Lately I have noticed people trying to compare different talents in nearly every thread in the mage forums. In order to consolidate these discussions, and provide some mathematical data behind them I set out to do a little bit of work with some of the core discussions.
The following is some math behind the more controversial talents. I can add more if people have questions about the benefit of other talents.
I assumed a ttw/fire spec for most of the math, although it would be easy to make changes towards another spec.
The following stats were used in my calculations, they are approximate BiS statistics, and the "Relative value of Crit Rating" was just me sidestepping the work to turn crit into DPS. DPS is calculated in an infinite mana situation.
Int: 1400
Spirit: 900
Haste rating: 420
Crit rating: 500
Spell Power: 3000 (whenever this number is of significance I will show alternates with more moderate amounts of spell power)
Relative value of Crit Rating: 1.64
4P T8 is being worn (This effects the percent of spells which are fireball)
Here is the
Excel File with my math. It is hosted on GoogleDocs, you can't edit it, but you can export it as a .xls file.
Arcane Concentration (~33.7mp5 per point)
- With this talent all 5 points are equal.
- Calculated with 58% fireballs (620 mana) and 42% LB/Pyroblast (718 mana).
- Each talent point is providing you with about 33.7mp5.
| cast time - fireball | 2.48 |
| chance of fireball | 58% |
| cost of fireball | 620 |
| cast time - LB/Pyro | 1.24 |
| chance of LB/Pyro | 42% |
| cost of LB/Pyro | 718 |
| average cast time | 1.96 |
| average cost of spell | 661 |
| period of 2% proc | 98.0 |
| equiv mp5 | 33.7 |
Magic Absorption (4.5-5.5% magic damage mitigation per point)
- The talent points give the same amount of resistance, but are
not equal.
- The following table is calculated with P(x) = 0.5 - 2.5*|x - AR| (see
this thread for the reasoning behind the math)
| Source | Resist | Mean | 0% | 10% | 20% | 30% | 40% |
| Nothing | 0 | 0.0250 | 0.5000 | 0.2500 | - | - | - |
| 1pt MA | 40 | 0.0795 | 0.3182 | 0.4318 | 0.1818 | - | - |
| 2pt MA | 80 | 0.1356 | 0.1610 | 0.4110 | 0.3390 | 0.0890 | - |
| motw | 76 | 0.1297 | 0.1758 | 0.4258 | 0.3242 | 0.0742 | - |
| motw+1pt MA | 116 | 0.1853 | 0.0367 | 0.2867 | 0.4633 | 0.2133 | - |
| motw+2pt MA | 156 | 0.2342 | - | 0.1644 | 0.4144 | 0.3356 | 0.0856 |
| aura/totem | 130 | 0.2031 | - | 0.2422 | 0.4922 | 0.2578 | 0.0078 |
| aura/totem+1pt MA | 170 | 0.2500 | - | 0.1250 | 0.3750 | 0.3750 | 0.1250 |
| aura/totem+2pt MA | 210 | 0.2917 | - | 0.0208 | 0.2708 | 0.4792 | 0.2292 |
| | Benefit of 1st point | Benefit of 2nd point |
| Nothing | 5.45% | 5.60% |
| W/MOTW | 5.56% | 4.89% |
| W/Totems | 4.69% | 4.17% |
Student of the Mind (1st point: 23mp5/32dps, 2nd & 3rd point: 17mp5/24dps)
- The talent points are clearly not equal, the first point gives more spirit than the other two.
- The first point gives you ~23mp5, the other two give you ~17mp5
Mana Regen(Int, Spirit, level=80) = 5 * sqrt(Int) * Spirit * 0.003345 where Base_Regen= 0.003345 at lvl80
| Base mana regen | 563 | Change |
| mana regen 1pt | 586 | 23 |
| mana regen 2pt | 603 | 17 |
| mana regen 3pt | 620 | 17 |
- With Glyph of Molten Armor. The first point gives you ~20 crit rating, the other two give you ~15 crit rating.
- Neglecting the non-damage benefits of the crit attained via increases spirit (mana regen from extra master of elements procs is immaterial)
- The first point gives you ~32dps while the other two give you ~24dps
| | W/ glyph of MA | W/o glyph of MA |
| crit rate from first point | 20 | 13 |
| crit rate from other points | 15 | 9 |
| dps from first point | 32 | 21 |
| dps from other points | 24 | 15 |
Arcane Meditation (1st & 3rd point: 96mp5 per 17% regen, 2nd point: 90mp5 per 16% regen)
- All points are not equal
- Same regen formula as earlier.
- 563mp5 base
- 90/96mp5 per point
| Base mana regen | 563 |
| Mana regen per 17% | 96 |
| Mana regen per 16% | 90 |
Master of Elements (~110mp5 per point)
- Each talent point is equal
- This talent is not effected by changes in mana cost of a spell (i.e. Clearcasting). See
Enthorn's post for an explanation.
- Assuming constant casting, benefit diminishes proportional to diminishing dps time.
- Using the same proportion of casts as in the Arcane Concentration discussion, 58% fireballs (620 mana) and 42% LB/Pyroblast (718 mana).
- With glyph of molten armor each point gives ~110mp5
| | W/ glyph of MA | W/o glyph of MA |
| cast time - fireball | 2.48 | 2.48 |
| cost of fireball | 620 | 620 |
| chance of fireball | 58% | 58% |
| crit chance of fireball | 66.07% | 62.15% |
| cast time - LB/Pyro | 1.24 | 1.24 |
| cost of LB/Pyro | 718 | 718 |
| chance of LB/Pyro | 42% | 42% |
| crit chance of LB/Pyro | 64.07% | 60.15% |
| Average mana regain per cast | 43.08 | 40.49 |
| average cast time | 1.96 | 1.96 |
| Mp5 | 110 | 103 |
Combustion
- I am not even going to get into this talent.
- The math for it is not fun, and a large amount of its benefit is player based, not math based.
- For what it's worth, I personally don’t take it, I find it too clumsy.
Frost Warding
THIS IS NOT WORKING, MY SPELL POWER COEFFICIENT WAS INCORRECT AND THE WORK TO FIX IT WILL TAKE SOME TIME
SEE THIS POST FOR AN EXPLANATION OF THE PROBLEM
- This part is still in the excel file, and you can play with it at the proper coefficient level.