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Home › Forums › World of Warcraft General › Theorycraft › Mage

3.1 Mage Specs

Alprazalam — Sat, 04/25/2009 - 03:48

Lets get this rolling

Theres only 2 specs for raiding ATM, yes, only 2.  FFB should now only be used on those really long fights where Mana will be an issue.  I will however include the spec for those who are leveling a mage, of for the ones who have just hit 80, for its a good spec to run 10 man Naxx in until you get the gear with enough intellect to sustain the other two specs.

Frost Fire Bolt Spec

Just including a link for the spec.  See TTW/FB spec for details.  One thing to keep in mind, your hit cap will be lower because this spec has Precision in the frost tree.  With Imp. F.F./Misery and Heroic Presence, your hit only needs to be at 263.

TTW/FB Spec

Before I go into this, I have not found any evidence proving stacking scorch is an increase of DPS now.  Apparently, if there is a Warlock with Imp. Shadow Bolt, DO NOT STACK SCORCH!!  It is simply not worthe it.  If you find yourself having to stack scorch, I would suggest dropping the FB glyph for the Imp. Scorch glyph.  Glyph of LB and Molten Armor just brings too much DPS too loose.  The only armor you should ever use is Molten Armor.  I honestly think that if you are still having mana issues after making sure you are using your mana gems and Evocate correctly, you may need to talk to your durid friends for an Innervate, or be put into a group with a resto. sham./priest.  Also, I know people have been complaining about threat while in this spec.  It does generate alot of threat, and the only aggro nuke we have is Invisibility.  Mirror Image only takes you off the aggro charts while your copies are up, and once they either die, or fade away, your initial aggro returns as well as the aggro you gained during M.I.

Spell Rotation: LB>Hotstreak Proc>(scorch [rescorch])*>FB

*applies only to if you are scorching

Other then that the only thing I feel I should point out is that if you are getting Heroic presence from a Dranei & Imp. F.F./Misery from Druid/S. Priest, you need 341 hit from gear.  It is significantly higher because you are not picking up any hit talents that applies to your FIRE spells.

Arcane Spec

Where as TTW/FB spec has the same rotation all of the time, Arcane has several different rotations.  This is becuase Arcane has two different DPS "phases."  Your burn phase, and your mana efficiency phase.  During your burn phase (all CDs are popped, or you are under the effects of Power Infusion, Heroism, haste pot, etc), your spell cycle should be AB(x3)>AM if MB procs.  In simplier terms, you AB spam until you have a MB proc, then you AM (only use your MB proc if you have 3 AB debuffs), and continue with your AB spam.  There are several mana eficient rotations, and they are all covered under the Arcane Mage Thread at elitistjerks.com.  As for my rotation during my mana efficiency phase, It is normally AB(x3)>(AM if MB proc)>Abarr. 

The 5 points in the Tier 1 talents can be changed around if need be.  I know some mages are only putting 1 point in Arcane Subtlety, and putting just enough points into Arcane Focus to reach their hit cap.  Alot of people are saying the reduced knock back of Arcane Stability is amazing.  It has to do with it you get hit while Casting AM or MB, and how many missles are actually cut off.  As long as you have a prot pally running conc aura, I highly don't recommend going 5/5 in it.  4/5 should be enough. 

The biggest thing that will ever hurt your DPS is if your Evocate gets interrupted.  I've had it happen once or twice, and it is the worst position I've ever been in in my WOW career.  There are several ways to by pass some of this, such as using evocate at the last second of IV or heroism.  The haste will last for the entire channel, and can allow for an extra tick if you have to move during an Evo.  It also cuts back on the "down time" of having to evocate, which will increase your DPS.  If you do have issues with mana, drop the glyph of Molten Armor and pick up the Mana Gem Glyph, which also stacks with the T7 2p set bonus, and, if you still are having issues, use Mage Armor.  NEVER use Glyph of Mage Armor if you have 3 points in Arcane meditation. 

Arcane recieves 6% to hit from talents, so we only need 184 hit rating when fully raid buffed.

There is a newer spec for arcane now.  The link is here.  It requires you to either keep Fire Ward or Frost Ward (depending on what kind of raid AOE damage is going on) up at all times for the mana regen Frost Warding gives.  It also is helpful to get a priest to keep PWS on you at all times.  There is a discussion about what talents the priest can spec into to make their PWS stronger, absorbing more damange and increasing the damage you recieve from Incanter's Absorption.  I'm adding the link to the post that was made by a Priest on Wowinsider about how this works.  LINK!!!

 

 

I would like to clarify one or two things really fast.  This is just a SIMPLE guideline.  For more information, theres two main places you should go.  The first one is Elitist Jerks Mage Forums (link), simple enough.  I recommend just reading the first 5 pages, then the last 10 to 15 pages of the post, for they are relatively long, and the first couple of pages have some misleading info. since they were for prior patches.  The other thing I feel like EVERY mage should have is RAWR (download link).  It is a program outside of WOW that will give you very accurate information about what gear is the best for you in YOUR CURRENT GEAR, and millions of other things such as hot to gem, enchant, etc.  There is even a post on elitist jerks under the mage forums about properly setting up RAWR and I highly recommend that you read up on it.

Edit: Added links to spec and glyphs.  These are links to what I have plugged into RAWR and found was the highest single target DPS.  Several variations can occur, each spec has about 2 points that tend to float in and out of different talents.

Edit: I will keep updating this and try to get it a bit more organized and what not.

Edit: Changed some of the points in TTW/FB spec and added Arcane/Incanter's Absorption spec. (5/2/09)

Edit: Aded direct links to EJ Mage forums, and to the download site for RAWR.

Edit:  Added PWS/Incanter's Absop. link to the ORIGINAL post made.

‹ Quick Reference: Spell Hit CapsArcane Spec ›
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poisondonut — Wed, 04/29/2009 - 15:47

Alprazalam is totally right about rawr, its is an incredible tool for mages and does so much more than just show gear upgrades. Shows best in slot for current gear sets, future gear sets, gemming, theoretical dps.  It's freakin amazing and every mage in guild serious about raiding should have it and know how to use it. 

 

As for 3.1 specs, currently I'm running fireball/ttw as Rawr shows is at the spec that provides the highest dps for my current gearset.  There are alot of factors in determining what spec is best, and it actually can change from fight to fight. For instance, i specced into incanter's absorption and had Moriella spamming pw shield on me, and for Mimiron, this turned out really great, i had upwards of 4500 spellpower at times, and churned out some really nice dps, mana was not an issue as there is downtime between phases for regen.

Also FFB spec is the spec to go it seems for the Hodir fight, due to standing in spotlights and FFB having the highest crit multiplier for mage spells. There are reports of people critting for 75k without including ignite, as opposed to my highest crit last night with fireball spec at about 45k so thats like 100k spell dmg from one attack. This spec would really only be used for the two minute burn achievement though, but damn thats some serious dps right?

There are different specs viable for different fights, but until some class changes or gear changes, I am sticking with TTW/FB spec.

I need to update some of the

Alprazalam — Wed, 04/29/2009 - 16:23

I need to update some of the spec info I posted.  I do wanna try out TTW/FB spec, but Rawr is saying that as much haste as I have on my gear (and lack of spell hit, even after equipping what little hit gear I have in my bank), TTW/FB spec is only a tad bit higher DPS then Arcane for me. 

I also tried the Incanter's absorption spec last night, and had Resqtoaster pumping PWS on me the whole night (Although, I didn't want to ask him to go into all the trouble of speccing in away to make his PWS stronger) and I was seeing my SP go up to like 4.4k.  I think its a good spec for fights like Ignus, and maybe Hodir (I'd have to actually see how much the biting cold is actually hitting me for), and as PD and the rest of the guild saw, It is amazing for Mimiron. 

moriella's picture

wanted

moriella — Sun, 04/26/2009 - 19:55

Mage with 100g to test something

edit : testing complete

What were you testing btw,

Alprazalam — Sun, 04/26/2009 - 21:00

What were you testing btw, you can't just post something like that and not give details.  Now my brain is working.  Now I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight.  AGH!!!

I have to say, I've tried

Alprazalam — Sat, 04/25/2009 - 21:10

I have to say, I've tried atleast 3 times today to update this, and I kept deleting all my work by clicking off the type box and then hitting backspace -.-  It works like the "Go Back" button is your browser.

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