I've done quite a bit of this. The way it works is a lot simpler than you describe.

(optional)
flamestrike/living bomb (if they're being tanked and you're letting tank build threat)
or
blizzard/living bomb (if you're at range and want them to take some damage on the approach)

(main sequence)
dragon breath - critters are now disoriented and can't hurt you
gcd-target the flamestrike
firestarter flamestrike - critters will reorient on you
gcd - move back a little so all the mobs clump in front of you, not in a circle around you
blast wave - critters will blow away in a rough cone in front of you
gcd -target the flamestrike - mobs lumber toward you at half speed setting themselves up for
firestarter flamestrike - critters will mostly be in the target circle, and may be badly beat up that just the dot will kill em anyway

If they're not already dead at this point, you can use frost nova or a cone of cold/arcane explosion
strategy to kite them, dropping living bombs when they come up and waiting for dragon breath to proc again.

If you start out near the mobs, don't bother with the flamestrike/living bomb. Most nonelites will die
just from the four fire spells (DB/FSTR/BW/FSTR).

This approach also works just fine in 5-mans as long as you don't do it on something that has more health than you'll burn down, because you WILL pull aggro unless the tank has a big threat lead. You do have to train the tank not to freak out when the blast wave goes off and his threatmeters start yelling at him. Just make sure everything dies before it hits anyone other than the tank. You can also manage the blast wave sometimes by positioning to blow them into walls.

I'm not sure if blast wave has any use in raids, but in 5 mans it's really very helpful. Stand near the healer.both of you stand maybe 15yd from the trash being tanked. If the tank loses threat on anything and it charges the healer (or you because you pulled aggro), blast wave it back to the tank. BW gives you more time to do a couple more AOE GCD's before the mad stuff starts swinging at you. It also has really good synergy with things like the hunter frost-slow trap or antother mage casting slow or imp blizzard....stuff crawls sloowly toward you and just as it's about to actually hurt someone, you blast it back and halve its already crippled movement.

The above approach isn't so much aoe kiting, it's more just aoe burndown. It'll burn maybe half your mana but it is very, very predictable in how much health it will burn down. Know what that number is, pick your AOE victims accordingly.

In terms of purely stationary fights where range is not an issue (for example Patchwerk), at what gear level is using fireblast in a spell rotation a dps increase?

I am going to be respeccing to FFB and I've been doing some reading. I've read through the FFB thread and it's not clear to me: Should I allow LB to explode? Or should I refresh it before that happens?

And just to confirm: With a frost mage applying winter's chill, (as long as he's continuing to do so, ie: not dead) there's no reason to keep imp scorch up, correct? I understand casting it before HS-Pyro to avoid ignite munching. But otherwise there's no reason. I suppose at the beginning of the fight I can get imp scorch up quicker than he can get full winter's chill up.

Fireblast is best left completely out of your rotation. It's best suited for trash finishers or switches or during significant movements (ie. Malygos whirlwind). It has been shown to be a DPS increase in the long run.

1. Let it explode. Then refresh.
2. If WC is being put up then there is no 'reason' to cast scorch, you're correct. Why you'd have a raiding frost mage before 3.0.8 hits is another question entirely.

LB now returns the error "a more powerful spell is active" if you try and refresh before it explodes if you try and apply it to the same target. So refreshing as it explodes is optimal so long as you have timed it correctly.

Simply IF Timer on LB < Current FFB cast time left, THEN refresh when next possible.

more reading and i have found my answer, sorry.

Curious what an optimal arcane gear set would be? Im guessing it'd be quite different from fire/frostfire.

Hit w/ Arcane Focus, Precision and Imp Faerie Fire or Misery = 210
Hit with only Arcane Focus and Misery or FF = 228

Spell Damage after your hit capped. Haste and crit have never been good for Arcane. I havent done the math, but I dont think T7 4 set bonus is worth keeping if you have a better in slot item.

Something like:

Helm - [Hood of Rationality] [Chaotic Skyflare Diamond] [Runed Scarlet Ruby]
Neck - [Wyrmrest Necklace of Power] [Runed Dragon's Eye]
Shoulders - [Mantle of Dissemination]
Chest - [Heigan's Putrid Vestments][Runed Dragon's Eye][Runed Dragon's Eye]
Back - [Pennant Cloak][Runed Scarlet Ruby]
Wrist - [Unsullied Cuffs][Runed Scarlet Ruby]
Waist - [Leash of Heedless Magic][Runed Scarlet Ruby]
Hands - [Valorous Frostfire Gloves][Runed Scarlet Ruby]
Legs - [Leggings of Mortal Arrogance][Runed Scarlet Ruby][Runed Scarlet Ruby]
Feet -[Arcanic Tramplers]
Ring - [Signet of Manifested Pain]
Ring -[Band of Channeled Magic]
Trinket - [Dying Curse]
Trinket -[Illustration of the Dragon Soul]
Weapon - [The Turning Tide]
Off Hand - [Surplus Limb]
Wand - [Gemmed Wand of the Nerubians]

Would put you 10 over the Arcane Focus, Precision Hit Capp. without Precision youll prob want to swap in T7 legs.

Q: How dumb is it that there is no Epic Sword/Dagger available for us outside of Naxxramas?

A: Very dumb.

Considering the easily crafted, best-in-slot-until-incoming-nerf, blacksmithing spell damage mace... yes very dumb.

Are you taking into account the dot on pyroblast? I would assume this would potentially make up the difference?

This isn't really a mage question, but more one that could clear up something I was seeing in our raids last night. On Sapphiron 10 man, I was 335 FrR with one of the glacial pieces, as our healers are currently having more of an issue than our DPS, but I'm not sure if resists work as the resist formula on wowwiki advertises for that fight. I was seeing resists of 360, 480, and 600 out of 1200 (30, 40, 50% respectively), and nothing else in my combat log, even though with 335, i should have been around 60% resist rate on a lvl 83 mob. Going through all of the combat log I had showed no full resists or 75% resists, even though those should have occurred on nearly half of the casts.

I have noticed that Sapphiron has quite a bit of innate resistance as well - even with CoE up and hitcapped I'm seeing partial resists on frostbolts. Would it be possible that he also has spell penetration or is it more likely that either my combat log or something in the encounter was bugged?

no im not. im not knowledgeable as to how to account for +dmg on the dot afterwards...

I was wondering what the best caster weapon enchant is at the moment.

Since rawr doesnt seem to include black magic yet I have no idea.

well, i was asking to double check my numbers, forgive me i apologize, i thought maybe it would help others who may be confused, once again i apologize

Black Magic is ~70 dps while the proc is up, but I've heard the proc has an internal cooldown of 45 seconds so that pushes it well below +63 spellpower.

Ok thanks, I dont think the costs are that high, plenty of crystals now we start to frequently DE naxx10 gear.

I've seen some discussion (I believe on the official WoW forums, however I can't find the source currently), regarding Mirror Images 'taunting' targets off you. I've done a search on the EJ forums here, but couldn't locate any similar reports.

We were doing Sapphiron 10-man a couple of evenings ago. I'm sat on ~89% threat of the tank (boss is at ~40% health), hit Mirror Image, and Sapphiron immediately turned to my images, walked over and killed them (followed by myself). If I understand the mechanic correctly, this shouldn't be possible:

There wasn't any significant burst damage damage in the time, nor any huge ignite ticks that may have pushed me anywhere close to 'pulling' aggro.

I've done a fair amount of 5-mans/10-mans/25-mans routinely since the release of Wrath, and the only other time I've seen this was on the last boss of Heroic Violet Hold a couple of weeks ago. I attributed it at the time to simply being half asleep and not focusing properly.

Has anybody else either a) experienced similar issues, b) any explanation for this, besides it being a threatmeter issue?

Its a known issue, if you check manly's signature you can see the reason (mirror images gain 133% of the casters threat as you pop them).

If the theory holds, popping MI before 97.75% threat should avoid that case from happening. The reasoning being that 97.74% threat * 1.33 =~ 130% of the tank' threat.

Thanks both of you for the clarification.