Looks like I'm switching specs for yet another patch...

[Icyarcferno]

So went from Fire 5.0 then to Arcane 5.1 and now Frost 5.2
Seems like we have a pattern here...

This is one reason why...

Frostbolt now deals 52% more damage, but its debuff no longer increases subsequent Frostbolt damage.

Huge buff imo... 24% was a decent increase, but 52%? Hot dayum.

And this is the reason why arcane is not going to be better or even equivalent to frost... (barrage rotation was fine prior to this nerf)

Arcane Blast's damage has been reduced by 22.2% and mana cost has been increased to 1.66667% of base mana (was 1.5%).
Arcane Missiles's damage has been reduced by 22.2%.
Arcane Barrage's damage has been reduced by 13.6%.

Fire might actually be better overall tbh. With the scorch change, but frost just seems to win out. I usually don't go off of Noxxic when it comes to Mage dps, but Fire hasn't been given any significant buffs to make it better than frost and actually got nerfed again (with glyph of inferno blast) while frost only got one small nerf coupled with multiple buffs.

As is known... none of these changes are permanent until the patch date (and even then hotfixes can happen afterwards as we know quite well).

[Cremate]

I loathe Arcane with a deep-seeded hatred that could only be extinguished by the spec's own hara-kiri sacrifice for the good of humanity.

That being said.

I could probably rock a frost spec. Though I am much more optimistic about the scaling of Fire in 5.2. Sure, we lose the ability to spread LB to surrounding targets... but we gain an additional target to which our dots can spread. The only fire "nerf" is coming in the form of our cleave. Right now I am more concerned about Fire's STDPS, so I'm anxious to see how we fare with the scaling.

[Icyarcferno]

Fire will probably scale higher on any movement type fights seeing as it was already the top movement dps for mages (DoTs made it so) and will only be better due to scorch. On more stationary single target I see frost winning out and on 3+ target dps I see it winning out by a decent margin.

One thing that is nice about either spec is that dual speccing is actually viable seeing as their secondaries match up so well. Arcane just never matched with either spec with mastery being the lowest priority for both fire and frost.

Also the set bonuses for Tier pieces will make a decent difference once again... T14 was the least accomodating to fire in regards to the 4 set bonus. But both the 2 piece and 4 piece for fire and frost are great, but I believe more so fire than frost.

The CM nerf (and of course combustion) were the reason why fire basically fell off the map, but with the above changes in mind... that may no longer be an issue.

[Icyarcferno]

And surprise, surprise! Going to update this even though it is probably premature and pointless to do so until the patch is literally almost live (like monday night/tuesday morning). But Mages (and more importantly... fire mages) got hit with more changes in the last 2 PTR builds.

Going to go into the biggest change of them all though... CM getting nerfed to 1.2 from 1.3. That's a decent loss (not as bad as the Hotfix CM to the current, but still significant)... Most fire mages at 490-496 ilvl have at least 30% crit with Molten Armor/Brilliance and flask/food. With just that it is a 3% crit loss. But most fire mages with 500+ ilvl have at least 33-38%+ crit with buffs/flask/food. That's a 3.3 - 3.8% crit loss. That's the equivalent to losing 1800+ crit rating. The only positive is the fact that the tier set bonus for 4 piece gives a 5% crit buff to pyroblast crits and the 2 set gives 1800 crit rating (but only for 30 seconds after an Alter Time expires), but with this change that won't even level out due to the losses to LB Burst and DoT crit ticks, FB crits, and Scorch Crits... I was actually going to look forward to being fire again, though I enjoy frost more than fire. With this... well... not sure if Fire can survive another Crit Mass nerf.

Frostbolt got nerfed back to 32% damage gain from 52%, but benefits from the debuff again, so it is actually a 5% nerf, but with boss encounters that have multiple targets that nerf will have more impact due to switching targets and having to reapply the 3 stack debuff. Regardless, 47% damage increase to FB is still huge and the pets WB and WJ both gain from the debuff, so another slight gain (won't make up for 5% extra FB damage, but it'll be close).

Arcane got buffed, but so slightly that it won't make a comeback. 2% to AB and .4% to AM... HA!

Looking like practicing frost spec is going to pay off. Plus I love ranking in the top 25-50 of these LFRs I've done recently. No one playing frost = easy ranks lol

[Than]

from what ive heard from Lore, is that all 3 mage specs are better than most all other dps specs during sims. of course sims are sims, but i feel thats pretty telling

[Icyarcferno]

from what ive heard from Lore, is that all 3 mage specs are better than most all other dps specs during sims. of course sims are sims, but i feel thats pretty telling

That is most likely true, as of right now all 3 specs are like that and even the new patch will not change that (and frost is going to be making a decent jump up in that department). Arcane and Fire (with the current nerfs) will/may be lower than what they are now (Fire is debatable due to scorch being added as a spell and not a talent - so that may actually raise their dps and be the better option by far with high movement fights).

We mages just like to get into what spec we'll be running based on changes to said specs. I personally don't mind the trend, because I have no preference to any of the specs (Though Frost and Fire both are more interesting and not monotonous due to having more of an RNG aspect to them). I, however, will raid with the best spec that is offered to me or one that I must run for the raid. Really hoping frost is better than fire this patch though, would really enjoy raiding as frost. Still hope fire is comparable though... so I can have a viable dual spec for those fights where movement is an issue.

[Cremate]

Reading that they were going to nerf CM yet again, after already destroying it in the last patch, literally made me angry. Usually Im frustrated, dissappointed, etc... its just a game. But I actually felt genuine anger with this one.

I give up. After 3 strait years progression raiding on my mage, I am going to seriously consider a class change. They just get too much attention, from the forum QQers, to the PvP community, to the balance-crazed designers. I need to find a class that flies under the radar a bit more.

[Icyarcferno]

As long as we aren't nerfed so badly that we have no options to be in the top 10 dps specs... I have no issue, but it can definitely be annoying or even frustrating at times. I'm way more flexible than I was in previous expansions and with how talents are now I actually enjoy changing specs (as I've mentioned a few times already).

But yes... there is QQ going on almost constantly about mages in PvE and PvP and sadly PvP changes often directly effect our PvE as well. That's one reason why Frost almost never is the best PvE spec... because to be so means that the PvP community will most likely have an outcry of "NERF FROST MAGES NOW!" Luckily they did quite a few PvP nerfs to Mages with this new patch that hopefully it will simmer down most of the naysayers.

I'm all good with changing specs per patch, but if it starts to become ridiculous (like changing specs 3-4 times per patch)... I will have to think of some solution.