I saw some data mined changes on MMO which stated that if you refresh a Living Bomb then it will explode and refresh the Bomb. This is all speculation in the changes but that effectively with the buffs would bring it to the fore as the choice for AOE. Having said that, it's datamined and isn't reflective of the official notes.

Update: MMO champion has updated there notes to reflect official notes. Interesting that this change is no longer relfected.

I was hitting a target dummy on the PTR and I noticed something strange about Combustion. It looks like the crit ticks are now hitting for roughly 50% extra damage instead of 100%. I haven't seen any mention of this yet so I'm not sure if it's an intentional change or a bug. Here is a portion of a log where it happens:

[14:16:19.970] Guacamolez Combustion Training Dummy 1 (O: 11147)
[14:16:20.783] Guacamolez Combustion Training Dummy 1 (O: 11147)
[14:16:21.748] Guacamolez Combustion Training Dummy 1 (O: 11146)
[14:16:22.615] Guacamolez Combustion Training Dummy 1 (O: 11147)
[14:16:23.573] Guacamolez Combustion Training Dummy 1 (O: 11146)
[14:16:24.317] Guacamolez Combustion Training Dummy 1 (O: 11147)
[14:16:25.219] Guacamolez Combustion Training Dummy *1* (O: 16720)
[14:16:26.150] Guacamolez Combustion Training Dummy *1* (O: 16720)
[14:16:27.058] Guacamolez Combustion Training Dummy 1 (O: 11146)
[14:16:27.993] Guacamolez Combustion Training Dummy *1* (O: 16720)
[14:16:28.679] Guacamolez Combustion Training Dummy 1 (O: 11146)

EDIT: This appears to be fixed now on the PTR and Combustion is acting as it does on live again.

Does anyone have a link or knowledge of the current state of ignite munching in 4.3? It seems Fireball+Instant Pyro is only giving credit to 1 of the crits again I believe.

Example:
14:44:23> Darrenz's Fireball hits Training Dummy for 1 Fire.(36316 Overkill) (Critical)
14:44:23> Training Dummy is afflicted by Darrenz's Pyroblast!.
14:44:23> Darrenz's Pyroblast! hits Training Dummy for 1 Fire.(46020 Overkill) (Critical)
14:44:23> Training Dummy is afflicted by Darrenz's Ignite.
14:44:23> Darrenz gains 470 Mana from Darrenz's Master of Elements.
14:44:23> Darrenz's Ignite is refreshed on Training Dummy.
14:44:23> Darrenz's Critical Mass is refreshed on Training Dummy.
14:44:24> Darrenz's Lightning Bolt hits Training Dummy for 1 Nature.(5593 Overkill) (Critical)
14:44:25> Training Dummy suffers 1 Fire damage from Darrenz's Ignite.(12647 Overkill)
14:44:26> Training Dummy suffers 1 Fire damage from Darrenz's Pyroblast!.(3343 Overkill)
14:44:27> Darrenz's Impact fades from Darrenz.
14:44:27> Training Dummy suffers 1 Fire damage from Darrenz's Ignite.(12646 Overkill)
14:44:28> Training Dummy suffers 1 Fire damage from Darrenz's Pyroblast!.(3343 Overkill)
14:44:29> Darrenz's Critical Mass dissipates from Training Dummy.
14:44:29> Training Dummy suffers 1 Fire damage from Darrenz's Ignite.(12646 Overkill)
14:44:29> Darrenz's Ignite dissipates from Training Dummy.


Test was done with +37% periodic damage from mastery. Expected ignite damage should be (36316+46020)*.4*1.37=45120dmg correct? Are we back to casting scorches before instant pyroblasts? Also, could anyone explain why there are 3 ticks for 12646-7? I figured I would see ticks of either 9950(fireball) or 12609(pyroblast).

This is nothing new, they never fixed ignite munching, they just removed the munching caused by periodic crits everything else munches as it always did.

Hi,

great summary above, but it also doesn't seem correct to me. Personally, i developed a little C# program for myself to calculate all haste plateaus for fire (and even needed haste for GCD with Arcane Blast).
Picture: http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/154/hastecalc.png PM if interested^^.

Maybe let's take Combat rating system - Wowpedia - Your wiki guide to the World of Warcraft as a source of all ratings.

So just for an example:

128.05701 haste rating = 1%
+4 Ticks requires 87,5% = 87,5 * 128.05701 = 11204,988375

That's just not how it works, though. To get the number of ticks for a dot, the game divides the unhasted duration by the hasted tick period rounded to the closest millisecond, and then performs banker's rounding on that. You appear to be simply disregarding both of those rounding operations, which obviously gives you the wrong result in almost all cases.

In your example, +4 ticks doesn't require 87.5% exactly, it requires 87.441436%. Why? Because that's the haste threshold where the tick period goes down from 1601 milliseconds to 1600 milliseconds: 3 / 1.87441436 = 1.6004999. And at that tick period, your 12 second dot will tick 12 / 1.600 = 7.5 times, which rounds up to the closest even integer, 8.

So the haste rating needed for the 4th extra tick of LB unbuffed is actually 11198 (because 128.05701 * 87.441436 = 11197.488).

These mechanics have been tested and verified for a number of different dots across a number of different classes/specs. I'm not aware of anyone who's tested them for fire mages, but feel free to try to prove me wrong.

EDIT: A simple test would be for an unbuffed non-goblin with NP to visit the training dummies with exactly 1181 haste. The naive calculation says you should see 5 LB ticks, I say you'll see 4.

The numbers are correct, 4 ticks with 1181 haste rating.

On a similar subject, I'm not certain how helpful knowing the haste ratings for LB ticks is given that the DPS for Living Bomb follows the haste rating pretty closely regardless of the number of ticks. In laymen's terms having 1181 haste rating or 1182 doesn't mean a world of difference if any at all. The gain, if any, would probably be from more GCDs spent on other spells diminished by a smaller amount of explosions.

On the other hand, due to the nature of Combustion, being on cooldown, every extra ticks there is in fact a kink in the line and where haste rating value becomes discontinuous.

EDIT: it's arguable that since Pyroblast! dot works the same way Living Bomb does, but in a way is on CD (since the uptime isn't 100%) it might introduce some discontinuities in the haste value at the same points, the benefit however is marginal.

For Combustion however, reaching the first ticks is worth 10% of combustion value, the second 9.1%, third 8.3%, fourth 7.7% and so on. Assuming combustion is around 8% of the fire dps, those kinks are not insignificant, starting from 0.8% total dps down to 0.66% at 2005 haste rating.

There is an open issue with ignite and haste in simcraft, that I discovered a while ago.
After reporting it here on EJ in the main simcraft thread, it's an open ticket
Issue 836 - simulationcraft - Mage - Haste Scaling - Ignite - World of Warcraft DPS Simulator - Google Project Hosting
but apparently unfixed. I don't know whether it also pertains to PTR
mode, but as it is connected to ignite it just might...

See the post by Zakalwe, due to rounding, 2005 is the haste rating when Combustion in a raid setting gains the 13th tick.

EDIT: Instead of working backwards from the 2005 value, I decided to look over the concepts closer during my lunch break. And since I haven't found a table listing what haste value I'd need for a third extra tick while having 3/3 NP, Dark Intent, and 5% raid buff, I figured I'd look into it here:

To get 13 ticks, you'd need Combustion to tick every 0.8 seconds. Which would require 1/0.800499 = 1.249220799 haste, or 24.9220799% haste. (I'm using the same logic in previous posts... correct me if I'm wrong).

To account for all of the outside haste buffs, I'd use:

1.24922079 = (1.03)*(1.05)*(1.03)*(Haste Rating from gear)
1.12143 -> 12.1438% haste from gear = 12.1438*128.057

Which solves to a required haste rating of 1555.1, or 1556 on gear.

Please advise to any inaccuracies.

Maje I'm not sure if 2005 is the correct number, and I still say the 1996 number is correct. Unless my math is off which I really doubt.

100% haste = 12805.7006835937500

to get 13 ticks, we need 25% haste raid buffed
0.25 = ((1.03) * (1.05) * (1 + base haste rating)) - 1
0.1558021266759130836800739713361 = base haste rating or 15.58%
12805.7006835937500 * 0.1558021266759130836800739713361 = 1995.1554000791002080443828016644

Let's look at 2005:
2005 / 12805.7006835937500 = 0.15657089366212824450475337998538 or 15.657%