Up and coming Mage.

Marvicious — Tue, 05/05/2009 - 15:39

Character Info

Name:

Marvicious

Server:

Gorgonnash

Race:

Human

Class:

Mage

Role:

DPS

General Questions

Which days are you available for organized guild events? (Raids, RBGs, etc):

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Upload UI:

Which addons do you consider essential and why?:

I think mods are very important for the most part to the success of a raid. It seems that most of the time the people who are failing are not running mods or even bare essential mods like DBM or Big wiggs.

PvE

Raid Experience:

I have raided in 10 and 25 Naxx and cleared both. I am currently raiding on Friday nights 10 man Ulduar. We have made it as far as Iron Council.

Personal

What timezone are you in?:

Pennsylvania

Tell us a little about yourself.:

I am a married guy living in Indiana, Pennsylvania, right outside of Pittsburgh, PA. My older brother is Darthon who recently joined Downfall. I spend tons of time playing WoW!! (who doesn't?) I enjoy working in my yard and hanging out with my daughter.

Open/Closed:

Closed

Ginvited. Glad to have you

garreth — Tue, 05/26/2009 - 11:30

Ginvited. Glad to have you on board, Marv.

Thanks!

Marvicious — Tue, 05/26/2009 - 13:04

Thanks Garreth!

I am pumped that I got an invite and I am thrilled to be part of the Downfall community now!

Dude you need to get on that

Prime8 — Fri, 05/22/2009 - 03:07

Dude you need to get on that pally, I'm already vendoring plate loots from Ramps/Blood Furnace runs I'm giving my mage. :D

yeah yeah yeah

Marvicious — Fri, 05/22/2009 - 04:40

Not all of us have the liberty of dual boxing and instance leveling! :-p

Nice Improvements

Darthon — Thu, 05/21/2009 - 08:17

Marv made some great improvements in his DPS. Keep looking into ways to maximize you play. I am really impressed at the knowledge that you have gained.

thanks

Marvicious — Fri, 05/22/2009 - 04:39

Thanks Darth! I am keepin a close eye on those parses making sure that I make my way up them every time I raid,

Parses

Marvicious — Thu, 05/21/2009 - 04:16

Looking at the parses for Salmon on Wednesday night I will say that arcane is a thing of the past for me. I was able to be right in the mix of things with the fire spec. Thanks to Garreth, Pedran, Prime and everyone else that has helped me work through my spec issues!

this is a cool guy, hes

Xendu (not verified) — Wed, 05/20/2009 - 15:44

this is a cool guy, hes chill, keeps an open mind on new game strategies and always looks for ways to improve.

Thanks

Marvicious — Wed, 05/20/2009 - 16:04

Thanks Xendu....I am having a great time raiding with you in 10 man and 25 mand ulduar. I appreciate all of your suggestions you have been giving!

arcane

Marvicious — Tue, 05/19/2009 - 21:26

Does anyone have any thoughts on raiding arcane? I have been raiding arcane and coming in very low on overall damage. I switched to fire/arcane spec 18/53 and my overall damage jumped exponentially. Is it better to raid fire?

Just lookin for some input.

Looking at the parses I think it is quite clear that without having Ignite and Living Bomb I am clearly hurting my dps even fooling with arcane!

Still around

Marvicious — Mon, 05/18/2009 - 15:10

Hey guys...Just wanted to stop onto my guild app and let everyone know that I am available a lot of the time if a need should ever come up for a raid or anything. I ran with Salmon last week and had a blast. My DPS didnt rock the top charts, but I did get a good feel for 25 man Ulduar. I am also running a 10 man Ulduar every week with some guys from Downfall and some from my guild. So I am getting a good look at Ulduar from both the 10 man and 25 man stand points.

So If anyone ever needs me I am usually in dfrecruit as Marvicious or Harach (my pally who I am having a blast playing)

My mage is up to 47 now. :D

Prime8 — Tue, 05/19/2009 - 02:02

My mage is up to 47 now. :D

That is sick dude.....my

Marvicious — Tue, 05/19/2009 - 02:08

That is sick dude.....my pally hit 35 last night

Marv seems to be a really

Atar — Fri, 05/15/2009 - 05:41

Marv seems to be a really nice guy. Raided with Salmon all three nights this week. Knew the strats came prepared. Marv would be a great addition to the guild. Stay active and sign up for raids.

Thanks

Marvicious — Fri, 05/15/2009 - 16:16

Atar...Thanks a ton for the invite! I had a great time running with you guys this week and I hope to in upcoming weeks. I'll be sure to sign up!

Tuesday's parses aren't a

Prime8 — Wed, 05/13/2009 - 15:19

Tuesday's parses aren't a very good indication of Marv's dps. We ended up calling the Ulduar raid because of lag. If anyone is checking parses, take a look at our VoA boss kills rather than XT attempts.

Biased Opinion

Darthon — Tue, 05/12/2009 - 10:16

I know I have a biased opinion of Marv, since he is my brother. But I will tell you, he has spent more time in learning and improving than I could even begin to explain. It is so obvious in our weekly Ulduar 10 mans that it really has made a difference in our raids.

I do want to thank you guys for taking the time to give Marv pointers and advice. I guess the best part of that is that he is listening and actively seeking feedback.

Keep going Marv you are doing great.

Some questions.

poisondonut — Mon, 05/11/2009 - 05:25

just looking at your spec. I see alot of things that make me cringe. arcane shielding 2/2. why would you select this talent?

next, you have 0/2 in arcane flows. this talent reduces the cooldown on your dps cooldowns. why on earth wouldn't you take this?

frost tree 3/3 ice shards. somewhat ok for aoe packs, but for single target dps, which should be your primary concern, there is no need to max this out. I'd like some feedback on your reasons for selecting or not selecting the talents I pointed out above.

You are WAY over hit cap. I'm not familiar with your raid/party comp, but if you have at least a moonkin or a shadowpriest, and a draenei in raid, your hit cap is 341 without talents. Since you have specced for 3/3 elemental precision, AND 3/3 arcane focus, your actual hit cap given the spec is about 186 (give or take). Every single point of hit rating over this cap is a complete waste and as such you should gem accordingly or switch to gear with stats such as crit and haste and without hit. you are hurting your dps significantly by wearing so much hit gear.

Mana issues. you have glpyhed mana gem. this indicates that you must have mana issues. with most naxx fights being quite short, i struggle to understand how that is possible if you are using your gem and evocate properly. you should be glyphing arcane power.

Meta gem. why would you choose an increase mana meta gem? mages are about dishing out damage. is 2% mana really better in your eyes over other available meta gems?

one last thing, I know there isnt alot of pushback in naxx fights, but in ulduar, there's a TON. With arcane blast being your main nuke spell, why would you risk it being pushed back at all? that doesn't make sense to me at all.

I'd love to hear your reasons for talent selections and gear/gem choices. I see a LOT of room for improvement to say the least.

Answers

Marvicious — Mon, 05/11/2009 - 12:01

Poison... First I want to thank you for taking time to look at my spec. I was really hoping that once I apped to downfall that someone like yourself that is much more experienced than me would take a look at my spec and gear and make some recommendations.

I am new to the arcane spec and tried ot put together my spec based off of things I have been reading on Elitist Jerks. I do not know a ton about building specs and I am trying to get information from anywhere I can. As far as the arcane shielding and arcane flows. It purely was an oversight when building my spec and will be changed immediately. As for the ice shards, I am glad to know it is not very important and frees up some talent points.

When it comes to my gear being way over the hit cap. I recently got serveral pieces that give a lot more hit and took away some crit and haste and I am looking to replace some pieces to find a more even balance.

I chose the meta gem that I did for the simple reason that I needed more crit. I will take a look to see what gem there is that may be a better choice. Do you have a recommendation?

Finally, I too reallize that I have room for improvement and feedback like you gave is much appreciated and I will make the needed changes immediately.

Thanks again for taking a look and your critique is much appreciated.

Good job

poisondonut — Mon, 05/11/2009 - 18:00

I'm glad to see you active on your app. I'm tossing up a link to a build more suitable for raiding, spec it for your next raid. I have dropped points out of arcane hit because you honestly dont need them and specced you for arc stability. http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=8&tal=113005133100330150323...

with this spec, you will have a 2 minute evocate. which means you should have way less mana issues.

Also, I'm glad to see that you've made the gem changes i suggested and you've worked out a different spec. This shows me you are open to other ideas and this can only be good for you in the long run.

use the spec I linked above, I see that your current one is missing torment the weak, this is 12% more damage that you should not miss out on.

Also, good job on selecting the proper meta gem. that is the only meta gem you should ever have. 21 crit and 3% increased damage is really awesome for mages and really any dps casters.

Even with the spec I have linked above, you are really over hit cap, try and mix in some more crit and haste gear and less hit gear.

Thanks

Marvicious — Tue, 05/12/2009 - 04:19

Thanks Poison for all for all of your input and Ill be sure to rework the spec based off of what you are suggesting and I am going to have to keep my eyes open for some crit and haste gear!

Raid comp

Torvo — Mon, 05/11/2009 - 11:33

I need to work on keeping the right people in the right groups to maximize party-but-not-raid bonuses, but based on our weekly makeup he should always have the boomkin and draenai bonuses since we're never short on either of those. SPriests are more rare, but we usually have at least one most weeks.

A question about Arcane Stability.

Prime8 — Mon, 05/11/2009 - 10:32

In 25 mans, if you have concentration aura on, is there any reason to max Arcane Stability? Untalented, Concentration Aura is a 35% reduction to pushback, 3 points in AS gives 60% reduction to pushback, for a total of 95% with basic conc aura. I have a holy pally with 1 point dropped in Imp Conc aura (because of where the talents are, you get to HERE with 1 point required to get to the next tier). I can see your point about pushback, but isn't 3 or at most 4 points enough to get pushback immune?

To follow up on PD's questions though, I don't see Imp Counterspell or Slow, 2 talents you _can_ live without, but can have some real utility in raids. For example, on the Assembly of Iron fight, a mage's counterspell can help lockout Stormcaller while the group is still burning down Steelbreaker. I would recommend grabbing those 2 talents as well.

I know Marv pretty well, and I know he's been looking at his spec pretty hard lately trying to figure out how to max his dps.

counterspell

poisondonut — Mon, 05/11/2009 - 17:50

improved counterspell is a blanket silence of all spells for 4 seconds regardless of whether a spell is being cast or not and is not a school lockout. On the assembly of iron fight, you can use regular old counterspell(locks out the school being cast for 8 second), talenting this spell does absolutely nothing because you cannot blanket silence a boss, he must be interrupted while casting.

regarding arcane stability. Yes, if you have a holy pally in raid with at least 1 point in improved, all you need are 3 points in this talent. When i checked marv's spec, he had 0. Like I said, theres not much pushback in naxx, but this is something you have to spec into for ulduar.

Naxx 25

Marvicious — Sun, 05/10/2009 - 16:53

Thanks for the invite to Naxx 25 on Saturday. I had a blast! It was refreshing to be in such a well run raid. I came in #6 in the parse for the raid. I am still working on the casting sequence and working on mana issues.

Thanks Marv

Torvo — Sun, 05/10/2009 - 22:44

I enjoyed having you there. As you work on your casting sequence and mana issues, let us know on here what you're finding. I really enjoy watching your thought process and knowing what you're working on so I have a better idea from week to week of what to look for in the way of improvements.

Keep in mind that with all the in-and-out we had during the raid, your 6th overall is a little inflated by your being present the full time. Don't get me wrong - that's a very good thing and I place a lot of value on being able to count on you for the full raid - but your overall DPS (a better average of how you did) was #12. Still very respectable, but I want to see everyone putting up 3,500+ DPS before we get into Ulduar. With the tweaks you're talking about making you should have no problem hitting that this week.

Marv is awesome. Mages are

Prime8 — Wed, 05/06/2009 - 15:29

Marv is awesome. Mages are one of my favorite classes, what other class brings you food and water and can port you home after the run is over? Xendu recently introduced Marv to EJ, so I know he's just sort of picking up the min/maxing stuff. He was good before, he's only going to get better. Great guy.

Active forum topics

Recent blog posts

Poll

What do you think about no flying for an entire expansion?

YES) It makes me feel more immersed in the game lore.

15%

YES) It encourages more PvP! (Please explain how in comments)

YES) I miss riding my ground mounts.

MAYBE) If you make all of my flying mounts able to be ground too.

MAYBE) if ground mounts are sped up to 200% speed (or higher)

26%

NO) I don't have enough time when I'm on to be riding everywhere

NO) I have spent too much time getting various levels of flying to be wasting it.

11%

NO) It encourages more PVP! (please explain in the comments)

NO) I love flying.

19%

Total votes: 74