interrupted), so you gain the full 5 seconds for your next casts.

To find out how much the 2-pieces bonus is worth, I adapted the Casting Simulation acordingly and ran it again with the same parameters as before (3000 Spell Power, Hit Capped, 20% Spell Haste before talents, 50% Spell Crit including CSD). Here are the results:

.	A=0	A=1	A=2	A=3	A=4	A=5
B=0	5261 DPS 14.21 DPM -10.47% DPS -16.80% DPM	5153 DPS 16.19 DPM -12.31% DPS -5.21% DPM	5173 DPS 16.37 DPM -11.97% DPS -4.16% DPM	5257 DPS 15.4 DPM -10.54% DPS -9.84% DPM	5417 DPS 13.39 DPM -7.81% DPS -21.60% DPM	5459 DPS 11.98 DPM -7.11% DPS -29.86% DPM
B=1	5186 DPS 32.99 DPM -11.75% DPS +93.15% DPM	5161 DPS 33.43 DPM -12.16% DPS +95.73% DPM	5195 DPS 27.76 DPM -11.59% DPS +62.53% DPM	5315 DPS 21.96 DPM -9.55% DPS +28.57% DPM	5485 DPS 17.42 DPM -6.65% DPS +1.99% DPM	5532 DPS 13.75 DPM -5.86% DPS -19.50% DPM
B=2	5401 DPS 32.77 DPM -8.08% DPS +91.86% DPM	5378 DPS 33.02 DPM -8.48% DPS +93.33% DPM	5395 DPS 28.96 DPM -8.19% DPS +69.56% DPM	5499 DPS 22.17 DPM -6.42% DPS +29.80% DPM	5642 DPS 17.5 DPM -3.98% DPS +2.46% DPM	5664 DPS 13.78 DPM -3.60% DPS -19.32% DPM
B=3	5597 DPS 29.15 DPM -4.75% DPS +70.67% DPM	5578 DPS 29.2 DPM -5.07% DPS +70.96% DPM	5566 DPS 26.8 DPM -5.28% DPS +56.91% DPM	5648 DPS 21.78 DPM -3.89% DPS +27.52% DPM	5776 DPS 17.24 DPM -1.70% DPS +0.94% DPM	5774 DPS 13.58 DPM -1.74% DPS -20.49% DPM
B=4	5760 DPS 26.16 DPM -1.97% DPS +53.16% DPM	5750 DPS 26.22 DPM -2.15% DPS +53.51% DPM	5728 DPS 24.78 DPM -2.52% DPS +45.08% DPM	5783 DPS 20.96 DPM -1.59% DPS +22.72% DPM	5873 DPS 17.08 DPM +0.00% DPS +0.00% DPM	5863 DPS 13.44 DPM -0.23% DPS -21.31% DPM
B=5	5857 DPS 24.1 DPM -0.33% DPS +41.10% DPM	5850 DPS 24.18 DPM -0.45% DPS +41.57% DPM	5818 DPS 23.2 DPM -0.99% DPS +35.83% DPM	5861 DPS 20.1 DPM -0.27% DPS +17.68% DPM	5939 DPS 16.75 DPM +1.07% DPS -1.93% DPM	5858 DPS 13.44 DPM -0.31% DPS -21.31% DPM
B=6	5904 DPS 23.15 DPM +0.48% DPS +35.54% DPM	5903 DPS 23.12 DPM +0.46% DPS +35.36% DPM	5869 DPS 22.39 DPM -0.12% DPS +31.09% DPM	5903 DPS 19.63 DPM +0.46% DPS +14.93% DPM	5980 DPS 16.57 DPM +1.76% DPS -2.99% DPM	5915 DPS 13.36 DPM +0.66% DPS -21.78% DPM
B=7	5936 DPS 22.53 DPM +1.01% DPS +31.91% DPM	5933 DPS 22.65 DPM +0.97% DPS +32.61% DPM	5902 DPS 21.96 DPM +0.45% DPS +28.57% DPM	5932 DPS 19.45 DPM +0.95% DPS +13.88% DPM	5997 DPS 16.47 DPM +2.05% DPS -3.57% DPM	5940 DPS 13.31 DPM +1.09% DPS -22.07% DPM
B=8	5954 DPS 22.26 DPM +1.33% DPS +30.33% DPM	5951 DPS 22.25 DPM +1.27% DPS +30.27% DPM	5916 DPS 21.64 DPM +0.68% DPS +26.70% DPM	5942 DPS 19.31 DPM +1.13% DPS +13.06% DPM	6008 DPS 16.39 DPM +2.25% DPS -4.04% DPM	5958 DPS 13.28 DPM +1.40% DPS -22.25% DPM
B=infinite	5977 DPS 21.83 DPM +1.72% DPS +27.81% DPM	5979 DPS 21.84 DPM +1.74% DPS +27.87% DPM	5939 DPS 21.37 DPM +1.07% DPS +25.12% DPM	5970 DPS 19.08 DPM +1.60% DPS +11.71% DPM	6031 DPS 16.3 DPM +2.63% DPS -4.57% DPM	5991 DPS 13.25 DPM +1.96% DPS -22.42% DPM

The best spell rotations when having the 2pT10 bonus are the A=0|1, B->Infinite rotations (lower left corner in the table above). They even have higher DPS than Arcane Blast spamming (which has 5788.37 DPS @ 6.68 DPM), so it's also the preferred rotation for burst phases.

The A=4, B->Infinite rotation that is the current 'state of the art' shouldn't be used anymore with the 2pT10 bonus, as it yields marginally lower DPS and way worse DPM compared to the A=0|1, B->Infinite rotations.

Recommended 2pT10 rotation: A=0|1, B->Infinity

Spam Arcane Blast, use Missile Barrage immediately or after the next Arcane Blast cast.

But now much is the DPS boost with the set bonus?
A=0, B->Infinite:
Without set bonus: 5560 DPS @ 21.88 DPM, 254.11 mana/sec
With 2pT10 Bonus: 5977 DPS (+7.50%) @ 21.83 DPM (-0.23%), 273.8 mana/sec (+7.75%),

The 2pT10 bonus here gives a plain +7.5% DPS boost, that's pretty massive!

The A=0, B->Infinite rotation with 2pT10 yields 5.43% more DPS compared to the A=4, B->Infinity rotation without the bonus (5669 DPS @ 16.30 DPM), that's the effective DPS increase as we are also swapping our main spell rotation.

New peak haste cap!

The haste peak is defined by:

1% per 32.79 haste rating on your gear
6% from Talents
5% from Wrath of Air Totem
3% from Swift Retribution or Improved Moonkin Form
20% when Icy Veins is active
30% when Bloodlust or Heroism is active
12% from 2pT10 procs after casting MBarr

The haste peak cap is reached when your spells (Arcane Blast and Missile Barrage + Arcane Missiles, both having a 2.5 sec base cast time) have an effective cast time of 1 sec (subsequent spells can't be cast any faster).

The haste% factors scale multiplicatively, so your haste peak cap now is at:
(2.5 / (1.06*1.05*1.03*1.2*1.3*1.12) - 1) * 3279 = 814 (813.337) haste rating.

Please note that I ignored the effect of Speed Potions and on-proc haste Trinkets; if we take those into account the haste peak cap would be even lower.

Black Magic

Also note that the weapon enchant for Black Magic has been changed in patch 3.3, and can now proc 250 haste for 10 seconds (proc chance: 35%, 30 sec assumend internal cooldown). When you're at 564 haste or above, Enchant Weapon - Mighty Spellpower might still be the better choice though.
For PvP though, Black Magic is godsend!

Mage Tier 10 4-pieces bonus

The 4-pieces bonus is really nice and works like second Arcane Power (and yes, it stacks), giving mages an even higher burst potential. With a 30 sec duration and 3 min cooldown, the average uptime on a fight with infinite duration is 1/6, which is a plain 3% damage boost. The shorter the fight duration, the larger the uptime, when we keep Mirror Images on cooldown. If we assume randomly distributed fight durations between 1 min and 10 min, the average uptime is 22%, which is almost a 4% damage boost. If you use it along with your other cooldowns such as Arcane Power, Icy Veins, Bloodlust/Heroism and Trinkets, the bonus is worth much more.

Tachyon's PvE Arcane Mage Guide

by Tachyon on Sat. 10. October 2009, 00:29

Filed under: arcane, guide, talents, featured

UPDATED FOR 3.3
- Added new Weapon enchant Black Magic
- Added link to SnowFallKeyPress addon
- Added macro for AP/IV/Trinket
- Added alternative boot enchants

Why is arcane so popular these day? It's not only due to the fact that since patch 3.2.2 it can compete with fire specs again, but also most mages seem to prefer arcane over fire due to the proactive playstyle which is both more challenging and more fun.

Fire mages are forced into a very reactive play style. They know exactly which spells to cast when, as the normal cycle (chaincast Fireball) is only disrupted when debuffs expire (Living Bomb or Scorch, reaction: reapply) or a Hot Streak proc occurs (reaction: use an instant Pyro as your next spell). This results in a more or less steady mana burn rate, so you just cast and hope you never go out of mana. You'll find yourself with a half full mana pool on the end of a fight, knowing that this mana was just wasted.

Arcane, on the other hand, has 3 cooldown abilities at hand (Arcane Power, Icy Veins, Presence of Mind) which allow for burst damage when the mage requests it. Not only that, but arcane mages have multiple cast cycles with varying DPS and DPM, so they can adapt their casting strategy on the fly to optimize their actions for any situation. That's what proactive casting is about, looking ahead and planning how to play to live up to the full potential. In this ability to adapt lies the arcane mage's greatest potential to do extraordinary damage.

This is a guide for effectively playing an arcane mage in a PvE (Player vs. Environment) raid scenario. It's not a beginner's mage guide as it implies you already know how to play a mage in general, so I'm not going to explain core mage concepts and spells for the leveling folk or the lazy buggers who bought their mages on Ebay or inherited a friend's account. This guide also doesn't cover how to play an arcane mage in PvP, sorry.

But if you've just switched to arcane for the first time, rerolled arcane now it's up to par with fire specs again or if you're already playing arcane and want to make sure you didn't miss an aspect or two, this guide is for YOU!
Oh, and /cheers to my friend and co-worker Elrydion on EU-Malygos who just hit 80 some weeks ago with his mage and for whom I wrote this guide!

Talent Specs

Core Spec: 53/3/11, 4 points left to spend
This spec stub contains all the important talents needed for an arcane spec. I even dare say that any arcane spec which isn't based on that stub is suboptimal.

Most arcane specs are derived from this core spec, here's some of them:

Allround-Spec: 56/3/12
Max. range, max. intellect, Slow and max. Blizzard crits.
This is the spec I recommend to any new arcane mage, as it performs well in any scenario, be it hardmodes, normal modes or 5men / solo. It's also the arcane spec with the highest AoE damage thanks to the additional point in frost.

Classic Spec: 57/3/11
Optimized on single targets, with Slow.
That's the classic out-of-the box spec you'll see in any other arcane guide. Nothing bad about it, has a negligibly small bonus to single target damage (+3% spirit, which gives a little more crit), and does less AoE damage the the allround spec.
I personally wouldn't recommend this spec to anyone, better go for the allround spec instead.

Spirit Spec: 57/3/11
10% more spirit, but on the cost of not having the max. range for arcane spells. 3 points for ~1% crit is rather expensive.

Incanter's Absorption Spec: 57/3/11
2/3 points into incanter's absorption, no Slow.
This is a spec for more experienced arcane mage who want to toy around with Incanter's Absorption to squeeze a little more spellpower from absorbed magical damage (only complete absorbs count, make sure to use your frost/fire ward where appropriate). The benefit of this spec is very situational (a lot of bosses do fire/frost damage, but you need to know in advance when to expect it and cast your ward, which costs a global cooldown), but in some encounters, like Twin Val'kyrs, it can do devastating damage.

Glyphs

For arcane mages, there is exactly one set of glyphs that makes sense:

Major glyphs:

Glyph of Arcane Blast
Increases the damage from your Arcane Blast buff by 3%.
This increases the damage done with your next arcane spell by 15% + 3% = 18% per stack, so instead of an 15/30/45/60% increase you get 18/36/54/72%.
Glyph of Arcane Missiles
Increases the critical strike damage bonus of Arcane Missiles by 25%.
Glyph of Molten Armor
Your Molten Armor grants an additional 20% of your spirit as critical strike rating.
As a PvE mage, Molten Armor is the only armor you'll ever use. Molten Armor grants you 35% of your spirit as crit rating, or 55% with this glyph, or 70% with the glyph and the 2pT9 bonus

Minor glyphs:

Glyph of Slow Fall
Your Slow Fall spell no longer requires a reagent.
Glyph of Fire Ward
You have an additional 5% chance to reflect Fire spells while your Fire Ward is active.
Glyph of Frost Ward
You have an additional 5% chance to reflect Frost spells while your Frost Ward is active.

Stats

As with any mage spec, your primary focus should be getting hit capped.
Your base chance to hit a boss is 83%, and you get 6% + Hit from talents, and 3% from Misery or Improved Faerie Fire in a raid. That leaves 8% (210 Hit Rating) or 7% (184 Hit Rating) (if you're Alliance and got a squid faced space goat in your raid) until you're hit capped.

Apart from Hit Rating, Spellpower and Haste Rating are your most important stats. Arane doesn't benefit that much from Crit Rating, as the crit multipliers are rather low (compared to fire and frostfire).

Haste rating has soft caps, as you cannot cast more than one spell per second (when the cast time is lower, you enter the global cooldown util the next spell is ready 1sec after you cast the last). As an arcane mage, your spell rotation only consists of Arcane Blast and Missile Barrage AM, which both have a 2.5 sec cast time.
If you combine the 6% haste from talents with the 3% haste in a raid environment (from Swift Retribution or Improved Moonkin Form ), and stack Icy Veins (20% haste) and Bloodlust/Heroism (30% haste) on top of that, you end up with a 70.3208% haste peak (haste stacks multiplicatively). With 1% haste per 32.79 haste rating, you'd need (2.5 / 1.703208 - 1) * 3279 = 1534 Haste Rating to reach the haste peak soft cap. You'd still improve your DPS outside haste peaks, but it's worth lesser and lesser until you reach the hard cap at 4229 haste rating, where not even Icy Veins or Blood Lust/Heroism will be able to further hasten your cast time.

Stats priority:
Hit Rating (until cap) > Spellpower ~= Haste Rating > Crit Rating > Spirit ~= Intellect.

The chart below shows the % DPS increase per unit stat once you reach the hit cap (raid buffs applied, the chart doesn't vary that much depending on your gear):

Gear planning

The easiest way to do gear planning is to use a stats ranking site. Stats ranking works as follows: you assign a weight for each stat to define how valuable it is for you, and let the ranking site then calculate the item value for all possible items (sum of the weighted stats on each item).

I usually use the spellpower equivalent values for each stat as a weight, with the exception of hit rating which just gets a fixed value assigned (more hit rating is no benefit, but losing hit rating will at least have a tradeoff cost if you're not much overcapped). My weights are:
Spell Power = 1, Hit Rating = 0.2, Haste Rating = 0.98, Crit Rating = 0.53, Intellect = 0.37, Spirit = 0.35

My favourite loot ranking site was lootrank.com, which was merged with GuildOx some weeks ago.
When applying the weights above in GuildOx, you get the following loot rank list:
Arcane Mage Loot List (hit cappped, all instances).

Use this as a starting point, check or uncheck the raid instances and professions (BoP crafted items) you have access too, and adapt the weights where necessary.

Gems

The choice of gems is pretty much dictated by the weights of the stats. Best choice is of course the pure +spellpower gems. Carefully consider how much benefit you get from the socket boni, and decide if it's worth to discard them and putting just red spellpower gems into the sockets.

Meta socket:
Chaotic Skyflare Diamond
+21 Critical Strike Rating and 3% Increased Critical Damage, requires at least 2 Blue gems
This is the non-plus-ultra meta gem for any mage spec. The critical strikes of your spells gain 3% more damage before any talent is applied, so this is a significant boost for your DPS. Rule of thumb is that it's worth about 200 spell power.
Red socket:
Runed Cardinal Ruby (red)
+23 Spell Power
Yellow socket:
Reckless Ametrine (orange)
+12 spell power and +10 haste
Blue socket:
Purified Dreadstone (purple)
+12 Spell Power and +10 Spirit

In order to activate the Chaotic Skyflare Diamond meta gem, you need two blue gems (2x Purified Dreadstone). Try placing them into blue sockets if possible, and then decide which yellow sockets you want to fill with Reckless Ametrines (only if the socket bonus is worth it). Fill the rest of the sockets with Runed Cardinal Rubies, regardless of their color.
Oh, and make sure to not forget to add an Eternal Belt Buckle to your belt.

Enchantments

Weapon (1H Sword/Dagger):
Mighty Spellpower -> 63 spellpower or
Black Magic -> 35% chance on cast to proc 250 haste for 10 seconds, 30sec internal cooldown.
Weapon (2H Staff): Greater Spellpower
-> 81 spellpower
Head: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries
-> 30 spellpower, 20 crit rating
Shoulder: Greater Inscription of the Storm
-> 25 spellpower, 15 crit rating
Chest: Powerful Stats
-> 10 to all stats
Legs: Brilliant Spellthread
-> 50 spellpower, 20 spirit
Hand: Exceptional Spellpower
-> 28 spellpower
Feed:
Icewalker -> 12 hit rating, 12 crit rating (if you're not overcapped with hit), or
Greater Spirit -> 18 spirit, or
Tuskarr's Vitality -> minor movement speed increase and 15 Stamina.
I recommend Tuskarr's Vitality as it's optimal for movement fights in ICC content
Wrist: Superior Spellpower
-> 30 spellpower
Back: Greater Speed
-> 23 haste rating

...plus any profession specific enchantments (e.g. rings, Lightweave Embroidery on your cloak).
For a quick enchantment check, go to be.imba.hu. This site checks if you already got the recommended enchantments, and which enchantments are recommended for each slot.

Spell rotations

If you haven't read my article on the 3.2.2 spell rotations, you might want to read it in a calm minute. Here's the extract of the spell rotations that make up your casting arsenal:

Single target rotations:

Standard DPS Rotation:
Spam Arcane Blast, use Missile Barrage when it procs and AB is fully stacked (4 stacks).
Use: standard rotation as long as you can keep your mana up.
Optimal DPS/DPM Rotation:
Spam Arcane Blast, use Missile Barrage as soon as it procs
Use: on long fights or if you get low on mana, until you can evocate.
Mana Recovery Rotation:
Spam Arcane Blast, use Missile Barrage as soon as it procs. If no procs occur after 2..4 AB stacks, clear the stack with Arcane Barrage.
Use: when you really start to run out of mana. The rotation can be kept up pretty much forever
Burst Rotation:
Spam Arcane Blast, disregard any Missile Barrage procs.
Use: on burst phases (Arcane Power, Icy Veins or Bloodlust/Heroism) or when the raid is requested to do insane DPS for a short time, or when you can afford to burn the mana (before Evocation comes off cooldown)

AoE Damage:
Arcane, especially the variant with 12 points in frost, is the spec with the highest burst AoE (Area of Effect) damage. You're verly likely to draw aggro if you dont start carefully. A good advice is to take your your Mirror Images before starting to bomb, so your initial aggro is split up on you and your images which prevents you from surpassing the tank in the aggro list on the first few seconds.

Casting Flamestrike every 8 seconds is a good idea, as it adds a nice little DoT to your AoE targets. Note that each rank of Flamestrike (FS) has its own DoT component, so whilst 2 subsequent FS Rank 9 won't stack, FS Rank 8 + 9 will (you could even stack rank 9+8+7+6+..., but due to the penalty the lower ranks get, this is not advisable)

AoE Sequence:

cast Mirror Images
(Presence of Mind)
Flamestrike Rank 9
Flamestrike Rank 8
Pop trinkets, activate Arcane Power and Icy Veins
Spam Blizzard, reapply Flamesstrike Rank 9+8 as soon as the DoT expires, rinse and repeat.

Cooldowns

Arcane is a very proactive mage spec, which not only lets you vary your cast cycles on the fly, but also has a number of cooldown abilities which boost your DPS for a short time.

Arcane Power (AP)
2 min cooldown, with talents: 1 min 24 sec
When activated, your spells deal 20% more damage while costing 20% more mana to cast. This effect lasts 15 sec.
Icy Veins (IV)
3 min cooldown, with talents: 2 min 24 sec
Hastens your spellcasting, increasing spell casting speed by 20% and reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting by 100%. Lasts 20 sec.
Presence of Mind (PoM)
2 min cooldown, with talents: 1 min 24 sec
When activated, your next Mage spell becomes an instant cast spell.
+ Arcane Potency (2/2): Increases the critical strike chance of your next damaging spell by 30% after gaining Clearcasting or Presence of Mind.

Use your cooldown abilities whenever available, preferrably during Bloodlust/Heroism. PoM gives the next spell a +30% crit chance, so this is best used when your next spell does high damage, hence you want to use a PoM-AB when your AB stack is full for the highest bang for the buck.
You should wait some seconds into an encounter before popping your cooldowns, as you rely on raid debuffs on the target and want to give your tank a head start building aggro.

Initial burst sequence on the start of an encounter (all cooldowns ready):

Mirror Image (to split your initial aggro)
4x Arcane Blast
Use any trinkets that can be activated
Presence of Mind, Arcane Blast (instant)
Arcane Power + Icy Veins (make a macro)
Arcane Blast spam until Icy Veins fades
Use Invisibility if necessary before your mirror images fade

Useful macros

Burst damage macro
This macro activates Arcane Power, Icy Veins, Trinkets and your Mirror Images at once (unless the ability is on cooldown, of course). Mirror Images should only be included when you have the 4xT10 bonus, otherwise I think it's better to activate them separately. The numbers 13 and 14 refer to your trinket slots, you can adapt the macro to only use the slot which contains an 'on use' trinket.

/cast Icy Veins

/cast Arcane Power

/use 13

/use 14

/cast Mirror Image

Tips & Tricks

Evocation
Evocation is ready every 2 minutes, but takes 8 seconds to cast (before haste is applied).
If you'd use it every 2 minutes, you'd be casting for 112 seconds and evocating for 8 seconds every 120 seconds. That's a significant loss, and to compensate for that you would need 120/112-1 = 7.15% additional haste, or 233.5 haste rating.
Arcane Blast spam gives you only 2% more DPS than the standard rotation (AB until MBarr, use at 4 AB stacks), but costs almost 60% more mana, so unless the encounter has idle phases which allow to use Evocation, you'd better not chaincast AB but rather preserve your mana so you don't have to evocate that often.
If you have to use Evocation, the best time to do it is on the last second of Heroism/Bloodlust/Icy Veins (the cast time is determined upon the start, so you can prolong the effect of those haste buffs).

Range
Both Arcane Blast and Arcane Missiles have a range of 30y. With the Magic Attunement talent, you can and should increase your range by 3/6y.
I know it's very tempting to skip this talent partially or completely and invest the points somewhere else, but I highly recommend to spend those 2 points there.
3/6y may not seem that much, but it's not the range that is important but the size of the area given by that range (3y -> 21% more area, 6y -> 44% more area). The larger the area is, the more likely you won't have to move to get something in casting range, which is very important for fights on which you have to spread out or when the boss is moving or spawns adds. Moving will hurt your DPS badly, so whilst range does not increase your DPS, it can save you from losing DPS.

Faster casting tricks
The matra for high damage is ABC: Always Be Casting. Any second you aren't casting is lost damage. Move only when necessary, and if you have to move use Arcane Barrage before your AB stack expires.
But also when you don't move, you're still losing time between your casts due to the latency between your computer and the WoW server. It's only a few dozen or hundred milliseconds, but boy does that add up quickly! Here's some tricks how to reduce the idle time between spells:

Be aware of lag gaps between your spells, and minimize them by all means:
Find out how to optimize your TCP connection for WoW. Bandwith doesn't matter, it's the response time that matters. Use Leatrix Latency Fix (or edit the Windows registry yourself) to set the TCP Acknowledge Frequency to 1 (ACK on each TCP packet), that will reduce your ping significantly.
Use Quarz or any other cast bar addon that shows the last latency measured. You can start casting the next spell as soon as the casting bar enters the latency area (when it does, the spell is supposed to be finished on the server, only your UI does not know about it yet due to the latency). It's rumored that even when you start a little too early casting the next spell it won't be lost but queued on the server, so you theoretically can do seamless chaincasting.
Don't mash the buttons. Klicking a keyboard button fires two events: pressed and released. Be aware that spell casting starts on the 'released' event. Pressing and releasing costs time (about 70-80 ms if you're fast), so when chaincasting press and hold the button in advance, so you only have to release it for the next cast.
The Snowfall KeyPress addon can help you casting faster, what it does is to trigger spells on KEY_PRESS instead of KEY_RELEASE events. Give it a try, you'll love it.

Disclaimer

Reading this guide while on a rollercoaster may cause dizzyness or motion sickness. Contents of this guide may settle during shipping. No gnomes were harmed during the production of this guide. Guide is written using 100% recycled electrons. May contain traces of peanuts, see details on reverse side.

If you think this guide is missing something important, or if you think you found a mistake, please tell me in the comments so I can keep this guide up-to-date, thanks!

Arcane Mage: Stats contribution

by Tachyon on Wed. 23. September 2009, 20:47

Filed under: arcane, spec, theorycrafting, analysis

In the previous article, we derived the formulas to calculate the DPS (Damage per Second) and DPM (Damage per Mana) for the two suggested new arcane rotations (covered in this article).

The formulas are based on the mage's spellpower, crit chance, hit chance and haste. In this article, we want to further split up those variables and show how they are calculated from your mage's stats (intellect, spirit, spellpower, crit/hit/haste rating), talents and glyphs (for arcane mages: Glyph of Molten Armor, Glyph of Arcane Blast, Glyph of Arcane Missiles).
Given those refined formulas, we can then investigate how much each stat contributes to the new spell rotations' DPS.

Stats conversion

Intellect
Intellect is increased by 15% by the Arcane Mind (5/5) talent:
effectiveIntellect := intellect * 1.15
Spirit
Spirit is increased by 10% by the Student of the Mind (3/3) talent:
effectiveSpirit := spirit * 1.1
Spellpower
Spellpower is increased by 15% of your intellect by the MindMastery 5/5 talent:
effectiveSpellpower := spellpower + effectiveIntellect * 0.15
Crit%
The base class crit chance for mages is 0.91%. Intellect will also increase your crit chance (by 1% every 166 2/3 int). The rest of your crit chance is determined by your crit rating (1% per 45.91 crit rating), whereas you get 55% of your spirit as additional crit rating if you use Molten Armor with its glyph (with 2pT9 bonus it would be even more). Crit% is capped at 100%, for obvious reasons.
crit% := min (1, 0.0091 + effectiveIntellect * 3 / 50000 + (critRating + spirit * 0.55) / 4591)
Hit%
Against boss targets (who are considered lvl 83), you have a 17% chance to miss with spells. Arcane Focus (3/3) increases your hit chance by 3%, and in any reasonable raiding scenario an additional 3% is contributed by a Shadow Priest (Misery debuff) or Balance Druid (Improved Faerie Fire debuff). Additional hit rating will grant you 1% hit per 26.23 rating, or 17% for 446 rating. Hit% is also capped at 100%.
hit%:= min(1, 0.83 + hitRating * 0.17 / 446 + 0.03 + 0.03)
Haste%
32.79 haste rating grants 1% haste, and from Netherwind Presence (3/3) you get an additional 6% haste.
haste%:= hasteRating / 3279 + 0.06

DPS per stat: Graphical analysis

To find out how much additional stats contribute to the DPS, we can start with a base set of stat values, calculate the base DPS for that stat combination using the DPS formulas, and calculate the relative DPS increase that results from increasing any of the stats individually. Details on the spell rotation used here can be found in this article.

For a basic poor mages' stat combination, I chose the following values:
500 intellect, 200 spirit, 1500 spellpower, 0 crit/hit/haste rating.

Chart: Relative DPS increase per additional stat value, A=0/B->Infinity rotation:

As you can see, hit rating proves to be the most important stat until the hit cap is reached; after that point it ceases to provide any more DPS.
We can now calculate the Spell Power Equivalent (SPE) value for each stat, which allows us to compare how much each stat is worth compared to 1 spellpower:

1 hit rating = 1.2280 spellpower
1 crit rating = 0.4917 spellpower
1 haste rating = 0.8250 spellpower
1 intellect = 0.3269 spellpower
1 spirit = 0.2975 spellpower

Those values vary depending on the given stat combination, but using the formulas above you should be able to do the math to find out the SPE values for your current gear.

Once you reach the hit cap, and your stats get better, the chart and SPE values will look a little different. As an example, here's the results for my current gear:
1170 intellect, 634 spirit, 2411 spellpower, 370 hit rating, 582 crit rating, 481 haste rating.

Chart: Relative DPS increase per additional stat value, A=0/B->Infinity rotation:

1 hit rating = 0.0000 spellpower
1 crit rating = 0.5659 spellpower
1 haste rating = 0.9828 spellpower
1 intellect = 0.3559 spellpower
1 spirit = 0.3424 spellpower

The chart for a A=4/B->Infinity rotation looks almost the same:

Chart: Relative DPS increase per additional stat value, A=4/B->Infinity rotation:

1 hit rating = 0.0000 spellpower
1 crit rating = 0.5663 spellpower
1 haste rating = 0.9983 spellpower
1 intellect = 0.3560 spellpower
1 spirit = 0.3426 spellpower

Here, additional hit rating is completely worthless, and haste rating has become worth as much as spellpower (in fact it will even become worth more that spellpower the better your overall stats are).

For more accurate results, you can try to take all raid buffs into account and inject them in the formulas, or use your raid buffed stats as an input.
The aim of the formulas is to give you a tool to do some quick analyses and comparisons, but keep in mind that they cannot be as accurate as a simulated scenario which also takes raid buff uptimes, trinkets, movement, lag, input delay and different encounter lengths into account.

Oh, and thanks to Google for their wonderful and well-documented Chart API, which I used for the charts here and intend to use from now on whenever suitable

Arcane 3.2.2 Theorycrafting

by Tachyon on Wed. 23. September 2009, 00:58

Filed under: arcane, spec, theorycrafting

Last time we analyzed the impact that the patch 3.2.2 Arcane Mage Changes have on the spell rotations with the help of a simulation program I wrote. The simulation casts spells, rolls dice and can do dynamic decisions on what spell to cast next based on a casting strategy.
Using a simulation to gain numerical results of different casting strategies is like employing Monte Carlo Integration to integrate multidimensional functions: it's plain simple, reliable and leads to accurate results, but takes a long time.

The simulation provides only numerical solutions, so you'd have to test different scenarios one-by-one, which isn't very efficient.

In this article, we will derive the theorycrafting formulas to calculate the DPS and DPM for the two recommended spell rotations I introduced in the last article, to be able to calculate the DPS and DPM for any scenario directly. This not only saves us time (direct calculation vs. approximating using simulation), but gives you a tool to do the calculations yourself without me having to publish my simulation program. Furthermore, we can use the formulas to observe the results we get when tweaking with the input (in fact that will be the topic of the next article, where we observe how much the mage's stats contribute to the DPS and DPM for those rotations).

Just for completeness, here are the two recommended spell rotations for 3.2.2+:

Recommended optimal rotation: A=0, B->Infinity
Spam Arcane Blast, use Missile Barrage as soon as it procs
Recommended high/burst DPS rotation: A=4, B->Infinity
Spam Arcane Blast, use Missile Barrage when it procs and AB is fully stacked (4 stacks).

Both rotations only consist of a sequence of AB (Arcane Blast) casts followed by Arcane Missiles on a MBarr (Missile Barrage) proc. This simplifies things a lot, as there are only two spells we have to investigate: AM and MBarr.

Average damage per spell

The noncrit damage of a spell is the average base damage plus the spellpower times the spell power coefficient, times any spell multipliers:
dmgNoncrit := (( baseDmgMin + baseDmgMax) / 2 + spellpower * coefficient ) * multiplier
The average damage is the chance of a notcrit-hit times the noncrit damage plus the chance of a crit times the crit damage. The crit damage is the noncrit damage times the crit multiplier:
avgDmg := hit% * ((1 - crit%) * noncritDmg + crit% * noncritDmg * critMultiplier
When we combine the formulas and simplify them, we get:

avgDmg := hit% * ((( baseDmgMin + baseDmgMax) / 2 + spellpower * coefficient ) * multiplier* (1 + crit% (critMultiplier -1)))

The multiplier for all arcane spells is 1.03 * 1.12 (3% from Arcane Instability and 12% from Torment The Weak). Spellpower, Hit% and Haste% are equal for both spells, only the Crit% is different as AB gets an additional 6% from Incineration 3/3.

The base damage, cast time, mana and spell power coefficient are spell-specific:

Arcane Blast:

Base Damage: 1185-1377
Cast Time: 2.5 sec
Mana: 215
Spell Power Coefficient: 2.5/3.5+0.09 = 80.42857143%
Crit Multiplier: 1+(((1.5*1.03)-1)*(1+0.5)) = 1.8175 (with CSD metagem)

Missile Barrage (Arcane Missiles):

Base Damage: 360-361 x 5
Cast Time: 2.5 sec (half the time of AM)
Mana: 0 (free AM on MBarr proc)
Spell Power Coefficient: 5/3.5+0.45 = 187.8571429%
Crit Multiplier: 1+(((1.5*(1+0.03))-1)*(1+0.5+0.25)) = 1.95375 (with CSD metagem & AM glyph)

Missile Barrage proc chance

Arcane Blast has a chance of 40% to proc Missile Barrage, which lets you cast your next Arcane Missiles in half the casttime. The chance that it didn't proc is therefore 60%, and the chance that it procs on your next AB is 40% of that, which is 60%*40%=24%. The probability that it doesn't proc after ABxN is 0.6^n, and for each subsequent AB the chances are split again in this 40%/60% ratio.
The MBarr proc chance on the n-th AB cast are therefore:
procChance(n):=0.4*(1-0.4)^(n-1), for n>0, with procChance(0):=0
ABxN-MBarr cast sequences

For a cast sequence that consist of n x Arcane Blast followed by Missile Barrage, we get following formulas for the damage, cast time and mana cost:

damage(n) := sum(dmgAB*(1+0.18*min(x, 4)), x=0..n-1)+dmgMBarr*(1+0.18*min(n, 4))

casttime(n) := n*casttimeAB+casttimeMBarr

mana(n) := sum(manaAB*(1+1.75*min(x, 4)), x=0..n-1)+manaMBarr

For the damage calculation, we took the Arcane Blast glyph into account, which increases the damage for the next arcane spell by another 3% (from 15% to 18%) per AB stack.

Weighting the rotations

We've now got the formulas to calcuate the average damage for AB and MBarr, and we can even calculate the total damage, mana and casttime for a given ABxNMBarr rotation. The number of ABs we cast before we cast MBarr is very dynamic, as both suggested rotations cast an unlimited number of Arcane Blasts in a row until Missile Barrage procs. To calculate the overall DPS and DPM, we have to calculate the DPS and DPM for any possible ABxNMBarr rotation and weight them with the probability they occur:

A=0, B->Infinity rotation (optimal DPS/DPM):

DPS := sum(damage(n)*procChance(n), n=1..infinity)/sum(casttime(n)*procChance(n), n=1..infinity)



DPM := sum(damage(n)*procChance(n), n=1..infinity)/sum(mana(n)*procChance(n), n=1..infinity)

As the terms for larger values of n quickly become insignificant (for n>26 its under 1:1000000, for n>39 under 1:1000000000), we can approximate the sums with a large non-finite value (I used 100, which more than suffices) to simplify the formulas significantly. Approximated formulas:

DPS := (3.08752*dmgAB+1.39168*dmgMBarr)/(2.5*casttimeAB+casttimeMBarr)

DPM := (3.08752*dmgAB+1.39168*dmgMBarr)/(8.212*manaAB)

A=4, B->Infinity rotation (high DPS):

DPS := (damage(4)*sum(procChance(n), n=1..4)+sum(damage(n)*procChance(n), n=5..infinity))/(casttime(4)*sum(procChance(n), n=1..4)+sum(casttime(n)*procChance(n), n=5..infinity))



DPM := (damage(4)*sum(procChance(n), n=1..4)+sum(damage(n)*procChance(n), n=5..infinity))/(mana(4)*sum(procChance(n), n=1..4)+sum(mana(n)*procChance(n), n=5..infinity))

Approximated formulas:

DPS := (5.63728*dmgAB+1.72*dmgMBarr)/(4.324*casttimeAB+casttimeMBarr)

DPM := (5.63728*dmgAB+1.72*dmgMBarr)/(17.092*manaAB)

Given any combination of spellpower, hit%, crit% and haste% we're now able to calculate the DPS, DPM and Mana/sec (which is DPS divided by DPM) for both rotations. I intentionally refrained from cramming all the individual formulas into the final DPS/DPM formulas to keep them plain and simple.

The next article will introduce the conversion formulas needed to calculate the spellpower, hit%, crit% and haste% using the mage's stats (spellpower, intellect, spirit, hit/crit/haste rating) and arcane talents, to complete the toolset of arcane theorycrafting formulas.

3.2.2 Arcane Mage Changes

by Tachyon on Thu. 10. September 2009, 21:04

Filed under: arcane, patch, spell, simulation, theorycrafting

Arcane is facing some cool new changes in the upcoming patch 3.2.2 which can be tested on the PTR since quite some weeks and could go live any moment (or in a couple of weeks, who knows).

EDIT 2009-09-15: The mana cost for subsequent AB casts has been raised to 175%/stack in the latest PTR build (was 130%/stack in the first 3.2.2 build), therefore I updated the numbers and my conclusions.

Arcane Blast: The buff from using this ability now stacks up to 4 times (instead of 3), and each application increases mana cost by 175% (instead of 200%).
Missile Barrage: The effect from triggering this talent now removes the mana cost of Arcane Missiles. In addition, the chance for Arcane Blast to trigger this talent is now 8/16/24/32/40%. All other listed spells continue to have a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to trigger it.

The overall DPS wasn't increased all that much, but what really sticks out is the mana efficiency which suddenly makes this spec viable for raiding again, and indirectly boosts the DPS by allowing to run the mana exhausting high DPS rotations for a little longer.

Given the new circumstances, you might now wonder what the preferred DPS or DPM rotations will be once the patch goes live.

Once again I will use the simulation program I wrote for the Going Arcane article series ( part 1, part 2 and part 3) for a detailled anaysis and comparison of possible spell rotation strategies.
For the 3.2.2 spell rotation analysis, I slightly modified the base stats used for the simulation:

3000 Spell Power (used to be 2000)
Hit capped, (100% Spell Hit, same as before)
20% Spell Haste before talents (used to be 10%)
50% Spell Crit including CSD (used to be 35%)
removed 4xT7 set bonus for the calculation

The simulation yields following results for cast sequences:

Rotation	Damage	Time	DPS	Mana	DPM	Mana/sec
ABx1	8195.000	1.984	4130.280	215.000	38.120	108.360
ABx2	17866.000	3.968	4502.230	806.000	22.170	203.112
ABx3	15962.000	5.952	2681.620	1773.000	9.000	297.864
ABx4	32270.000	7.937	4066.020	3116.000	10.360	392.616
ABx5	55730.000	9.921	5617.580	4836.000	11.520	487.469
ABx10	109847.000	19.841	5536.290	13436.000	8.180	677.174
ABx100000	1151280132.000	198412.698	5802.450	171996236.000	6.690	866.861

ABarr	6673.000	1.190	5605.320	553.000	12.070	464.520
ABx1, ABarr	12527.000	3.175	3946.000	768.000	16.310	241.920
ABx2, ABarr	22859.000	5.159	4431.130	1359.000	16.820	263.437
ABx3, ABarr	21616.000	7.143	3026.240	2326.000	9.290	325.640
ABx4, ABarr	47434.000	9.127	5197.120	3669.000	12.930	401.995
ABx5, ABarr	45677.000	11.111	4110.930	5389.000	8.480	485.010

Mbarr	16758.000	1.984	8446.030	0.000	∞	0.000
ABx1, Mbarr	14630.000	3.968	3686.760	215.000	68.050	54.180
ABx2, Mbarr	40658.000	5.952	6830.540	806.000	50.440	135.408
ABx3, Mbarr	51134.000	7.937	6442.880	1773.000	28.840	223.398
ABx4, Mbarr	70458.000	9.921	7102.170	3116.000	22.610	314.093
ABx5, Mbarr	76519.000	11.905	6427.600	4836.000	15.820	406.224

AM	16758.000	3.968	4223.020	952.000	17.600	239.904
ABx1, AM	27970.000	5.952	4698.960	1167.000	23.970	196.056
ABx2, AM	36972.000	7.937	4658.470	1758.000	21.030	221.508
ABx3, AM	34185.000	9.921	3445.850	2725.000	12.540	274.680
ABx4, AM	70458.000	11.905	5918.470	4068.000	17.320	341.712
ABx5, AM	73864.000	13.889	5318.210	5788.000	12.760	416.736

3.2.2 Spell Rotations

For the spell rotation strategy, the same generic model as pre-3.2.2 was used:

If Missile Barrage procced, use it after at least A subsequent Arcane Blast casts
If Missile Barrage didn't proc after B subsequent Arcane Blast casts, cast Arcane Barrage instead

The following data is the result of running the simulation with 1'000'000 casts for each casting strategy (A, B):

.	A=0	A=1	A=2	A=3	A=4	A=5
B=0	4941 DPS 14.19 DPM -10.89% DPS -16.92% DPM	4864 DPS 16.19 DPM -12.29% DPS -5.21% DPM	4904 DPS 16.34 DPM -11.55% DPS -4.33% DPM	5031 DPS 15.4 DPM -9.27% DPS -9.84% DPM	5217 DPS 13.37 DPM -5.91% DPS -21.72% DPM	5278 DPS 11.98 DPM -4.80% DPS -29.86% DPM
B=1	4836 DPS 32.92 DPM -12.78% DPS +92.74% DPM	4821 DPS 33.41 DPM -13.05% DPS +95.61% DPM	4891 DPS 27.79 DPM -11.79% DPS +62.70% DPM	5038 DPS 21.98 DPM -9.14% DPS +28.69% DPM	5241 DPS 17.41 DPM -5.48% DPS +1.93% DPM	5317 DPS 13.73 DPM -4.11% DPS -19.61% DPM
B=2	5031 DPS 32.83 DPM -9.28% DPS +92.21% DPM	5017 DPS 32.99 DPM -9.52% DPS +93.15% DPM	5037 DPS 28.89 DPM -9.16% DPS +69.15% DPM	5173 DPS 22.17 DPM -6.71% DPS +29.80% DPM	5363 DPS 17.5 DPM -3.27% DPS +2.46% DPM	5429 DPS 13.76 DPM -2.10% DPS -19.44% DPM
B=3	5216 DPS 29.13 DPM -5.92% DPS +70.55% DPM	5203 DPS 29.2 DPM -6.16% DPS +70.96% DPM	5195 DPS 26.82 DPM -6.32% DPS +57.03% DPM	5293 DPS 21.8 DPM -4.54% DPS +27.63% DPM	5469 DPS 17.23 DPM -1.37% DPS +0.88% DPM	5524 DPS 13.57 DPM -0.38% DPS -20.55% DPM
B=4	5364 DPS 26.24 DPM -3.26% DPS +53.63% DPM	5356 DPS 26.24 DPM -3.41% DPS +53.63% DPM	5332 DPS 24.83 DPM -3.84% DPS +45.37% DPM	5394 DPS 20.94 DPM -2.72% DPS +22.60% DPM	5548 DPS 17.09 DPM +0.00% DPS +0.00% DPM	5589 DPS 13.44 DPM +0.79% DPS -21.31% DPM
B=5	5442 DPS 24.11 DPM -1.86% DPS +41.16% DPM	5441 DPS 24.23 DPM -1.87% DPS +41.86% DPM	5409 DPS 23.19 DPM -2.45% DPS +35.77% DPM	5461 DPS 20.11 DPM -1.51% DPS +17.74% DPM	5601 DPS 16.76 DPM +1.01% DPS -1.87% DPM	5587 DPS 13.44 DPM +0.77% DPS -21.31% DPM
B=6	5493 DPS 23.17 DPM -0.94% DPS +35.66% DPM	5491 DPS 23.16 DPM -0.98% DPS +35.60% DPM	5451 DPS 22.37 DPM -1.69% DPS +30.97% DPM	5497 DPS 19.69 DPM -0.86% DPS +15.28% DPM	5628 DPS 16.56 DPM +1.50% DPS -3.04% DPM	5631 DPS 13.35 DPM +1.55% DPS -21.84% DPM
B=7	5524 DPS 22.57 DPM -0.37% DPS +32.14% DPM	5518 DPS 22.6 DPM -0.48% DPS +32.32% DPM	5477 DPS 21.92 DPM -1.22% DPS +28.34% DPM	5518 DPS 19.45 DPM -0.48% DPS +13.88% DPM	5647 DPS 16.48 DPM +1.83% DPS -3.51% DPM	5656 DPS 13.31 DPM +2.00% DPS -22.07% DPM
B=8	5537 DPS 22.3 DPM -0.15% DPS +30.56% DPM	5536 DPS 22.33 DPM -0.15% DPS +30.74% DPM	5499 DPS 21.72 DPM -0.83% DPS +27.17% DPM	5529 DPS 19.29 DPM -0.29% DPS +12.94% DPM	5658 DPS 16.4 DPM +2.04% DPS -3.98% DPM	5669 DPS 13.28 DPM +2.23% DPS -22.25% DPM
B=infinite	5560 DPS 21.88 DPM +0.27% DPS +28.10% DPM	5561 DPS 21.94 DPM +0.29% DPS +28.45% DPM	5519 DPS 21.28 DPM -0.46% DPS +24.59% DPM	5549 DPS 19.1 DPM +0.07% DPS +11.83% DPM	5669 DPS 16.3 DPM +2.24% DPS -4.57% DPM	5689 DPS 13.24 DPM +2.60% DPS -22.48% DPM

Color legend:

Black: Base rotation used as reference: ABx4, (MBarr|ABarr)
Gray: Rotation for which another rotation with better DPS and DPM exists
Blue: Rotation with more DPS than base rotation.
Green: Rotation with more DPM than base rotation.
Blue-green: Rotation with more DPS and more DPM than base rotation.
Red: Bad rotation, worse DPS and DPM than base rotation

Optimal DPM rotations ( green, blue-green)

In the table above, the most efficient rotations mana-wise are those with A=0-1 and B=2..infinity. The Mana burn ratio (which is DPS/DPM) is about 254 Mana/sec*, which should be sustainable in a raid scenario.

For B=2, A=0..1 (use ABarr to clear the AB stack if MBarr didn't proc after 2xAB, and use the MBarr as soon as it procs) you can increase the Damage per Mana by over 90% at the cost of only ~9.5% less DPS compared to the base rotation. The Mana burn ratio is about 154Mana/sec*, which can be kept up even for long fights.
If you never use ABarr to clear the AB stack but just cast AM until MBarr procs and then use MBarr as soon as possible, you still have a very efficient DPS/DPM rotation.

Recommended optimal rotation: A=0, B->Infinity

Spam Arcane Blast, use Missile Barrage as soon as it procs

Recommended DPM/recovery rotation: A=0, B->2..5

Spam Arcane Blast, use Missile Barrage as soon as it procs. If no procs occur after 2..5 AB stacks, clear the stack with Arcane Barrage.

High/Burst DPS rotations ( blue)

The best DPS rotations are found when saving the MBarr proc until you have AB fully stacked (4 stacks). The later you give up fishing for a proc and clear the stack with ABarr (or AM), the higher the DPS, but the higher the mana cost. With A=4, B->Infinity, the Mana burn ratio is about 350 Mana/sec* which is rather high, but with Evocation every 2 minutes you should hardly run into mana problems.

Recommended high/burst DPS rotation: A=4, B->Infinity

Spam Arcane Blast, use Missile Barrage when it procs and AB is fully stacked (4 stacks).

* = Mana/sec values without taking Clearcast or Arcane Power into account

All in all we can be very happy with the arcane changes, for once Blizzard managed to boost them for PvE only without making them overpowered in PvP (not that we wouldn't need that, though).

If you have any questions, or want to share your experiences with the new arcane rotations, please drop me a comment, I'd appreciate that.

Arcane Rotations - Numbers updated for 3.2

by Tachyon on Wed. 22. July 2009, 18:14

Filed under: arcane, theorycrafting, simulation

I didn't blog for quite some time now (due to summer vacations and me generally don't playing my mage so much apart from the Ulduar raids, which I try to participate in as much as my time allows), so I thought I owe you at least an update to my arcane theorycrafting stuff for the minor changes that brings the new 3.2 patch. I got some other articles in the queue (equiment planning tips), that I intend to publish in the near future.

The upcoming content patch 3.2 will reduce the mana cost of Arcane Blast from 8% to 7% of your base mana (that's a plain 12.5% reduction).

Whilst this doesn't affect the DPS directly, indirectly Arcane becomes more viable in mana-demainding encounters, and in all other situations we can afford the higher DPS/mana rotations a little easier to crank up our DPS.

To update the arcane spell rotation tables I adapted and run the simulation once more. Here are the results for patch 3.2:

Rotation	Damage	Time	DPS	Mana	DPM	Mana/sec
ABx1	4968.000	2.155	2305.150	215.000	23.110	99.760
ABx2	10830.000	4.310	2512.560	860.000	12.590	199.520
ABx3	17586.000	6.466	2719.970	1935.000	9.090	299.280
ABx4	25236.000	8.621	2927.380	3440.000	7.340	399.040
ABx5	32886.000	10.776	3051.820	4945.000	6.650	458.896
ABx10	71136.000	21.552	3300.710	12470.000	5.700	578.608
ABx100000	764994636.000	215517.241	3549.580	150497420.000	5.080	698.308

ABx0, ABarr	3762.000	1.293	2909.280	553.000	6.800	427.653
ABx1, ABarr	9407.000	3.448	2728.030	768.000	12.250	222.720
ABx2, ABarr	15946.000	5.603	2845.750	1413.000	11.290	252.166
ABx3, ABarr	23379.000	7.759	3013.290	2488.000	9.400	320.676
ABx4, ABarr	31029.000	9.914	3129.880	3993.000	7.770	402.772
ABx5, ABarr	38679.000	12.069	3204.830	5498.000	7.040	455.549

ABx0, Mbarr	8812.000	2.155	4088.770	952.000	9.260	441.728
ABx1, Mbarr	15367.000	4.310	3565.140	1167.000	13.170	270.744
ABx2, Mbarr	22815.000	6.466	3528.720	1812.000	12.590	280.256
ABx3, Mbarr	31157.000	8.621	3614.210	2887.000	10.790	334.892
ABx4, Mbarr	38807.000	10.776	3601.290	4392.000	8.840	407.578
ABx5, Mbarr	46457.000	12.931	3592.670	5897.000	7.880	456.035

ABx0, AM	8812.000	4.310	2044.380	952.000	9.260	220.864
ABx1, AM	15367.000	6.466	2376.760	1167.000	13.170	180.496
ABx2, AM	22815.000	8.621	2646.540	1812.000	12.590	210.192
ABx3, AM	31157.000	10.776	2891.370	2887.000	10.790	267.914
ABx4, AM	38807.000	12.931	3001.070	4392.000	8.840	339.648
ABx5, AM	46457.000	15.086	3079.440	5897.000	7.880	390.887

Dynamic Arcane Rotations:

Just for completeness (the details can be found in Going Arcane Part 3 - Spell Rotations), here's the generic pattern of spell rotations I suggested:

If Missile Barrage procced, use it after at least A subsequent Arcane Blast casts
If Missile Barrage didn't proc after B subsequent Arcane Blast casts, cast Arcane Barrage instead

.	A=0	A=1	A=2	A=3	A=4	A=5
B=0	-4.38% DPS -27.09% DPM	-5.35% DPS -14.72% DPM	-3.92% DPS -10.70% DPM	-1.13% DPS -13.25% DPM	-0.26% DPS -21.00% DPM	+0.43% DPS -26.01% DPM
B=1	-9.61% DPS +17.86% DPM	-9.59% DPS +23.85% DPM	-7.63% DPS +21.98% DPM	-4.56% DPS +11.19% DPM	-3.34% DPS -3.93% DPM	-2.37% DPS -13.05% DPM
B=2	-6.40% DPS +14.33% DPM	-6.56% DPS +17.57% DPM	-5.53% DPS +17.08% DPM	-2.68% DPS +7.75% DPM	-1.67% DPS -6.18% DPM	-0.84% DPS -14.72% DPM
B=3	-2.15% DPS +2.26% DPM	-2.32% DPS +4.12% DPM	-1.92% DPS +4.81% DPM	+0.00% DPS +0.00% DPM	+0.75% DPS -11.48% DPM	+1.32% DPS -18.74% DPM
B=4	+0.60% DPS -9.72% DPM	+0.40% DPS -8.54% DPM	+0.59% DPS -7.26% DPM	+2.01% DPS -9.42% DPM	+2.44% DPS -16.98% DPM	+2.82% DPS -22.96% DPM
B=5	+2.33% DPS -15.60% DPM	+2.15% DPS -14.72% DPM	+2.21% DPS -13.54% DPM	+3.31% DPS -14.62% DPM	+3.58% DPS -20.31% DPM	+3.84% DPS -25.12% DPM
B=6	+3.46% DPS -19.04% DPM	+3.33% DPS -18.45% DPM	+3.30% DPS -17.27% DPM	+4.25% DPS -17.86% DPM	+4.40% DPS -22.47% DPM	+4.59% DPS -26.50% DPM

The suggested strategy remains more or less the same:

If Missile Barrage procs, use it when you have 2-3 stacks of the Arcane Blast debuff. If you have the 4xT8 set bonus, you probably want to already cast MBarr with 2 stacks, so your procs can occurr more often (gotta test that)
Arcane Barrage is used to clear the AB debuff when MBarr doesn't proc after 2 (mana saving), 3 or 4+ (more DPS) subsequent Arcane Blast casts.

Oh, and big /love to l2dps.com and wow.com (they got new hidden class guides sections, thanks Utada for the hint) for linking my site and feeding me some readers, I really appreciate that!

Going Arcane, Part 3 - Spell Rotations

by Tachyon on Fri. 20. February 2009, 00:22

Filed under: arcane, spec, raiding, dps, patch, theorycrafting

UPDATE FOR 3.2.2:
For an updated spell rotation analysis for patch 3.2.2+ see 3.2.2 Arcane Mage Changes or Tachyon's Arcane Mage Guide for 3.2.2.

In part 2 of this series, we introduced the theorycrafting basics to calculate the average DPS for the single target arcane spells, as well as the DPM. Now let's look into possible spell rotations.

The arcane spec allows to dynamically tweak the DPS/DPM depending on how many subsequent Arcane Blasts are cast.

The Arcane Blast debuff

Remember that Arcane Blast applies a stackable debuff (up to 3 times), which increases the damage of the next arcane spell by 15% (18% with the Arcane Blast glyph) per stack, but also increases the mana cost of the next Arcane Blast by 200%.
Casting Arcane Missiles or Arcane Barrage will consume that buff and thus reset the stack. Note also that those spells will profit from the increased damage, but will not get a mana penalty.

Arcane Blast, 1 stack: increases damage by 18%, next AB costs 3x its base mana
Arcane Blast, 2 stacks: increases damage by 36%, next AB costs 5x its base mana
Arcane Blast, 3 stacks: increases damage by 54%, next AB costs 7x its base mana

Being to lazy to do all the calculations in a spreadsheet, I wrote a small simulation program in Java instead. Here's the outcome:

DPS/DPM for arcane cast sequences

Rotation	Damage	Time	DPS	Mana	DPM	Mana/sec
ABx1	4968.000	2.155	2305.150	245.000	20.280	113.680
ABx2	10830.000	4.310	2512.560	980.000	11.050	227.360
ABx3	17586.000	6.466	2719.970	2205.000	7.980	341.040
ABx4	25236.000	8.621	2927.380	3920.000	6.440	454.720
ABx5	32886.000	10.776	3051.820	5635.000	5.840	522.928
ABx10	71136.000	21.552	3300.710	14210.000	5.010	659.344
ABx100000	764994636.000	215517.241	3549.580	171497060.000	4.460	795.746

ABx0, ABarr	3762.000	1.293	2909.280	553.000	6.800	427.653
ABx1, ABarr	9407.000	3.448	2728.030	798.000	11.790	231.420
ABx2, ABarr	15946.000	5.603	2845.750	1533.000	10.400	273.582
ABx3, ABarr	23379.000	7.759	3013.290	2758.000	8.480	355.476
ABx4, ABarr	31029.000	9.914	3129.880	4473.000	6.940	451.190
ABx5, ABarr	38679.000	12.069	3204.830	6188.000	6.250	512.720

ABx0, Mbarr	8812.000	2.155	4088.770	952.000	9.260	441.728
ABx1, Mbarr	15367.000	4.310	3565.140	1197.000	12.840	277.704
ABx2, Mbarr	22815.000	6.466	3528.720	1932.000	11.810	298.816
ABx3, Mbarr	31157.000	8.621	3614.210	3157.000	9.870	366.212
ABx4, Mbarr	38807.000	10.776	3601.290	4872.000	7.970	452.122
ABx5, Mbarr	46457.000	12.931	3592.670	6587.000	7.050	509.395

ABx0, AM	8812.000	4.310	2044.380	952.000	9.260	220.864
ABx1, AM	15367.000	6.466	2376.760	1197.000	12.840	185.136
ABx2, AM	22815.000	8.621	2646.540	1932.000	11.810	224.112
ABx3, AM	31157.000	10.776	2891.370	3157.000	9.870	292.970
ABx4, AM	38807.000	12.931	3001.070	4872.000	7.970	376.768
ABx5, AM	46457.000	15.086	3079.440	6587.000	7.050	436.624

(AB = Arcane Blast, ABxN = N subsequent AB casts (max. 3 stacks), ABarr = Arcane Barrage, AM = Arcane Missiles, MBarr = AM cast on Missile Barrage)

A first approach towards a new cast sequence

According to these results, you get the highest DPS cycle when using Missile Barrage procs as early as possible. Arcane Missiles however should never be cast without Missile Barrage procs, the DPS is just not competitive without it.

So my first approach (Rotation_Tachyon)was following:

Cast AM when MBarr procs, no mater how many stacks of AB you have
Otherwise cast AB, stack maximally to 3, then use ABarr if MBarr didn't proc

Running the simulation with this rotation (1'000'000 spells cast) resulted in:
Rotation_Tachyon: 3279.46 DPS, 9.58 DPM

Then I wanted to compare this to the classic rotation:

Cast AB until you have 3 stacks
Cast AM if MBarr procced, otherwise cast ABarr

Rotation_Classic: 3351.04 DPS, 9.27 DPM

To my surprise, the classic rotation still had slightly more DPS. This is confusing, as the rotation involved less MBarr procs than the first rotation. I'd have expected to see higher DPS when using more of the high DPS sequences, but obviously that was not the case. To explain this effect, it's crucial to know how to calculate the DPS/DPM of mixed rotations.

Spell rotation: DPS/DPM of mixed cast sequences

The best cast sequence above, ABx0,Mbarr is only sustained for a very short time, so it contributes less to the overall DPS than other rotations which have a longer run time.

The total DPS contribution of a cast sequence is therefore to be weighted by the length of the sequence, the DPS during that lenght, and the probability you are casting it.
DPS := sum(DPS[i]*t[i]*p[i]) / sum(t[i]*p[i])
where DPS[i] is the DPS of Sequence_i, t[i] is the cast time of Sequence_i, and p is the probability (or percentage of times) we use Sequence_i.

To determine the probabilities, the simulation comes to aid again. Results:

RotationTachyon:

ABx3, ABarr 46.5139%

ABx1, MBarr 18.0682%

ABx2, MBarr 14.4659%

ABx3, MBarr 11.6308%

ABx0, MBarr 9.3213%

RotationClassic:

ABx3, MBarr: 53.5976%

ABx3, ABarr: 46.4024%

The calculated weighted DPS matches the results of the simulated DPS, so you can take that formula along with the probabilities as given fact for your own theorycrafting calculations.

In conclusion, the best approach is to use the longest cast sequences that give you good DPS without wasting too much mana, as they often contribute more to the effective DPS than short cast sequences with slightly higher DPS.

Generic pattern of arcane rotations

Basically, every arcane rotation follows the same pattern:

If Missile Barrage procced, use it after at least A subsequent Arcane Blast casts
If Missile Barrage didn't proc after B subsequent Arcane Blast casts, cast Arcane Barrage instead

There are two paramenters in there, A and B. My suggested rotation was A=0,B=3, while the classic rotation is A=3,B=3.

Using the simulation, I calculated the DPS and DPM for the configurations A=0..6, B=0..6, and here's the result:

.	A=0	A=1	A=2	A=3	A=4	A=5
B=0	3204 DPS 7.43 DPM	3171 DPS 8.62 DPM	3219 DPS 8.86 DPM	3312 DPS 8.44 DPM	3343 DPS 7.55 DPM	3366 DPS 6.98 DPM
B=1	3028 DPS 11.66 DPM	3029 DPS 12.21 DPM	3095 DPS 11.8 DPM	3196 DPS 10.56 DPM	3238 DPS 8.99 DPM	3271 DPS 8.06 DPM
B=2	3136 DPS 10.93 DPM	3132 DPS 11.23 DPM	3165 DPS 11.09 DPM	3262 DPS 10.08 DPM	3296 DPS 8.67 DPM	3321 DPS 7.84 DPM
B=3	3278 DPS 9.58 DPM	3272 DPS 9.75 DPM	3286 DPS 9.78 DPM	3351 DPS 9.27 DPM	3374 DPS 8.13 DPM	3394 DPS 7.43 DPM
B=4	3371 DPS 8.36 DPM	3363 DPS 8.47 DPM	3370 DPS 8.56 DPM	3417 DPS 8.34 DPM	3432 DPS 7.6 DPM	3445 DPS 7.02 DPM
B=5	3428 DPS 7.78 DPM	3422 DPS 7.85 DPM	3425 DPS 7.96 DPM	3462 DPS 7.83 DPM	3470 DPS 7.27 DPM	3479 DPS 6.82 DPM
B=6	3467 DPS 7.44 DPM	3462 DPS 7.49 DPM	3462 DPS 7.59 DPM	3493 DPS 7.52 DPM	3498 DPS 7.07 DPM	3503 DPS 6.68 DPM
B=7	3493 DPS 7.22 DPM	3489 DPS 7.26 DPM	3488 DPS 7.36 DPM	3516 DPS 7.32 DPM	3518 DPS 6.92 DPM	3521 DPS 6.58 DPM
B=8	3513 DPS 7.08 DPM	3510 DPS 7.1 DPM	3508 DPS 7.21 DPM	3532 DPS 7.17 DPM	3534 DPS 6.83 DPM	3535 DPS 6.51 DPM
B=9	3527 DPS 6.97 DPM	3525 DPS 6.99 DPM	3521 DPS 7.08 DPM	3545 DPS 7.06 DPM	3546 DPS 6.76 DPM	3546 DPS 6.46 DPM

In the table above, I grayed out every rotation for which there is a better (more DPS and more DPM) alternative rotation in the table. The remaining rotations have either better DPS or better DPM than any other rotation in the table.

To put the result in a more relative context, let's take the classic rotation (A=3, B=3) as a base (100%) and compare the relative differences:

.	A=0	A=1	A=2	A=3	A=4	A=5
B=0	-4.4% DPS -19.8% DPM	-5.4% DPS -7.0% DPM	-3.9% DPS -4.4% DPM	-1.2% DPS -9.0% DPM	-0.2% DPS -18.6% DPM	+0.5% DPS -24.7% DPM
B=1	-9.6% DPS +25.8% DPM	-9.6% DPS +31.7% DPM	-7.6% DPS +27.3% DPM	-4.6% DPS +13.9% DPM	-3.3% DPS -3.0% DPM	-2.4% DPS -13.1% DPM
B=2	-6.4% DPS +17.9% DPM	-6.5% DPS +21.1% DPM	-5.5% DPS +19.6% DPM	-2.6% DPS +8.7% DPM	-1.6% DPS -6.5% DPM	-0.9% DPS -15.4% DPM
B=3	-2.2% DPS +3.3% DPM	-2.4% DPS +5.2% DPM	-1.9% DPS +5.5% DPM	+0.0% DPS +0.0% DPM	+0.7% DPS -12.3% DPM	+1.3% DPS -19.8% DPM
B=4	+0.6% DPS -9.8% DPM	+0.4% DPS -8.6% DPM	+0.6% DPS -7.7% DPM	+2.0% DPS -10.0% DPM	+2.4% DPS -18.0% DPM	+2.8% DPS -24.3% DPM
B=5	+2.3% DPS -16.1% DPM	+2.1% DPS -15.3% DPM	+2.2% DPS -14.1% DPM	+3.3% DPS -15.5% DPM	+3.6% DPS -21.6% DPM	+3.8% DPS -26.4% DPM
B=6	+3.5% DPS -19.7% DPM	+3.3% DPS -19.2% DPM	+3.3% DPS -18.1% DPM	+4.3% DPS -18.9% DPM	+4.4% DPS -23.7% DPM	+4.5% DPS -27.9% DPM
B=7	+4.3% DPS -22.1% DPM	+4.1% DPS -21.7% DPM	+4.1% DPS -20.6% DPM	+5.0% DPS -21.0% DPM	+5.0% DPS -25.4% DPM	+5.1% DPS -29.0% DPM
B=8	+4.9% DPS -23.6% DPM	+4.8% DPS -23.4% DPM	+4.7% DPS -22.2% DPM	+5.4% DPS -22.7% DPM	+5.5% DPS -26.3% DPM	+5.5% DPS -29.8% DPM
B=9	+5.3% DPS -24.8% DPM	+5.2% DPS -24.6% DPM	+5.1% DPS -23.6% DPM	+5.8% DPS -23.8% DPM	+5.8% DPS -27.1% DPM	+5.8% DPS -30.3% DPM

Again, the grayed out rotations are to be avoided since there is a better alternative rotation with higher DPS and DPM.
The blue colored rotations are the ones with higher DPS, and the green colored rotations have a higher DPM ratio that the classic rotation. The red ones have less DPS and less DPM, so they should be avoided at any cost.

As a comparison, that's what you get with chain-spamming Arcane Blasts: 3549.58 DPS, 4.46 DPM.

Looks like the optimal path is to use the Missile Barrage proc only with the maximum Arcane Blast (3) stack, and to cast at least one Arcane Blast before using Arcane Barrage. The more subsequent Arcane Blast casts you can afford to wait hoping for a Missile Barrage proc, the higher the DPS, but the lower the DPM.
This path is always efficient, because there is no other alternative path that would yield more DPS for a higher DPM ratio.

So here's my recommended rotation:

DPS/Burst:

If Missile Barrage procced, use it only with a full Arcane Blast (3) stack
Otherwise keep casting Arcane Blast, hoping for a Missile Barrage proc. Use Arcane Barrage to reset your stack as soon as you think you're using too much mana.

DPM/Recovering:

If Missile Barrage procced, use it not before having stacked the Arcane Blast debuff to 2-3
Cast no more than 3 subsequent Arcane Blasts. Reset the stack with Arcane Barrage if Missile Barrage don't procs.

That's all folks, I hope my calculations aren't too far off, and remember that your mileage may vary, as always

Going Arcane, Part 2 - Therorycrafting Basics

by Tachyon on Wed. 18. February 2009, 00:57

Filed under: arcane, spec, raiding, dps, patch, theorycrafting

As an arcane mage, your spell arsenal consists of:

Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles and Arcane Barrage for single-target damage
PoM-Flamestrike and Blizzard for AoE (Area of Effect) damage

A good arcane talent spec that gets the optimum out the damage capabilities will put 3 points in fire (for Incineration, as it affects Arcane Blast), at least 11 points in frost to get Icy Veins and the rest in the arcane tree.

Personally I prefer to have 12 points in frost for more AoE damage (3/3 Ice Shards), so my recommended spec is something like this:
56/3/12 Arcane Raid Spec.

Some mages recommend more pushback protection by adding 3-4 points into Arcane Stability, but it's really hard to ditch some points there as it usually hurts other good talents.
Manly from Elitist Jerks even suggests a spec without Slow, and he's right for raiding as you really don't need the talent there, but boy I wouldn't run around without it outside a raid instance, so I'd rather sacrifice that points elsewhere, if at all.

I won't go into details for AoE damage in this article, as with the rotation above (and preferrable Arcane Power), it's straightforward to do massive(!) damage to multiple targets. So let's focus on the single target spells instead.

Arcane Blast - Rank 4
8% of base mana (261 Mana at lvl 80), 30 yd range, 2.5 sec cast
Blasts the target with energy, dealing 1185 to 1377 Arcane damage. Each time you cast Arcane Blast, the damage of all Arcane spells is increased by 15% and mana cost of Arcane Blast is increased by 200%. Effect stacks up to 3 times and lasts 10 sec or until any Arcane damage spell except Arcane Blast is cast.

Glyph of Arcane Blast: Increases the damage from your Arcane Blast buff by 3%. This makes the arcane blast debuff increase the damage by 3% per stack, so it's +18%, +36% and +54% for 1-3 stacks. That glyph is really recommended.

Spell Power Coefficient: 2.5/3.5+0.09 = 80.429%
The coefficient is scaled to the cast time (2.5sec), plus gets 9% from Arcane Empowerment (3/3).

Crit Multiplier (with 4xT7 + CSD): 1+(((1.5*1.03)-1)*(1+0.5+0.05)) = 1.84475
This includes the CSD meta gem (3%), the Spell Power talent (50%), the 4xT7 set bonus (5%). Without the 4xT7 bonus, it would be 1.8175, so it's not much of a difference. The CSD ( Chaotic Skyflare Diamond or Chaotic Skyfire Diamond) however is not negotiable, you're just expected to have it, no way round!

Arcane Missiles - Rank 13
31% of base mana (1013 Mana at lvl 80), 30 yd range, Channeled (5 bolts in 5 sec)
Launches Arcane Missiles at the enemy, causing 360-361 Arcane damage every 1 sec for 5 sec.

Spell Power Coefficient: 5/3.5+0.45 = 187.857%
The coefficient is scaled to the full channel time (5sec), plus gets 45% from Arcane Empowerment (3/3).

Crit Multiplier (with 4xT7 + CSD): 1+(((1.5*(1+0.03))-1)*(1+0.5+0.05+0.25)) = 1.981
This includes the CSD meta gem (3%), the Spell Power talent (50%), the 4xT7 set bonus (5%) and the Glyph of Arcane Missiles (25%). Without the glyph, the coefficient would be 1.84475, so the glyph increases your AM crits by 7.39%

Arcane Missiles become really nice when used on a Missile Barrage proc (20% proc chance after using Arcane Blast or Arcane Barrage), reducing the cast time by 2.5sec and thus doubling the DPS for that spell.

Arcane Barrage - Rank 3
18% of base mana (588 at lvl 80), 30 yd range, Instant cast, 3 sec cooldown
Launches several missiles at the enemy target, causing 936 to 1144 Arcane damage.

Spell Power Coefficient: 2.5/3.5 = 71.429%
This may not seem high, but take into account that this is an instant cast spell. The usual coefficient for instant cast spells will be weighted by the global cooldown time in place of the cast time, so it should be 1.5/3.5 = 42.857%. That's a significant boost, so this spell will scale extremely well with spell damage (66.7% more than compareable spells such as Fire Blast).

Crit Multiplier (with 4xT7 + CSD): 1+(((1.5*1.03)-1)*(1+0.5+0.05)) = 1.84475
This includes the CSD meta gem (3%), the Spell Power (2/2) talent (50%), the 4xT7 set bonus (5%).

Theorycrafting Scenario
For the following scenario, we consider a 57/3/11 standard raid spec with 2000 spell power, 35% crit and 10% haste, hit capped (100%).
Basically we could leave out the haste as well as all talents (Spell Power etc.) or raid buffs/auras that scale the DPS proportionally, as it affects all rotations equally, and your mileage may vary anyway. For comparing the spells and rotations, that scenario suffices well, and if you need exact numbers, just replace the numbers above with whatever works better for your.

Time to start the number crunching!

The average base damage for a spell will be:
avgBaseDmg:= (minDamage+maxDamage)/2
The effective cast time for a spell is the base cast time (or GCD for instant cast spells) divided by the speed multiplier from haste (1+haste). The GCD (Global Cooldown) is also affected by haste, but won't go below 1 sec. For our scenario, we take the 10% haste plus the 6% from talents (Netherwind Presence).
castTime := baseCastTime / (1 + haste)
The average damage is the base damage plus the spellpower times the coefficient, times any talents that multiply the damage (3% from Arcane Instability, +6% for ArcaneBlast with Spell Impact, and 12% in a raid scenario from Torment the Weak)
dmg(hit):= (avgBaseDmg + (spellpower * coefficient)) * multiplier
For the mana costs, we consider -3% from Arcane Focus, and -3% from Precision, but for the time being ignore any Arcane Concentration procs (just substract 10% from the average mana/sec in the end).

Here's what we get so far:

.	Arcane Blast	Arcane Barrage	Arcane Missiles	Missile Barrage
Dmg Avg	1358	1040	1807.5	1807.5
Mana	261	588	1013	1013
Mana /w talents	245.34	552.72	952.22	952.22
Cast Time	2.50	1.50	5.00	2.50
Cast Time /w haste	2.155	1.293	4.31	2.155
Coefficient /w talents	80.429%	71.429%	187.857%	187.857%
Dmg Avg	2966.57	2468.57	5564.64	5564.64
Dmg Avg /w talents	3233.56	2542.63	5731.58	5731.58
+Torment the Weak	3621.59	2847.74	6419.37	6419.37

The average critical damage per spell is just the average damage, multiplied by the crit factor (Arcane Blast gets an extra 6% crit from Incineration):
dmg(crit):= dmg(hit) * critMultiplier

.	Arcane Blast	Arcane Barrage	Arcane Missiles	Missile Barrage
Crit Multiplier	1.84475	1.84475	1.981	1.981
Crit Dmg	6680.93	5253.38	12716.78	12716.78

To find out the average damage, including crits, we'll have to weight that outcomes by the hit, crit and miss probabilities.

p(crit) := critChance * (1 - p(miss))

p(hit) := (1-critChance) * (1 - p(miss))

This leads us to the average damage numbers for our scenario. Divide those by the cast time and you get the DPS, or divide it by the mana cost to get the DPM.

.	Arcane Blast	Arcane Barrage	Arcane Missiles	Missile Barrage
Avg Dmg	4967.70	3761.88	8812.39	8812.39
DPS	2305.01	2909.19	2044.47	4088.95
DPM	20.25	6.81	9.25	9.25

So far so good, we got the basic numbers we need to calculate our spell rotations in Part 3 of this series.

Going Arcane, Part 1 - Preface

by Tachyon on Wed. 18. February 2009, 00:51

Filed under: arcane, spec, raiding, dps, patch, theorycrafting

Two weeks before, I retired my Frostfire Bolt spec and joined the happy bunch of arcane specced fellows.

I hesitated long before I finally did this step, as this means that my raid will lose yet another scorch debuffer, and will have to run without the 10% crit debuff quite often.
This is a general design flaw by Blizzard, making the arcane tree too attractive compared to the frost or fire tree, causing lots of mages to skip the 10% crit debuff talents (Improved Scorch in the fire tree, Winter's Chill in the frost tree).

Anyway, I'm now Arcane specced, and will probably stay so for the near future. Patch 3.1.0 will bring some improvements for frost, but also the dual specs, so Frost will become an option again, purely for PvP, whilst Arcane will continue to dominate as PvE spec.

The last patches brought quite some nerfs for the Arcane specs, but don't worry, most of it affected the burst damage potential only, and PvE damage stays neraly as effective as it used to be.

The latest patch (3.0.9) reduced the glyphed damage boost of the Arcane Blast debuff (from 5% to 3%), reduced the spell power coefficient of Arcane Barrage (from 3/3.5 to 2.5/3.5), but also introduced an improved Arcane Missiles glyph, which increases the critical damage of the missiles.

When reading the blogs and forums lately, there seems to be a controversy about which spell rotations are now preferred, if Arcane Missiles should be cast even without Missile Barrage, how high to stack the Arcane Blast debuff, and whether using Arcane Barrage is still viable at all.
In the end I gave up on reading recommendations, especially as most of them were based more on claims that on evidence, and did the math for myself.

So that's the whole point of this arcane article series, to guide you through the calculations and considerations towards finding the proper spell rotations for arcane raiding.

Read on in Part 2 of the "Going Arcane" series.

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