02-10-2009, 03:21 PM
The nerf was primarily targeted at the retarded burst via arcane power/pom in pvp, but at the same time they sought to keep the pve abilities of arcane at the same level, else they'd basically just be nullifying the idea behind their last patch. Zoia's correct in recommending switching to the AM glyph as with only 5ppm of missle barrage with a 30% crit chance(Much less than all of us have raiding anyways) it provides a higher dps increase than the AP glyph.
As for mana questions, they won't be much of a concern until Ulduar, and until ptr opens up it's tough to say to what degree, as there's a chance that there will be a lot of time during bosses spent on phase transitions, and a few vehicle fights, which would work in Arcane's favor. Since 3.1 is also the patch focusing on mana regeneration as well, the encounter team is working on balancing the fight to the changes, and Arcane's mana efficiency will certainly be brought up at that point. Spirit Bolt has been hinted at, and would fall well into their claim of making spirit an "interesting" stat for magi. Or they might simply buff the "burst" (I add it in quotations because then that would lead to more pvp balancing) of arcane so that mana dumping and conservation rotations become more distinguished from each other. Another thing to consider is that with the replenishment effect of frost being buffed, perhaps having a utility Frost mage, much like a shadow priest, in the raid would drastically help Arcane, and it would do it better than a fire-mage would as they keep the 10% crit but add the mana regeneration.
As for mana questions, they won't be much of a concern until Ulduar, and until ptr opens up it's tough to say to what degree, as there's a chance that there will be a lot of time during bosses spent on phase transitions, and a few vehicle fights, which would work in Arcane's favor. Since 3.1 is also the patch focusing on mana regeneration as well, the encounter team is working on balancing the fight to the changes, and Arcane's mana efficiency will certainly be brought up at that point. Spirit Bolt has been hinted at, and would fall well into their claim of making spirit an "interesting" stat for magi. Or they might simply buff the "burst" (I add it in quotations because then that would lead to more pvp balancing) of arcane so that mana dumping and conservation rotations become more distinguished from each other. Another thing to consider is that with the replenishment effect of frost being buffed, perhaps having a utility Frost mage, much like a shadow priest, in the raid would drastically help Arcane, and it would do it better than a fire-mage would as they keep the 10% crit but add the mana regeneration.