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Best Arcane Mage Double Legendaries
I would like to start by saying that Arcane Mages are very lucky among mages in general to have a covenant available that actually gets a sizable amount of player power from baselined covenant legendaries. However, it also has the drawback of non-Kyrian covenants seeing virtually no benefit from this change. It's worth noting that many of the issues I present here are specifically for single target as all the covenants are close enough in AOE with variance usually depending on target counts.
The TLDR of things is that for Arcane, Kyrian was already very dominant in the community and is shaping up to be the only competitive option in 9.2 and this addition is simply further solidfying that position. Venthyr, while it comes close numerically, does not offer anything exceptional that you can't get from Kyrian, which comes with the added benefit of funnel. Necrolord and Night Fae are approaching non-viable status as they are currently more than 10% behind Kyrian, offer nothing unique or particularly useful for raiding or M+, and the changes discussed below will only further that gap.
It is prudent to mention that the below perceptions aren't really changed by the recent 2-piece set bonus nerf (
18% 10%
Касание мага damage) as it impacts all covenants, though it does serve to exacerbate the differences that exist already as well as those discussed below. Lastly, before we go on to discuss individual covenants, I won't be differentiating between viability in raid versus viability in M+, Arcane's AOE is relatively good regardless of covenant choice and so it really lives or dies in M+ and Raid based on it's ability to do ST and prio/funnel damage.
Kyrian: Гармоничное эхо &
Чародейская гармонияThis is the primary legendary combination we will use once we unlock double legendaries in Zereth Mortis.
Гармоничное эхо already has extremely good synergy with the Kyrian ability
Сияющая искра.
Чародейская гармония builds onto this synergy by splashing 25% of the damage dealt to your RS target to your target and 4 nearby enemies. The outcome of this is that Arcane has become an absolute powerhouse on 5-target cleave on top of it's already formidable 5-target funnel.
The one thing to note about this change is that it does materially change the burst rotation; gone are the days of queueing
Чародейский обстрел after your 5th
Чародейская вспышка cast, instead we will aim to cast 4
Чародейская вспышка, then not queue the
Чародейский обстрел. The reason for this is simple -
Гармоничное эхо does not allow for
Чародейский обстрел to double dip the same way that
Сияющая искра does. This is a bit awkward in practice as intentional pausing is not something intuitive in WoW rotations, however the command /cqs may be helpful when macro'd to
Чародейский обстрел, but this is still being explored.
Venthyr: Греховная отрада &
Энергия буриUnfortunately for Venthyr, the only other covenant even remotely close to Kyrian in power, the covenant legendary does not reduce the cooldown on
Истязающие зеркала enough to be a 45 second cooldown, which would allow it to sync with
Касание мага. The cooldown with this legendary is on average around 60-70 seconds which, combined with Arcane's need to have this used in burst windows for maximum effectiveness, essentially means that this legendary does nothing in any situation as you will always pair it with
Мощь тайной магии.
Interestingly enough, Venthyr comes very close in single-target even without the covenant legendary effect doing anything. For this reason, I do not anticipate any changes to this legendary, though it would be welcomed. There is likely still some theorycrafting to go for this covenant as well since there may be a better performing combo than with
Энергия бури.
Necrolord: Постижение смерти &
Энергия бури or
Искажение времениNecrolord's covenant legendary provides very little for Arcane as it only really provides additional uptime on
Дитя смерти which means very little for us outside of
Касание мага windows, the % dmg stacking buff does very little. Necrolord was already significantly behind, largely due to both the power of
Дитя смерти being focused on it's duration rather than it's potency and the best third conduit option adding 100% uptime plays into this problem; the covenant legendary exacerbates this issue further and the final result is a covenant that embodies exactly what Arcane does not want from a borrowed power. As with Venthyr, there may be additional theorycrafting that needs to happen to fully optimize Necrolord, however it is very unlikely at this point that it will catchup to Venthyr or Kyrian.
Night Fae: Арденвельдское сердце &
Энергия бури or
Искажение времениFinally, Night Fae shares the same fate as Necrolord for similar reasons. Night Fae's covenant legendary provides a significant stat buff after using
Переходящая сила, however you only use this after cooldowns as Arcane in single-target and after a few GCDs in AOE. Much of the buff's duration will be lost and in single-target this is only 4% crit/haste for 15 seconds. Night Fae is in a similar state as Necrolord with quicker cooldown resets (more uptime overall) and less potency within cooldowns (both not having a covenant ability increasing damage done as well as trinkets covering less cd windows or being a lower powered trinket). As with Necrolord, there may be additional theorycrafting but it is very unlikely to shore up the very large gap in power between Night Fae and Kyrian or Venthyr.
Conclusion
Without specific buffs designed to shore up their weaknesses, Necrolord and Night Fae are dead on arrival for Arcane Mages looking to perform optimally. Venthyr may be slightly stronger than Kyrian for ST fights for one or two weeks, but that's limited to the duration of time where you have 4pc and do not have the covenant legendary. Without any additional covenant-specific tuning, it's very likely Kyrian will be the dominant covenant for Arcane Mages throughout 9.2 in all PvE content.
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Best Fire Mage Double Legendaries for Sepulcher of the First Ones
Night Fae: Арденвельдское сердце &
Благословение Солнечного короляThis is the default combination for Night Fae Fire Mages.
Арденвельдское сердце provides very little damage in Single Target but with two or three targets hit, it actually provides a moderate (more than 5%) increase.
Благословение Солнечного короля has a lot of synergy with the new tier 4p bonus:
Огненный рывок. Due to recent nerfs to the Fire 4p, the value of has
Греховная отрада decreased, bringing Venthyr down to be mostly in line with Night Fae for Single Target (without externals). Because of this, Night Fae will be preferred in cleave and AoE, but the ultimate decision on which covenant to raid as will likely come down to fight timings, preference, soulbinds, and covenant signature abilities.
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Best Frost Mage Double Legendaries for Sepulcher of the First Ones
Before we get started, Frost Mage is unique in that it actually has multiple legendaries depending on the target count. Most of these options have very little synergy with the covenant legendaries. If the legendaries are without notable differences for the covenant, they will be lumped together. Frost's best Legendaries are
Ледяные ветра generally and
Скользкий лед for Single Target. Frost Mage is very strong in AoE and will likely be the preferred spec for Mythic+. The
Морозная буря and
Морозная буря set bonuses are strong, especially in AoE, but ultimately don't affect our choices here.
Venthyr: Греховная отрада &
Ледяные ветра or
Скользкий ледVenthyr Frost Mages running
Греховная отрада gain a small bump in Single Target, due to the cooldown reduction for
Истязающие зеркала. In AoE, this covenant legendary provides very little since
Истязающие зеркала doesn't do much for us outside of Single Target. This combination doesn't shake things up much and has very little synergy, but since Venthyr is already strong in Single Target any gain is welcome. I recommend sticking with
Ледяные ветра or
Скользкий лед for Venthyr since at higher target counts in AoE other covenants are preferred.
