I see you guys saying this is better than the arcanist mantle and i wonder, is it really? lets take a look...

Arc. Mantle:
21 int
5 spi
10 sta
7 SR
4/5 mana
+14 damage

Maz'nadir
11 stam
15 int
7 spirit
21 damage


Mmmmk. so it seems the mantles are comparable. Easily equal, but maz superior? i'm not so sure. 7 damage isn't a massive difference, but it is a difference. However, i don't think i'd sacrifice the regen, and the 8 int for it. In the end, i think i'd go for Arcanist. 'Sides, never know when SR will come in handy.. that nasty warlock maybe? never know. that lucky resist can save your life.

Bedsides, my guild raids MC and hits rag often, haven't downed him yet but things look good, however, we have not downed rajaxx. got him to about 2%, but rajaxx is a bitch to beat. (rajaxx is hte boss before moam incase you didn't know). Further more, many of the guilds who beat rajaxx regularly on my server hit BWL or MC every week at the least. It isn't like this is some strath drop, its not all that easy to get a hold of. In conclusion, i would deduce that these mantles are close to equal, but i would go with the arcanist mantle for various reasons.
1. mana regen pwns hard.
2. Set bonuses on arcanist are pretty sweet.
in case you didn't know, they are as follows:
3 pieces: 18 damage
5 pieces: -10 resist on targets
8 pieces: reduces agro generated by 15%

Behold! the might of set bonuses is victorious! we all know arcanist robe sucks hard (worse than allana's embrace for gods sake) but its the set bonuses that make it worth wearing. "...The whole is greater than the sum of its parts..."

Edited, Thu Apr 6 01:07:18 2006

These shoulders are probably designed to be just under the stat limit for making them epic quality, like quite a lot of the blues in AQ20. Hopefully i can get these soon, giving me about 9 extra dmg over illusionist mantle, but i can get the bracers to keep the two piece bonus 12 dmg (inc robe). If i can get these i will need about 30 more +dmg to get a 1k frostbolt without any BWL gear.

as for the mana regen comments - if you are doing twice the dmg for the same amount of mana, you only need half the mana to do the same damage. so in effect you get double the "mana" from gems, evocation, etc. Anyway, its a rare occasion when mages should be OOM anyway (unless theyre aoeing some trash)

Edited, Wed Mar 22 03:29:28 2006

Just got them on Haoumarush. :-]

AQ is teh sh*t