level 48 and am fire. I went arcane for bg at 39. Basically spammed arcane blast and was in top three in damage everytime. fire was never any good in bg because casting time killed me. Standing still to hit pyroblast or fireball made me a great target for rogues and hunters.
the way I see it, arcane will give me higher intellect, mana, and damage in bg. fire will give me more burst, more fire crits, nice fire dot on crits, and more dps in pve. not sure but it seems like arcane is much more versatile.
Compare pyroblast with arcane missiles. Pyroblast will do more damage, but not much more. If it crits, it will do much more than pyroblast, but otherwise it is pretty close. If you get it off that is. If you are interrupted or the enemy gets out of range or he dies or you die or he resists, then you lose and pyro does a big fat zero. Arc missiles has a crit chance with each missile, a chance to proc clearcasting with each, and if you start channeling the enemy will take damage. If you have improved arc missiles, damage wont interrupt either. Seems to me that arcane missiles beats pyroblast over the long haul. Maybe you will get a huge pyroblast and it will impress your friends, but in the end arcane missiles is the way to go.
Also compare blast wave with arcane blast or slow. I think the better is the arcane blast/slow combo. The main fall back of blast wave is the cool down. You can get off about 20 arcane blasts in the cool down time of blast wave.
I am likely to switch back to arcane for the long haul. This is my level 70 build:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/mage/talents.html?2050050300230150333124150520031200000000000000000000000000000000000
Until i can get ignite back i will miss the DOT. I will also miss combustion. But like I said, this build seems to be better for the long haul.
I will also miss blazing speed...its just fun.
the way I see it, arcane will give me higher intellect, mana, and damage in bg. fire will give me more burst, more fire crits, nice fire dot on crits, and more dps in pve. not sure but it seems like arcane is much more versatile.
Compare pyroblast with arcane missiles. Pyroblast will do more damage, but not much more. If it crits, it will do much more than pyroblast, but otherwise it is pretty close. If you get it off that is. If you are interrupted or the enemy gets out of range or he dies or you die or he resists, then you lose and pyro does a big fat zero. Arc missiles has a crit chance with each missile, a chance to proc clearcasting with each, and if you start channeling the enemy will take damage. If you have improved arc missiles, damage wont interrupt either. Seems to me that arcane missiles beats pyroblast over the long haul. Maybe you will get a huge pyroblast and it will impress your friends, but in the end arcane missiles is the way to go.
Also compare blast wave with arcane blast or slow. I think the better is the arcane blast/slow combo. The main fall back of blast wave is the cool down. You can get off about 20 arcane blasts in the cool down time of blast wave.
I am likely to switch back to arcane for the long haul. This is my level 70 build:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/mage/talents.html?2050050300230150333124150520031200000000000000000000000000000000000
Until i can get ignite back i will miss the DOT. I will also miss combustion. But like I said, this build seems to be better for the long haul.
I will also miss blazing speed...its just fun.