Currently with glyphed Molten Armor, 55% of spirit is crit. If you want, you can calculate the amount of crit from spirit you will be getting and tack that onto the item, then compare the items stats and calculate which is in fact better dps. Also, I believe RAWR has a 3.1 mode that can help with this.

Yeah in Rawr on options --> effects, i putted into bonus spirit% 55.

At the moment on DPS Rawr say that lost jewel has 129.83 DPS and the Titanium has 135.07 (with 23spl pwr gem).

That is something completely different (think Jaina in Mount Hyjal). What you want is 3.1 mode in advanced options.

That's a terrible idea. You should put a regular 19 spell dmg gem in there and put the 32 spell dmg gem in blue socketse ALWAYS until you run out of blue sockets, at which point you want to put them in the yellow sockets that will activate the best gem bonus.

(e) Is there any official list on the best set of gear for the different specs going into Ulduar? By this I mean a BiS list using gear that is currently available for when we walk into Ulduar. I'd gladly research this myself but I only have access to school computers for the Internet and play WoW at a LAN center.

Nothing official, but his is what Rawr told me. Anyone having the same/different results?

This is for 19/52 fire, no combustion 1/3 arcane meditation. No epic gems used, no JC or any other profession.

Head: [Valorous Frostfire Circlet]
Neck: [Wyrmrest Necklace of Power]
Shoulders: [Valorous Frostfire Shoulderpads]
Back: [Pennant Cloak]
Chest: [Valorous Frostfire Robe]
Wrist: [Unsullied Cuffs]
Hands: [Valorous Frostfire Gloves]
Waist: [Leash of Heedless Magic]
Legs: [Leggings of the Wanton Spellcaster]
Feet: [Arcanic Tramplers]
Rings: [Signet of Manifested Pain] [Signet of the Malevolent]
Trinkets: [Illustration of the Dragon Soul] [Dying Curse]
Weapon: [The Turning Tide]
Offhand: [Surplus Limb]
Ranged: [Gemmed Wand of the Nerubians]

Without Set Items for easier item exchange:

Head: [Hood of Rationality]
Neck: [Wyrmrest Necklace of Power]
Shoulders: [Mantle of Dissemination]
Back: [Pennant Cloak]
Chest: [Gown of the Spell-Weaver]
Wrist: [Unsullied Cuffs]
Hands: [Valorous Frostfire Gloves]
Waist: [Leash of Heedless Magic]
Legs: [Leggings of the Wanton Spellcaster]
Feet: [Arcanic Tramplers]
Rings: [Signet of Manifested Pain] [Lost Jewel]
Trinkets: [Illustration of the Dragon Soul] [Dying Curse]
Weapon: [The Turning Tide]
Offhand: [Surplus Limb]
Ranged: [Gemmed Wand of the Nerubians]

This is an updated list for Rawr v2.2.0b6. Changes from 2.2.0b5 include the 3.1 changes to Lightweave Embroidery (250 SP/15sec), Improved Scorch (3% crit to FB/FFB/Scorch), Molten Armor/Glyph spirit conversion (updated to 0.55). Set bonuses aren't included because proc rates aren't known, as Kavan has mentioned. I've listed both items though for the head/gloves, and I'm guessing it will be the head slot that is switched to obtain the 4-piece set bonus.

I've manually added most of the new trinkets. There are five "Spell Power (10 sec)" proc fields. I only know that the second field is for items that have a 15% chance to proc (such as Dying Curse), and the fifth field is for items that have a 10% chance to proc (Sundial of the Exiled, Elemental Focus Stone). Flare of the Heavens isn't updated on wowhead PTR, so I can't see the proc chance, but I'm assuming it's 10%.

Eye of the Broodmother needs to be manually set to 125 Spell Power (25 spell power stacks 5 times), just as Illustration is. Scale of Fates needs to be manually changed from 72 haste to 432 Spell Haste (20 sec/2 min). If you don't change it, Eye of the Broodmother and Illustration will both list as higher DPS. Note that these too are incorrectly modeled as straight DPS, but it's naturally assumed that there is 100% uptime on their 10 second proc.

All that really means is that the 432 haste "on use" proc on Scale of Fates is technically an upgrade over Illustration. You can skew the results by changing the fight duration. As the fight duration shortens, Scale of Fates becomes better if it can be used twice. For instance, set the fight to 120 seconds and Scale of Fates is ~10 DPS behind Illustration (which is a DPS behind Eye of the Broodmother). Set the fight to 140 seconds and Scale of Fates is 68 DPS ahead. You won't get nearly as dramatic results with longer fights, but the same thing can be seen in a fight duration of 280 seconds vs 330.

For general purposes, I'd say that Eye of the Broodmother is the second best trinket for longer fights, and Scale of Fates is the second best for shorter fights. Broodmother has the benefit of only needing to be stacked 5 times, versus Illustration's 10. And as I suspected, Living Flame has far too much hit rating on it to be of any use.

Hi i'm new here and i have a problem i hope you can help me with (sorry got no idea how to post links on items but i bet you all know the items i'm talking about)

I'm 18/53/0 specced and...

I really dont like "Dying Curse"

I readed many posts from various sites and such and for BiS gear many put as trinkets "Illustration of the Dragon Soul" (IotDS) + "Dying curse", while few put "IotDS" + "Embrace of the Spider".

Is having "Dying Curse" with items without Hit like

"Leash of Heedless Magic" over "Cinture of Polarity"

or

"Arcanic Tramplers" over "Boots of Impetuous Ideals"

so much better than having "Embrace of the Spider" with Hit items (or even some hit gems)?

I'm alliance anyway so got draenei racial buff also

The best set ups with Dying Curse aren't "so much" better pre-3.1, but they do seem to slightly beat out those without...for alliance the difference is in the ballpark of 1-20 DPS. If you'd read the thread you'd already know this, as it's covered fairly early on.

I had a question about Korrigan's (completely pro) optimal arcane gear setup. He stated that the hit rating derived from his setup was "Hit Rate: 195 - 14,43%" Doing the math I found that 195 hit rating renders the % hit at only 7.43%, and when precision and focus are added I get about 13.43% as opposed to 14.43%. Not a huge difference, but am I missing something? To add some useful information to this post I also found that having 210 hit rating would perfectly cap an arcane mage with precision, focus, and misery / imp faerie fire.

As Alliance, he has an extra 1% factored in from Heroic Presence - Spell - World of Warcraft.

@ Enthorn:

Am I missing something or is there a reason you chose enchanting over JC?

I believe this is what he is referring to. If it is in error, you may want to correct it before copying to the first post.

With a 20.51.0 build dropping flame throwing and grabbing combustion and one more point in Student of the Mind the dps gain on Rawr is over 100 more dps.

I'm not inclined to think that, given the amount of boss AoE effects and repositioning in Ulduar, that you will see significant practical value in dropping Flame Throwing. It's the same reasoning behind taking Burning Soul even though it doesn't directly add dps.

Student of the Mind vs Combustion vs Flame Throwing

(Build) Magic Absorption, Student of the Mind, Flame Throwing, Combustion breakdown
Talent Specs Comparison DPS, Solution DPS, Difference
DPS per Talent Point: Comparisons Chart (Actual Solution DPS Gain)
(The actual gain shows how much each additional point is increasing the Solved DPS by, compared to the last build without that point.)

(19.52) 2/2, 0/3, 2/2, 0/1: 7155.15, 7155.15, 0
Student of the Mind: 25.60
Combustion: 30.53

(18.53) 1/2, 0/3, 2/2, 1/1: 7185.68, 7159.62, 26.06
Student of the Mind: 25.18
Combustion: 30.53 (4.47)

(19.52) 1/2, 1/3, 2/2, 0/1: 7180.76, 7180.76, 0
Student of the Mind: 19.01 (25.61)
Combustion: 30.10

(18.53) 0/2, 1/3, 2/2, 1/1: 7210.85, 7185.18, 25.67
Student of the Mind: 18.69 (25.56)
Combustion: 30.10 (4.42)

(19.52) 0/2, 2/3, 2/2, 0/1: 7199.77, 7199.77, 0
Student of the Mind: 19.03 (19.01)
Combustion: 29.77

(19.52) 0/2, 2/3, 1/2, 1/1: 7229.54, 7204.16, 25.38
Student of the Mind: 18.70 (18.98)
Combustion: 29.77 (4.39)

(20.51) 0/2, 3/3, 1/2, 0/1: 7218.80, 7218.80, 0
Student of the Mind: 19.03 (19.03)
Combustion: 29.44

(20.51) 0/2, 3/3, 0/2, 1/1: 7248.24, 7223.15, 25.09
Student of the Mind: 18.70 (18.99)
Combustion: 29.44 (4.35)

Disclaimer:

I'm not particularly sure where the discrepency between Combustion's various DPS contributions is occuring, but it's happening regardless. For whatever reason, any build that has Combustion in it has a lower Score/DPS listed in the Solution then it does in the Talent Specs Comparison chart. That's not to say Combustion isn't being calculated in some manner, because it's clearly increasing the Solution DPS in some small amount. But the score seen in the Talent Specs chart is also the DPS that will return when Optimize is ran. For instance, Optimize will return saying, "We've found a score of 7210.85, your current score is 7199.77." However, when you accept the changes, the 'Solution' DPS will actually be 7185.18 -- 25.67 less.

For that reason, I'm not entirely sure which one is absolutely accurate. I'm inclined to believe that the Solution score is right, which does mean that Student of the Mind is better than Combustion. But I'm also a little hesitant in stating that as fact, because according to DPS per Talent Point, the opposite should be true. However, when you actually work the math comparing the Solution DPS across the specs, it again shows that Student of the Mind is a far better investment. Combustion is clearly being calculated in some degree, it's just contributing very little actual DPS in the Solution.

For what it's worth, I think Combustion is a gimpy talent and the mediocre increase in regen and crit from Student of the Mind is something I would take over the slight possibility that Combustion is actually useful. I am generally of the mind that if I don't have to use Icy Veins, then getting rid of Combustion simplifies things even further. That's a terrible reason for dropping a talent, but, there it is.

On that note, I would never raid without 2/2 Flame Throwing, just as I would never raid without 2/2 Burning Soul and 3/3 Master of Elements. It is everyone's own inclination, obviously, to do otherwise. The same of course is true for things like Sapphire Spellthread vs Brilliant Spellthread, or Icewalker vs Tuskarr's Vitality.

But as for that floating point between Student of the Mind and Combustion, I am generally against the Combustion talent. Therefore, I have a certain disposition that Student of the Mind is a more favorable talent to invest in. It shows better returns and it scales better. If you really want to take it a step further, then you could say that, for mana management, a point in Arcane Meditation is an even better investment. I'm fine with that reasoning.

Are there any boss fights in which there is significant raid wide magic damage (that could be resisted) which will make Magic Absorption a good choice? I like the survivability it grants now, and the utility on solo, but if mana is such an issue then I'll go all out regen.

The only fights acceptably noted that raid damage are sapphiron, and sartharion. Both of which there are times throughout the fight where it is impossible to just sit there and cast after taking the damage, whereas utilizing the damage buff from Magic Absorption would require to give a noticeable gain in dps for the fight overall, just in my opinion wouldn't happen.

The regen thoughts from SotM? Also not going to happen. If there is a fight where the majority of your regen comes from OO5S, then either you're doing something wrong, or that fight sucks for mages. The only reason SotM will eventually become good is a twin blade. A crap ton of mage gear generally gives spirit, so we have it regardless. The Molten Armor glyph change? Simply makes it slightly more awesome.

Sorry to slightly ramble off topic here. But at least the way it looks so far, the cloth gear that will continually assist fire mages keeps giving us spirit, making the point(s) spent in SotM more valuable as a static gain, over a situationally useful damage buff.

And as for the poster above me. Exactly right, dead mages do epic dps with their face in the dirt.

Maybe this has already been mentioned and I missed it, but wouldn't dropping imp scorch be the best option for a 20/51 build given that at least one lock will have imp shadow bolt.

The "selfish" portion of the talent is still three percent crit and frankly, that's not bad. For three talent points it is hardly stunning but given that the competition is less even than that, it remains a staple, if for different reasons than in the past.

EDIT: Feel free to delete.

The talent will now give 3% passive crit to fireball, frostfirebolt, and scorch itself, on top of the debuff effect. You will probably want this talent regardless of whether you or a warlock are in charge of the debuff.

Oversight on my part - did not see the selfish add on. Pretend I never posted.

deleted