xcal78
join:2009-02-27
Waltham, MA
 ·RCN CABLE
1 edit | reply to Proteos
Re: [ Classes] 3.1 mage specs and gear (PvE & PvP)
said by Proteos  :Yea the bug is that you spec FFB (which doesn't include FM), but you have your second spec include FM (PVP frost, FB, Arcane, ect...) You go in that spec and cast your FM on the other mage in your raid (must have at least 2 mages for this to work) and he casts his on you. Then you can go back to your primary spec and your FM will still be on him as well as his on you. This only works if the other mage has FM in his primary spec (the one he is raiding with). So basically you take FFB spec which is not far off of the other specs as far as optimal dps and you add 6% extra crit to it...thus making it the best spec. That was the bug I was talking about as well. It was fixed within like 2 weeks of being discovered.  |
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Proteos
join:2009-03-24
Menomonee Falls, WI
| reply to xcal78
Yea the bug is that you spec FFB (which doesn't include FM), but you have your second spec include FM (PVP frost, FB, Arcane, ect...) You go in that spec and cast your FM on the other mage in your raid (must have at least 2 mages for this to work) and he casts his on you. Then you can go back to your primary spec and your FM will still be on him as well as his on you. This only works if the other mage has FM in his primary spec (the one he is raiding with). So basically you take FFB spec which is not far off of the other specs as far as optimal dps and you add 6% extra crit to it...thus making it the best spec. |
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xcal78
join:2009-02-27
Waltham, MA
·RCN CABLE
| reply to Proteos
said by Proteos :Yea currently the dps difference between the 3 main specs is unnoticable. Given perfect conditions and gear the spread is like less that 100 dps between frostfire + focus magic, fb/ttow, and arcane. Frostfire + focus magic being the highest dps. Though this spec is only highest because of a bug and will most likely be fixed soon (if it hasn't already?). Bottom line...i agree with xcal in that you should pick the spec you like... i love fireball and cannot even come close to the same dps when i tried arcane. That Focus Magic bug where you could stack it over and over again with a talent switch was fixed very swiftly after it was discovered a long time ago. Is there another bug you know of besides that with Focus Magic? |
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Proteos
join:2009-03-24
Menomonee Falls, WI
| reply to xcal78
Yea currently the dps difference between the 3 main specs is unnoticable. Given perfect conditions and gear the spread is like less that 100 dps between frostfire + focus magic, fb/ttow, and arcane. Frostfire + focus magic being the highest dps. Though this spec is only highest because of a bug and will most likely be fixed soon (if it hasn't already?). Bottom line...i agree with xcal in that you should pick the spec you like... i love fireball and cannot even come close to the same dps when i tried arcane. |
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xcal78
join:2009-02-27
Waltham, MA
·RCN CABLE
| reply to xcal78
I've given up on Fire (FB & FFB) myself. It must just be me but I can't beat my arcane damage no matter what I try. My friend manages to keep pace with me as Fireball and we both have similar gear. Funny enough he said his DPS stinks when he tried arcane so play style had a lot to do with overall DPS. I'd encourage all mages to try FFB, FB/TTW, and Arcane all fairly before choosing a prefered spec. Once you find which works best for you then you can tweak the spec & your gear to maximize your DPS. I still keep FFB as my secondary spec for now but I think I'll be going Frost as there's a few places in Ulduar where that is needed and our current Frost mage is MIA prolly playing Aion. |
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Moos
join:2008-12-11
Salt Lake City, UT
| reply to xcal78
I have now tried all 3 specs out. My DPS was similar with all 3 and yes I was hit capped for all 3(213/219 gear as well so plenty of SP and CRIT). It's really just a difference in play style. I ended up back with arcane and will probably never leave it again.(especially when 3.2 comes out and arcane blast costs less mana) Fireball was ok, I still topped the charts, but it was not as exciting as arcane in my eyes. While it was nice to have to never worry about mana, I found that I kind of enjoyed the headaches that come with arcane. Added some spice worrying about cooldowns and going oom.
I have played alongside both Fireball and FFB mages that can top 5k DPS as can I with arcane. After personally trying all the specs and talking with alot of people on here and in game, I have came down to the conclusion that it's all in your playstyle. I have tried to help some arcane mages that just can't seem to get the rotation/mana regen issues down, so they Fail at arcane. But they are awesome fire/FFb mages. So to each's own. IMO go with what you can play best. Each of the three (arcane/FFB/FB) have the potential to be awesome when in the right hands. |
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Protoes
@harley-davidson.com
| reply to xcal78
I raid as a FFB mage. It is actually a very competetive build to that of fire and arcane if played well. Basically with FFB you start the fight with a living bomb, then cast scorch once if glyphed (5 times if not), then spam FFB until living bomb needs to be refreshed, then repeat. You should be able to get through 2 LB before scorch needs to be refreshed. Now i'm guessing that since you guild wants you to be FFB and not arcane, that you don't have a warlock with imp shadowbolt and therefore they need the crit debuff from scorch. If this is the case then you will want to have the scorch glyph. However if you do have a lock putting up imp shadowbold it will replace your scorch and therefor you will have no need to cast it. In this case pick up the glyph of living bomb instead of the glyph of scorch. I have an alright set of gear...1800 sp 35% fire crit and hit capped with i think 7% haste, and i can hit 5k+ dps on patch in 25man. The biggest thing is getting hit capped and then you just need to make sure you have LB up on the target at all times. Also i try not to move to much in a fight...if i have to move out of a fire or something i use my insta pyro from a hot streak proc while moving as to not waste any dps time while moving...if your pyro hasn't procced then fireblast instead. It is a very simple build to play, but for some reason i have met a lot of people with the same build in better gear that cannot out dps me, my guess is they just don't keep their LB up enough or they move to much. If you want to look up a spec you can check out my armory...Proteos, Kel'thuzad. Otherwise i'd be happy to answer any other questions you may have. |
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xcal78
join:2009-02-27
Waltham, MA
·RCN CABLE
| reply to BoBoTheMage
said by BoBoTheMage :
I've been asked to go FFB by my guild and it sounds like it's the worst spec. Is my DPS going to drop from Arcane by doing this? How can I use FFB to maintain the same DPS as Arcane?
Never played FFB myself but it's similar to fireball in rotation. Maybe someone with first hand knowledge of FFB can enlighting us on how FFB functions in respects to Arcane or Fireball. |
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BoBoTheMage
@sbcglobal.net | reply to xcal78
I've been asked to go FFB by my guild and it sounds like it's the worst spec. Is my DPS going to drop from Arcane by doing this? How can I use FFB to maintain the same DPS as Arcane? |
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xcal78
join:2009-02-27
Waltham, MA | reply to Gudziel
How'd it all work out Gudziel? |
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xcal78
join:2009-02-27
Waltham, MA
·RCN CABLE
4 edits | reply to Gudziel
said by Gudziel :thx xcal! My old spec was pure frost and I loved PvP with it. But now that leaves me between a rock and hard place since I wanted to try your Arcane also, and frost would probably take that one over since FFB is awesome. I guess I should give Arcane a try first before making an assumption that FFB is better. That would be a pretty biased point of view. If you like huge damage in a short period of time arcane is great.
A normal rotation is like Arcane Blast, Arcane Blast, Arcane Blast, then Arcane Missles if it's proc'ed otherwise Arcane Barrage. You can toss a 4th Arcane Blast in before Arcane Missles or Arcane Barrage if your good on mana. You would also try a Fire Blast in there too if Arcane Missle's isn't proc'ed to try to proc it. The most fun comes when you use cooldowns. Make sure your at atleast 80% mana or more. Before you use your cooldowns make sure you have Arcane Blast x3 up so that way your using your cooldowns with the max damage possible from the start. Nail Icy Veins then Arcane Power and spam Arcane Blast non-stop until Icy veins is down to about 2-3 seconds left. You should be almost out of mana anyways at this point. You want to Evocate at the very end of Icy Veins so that you get mana back with haste. You'll want to use a mana gem at about the 1 minute mark till evocate is up so every 60 seconds you have evocate or mana gem for mana. That's the 2 minute drill for arcane. You can cut out or add an Arcane Blast to use 1,2,3, or 4 before Arcane Missle/Barrage based on your mana but you need to find a rotation where you can maintain enough mana to last the full 2 minutes with only evocate and mana gem. You'll love the Icy Veins/Arcane Power combo with Arcane Blast. I've seen it doing 30-35k crits back to back to back in EOE while standing in sparks.  |
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Gudziel
join:2009-01-05
Pittsburgh, PA
| reply to xcal78
thx xcal!
My old spec was pure frost and I loved PvP with it. But now that leaves me between a rock and hard place since I wanted to try your Arcane also, and frost would probably take that one over since FFB is awesome.
I guess I should give Arcane a try first before making an assumption that FFB is better. That would be a pretty biased point of view. |
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xcal78
join:2009-02-27
Waltham, MA
·RCN CABLE
2 edits | reply to Gudziel
said by Gudziel :xCal.... I have dual spec'd over the weekend, with your FFB and Arcane spec. So far though, I've only played FFB as I wanted to get used to playing it. PvE is good. I just turned 80, have a couple of purples, but in heroics I've already gotta watch out my dmg output with the rest of the group due to the insane crits I am pushing out. So A+ with that spec!  Now in PvP, it hurts. I can give some peeps an ass-whipin' but I definitely need to push out some haste there. It's takin too long for me to get my FFB casted. So that's my fault. Secondly, is your Arcane build PvP ready? I want to get into PvPing more and I know I need the gear, but how different would a PvP spec be from the one you posted in here earlier? Finally, what would you and anyone else do concerning the importance of stats/attributes for PvP/PvE with FFB/Arcane? What is more important for what spec for what fights? I don't PvP a ton as I don't really think WoW offers good PvP. I've been told FFB is a horrible PvP spec since if your FFB gets countered it locks out fire and frost. I do pretty well with arcane in BG's but frost is the best hands down for PvP. I'll see if I can talk to my mage friend who's 100% PvP. I think he runs 2 different frost specs but I'm not positive. Maybe someone else has some PvP advice as I was going to PvP with my mage but lost interest in it when push came to shove. LOL |
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Gudziel
join:2009-01-05
Pittsburgh, PA
| reply to xcal78
xCal.... I have dual spec'd over the weekend, with your FFB and Arcane spec. So far though, I've only played FFB as I wanted to get used to playing it. PvE is good. I just turned 80, have a couple of purples, but in heroics I've already gotta watch out my dmg output with the rest of the group due to the insane crits I am pushing out. So A+ with that spec!
Now in PvP, it hurts. I can give some peeps an ass-whipin' but I definitely need to push out some haste there. It's takin too long for me to get my FFB casted. So that's my fault.
Secondly, is your Arcane build PvP ready? I want to get into PvPing more and I know I need the gear, but how different would a PvP spec be from the one you posted in here earlier?
Finally, what would you and anyone else do concerning the importance of stats/attributes for PvP/PvE with FFB/Arcane? What is more important for what spec for what fights? |
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Mashiki
Balking The Enemy's Plans
join:2002-02-04
Woodstock, ON | reply to xcal78
I still prefer the call of "Ye olde vending machine."  |
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xcal78
join:2009-02-27
Waltham, MA | reply to xcal78
I've been meaning to add this for a while:
The term DPS as applied to mages means D-rinks, P-ortals, and S-heep. I got a kick out of that when someone told that to me a few weeks ago. |
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Moos
join:2008-12-11
Salt Lake City, UT
| reply to xcal78
I use Arcane Missile, Arcane Blast, molten armor glyphs. Now that spirit increases crit with molten armor, i'm getting about a 9 percent crit buff when molten armor is applied! I'm really digging the arcane spec now-a-day's. Seems as I get better ulduar gear/herioc raid gear my mana regen is no problem at all even when using molten armor. Lots of spirit on all this new gear. |
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xcal78
join:2009-02-27
Waltham, MA
·RCN CABLE
| reply to Gudziel
said by Gudziel :what glyphs are you using for your arcane spec xcal? I prefer Arcane Missle, Arcane Power, and Arcane Blast |
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Gudziel
join:2009-01-05
Pittsburgh, PA | reply to xcal78
what glyphs are you using for your arcane spec xcal? |
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Gudziel
join:2009-01-05
Pittsburgh, PA | reply to xcal78
will do |
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