Ahoy there, magesires! On the behest of Lord Boethius and his majesty King Gurgthock I bring you this compository of all things magely!
[top]The First Rule of Mage DPS
The first rule of mage dps is: Never stop casting unless you want to do less damage. Split seconds spent hesitating on your next move will cost you more dps than simply casting the wrong spell. Always have your next spell planned before your current cast finishes. Train yourself to automatically hit the nuke key if you have no idea what to do. Just don't ever stop casting.
Now that that's out of the way, we'll move onto talents and rotations and all that good stuff.
[top]Talent Spec Summary
[top]Overally Summary
Arcane is the lame duck spec this time around, with Fire reigning as the undisputed king of mobility and multi-target damage. Frost can match or exceed Fire's single target damage and bring superior burst and survivability. It's recommended to dual spec Fire/Frost and switch as needed.
Spec advantages and weaknesses are rated in the chart below on a scale of 0-5.
| | Fire | Frost | Arcane |
|---|
| Single Target DPS | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Multi Target DPS | 5 | 3 | 1 |
| Mobility | 5 | 3 | 1 |
| Burst DPS | 3 | 5 | 5 |
| Survivability | 3 | 4 | 4 |
[top]Fire Talent Overview
[top]Essential Fire Talents
The World of Warcraft Armory
[top]Optional Fire Talents
Improved Flamestrike: This talent increases the damage and mana efficiency of Blast Wave by something like 200% and also greatly increases the dps of FlameStrike. While not essential, this talent is highly recommended.
Molten Shields: This talent allows you to activate Mage Ward with minimal dps loss. A good survivability talent for 1 point.
Cauterize: Cheat death for mages. This is a very good survivability talent. If you have a tendency to stand in void zones or otherwise find yourself dieing often there is no excuse for skipping this.
Blazing Speed: Not very useful in most situations.
Pyromaniac: Solid AoE damage talent, but not as amazing as Improved Flamestrike.
Improved Fire Blast: This pairs well with Impact, making your Fire Blast easier to use from a long distance.
Arcane Concentration: This increases your single target dps by about .03% per point. While it does increase dps, it is an extremely weak talent and can be reasonably skipped for better utility.
Improved Blink: Good for getting around quickly, but Fire mages should avoid blinking in favor of Scorch while moving whenever possible.
Shatter: Good luck keeping anything frozen in a raid setting.
[top]Fire Glyphs
Glyph of Molten Armor, Glyph of Pyroblast, Glyph of Fireball. Consider using Living Bomb in place of Fireball if your Living Bomb damage is more than double your Fireball damage.
Approximate SEP Values (these change based on your gear!)
| Stat | SEP |
|---|
| Intellect | 1.34 |
| Hit | .91 |
| Crit | .67 |
| Haste | .44 |
| Mastery | .4 |
[top]How to Play Fire
[top]Fire Armor Choice
Fire specs should use Molten Armor at all times.
[top]Single Target Fire DPS
Use Hot Streak whenever possible, recast Living Bomb after every explosion, use Flame Orb whenever possible, and spam your filler nuke in between. Filler nuke can be Scorch, Fireball, or Frostfire Bolt. Fireball is the highest dps, but
you will not have enough mana to use Fireball at all times.
Mana management is an essential part of Fire dps. Fortunately this is not overly difficult with free, high damage Scorches. Single target rotations using Scorch do about 90% of the damage of a Fireball rotation at a fraction of the mana cost. Effective use of mana means using up all available mana by the end of the fight. You must roughly plan out when to use Fireball during the fight depending on the unique needs of each encounter. In general, prioritize Fireball use for Molten Fury; NOT Bloodlust! Bloodlust only effects haste, so it won't increase your mana efficiency and therefore using Fireball during Lust gives no inherent advantage. Molten Fury does. Small dps gains can be made by effectively switching to Fireball during trinket procs and activations.
Combustion is still being studied by the mage community. However current understanding of the Combustion mechanic indicate that catching a large Ignite, such as from a Fireball crit, is vitally important. Fishing for Ignite procs with Fireball and waiting for the opportune moment is more important than using Combustion immediately.
[top]Multiple Target Fire DPS
Put Living Bomb on 3 targets, use Blastwave on cooldown and spam Flamestrike. Mana management is also an essential part of multi-target dps.
You will not have enough mana to continually spam AoE for an extended period. Fortunately Fire specs have easy ways to dramatically improve efficiency. Use Blast Wave whenever possible as this is a very mana efficient spell. Even if you are in maximum efficiency mode Blast Wave is still good. Only using Flamestrike only when its dot is expired will greatly increase its dpm. You can further increase dpm by skipping Flamestrike and spamming Scorch with Living Bomb on a single target to fish for Impact procs. Impact procs are unreliable, but do MASSIVE AoE damage with very high efficiency.
[top]Fire Mobility
Fire can use every spell in its arsenal while moving except for Fireball. While moving continue casting as normal, but use Scorch in place of any Fireball casts.
[top]Frost Talent Overview
[top]Essential Frost Talents
The World of Warcraft Armory
[top]Optional Frost Talents
Permafrost: Good for any snare based build.
Ice Shards: Combos will with Permafrost to give you a powerful AoE snare with Blizzard. Can be useful in some situations.
Reactive Barrier: Sucks. It only works when you cross the threshold at 50%, if you remain at low health or high health the barrier will never fire.
Shattered Barrier: Freezing things is of dubious value in a raid.
Improved Cone of Cold: Same thing, though a controllable freeze is a little better. Can also kill your rogues if used correctly. Highly recommended for this purpose.
[top]Frost Glyphs
Glyph of Deep Freeze, Glyph of Frostfire Bolt, Glyph of Frostbolt.
[top]Frost Stats
Approximate SEP Values (these change based on your gear!)
| Stat | SEP |
|---|
| Intellect | 1.2 |
| Hit | .8 |
| Crit | .5 |
| Haste | .41 |
| Mastery | .42 |
[top]How to Play Frost
[top]Frost Armor Choice
Frost specs will usually need Mage Armor to keep from going oom.
[top]Single Target Frost DPS
Frost single target dps is all about proper use of procs and Deep Freeze. Deep Freeze does MASSIVE damage and should be used immediately whenever possible. Second priority is to cast as many Fingers of Frost empowered Brain Freezes as possible. Fingers of Frost nearly triples the damage of a Brain Freeze, making it worthwhile to always combo these procs together. When Brain Freeze is up, wait for a Fingers of Frost charge before using it. Always keep a spare Fingers of Frost charge handy for Brain Freeze or Deep Freeze. Only use Ice Lance when you have 2 charges. Frostbolt is the only viable filler nuke.
Performing a correct burst opener is also essential to Frost dps. Plan on using Cold Snap very early. Your burst opener should involve 2 Frostfire Orbs, 2 Deep Freezes, and 2 Icy Veins with proper use of Cold Snap.
[top]Multiple Target Frost DPS
Use Flamestrike to maintain its dot with Blizzard spam in between. Cone of Cold is also much higher dps than Blizzard if you are in range.
[top]Frost Mobility
Frost should use any available procs while moving, and then spam Ice Lance using Fire Blast on cooldown.
[top]Arcane Spec
[top]Arcane Talent Overview
[top]Essential Arcane Talents
The World of Warcraft Armory
[top]Optional Arcane Talents
Prismatic Cloak: Excellent passive survivability tool, one of the only advantages of Arcane spec.
Improved Blink: Great mobility tool.
Improved Arcane Explosion: Just about the only way you can do any decent AoE.
Improved Counterspell: Rarely useful as most mobs only use one spell school.
Invocation: Situationally useful.
Improved Polymorph: Decent controlled stun, but many other classes get better stuns baseline.
Nether Vortex: Handy way to apply slow without losing any dps.
Ignite: Worth about .02% dps per point. This can be skipped for utility talents if desired.
[top]Arcane Glyphs
Glyph of Arcane Blast, Glyph of Arcane Missiles, Glyph of Mage Armor.
[top]Arcane Stats
Approximate SEP Values (these change based on your gear!)
| Stat | SEP |
|---|
| Intellect | 1.52 |
| Hit | .88 |
| Crit | .36 |
| Haste | .53 |
| Mastery | .54 |
[top]How to Play Arcane
[top]Arcane Armor Choice
Arcane specs should always use Mage Armor.
[top]Single Target Arcane DPS
Arcane spends most of its time in a mana efficiency mode during which the goal is to stay close to 100% mana. Arcane cycles are so efficient that this is actually possible to achieve by alternative mana positive and mana negative cycles. When attempting the mana positive cycle, Arcane Missiles and then Arcane Barrage should be used whenever possible. Arcane Blast is the filler spell and should never have to be cast more than twice in a row. With perfect procs your cycle should look like Arcane Barrage -> Arcane Blast -> Arcane Missiles. The mana negative cycle simply involves casting another Arcane Blast or two, increasing dps at the cost of mana efficiency. Because of Mana Adept, the primary goal while casting is always to stay at or near 100% mana.
Arcane also uses a burst cycle, done whenever Evocation is available and at the end of an encounter. The burst cycle involves ramping up Arcane Blast, activating all timers and hitting a Flame Orb, and then burning down to about 33% mana with Arcane Blast spam with Mana Gem used as soon as your mana deficit is large enough. Once the burst phase is over you should immediately Evocate back to 100% mana.
[top]Multiple Target Arcane DPS
Use Flamestrike to maintain its dot with Arcane Explosion spam in between.
[top]Arcane Mobility
Use Presence of Mind, Arcane Barrage, Fire Blast and Ice Lance in that order as they are available.
[top]Gear and Stat Choices
Intellect is now the primary all powerful stat for all mages, usually close to double the value of the next best stat. Recommended gemming strategy is to stack as much Intellect as possible while keeping your meta gem bonus. Maintaining the hit cap is still important; the new hit cap is 1742.
Chaotic Whatever 3% Crit Diamond. Use it. Gem hit where needed to match the meta requirement.
[top]Tables and Values
[top]Rating conversion formulas
| Stat | Amount Per 1% |
|---|
| Spell Hit Rating | 102.446 |
| Spell Crit Rating | 179.28 |
| Spell Haste Rating | 128.05 |
| Mastery Rating | 179.28 |
| Intellect -> Crit | 648.91 |
[top]Spell Haste Math
To determine the new cast time of a spell after haste rating is applied, take the percentage of haste, as a decimal, and 1. Divide the cast time by that number. For example, 10% haste against on a 3 second Fireball would be 3 / 1.10, giving a new cast time of 2.72~.
[top]Tools, Utilities, and other Information
MageGraf.com by Vontre
Pseudo-simulation tool with detailed output and advanced logic used for spec and rotation comparison.
Vontre's Magegraf
Rawr.mage by Kavan
Gear and stat comparison tool written in C# using the Rawr package.
Rawr - Release: Rawr.Mage b2
11/27/10, 3:43 PM
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