I use Scorchio for my Scorch and Living bomb timers and power auras for my Hot Streak procs and when I spec arcane my Missile Barrage Procs. I set up my power auras to put a huge red pulsing center thing on my character with a timer and my Missile Barrage is just a blue version of the same for when I respec.

Scorchio has both a visual bar and timer that shows stacks of scorch and living bomb timer. Although Xperl shows my debuffs are big buffs which helps a lot as well. Just a lot to keep up with for sure.

Does Burnout do that? If so that would be nice to do it all in one mod.

eventalert works awesome for procs for different builds/classes. Its at curse.

If only burnout tracked polymorph...

I'm pretty new to the site as far as posting, but I've been playing WoW for about two years and used to consider myself a pretty decent mage in TBC... so /wave @ fellow mages.

I'm pretty cookie cutter atm, 0/53/18, and I love the Fire FFB spec, I just don't think I'm doing the damage I should be. If you armory Meadrea (the only one there) you can see my spec and gear. I have the Molten Armor, FFB, and Imp Scorch glyphs. I use the Scorch > LB > FFB > Hot Streak rotation, and talking with my mage friend I'm not sure what I could do differently to compete, but I am constantly being out-dps'd by most of my raid. I do ~3250 on Patchwerk with full raid buffs.

I'm just wondering what I might be doing differently or if this is sufficient for where I am gearwise. Any input or questions are welcome... and my apologies if this is in the wrong place.

You are waaaaay over the hit cap. You should gear for 10% assuming there's a Shadow Priest (Misery) or Moonkin (IFF) in the raid and that you're a group with a Dreanai for another 1%. Much beyond that is hard to say without a WoW Web Stats or similar parse.

Burnout has timers for Scorch on your current target, Living Bomb and Hotstreak. When you switch targets it will automatically show the Scorch debuff timer for your new target, regardless of who applied it. If you are Fireball/FFB spec, you can replace both Scorchio and Power Auras with Burnout.

He needs that second Blue gem for his meta, but otherwise he can afford to lose a lot of hit unless he doesn't have a hit buff in his raid all the time.

Or switch to fireball instead of FfB, should be a definite DPS gain unless there is a DK running razorice (in which case it's a little more nebulous).

I think your gear is not holding you back since you seem pretty decked out. Your hit is too high, but I'm guessing based on your dps that rotation is your issue. Keep in mind with FFB it's not a rotation per se but a priority queue. Scorch > LB > Hot Streak > FFB. But that doesn't mean you should stop casting a spell in order to meet your priorities (except possibly scorch - sacrificing personal dps for raid dps) If you miss a hot streak proc and start casting FFB, wait until the FFB cast is done to cast the hotstreak pyro.

Also, if you are doing something like casting scorches to avoid ignite munching, you're probably losing dps. The only time I actively worry about ignite munching is when I have < 1 sec on living bomb or scorch and I have a hotstreak pyro, I will save the pyro until after I cast the living bomb/scorch, otherwise, I'll cast it at the tail end of a FFB and risk losing an ignite.

Thanks for the feedback all. After double checking my raid roster I regemmed for crit tonight, saw an improvement on the target dummy (2800 self buffed only), but I'll know more after tomorrow night's raid. I don't worry about ignite munching, I was missing hot streaks but I picked up Scorchio 2. I agree with you, Lapsed, about the priority of an FFB rotation, and I do keep to it. I rarely stop casts to pick up a proc, and generally I don't forget to scorch. I do have a problem with overcompensating and using scorch too often, which I know is likely to lower my dps, which is also part of the reason for picking up scorchio.

You'll see an even greater improvement gemming for spellpower, you should not gem for crit at all.

Instant Pyros are, I believe, the highest DPS item in an FFB rotation, so it's definitely important not to miss them, however damage-wise they only account for up to 15% of my damage on a straight DPS fight (when I'm specced FFB).

Really the biggest thing you can do is regem to get down to the hit you need - as you have done, but increase your SP in doing so. No matter the spec, SP will return more than crit in your gemming.

I understand what you're saying, in that nearly all of Meadra's gems are [Potent Monarch Topaz], and a few of them should be [Runed Scarlet Ruby], but this has nothing to do with never gemming for crit, which is just blatantly false. Even in your own gear you have one [Potent Monarch Topaz] (and two cases where, for whatever reason, you've passed up a great socket bonus due to solely gemming with [Runed Scarlet Ruby]).

11.7 Spell Power: 18.22 DPS / 10 Crit Rating: 14.27 DPS / 10 Haste Rating: 12.99 DPS

Naturally, those numbers are going to vary between each character based on a wide array of buffs, gear, and levels of each. But it's no secret to anyone who has used Rawr that Frostfire favors [Potent Monarch Topaz], Fireball favors [Reckless Monarch Topaz], and neither favors [Runed Scarlet Ruby] exclusively. Nonetheless, those numbers tell us that...

One [Runed Scarlet Ruby] will give you 29.58 DPS.
One [Potent Monarch Topaz] + 4 haste will give you 30.627 DPS (14.015 + 11.416 + 5.196 DPS).

This difference, of course, gets higher as the socket bonus increases. The socket bonus of [Valorous Frostfire Shoulderpads] isn't nearly as beneficial as the socket bonuses of [Gothik's Cowl] or [Valorous Frostfire Robe].

In any event, running Rawr will show you a complete breakdown of spell power vs crit vs haste and whether it's better to ignore a socket bonus (and in most every case it isn't).

I got smacked down here for scorching too often back when I started, and when I ran the math I saw why..and it gets worse as your gear gets better.

Scorchio will help with that. Also with the glyph, the consequences of a scorch dropping is not nearly as severe as it was in BC...there will be 2-4 seconds where the raid loses 4%-10% crit, so if you do drop it by cutting it too fine, you can recover pretty quick. If you scorch too early you guaranteed lose dps. If you risk your comfort zone scorching later, you'll usually get it right and every time you DO get it right, you guaranteed gain dps.

You're right, I over-generalized and misspoke.

All the Scarlet Rubies I currently have that don't match the socket color are there because of Rawr, although I have stubbornly not changed blue sockets to a different purple gem now that I'm arcane even though Rawr suggests something besides Glowing Twilight Opals. So I do follow Rawr for the most part and for whatever reason most of my yellow sockets are better off red.

EDIT - I also assumed Crit gems meant +16 crit yellows, when I should have just looked instead,

I don't see why you would need to track anyone else's debuffs, unless you have some odd raid leading style. I use Elkano's BuffBars to handle hot streak and missile barrage procs. I find it to be an alternative solution then adding more addons. Not to mention Elkano's Buffbars is a low resource addon. Assuming of course you use Elkano's Buffbars from the get go.

Secondly I use xperl with my own twist. I don't use the debuff feature at all on targets. I do however have Elkano's Buffbars altered to include target buffs. It also works nicely if you have a class that requires you to watch debuffs. Such as a shadow priest or warlock.

I actually use a mixture of Scorchio and Xperl, because I just find it convenient because I can track my debuffs on multiple targets, and I can watch the debuffs on my main target depending on the cetuation. I don't personally use power auras (probably because any more addons and my computer would implode), I use a lightweight addon "MageHelper" which when Missile Barage, Hot Streak, or Brain Freeze procs it does colored fade-in, fade-out, kindof similiar to a flash just not as noticable, and plays a sound that i think is someone whispering the name of the buff (needs confirmation). Though sometimes I do admit MageHelper isn't too reliable because sometimes the effect can be overlooked because it isn't very flamboyent, and it does lack customizability. Though I would HIGHLY reccomend Scorchio to anyone who has issues with maintaining optimal Scorch usage and LB uptime, and even if you don't need help with scorch / LB, I would recommend it just for its usefulness.

I disagree with your remark about 'no good reason to use hot streak right away'. Using hot streak right away is a good idea to avoid overlapping procs. Oftentimes when I ignore it I'll overwrite the timer and lose an instant pyroblast.

For me at least I am quite comfortable with not using Hot Streak right away in certain situations. I am not sure about how much travel time is affected by range, but for me the following still works:

FB crit, FB crit -> HS while casting FB, LB (crit) going off while casting FB

Now I have two GCDs to use, either PB (what probably most people are going to choose) or refreshing LB. Concidering having 3 crits in a row already I am going to waste a HS if my FB I am casting is going to be a crit. However, standing at max Scorch range I still manage to refresh LB during the FB's travel time and loosing my PB right away. If the FB is a crit, I gain another HS immediatly after loosing that PB and can cast another right after the GCD is off.

I guess this is pretty affected by latency and probably also by range. An exception is of course if there are adds next to the boss and LB might trigger the second HS anyway. In that case you are either a fortune teller or have combustion up and stop casting your FB for PB or there was simply nothing you could do.

The only way you'll lose the original HS proc is if all four are crits and you didnt precast correctly.

FB Crit->FB Crit->FB Crit->HS Pyro->FB Crit yields another proc, as would FB Crit->FB Crit->LB Crit->HS Pyro->FB Crit.

In your case, if we did FB Crit->FB Crit->LB Crit->FB Crit + HS Pyro, as long as you precast the HS Pyro on the last FB you would be fine, since it would consume the HS buff on Pyro cast, and add the new one on the FBs land. You even could probably wait a tick, but precasting makes it much more likely to succeed.

Either you didn't understand me or it is me who doesn't get the point.

All I'm trying to say is, that you do not lose your HS if you cast recast LB after a "FB crit, FB crit, LB crit" combo if you cast PB immediatly after the LB GCD wears off. By this you gain one GCD LB uptime (not very much, I know). If you have some serious lagg issues or have to stand close to the mob (ie Malygos or Thaddius) you should not take the risk of losing one HS and cast PB before refreshing LB.

I can confirm what he is saying, that you can get back to back HS procs (i.e., two GCDs spent on instant pyro-ing) if the stars align properly. It can also be done with scorch.

Well, of course you can get back to back Hot Streaks. A typical sequence, assuming all crits, for back to back would be:

Frostfire -> Frostfire -> (Hot Streak) -> Frostfire -> Living Bomb detonates -> Pyroblast -> Hot Streak

Your first Hot Streak comes from the two frostfire bolts that land, and thus you are in your casting of your third frostfire bolt. So typically you would use the Hot Streak proc after the third frostfire. Your second Hot Streak will come during the global cooldown of your first Pyroblast (assuming a 1 second travel time on the third Frostfire Bolt, and a 1.5 second GCD on the Pyroblast). Hence, back to back.

There's no real reason to not immediately cast that Pyroblast, save for two rules: You want to have 100% uptime on Scorch debuff, and you want to have near 100% uptime on Living Bomb (which is nigh impossible, but then, every writer knows that any work is never 100% complete, but still tries to approach it, ever bordering on 99%). I guess you could save it if you're about to use a mana gem, as well.

As for having a Hot Streak buff overwrite itself... it's quite difficult. It's typically a result of: lag, travel time (being too close to the boss), or carelessness. But then, other things can come into the picture as well. You would, realistically, have to do something like three Frostfire Bolt crits in a row without having used your Pyroblast from the first two. And your intentions are to do:

Frostfire -> Frostfire -> Hot Streak -> Frostfire -> Frostfire -> Pyroblast -> Hot Streak -> Pyroblast

But it ends up:

Frostfire -> Frostfire -> Hot Streak -> Frostfire -> (Living Bomb -> Hot Streak) -> Frostfire -> Pyroblast