Mage: Simple Questions/Simple Answers - Page 12

manly · 11/25/08, 4:20 PM

Originally Posted by Xenophon

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?

That is correct. Mirror Image will stop your macro from executing (from that point on) if it is on cooldown. I reported this a while ago as it can be used to create conditional macros.

Incindia · 11/25/08, 6:52 PM

I’ve read here that you would not want to stack Mp5 for a mage and I don’t, however I was just wondering why? Is it just because other stats (Spell Power, Hit, Crit) are more important?

Edit:
I spent some time thinking about it, and another reason I can think of is: Is it because we spend all our time casting? So we never get out of the 5 second rule? (sorry if this is silly, my main used to be a Priest so I am still learning about Mage Stat weighting).

Lezwyn · 11/25/08, 7:08 PM

Northerner · 11/25/08, 7:12 PM

Originally Posted by Incindia

I’ve read here that you would not want to stack Mp5 for a mage and I don’t, however I was just wondering why? Is it just because other stats (Spell Power, Hit, Crit) are more important?

Edit:
I spent some time thinking about it, and another reason I can think of is: Is it because we spend all our time casting? So we never get out of the 5 second rule? (sorry if this is silly, my main used to be a Priest so I am still learning about Mage Stat weighting).

Given our goal as producing as much damage as possible in a given timeframe using whatever spec we desire, we've never actually had a situation where MP5 was a preferred stat to either the usual damage/hit/crit/haste or the very rare spirit/int. Mages typically do not run out of mana in a fight for which they are prepared and if they are running out of mana then there are substantially better options available over gearing/gemming for MP5. This includes but is not limited to such things as using different consumables, using Mage Armor, speccing a more efficient spec for that encounter, glyphing differently or changing the rotation within a given spec for greater efficiency. Unlike healing classes, we can generally predict a fight's mana costs reasonably well.

This may well also be true for all other classes now too of course but that's another thread.

Guintof · 11/25/08, 10:27 PM

Originally Posted by manly

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.

This is exactly what I read therefore I tried to put MI between combustion and FFB, to no success however.

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?

This is exactly my problem. If MI is out of cooldown the very first cast goes off without a hiccup however the subsequent casts (After MI enters cooldown) will not work whatsoever.

I guess it is a bug, or at least I hope so because while I don't mind so much having it on a manual cast, I'd like to have the choice to macro it and forget about it.

On a related topic, the exact same thing happens on my shammie alt when trying to macro Tidal Force. It seems the first cast goes off but as soon as it enters cooldown the macro stops working. Maybe it's the same bug?

robbymo · 11/25/08, 10:46 PM

Originally Posted by Lezwyn

As a frostmage, watching for brain freeze and fingers of frost procs can be somewhat tiring, especially so in raids with the large amount of buffs there. Furthermore, there doesn't seem to be any indication if you have 1 or 2 FoF-effected casts left. So my question is, what would be a useful add-on to help me keep track of these procs?

I use mage alert. You can download it off of Curse Gaming. It works wonderfully. You screen will flash red momentarily and you hear a voice that anounces the proc.

Norwest · 11/26/08, 10:50 AM

Manly described Hot Streak as giving an invisible buff that ticks up when you crit, gives the Hot Streak buff when it hits 2 and resets on a regular hit.
- Is there any way to make an addon that will make this counter visible to the player? Similar to Lighting Capacitor charges.
- Is that something mages would consider valuable?

I have been searching the Addon resources, and I'm not sure if "GetPlayerBuff" in the API can retrieve something like that, or if it is a server side or not a player buff. I've been reading addon guides and resources to try and figure this out, but I'm not a programmer and it's been slow.

If it's not possible to retrieve the info directly from the game, I'm fairly sure something could be written that tracks the counter indirectly through the combat log. Does the hot streak counter change at the same time as the combat log event?

But before we answer if it's possible, the real question is how useful it is. Would mages use something like this?

Saruk · 11/26/08, 11:22 AM

I think it would be of limited use in PvE, not too sure about PvP. Knowing that you a 1 on the HS counter doesn't change the fact that you still can't let your pyro go as soon as HS procs as you will still be mid cast if your last spell crits. In addition, if your rotation is scroch-pyro on HS, then I can't see how knowing the counter time would help.

Nemantopia · 11/26/08, 12:57 PM

Ok, simple question. As mostly a frost mage, I've never really played with fire since the talent changes. So, I'm curious how Burning Determination works. I assume that you are still silenced/interrupted as normal the time that triggers the talent, and it then gives you a buff [called 'Burning Determination'?] that lasts 10 seconds and provides the immunity. But I'm curious about the silence that may have triggered the talent, specifically the likes of Improved Counterspell. You are still locked out of the tree, but does the silence still last the full duration or does it just serve as an interrupt of your spell with the silence removed by Burning Determination?

I guess the real, short question is: If a silence triggers Burning Determination, does that specific silence last or is it removed by BT?

Meghane · 11/26/08, 1:24 PM

I have a question about burning determination as well. The talent says that you will become immune to both silence and interrupt effects when one or the other is inflicted on you. But there are a lot of ways to be 'interrupted' aside from silence, like stun, disorient, knock back, fear and probably more, if I'm understanding what interrupt means. (As long as they are done while you are casting, which they almost always are, hence you are interrupted, right?). So if you get silenced will you be immune to stuns and everything else and if you get stunned immune to silence etc. I first looked at this and thought well that sucks because almost all silence abilities have a cool down longer than 10 seconds and most would last about half of the burning determination effect anyway.

It seems like it might be a little OP if it was the way I described but almost useless if just silence except against maybe shamans and duo silence teams...maybe if the effect started after the silence/interrupt effect ended and it was at least silence and stuns included. Has anyone tested this extensively?

andastra · 11/26/08, 4:20 PM

Nevermind. I'm stupid and didn't have the macro in my toolbar.

Inoko · 11/26/08, 4:28 PM

Originally Posted by Meghane

I have a question about burning determination as well. The talent says that you will become immune to both silence and interrupt effects when one or the other is inflicted on you. But there are a lot of ways to be 'interrupted' aside from silence, like stun, disorient, knock back, fear and probably more, if I'm understanding what interrupt means. (As long as they are done while you are casting, which they almost always are, hence you are interrupted, right?). So if you get silenced will you be immune to stuns and everything else and if you get stunned immune to silence etc. I first looked at this and thought well that sucks because almost all silence abilities have a cool down longer than 10 seconds and most would last about half of the burning determination effect anyway.

It seems like it might be a little OP if it was the way I described but almost useless if just silence except against maybe shamans and duo silence teams...maybe if the effect started after the silence/interrupt effect ended and it was at least silence and stuns included. Has anyone tested this extensively?

Silence and Interrupt are two very specific in game functions.

Silence blocks all spell casting for a period. AKA: the duration of the silence.

Interrupt mechanics are those like Counterspell which "stop" a spell mid cast (Pummel, Counterspell, kick, etc.) and then lock out that school.

Imp. Counterspell is both an interrupt (school lock) and a silence (all schools locked via the secondary effect)

So: no, it doesn't work the way you're thinking.

Enthorn · 11/26/08, 4:29 PM

Originally Posted by Meghane

Burning Determination

Burning Determination procs off of things that interrupt your spells. I've never had Burning Determination proc off of a stun, probably because stuns are a different mechanic than spell interruptions (such as Kick, Earth Shock, Counterspell, Gag Order, etc.)

Anything that either prevents you from casting spells, or resets your spell cooldowns, is going to proc Burning Determination. Yes, it does last for 10 seconds, and it's immensely useful against shorter interruptions like Earth Shock and Gag Order or just the silence component of counterspell.

Basically, there are different mechanics at play here:

Gag Order, Improved Counterspell: Apply Aura: Silence
Counterspell, Kick, Pummel: Interrupt Cast

These are the things Burning Determination procs from, but not "Apply Aura: Stun." That's what Blink is for ;-)

tharus · 11/26/08, 5:14 PM

Hello,

i just have one question.

I use Living Bomb in my Skillrotation by this macro:

#showtooltip
/cast Living Bomb(Rank 3)
/script Stopwatch_Play();
/stopwatch 12

Is there any Chance to change the "ding" sound for the end of the timer to a different sound or is there any addon for this?

thanks

Noisiu · 11/26/08, 6:36 PM

With all the changes for 3.0 and Wrath, I keep hearing this 9% hit cap talk among some of the mages in my guild. I can't, however, seem to get where they pulled that number from.

17% hit for cap - 1% draenei, 3% talents, 3% raid buff - 10% still needed.

What the hell am I missing?