Warlocks AOE is inferior, other classes (such as mage) are the preferred classes to stack if possible. Desctruction Warlocks can also Shadowfury stun (crucial for some strats).

Unless you have strange situation (eg your mages are horrible and your warlock is amazing) many guilds might opt to have all mages FFB spec and the Warlock handle crit debuffs, i'd think. I've seen a solid amount of parses of mages who do the fight as fire, but the vast majority of them are FFB. (Implying another class / warlock will handle the debuff)

Scorching on that fight should be handled by warlocks, they have it pretty bad anyway in there, no reason not to make their lives even more miserable still. Its good being a mage this expansion, feels like sweet revenge for BC :p

On a more serious note: I personally found speccing Arcane to be perfectly viable for Anub 25 hardmode. Now, I'm not exactly sure how you guys do it, but compared to the FFB-build I would be using, the advantage FFB has over arcane is:

a) Mana reduction and threat reduction
b) 6% increase frost damage
c) I guess Shatter, though I haven't been anything close to frost in such a long time I have no exact idea how it works on Blizzard anymore

From Arcane, if you aren't silly enough to not specc 3/3 Ice Shards, you gain
a) additional 50% critdamage from spellpower
b) clearcast+potency, and given the way aoe proccs clearcast right now, with quite a high frequency
c) Arcane Power for further CD-stacking
d) (just guesswork: Higher preference for haste on your gear, which I think translates into higher damage for blizzard, whereas crit-based FFB-gear doesn't work as well with it?)

From a pure blizzard-aoe standpoint, I think Arcane can compete with FFB nicely, even though I lack exact math on it. Even without speccing for reduced threat and mana, I found threat to be a nonissue, and getting a full clearcast on a 3k mana spell roughly 60%-70% of the time (rough estimate) seems to beat any mana-concern.

Living Bomb, as another big advantage for FFB, doesn't work too nicely in 25man hardmode from what I've experienced. With 2 add-tanks, you often don't hit more then 3 targets with LB, and Blizzard (or single target on Anub) seems to be the better use of my GCD.
For single-target on Anub, and gaining an advantage from Molten Fury: You don't single-target Anub for a very long time in that fight. You just can't. There might be something we are missing, but AoE stays the key of the fight until something like the last 40 or so seconds. And even then, FFB would still have to overcome the general deficit it has in DPS compared to FB-TTW or arcane.

Now, I find both options to be viable. On the many attempts we did on Anub, when being arcane, I have generally been above or on the same damage as our slightly better geared FFB-mage. On our kill, he out-dpsed me due to movement, but not by a large margin. Overall, it seemed that both speccs are doing just fine.

Living bomb is surely an advantage FFB has. LB doesnt form as much of my total % damage as I expected, but I dont think im 100% skilled at executing the fight yet. So I can't comment with too much authority. The 'first round of LB' on all 4 Adds and Anub is usually guaranteed to explode. The second round often will have the adds die before the explosion if your AOE DPS is really good.

I think that the more we outgear the fight, the more specs like Arcane will become more accepted. For now FFB is the glorifed best option, because its so often touted as 'the best AOE spec for Anubarak!'.

Living bomb is in fact very useful on heroic anub. What you do to make it work is zoom your camera out to max distance then as the adds are running in, target them and apply lb. You should be able to have it on all 4 by the time they are in position to start your blizzard.

Been there, done that. And yes, it works somewhat well. LB is probably the one big advantage FFB-specc has over arcane in that fight, as I've argued before; it definately gives you some very nice options, and will put out a very nice ammount of "passive" AoE from Anub alone.

But there is still a problem with it, and the two of you haven't convinced me otherwise yet. Fact is, if I put LB on the 4 adds, I've just spent arround 6-7 seconds (including targeting) to apply it. LB of course is among the highest single-target options on any given target available. But the explosion, at least in our positioning, seems to not hit more then 3 targets (anub + 2 adds) at any given point, so its AoE-component, at least for me, is not working really well.
If I, instead of LBing, spend those 6-7 seconds casting single-target on Anub, I can put quite a lot of damage on him - not to be underestimated. And second, I use my highest-DPS AoE-spell, Blizzard, to AoE, instead of spending GCDs on a spell that is potentially not as effective.

My gut feeling tells me to put maximum emphasis on one job at a time: Either max single-target on Anub, or max aoe on the adds. LB is semi-singletarget on the adds, depending on your targeting quite a bit of time lost, and not as efficent AoE as Blizzard. I don't know how it works out for you, but I by no means feel that Arcane is a specc that limits my effectiveness in that fight, or makes me a burden to my raid; I'd really like to see more reasoning (or even math) before I accept a statement like "the more we outgear the fight, the more you can carry arcane mages through it".

If your living bomb explosions are only hitting 2-3 targets at max, then your blizzard should also only hit 2-3 targets max.. Besides, even though you are only hitting 2-3 targets with ur LB, its still a dps increase over just spamming blizzard alone on 5 targets

Some comments on 1 tank and 2 tank strats for Nerubian Burrowers, Living Bomb, and Mage DPS on Heroic Anub'arak 25. (Partly as indirect response to some of the last posts on this topic)

People who use a 1 tank strat just literally tank everything on top of the boss. Obviously Living Bomb will hit everything then. You could argue that FFB specs with living bomb 'are better' in one tank strats, or rather, that they have more potential. But of course it works fine on both.

Blizzard = 8 yard radius
Living Bomb = 10 yard radius
Spider Frenzy = 12 yard radius ( Spider Frenzy - Spell - World of Warcraft )

Living Bomb, by definition of most 2-tank strats***, should not always hit all 5 targets.

In a two-tank strat, the positioning everyone uses is pretty obvious. Anub'araks Living Bomb explosion will hit all adds. The Living Bomb Explosion on each of the side packs of adds will usually only hit 3 targets (itself, the other add on that side, and anub'arak). If the LB explosion on an Add hits the add on the other side, then that add was within Spider Frenzy radius. Thats not a good thing. With this generic info, assuming you LB everything each wave, you can conclude:

Living Bomb In a 2-tank strat:

- 1 hits five targets (including the original)
- 4 hit three targets (including the original)
- Total of 17 explosions per set of 5 LB's applied, if you assume the adds were positioned correctly.

Living Bomb In a 1-tank strat:

- Every living bomb hits five targets (including the original)
- Total of 25 explosions per set of 5 LB's applied.

You thus can gain 8 extra explosion hits per set of 5 LB's applied.

With this in mind: its quite inaccurate to look at mages DPS on WOL/WWS for heroic Anub'arak, and compare different guilds' mages by that number alone. You should also check whether that guild was using two or three tanks if you want a more accurate representation of the information. Be wary of cross-strat comparisons, for example Arcane on a 2 tank strat VS FFB on a 1 tank strat.

When people discuss their DPS for Heroic Anub'arak, the number is meaningless unless you also specify how many tanks your guild uses.

*** I am aware that some guilds might use a rare 2-tank strat (still tank all adds on top of each other). I'm not talking about that strat here at all, as it's the equivilant of a 1-tank strat for the purposes of my post.

I have a fairly simple question regarding the mechanics of Incanter's Absorption and I apologize ahead of time if it has been discussed. My search didn't reveal anything.

If I have Fire Ward up (which can absorb a max of 1950) and I get pop'd by a 500 dmg fireball. I get a 50 SP increase (assuming 2/3 IA) for the next 10 seconds. What happens if I then get pop'd by a 1000 dmg fireball within the next 10 seconds?

Do I then gain a new IA proc giving me a 100 sp increase for the next 10 seconds? Does it get added to the prior IA, resulting in a 150 SP increase?

The damage stacks/rolls. You can see this if you watch your spellpower during the Twins. The limitation of 5% of your health stays.

IA "rolls". Every time you absorb damage, it recalculates your spellpower bonus based on how much time your old absorb(s) have left on their timer.

Here's a post explaining it (formula at the bottom): The Arcane thread

[New SP Bonus] = [Absorbed Damage] * 0.10 + [Old SP Bonus] * ([Remaining Buff Time] / 10)

1000 * .10 + 50 (3/10) = 115

So for your example, assuming the first absorb had elapsed 7 seconds by the time the second absorb hit, you would then have a new spellpower bonus of 115 for 10 seconds.

What is the maximum number of stack it's worthwhile to spellsteal on Lord Jarax before it's more dps to jut attack with the stacks you already have? Assuming you start spellstealing the instant it is available. (I am using a fireball spec)

Nether power gives you 20% extra damage per stack for 30 seconds starting after the 1st stack. Therefore 10 stacks is 300% damage for 30 seconds subtracted by 10 GCDs. Since you logged off in pvp gear I can't guess your haste, but presuming you have 0 haste rating, stealing all the stacks would still be max 15 seconds of zero damage and then at least 15 seconds of triple damage. So in terms of dps it would be best to steal as many stacks as you can.

However, spellsteal costs a lot of mana, and having to do this multiple times per fight might leave you short if you are the only mage. So this becomes a fairly simple calculation that you might be able to do with Rawr. Use sequence reconstruction to estimate the amount of mana left at the end of the fight, and then divide by the cost of spellsteal and the expected number of times Jaraxxus has the buff. This certainly depends on how fast your guild kills him.

In the heroic version of the fight, you'll likely find that you can't steal more than 2-3 stacks, since the mechanics of the fight demand that nether power is dispelled/purged as soon as possible. Not to mention that the nether portal usually pops up at the same time he gets the buff, you'll need to be on portals and let the healers dispel it.

I am looking to build up my mage and am hoping to maximize the frost/fire build.
;.
Right now my deep frost build still out DPS's frost/fire. (heroics and naxx 10/25 inc patchwreck) I believe its a scaling issue with my gear. Mostly Ilevel 200 to 219.

What are the minimum amounts in crit, haste and spell power to be effective with this kind of spec? I cant seem to find anything with even ballpark figures.

Only players who don't know what they're talking about (or players who are oversimplifying a complex question) post minimum numbers for various stats. The values of every stat are variable, depending on the quantities of other stats you have and the spec you've chosen.

Fortunately we have a fantastic tool that does all the hard work for you. Download Rawr.

As ExtrudedCow says, Rawr will tell you all you need to know. However, have you thought about going Arcane (57/3/11), rather than Frostfire? Arcane is now a very good spec, especially at lower gear levels because of the low hit-cap (+6% hit from talents). Once again, Rawr will be able to tell you the DPS difference in talent builds.

At a T9 gear level, Arcane is still above FB in my experience. My guild has three active raiding mages; myself, another mage who follows my lead, and a FrB mage (she's an officer's wife, she gets away with it).

In pre-naxx/naxx gear, I was using Arcane for the low hit cap. In late naxx/all ulduar gear, I was using FB, because there was an abundance of hit on uld-level gear. Now that I've gotten (4)T9, as well as other ToC10/25 pieces, I switched back to arcane, and noticed a noticeable DPS increase. Even though the other mage greatly outgeared me, I was still dropping much better DPS and DMGO than him (we were both on par when we were both FB). Now that he has switched to arcane as well, he's just above me, as should be expected from him outgearing me.

The only use for FFB that i've seen from reading around has been the last boss in ToGC. every other fight in ToC/ToGC excels with the single target DPS of arcane, as well as the available gear at the T9 raiding level.

So what you're saying is that you think it's a better idea for you to DPS a non-debuffed target than a debuffed one rather than using a focus-CS macro every 24 seconds?

Not to mention the main DPS target is the one you're trying to eliminate, any DPS not on that target doesn't go towards the goal of removing that Faction Champion and their abilities from the encounter.

Like I said, it's a theory and I'm open to corrections.

My reasoning goes along these lines, it's more efficient and possibly a higher dps to not interrupt your rotation trying to properly target the raid DPS target and then switch back to your CS target. In the early part of the fights, random damage done to non-raid focused targets is still useful as well (for example, their healers will waste heals trying to heal a pet which has a DoT on it), so presumably damage done to the non-raid focused target may still distract their healers from healing that target. Obviously, the use of "/assist" and "/counterspell focus" macros can mitigate the dps loss caused by improper target switching, but does it mitigate it enough?

Since you don't even need a GCD for a CS, but only to interrupt your current cast (if you have to) I see no difference between casting on the focus target or casting on the main target (apart from the beneficial debuffs on the main target, which has already been pointed out). However, if your CS target runs out of range you are in trouble, so position yourself wisely.

We have two raiding mages and two locks normally in our raid. What we have worked the best for us is the following:

Mage A and Lock A will poly/fear their primary target until that target is immune and then switch targets.
Mage B and Lock B do the same.

This effectively keeps 4 targets locked down for the duration of the fight. The mages interrupt any healer whenever our cs is off cd.

We used a variation on this. One mage was responsible for controlling a healer. He would sheep x3 then CS a heal. After this, another mage would be responsible for the next CS. That effectively covered the DR on the poly and allowed the first mage to begin his rotation again.

While this doesn't give optimal dps (one mage is on cc duty the whole time), using this rotation simplified the responsibilities of the mages significantly so the remaining two could focus on dps. Variations of this of course work as well. When I was the only mage last night, I did the 3x poly, CS rotation and had a warlock toss a fear for the remainder of the DR timer.

Note that in general, we found using less CC to be better for the fight than using more. CC two healers (priest/pally are good) and kill the third healer first (shaman or druid). Melee were controlled by DKs and druids as best possible. The next kill should be the hunter since he's usually the initiator of clothie deaths (explosive into aimed shot takes most clothies to <50% with an MS on them). After that, we worked our way through the ranged, then the melee, and finally the two CC'd healers.

We had previously tried the fight with large amounts of CC, ie mages & warlocks each having targets and swapping between DRs, but we never were able to execute it properly. Something always got loose (tremor totem, cleanse on a sheep) throwing off the rotations and leaving mobs with DR left on both forms of CC. After switching to a low-CC strategy, we were able to down heroic champs quickly. The extra dps you can bring (going from 3 mages & 3 locks down to just one mage and one additional CC every 20ish sec) just drops their HP faster than can be healed, even if a healer gets free for a heal periodically.

Edit - Thought I would mention that sheep shares DR with frost trap, wyvern sting, and howling blast, at least for this fight. We tried opening with them to allow a full 10 sec duration sheep, but after any of them, sheep would start at 5 sec.

I've done 10-man hard mode. For my raid, we found that I was much more effective at taking out a melee dps than trying to lock down a caster due to all of the diminishing returns, and also because the melee dps hit much harder than the casters and can one shot people.

Using slow (no DR) + poly + nova + spellsteal (for freedom, etc), I'm able to completely remove a melee (including the rogue) from the fight indefinitely and throw a counterspell on a caster whenever it's up. Not saying this is the way you should go, but if you guys are having a hard time, you might want to try something like this out.