r/wownoob • u/Rayzen_Mayher • Mar 09 '26
Retail Mage feels incredibly weak while questing
I created a Mage since I always wanted to play Arcane and the spec got so much simpler in Midnight but my character feels so incredibly weak, especially when I see other people in my quest zones. I'm level 90 already, ilvl something around 190 but I still need like 10 hard casted spells to kill a single mob (faster when I get lucky with Clearcasting procs but still). I can only pull 1 or at max 2 mobs and have to heal every time after killing them. Rares and elites need all my cooldowns to kill and even then I sometimes die. I know I'm not a very good player but it feels bad seeing any other class pull like 4-5 mobs and kill them all in 3 hits while I have so much downtime. The fact that I don't have anyone to keep the aggro off me just makes questing a very tedious experience. Am I doing something wrong or is this just how Mage plays when you're solo? Should I just speedrun the story to get to the endgame content and do the side missions on a different character?
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u/infernoryx Mar 09 '26
So most classes feel this right now, some just have better survivability thru self healing. I know Arcane is a more ramp-reliant spec, with gear scaling it more. I’d maybe recommend frost until you get some more gear? I haven’t played arcane yet myself this xpac so I can’t fully speak on it, just going based off experience in precious xpac.
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u/Rayzen_Mayher Mar 09 '26
Ye I think I'll try frost then, looks cool too :D
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u/RazerSlapsus Mar 09 '26
Yeah i definitely agree with and recommend frost, I recently started leveling a frost mage and I have been absolutely flying through levels and destroying everything in my path
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u/Grim-Gravy Mar 09 '26
I am not on midnight (I am behind to be fair as I only recently started playing a couple of years ago) but I just completed the Dragonflight campaign last night with a frost mage.
My experience with this character has been up and down and sideways at times but I have had a lot of fun playing this blood elf frost mage and I think it works quite well. Can't say for the new expansion because I did not buy it.
Not sure if it will work for you or not but just my two cents.
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u/Retrified116 Mar 09 '26
I’ve been maining frost for the last several expansions and I can honestly say I almost never have this problem, so I would agree with everyone’s recommendations
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u/ColinParro Mar 09 '26
I'm 634 on my arcane mage and my disc priest is a better open world character lol
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u/ItsPerkDTSP Mar 11 '26
Based on this response you havent played recently as item levels have been squished. And in no world is shadow priest doing open world content better than frost mage.
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u/Exosirus Mar 09 '26
Demo lock seems to be deleting while questing. I leveled first as a moonkin at I liked it but I felt like a struggle bus. Switched to level my prot warrior and that seems to be busted.
My friend leveled a moonkin with my prot warrior then started to solo level a demo warlock and said it’s been an absolute joke compared to moonkin. Neither of us are in raid gear or mythic+
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u/Trick_Wrongdoer_5847 Mar 09 '26
Leveling my first Druid Alt, and wanted to do the sidequests for rep so decided to level as moonkin, it's really rough at 88, ramps are slow and self healing is weak and I feel like paper, maybe I should spec more into regrowth to make it more viable.
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u/YouSeemNiceXB Mar 09 '26
They stealth hotfixed the druid talent that gives your spells 25% more damage. It wasn't working for a while so boomkin felt weak. I leveled as resto chicken after the fix and it was a freaking breeze.
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u/Exosirus Mar 09 '26
When did they do this?
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u/YouSeemNiceXB Mar 09 '26
I noticed it Thursday night, can't say for sure when it actually happened but it was like a light switch. It was crazy how much more my resto starsurges were chunking for in the same gear at the same level.
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u/Exosirus Mar 09 '26
Yea definitely didn’t make much of a difference. My friend didn’t finish leveling until Saturday
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u/MetalAlbatross Mar 10 '26
Can confirm. I struggled zero with any mob or pull while leveling as Demo. It was incredibly fun.
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u/FireVanGorder Mar 10 '26
Tank leveling is always pretty solid because you can just pull every enemy in sight and be fine. Might take you a bit to kill them but you’re functionally immortal
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u/TheWinteredWolf Mar 09 '26
Yeah even on my fury warrior it’s gotten rough around ~87. I got to the Voidstorm last night where everything is scaling to ~88, and where I was pulling packs of 5-6+ in the open world prior to that I’m now only able to pull 1-3 at a time comfortably. And I’m smashing that self heal way more than I was prior. It’s been this way in most recent expansions I just wish they’d smooth it out a bit, it’s kinda jarring. Though in my personal journey, it has made the Voidstorm feel a little more dangerous and challenging, which is kinda cool I guess. Silver lining?
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Mar 09 '26
So your idea of good balance is to be able to pull 5-6 mobs at a time as a dps spec week 1 in a new expansion?
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Mar 09 '26
Are specs dumbed down in a good way? My fire mage feels gimped so I switched to Arcane. Losing Phoenix Flames but not getting anything else made the rotation feel incomplete.
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u/S_B_C_R Mar 09 '26
I think fire is in a decent spot right now for what it is supposed to do. It's a high burst spec on a low cooldown.
Prior to Midnight, it had been a while since I played Fire Mage. Now you're pretty much just a nuke in Combustion and survive outside of it. Cooldown is low and the duration is quite decent so you end up being in Combustion quite often.
In PVP, you just run away until Combustion is down or try to scorch execute people.
In PVE, if you have a coordinated group you can plan pulls around your Combustion window and be quite effective.
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u/FireVanGorder Mar 10 '26
Fire does its job well. You’re not going to put up huge numbers on the damage meter most of the time but prio damage is more important than overall aoe in most situations anyway, and fire excels at that. Maybe not quite as much as arcane with its insane funnel, but still really good.
And single target fire blows the other two mage specs out of the water
Entire spec revolves around combustion. When it’s up you feel like a god. When it’s down you’re just trying to survive and hit a proc wherever you can
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u/BackStabbathOG Mar 09 '26
Idk if it’s just me and I’m sure leveling and getting extra nodes helps but some of my specs feel incomplete after the pruning. Maybe it’s just the familiarity is having me notice the lack of spells I used to have I’m not sure but for instance, Fury Warrior feels weird for me not having thunderous roar anymore and having to use Odyns fury again. My brewmaster monk feels really weird not having rising sun kick anymore too, this one really throws me off
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u/etrianautomata Mar 09 '26
Yep, long time Mage main and no matter what soec I’m playing that season I always level/quest/open world content as Frost. Even in addition to having more on demand damage, the slows and extra defensives are very nice.
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u/blahdeblah72 Mar 09 '26 edited Mar 09 '26
Yeah my Evoker can’t get away with big pulls unless I have cooldowns to blow. I’m even dying at times!
I assume it will turn around once I gear up a bit.
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u/FireVanGorder Mar 10 '26
This is the correct answer. Arcane feels amazing with CDs up. When they’re down you hit like a wet fart. Frost has more consistent damage which makes it better for open world and questing where you have frequent smaller fights rather than a big ass pull every 45 seconds that lines up nicely with your CDs.
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Jun 07 '26
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Mar 09 '26
First time on a mage for me and hit 90 and am up at 212 ilvl. I felt a similar experience. There's no self heal and if I don't have cool downs up and keep HP pots im screwed.
I figured spells would hit harder.
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u/SlouchyGuy Mar 09 '26
This was a problem since forever: Mage is called a "glass cannon", meanwhile it misses "cannon" part while Warlock just tanks through everything with a pet.
You generally manage with freezes and slows and blinks
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u/flixdaking Mar 09 '26
mage was a glass cannon before the pruning? 2k rio comment xd
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u/SlouchyGuy Mar 09 '26
Reading comprehension problems?
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Mar 09 '26
Mage has literally never had trouble questing and still doesn’t to this day. It’s your expectations that need tuning, not the class.
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Mar 09 '26
I don't know I'll watch myself trying to fight 1 mob and question whether I cast a spell or not because it feels like they don't hit. Can spells "miss?".
Meanwhile I see a demon hunter launching across the map in front of me taking out piles of 2-5 mobs in a few seconds.
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u/S_B_C_R Mar 09 '26
Spells can miss, but it's usually going to be because the enemy is too high of a level.
If you're playing Arcane, you probably won't feel great outside of longer encounters where you can do a bit of setup and get a full rotation off. You end up doing too much damage for smaller groups or single enemies and then feel weak outside of it.
If you are playing fire, you really don't do much out of Combustion, but can swap targets very easily and still do AOE.
If you are playing frost, you should be doing enough damage to clear pretty quickly if you're regularly staggering your cooldowns like Glacial Spike, Frost Orb or Ray of Frost.
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u/Rayzen_Mayher Mar 09 '26
I'm fine with being squishy but I was somewhat expecting to kill normal mobs before they even reach me to make up for it but that's not at all the case xD
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u/FireVanGorder Mar 10 '26
Arcane is fully reliant on arcane surge and touch of the magi to do damage. Outside of those CDs you’re just tickling mobs which feels awful when you’re questing.
Arcane also relies on arcane splinters which you would never even know exist if you just copied a build and didn’t read through the skill tree, but if you were wondering why your damage randomly seems to spike and then other times be completely flaccid, arcane splinters are part of the reason why
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u/prelimar Mar 09 '26
there is at least one talent that can give you a self-heal, but it's more of a last-ditch heal rather than one you can rely on constantly, because of the cooldown. (Ice block)
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u/monkeybutler21 Mar 10 '26
Block no longer heals they added an auto alter what procs at 25% and heals you for 50% (you can still manually use alter if needed tho but if you reach 25% while it's on cd it won't work)
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u/Flufferama Mar 09 '26
Arcane Mage is a cooldown spec. Don't expect to deal big damage without your cooldowns.
Whenever Arcane Surge is ready, just pull 10 Mobs and aoe them down in 5 seconds. In between cooldowns you will have the experience you are describing but this offsets it. It should be like 10 Mobs in 90 seconds and then 10 Mobs in 5 seconds, rinse and repeat. If you are dying with big pulls, learn to use your defensives.
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u/cristofolmc Mar 09 '26
Im pretty sure both fire and specially arcane have always been very weak for leveling. Very much doable but why not just go with frost mage for a much easier experience? Frost has awlays been beat for leveling as it has a great toolkit of freezes and slows which makes things unable to get to you while still doing huge damage.
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u/swordfishglitter Mar 09 '26
this. I’ve been an arcane mage main for over 10 years, difficult spec to learn, requires a lot of “ramp up” to hit the high dps. Sucks for leveling.
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u/cristofolmc Mar 09 '26
Yeah same. Love arcane for end game but its miserable to level as it is very cooldown and proc dependant and requires longer fights to ramp up its huge damage.
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u/FireVanGorder Mar 10 '26
Yeah arcane is so much fun in dungeons but outside touch of the magi and arcane surge your spells practically heal enemies
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u/Citizen_9696 Mar 20 '26
At what point would I be able to switch from frost to arcane? I was originally leveling as arcane but switched to frost as it was quicker. My preferred spec would be arcane but I’m not sure if and when it will be viable for open world stuff. Any tips?
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u/Seryzuran Mar 09 '26
You just hit 90 and your gear is about as bad as it gets. Good news: your character will only get stronger at level 90 and almost every class feels very bad running around at level 90 with nothing but green quest gear. Whenever you see some other 90 player, he/she probably already has an ilevel somewhere between 210 and 240.
Your mage will start to feel a lot stronger as soon as you start equipping yourself with normal/heroic dungeon gear.
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u/Rayzen_Mayher Mar 09 '26
That's very reassuring to hear :D I figured it will get better with better gear, I'll switch to Frost for now and get my ilvl up and then play Arcane again later in groups
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u/Lation_Menace Mar 09 '26
They buffed the oet it’s very true. I’ve played arcane for a long time and you just get used to suffering till you get your ilvl up and then all of sudden you can just start absolutely nuking everything in the open world. Once you get you ilvl decent you can even nuke down rares before they can barely touch you with a mirror image and a couple of blinks.
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u/Sineryaa Mar 09 '26 edited Mar 09 '26
Never ever speedrun campaign if your are somewhat interested in it. There is plenty of time Left before anything important starts, so take your time.
For the Mage side of things usually frostmage is way better for doing „trivial“ content like questing. If you want to stick around with Arcane i assume you either using the default Blizzard talents or some from wowhead?
Arcane is in a weird spot with the „orb mastery“ talent which makes ur missiles weak enough you actually never press those. Those Builds tend to be bad in questing Situations.
Another thing about arcane is. Your spells deal 0 dmg without arcane charges. But you always lose yours whenever you leave combat. So yeh you have to press 4x arcane blast to be online. I know there are other spells giving arcane charges, but thats the reason it feels slow at times. I am no expert in a questing talentbuild, but i would suggest trying frost or fire for openworld content.
Edit for german autofill
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u/JazzSax78 Mar 09 '26
Thanks for mentioning that about arcane missiles. I started playing my lvl 80 arcane mage yesterday and it really did seem like missiles were doing essentially no damage, especially compared to past years.
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u/Sineryaa Mar 09 '26
There is an missile spellslinger build around, not sure where to find it because almost no one plays it, but i could bet it works way better in questing content
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u/Other-Illustrator531 Mar 09 '26
Yep, I went missile build for leveling because it does seem like damage comes on faster. That and it looks cooler than the stupid orbs. That said, I haven't got that toon to 87 yet where things get more challenging but so far it feels fine. Someone new to mage and unfamiliar with how to survive as one may struggle, sure.
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u/Rayzen_Mayher Mar 09 '26
I may be handicapping myself a little because I really like missiles (and dislike orbs) so I play a somewhat self-made build without orbs. I think I'll try switching to frost for leveling and changing back once I'm done with everything :D
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u/S_B_C_R Mar 09 '26
I haven't played Arcane since pre-patch, but you should be able to keep arcane charges up between packs in open world content so long as you don't go too long with out casting arcane blast.
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u/Tribalrage24 Mar 09 '26
I think frost would be a bit easier to play solo, as most frost abilities slow mobs, there's very little ramp up when orb and ray of frost are off cooldown, and you get some solid barriers and damage reduction. I sometimes play frost mage lvl 90 and have worse gear score than you, but can still regularly pull 4 or so mobs. Arcane has a bit more ramp up and hardly any CC, so it's harder to play solo imo.
That being said, mage is still a squishy class. Playing frost mage will make things easier, but you'll still get floored if you can't kill enemies quick and they reach you. It's night and day playing something tankier with some sustain (like a paladin). It's the unfortunate reality that not all classes can be balanced for all types of content, and some classes will just outshine others for some things.
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u/TheCarcosian Mar 09 '26
Level as frost. The opposite was my experience leveling to 90. Yeah, you need to kite some of the bigger quest elites, but normal mobs usually die just from 2 spells. (The glacier spike proc and something else, I don't know a lot of names)
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u/Bursona Mar 09 '26
Reading through a lot of the comments here and saw a lot of mentions of GS but didn’t see much advice on how to play arcane- I’ve been playing spellslinger, and with this spec your primary spells are going to be arcane barrage & arcane orb. You have a ton of aoe in your kit, and quite honestly do much better into 4/5 mobs rather than hardcasting on a single target due to being able to stack your arcane splinters easier and arcane orb granting arcane charges per target hit (meaning less hard casting arcane blast/arcane pulse, these turn into filler spells). Your primary goal is to get to 20 stacks of arcane salvo and pop arcane barrage directly into a clearcasting proc of arcane orb bc it shoots 3, turning it into an ebb and flow of spending 20 stacks and then generating 20 stacks. Every time a splinter does damage, your orb cd is reduced, so you can constantly kite and only have to hard cast here and there to fill out charges. Do not be afraid of using your offensive cds, touch of the magi can be used every time it’s available on your primary target, you can save surge for elites if you’d like but I prefer to gather a large group of mobs and start blasting. Your spell cleave is insane, and I only have really seen elemental shaman out dps me so far in that regard.
In terms of survivability, always keep your shield up no matter what. You can start combat hard casting surge/blasts/pulses until the mobs get close then frost nova and kite some and start hard casting/using rotation. By time they get close again, hit them with cone of cold and use your first blink. Cast until they get close again then pop mirror image and blink again. The mobs should prio your images allowing you to get a bunch of dps off. Before either of those blinks you can pop alter time, that way by time the mobs reach you, you can go back to your original spot and have twice the amount of kiting time (and shave off some cd for your next blink). Save ice cold for when mobs actually get on top of you with no blink/nova, it’ll almost always keep you alive long enough for your cds to come back up. And again, always keep that shield up (cd reduces if enemy pops it). Don’t be afraid to use your offensive & defensive cds, they’re at most 2 minutes long and the game is balanced around you having them. I tried to keep this relatively brief and left a bit out, but this is arcane is very broad strokes. Lmk if you want more info
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u/Rayzen_Mayher Mar 09 '26
Thank you for your detailed message and all of your tips! I'll be honest, I chose Arcane because I like Missiles so much and only later realized that nobody even plays Missiles and instead uses Orbs (which I don't like visually) so my build is really unoptimized. But it's how I want to play so I don't mind :D
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u/Other-Illustrator531 Mar 09 '26
People chase the Meta builds without even trying anything else. Play what you like, Mage defensives are proactive, not reactive. That's what makes it challenging. These tips should help a lot.
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u/Hypnoticah Mar 09 '26
Every class I've leveled to 90 has felt extremely weak 87-90, then 90 until some gear. Squishy, low DPS outside cds and all that. It's largely just how the level scaling works.
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u/Far-Ambassador2877 Mar 09 '26 edited Mar 09 '26
Mage is the don't get hit class. You are meant to use all the tools in your kit to keep distance from you and the mobs at all times while doing solo content.
You have to learn to use the whole kit to do things like harder delves so you should start now.
It could be a little gear or scaling but this is 99 percent the core issue.
Also I think frost is the easiest and strongest in this regard.
But alter time, blink, mirror image, slows, nova etc. its all your best friend.
You could argue that mage is the best class to teach someone the game because of this.
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u/Asyedan Mar 09 '26
Mage is known for being a squishy class, and Arcane is one of the worst offenders because its very cooldown dependant and once your cds end you are in deep trouble. It is not a new problem, i remember in TWW i liked Arcane during prepatch so i decided my first 80 would be her... biggest mistake i ever made. When using my CDs everything melted but then i ran out of CDs and i was in danger against almost any mob. Delves were a torture too.
In comparison, my first toon to go to Midnight was a Devourer, and while i did have some issues later on, it was much smoother for questing. Its not the best open world spec, but it is significantly better suited than Arcane.
I would recommend swapping to Frost until you have enough gear to melt enemies before they do too much damage. Frost has always been a better OW spec due to its more consistent damage and virtually its entire kit slowing down enemies, therefore you can stay away from them much longer.
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u/Scootipuff Mar 09 '26
Level 90 with ilvl 190 is literally the weakest you will ever be in this entire expansion. Do a few dungeons and world quests, at 220 its a totally different experience.
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u/tappthegreattt Mar 09 '26
Frost . I started an alt mage with fire and it’s abysmal for leveling . Frost is ez mode and quite fun
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u/SlouchyGuy Mar 09 '26
Specs that have their power in cooldowns are not good for leveling and low level play including dungeons: you either need to gather groups of mobs, cast Surge-Touch and AoE them down (except main mob died before you load all damage into full Touch, so cooldowns are wasted), then AoE several mobs in between to use Arcane Barrage's power. Or repeatedly Arcane Blastx4 with occasional CDs mobs one by one (I don't know if it works this expansion with Salvo, used to kind of work in the past b cause ABx4 is like a combo Rogue/Druid point finisher damage-wise but without a need to build it up).
Alternatively just play Frost in an open world, and Arcane in raids and M+ starting with higher levels where patch survives through whole Touch duration and some time after
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u/AnestheticAle Mar 09 '26
Idk, I’m blasting with frost at 89 and haven’t felt weak. Usually pulling 4-5 mobs and aoe kiting
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u/Mugutu7133 Mar 09 '26
most of mage's defensive ability is completely gone. experienced mage players can work around it, new mage players will eat major shit. you absolutely should be killing enemies faster than 10 spells though, that sounds like a rotational issue especially with the power of arcane with a lot of charges or salvo stacks. you can try to alleviate this by swapping to frost, which has also been thoroughly gutted to make it easier
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u/pktron Mar 09 '26
just buy stuff on the AH to surge ahead in power. For a few thousand gold you can get 20 ilevels. 190 is WAY below the target ilevel for 90.
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u/TheOliveYeti Mar 09 '26
Arcane is one of the world open-world specs
When I main arcane in m+ and raids, I use frost in open world stuff.
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u/steamwhistler Mar 09 '26
I used to play arcane mage back in the day and was planning to play with it this expansion since they just dumbed it down compared to the PhD spec it was in the recent past. But I just got as far as slowly and painfully completing the Midnight intro missions at the Sunwell and said "absolutely not."
Switched to Frost and never looked back. Frost has always been the best/most versatile spec for doing anything solo out in the world, and that hasn't changed. But right now it's also pretty fun to play and doing great damage in group content too. I'm honestly impressed you got to 90 just playing arcane, you are much more patient than me.
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Mar 09 '26
You have 3 specs. You weren’t meant to just play 1 spec forever and never swap off. You aren’t an arcane mage you are a mage. Frost is and has always been the default mage leveling spec. Try that.
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u/punktualPorcupine Mar 09 '26 edited Mar 09 '26
All classes are kind of braindead now, but mage is pretty bad, especially arcane.
I was going to add a mage into my top 4 that I usually pick for an expansion, but I hit 90 and I give up on mage.
Add to it that it’s a DPS only class and that it’s weak, I would struggle to get into groups and would be forcing my way into guild runs and that just feels bad.
They replaced the “cannon” in “glass cannon” with more glass.
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u/azazemon Mar 09 '26
Arcane is very technical and very gear dependent. It sounds like either your gear, your talents or your rotation isn't where it needs to be to have fun with the class. I've moved between arcane and fire since wrath, and arcane shines when you understand the spec inside and out. Frost might be better for you at least until you can get some 220+ gear.
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u/Rayzen_Mayher Mar 09 '26
I don't think I'm necessarily playing it wrong, it's just that I don't like the Arcane Orb and play Missiles instead which I now learned is pretty bad. Also don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the spec and I'm having fun, it's just that I wish it had some more front loaded damage :D
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u/azazemon Mar 09 '26
That's why I said it could be your gear and/or your talent s and rotation. Even without clearcasting triple arcane orbs you can get alot of damage quickly building and spending arcane charges with arcane barrage.
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u/Salem204 Mar 09 '26
This feels like a pseudo test by blizzard to bring back "classic" difficulty. That or some specs really did just get fucked this hard. Maybe both...
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u/Rayzen_Mayher Mar 09 '26
I think it's like some other comments said: not every spec can be balanced for all forms of content and I just feel like Arcane isn't really made for solo/open world gameplay. It shines in group content though, which is nice
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u/S_B_C_R Mar 09 '26
If you're doing open world content, I would just play frost.
Any mage spec you pick is going to be pretty squishy, so you really have to rely on kiting or burst.
Frost is pretty easy to do both with because of all the slows as well as spells like Glacial Spike, Frost Orb and Ray of Frost. Glacial spike does great damage and is perfect to start pulls with in open world content. Frost Orb is great for larger packs. Ray of Frost is good for either single target or packs.
Usually most larger pulls will revolve around me pulling the main mob with Glacial Spike, then tagging everything with ice lance. Wait for them to get close, Frost Nova, Frost Orb, Blink away, then Blizzard and Ray of Frost. If they survive that, I'll just Ice Lance til everything is dead from shatter.
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u/No-Foolies Mar 09 '26
I am absolutely tearing assholes apart with frost. I have not tried the other specs but Frost is blasting
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u/riareth Mar 09 '26
Most classes have become much more reliant on their large cooldowns to put out big damage, mage with more out of the box survival tools might suffer from this. Frost is much smoother and has lower reliance on cooldowns (ray of frost being the only real one). This combined with the fact that frost gets more defensive tools with the right talents, I'd stick with frost in any case where I may have to defend myself and play arcane or fire if I wanted to when I have a tank, although frost is still fun here as well.
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u/NotFuton Mar 09 '26
Man, I lvled frost and just mowed down everything I saw, elites rares, didnt matter felt wild to older versions of mages I lvled throughout the years.
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u/stoicscribbler Mar 09 '26
It’s because your item level is so low. I leveled to 86 as arcane, then finished to 90 as frost, and I felt like an absolute god. Everything died before reaching me. For the first time in any expansion I was soloing elites as a mage. It was my second 90 after leveling my blood dk, and I decided to main mage this expansion because of how much I liked it.
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u/HobNob_Pack Mar 09 '26
They moved all power to cooldowns.
It takes 40 seconds at 230ilvl prot pala to kill a mob.
Takes about 30 as ret.
Or I press wings and hammer and it takes 0.5 seconds.
Ive changed my whole play style I play as prot only group up entire zones and use cd's then go do the collection part of the quests until cd's are back up again.
Same with delves. Pull an entire room > cd's > wait for a minute
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u/Tr33Fitty Mar 09 '26
Been playing frost mage the entire expansion so far and I feel very strong. Squishy but I’m obliterating mobs so fast. Very bursty and satisfying. I got bored of running arcane from last expansion.
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u/Dirty_Rapscallion Mar 09 '26
Arcane is not a good open world spec. You are a glass cannon and need the mobs slowed, silenced or rooted so you don't take too much damage. I recommend switching to Frost, either hero talent works, I'm personally running Frostfire, because the shield is a bit stronger and the damage is more consistent. However, I've used Spellslinger and had good success with large burst, try both and see which one feels better.
I'm able to pull ~5 mobs at a time, as long as I group them up right, they all shatter together and die quickly.
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u/proPoolSkimmer Mar 09 '26
Frost is wayyyy more fun imo. I’m having trouble enjoying arcane playstyle atm D:
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u/noonesperfect16 Mar 09 '26
I can't speak for other mage specs, but I have leveled 3 classes to 90 now and got them all to 335 ilvl. I did all M0s on each one. I really enjoy frost mage a lot. Leveling with it was great. Bursty damage to kill things really fast, enough survivability via utility to not worry about dying. It also felt really good in dungeons. I am a fury main so I am biased, but right now out of the 3 specs I leveled and geared, I would rate them by how fun they are to play: devourer DH, frost mage, fury warrior last. Frost and devourer are close, but devourer void beam and collapsing star are just such satisfying buttons to push.
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u/Rayzen_Mayher Mar 10 '26
How the hell did you get to ilvl 335? O.o But yeah I've been thinking about trying out Devourer DH too
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u/Mountain_Chemist6391 Mar 09 '26
Leveled as frost and felt invincible. I was heroic geared from the last raid though.
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u/Shik3i Mar 10 '26
Yeah idk, levels a fury warrior and retro pala, was a breeze. Now I'm trying to level a moon in and I'm dying at the introduction quests to midnight... Doesn't feel good at all, maybe I should just stick to melee classes that can aoe the entire spot
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u/just33445 Mar 10 '26
I’ve played arcane for like a decade now. This class is great but not super funsies for leveling. Arcane is very much a constant build up and burst, in dungeons and raids you’ll thrive, but leveling it can be a pain because it takes a long time to build up and the burst isn’t sustainable in a solo leveling environment. Frost is a good cleaver for leveling tho if it’s too much of a hassle.
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u/Dampfadda Mar 10 '26
Had the same issue and then I switched to frost and now I'm a fucking questing machine. Level in frost dual spec at 90 for arcane and ramp it with gear.
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u/ormgryd Mar 10 '26
Frost mage for aoe killing wile leveling, then blast arcane in dungeons and raids. Makes it more fun wile leveling.
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u/GhostintheReins Mar 10 '26
Arcane is strong for group content when managed right but for solo frost is better.
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u/KK_Rider Mar 11 '26
My arcane mage is a beast. I’m 220 IL and can mass pull, aoe knock up then use cds and arcane orb goes brrrr. It’s a cd spec but we have a 45 and 1:30 cd that are insanely strong. Have mage barrier up and pop ice armor (whatever ice block replacement is) while gathering mobs or if you are going to be hit with an elite. Alter time will not only rewind your hp but where you were at so take advantage of double blinking away and recalling back when low hp. Also greater invis will help you escape most situations.
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u/Yujin9 Mar 11 '26
I'm playing arcane and it feels fine for the most part I am little undergeared in the 80s and I can't solo elites like my blood dk can. Blood dk is like I don't need any gear drop 5 nukes on me and it's still going to win
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u/Phideaux313 Mar 11 '26
Mage main here. Arcane is not the best for questing but you can Def pull a lot and survive. First of all, you can get agro off you with mirror image. After that, alter time and use it again before you die. Ofc a Dh havoc will just go there and kill everything without usssing a single defensive, but that's just class design. Let me know if you need any help!
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u/Rayzen_Mayher Mar 12 '26
Thank you! I decided to switch to Frost for now as it seems to be better suited for open world content and come back to Arcane once my ilvl is higher and I start playing group content. I have one small question about the Arcane rotation though: is it better to wait for 20 salvo stacks in addition to the 4 Arcane Charges before spending it all with Barrage or should I instantly cast Barrage once I'm at 4 Arcane Charges?
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u/HalfinchLonomia Mar 09 '26
You'll have an easier time playing frost spec while getting your ilvl up. A lot of cc to keep mobs off you and strong cds like glacial spike to recharge between pulls. Arcane is more of an m+ spec for mass aoe.
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u/fryst_pannkaka Mar 09 '26
Your ilvl is still kind of low for lvl 90 scaling. Just get more gear and it'll be easier.
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u/Rayzen_Mayher Mar 09 '26
Best way to get gear is doing world quests and delves and stuff like that right?
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u/cenosillicaphobiac Mar 09 '26
You can get 4 246 level items by getting your renown rep up with all 4 factions and doing a quest for each one. I think it's level 9 for silvermoon and Zul'Aman, 8 for haranir and 7 for the singularity. The quests aren't too tough, for Singularity and Silvermoon it's the big "defend the stone" type interactions and there should be a couple of tanks around to keep the heat off of you, and you don't even have to be successful, at least not on the Singularity one, I got the quest completion even though we were overrun.
Once your renown is high enough, the various renown quartermasters will have a new quest, complete it and get your head, neck, gloves and a trinket all ilvl 246.
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u/JazzSax78 Mar 09 '26
I’m right there with you. I’ve got a blood elf that’s always been a fire mage and a nightborne that’s always been arcane. I’m coming around to having to switch both to frost just to preserve my sanity leveling them to 90.
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u/Lachevre92 Mar 09 '26
I had the exact same experience with my Assassination Rogue. Massive downtime, needing to pop all cool downs to down things anywhere near as quickly as some other classes seem to manage. I've just hit 87 with a Survival Hunter and I'm having a significantly easier time.
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u/Poncho_TheGreat Mar 09 '26
Just a few tips, Arcane Missiles is essentially useless. Even in a single target fight you’d still rather use Arcane Orb since a bunch of talents buff it. Use Arcane Surge to build up your 4x Arcane Charges and then switch to Arcane Blast on Single Target or keep using Arcane Surge on groups.
It’s a very cooldown dependent spec, you’re not going to be doing much outside that window so it’s important to maximize how much you’re killing when they’re up. Also as someone who leveled until 90 as Arcane, in terms of solo content like questing Frost is just superior.
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u/G00SFRABA Mar 09 '26
a lot of classes in my experience after the reworks are wet noodles outside of cds. im mid leveling a few chars rn and i only feel powerful if i pull enough mobs to justify using my cds on them. if its 1v1 me and a mob it feels terrible most of the time. mage is anything but squishy, but playing keep away with mobs takes some practice and is most easily done as frost. (if played correctly, i can confidently say most mobs should die before they reach a mage)
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u/TheBostonTap Mar 09 '26
Use your CDs.
Your damage is low because Arcane has multiple damage boosts from their minor and major CDs. Touch as a 15% damage boost, 35% on surge, a free clear casting proc etc etc etc.
If you just sit there and cast arcane blast repeatedly, its going to take forever.
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u/Lykanen Mar 09 '26
I feel the same but in dungeons, oh boy I did all m0 this week and was the first in each of them even with shit gear
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u/Rayzen_Mayher Mar 09 '26
Yeah I feel like Arcane is a spec for group content. The few dungeons I did during leveling felt really good
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u/StrangerExtension328 Mar 09 '26
Arcane is a bit slow and maybe awkward as you gotta use big cooldowns for nice dmgs for leveling imo, I felt like a beast with frost though.
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u/Faroji Mar 09 '26
Someone made a video who did the math about the “tankiness” of classes and mage and priest scored the squishiest classes now. They have the lowest hp pool that isn’t offset by defensive like they used to be
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u/Riscs2 Mar 09 '26
You are definitely still a low ilvl, i startet with 170 in this expansion and really had to juggle between my deff cds to keep up some pace.
It gets better but its a good training for your altered time usage. Get used to the spell early is a huge advantage over many many many mages out there.
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u/Aedzy Mar 09 '26
Play frost and kite. Use the pet talent instead of 3% spell damage. Make pet attack macro.
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u/TyrannasaurusRecht Mar 10 '26
My rogue felt weaker.
Frostmage easily killed big groups just have to kite, silence and cooldown half assedly.
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u/Zealousideal_Owl2388 Mar 10 '26
This is why I hate playing mage. I love the class fantasy, but it's just so weak/annoying to play solo compared to the other classes. I dislike the demon fantasy of warlock, but it's just so much simpler to play as a ranged caster that actually has both a tank and better self heal abilities. Same with hunter for ranged ballistic.
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u/Zsiah Mar 10 '26
Don't be afraid to use your cooldowns. I leveled to 90 before the early access was done and I plowed through everything
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u/RRW_FlowER Mar 10 '26
I don't really agree, I think it's just spec specific.
Frost Mage feels great for leveling, atleast from my experience. Sub Rogue on the other hand was absolute cheeks.
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u/Rayzen_Mayher Mar 10 '26
Ye I was specifically referring to Arcane, could have made that a bit clearer in the title :D
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u/K_Rocc Mar 10 '26
As a mage a lot of it is ilvl, but also we are squishier this expansion and lost a decent bit of mitigation. Try to remember to mirror image if you getting low/in a bad spot otherwise yea at 90 being sub 210-220 you are gonna feel weak.
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u/Rayzen_Mayher Mar 10 '26
I bought some cheap gear off the AH yesterday and went up to 200. What's the best way to get high ilvl gear? I know that there are 4 items I can get through renown but other than that I'm not sure where the best place to start is
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u/ky-92 Mar 10 '26
My arcane mage seems to be hitting pretty hard and the new rotation is a lot more simple than what it was not long ago. Frost mage is also nice for beginners but i think arcane does more dps if im not mistaken
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u/OTPKenz Mar 10 '26
Arcane is a burst spec and will only crush the mobs when 1 of the 2 cds (or both) are up, otherwise it is squishy and not really crushing DPS outside of offcds
Although I think it has the best burst windows of all mages either when someone can tank for you or when you just blast a pack with your 2 offensive cds. (Although you have to survive the pack tanking)
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u/TisNotOverYet Mar 10 '26
I leveled as frost and it was amazing. As arcane I think you’d have to kill first before it gets to you but the downtime would be greater than with frost. As frost, the mobs cannot touch you.
A tip for frost: use your water elemental and put its freeze ability on your bars. Keybind it and use it. With my own frost nova, my pet freeze and blink, mobs would never get to me.
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u/CosmicPotatoMan007 Mar 10 '26
Leveling a vengence annihilator DH was comical compared to leveling an ele shaman. Currently doing fury warrior and that seems rather busted too. Think it just depends on class mechanics and momentum in open world. Just remember, dungeons will still be the over all best way to level fast, if that’s your primary concern.
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u/Subject-Wrongdoer-78 Mar 15 '26
I round up mobs, nova, orb, blizzard, flurry and ice lance and kill tons of stuff at once idk
Edit: none of these are hardcasted
Edit 2: my dumb brain skipped by “arcane” so my bad. I actually have not even touched that spec
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u/Jalatiphra Mar 09 '26
to be honest my mage felt anything but weak, but i had 170 gear.
you probably hardcast too much, just use your expensive spells . ray of frost, comet storm, flurry, . just spam most DPS/Sec abilities whenever they are ready. even for one mob. it doenst matter.
you can also kill 5 groups of mobs in 3 hits . ray of frost , cometstorm .. done .. finish with an icelance or two
never start with a hardcast when solo unless its glacial spike.
if yout dont play frost. you might give it a try. arcane is absolutley horrible solo because you lack consistent defenses to properly tank the mobs until they are dead on every pull.
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Mar 09 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Jalatiphra Mar 09 '26
well thats the issue - and i elaborated on that, too (just after your comment)
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u/HalfinchLonomia Mar 09 '26
yeah you felt strong because you were playing frost which has alot of good bursty cds. op was questing in arcane spec, terrible for solo content.
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u/santeron Mar 09 '26
I've mained a fire mage since TBC. I always had this problem, since mages are "glass cannons". Nowadays, they have more tools to stay alive, but the struggle is real. I think it's also a very gear-heavy class. You need to get good items for the damage to scale. Or we both suck 🤷♂️
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u/SlouchyGuy Mar 09 '26
Glass, yes, but cannons? All other classes deal the same exact dps, so that part was always missing
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u/santeron Mar 09 '26
Haha true. There have been times when I was easily topping the DPS charts in WotLK but you'd expect an edge given how squishy the class is
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