I think a better bullshit response (and one much better than the late Tseric's response, god rest his zombie bones) would be that offhands have a different stat budget than shields so shields being enchantable only push them up to offhand level. But honestly I can't really see a reason besides "Blizzard's too lazy."
Considering the way stats are balanced between MH + OH vs staff (as in, staff always loses on equivalent item levels. They tend to be heavily stat-based, which can be nice, but not when you're losing out on the massive amounts of raw damage/crit you see on weapons), I don't understand why anybody would bitch about it.
Regardless of what Tseric says, you don't need offhand enchants, because MH + OH is inherently better anyway.
I agree Exis... but couldn't the same be said about Sword + Board?
I dunno why they can't just come out and say "Because off-hands are tuned so high we think it would be imbal" if that's the case. The fact that Tseric's just spewing bullshit (and he obviously is) gives me the impression that it's just laziness or mage hate on Blizz's part.
I don't actually think that's the case, I'm just saying they feed this perspective with these sort of replies. No wonder they fired him!
I remember when the only low-level caster enchant was int on 2-H weapon.
I hated that for a long time.
I think blizz just doesn't know how to do decent caster enchants well.
MulysaSempronius on
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
I'm just having such a hard time raising my lil' ice mage up. Everything just seems so underwhelming at the moment, it's a whole lot of sitting around doing nothing for one or two kills. I just dinged 28 tonight, and wondering if it gets better later than kill 1 or two then rest kinda deal.
Not much better, but you do gain a great deal of control between now and 70.
By the time you hit 70, you'll have no idea how to play a low level mage anymore. It's still "kill a couple, rest". But the techniques used to kill have changed, since you can freeze and crit almost on demand as you level up.
I remember when the only low-level caster enchant was int on 2-H weapon.
I hated that for a long time.
I think blizz just doesn't know how to do decent caster enchants well.
Is it really that hard? Are we just bitter because we're magi?
I mean shit.
Spell damage, Int, MP/5 for Healers, Stamina(EVERYONE needs Stamina), Resilience, Spell Crit/Hit...It's really not too difficult.
Obviously, at low levels, Stamina and Int will help more than low-level +Spell damage. I'll get more out of +4 Int and +3 Stamina than I will out of +6 spell damage.
And lo, did the Mages cry out in unison and song, dancing hither and yon in celebration:
Q: The first thing Mages have to do in a raid is make water. There are Soulwells. Will there be a Muffin factory? (laughter and massive applause)
A: Yes. Water and muffin creation like the Soulwell is incoming.
korodullin on
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
I'm just having such a hard time raising my lil' ice mage up. Everything just seems so underwhelming at the moment, it's a whole lot of sitting around doing nothing for one or two kills. I just dinged 28 tonight, and wondering if it gets better later than kill 1 or two then rest kinda deal.
Not much better, but you do gain a great deal of control between now and 70.
By the time you hit 70, you'll have no idea how to play a low level mage anymore. It's still "kill a couple, rest". But the techniques used to kill have changed, since you can freeze and crit almost on demand as you level up.
This is true. I used to have a 70 mage, no longer, but I recently roled up a new Belf mage on a friends server. I haven't had a level 1 mage since 2005, and I kept trying to play it like I remembered leveling way back when.
And man, that shit just doesn't work. Mages have gotten sooo mcuh better.
TDL on
Meet me on my vast veranda
My sweet, untouched Miranda
And while the seagulls are crying
We fall but our souls are flying
And lo, did the Mages cry out in unison and song, dancing hither and yon in celebration:
Q: The first thing Mages have to do in a raid is make water. There are Soulwells. Will there be a Muffin factory? (laughter and massive applause)
A: Yes. Water and muffin creation like the Soulwell is incoming.
And lo, did the Mages cry out in unison and song, dancing hither and yon in celebration:
Q: The first thing Mages have to do in a raid is make water. There are Soulwells. Will there be a Muffin factory? (laughter and massive applause)
A: Yes. Water and muffin creation like the Soulwell is incoming.
You guys are welcome.
YES YES A THOUSAND TIMES YES.
a penguin on
This space eventually to be filled with excitement
And lo, did the Mages cry out in unison and song, dancing hither and yon in celebration:
Q: The first thing Mages have to do in a raid is make water. There are Soulwells. Will there be a Muffin factory? (laughter and massive applause)
A: Yes. Water and muffin creation like the Soulwell is incoming.
You guys are welcome.
I know you Muffin Man, though I'm not quite sure where you live.
And lo, did the Mages cry out in unison and song, dancing hither and yon in celebration:
Q: The first thing Mages have to do in a raid is make water. There are Soulwells. Will there be a Muffin factory? (laughter and massive applause)
A: Yes. Water and muffin creation like the Soulwell is incoming.
You guys are welcome.
I know you Muffin Man, though I'm not quite sure where you live.
The Muffin Man... The Muffin Man?
You know, The Muffin Man, who lives on Drury Lane.
Okay, I'm stumped. I've run Durnholde for the kilt. I've run Sethekk for the pants. I've run all sorts of instances between 60 and 68 for gear for my mage. Nothing. At all. Has dropped. Since Ramparts. No recolored Magister's, no rings, no trinkets, no weapons, no fucking NOTHING.
I'm at a complete fucking loss as to what to do now. I'm almost 69, and will probably be 70 by the end of the week. I thankfully have a Bringer of Death to equip when I hit 70, but this is fucking ridiculous. I've run so many instances and simply cannot find any gear at all.
It's so frustrating.
korodullin on
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
I used those pants until I got Spellstrike. Last week.
I've been at 70 since...early March?
I suggest going for either those or Battlecast.
As for other gear, good mainhands drop in SL, Mech and Shattered Halls. Mech has the added bonus of dropping a good offhand as well.
Most of my gear is from Tailoring, but the non- tailoring peices came from Heroics/ Kara. The boots from Heroic Slave Pens are nice, and the Mana- Etched Pauldrons drop there (I think...).
There's also a good sword from hitting Revered with CoT.
a penguin on
This space eventually to be filled with excitement
Spellstrike or Battlecast are a no. I'm not going to grind out that mats for another set of crafted gear. I went through that bullshit once for Primal Mooncloth, I'm not doing it again for Spellstrike.
The problem is is that my Mage is not tailoring. I'm not dropping herbalism for Tailoring, and I sure as shit am not dropping Alchemy for it. The only way you could get me to drop herbalism is if I dropped Skinning on my Rogue and then took Herb. Hmm... Which isn't that bad of an idea, come to think of it.
Edit: I should specify that I'm not really all that worried about my Mage. I don't even see him raiding. I'd probably be sticking to 5-mans and soloing and such.
korodullin on
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
Four out of five of those pieces drop in Heroics. I'm talking about stuff I can do for me now or right as I hit 70. Instance groups are already extremely hard to find, and the ones I do get in don't drop anything.
I mean, should I work towards the Incanter's set while I try to rep up for heroics or what?
Also, I don't know what quests I can do right now to get some new gear while I get to 70. I know I can get a new cloak from Nagrand (I just finished Terokkar today halfway through 68), but not what else I can do.
korodullin on
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
Hmm... well you could head to the Netherstorm. You could work on the Arcatraz Key and you get a pretty nice belt for it. I'm in 4/5 of my M-E set, and I'm still wearing it.
You're gonna have to run instances ad nauseum to get the heroic keys, so I guess you might as well work on Incanter's. That's what I did.
Also, it's pretty easy to hit Revered with the Keepers of Time for the Continuum Blade, which is amazing for the amount of effort that goes into getting it.
Yeah, I know about the Arcatraz quest line as well as the Second Sight stuff in Shadowmoon, but those will likely have to wait til I'm 70 to get anything done with them. I plan on hitting them up when I get to 70 though.
As far as a weapon goes, I have a Bringer of Death with +40 spell damage waiting for me at 70, so I'll be good for a little bit. I do need to run Black Morass several times for all the things I need for this obnoxious Elixir Mastery quest.
korodullin on
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
I would rather highly recommend you not go seeking out Incanter's. It's not a horrible set, so if it drops, great, but there's pretty much always going to be a better piece for the slot from a similarly difficult instance.
Crit is overrated. If you're way damage heavy or have a certain gear/spec setup (like arc/fire w/ lightning capacitor and lots of other on-crit procs) then the value of one crit rating approachs the value of one point of damage. In the general case though, 1 dam > 1 crit - I think when I was running a 10/48/3 build my theorycraft value was around 0.7.
So yeah, the extra 11 damage on Oblivion chest is greater than 8 spell crit. Also, spellstrike is so worth it. Maybe spellcloth on my server is slightly depressed in value due to a ton of spellcloth tailors, but the market value of a piece of spellstrike is around 700g, which is a weeks worth of daily quests. 10-16 hours for the best available piece until well into 25 man raiding? Yes please. If this is just an occasional alt then maybe the cost isn't worth it, but it really is that good.
Anyway, I wouldn't worry about gear before 70. You'll be fine getting there. Some basic items though:
Helm :
Evoker's Helmet of Second Sight - Quest reward
Shoulders :
Spaulders of the Torn-heart - Quest reward
Chest :
Robe of the Crimson Order - BoE Drop
Auchenai Anchorite's Robe - Quest reward
Many assorted blue 70 instance drops
Legs :
Soothsayer's Kilt - Quest Reward
Gloves :
Grips of the Void - Quest Reward
Boots :
Shattrath Jumpers - Quest Reward
Belt :
A'dal's Gift - Quest Reward
Bracers :
Bracers of Havok - Crafted
Note, you very well may want to use two pieces of the Netherweave set because the set bonus is so good. Personally I used Netherweave Belt and Netherweave Boots for a very long time.
Neck :
Natasha's Ember Necklace - Quest Reward
Back :
Cloak of Woven Energy - Quest Reward
Cloak of the Black Void - Crafted
Ring x2 :
Evoker's Mark of the Redemption - Quest Reward
Manastorm Band - Quest Reward
Trinket x2 :
You have a bunch of options from quests here. One pair -
Glowing Crystal Insignia - Quest Reward
Mark of Defiance - Quick PvP Quest Reward
Weapon :
Continuum Blade - Keepers of Time Revered
You have to keep in mind that I don't ever plan to raid with this Mage. He's an alt, but not really an occasional one. He'll probably be tied for main with my Priest, but I'm done with raiding after WLK comes out. I will never do it again unless I can really find some good incentive. I originally intended him to be some kind of Arena bitch,
And I will not drop Alchemy. Not after having discovered two different fairly in-demand elixirs. If I drop anything, it'll be Herbalism, but not being able to find my own herbs is a huge pain in the ass. I'd have to make my Rogue Herbalism instead of skinning, and that's an enormous chore.
I'll take the other gear into consideration when I hit 70 in the next day or two though.
korodullin on
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
You have to keep in mind that I don't ever plan to raid with this Mage. He's an alt, but not really an occasional one. He'll probably be tied for main with my Priest, but I'm done with raiding after WLK comes out. I will never do it again unless I can really find some good incentive. I originally intended him to be some kind of Arena bitch,
All the more reason to get best available pre-raid items then, since by definition you won't be replacing them til WotLK Though you may want to figure out if you want to gear up for PvE, PvP, or both, since the stats you care about are fairly different (my pvp set has 4000 health and 400 resilience more than my pve set for example, though most high end pvp gear is from arena/honor points)
And I will not drop Alchemy. Not after having discovered two different fairly in-demand elixirs. If I drop anything, it'll be Herbalism, but not being able to find my own herbs is a huge pain in the ass. I'd have to make my Rogue Herbalism instead of skinning, and that's an enormous chore.
Well, levelling up herbalism is stupid fast, expecially with the old zones so empty these days. That said, there was a reason I didn't suggest Spellfire. Spellstrike is the two piece head/leg set and while the set bonus is tailor only, the set itself can be used by anyone. So you can keep herb/alc and still wear 203 damage, 50 crit, 52 hit in two slots (or 179 dam, 74 crit depending on gems - this is with blue gems, glyph of power, runic spellthread).
Also, as a general rule, do 10 arena games a week. This can be a 2v2 with another alt that barely stays above 1300, but a little bit is better than nothing. A friend of mine with 3 70s rotates them through with 3 other alts doing 3-4 games per character, spends less than 45 minutes per week, and gets ~250 honor points times per character. It takes some time, but he now has badass weapons on all of them.
Well, there's also an issue with Arena. In about two weeks, my account is going to be lapsing for a couple of months or so, and then I'll be back until the expansion. Depending on when season 3 comes out, it may not be likely that I'll have enough arena points to actually get any weapons on my Mage, since you'll also have to have a high enough rating to buy them as well.
As for Spellfire/Spellstrike, there's a sillier, pettier reason I really don't want to get it. My Priest is a Mooncloth tailor. I have the Primal Mooncloth set. So does everyone else. Every Mage on Whisperwind either has Frozen Shadoweave or Spellfire. It's boring to look like everyone else all the time (though of course I would be kind of unique, since there are next to no Draenei Mages running around).
Meh, I dunno. I'm still trying to finish up Nagrand quest on my Mage, and I have 80% of a level to go.
korodullin on
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
As for Spellfire/Spellstrike, there's a sillier, pettier reason I really don't want to get it. My Priest is a Mooncloth tailor. I have the Primal Mooncloth set. So does everyone else. Every Mage on Whisperwind either has Frozen Shadoweave or Spellfire. It's boring to look like everyone else all the time (though of course I would be kind of unique, since there are next to no Draenei Mages running around).
Thats the reason I don't have the tailoring stuff either. Coupled with the fact that I actually like Alchemy (potion spec makes equipping my raids much easier) and have a few elixir recipes.
IMO, the epic tailoring stuff is good and all, but I just can't like it. For comparison:
edit: He used to be fire as well, and had as much spell damage as me. His spec wasn't the first thing I looked for so I now see why his spell damage is less. Still, even without the epics I consider myself well geared.
Not to nitpick too much, since you gear is fine, but the mage you linked really hasn't done much raiding (two low-kara drops and only the revered ring) or heroics (one drop, no badge rewards) or PvP (one honor reward, no arena teams), and really not that much tailoring (one piece of shadoweave, though he may have a full spellfire set in the bank). He's in a full PvP spec too.
Also, you can't count mind-mastery when comparing spell damage, since he can respec to arcane as well, and you really should look at school damage not total damage. So he's at 741 frost and you're at 643 general, which makes sense given both of your current points of progression.
Anyway, Spellstrike is head/legs - you don't see legs anyway and I turn off helms because it's fugly.
Does it drive anyone else crazy that there's no Arcane / Frost epic tailored gear? I just wonder, are there really mages out there that use Arcane and Fire? I can't imagine anyone specced in both would use Arcane for anything but PoM and counterspell.
I would skin a thousand kittens irl to get "Frozen Arcanoweave".
I'm about to jump back into WoW after a 5 month break, I have a level 70 mage specced Arcane/Fire I think. But I was wondering have their been any major changes to any of the Mage Talents or skills with any of the recent patches. I didn't keep up with anything while I wasn't playing.
I'm AP/Scorch. I use Scorch/Fireblast for my primary dps rotation. If concerned with mana efficiency/threat I'll go AB/Scorchx4 and cancel spell for Arcane Missiles on Clearcast. This is rather efficient as I've got +30% crit chance on clearcasted spells. I am the reason Sunfire has less spell damage than Soulfrost (not me, specifically, but the type).
Now, as Frost spec, why the hell would you use arcane spells bar Improved AM for when you've a hankerin to screw with someone's casting?
Posts
Also, Tseric is a douche, and his argument is pretty damn stupid. Omg Clutter.
what a fucking toolbox
Regardless of what Tseric says, you don't need offhand enchants, because MH + OH is inherently better anyway.
I dunno why they can't just come out and say "Because off-hands are tuned so high we think it would be imbal" if that's the case. The fact that Tseric's just spewing bullshit (and he obviously is) gives me the impression that it's just laziness or mage hate on Blizz's part.
I don't actually think that's the case, I'm just saying they feed this perspective with these sort of replies. No wonder they fired him!
I haven't really thought about what that means in the context of this discussion, I just felt like throwing that out there.
I hated that for a long time.
I think blizz just doesn't know how to do decent caster enchants well.
Not much better, but you do gain a great deal of control between now and 70.
By the time you hit 70, you'll have no idea how to play a low level mage anymore. It's still "kill a couple, rest". But the techniques used to kill have changed, since you can freeze and crit almost on demand as you level up.
Is it really that hard? Are we just bitter because we're magi?
I mean shit.
Spell damage, Int, MP/5 for Healers, Stamina(EVERYONE needs Stamina), Resilience, Spell Crit/Hit...It's really not too difficult.
Obviously, at low levels, Stamina and Int will help more than low-level +Spell damage. I'll get more out of +4 Int and +3 Stamina than I will out of +6 spell damage.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
My sweet, untouched Miranda
And while the seagulls are crying
We fall but our souls are flying
This is true. I used to have a 70 mage, no longer, but I recently roled up a new Belf mage on a friends server. I haven't had a level 1 mage since 2005, and I kept trying to play it like I remembered leveling way back when.
And man, that shit just doesn't work. Mages have gotten sooo mcuh better.
My sweet, untouched Miranda
And while the seagulls are crying
We fall but our souls are flying
You guys are welcome.
YES YES A THOUSAND TIMES YES.
I know you Muffin Man, though I'm not quite sure where you live.
The Muffin Man... The Muffin Man?
You know, The Muffin Man, who lives on Drury Lane.
I'm at a complete fucking loss as to what to do now. I'm almost 69, and will probably be 70 by the end of the week. I thankfully have a Bringer of Death to equip when I hit 70, but this is fucking ridiculous. I've run so many instances and simply cannot find any gear at all.
It's so frustrating.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
I've been at 70 since...early March?
I suggest going for either those or Battlecast.
As for other gear, good mainhands drop in SL, Mech and Shattered Halls. Mech has the added bonus of dropping a good offhand as well.
Most of my gear is from Tailoring, but the non- tailoring peices came from Heroics/ Kara. The boots from Heroic Slave Pens are nice, and the Mana- Etched Pauldrons drop there (I think...).
There's also a good sword from hitting Revered with CoT.
The problem is is that my Mage is not tailoring. I'm not dropping herbalism for Tailoring, and I sure as shit am not dropping Alchemy for it. The only way you could get me to drop herbalism is if I dropped Skinning on my Rogue and then took Herb. Hmm... Which isn't that bad of an idea, come to think of it.
Edit: I should specify that I'm not really all that worried about my Mage. I don't even see him raiding. I'd probably be sticking to 5-mans and soloing and such.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
This set is awesome; the 4-piece bonus procs all the time, and everything drops in 5-mannable instances.
I mean, should I work towards the Incanter's set while I try to rep up for heroics or what?
Also, I don't know what quests I can do right now to get some new gear while I get to 70. I know I can get a new cloak from Nagrand (I just finished Terokkar today halfway through 68), but not what else I can do.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
Also there's a quest chain in Shadowmoon Valley that gets you a pretty dece helmet with GhostVision
You're gonna have to run instances ad nauseum to get the heroic keys, so I guess you might as well work on Incanter's. That's what I did.
Also, it's pretty easy to hit Revered with the Keepers of Time for the Continuum Blade, which is amazing for the amount of effort that goes into getting it.
As far as a weapon goes, I have a Bringer of Death with +40 spell damage waiting for me at 70, so I'll be good for a little bit. I do need to run Black Morass several times for all the things I need for this obnoxious Elixir Mastery quest.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
I used the Robes of Oblivion until I got Spellstrike. Very good robes.
And I'm not using Oblivion. Has no spellcrit.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
Crit is overrated. If you're way damage heavy or have a certain gear/spec setup (like arc/fire w/ lightning capacitor and lots of other on-crit procs) then the value of one crit rating approachs the value of one point of damage. In the general case though, 1 dam > 1 crit - I think when I was running a 10/48/3 build my theorycraft value was around 0.7.
So yeah, the extra 11 damage on Oblivion chest is greater than 8 spell crit. Also, spellstrike is so worth it. Maybe spellcloth on my server is slightly depressed in value due to a ton of spellcloth tailors, but the market value of a piece of spellstrike is around 700g, which is a weeks worth of daily quests. 10-16 hours for the best available piece until well into 25 man raiding? Yes please. If this is just an occasional alt then maybe the cost isn't worth it, but it really is that good.
Anyway, I wouldn't worry about gear before 70. You'll be fine getting there. Some basic items though:
Helm :
Evoker's Helmet of Second Sight - Quest reward
Shoulders :
Spaulders of the Torn-heart - Quest reward
Chest :
Robe of the Crimson Order - BoE Drop
Auchenai Anchorite's Robe - Quest reward
Many assorted blue 70 instance drops
Legs :
Soothsayer's Kilt - Quest Reward
Gloves :
Grips of the Void - Quest Reward
Boots :
Shattrath Jumpers - Quest Reward
Belt :
A'dal's Gift - Quest Reward
Bracers :
Bracers of Havok - Crafted
Note, you very well may want to use two pieces of the Netherweave set because the set bonus is so good. Personally I used Netherweave Belt and Netherweave Boots for a very long time.
Neck :
Natasha's Ember Necklace - Quest Reward
Back :
Cloak of Woven Energy - Quest Reward
Cloak of the Black Void - Crafted
Ring x2 :
Evoker's Mark of the Redemption - Quest Reward
Manastorm Band - Quest Reward
Trinket x2 :
You have a bunch of options from quests here. One pair -
Glowing Crystal Insignia - Quest Reward
Mark of Defiance - Quick PvP Quest Reward
Weapon :
Continuum Blade - Keepers of Time Revered
Offhand :
The Saga of Terokk - Quest Reward
Wand :
Nesingwary Safari Stick - Quest Reward
And I will not drop Alchemy. Not after having discovered two different fairly in-demand elixirs. If I drop anything, it'll be Herbalism, but not being able to find my own herbs is a huge pain in the ass. I'd have to make my Rogue Herbalism instead of skinning, and that's an enormous chore.
I'll take the other gear into consideration when I hit 70 in the next day or two though.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
All the more reason to get best available pre-raid items then, since by definition you won't be replacing them til WotLK
Well, levelling up herbalism is stupid fast, expecially with the old zones so empty these days. That said, there was a reason I didn't suggest Spellfire. Spellstrike is the two piece head/leg set and while the set bonus is tailor only, the set itself can be used by anyone. So you can keep herb/alc and still wear 203 damage, 50 crit, 52 hit in two slots (or 179 dam, 74 crit depending on gems - this is with blue gems, glyph of power, runic spellthread).
Also, as a general rule, do 10 arena games a week. This can be a 2v2 with another alt that barely stays above 1300, but a little bit is better than nothing. A friend of mine with 3 70s rotates them through with 3 other alts doing 3-4 games per character, spends less than 45 minutes per week, and gets ~250 honor points times per character. It takes some time, but he now has badass weapons on all of them.
As for Spellfire/Spellstrike, there's a sillier, pettier reason I really don't want to get it. My Priest is a Mooncloth tailor. I have the Primal Mooncloth set. So does everyone else. Every Mage on Whisperwind either has Frozen Shadoweave or Spellfire. It's boring to look like everyone else all the time (though of course I would be kind of unique, since there are next to no Draenei Mages running around).
Meh, I dunno. I'm still trying to finish up Nagrand quest on my Mage, and I have 80% of a level to go.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
Thats the reason I don't have the tailoring stuff either. Coupled with the fact that I actually like Alchemy (potion spec makes equipping my raids much easier) and have a few elixir recipes.
IMO, the epic tailoring stuff is good and all, but I just can't like it. For comparison:
Here is a mage in my guild, raids constantly, and took tailoring just for the pieces.
Here is my mage
edit: He used to be fire as well, and had as much spell damage as me. His spec wasn't the first thing I looked for so I now see why his spell damage is less. Still, even without the epics I consider myself well geared.
Also, you can't count mind-mastery when comparing spell damage, since he can respec to arcane as well, and you really should look at school damage not total damage. So he's at 741 frost and you're at 643 general, which makes sense given both of your current points of progression.
Anyway, Spellstrike is head/legs - you don't see legs anyway and I turn off helms because it's fugly.
I would skin a thousand kittens irl to get "Frozen Arcanoweave".
Now, as Frost spec, why the hell would you use arcane spells bar Improved AM for when you've a hankerin to screw with someone's casting?
The only reason I ask is due to some strange "a more powerful spell is active" messages while trying to refresh the shield during some runs today.
Doesn't your own +spell damage not effect your barriers?
As for Arcane/Fire, it's what I'd be doing on my second mage if I weren't have so much fun with my Shaman.