My mistake, sorry :P

But then you could time it so that you use the first couple of stacks of combustion on normal spells, and then as soon as you have a couple stacks, burn Icy Veins and your trinket. The 'couple of stacks' depends on your crit rate :P


You could use cooldown addons as mentioned by xiaoxin

Cooldown - coolDown | Curse

Come to think of it - Icy Veins and Combustion don't actually offer any benefit from being stacked. One gives haste, one adds a "fixed" number of crits (on average, depending on your current crit, etc.).
They do however offer a benefit if you can stack them together with a third thing - heroism, a trinket, flame caps, drums.

Thanks for the link

It adds a fun aggro moment!

I think Icy Veins and Combustion works pretty well together. One hidden benefit is that it helps to use up the combustion stack earlier, thus allowing combustion to start its cool down earlier.

Regarding Cool down, I uses a mod "Parrot", from wowace, which allows you to customize your scrolling combat text and handles notification. I've added notifications for some abilities with long cool down(arcane power, combustion...etc), which will flash the name of the ability(customizable) along with a sound notification.

Well if you use IV after a couple of stacks of combustion, it works better because this reduces the time between the cooldowns of IV and Combustion.

Assuming you have no haste rating on your gear, cooldowns are all up, and you crit similar to the model below, these are the results you get (not accounting for latency, GCD, etc...).


Blowing all cooldowns with combustion.
00.00 - Cast Combustion
00.00 - Cast Icy Veins (3 minute cooldown starts)
00.00 - Use Trinket (2 minute cooldown starts)
00.00 - Cast fireball
02.40 - Fireball normal hits (1 stack)
02.40 - Cast fireball
04.80 - Fireball normal hits (2 stacks)
04.80 - Cast fireball
07.20 - Fireball normal hits (3 stacks)
07.20 - Cast fireball
09.60 - Fireball crits (4 stacks)
09.60 - Cast fireball
12.00 - Fireball crits (5 stacks)
12.00 - Cast fireball
14.40 - Fireball crits (3 minute cooldown starts)


Blowing trinket and IV after a couple of combustion stacks
00.00 - Cast Combustion
00.00 - Cast fireball
03.00 - Fireball normal hits (2 stacks)
03.00 - Cast fireball
06.00 - Fireball normal hits (3 stacks)
06.00 - Cast Icy Veins (2 minute cooldown starts)
06.00 - Use Trinket (2 minute cooldown starts)
06.00 - Cast fireball
08.40 - Fireball crits (4 stacks)
08.40 - Cast fireball
10.40 - Fireball crits (5 stacks)
10.40 - Cast fireball
12.80 - Fireball crits (3 minute cooldown starts)



This means that the difference in cooldowns is only 6.8 seconds, instead of 14.4 seconds.

I know this difference isn't really that big of a deal, nevertheless if you are looking to micromanage your cooldowns, this is one of the methods

Seems that [Shadowcaster's Drape] is now fixed and drops from the first ZA timed chest. How does it compare to [Royal Cloak of the Sunstriders]? I assume if you're hit capped the 25 haste is better than 17 damage.

It seems superior in every way-- haste is point for point better than spell damage, I believe. (The ratio is what, 1.1 to 1.3, depending on spec?)

Hello all! I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm yet another mage seeking wisdom:

My current spec is 11/0/50 and I am the top DPS mage in my guild. During our High King Mulgar encounter on Sunday, I recorded 1003 DPS in WoW Stats. I like Frost very much, but we're headed to SSC so a respec will probably be in my immediate future, and I imagine I'll finally go 10/48/3.

My question is gear-related, for the most part. Since I've been Frost for so long, my gear reflects that build. There are a number of items I'll have to replace:

Frozen Shadoweave Shoulders
Frozen Shadoweave Robes
Frozen Shadoweave Boots
Sapphiron's Wing Bone (off-hand)
Grasp of the Dead (gloves)

First question: I could unlearn Shadoweave Tailoring and go Spellcloth, and make the Spellfire set (Robes, Gloves, Belt). I currently have the Voodoo-Woven Belt, though, which seems like a better belt than the Spellfire one, even at the expense of breaking the set. I also have Robe of Departed Spirits and the Robe of the Elder Scribes sitting in my bank. But those can't be socketed, and I'll be giving up a lot of Spell Hit without my PvE Shadoweave set.

So is it worth getting the Spellfire set? I have a feeling it is...

That will take care of my Robes and my Gloves. I have enough badges to buy the Flametongue Seal, which will replace my Frost off-hand. The only pieces that remain are Boots and Shoulders. What are some suggestions for gear for those two slots? I've been ignoring the T4 drops in Kara and Gruul, because they were such a downgrade from the Shadoweave set. Would Arena gear be viable for those two slots? I have the full Season 1 set, but I wonder if that's the best choice.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

What your probably going to hear ad-nausea if your switching to Fire

2/47/11 (+1) for the spec.

Breaking the spellfire set is expensive. When I was considering going frost after 2.3 made arcane AM spec non-viable, the set bonus on spellfire was giving me 35 spelldam alone. I could not come up with a reasonable gear set that supported frost over fire with my spellfire/spellstrike set. (I had played fire before and was really enjoying doing something different).

I recommend downloading Vontre's spreadsheet and playing around with specs and the gear you can get your hands on.

Some specific pieces to work on -- gloves off Attuman, spellhaste offhand from badges (good for when you are AEing), you can get decent boots in Kara or better ones in ZA. The only really difficult upgrade is the robe. Take a look at the arena gear, but I suspect you will find that spellfire is the best choice until Vestments of the Sea Witch off Vashj. And if you do get the spellfire robe, you are likely to want all 3 pieces for the bonus.

Good luck!

Chilblain,

Definately get spellfire set and don't break up the set at this time.

My gear for fire looks like:
Head- [Spellstrike Hood]
Neck- [Vindicator's Pendant of Conquest]
Shoulder- [Gladiator's Silk Amice]
Back- [Ruby Drape of the Mysticant]
Chest- [Spellfire Robe]
Wrist- [Runed Spell-cuffs]
Hands- [Spellfire Gloves]
Belt- [Spellfire Belt]
Pants- [Spellstrike Pants]
Feet- [Boots of Foretelling]
Ring- [Seal of the Exorcist]
Ring- [Ashyen's Gift]
Trinket- [Icon of the Silver Crescent]
Trinket- [Scryer's Bloodgem]
Mainhand- [Nathrezim Mindblade]
Offhand- [Fetish of the Primal Gods]
Wand- [Carved Witch Doctor's Stick]

I am currently spec'd frost, but when I am fire that is what I equip. The list above is just what I have acquired via honor and drops from Kara or below. That means it should be accessible to you while you swap out your frost gear.

Yeah sorry, here's an updated version of the addon.

Cosmos UI for World of Warcraft

For your raiding level, it would be worth getting spellfire. However...you may want to consider just working on farming ZA & badges. I personally turn down applications of mages that are wearing spellfire/spellstrike due to their horribly low amount of hp...granted it is a BT guild and not a SSC guild.

Which is better for my setup:

The World of Warcraft Armory

If it doesn't show my pve gear:
Spell hit at 166, 4p T5, 979 damage using TLC + Blessing deck.

I have not been able to get reliable wws to compare TLC vs using Icon.
Talent 2/48/11.
Any help will be appreciated.

TY

TLC has never been good with fire builds. Hope this clears it up.

I just want to point out that Chilblain is just finishing Grul and entering SSC. The gear to replace spellfire is in SSC not in ZA and badge gear. Spellstrike can be replaced as long as you can manage the spell hit in other slots. The ZA head [Hood of Hexing] and the Kara Legs [Trial-Fire Trousers] or badge legs [Pantaloons of Arcane Annihilation] can replace spellstrike as long as you can manage spellhit with rings, sockets and possibly enchants to adjust for it.

If you can get a t6 guild to do it, buy 2 hearts of darkness and make bracers of nimble thought, best bracers in the game currently

I'm a raiding frost mage and when I plugged my stuff into Lhivera's calculator, it shows Quagmirran's Eye as a better trinket for me than Serpent-Coil Braid. Am I to assume it does this because it ranks the passive +dmg on Quag's as a higher value than the crit and hit on the Braid, and not taking into account both of the trinkets' usable effects?

Would you guys consider the peripheral bonuses of the Braid (the increased mana returns from gems, the periodic +dmg boost) better than the straight +dmg and the occasional haste from Quag? I'd still be hit-capped for frost if I swapped my Braid for the Eye, so the only thing I'd be losing are those peripheral benefits and some crit rating.

How is the Sextant of Unstable Trinkets?

Me and another mage got to talking about it earlier. We had always thought it was a pretty bleh trinket because of the hidden cooldown.

We saw Bloodshot with it equipped(along with Shaffar's Nexus Horn), along with a few other misc mages, which is why we asked. Is it just a poor trinket choice on their part, or is there something we don't know?

Did you twink your hit such that is is at least like 1-2% below the hit cap(about 8-9% for frost)? If you are hit capped , the additional hit from the Braid is not added I think.


First off , don't go 10/48/3, try a build like 2/47/11 +1 instead. Secondly , there isnt really a point respeccing to fire for SSC ,frost is as viable in SSC and there is only 2 fights where frost hurts. (Hydross frost phase, Vashj if you are assigned to do elementals).

If you are starting off in SSC, most likely you will got TK too and you are gimped for Alar if you spec fire.

There are a couple of small mistakes in Akumen's post (#480) comparing Combustion with IV against Combustion then IV after 2 stacks.

Firstly and most importantly:
The IV tooltip is wrong. It doesnt reduce cast time by 20% but instead increases cast speed by 20%. This effectively reduces cast time by 1/6th or 16.67%. So 3 sec fireballs become 2.5 sec under IV.

Secondly:
In the comparison the first hit of fireball under IV with Combustion is labelled as 1 stack. However, the first fireball hit under Combustion then 1V at 2 stacks is labelled as 2 stacks.

The correct comparison would be

Blowing all cooldowns with combustion. (Option A)
00.00 - Cast Combustion
00.00 - Cast Icy Veins (3 minute cooldown starts)
00.00 - Use Trinket (2 minute cooldown starts)
00.00 - Cast fireball
02.50 - Fireball normal hits (1 stack)
02.50 - Cast fireball
05.00 - Fireball normal hits (2 stacks)
05.00 - Cast fireball
07.50 - Fireball normal hits (3 stacks)
07.50 - Cast fireball
10.00 - Fireball crits (4 stacks)
10.00 - Cast fireball
12.50 - Fireball crits (5 stacks)
12.50 - Cast fireball
15.00 - Fireball crits (3 minute cooldown starts)


Blowing trinket and IV after a couple of combustion stacks (Option B)
00.00 - Cast Combustion
00.00 - Cast fireball
03.00 - Fireball normal hits (1 stack)
03.00 - Cast fireball
06.00 - Fireball normal hits (2 stacks)
06.00 - Cast Icy Veins (3 minute cooldown starts)
06.00 - Use Trinket (2 minute cooldown starts)
06.00 - Cast fireball
08.50 - Fireball normal hits (3 stacks)
08.50 - Cast fireball
11.00 - Fireball crits (4 stacks)
11.00 - Cast fireball
13.50 - Fireball crits (5 stacks)
13.50 - Cast fireball
16.00 - Fireball crits (3 minute cooldown starts)

The difference becomes 10 seconds between cd's if your using Option B compared to 15 seconds for Option A. However, if we consider the next time your cd's come up with Option B, IV will be off cd for 16 seconds before it is used again (That's 10 seconds between IV off cd to Combustion off cd and 6 seconds from popping Combustion to using IV). This compares to IV being off cd for 15 seconds with Option A, only 1 second difference.

Another effect is if you are using Option B and crit one of the two first fireballs (70% chance 1 of those fireballs crit with a 30% critrate) they wont get the added dmg from your trinket.

Another small plus for Option A is you can macro it to one button.

In the end there is no big advantage in using either option A or B, just personal preference.

Ichanna
Ah...well oops :P

I haven't had an active WoW account since mid october so I'm not that up to date with Icy Veins and managing it as a cooldown.

So, sorry about that mistake on my part.



Chilblain

Try out SSC and TK, and if you're happy with your dmg as a frost mage, then don't bother changing.

But if you think that you need to push your dmg even further than the level it is at the moment, then I suggest you try out (2/47/11 +1 ), and don't bother getting spellfire. If you're at the t5 stage of raiding then you can get similar items to replace them. And this way you get more stamina.


[Belt of Blasting]
[Studious Wraps]
[Robe of Departed Spirits]


Either way, these items are great for both frost and fire so you don't really lose anything if you get them.

And btw, [Spellstrike Pants] are better than your current legs.
If you've hit the hit cap rating on your other gear, or simply don't want to get them then get [Pantaloons of Arcane Annihilation], which are excellent legs as well.