Three spec's - Pro's, con's, comparisons.
Mages have three spec's, Arcane, Fire and Frost, each with it's own finesse and strengths. In this section I will cover the basics of each spec, and adress the special perks of each spec.
Below is the three spec's that would be considered the basic spec for each of the mage's tree's. If any points are left out, those are optional points, and I will cover that later.
Those are the three PvE specs for mages, where I now will look in depth for each spec, looking at small alterations being able to be changed in the specs regarding what situation you find yourself in.
Arcane
The spec I have chosen as the best possible spec for a single target arcane mage, is the one above. I will now go over the key talent points and why I have chosen them, and why I have chosen to not take some of them
Invocation - This talent is situational at best, and there is currently no boss encounters in Firelands that require any interrupt, and hence renders this talent unusable. Additionally even IF a mage could interrupt ON cooldown with Counter Spell, it is still a sketchy talent.
Improved Blink - This talent is very good for kiting and movement in general, but if you never get placed on any kiting situations, this talent can be spared. (Kiting situations in firelands mainly revolves around Shannox Heroic).
Presence of Mind - Very powerful talent, and can be used in several number of ways. When Presence of Mind is cast, the next two spells gain a 15% critical strike boost, which means if you cast Presence of Mind right before you cast your last Arcane Blast before you use cooldowns, your two first Arcane Blasts while cooldowns is up will have a higher crit percentage. Additionally you can use the Presence of Mind to instant cast Mana Gems mid fight, to minimize the dps loss of making them.
Prismatic Cloak - This is, in my oppinion, a mandatory talent, because invisibility is a VERY usable spell, both to drop threat (though after threat hotfix, it is not a real issue anymore), and to avoid fixate on some boss fights (e.g. Beth'tilac Drone's).
Improved Arcane Explosion - With this talent, arcane mages are now able to producer proper AoE numbers, though we still require that we are in melee range of the mobs. But think twice before you AoE, you have to value your single target dps value to the raid compared to your AoE dps value, where other classes do not sacrifise as much of single target damage as we do. But overall a very solid talent.
Incanter's Absorption - Again, situational talent, but a very powerful one. Arcane mages are very powerful dps'ers, but when we move, our dps is close to none. It is here where Incanter's Absorption shines. Casting Mage Ward or Mana Shield on the run, is a straight dps increase with this talent (if you cast within 10 seconds of last damage taken with the absorb up). Additionally this works exceptionally well in combination with Glyph of Arcane Power (No GCD on Mana Shield when Arcane Power is active).
Nether Vortex - A very useful talents, but again, more useful in 10 man, because you have less players avaliable to utilize slowing. In Firelands there are no fights that require this talent though.
Impact - A situational talent that can be picked up by dropping 2 talent points in the arcane tree. This is mainly effective to pick up for the Ragnaros fight to help on stunning adds during the transition phases.
Glyphs
- Here is my suggestion to optimal choise of glyphs
- Prime Glyphs
- Arcane Blast
- Mage Armor
- Arcane Missiles
- Major Glyphs
- Arcane Power
- Blink (Can potentionally be changed to Invisibility)
- Evocation
- Minor Glyphs
- Slow Fall
- Arcane Brilliance
- Conjuring
Strong points
Strong single target DPS - Stand and nuke fights with minimal movement.
AoE - If targeted mobs are within melee range of the mage, very good AoE can be put out. (Rotation for AoE will be discussed in a later blog)
Weak points
Movement - Arcane Mages have next to no dps while moving. We have Arcane Barrage and Fire Blast.
Fire
(There are two free points which you can put freely, though I will recommend where to put them below marked by "*")
Improved Fire Blast* - This is a very good optional talent. It allows you to stand at max range and still Impact spread your fire dots, without having to run in closer for the 30 yards standard range.
Impact - This is a key talent for the fire specilization. It allows you to spread all of your fire dots to all nearby targets (except Living Bomb, only 2 extra targets). This is what can make fire mages king of AoE if the correct situation is at hand.
Improved Scorch* - A talent worth picking for lesser geared players (Generally below 350-352 should pick this talent), as the mana generally do not cut it for a long fight.
Ignite - A big chunk of the fire mage's damage consist of this talent. Every non damage over time crit a mage does with a fire spell will leave a dot (stacking onto the same dot), dealing 40% of the damage dealt over 4 seconds. If the crit is for 10.000, the ticks will be 1k every second. If another crit is made for 10.000 2 seconds into the first ignite, the ticks (6 ticks) will look as following: 1k,1k,2k,2k,1k,1k = 8k damage. The tricky bit here is the phenomenon called "Ignite Munching" - This phenomenon occurs when two crits hit simultaniously, and can cause 2 x crits for 10.000 damage to only tick for 4k damage total. To avoid this, try to wait about 50ms after casting a Fireball before casting Pyroblast! (This phenomenom rarely occurs at players with higher ms).
Cauterize - A very important raiding talent which allows the mage to "die" once every minute, with the priest having the ability to outheal the death afterwards. This is a very good talent for progressing guilds, but not as an important talent for guilds with every boss on farm without any deaths or wipes.
Hot Streak - This talent gives the mage a chance (http://img259.imageshack.us/
Improved Hot Streak - This talent ensures that if a mage crits 2 times in a row with a fire spell the free instant Pyroblast will become avaliable.
Firestarter - A key talent that allows a fire mage to continue doing moderage dps while on the move by casting scorch, additionally Scorch can also proc Hot Streak.
Combustion - Enables the mage to gather all existing dots on the current target into one dot that add all the DPS up from current active fire dots on the target. This means if there is an ignite dealing 4k damage total over 4 seconds (1k dps), and a Living Bomb doing 12k damage over 12 seconds (1k dps), it would make a dot doing 2k dps each second´for 10 seconds (Modified by haste for more ticks), while still retaining the original dots. An optimal combustion consists of (while as many intellect buffs are on as possible), Fireball and Pyroblast crit with 1 second apart and a Living Bomb.
Pyromaniac* - Very situational talent that gives 10% haste if three or more targets are affected by a fire dot. Only use this talent if the fight allows you to keep your dots up via Impact. It is generally not worth single targeting Living Bomb.
Improved Blink* - This talent is very good for kiting and movement in general, but if you never get placed on any kiting situations, this talent can be spared. (Kiting situations in firelands mainly revolves around Shannox Heroic).
Glyphs
- Here is my suggestion to optimal choise of glyphs
- Prime Glyphs
- Fireball
- Pyroblast
- Molten Armor
- Major Glyphs
- Dragon's Breath
- Blink (Can potentionally be changed to Invisibility)
- Evocation
- Minor Glyphs
- Slow Fall
- Arcane Brilliance
- Conjuring
Strong points
Decent single target DPS - Able to keep alot of initial dps up while moving.
AoE - If targeted mobs have high health and are clumped up, very good AoE can be put out. (Rotation for AoE will be discussed in a later blog)
Weak points
Very fluxuating single target dps, dependent on luck on crit. Fire mages can swing from being super high dps, to super low dps.
Frost
Shatter - Possibly one of the frost mage's strongest talents. If a target is frozen, the mage's critical strike chance is multiplied by 3 - In combination with fingers of frost, this is a very powerful talent. This means that a frost mage should aim to get 33.34% crit raid buffed to make sure every ice lance and deep freeze is going to be a critical hit.
Icy Veins - A very powerful cooldown for a frost mage - Remember if you are at "soft haste cap" 1s cast time on frostbolt during bloodlust, do NOT use Icy Veins during Bloodlust.
Fingers of Frost - Give's offensive chills 20% chance of giving fingers of frost which enables the next Ice Lance or Deep Freeze to act as hitting a frozen target. Combined with Shatter this is very powerful.
Improved Freeze - This talent gives the mage 2 x Fingers of Frost procs when the Pet Nova is used. This is VERY powerful in conjunction with Deep Freeze, and should be used only in this situation. (More detail in a later blog).
Ice Shards - Enables you to use Ice Lance at max range, and in additional adds a chill to your Blizzard ability (Can proc Fingers of Frost).
Cold Snap - Resets cooldown on all frost spells. Very powerful in conjunction with Deep Freeze for a high burst on boss targets.
Brain Freeze - Enables all frost damage that have a chilling effect to have a 15% chance of enabling the mage to cast a free and instant Frostfire Bolt (Brain Freeze cannot be triggered by Frostfire Bolt). This in conjunction with Ignite is a very powerful dps boost.
Ice Barrier - Mandatory talent, and in addition gives a good shield that will increase survivability during heavy healing phases.
Frostfire Orb - This talent makes the Flame Orb a Frostfire Orb that have a chance on each hit to proc Fingers of Frost. This is generally used to keep up the frost mage's dps up while moving. (More detail in a later blog).
Deep Freeze - The hardest hitting frost spell. It requires a Fingers of Frost to be active or the target to be frozen in order to use. On boss targets it will deal massive damage, while on non boss targets it will entomb the target in a frozen state for 5 seconds, and all the frost mage's attack will be considered as hitting a frozen target.
Ignite - This talent choise might seem a bit odd for a frost mage, but in conjunction with Brain Freeze and the instant Frostfire Bolt, Ignite is a big chunk of the frost mage's damage.
Glyphs
- Here is my suggestion to optimal choise of glyphs
- Prime Glyphs
- Deep Freeze
- Frostbolt
- Frostfire
- Major Glyphs
- Frost Nova
- Blink (Can potentionally be changed to Invisibility)
- Evocation
- Minor Glyphs
- Slow Fall
- Arcane Brilliance
- Conjuring
Strong points
Decent/Low single target DPS - Able to keep alot of initial dps up while moving once a minute.
Survivability - Double Ice Block's, Ice Barrier, can absorb alot of damage and are very good kiter's to mobs succeptible to slow.
Very good burst on demand on bosses (Double Deep Freeze).
Weak points
Not very high single target DPS.
Comparing DPS between spec's
(Taken from http://raidbots.com)
Overall dps
| 32,877.5 | |||
| 26,221.0 | |||
| 17,163.0 |
As for overall dps it is very clear that arcane pull ahead on single target fights, though for special fights as Alysrazor fire is by far superior.
Shannox Heroic
| 32,681.5 | |||
| 24,963.0 | |||
| 12,650.5 |
Beth'Tilac Heroic
| 28,021.0 | |||
| 21,403.0 | |||
| 19,610.0 |
Lord Rhyolith Heroic
| 33,375.5 | |||
| 24,014.0 | |||
| 22,293.5 |
Alysrazor Heroic
| 101,883.5 | |||
| 25,280.0 | |||
| 21,832.0 |
Baleroc Heroic
| 33,628.5 | |||
| 28,830.5 | |||
| 25,210.0 |
Majordomo Heroic
| 49,221.0 | |||
| 31,867.0 | |||
| 31,361.5 |
Ragnaros Heroic
(Not enough parses at the moment)
Summary
Overall at the moment arcane is by far the strongest spec a mage can utilize, though for one fight fire definetly pulls ahead. So if you want to be the top notch mage of your guild, go arcane and have your offspec ready for Alysrazor.
