solbergb

Which means SF is better by the usual critera (if you have enough stam today to stay alive with SF, you don't need more stam, but more crit is always helpful, especially with 3.x mechanics)

 

cbags

One thing I do notice though is that the bonus for the FSW v SF...no bonus for a fire mage, but frost gets the spellpower set bonus. I think the normalization of gear is going to throw a wrench into clothies for raids...looking at the wrath wowhead, all of the healing stuff has been reitemized, and items like the healing robe in ZA are good for mages. Yhis means I might have gear to roll on, but if it's pre-patch, I am going to have to argue with people as to WHY I am rolling on what appears to be a healing item.

To bad there isn't a way to link items as they appear in post 3.0.2, in the 2.4.3 world.

 

Knik

I've searched quite a bit and couldn't find any solid info on this, so my apologies if this is answered already.

For Non-Arcane spells...
It's my understanding that the Lvl 80 Hit Cap for spells will be 446. Round(26.23 * 17). Elemental Precision will provide 3%, reducing the Hit Cap to 367. Round(26.23*14). It seems that either Misery (Priest|Shadow) or Improved Faerie Fire (Druid|Balance) can provide a debuff that can reduce that another 3%. That would put the effective Hit Cap at 289 on mobs where one of those debuffs is applied.

I have not be able to locate any BUFFS that improve your Hit. So is the goal 367/289, or am I missing something?

 

Lil_Dollar

I was just wondering if anyone has done anything with raiding at 70 with 2 piece Tier 5 bonus... I know Arcane Blast is still broken on beta, but is the patch going to impliment the nerf to the spell and to the set bonus in the 3.02 patch, or will Arcane still be viable before WotLK?

 

Larisa

Now it's only a few days before the ideas in Mage Sweet Informational thread will become obsolete. And I'm still scratching my head about what spec to pick for this last month of raiding before the expansion hits and I haven't been able to find any clear advice about it in the other threads.

Currently I'm raiding T6 instances as arcane/frost, 40/0/21, and I've been happy doing so thanks to the 2t5 bonus.
Of course I've ajusted my gear to it, lowering the spellhit a great deal.

If arcane is as broken as some claim and the bonus is heavily nerfed, I've got badges enough to put in some spellhit gems, so respeccing fire is definitly possible.

I'd really appreciate some advice from more experienced mage collegues: How do you suggest that I spec in the near future? (I'm not asking for a levelling build for WotLK, that's another story).

 

Petrus

As far as I can tell, all item changes are implemented in 3.0.2 to go with the talent changes. How that affects Arcane's viability I don't know, but the bonus will be 5% instead of 20%.

I had a quick question of my own, too: I have a relatively well-geared PvE frost mage (0/0/61 and t5ish gear) and I'm curious - is the ghost hit gone from Elemental Precision now? Did they finally fix it? I've been sitting "capped" with 127 hit for quite a while, and I know I need to get a little more because of the change to spell hit mechanics, but it would still be nice to know if I need to get a LOT more or just a little more.

 

inphared

Yes they did fix the ghost hit from what I've heard/read. Don't forget though that you now get 3% hit from shadow priests or moonkins and it's a raid-wide buff.

 

ravenndude

AB spam is now not worth it, with the changes from Old AB to New AB and Old 2xT5 to new 2xT5.

If you chose an arcane spec, you are going to be using a Fireball Nuke with ABar on cooldown and Arcane Missile on missile barrage procs. Even a spec like that isn't worth it.

If you look at my post patch level 70 score board you will see that a spec like that is 6th in damage. And to model this, I didn't use a sunwell mage, I used my 40/0/21 mage who is raiding T6 content (like yourself).

 

Roywyn

I think you're being a bit harsh on 53/8/0 there, as it's only 3% behind right now and fire can easily lose 1%-2% to Ignite bugging.

I did run Naxx once as 50/3/18 AB spam spec when it was the the big thing.
There were so many situations where I really badly regretted not having taken Arcane Barrage for DPS on the run.
(There was also the thing of me having 75 hit rating and the AB debuff dropping left and right due to spell resists.)

For Sunwell, I see Arcane Barrage as very useful on Kalecgos and Kil'jaeden, and likely all other fights except Brutallus.
You do need a second mage for Scorch/Chill though of you spec Arcane and care for progression.

Arcane Blast spam is really really dead right now, its DPS is bad and it's a mana hog.
If the DPS goes up and fight lengths become a joke with the health nerf, it may be sustainable though.
And about your gems and gear - you need to regear anyway since all specs get at most 3% from talents now.

The Blue Bar and you - the complete Fire Mage 2.4 mana compendium: http://elitistjerks.com/658230-post3191.html

DPS spec and class comparison in Naxxramas gear: http://code.google.com/p/simulationc...i/SampleOutput
This assumes Rune of Razorice and Slow for Torment unless noted as "No TtW".
More detailed at http://elitistjerks.com/923110-post2775.html

And [Timbal's Focusing Crystal] doesn't proc on AM.

 

Nastrodamus

I noticed it's 6th in damage but I also noticed that the differences between 1-6 are not so great that a mage just has no other choice but fire. At least in my opinion. I have to give a full arcane spec a try so I will be using a combo of AB, ABr and MBAM when it procs. Should matter much really with all the reductions and nerfs to encounters they are doing. I say this is a great chance to learn the specs.... all of them and see what best fits the individual.

 

ravenndude

17% total against level 73 mobs, so with 3% from talents, that makes 14%. 14*12.62 = 177hit (rounded up)

Remember, if you have a SP or Moonkin with imp farie fire, then that takes you down to 11% => 139hit (rounded up)

 

stormbf

and with inspiring presence you can ditch a bit more spellhit. I'm really low on spellhit and even had to gem some spellhit , but with this patch i think i could afford to change those gems. Is inspiring presence also gonna be raidwide, btw? If so, you can pretty much be guaranteed 4% spellhit outside of your gear and spec.

 

ravenndude

Inspiring Presence is still just a party buff.

 

angayelle

Don't forget that now you can use the +20hit rating food which was reserved for melee before 3.0

It's something really worth using if you're not hit capped...

 

Darcan

Not to mention the surefooted enchant on boots. I guess this is the best enchant for boots now - right?

 

maxi

I think i'll stick with boar's speed enchant to be honest.
Running speed is something i have grown extremely accustomed to. 10 rating is not worth losing it.

The hit food, on the other hand, is interesting. I have a suspicion that it might be better than 23 dam food we currently use (provided you are far enough below hit cap).

 

Darcan

surefooted also adds 10 crit - or did I miss something? I have been looking for some info on this and im not sure actually where to obtain this? Is it the old enchant that has changed (from that snare and root resist) or is a boot enchant that you buy of a vendor? Thot and wowhead cant agree on this... any intell?

 

Shamroq

Surefooted was changed to 10 hit / 10 crit instead of 10 hit / snare resist - making it (to me) a very viable option.

On another note.. I don't see a forum post on this.. but what are some early thoughts on spell rotation? I opted for 10/51 with living bomb... and just from our first bit of sw last night it's going to be a handful. Scorch stacks still must stay up, + lb should be reapplied as soon as it's off, + catching hot streak and tossing in the pyro each time that procs = a lot more attention than a fire mage used to have to pay! FB spam days are officially done for this gal...

I'm planning on heading out to Dr. Boom tonight to test for a bit, but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Tezcatlipoca

im sorry if this question was already answered... but the 1% that was always there to be missed was removed? or the hit chance was reduced to 82%?

thanks

 

Seonid

Yes this has been answered several times before, but since I am waiting for half an Amazon rain forest to hit the printer, allow me.
Yes the 1% miss chance has been removed meaning you can hit cap at 100% spell hit, which is (rounded up) 215 hit rating before talents and gear at level 70.

 

Wizeowel

If you are struggling with the rotation, you could also try 11/50/0 and not bother with living bomb. Your personal dps may become less/more depending on setup, but overall raid dps should go up if you put your focus magic on someone who can use the 3% extra crit effectively.

 

inphared

Yeah I went with 11/50 myself but my server was so messed yesterday I never had a chance to test it out. Hopefully if things are going well I can test it out on Brutallus tonight. If I have no problem maintaining mana with 11/50 I think Im going to give 10/51 a try as it is more DPS but a lot more work to get the most out of it.

Has anyone been able to try an actual SWP raid yet with deep fire (10/51/0, 11/50/0, 0/50/11) and have mana problems?

 

Chalii

I decided to go 0/50/11. I wanted IV because it just so great to have the added speed for more dps.

Here is the build: Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

I also went for Dragons Breath because I can't count the times I used to to save someone from getting killed by a run away mob. It's pretty handy when clearing trash in random heroics/Black Temple/Sunwell.

I ran the spec last night in some heroics and I have to say that the dps is pretty good. It's almost the same kind of spec as the cookie cutter one. I'm going to be giving it a try tonight in Sunwell and see how it holds up compared to the other mages in my guild that may have spec'd differently.

 

Shamroq

I ran last night as 10/51/0 and was fine on Kaelthas, Brutalis was close, but went down so fast that it still wasn't an issue. A "regular" 10-15 minute casting would be tough to manage.. but all of the nerfs have made current fights so short that its not an issue. Of note - I did opt for the mage armor glyph and was using that. Fully buffed I had 298 mp5 while casting. We've got 3 active mages in SWP - all fire - the other two went 11/50 and none of us seemed to have mana issues.


I'm not the type to give up just because something starts off as difficult.. I imagine a bit more research and practice will settle the scorch / lb routine into a regular rotation. Beyond that its simply managing the hot streaks, which any deep fire mage will be aware of and working around.

 

inphared

Were you able to have a working DPS meter for the fight? Im wondering who came out higher. 11/50 vs 10/51.