I just like doing things for myself sometimes, which means knowing the number to do the math. Besides, I'm not simply trying to find my dps or anything here, which is the main thing simulators are for. I'm just testing functionality and damage and seeing if they fit the expected models, outcomes, formulas etc and doing it for myself so I don't just take someone else's word for it. This is how you determine the behavior simulators simulate and how you find bugs anyway, on which a simulator may be based if you never actually test it...just because a simulator calculates some aspect of the game one way doesn't automatically mean in-game WoW is doing it that way.

That isn't to say though that simulators aren't good. I know they are generally very sound and trustworthy and that those who make them put a lot of work into making sure they are accurate.

I was discussing the viability of [Formula: Enchant Boots - Tuskarr's Vitality] vs [Enchant Boots - Icewalker] with a friend today.

Tuskarr's Vitality gives a 8% movement speed increase, wich can increase your dps in various ways. Some I can think off:

- faster 'chasing' of the tanks so you can start dpsing faster
- faster moving from a fissure/fire like thing of wich you have to move instantly from (and thus not being able to time it with a living bomb refresh/instant pyro, resulting in a dps loss)
- faster overall movement during encounters, four horsemen comes in mind, Malygos aswell. But there are tons of bosses that involve moving around.
- higher survivability overall

Icewalker gives 12 crit and 12 hit, and while upgrading your gear you'll be in many situations where your actually overcapped hit and hit means nothing to you. I have checked some of the 'best possible gear sets' as far as my research goes chardev.org - a World of Warcraft Character Planner - x would be the best set. This set has 10.37% hit (and a possible 6 hit rating in the chest if you want to put in a orange gem in it) without the icewalker enchant, making extra hit useless for alliance players.

So, at least for alliance players, and for horde players that are unable to get the best possible set and find themselfs overcapped the equation would be 12 crit rating (0.26%) vs 8% extra movement speed.

Ofcourse having a unholy dk in the raid makes the speed enchant totally useless, but im not sure how rare this spec is in pve because its a pvp spec as far as I know.

While looking at mages from top guilds on armory I see some choose for speed and others choose for icewalker, so the answer cant be that obvious. But I dont really believe its just personal preference either.

Im not sure if this is a simple question, but I dont think its big enough for its own thread either.

Anyway, what are your thoughts about this choice?

I apologize if this question has been answered previously, it's hard to come up with the right phrase to search for in Google...

Build: 0/53/18 (with 2/2 Imp Fireblast, 3/3 Incineration)
Rotation: LB, Scorch x2, FFB spam with HS Pyros, refreshing LB/Scorch every time they fade

My question is two-fold:

1. Has anyone done analysis to see if keeping a fireball dot refreshed permanently would yield a DPS increase to the above rotation? (More dots, anyone?)
2. Would keeping up a fireball dot be yield a DPS increase if Imp FB and Incineration were dropped for 5/5 Imp Fireball, considering you'd be throwing roughly 3-4 more fireballs than scorches?

I appreciate your help, experts.

Icewalker is the difference between [Potent Monarch Topaz] and [Veiled Monarch Topaz]. Think of the crit as bonus. One could argue that [Brilliant Spellthread] offers higher DPS than [Sapphire Spellthread] due to spirit affecting regen and stamina only affecting your health pool. The argument would probably stem from a line like, "It's not my responsibility to have more health, it's the healer's responsibility to keep me alive with what health I have."

Ah, but the difference between 300 health and ~4.5 Mp5 at 30% in-combat regen is quite a different argument than the difference between 12 hit (0.46%), 12 crit (0.26%) and 150 health and some slight movement speed increase. How important is 8% faster movement? When I need to get out of the fire, I blink. My goal is to move as little as possible. An increase in moevement speed, then, doesn't benefit me when I'm not moving.

Itzkakarot, there is no reason at any point in time, in any fight, to ever cast Fireball in a Frostfire build. Hope that helps.

Why would you blink on Thaddius fight? You'd end up in the middle of players who undoubtedly have an opposite charge, thereby causing unnecessary damage.

As far as I know, most everyone used Boar's Speed pre-wrath because the alternative, Vitality, was trivial. And while, yes, 8% run increase can help you stay out of the fire, it's also very selective in fights. It is indeed a personal choice, but I fail to see how it is at all a DPS increase over Icewalker. And saying you're going to use it because you're Alliance and have 1% hit from Draenei isn't a very valid argument. That argument implies that Horde mages should use Icewalker because they don't have an extra 1%.

Case in point, a number of undead players asked, "Because I have Will of the Forsaken, does that mean I don't need to wear my PvP trinket on Archimonde fight?" The answer is largely no. Same applies for Tears of the Goddess and Slow Fall spell.

Download my spreadsheet from the first post here: http://elitistjerks.com/f75/t37364-f...e_bolt_thread/
Even if you manually edit fireball cast time to be 3s (which means you would have to forego fireblast and incineration), the total average damage of fireball is far too low to compete. Fireball damage including the dots is lower than ffb damage without dot.

edit:
ffb average hit (no dots): 11195.15
fireball + 4x dot average hit, manually editing in an extra 5% crit for fireball glyph: 9808.48

So no, do not ever cast fireball. That used to be a good idea before they made empowered fireball into empowered fire.

You blink during the switch ofcourse, if your at the 'negative side' and your charge changes to positive you blink to the other side of the boss and thus dont loose any time 'running around'. Im not sure how you can cause any unnecesary damage durig the transition because the charges dont deal any damage at that time.

Anyway back to the 8% speed, im not thinking of the 8% speed as a survival stat to stay out of the fire, but a dps stat. When you are able to do your neccesary movement to 'stay out of the fire' faster you can resume dpsing earlier and thus deliver more dps.

I'm not sure about your last point, If the 1% hit I get as alliance makes the benefit of icewalker lower and if that would put it below the benefits of another enchant I should use the other one right? A obvious example would be my human racial, it makes the benefits of a pvp trinket allot lower and thus other trinkets come in range to be considered again (and in pve is totally useless to wear a pvp trinket in any situation as human). The thing is I dont have a clue what the benefits of 8% faster movement are.

What is the optimal way to utilize my cooldowns (icy veing and beserking) on boss fights?

Depending on fight length you want to save them for 35%. If the fight is around 3-4 minutes its best to use them at the beginning of the fight and again at 35% or whenever they come off cooldown.

While it would be a DPS increase, it would not be that much, since the time it takes the +damage charges to apply is longer than the time it takes to run between camps (assuming you keep both camps in melee range of thaddius), and you will then therefore do 1/2 your dps during the 1-2 seconds you gained. But yes this is a DPS increase if you don't have mana issues.

As for living bomb, does the damage calculate on-cast like most spells? If it does, only thing you need to worry about (please correct me if numbers say otherwise, although I'd be surprised if they do) is to delay casting it if it falls off while you don't have +damage debuffs, considering it takes them very little time to get re-applied after a polarity shift.

First thing to ask yourself is whether you have a shadow priest/moonkin available the majority of the time? I imagine most 25 man guilds, and no small number of 10 man guilds, would, in which case you can drop back down to 289 hit.

As far as specific items go, Mark of the War Prisoner from H VH and Dying Curse from Naxx25 both provide a large chunk of hit rating and a nice DPS bonus (73 hit and a SP useable, and 71 hit and a SP proc, respectively). Can't go wrong with either of them, especially since your trinket choice at the moment is decidedly lacking. Grab whichever one you can get your hands on first, throw a belt buckle on your belt and gem it with a SP/hit gem, bam you're capped, have fun.

If you want to be capped out assuming no moonkin/SP, you're going to have to do a bit more thorough of a regearing. But that's not too big a deal, considering you're still wearing a large number of level 70 items which presumeably you're going to want to replace at the first available opportunity anyway.

I posted a gear setup in the 'best non-raid mage gear' thread which will cap you out at 14% hit and give you very respectable stats without requiring any raid loot, and there's a load of other good suggestions for gear there as well: Best Non-Raid Mage Gear