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  1. #1
    Old God Swizzle's Avatar
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    [Mage] Tips-and-Tricks

    Hello!! I am Swizzle!! I greet you!! Only two exclamation marks at end of sentence, any more and it is...how you say...for the females. Anyway, you can feel free to look through the tips and tricks I currently have and even yell at me to add more. I'm sure we'll find a ton of new ones as we level and as the game is patched, so I'll keep this around the rest of the expansion and keep it up-to-date as possible. HOORAY!!!!

    General:
    • Refresh Nether Tempest before it expires.
    • Living Bomb explodes even if you refresh it half a second earlier so time it between other casts if possible.
    • Frost Bomb calculates damage on explosion. Use cooldowns right before it explodes, not right before you cast it. That will save you 1.5 seconds that you would've had to spend casting during Arcane Power/Potion/Whatever. You can also maximize Frost Bomb's damage as arcane in pretty cool ways by paying attention to your mana and anticipating regen for the explosion.
    Arcane:

    • Arcane Missiles stacks twice - use a double stack wisely.
    • Use Arcane Power on cooldown, but try to get to 5-6 charges first with missiles procs ready.
    • If you're under 85% mana with 6 charges, use a mana gem before casting missiles. Similarly, when rebuilding charges during Power, use a mana gem to get back to full. The 100% mana mastery bonus is worth losing a few seconds of mana regen due to being at max.
    • Frost Bomb only has a chance to proc Arcane Missiles on cast. It will never proc AM on its explosion.

    Fire:

    Frost:

    Keep 'em coming.
    BfA Beta Time

  2. #2
    invocation has a 10 sec cd and evocation give you 15% of your man back instantly at the start of the channel think about it bro 2 additional mana gems anyone?

    ---------- Post added 2012-09-28 at 06:35 AM ----------

    Using alter time to get 5 more sec(due to global) on your buffs and geting to spend 2 extra AM when your cd's are going full blast

  3. #3
    I will delete this comment if refuted, since stickys should be about scientifically verifiable facts rather than subjective evidence and opinion, but I wanted to post how I'm opening at Frost currently.

    Could it be agreed that the best opener for Frost could be;
    1) Pre-cast Frostbolt, DoT, fire at least 2 more Frostbolts for full stacks. Feel free to use Mirror Images at this point, especially when pull aggro for the tank is sketchy in your strat.
    2) Expend any Fingers of Frost procs. Make sure you have trinket procs and Lightweave active. If you gain Brain Freeze just before the next step, don't use it.
    3) Frozen Orb and pet Freeze to gain 2 stacks of Fingers of Frost. You can move to a more desirable position in this time as both spells are instant. Avoid Mirror Images from this point, as Alter Time will return you to where you were when you first cast it.
    4) Blow Icy Veins, immediately followed by Alter Time.
    5) Expend procs in this order: 2nd Fingers of Frost > Brain Freeze > (reapply DoT) > 1st Fingers of Frost > Frostbolt/Scorch (if moving)

    I believe that while Frozen Orb is damaging a target especially, it is more important to spend that 2nd charge of Fingers of Frost before anything in consideration of the damage you can do a matter of seconds away, due to the fact that Fingers of Frost has a much higher proc rate than Brain Freeze then. Also, with the small damage of our DoT alone, it would likely be objectively better to use up Brain Freeze before reapplying the DoT.

    I was wondering if this has been proven mathematically (rather than my physical observation), or if someone could?

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Eschatonin View Post
    I will delete this comment if refuted, since stickys should be about scientifically verifiable facts rather than subjective evidence and opinion, but I wanted to post how I'm opening at Frost currently.

    Could it be agreed that the best opener for Frost could be;
    1) Pre-cast Frostbolt, DoT, fire at least 2 more Frostbolts for full stacks. Feel free to use Mirror Images at this point, especially when pull aggro for the tank is sketchy in your strat.
    2) Expend any Fingers of Frost procs. Make sure you have trinket procs and Lightweave active. If you gain Brain Freeze just before the next step, don't use it.
    3) Frozen Orb and pet Freeze to gain 2 stacks of Fingers of Frost. You can move to a more desirable position in this time as both spells are instant. Avoid Mirror Images from this point, as Alter Time will return you to where you were when you first cast it.
    4) Blow Icy Veins, immediately followed by Alter Time.
    5) Expend procs in this order: 2nd Fingers of Frost > Brain Freeze > (reapply DoT) > 1st Fingers of Frost > Frostbolt/Scorch (if moving)

    I believe that while Frozen Orb is damaging a target especially, it is more important to spend that 2nd charge of Fingers of Frost before anything in consideration of the damage you can do a matter of seconds away, due to the fact that Fingers of Frost has a much higher proc rate than Brain Freeze then. Also, with the small damage of our DoT alone, it would likely be objectively better to use up Brain Freeze before reapplying the DoT.

    I was wondering if this has been proven mathematically (rather than my physical observation), or if someone could?
    If you are using Frost Bomb I think the dynamics are different since you know exactly when and how many BF procs you are dealing with and can plan accordingly. That is why I prefer Frost bomb for playing Frost. It makes the rotation more stable and predictable, if you will. You effectively have an about 8~10s window to spend your BFFFB whenever it is convenient without worrying about loosing the BF proc to a new proc.
    Last edited by scuac; 2012-09-29 at 01:00 PM.

  5. #5
    Deleted
    Fire:
    PoM and Glyphed Combustion have the same cooldown. When you get Hot Streak you can Inferno Blast, Pyroblast, PoM+Pyroblast and if lucky with crits get another Pyroblast for a huge Ignite before Combusting. It is nice to have your Pyroblast keybound to the macro below, so you can simply <key> <shift+key> <key>.

    #showtooltip

    /cast [mod:shift] Presence of Mind
    /cast Pyroblast
    Last edited by mmocc5b636c3e7; 2012-10-10 at 03:52 PM.

  6. #6
    Deleted
    Stone Guards Heroic :
    You can use Alter Time to keep Energized Tiles buff just before the boss turns the lights off (75% and 40% life) stacking up to 300+ stack at the end of the fight.

  7. #7
    Deleted
    Regarding arcane rotation :

    Currently, optimal rotation according to the sticky is get to 4 charges with 2 missiles stacks, fire missles and dump with Barrage. Others prefer to stack up to 5 charges.

    Whatever your preference, you might want to time your bomb refresh so that you always have to refresh it when you reach 5 or 6 charges.

    Since bomb has a chance to proc missiles on cast, once you fire your first stack of missile, you have a chance to "regain" the expended stack by casting your bomb right after.

    So you get to fire your missiles at max charges without having to reach it with arcane blast, and so using a sh*t load of mana.

    So it looks like this :

    4 charges, 2 proc stacks => cast missiles => 5 charges, 1 proc stack => cast bomb => get a stack => 5 charges 2 proc stacks => cast missiles => 6 charges 1 proc stack => cast missles => 6 charges 0 stack => Arcane Barrage

    That is 2 missiles cast with 5+ arcane charges

    OR

    5 charges, 2 proc stacks => cast missiles => 6 charges, 1 proc stack => cast bomb => get a stack => 6 charges 2 proc stacks => cast missiles => 6 charges 1 proc stack => cast missles => 6 charges 0 stack => Arcane Barrage

    That is 3 missiles cast with 5+ arcane charges
    Last edited by mmoc313eb5ec09; 2012-10-11 at 07:33 AM.

  8. #8
    Stood in the Fire Shpetznaz's Avatar
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    When playing frost with Frost Bomb, Frostfire Bolt will only proc when the Bomb explodes. Therefore you can better judge if a proc is going to be overwritten.
    Quote Originally Posted by Aloodanis View Post
    Damn casuals and their vending machines. Back in my day, We had to go all the way from Orgrimmar to Desolace to pick up chips from the store. we had to do an extensive attunement quest to get into the store and we had to assemble 39 other people to fight the many other trash mobs, i mean trash food, to get to the chip isle. Oh and most of us couldn't even afford our epic car mount to drive there, we had to settle for our 60% bike mounts.

  9. #9
    I'm still finding Alter Time combinations:

    -You get back your Arcane Charges and Arcane Missiles buff, so you can cast it at 6 charges, cast a massive barrage and again a massive barrage, good aoe finisher.

    -With Ice Floes or Presence of Mind yo get back the spended buff. Channel 2 Missiles while moving, return to your position and again 2 more Missiles. Remember to cast Barrage before Alter Time expires!

    -Ice Ward-Alter Time-Blink. Really useful against warriors, 2 freeze.

    -Could sound really situational, when atacked in Twin Peaks or Warsong graveyards, cast Alter Time to return to leaf powerup.

    -With glyph of Ice Block you get 6 sec of inmunity to magic. Or Greater Invisiblity for 6 seconds of 90% damage reduction.

    -Use it when a healer cooldown like Guardian Spirit, Pain Suppresion or Life Cocoon is on you, to extend its duration.

  10. #10
    High Overlord Jimm3's Avatar
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    I dint know where else to put this but after reading threads lately and having to explain this every single time it appears that many ppl are missing two huge tips for their class . Maybe it should be in a seperate sticky post with bold capital letters( i m not trying to troll here swizzle but it's really happening and threads including these two things pop every day)

    ---> EXPERTISE counts as HIT these days
    --->Gemming depends on your PERSONAL stat weights
    Last edited by Jimm3; 2012-10-15 at 02:10 PM.

  11. #11
    You can make a macro with

    # showtooltip
    /cast Mage Bomb

    And it will always pick the corresponding Bomb you have specced.
    I just found this out while changing talents, very awesome for raids

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Leialyn View Post
    You can make a macro with

    # showtooltip
    /cast Mage Bomb

    And it will always pick the corresponding Bomb you have specced.
    I just found this out while changing talents, very awesome for raids
    this should go in the mage macro's post if it's not there already

  13. #13
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Uld View Post
    Stone Guards Heroic :
    You can use Alter Time to keep Energized Tiles buff just before the boss turns the lights off (75% and 40% life) stacking up to 300+ stack at the end of the fight.
    I guess this does not work any longer
    Nevertheless, I used Alter Time now at 88% or so and got 210% dmg as if the buff was doubled o0
    hmmm 2nd try, didn't work again -.-
    Last edited by mmoc8f28c533f3; 2012-10-17 at 06:48 PM.

  14. #14
    The default spell alert for Heating Up appears even if Inferno Blast is on cool down. So to avoid spamming the wrong ability it's useful to replace it with an aura in weak auras that shows when: a) you have the buff "Heating Up", and b) Inferno Blast is available. Otherwise you might be trying to queue an Inferno Blast when you should be queuing another Fireball.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Leialyn View Post
    You can make a macro with

    # showtooltip
    /cast Mage Bomb

    And it will always pick the corresponding Bomb you have specced.
    I just found this out while changing talents, very awesome for raids
    If you have any bomb on your bars and then unlearn it you will get an ability called mage bomb on your bars untill you learn one of the bombs again, no need for a macro.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Pyrion View Post
    If you have any bomb on your bars and then unlearn it you will get an ability called mage bomb on your bars untill you learn one of the bombs again, no need for a macro.
    But the macro is usefull for a target-focus-and-refresh-bomb macro like:
    #showtooltip
    /cast [@focus,exists][]Mage Bomb

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Muliercula View Post
    But the macro is usefull for a target-focus-and-refresh-bomb macro
    Ohh yeah true I didn't realize that since I don't use a macro like that.

  18. #18
    Herald of the Titans Shangalar's Avatar
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    Greater Invisibility is an epic spell to counter Epicenter, Draw Flame stacks, Velocity and Resonance on Feng the Accursed. You sacrifice one global cooldown and gain 4 seconds of 90% damage reduction, allowing you to survive any of these abilities and/or help your healers greatly.

  19. #19
    Deleted
    I've found a way to track rune of power CD using weak auras.

    What I did was set it up so a 1 min bar pops up when my combat log says I start casting a rune of power.

    Here is the export (spell name is in French, watch out.)

    Note: not possible using Power aura:

    {
    ["user_y"] = 0,
    ["stacksSize"] = 12,
    ["user_x"] = 0,
    ["xOffset"] = -2.1884765625,
    ["stacksFlags"] = "None",
    ["yOffset"] = -127.99966430664,
    ["foregroundColor"] = {
    [1] = 1,
    [2] = 1,
    [3] = 1,
    [4] = 1,
    },
    ["borderColor"] = {
    [1] = 1,
    [2] = 1,
    [3] = 1,
    [4] = 0.5,
    },
    ["sameTexture"] = true,
    ["rotateText"] = "NONE",
    ["actions"] = {
    ["start"] = {
    },
    ["finish"] = {
    },
    },
    ["selfPoint"] = "CENTER",
    ["barColor"] = {
    [1] = 0.4156862745098,
    [2] = 0.3921568627451,
    [3] = 0.41176470588235,
    [4] = 1,
    },
    ["desaturate"] = false,
    ["rotation"] = 0,
    ["load"] = {
    ["role"] = {
    ["multi"] = {
    },
    },
    ["talent"] = 17,
    ["size"] = {
    ["multi"] = {
    },
    },
    ["class"] = {
    ["multi"] = {
    },
    },
    ["spec"] = {
    ["multi"] = {
    },
    },
    ["use_talent"] = true,
    },
    ["timerColor"] = {
    [1] = 1,
    [2] = 1,
    [3] = 1,
    [4] = 1,
    },
    ["regionType"] = "aurabar",
    ["stacks"] = true,
    ["blendMode"] = "BLEND",
    ["texture"] = "statusbar256_3",
    ["textFont"] = "Friz Quadrata TT",
    ["stacksFont"] = "Friz Quadrata TT",
    ["auto"] = true,
    ["compress"] = false,
    ["timerFont"] = "Friz Quadrata TT",
    ["alpha"] = 1,
    ["borderInset"] = 11,
    ["backgroundOffset"] = 2,
    ["borderBackdrop"] = "Blizzard Tooltip",
    ["barInFront"] = true,
    ["desaturateBackground"] = false,
    ["customTextUpdate"] = "update",
    ["displayTextLeft"] = "%n",
    ["animation"] = {
    ["start"] = {
    ["duration_type"] = "seconds",
    ["type"] = "none",
    },
    ["main"] = {
    ["duration_type"] = "seconds",
    ["type"] = "none",
    },
    ["finish"] = {
    ["duration_type"] = "seconds",
    ["type"] = "none",
    },
    },
    ["trigger"] = {
    ["use_castType"] = false,
    ["sourceunit"] = "player",
    ["source"] = "Shendow",
    ["duration"] = "62",
    ["use_spell"] = true,
    ["names"] = {
    },
    ["debuffType"] = "HELPFUL",
    ["spell"] = "Rune de puissance",
    ["unevent"] = "timed",
    ["use_source"] = false,
    ["spellName"] = "Rune de puissance",
    ["type"] = "event",
    ["use_spellName"] = true,
    ["subeventSuffix"] = "_CAST_START",
    ["use_sourceunit"] = true,
    ["use_unit"] = true,
    ["event"] = "Combat Log",
    ["unit"] = "player",
    ["subeventPrefix"] = "SPELL",
    },
    ["text"] = true,
    ["stickyDuration"] = false,
    ["timer"] = true,
    ["timerFlags"] = "None",
    ["backdropColor"] = {
    [1] = 1,
    [2] = 1,
    [3] = 1,
    [4] = 0.5,
    },
    ["backgroundTexture"] = "Textures\\SpellActivationOverlays\\Eclipse_Sun",
    ["textColor"] = {
    [1] = 1,
    [2] = 1,
    [3] = 1,
    [4] = 1,
    },
    ["mirror"] = false,
    ["borderEdge"] = "None",
    ["backgroundColor"] = {
    [1] = 0.50196078431373,
    [2] = 0.50196078431373,
    [3] = 0.50196078431373,
    [4] = 0,
    },
    ["borderSize"] = 16,
    ["icon"] = false,
    ["icon_side"] = "LEFT",
    ["anchorPoint"] = "CENTER",
    ["untrigger"] = {
    },
    ["inverse"] = false,
    ["desaturateForeground"] = false,
    ["crop_y"] = 0.41,
    ["stacksColor"] = {
    [1] = 1,
    [2] = 1,
    [3] = 1,
    [4] = 1,
    },
    ["timerSize"] = 12,
    ["height"] = 16.376119613647,
    ["id"] = "Rune of power",
    ["textSize"] = 12,
    ["frameStrata"] = 1,
    ["width"] = 390,
    ["displayTextRight"] = "%p",
    ["border"] = false,
    ["numTriggers"] = 1,
    ["foregroundTexture"] = "Textures\\SpellActivationOverlays\\Eclipse_Sun",
    ["orientation"] = "HORIZONTAL",
    ["crop_x"] = 0.41,
    ["borderOffset"] = 5,
    ["textFlags"] = "None",
    }

  20. #20
    Alrite guys I have a number of new mage tricks using AlterTime here:

    Youtube.com/watch?v=ldJhXFrmmC0

    To clarify what tricks was showcased in this video (since it was so fast paced): Altertime+Reverse blink = Negate 2 charges from wars and confuse oppenents Nova/S/FB+PyroBuff+Altertime = Triple Pyro Combo Altertime+slowfall = Negate Knockbacks/trick oppenents also different methods of flag grabs tricks with alter time^^

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