Mage: Simple Questions/Simple Answers - Page 19

OrdinAiry · 12/12/08, 8:43 PM

so after reading all the threads I still haven't seen the answer to this question, apologies if I missed it:

Is arcane with the upcoming changes now better than Fire spec or is Fire still king?

Inoko · 12/12/08, 11:05 PM

Originally Posted by OrdinAiry

so after reading all the threads I still haven't seen the answer to this question, apologies if I missed it:

Is arcane with the upcoming changes now better than Fire spec or is Fire still king?

Go here for the preliminary number crunching result: Upcoming mage changes

morgulhir · 12/13/08, 3:39 AM

This may have been discussed elsewhere and already a long time ago (I haven't got time yet to go through the FFB thread) but will FFB gain double bonus from Flask of Pure Death (increases damage done by both fire and frost spells)?

Guintof · 12/13/08, 3:45 AM

Originally Posted by morgulhir

This may have been discussed elsewhere and already a long time ago (I haven't got time yet to go through the FFB thread) but will FFB gain double bonus from Flask of Pure Death (increases damage done by both fire and frost spells)?

If it does it is definitelly a bug. I doubt it though cause someone would have measured that by now and having a flask giving 160 spell power would be more powerfull than any flask in Wrath right now and would have certainly shown up by now.

Guintof · 12/13/08, 3:53 AM

One simple question which I havent been able to clarify though, it happens almost always that Hot Streak procs in the middle of a cast (Or at last 1/3 of the cast), should I interrupt the cast and throw that Pyro straight away or is it no problem to wait until the cast is off and then immediately follow it with a Pyro?

I tend to wait for the cast as it seems that interrupt a cast half done would be a bit of wasted dps. Reading from the the LB similar question above I assume I should wait on the cast first, is that correct?

morgulhir · 12/13/08, 4:17 AM

Originally Posted by Guintof

One simple question which I havent been able to clarify though, it happens almost always that Hot Streak procs in the middle of a cast (Or at last 1/3 of the cast), should I interrupt the cast and throw that Pyro straight away or is it no problem to wait until the cast is off and then immediately follow it with a Pyro?

I tend to wait for the cast as it seems that interrupt a cast half done would be a bit of wasted dps. Reading from the the LB similar question above I assume I should wait on the cast first, is that correct?

You should NOT interrupt your cast (that would be at least a GCD wasted). It procs in the middle of casting because it procs on spell land, and you already have cast half of your next spell when the old one is hitting the mob, that's when it procs. So just shoot out Pyro ASAP (read: it is not possible when you're casting another spell

).

Guintof · 12/13/08, 4:29 AM

Got it, thanks. I do have a stopcasting macro on my pyro which is why I asked cause I can just as easily press that button to get that pyro off interrupting the current cast, but I'll just keep on waiting for the cast to go off.

Here's something that I just came across. I was doing some theorycrafting with simulation tools (Specifically Livhera's) and for the Aoe rotation it shows that FS (2s) followed by Blizzard being higher than a FS (3s) followed by a blizzard, and a blizzard spam being in between.

Seeing as FS is only 2s from rank 6 and below am I to understand that Rank 6 FS is to be used instead of Rank 9 when Aoeing or is the tool just showing this value in a possible change of all other FS ranks to 2s cast for theroycrafters out there (In which case spamminh Blizzard would seem the way to go)? Seems a bit odd to me.

Medusa · 12/15/08, 6:56 AM

Why does rawr sjhow me that the 8 int/9 Spelldamage gem: [Luminous Monarch Topaz] give me more DPS than 8Crit/9 Spelldamage [Potent Monarch Topaz]
I am Frostfire speced. and use a Armory Import

Maledict · 12/15/08, 7:04 AM

Because you haven't given yourself raid buffs or set the fight up properly. This has come up a lot of times, if you read the RAWR thread. Without replenishment & ther buffs, a 5 minute fight will drain your mana very fast so RAWR will prioritise mana regen for you.

Naheb · 12/16/08, 4:07 AM

Is there an Int value above what [Ember Skyflare Diamond] could become better than [Chaotic Skyflare Diamond] ?

particularly with regard to Arcane ...

Inoko · 12/16/08, 4:45 AM

Originally Posted by Naheb

Is there an Int value above what [Ember Skyflare Diamond] could become better than [Chaotic Skyflare Diamond] ?

particularly with regard to Arcane ...

Gut answer: No.

Reasoning:

CSD increases crit damage dealt. Intellect increases mana pool and crit chance directly, indirectly effects mana regen via replenishment.

One is going to give you more DPS per crit, the other will give you more crits. You'd have to stack int to astronomical values to get a significant boost to your crit rating, especially one that will cause significant DPS increases.

However, if there is ever a situation where you can essentially maintain a very, very high DPS rotation for "long enough" on most/all bosses, as opposed to switching between burn and regen cycles *because of the gem,* then there's a chance for it to be better. But at what point that will happen is very much so dependent on so many factors that I (and probably others) can't tell you when it is. After all, it will depend on the average raid DPS of your raids, what other buffs you're running with, if you get replenishment, if you get a water elemental's regen, if...

So, back to the short answer: No*.

Dragonp00 · 12/16/08, 4:58 AM

Question: In a very broad and general sense, is raiding with Mage Armor a larger dps increase if you do not use Evocation, versus Molten Armor? If not, how big is the dps difference using base mage stats?

I find myself using Mage Armor more for longer fights, and with Mage Armor I generally do not need to use Evocate (Pot+Gems are enough with the regen). Thus, Molten Armor is more crit but with an 8-10second (T6-2piece) downtime of not casting what so ever. Which realistically comes out to +Crit or an extra ~3 FFB every 4 to 5 minutes (Evoc cooldown).

Roywyn · 12/16/08, 5:15 AM

Originally Posted by Dragonp00

Question: In a very broad and general sense, is raiding with Mage Armor a larger dps increase if you do not use Evocation, versus Molten Armor? If not, how big is the dps difference using base mage stats?

Use Rawr. It prefers Evocation over Mage Armour for a 1.5% increase in unadjusted Naxx25 gear.

Originally Posted by Naheb

Is there an Int value above what [Ember Skyflare Diamond] could become better than [Chaotic Skyflare Diamond] ?
particularly with regard to Arcane ...

Yes, of course, as it scales. Takes you 3 clicks in Rawr to find that out.

7359 Intellect for Arcane, 22197 for Frostfire, 42857 for Frost.

Naheb · 12/16/08, 5:40 AM

thank you!

i'll take the 7359 as a no

The Stonemender · 12/16/08, 6:34 AM

I have a question on spelll-dmg calculations.

Are the modifiers added or multiplied?

Example: Fireball.

Modifiers: 0.1 Spellpower, 0.03 Playing with Fire, 0.06 Spell Impact, 0.15 empowered Fire (+dmg only)

Is it: (1+0.1+0.03+0.06) * (Basedmg + Spelldmg * (1+0.15)

or: (1*1.1*1.03*1.06) * (Basedmg + Spelldmg*1.15)

Jakthar · 12/16/08, 10:01 PM

I'm looking at fireball builds for post patch. My question is would I be better off specing 12/51/8(Picking up Focus Magic, 1pt in Impact, and EP) or 20/51/0 (Picking up Arcane Med and 3/3 Spell impact but not EP)?

Another question.
Is Magic Absorption worth anything on a fireball build? Worth taking 2 points out of Arcane Concentration?

And another.
What's the deal with torment of the weak? Does it work on bosses without casting slow or not?

DeimosXI · 12/16/08, 11:56 PM

Jakthar, to answer your question about TTW.

Originally Posted by Roywyn

Torment the Weak
This talent does not work when specced into Molten Fury.

On normal slowable kitable mobs, just any slowing affect of any class will trigger the damage increase from Torment.

On raid bosses that cannot be slowed, this talent is only triggered by the spell "Slow".
No other debuff that would usually reduce movement speed will trigger Torment on non-slowable mobs.

It does work on most bosses, but some bosses are completely immune to the "Slow" talent and thus Torment.
Currently, the only untormentable known boss is Brutallus.

To make it clear, to benefit from Torment the Weak in boss fights, you need a mage who is specced for Slow and recasts it every 15 seconds.
It is not known whether this is intended or not, and is generally considered really bad design.

The following is a list of abilities/debuffs of the slowing type that do not trigger Torment on bosses:
Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt, Infected Wounds.

It is believed that Torment works of the "Ensnared" flag, which might be applied by the rogue talent "Waylay".
Which isn't much of a concern since Waylay can only be applied on cooldowns with extremely subpar specs.

http://elitistjerks.com/f75/t30655-w..._0_8_part_two/

Jakthar · 12/17/08, 12:11 AM

Originally Posted by DeimosXI

Jakthar, to answer your question about TTW.

http://elitistjerks.com/f75/t30655-w..._0_8_part_two/

So the thunder clap example only applies to non-boss mobs?

Actovision · 12/17/08, 12:16 AM

Originally Posted by DeimosXI

Jakthar, to answer your question about TTW.

http://elitistjerks.com/f75/t30655-w..._0_8_part_two/

That post was last updated almost a month ago. The upcoming patch will cause Torment the Weak to work correctly against bosses, and blue posts and common sense say that any slowing effect (casting, attack, and movement) will trigger TtW. Thunderclap was mentioned specifically as an example of a spell that will trigger TtW against a boss.

Gleeful · 12/17/08, 1:44 AM

I don't understand why no one likes the T7 4 piece bonus. Isn't it just the same thing as chaotic skyflare only 2% more bonus? I always assumed it had to do with how they two stack (not additive?)

Jonny_Monroe · 12/17/08, 1:49 AM

Originally Posted by Gleeful

I don't understand why no one likes the T7 4 piece bonus. Isn't it just the same thing as chaotic skyflare only 2% more bonus? I always assumed it had to do with how they two stack (not additive?)

CSD multiplies against your crit talents, the 4T7 bonus however is additive to those talents (except, obviously, for ignite which multiplies against everthing).

This information is available already on this forum.

Kelfar · 12/17/08, 3:11 AM

I have a question regarding my performance on patchwerk. Here is the WWS for the fight.

http://wowwebstats.com/dlxdxkxsatce3

I don't know why we were doing so bad this attempt, our 2 fury warriors are usually doing 5k each but I think they both died towards the end.
I am just wondering how to push to the 5.5k-6k DPS I see some frostfire mages putting out. I noticed I didn't have LB up as much as I should, though I generally just spam FFB when we pop bloodlust/icyveins/combustion, so that is probably where I could have had 3 more LB's up.

Also I will be getting 60 badges of valor soon, what is a better upgrade? [Wraps of the Astral Traveler] or [Valorous Frostfire Shoulderpads] ?
If I drop my current shoulders, [Mantle of the Fatigued Sage], for the tier piece I lost the 35 hit, which will drop be lower than I need to be, especially with 3.0.8 when we have to get 11% for FFB to be capped. I do have [Mark of the War Prisoner] that I can swap out, but I plan to get [Embrace of the Spider] eventually which will take up the spot for the hit trinket.

The Stonemender · 12/17/08, 4:02 AM

is there really noone who can actually answer my question concerning modifier stacking?

• Seonid · 12/17/08, 6:10 AM

Originally Posted by Kelfar

I have a question regarding my performance on patchwerk. Here is the WWS for the fight.

What are you using to track the HS procs ?
On the kill parse it appears you had 15 HS procs but cast only 8 Pyro's.

Inoko · 12/17/08, 6:14 AM

Four minute fight: one gem, one icy veins. Shoulda gotten two of each. Also, for the love of god, do something about that green trinket.