Well for regen most of it comes from the spriest and ele/resto shaman in your group. And in most cases fire mages use molten armor so they arnt getting the regen from spirit/int they would be with mage armor ( except for fights were resistance is needed, i.e. Mother). In my current gear I have 130 spell haste and find that even with gem/pot/evo I still need a spriest. So i guess the answer is it depends on how much spell haste you have, and wether you have a spriest in your group or not....To each their own.

I don't get the 17k either. I assumed it was refering to damage done, total, but even then it's about 10 times lower than what it should be. As a manapool, with that bad gemming and not being a gnome, 17k is beyond the impossible.

There is a difference between "doing a full T5" and "pre-2.4 progress through T5". One entails seeing all the bosses and gaining perhaps 5-8h experience, the other entails farming all the bosses and perhaps 40-50h experience.

It is this 45h difference that is causing you to, as it were, not perform to your potential.

Firstly, your gems are all over the place. What's with the stam/damage and the flat stam? There should never, ever be a stam/damage gem in your gear as arcane. If you must have blues for meta activation, they should be Spirit.

Your gear is extremely low i-level for arcane to excell much. This only holds for arcane, because regen scales with it's self. Because regen is a factor of two separate scaling stats, it increases much better than the linear increment of pure +damage. The problem with your arcane output (aside from the low +dmg, which is simply because much of your gear is T4) is you have next to no mp5. You're on 76mp5 now, that makes it 152mp5 with M-armor, fully raid-buffed perhaps 200mp5. This means, you're only managing 70% AB uptime.

As an indication, I felt I had "too much" regen and had to cut back on the Int gems for pure +damage at around 440mp5 while casting, raid-buffed.

Ultimately, your problem is twofold. Much of your gear is badly itemized. T4 chest is terrible for any spec and vastly inferior to Spellfire. The Shattered Sun neck is moderate if you're an Aldor and bad if you're a Scryer. The cloak you're wearing is out-done even by the cheapest badges cloak, and Handwraps of Flowing are fantastic for a guild starting kara, but terrible for Arcane.

Much of your gear has too much Hit. You're wearing ~80 hit excess of what you need, particularly given you're a dranei. SCB, Gloves, Cloak, Wand. All of these can be replaced with more effective items for their slot for you. The 20 Pen on the chest is also worthless.

The other problem you have is bad socket strategy. Your gems are not helping you enough.

Shopping list, in no particular order:
Lurker/Naj'entus boots, any chest T5+ (Hydros, Vashj, T5, Archimonde, Terron, T6), Badges wand, any weapon (Naj'entus, Archimonde, Illidan), T5 head (so you can scrap the pants which are shit, swapping in Channeled Elements instead), Either of the Badges/T6 gloves, Prince/Kael/ZA neck, ditch the hitrating ring for either MH attunement ring/Ring of Recurrence/Ancient Magics, Council/ZA/Gruul Cloak, Rage/ZA/crafted bracers.

Regem all yellows to Int, all blues to Spi. There are no reds, generally, but when there are, keep it Damage. If you're not interested in socket bonus, go all Int. Remember to have two blues for Metagem, because at some point you will want one.

Maximizing mp5 while casting is the key to successful aracane. AB scales badly with everything except more of it's self. It's not that Int is so-hot, it's that spell, crit, hit and haste are so-shit. Once you're on 80+% AB uptime, you should consider turning your focus to +dmg. You'll know you have "too much regen" when you (1) will want to time an Evo and be desparately trying to dump the last 11% mana, and failing. (2) You'll find that if you move before the first AP-IV-AB spam, SP mana comes close to overflowing. (3) You'll notice on high-mobility fights like Archi, you got mana coming out of your ass, and nothing to do with it.

Some prefer to gem full +dmg for arcane, but I suggest against that for starting out. Once you've mastered managing mana and are comfortable having less room for error, you can swap to it. Gemming for regen, however, will net you safer results.

What Pintofbrew said if you want to stay arcane; he knows his stuff. You seem to be asking about Fire. Oddly enough you look to be gemmed properly for Fire with the exception of those Stamina/Spell Damage gems. Fire is efficient and you have a shadow priest so you shouldn't gem Intellect or any mana regeneration for that matter. Go for all spell damage gems, stam/damage and haste/damage (crit/damage gems are usable at your damage level I believe) to fulfill metagem requirements. In summary, you don't need to regem to switch to Fire but you do to stay Arcane.

There are several movement based fights where that little bit of extra speed is the difference between life and death. In addition to saving your life being able to get to a spot where you can start DPS faster is a nice increase. All that for three stamina is a small price to pay. But you don't have to take my word on it. Check the armory of any T6+ level raider and they will almost always (a few exceptions) have boars speed.

I've been doing a lot or reading about arcane vs fire, i tried the man out of time and the rawr calculator, i looked for Armory suggestions about better gear... I think its a lot of informations, maybe to much, and i'm getting confused.

I would like some advice about my spec and my gear (what piece in what i have, what upgrade looking for first, the best gems and enchants..)

As some informations:
- my guild is 2/6 in SSC and we are starting Void Reaver in TK
- we are currently farming Karazhan and Gruul's/Mag
- In my talenst, the 3 points in Arcane focus were to Tank Korsh, need to be respec somewhere else...where?
- In my bank, i have the spellstrike Hood, the Trial-Fire Trousers from Kara, Legwraps of the Aldor, Vindicator's Dreadweave Cuffs and Vindicator's Dreadweave Belt

Here's the link to me on the armory

The World of Warcraft Armory

This thread will tell you why your spec is fine and which gems to use. As far as your gear goes, I'd suggest you spend a little more time in Rawr.mage. It is better than the Armory at predicting which gear upgrades your damage output.

The spellstrike hood doesn't have a meta socket?

Either way, I had some questions about some beginner gear for heroics, T4+, etc. My mage will be hitting 70 within the next few weeks and I want to optimize the time I spend gearing him up as much as possible. I'll be doing mostly Heroics and Karazhan to start and hopefully venturing a bit into T5 content afterwards, but mostly T4 I think.

I'm enjoying leveling as Frost and am also in to PvP so I'd like to raid as Frost to begin with. I think that'll be fine for the content I am likely to see. I'm going Scryer, as I imagine that will make a difference as well.

I'll have the materials to make a full set of frozen shadoweave and spellstrike upon hitting 70. I'll also farm some honor for the S2 arena weapon and gear for pvp, so that can temporarily fill a few slots. Other than those pieces, I don't know what pieces are good for a beginning raider that are easy to attain. Certainly S3 honor gear is another possibility.

So, first, S2 staff vs MH/OH. The staff is -33 dmg, +42 crit, +9 hit, +5 int, +1 stam. Are those other stats worth the lower +dmg? And of course getting the MH/OH means I could potentially swap in a better OH later. Thoughts?

What are some common items I should set my sights on? (heroic drops, pvp rewards, badge rewards, etc.)

As for spec I'd like to do 2/0/59 as long as mana isn't an issue and switch to 10/0/51 if it becomes an issue. Any experiences related to mana with a very deep frost spec?

Opps good catch! I'm an idiot. Well if you get a good helm with meta then get CSD or else just gem spellstrike with dmg

@Toth

For PvE since you're already frost is not worth it for the pure stats. I'd say go for the MH and get a badge OH (35 badges for Fetish, 25 for the Wing Bone).

If you can get the HoDs then Bracers of Nimble thought would be a nice upgrade.

Hello guys

I really need a piece on advice on how to reshuffle gems on my gear, now that I got T6 bonus.
I played around with gems on the paper but the problem is that I have to loose something either +dam or crit or spell hit in order to increase spell haste.
My guild has started raiding SWP and I went back to my fire spec but I aknowledge that some spell haste whould be helpful to improve DPS. On the other side, I tried to play around with my items on RAWR, and the suggestion there is to change some gems to have + damage instead of spell haste.

I'm really confused and I'd like to have some suggestions.

Here is my armory link

The World of Warcraft Armory

Thanks all and have a nice day
Sahm

PS It happens I have Medallion of the Aliance equipped for Archi. Btw I have other trinkets such as Eye of Magtheridon, Sextant of Unstable Currents, Lighting Capacitator

the 17k is dps not mana pool. alright so my questions are this:

1. I have the full spellfire set but the only thing that is so horrible about it is the fact that there is no stam. In the T6 instances as you know there is a lot of raid damage. What do i do?

2. i have 129 badges. Should i spend those badges on a new wand and other gear or save for scryers blade of focus?

Maybe 1.7k? DPS stands for damage per second, 17000 damage per second is a bit... exagerated.
The only fights where I found instagibbing to be a problem are Naj'entus (tidal shield damage + needle spine right after) and Kalecgos (arcane buffet, portal damage and shadowbolt volley in the demon realm). Everything else is either low damage or steady damage (though, you might want to wear some PvP gear for Gurtogg to mitigate Bloodboil, but you can use a pot/HS if you get low, or even mana shield/iceblock if you're really low and have no heals coming your way so stamina shouldn't really be an issue.)
Council is a special case, but if you get envenomed and have an AoE land on you, you're dead anyway. But then again I don't really know much about that fight as a DPS as I have been mostly tanking.
Aldor is better for mages.

Vitality increases your DPS by 2. Boars speed increases your DPS by 2000 during the time you don't spend running.
So, the speed enchant is better if you can save more than 0.1% of the fight time running. It increases your running speed by 8%. 0.1%/8% = 1.25%.

That means Boar's Speed is strictly more DPS if you spend more than 1.25% of the fight running.
Or less than 98.75% nuking.
I don't really see 4 mp5 as an outstanding enchant.

I was in pretty much the same situation, looking to run no higher than t4 on my newly-70 mage.

Frozen Shadoweave and Spellstrike are a given. Heroic MgT will give you an excellent mainhand from the very first boss, and lovely robes from Kael if you feel too cheap to craft the FSW robes. Normal MgT first boss drops a very nice set of bracers also, with Kael dropping great gloves and a decent ring. Farm up Quag's Eye from heroic SP as well, hopefully grabbing a rather nice Frost belt from Rokmarr in there as well.

I'd advise getting the [Guardian's Pendant of Subjugation] from BGs, it's an end-game quality piece at 15,300 honor, and fills a gap that can be hard to sort out at your progression level.

For your Badges, I'd advise getting Icon, then the 35 badge offhand, or the wand. (I'm not sure on the timing of the Brewfest events, but there's a seasonal boss in BRD who will drop an Icon clone if you can wait that long).

Aldor enchant is very slightly better, but Scryers have the 3% spellhit trinket, which is very handy when gearing up, and the exalted ring can be a nice stop-gap too.

Frost will do you absolutely fine for raiding at the t4 level, and kick the crap out of any other spec in PvP/Solo/5-man. The DPM increase of the early Arcane tree isn't really required at the t4 level either from my experience, so stick with a heavy Frost build for a bit more utility.

Excellent. Thanks for the advice everyone, especially Emily!

I just logged on and was looking at the new gear, noticed this one which is incredibly good. Bar the stupid pattern from Sunwell which never ever drops, it's the best there is. Good thing it doesn't have any rating requirements. :-)

World of Warcraft Armory


I am one of the 2.4 benefactors, in being that I managed to jump from T4 content to T6 content with badge gear and an understanding of my class (thanks mainly to these forums). Now, I am in a guild (3/5 Hyjal 3/9 BT) where I am the only raiding fire mage; our other 3 raiding mages are all arcane. Because of this (and because the other 3 all have 2/5 T5) I often find myself outside of our typical caster dps group that contains a spriest and an ele shaman. Not only that, but as their is only one benefactor to CoE in my raid group, it is used sparingly (read: never) in raid. I currently average close to 1k dps in Hyjal and BT, and as I see parses of mages in Sunwell topping 2.3k, I feel like I am not fulfilling my job to the best of my ability, even without CoE and any group synergy whatsoever. I also have to use mage armor and the alchemy stone stone just to be able to pop a flame cap and destro pot on my first cooldowns, and I take my full evocation as well. If someone could point out the flaw in my playstyle I would be much obliged.

WoW Web Stats (Note: I have only been with this guild since the 8th)

Also, on a related (and yet, unrelated) note, I use the Darkmoon Card Crusade as my other trinket, but notice in fights like Naj'entus that the buff falls off consistently. If that were the case, would the Icon be a better suited trinket for that fight? Assuming the alch stone as my other trinket (because of the mana issues I explained above). Thanks.

I don't see Boar's Speed as an outstanding enchant either. Ultimately which enchant you use is entirely up to personal preferance. For fights where I need to move fast, Blink usually works very well.

Ok I am a long time lurker and figured I would finally post. I am currently 2/48/11 and am doing well with it. My guild is 6/6 SSC, 5/5 MtH, 9/9 BT and about to enter Sunwell soon. I am wondering if I should just stay 2/48/11 or go with 0/40/21 double Icy Veins.

I have also come up with an off Frost spec I think might work. I am really tempted to try it in our next raid just to see how it does compaired to my usual fire spec. 0/18/43 Frost Spec.

I chose to change up the usual 10/0/51 I have seen in favor of Master of Elements. I think MoE will give more mana in a boss fight as frost than would clearcasting.

Here is a link to my currently armory. Kerbi Armory Link. I just want to change it up a little and really really dont want to do 40/0/21 arcane spec. Mostly out of play style choice.

Here is a Naj'entus -> Teron WWS for a little show of my dps and such. Naj -> Teron WWS. A note on my damage. Our mages never seem to get groups setup to help them. We have a warlock officer who likes to take ALL the bloodlusts and I do mean all of them. Usually I am in a group with the BM hunters which isnt too bad but not the best.

I've received some negative feedback lately on my choice of gems. I'm under the impression that spell haste is a much better stat to gem for than spell crit; however, a number of people I've talked to have told me that my 195 spell haste is a waste and I should boost my 26% spell crit instead (self-buffed). (Note: I'm arc/frost in my Armory right now due to doing Al'ar last night. I normally raid 2/48/11.) I have no problem with my mana pool (I have a SCB for mana intensive fights if I need it) unless I somehow mess up my mana pot/mana emerald rotation.

WWS Reports (if needed)

2/48/11 is slightly more dps than 0/40/21. Also, if you are going to take 18 points out of frost, put them in arcane. Clearcasting AND Arcane Meditation will provide more mana return than MoE.

Spell haste will always give you a bigger DPS boost than spell crit, not only point per point, but also 1% of spell haste will give you more DPS than 1% spell crit.