Fire Mage theory

[DarthThrall]

Force proc a Hot Streak using inferno blast without wasting a GCD;

Ok, I haven't played Beta or PTR but I think this will be possible. So, spam fireball, when you see the 'warming up' aura cast another fireball and instantly Infero Blast afterwards. The Inferno blast should hit your target before the fireball thus ensuring 2 crits in a row and proccing a Hotstreak.

Ignite Stacking

I am not sure how the whole Ignite mastery will work so this may be wrong. This will not work with the above method though. Spam fireball etc until you get a hotstreak. If your Pyro Crits then cancel casting fireball, Infero strike to get another Hotstreak, cast Pyro again and then combustion, inferno blast for another hotstreak (Since combustion refreshes the CD of Inferno Blast then cast a 3rd hotstreak.

Ignite lasts for 4 seconds so you should have 2 Pyro crits plus the Inferno crit all on the target at the same time which should provide a nice big combustion. I am confused about Ignite Mastery though but this method should give you the second Pyro crit and the Inferno crit but only 50 percent of the first pyro crit.

Evocate pre pull

With the Invocation talent your evoc gives you a 25 percent SP buff so you could evocate pre-pull and you will have the buff along with the other procs and pots etc providing some amazing initial DPS... Also now the 4 piece has gone we don't need to worry about getting 10 stacks of stolen time before combusting so we should get some amazing early combustions that benefit from our early fight procs... But from now until MoP we will still have the stolen time stacks plus a reduced cooldown on combustion so we should be pulling some insane numbers on DS from now until MoP

Living Bomb vs Nether Tempest

Living Bomb is obviously the best for single target fights (I think) but since Living Bomb only spreads to 3 targets it is useless in huge AoE situations like Yor'Saj adds or Madness Adds. So for heavy AoE fights would it be viable to 'multi dot' everything with Nether Tempest or is just spreading Dots from your main target going to be more viable.... Also imagine the Spellweave damage on Madness when the adds come with nether Tempest. I am pretty sure we are going to see mages ranked 1 WoL for madness now.

[jisbilby]

I haven't really played much with mages (only an hour or so at 85 a while ago on beta), but your first point seems reasonable, depending on the flight time of fireball and inferno blast.

For your third point, however, it relies on the Invocation talent, which is only available at 90. It won't be available for the next month. I do believe that it will be mandatory to use Invocation pre-pull as you suggest once you are level 90.

[Soulstrike]

pretty sure you lose the buff once you switch talents but i gues we will just have to find it out

[reflection]

...Ignite Stacking

I am not sure how the whole Ignite mastery will work so this may be wrong. This will not work with the above method though. Spam fireball etc until you get a hotstreak. If your Pyro Crits then cancel casting fireball, Infero strike to get another Hotstreak, cast Pyro again and then combustion, inferno blast for another hotstreak (Since combustion refreshes the CD of Inferno Blast then cast a 3rd hotstreak.

Ignite lasts for 4 seconds so you should have 2 Pyro crits plus the Inferno crit all on the target at the same time which should provide a nice big combustion. I am confused about Ignite Mastery though but this method should give you the second Pyro crit and the Inferno crit but only 50 percent of the first pyro crit.

...

Waiting for 3 spells to crit in a row imho it will not be worth the damage you lose by not using everything on CD + it is very RNG dependent (me not like RNG )

[DeathDefier]

Nether Tempest is higher single target, and the bomb of choice for fire mages.

[Mephalia]

I have played a little on beta and I can prove that your Inferno blast lands befor the FB I you spam Inferno blast while casting FB.

[Imnick]

Living Bomb isn't useless for a lot of targets because it still explodes, it just does less damage than Frost Bomb
The lost GCDs spamming Nether Tempest for AOE make Frost Bomb the best AOE Bomb spell

[DarthThrall]

Waiting for 3 spells to crit in a row imho it will not be worth the damage you lose by not using everything on CD + it is very RNG dependent (me not like RNG )

All you are doing is waiting for a pyro crit, pretty much like it is in live now. The difference is once your pyro does crit then you do 2 more things in order to make the ignite bigger. It's not wasting time just trying to fish for a bigger ignite.

[halfawake]

You can actually crit with scorch, cast scorch again and while spamming inferno blast at the end of that second scorch still force a hot streak regardless if that second scorch crits or not. There seems to be a tiny delay in scorch damage or a delay in heating up that allows inferno blast to still proc hot streak...

[DarthThrall]

You can actually crit with scorch, cast scorch again and while spamming inferno blast at the end of that second scorch still force a hot streak regardless if that second scorch crits or not. There seems to be a tiny delay in scorch damage or a delay in heating up that allows inferno blast to still proc hot streak...

But then you will be loosing overall DPS by using Scorch instead of Fireball, plus your ignite will be lower with scorch crits than with fireball crits.

Also you may not even have scorch since it is a talent and people may pick up PoM instead.

Imagine this, a hotstreak proc, pyro crit, followed by an inferno blast for a guarenteed second hotstreak followed by a PoM pyro. If all 3 pyros crit you are looking at some serious Ignite ticks especially since PoM gives your spell an extra 15 percent crit chance..

On boss Pulls I can see a Pyro Hardcast, followed by a PoM pyro. If the pyro crits then inferno blast and a hotstreak proc allowing for 3 pyroblasts in the space of 3 GCD's then apply Living Bomb and Images. This could get you a nice early Combustion with your pre-pot and maybe an on use trinket if you have one.