so i was yesterday at malygos doing the 5min achiev, i popped everything and was casting 150k ffbs with 1.2sec cast time and i want to ask you fellow mages, in this case (1.2 ffb) and with 300-400 ms ,will LB or HS pyro (or both) increase dps or should i chain cast ffb until cooldowns finish?

thx

Now i find myself in the same position as 6 months ago, and I still don't have proper answers.

"Back in the days" there was a point where 1haste was better then 1dmg if you had above X dmg.
Now, with the new ratings and stuff, i still dont know what to choose.

Armory profile:
The World of Warcraft Armory

Stats:
1866dmg
250hit(not worrying about this too much because i can simply get my t7 pants, which gives me enough hit)
29.36% crit unbuffed, 34,74% selfbuffed
286 haste

Now knowing that 1 crit is equal to 0.8dmg, and 1haste is equal to 0.7dmg, i should go for crit. Is there a minimum amount of spelldmg / crit / haste you need before 1 of the 2 other stats becomes better? Should I focus on getting max dmg, or more crit, or..?

Pre-wotlk I always aimed for 1100, 30% crit, then stack haste. But how should I do it in WoTLK?
Anyone willing to explain?

Well, I am no theorycrafter, but I would probably go for dmg, then haste then crit. In reality, gear choices aren't so straight up. I generally just go for whatever is a clear UG, 75haste, vs something with 40crit, or something that gives me 50 more spell dmg even if that means loosing a small amount of haste or crit.

Download Rawr; read through threads (like The Frostfire Bolt Thread). And you don't need to link your profile in your post. The link to your armory page is right under your name, on every post.

Hey Guys

I have been reading this forum for a long time but i have not seen any discussion on cooldown managment, I have a question that maybe you guys could answer.

Currently i have my Combustion + IV macroed to my FFB and i generally just rail on that in my rotation, this causes my cooldowns to be poped everytime they are up. Common sense tells me i should try to save my cooldowns for Molten Fury time or when heroism is cast however in my raid heroism is generally not available or sometimes is used at poor times, and hardly ever is it used under 30%.

As mages how and when do you guys use your cooldowns?

Once at the start of the fight with mirror image (then invis afterwards to drop threat), then again just as we get into Molten Fury range. I don't think there have been any WotLK fights that let me use them 3 times.

I have a separate macro for combustion/iv/trinket/fireseed/etc/FFB from ffb button i mash most of the fight. i also keep combusion, iv and my tinkets on one of my action bars for certain situations. certain fights i know are going to be hell on my mana so i save iv for evocate. most of the time i mash the ffb macro button, but i like it being a manual choice rather than always being hit everytime it's up.

Hello. My main has always been a druid, but I'm leveling a mage now (currently 76), and love the mage playstyle. I have spent hours reading these mage forums and occasionally run into a phrase like this: "the RNG of FFB spec".

I have not been able to figure out what "RNG" means, although it is possible I missed it somewhere. Will someone please enlighten me? Thank you!

RNG stands for "random number generator." In this sense, one might say that the observed DPS of a Frostfire spec is highly random or variable--dependent on luck or randomness.

In mathematical parlance, what people intuitively mean when they say FFB is subject to the RNG is that the DPS output has high variability: there is more of a probability of seeing extremely high or low DPS compared to the long-run average one might expect. You can get lucky with FFB and put out absurd numbers. You can also get unlucky and put out terrible ones. These have to do with, in particular, the nature of Hot Streak and the large dependence on crits to make up for otherwise mediocre normal hit damage.

Have you explained to them how this is actually a DPS loss, although a minor one? It seems to me that no guild would purposefully lose DPS.

If their excuse is "too many people die before 35%!" or "6% increased damage is nothing!" then ask if you can raid as a 0/0/0 spec, and politely inform them of other 'hidden' benefits of waiting, including: Not wasting a CD on a possible wipe.

Also, make your players shape up so they don't die.

If one pops all their cooldowns in frostfire spec with bloodlust etc, would potion of speed or potion of wild magic do better?

Also improved blizzard does not seem to proc Brain Freeze, is this working as intended

It varies with (obviously) your current cast time. I can't recall which program/spreadsheet gives the conclusive numbers (TCOM, I'm thinking), but someone posted not too long ago that abandoning LB is a no-brainer when at <1 second GCDs while Hot Streak is more subtle. At a .6 second GCD and with that much lag I'm going to guess that FFB spam is your best bet. Don't quote me on that without checking with one of the well-known TC tools.

Stupid question: does the chill effect provided by winters chill count as a 'normal' chill effect for the purpose of proc'ing either frostbite or FoF?

If so, that flushes my brilliant new frost spec in one swirly, since the chance to score frozen from winters chill would be niiiiiice.

No, as the talent applies a spell crit debuff on the target, not a "chill effect" in the manner in which you are thinking.
The tooltip is quite clear on this I think, despite a slightly misleading effect name.

On Thaddius there's really no need to run around. You have plenty of time to run straight up to the other side of the boss. This takes more or less the same time as one GCD, so it really depends how far you position the groups and how much your mana actually matters to you. Either way the gains/losses should be extremely minimal.

Would it be better to grab the eighteen points in Arcane (at 73) to get TtW before gaining Chilled to the Bone? At 75 once I obtain the FFB I can glyph to Frostbolt for that damage increase and still have the snare applied by the lead off FFB while leveling.

All the benefits for each profession are basically same, the inscription shoulder enchants are 37 more spell power than the hodir ones. The JC spell power gems are 39 extra spell power with 3 gems. The ring enchants for enchanters are 39 spell power.

Personally I would choose jewelcrafting, though the benefit of the gems will decrease once blizzard releases the epic gems, [Runed Cardinal Ruby], which grant 23 spell power, so 3 of the JC only gems will only give 27 extra spell power, though blizzard could always release better JC only gems.

The best 2 are probably JC and enchanting, but I would go JC and mining so you have a way to make money, unless you have a max level alt with gathering professions to make you money.

Pretty sure the answer is Jewelcrafting for 59 bonus spellpower (3 [Runed Dragon's Eye] vs. 1 [Runed Scarlet Ruby] & 2 [Glowing Twilight Opal] (you need purple gems otherwise to match your meta)), and something else (not tailoring, engineering, mining, or herbalism). The self enchants/extra gem slots/bonus spellpower from Alchemy, Enchanting, Leatherworking, Inscription, and Blacksmithing are all about equal right now at 37 or 38 spellpower. When epic gems come out, if there are not any better self enchants or gems Blacksmithing will pull ahead, and Jewelcrafting will get worse. The Skinning crit bonus is not as good as 37/38 spellpower at most (any?) gear levels.

Thank you for the responses. I have Alchemy currently, is it worth it to drop it for Enchanting? How much extra spell power would I be getting from the passives with [Mixture of the Frost Wyrm]

Wowhead says you would have 162 spellpower with mixology. Which is 37 spell power.

I would keep alchemy. It's close to the other professions and you save a ton of gold in the long run only having to use half the flasks.

I think I might do that. Thanks for the information guys, it's going to help my decisions.