Ok I'm really confused. I'm using Rawr, as I've done in the past to map out what routes to take gear wise. Whether I should regem some pieces or just seek an upgrade.

It's telling me for maximum dps output to re-gem with Spell Damage and Int. It's also telling me the best dps pieces are the ones with 20mp5. I don't know if I screwed it up, or that it's correct, which I severely doubt since since when do mages want mp5.

So did I miss the memo, is Rawr just being temperamental or am I screwing something up?

It sounds like you are running out of mana, and Rawr is trying to avoid that by A) increasing your mana poool (int), B) decreasing your burnout rate (no crit) and C) increasing your Mp5 (Via, you guessed it, Mp5).

Of course, without more information such as what the boss settings in rawr are on, and what your gear level, talent spec, etc. are, these are all sort of guesses.

MI does not consumes a GCD to cast, however, it does lockout your normally-non-gcd stuff for 1.5s (not affected by haste). In other words, if you do a macro to pop timers, make sure mirror image is always last. (much like it used to be with skull of guldan/hex) You can, however, do 'combustion, MI, FFB' in a macro, and all will cast, since FFB normally consumes a GCD.

To avoid general confusion, MI does not consumes a GCD. If it did, then you would be unable to put MI then follow it up by any spell.

Inoko, sorry, I should have provided that information in my initial post.

I'm currently FFB spec, 0-52-19.

I had full sunwell gear, replaced some pieces with new epics from heroics. I wish I could provide my stats, but my armory is down and I can't remember off of the top of my head.

Fight duration is set to 300s.

Edit: Armory came back up

Unbuffed stats:
hp: 13.2k
mp: 14.3k
sd: 1421
Hit: 246
Crit: 24.45
Haste: 251
Mana Regen: 267 not casting/0 while

D'oh... I can't believe I missed that! It seems better now. Thanks much.

Anyone know if the MI -threat goes away when the last of your images die or after 30s (when they would die naturally)?

30s. Its unrelated with the images.

Excellent! My reckless aoe when we pull 20 mobs is safe from aoe that kills the images.

When you run into mana problems you have three choices:

1) Figure out a way to increase your mana pools and regen without comrpromising dps. guardian elixirs, food, party comp, scrolls (I have a stack of spirit scrolls for when I am in a group with no disc priest or demo lock), etc. You should be fully exploiting these as your first priority.

2) Make gem/pot/spec/glyph/gear/armor compromises to dps for more regen. Use haste instead of mana pots. Use mana gem instead of flamecaps. Use evoc. Get more spirit and int in your gear. Switch to mage armor instead of molten. Make sure you grab frost channelling instead of shatter, etc.

3) Switch to a higher damage per mana rotation. That is going to be more frostfire and less living bomb.

Whic #2 options are preferable to #3 is a Rawr question. You shouldn't be guessing at it. Download Rawr, upload your toon, select some generic fight mechanics and play with various options to optimize your planning and playstyle.

But my usual hunch is that most mages who complain about mana problems without specifics are scrimping on consumables.

Keep in mind the DPM values changed tremendously since the mana cost reduction to fireball ffb frostbolt ab and living bomb

From my testing, it seems like this macro runs into issues where FFB won't cast unless MI is off cooldown, which is somewhat problematic if you use the macro for situations when all your cooldowns are not up at once (e.g. to activate the second trinket when the shared cooldown ends).

Anyone else experience this behavior?