Love how the Kyrian Harmony enthusiasts are out here telling the rest of us how we should love their play style, which has only existed for half of one expansion, or shut up even though many of us, myself included, have been playing Arcane Mage since Vanilla.Notice how we’re not telling you not to play Kyrian Harmony but simply voicing our legitimate frustration with the lack of an alternative build. Really, the level of toxicity in this community has gone through the roof and into outer space since people quit the game in droves last year. It’s even more sad to see than the sorry state of affairs of the Mage trees.
Meteor doesn't work with radiant spark. Next question.
I'm hoping we see some potential builds that don't include spark/echo. I was kinda bummed to not see any talked about in this post because Kyrian arcane has been my least favorite version of the spec. I think it's nice that it is there as an option for those that want to continue playing it, but I hope it doesn't end up feeling like our entire spec is being balanced around it.
The reason I played Arcane since WotLK days is due to the burn-preserve rotation. Seeing this replaced by a gimmick doesn't sit right with me, especially when this gimmick doesn't even work in PvP.Both trees, from an Arcane perspective, are a total train wreck. Like others before me posted, I will likely reroll for the first time since WotLK. Why lay a spec that simply isn't fun or functional?I'd honestly prefer Arcane to return to either WoD or Legion versions, as the spec peaked during those expansions. Sure, some people thought it was too complex... but it was at least fun.
I'm gonna be honest here, I don't think these mage trees were ready to be released. And that's not just because they're really bad, haphazard, and lackluster, but also because there has been (as far as I'm aware) 0 developer feedback about it. Based on how quickly other classes have been getting responses, I wouldn't be surprised if the mage trees were supposed to be released at a later date and some manager / stakeholder came in and said "we're doing it tomorrow." We may honestly be looking at the actual first draft that even the developers have made, and the lack of feedback may be because they don't have the resources to look at what we're saying because they weren't supposed to release it for another 2 weeks.That being said, there's not much else to say here that hasn't already been said either here or on the WoW forums, but I do want to weigh in on the Kyrian style. I've been arcane for a long time (I think I fully committed to it in Lich King). It's my absolute favorite spec, period. I've also been a Kyrian mage for the entirety of the expansion. I know it wasn't meta until a little bit later, but that was the only way I played in Shadowlands.And you know what? It's fun. It's an enjoyable kit, with some arcane themes (let's be honest, our main theme is "management"). It fixes the biggest issue I've had with arcane for a long time (which was that I don't think Arcane Barrage hits hard enough without things like Arcane Harmony to buff it). The problem is that, although it fixes some issues and has some proper themes, it's just.... not the arcane style. The Spark-Harmony build feels a lot more like Frost's Glacial Spike build (at least as it was in BfA, which was when I played it last). Although 80% of the spells I cast start with the word "arcane" and everything coming out of my face is purple, I just don't feel like I'm playing an arcane mage.The first thing I did when these trees came out was try to make myself a build that could go back to the burn / conserver "mana management" style of arcane that I love. I'm able to make some builds like that, however, I don't know if they'd be viable. The biggest problem with my attempt to make those builds is that most of them take only one or absolutely no capstone talents at all (arcane harmony might work in a build like that, just passively building it up through clearcasting instead of force-casting missiles). The fact that I, and possibly others, are considering selecting talents in such a way that it avoids capstone talents altogether means that they missed the mark somewhere.The biggest challenge they face is that, if they intend to keep the Spark-Harmony build, they can't make it the only build, and as long as that build takes up 2/3 of the capstones available to us, it's going to continue to be the only real option we're forced into. I think their best course of action right now would be to add a 4th capstone and do some shifting around so that the Orb talent is on the left (and possibly buffed or changed), a new one is next, then Harmony (because it might be viable for builds that don't use Spark), then Spark to the far right (since it's a DRASTICALLY different way to play the game).
How about fixing mages right now, because we are a complete clown class that is average at best at everything?
Arcane surge should be a massive blast of arcane towards the enemy :3 like Delphuric Beam of Nighthold's Elisande :'(And yes, please implement Mantle of the First Kirin Tor effect in some way !