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averly · 10/05/07, 5:17 PM

What content are you raiding?

At your gear level I am guessing Karazhan. I was and am an arcane mage throughout BC raiding (we are now early in SSC/TK). And here is my experience:

In Karazhan, once I got all 5 pieces of tailored gear I would be in a close race for 1 or 2 with a well-played rogue. I was doing AB spam on trash and AOEing and ABx3 AMx1 cycles on bosses. It was challenging and fun -- I especially loved doing the imps on illhoof with my FR set.

But when we got together with the other Kara group to start Gruuls, I found that the other mage with equivalent gear and a classic fire build would out damage me very easily. I fell to the middle of the pack. (He would be top 3, I was normally 7-10). I still would out damage our medoicre players and I could out burst just about anyone, but sustained damage wasn't there (even in an SP group). The reasons for this were 3-fold:

1) Fights were longer so mana management is more important. Fire is just more efficient.
2) Fights required more moving which makes maintaining cycles nearly impossible. The key to AB cycles is being able to get a 1.5 sec AB for 190 mana.
3) Longer time spent on the last 20% of the boss's damage means more boost to fire spec.

I had lots of fun doing arcane thru this, but if you want to do top damage, it is not a good choice. (I was always 1 or 2 on HK fight tho FYI -- it is a faster burst em down type of fight.)

With 2.2 another option opened up for arcane mages. AM spam with MSD (especially if you have the LC) is very viable pre-T5 if you have access to a SP and/or high JoW uptime. With that I am now competitive with our top fire mage, and in the top 5 most of the time now. I would say that he still does more damage on most boss fights, especially new ones, but it is much much closer.

If you are having mana issues with AM spam you can do ABx1 AMx2 with AM on clearcast or focus proc's and it will stretch the mana much further with the extra regen ticks. This does not require timing like the other AB cycles so it is much easier to accomplish.

I haven't done the real analysis of AM spam vs AB spam with 2 piece T5, but my impression is that T5 just went from an absolute must have for the arcane mage (people were telling me to pull rank and take it over the other mages, locks and hunters) to really good to have but not worth the political drama

Bottom line: starting raiding either AM spam with MSD and SP or classic deep fire is viable. AB rotations should really wait until T5.

10/05/07, 5:17 PM	#9 (permalink)
averly Von Kaiser Averly Human Mage <Lexington> Kul Tiras	What content are you raiding? At your gear level I am guessing Karazhan. I was and am an arcane mage throughout BC raiding (we are now early in SSC/TK). And here is my experience: In Karazhan, once I got all 5 pieces of tailored gear I would be in a close race for 1 or 2 with a well-played rogue. I was doing AB spam on trash and AOEing and ABx3 AMx1 cycles on bosses. It was challenging and fun -- I especially loved doing the imps on illhoof with my FR set. But when we got together with the other Kara group to start Gruuls, I found that the other mage with equivalent gear and a classic fire build would out damage me very easily. I fell to the middle of the pack. (He would be top 3, I was normally 7-10). I still would out damage our medoicre players and I could out burst just about anyone, but sustained damage wasn't there (even in an SP group). The reasons for this were 3-fold: 1) Fights were longer so mana management is more important. Fire is just more efficient. 2) Fights required more moving which makes maintaining cycles nearly impossible. The key to AB cycles is being able to get a 1.5 sec AB for 190 mana. 3) Longer time spent on the last 20% of the boss's damage means more boost to fire spec. I had lots of fun doing arcane thru this, but if you want to do top damage, it is not a good choice. (I was always 1 or 2 on HK fight tho FYI -- it is a faster burst em down type of fight.) With 2.2 another option opened up for arcane mages. AM spam with MSD (especially if you have the LC) is very viable pre-T5 if you have access to a SP and/or high JoW uptime. With that I am now competitive with our top fire mage, and in the top 5 most of the time now. I would say that he still does more damage on most boss fights, especially new ones, but it is much much closer. If you are having mana issues with AM spam you can do ABx1 AMx2 with AM on clearcast or focus proc's and it will stretch the mana much further with the extra regen ticks. This does not require timing like the other AB cycles so it is much easier to accomplish. I haven't done the real analysis of AM spam vs AB spam with 2 piece T5, but my impression is that T5 just went from an absolute must have for the arcane mage (people were telling me to pull rank and take it over the other mages, locks and hunters) to really good to have but not worth the political drama Bottom line: starting raiding either AM spam with MSD and SP or classic deep fire is viable. AB rotations should really wait until T5.