Goals
Arcane has a pretty solid foundation already, with talents that allow for specialization in different directions. This makes it fairly easy just to take some talents and make them baseline in order to create a well rounded baseline kit.
The main issues with the current kit are Arcane Missiles feeling disjointed from everything else, the rotation being quite monotonous, limited mobility and being forced into melee to do AoE.
There is also room for adding positive reinforcement for correct play, both in the rotation itself and for proper use of utility spells.
The Kit
Core spells:
Arcane Blast:
Generates an arcane charge, charges increase damage and mana cost, reduce cast time.
Arcane Barrage:
Clears arcane charges, hits +1 target per charge cleared, charges increase damage. No cooldown.
Not much changes here, except for the removal of the CD, which serves no real purpose in the first place. The only time you might want to cast multiple Barrages in a row is while moving, which means any cast after the first does pathetic damage anyway.
Arcane Missiles:
3 charges, chance on casting damaging spell to get a charge back immediately, 10–15 sec recharge. Costs no mana. Castable while moving.
Returning to previous versions with multiple charges. Slipstream baseline.
Arcane Explosion:
Generates an arcane charge. No cooldown.
Arcane Beacon:
Marks a target (friendly or enemy) and causes Arcane Explosion to get copied to their location. If a target gets hit by both the mage and the Beacon, it only takes 120% damage rather than 200%. Off GCD. Cooldown long enough that you can re-target it when needed but not to the point where you’re constantly moving it around, cooldown resets if the target dies.
Obvious fix to Arcane’s issue of being forced into melee to AoE. Some reward for still being in melee, but not to the point where you do no AoE at all if at range. Allowing both friendly and enemy targets works well for Mind Sear, so using it here makes sense.
CDs:
Arcane Power:
Increases spell damage and mana cost, 1.5 min CD
Return to the old version of AP which increased mana cost rather than decreased, fitting the idea of unleashing your full power being costly. Also makes it easier to actually burn through your mana during it, rather than ending Arcane Power at 80% mana and then having to burn through the rest outside of CDs.
Rune of Power:
Increases spell damage, 2 charges, 30 sec recharge. Freely placeable(@player and @cursor available)
More convenient CD, and freedom to place it in a way that allows for better handling of mechanics.
Evocation:
Increases mana regen by enough to refill 100% of mana over 6 seconds. Castable while moving.
Passives:
Arcane Orb:
If at least 3 targets get hit by Arcane Barrage, there’s a 40% chance to cast Arcane Orb. Arcane Orb generates 1 + n arcane charges(n being targets hit) and does damage.
The legendary shoulders from Legion added this effect, spicing up the AoE rotation while forcing constant attention to positioning, in order to avoid pulling extra packs.
Touch of the Magi:
Chance on Arcane Blast hit to debuff the target for 5 seconds. Each spell hit adds a stack to the debuff, and at the end of its duration or if the target dies, it explodes for damage depending on the number of stacks(full damage to main target if still alive, full damage/n to secondary targets)
Inspired by both Touch of the Magi and Prophecy of Fear, this effect gives an opportunity for Arcane Missiles to feel powerful and connected to the rest of the kit, while also rewarding pooling charges. Touch of the Magi was always a cool concept, but doesn’t work very well in Arcane as a random proc that just cares about raw damage done, thanks to the high variance in damage output depending on current charges, whether CDs are active etc. Prophecy of Fear is probably the most iconic Arcane trinket(with Shard of Woe coming up second), and although the power level and randomness were frustrating at times, the gameplay it promoted was good.
Time Anomaly:
When you reach 4 arcane charges, your next spell gets empowered. Arcane Blast becomes instant. Arcane Missiles fires twice as many missiles. Arcane Barrage does full damage to secondary targets. Arcane Explosion gets cast again for free.
This serves multiple purposes. In the case of Arcane Blast, it adds some mobility to the spec during the conserve phase in exchange for mana(similar to the initial version of Slipstream in BfA). Arcane Missiles makes Touch of the Magi even more powerful if it procs at the right time. Arcane Barrage does more damage on cleave and Arcane Explosion on mass AoE, rewarding correct spell choice.
Mana Savant(mastery):
Damage increased the higher mana %.
Reinforces conserving at high mana, without being as binary as the Equipoise azerite trait.
Mobility/Utility:
Blink:
2 charges, castable while casting, teleports you forward.
Shimmer has been as close to baseline as it could possibly be while still being a talent ever since it was introduced, and makes the class feel much smoother to play. There can be a PvP talent or modifier to reintroduce the stun breaking aspect if needed.
Displacement:
Teleports you back to your pre-Blink location.
Counterspell:
Interrupt, successful interrupts(or hitting within 1 second of another player’s successful interrupt) give Time Anomaly.
Positive reinforcement of using utility, with an effect that mainly shines on AoE/cleave, meaning it has the most value in M+ scenarios.
Frost Nova:
Freezes in a point blank AoE.
Greater Invisibility:
Immediately makes you invisible, grants damage reduction while invisible and for a few seconds after.
Ice Block:
Immunity.
Polymorph:
Polymorph.
Prismatic Barrier:
Absorbs damage, reduces magical damage taken, reduces duration of harmful magic effects.
Remove Curse:
Removes curses. Successful dispels give Time Anomaly.
More positive reinforcement for proper utility usage.
Slow Fall:
Slows fall speed.
Spellsteal:
Steals a magic buff.
Spellsteal doesn’t need positive reinforcement added, as typically the buff stolen is already beneficial in itself.
Glyphs:
Shimmer:
Turns Blink into a ground targeted teleport.
Gives an option to avoid blinking backwards/through the floor/1 step forward, or just based on preference. Similar idea to the current Glyph of Momentum, which has no practical use when combined with Shimmer due to wasting the “while casting” aspect of Shimmer in order to benefit from Momentum(as well as some weird interactions with external movement)
