Help my raid group's mage

[Breccia]

My raid group has had very little luck across the board on the Stone Guard. There are plenty of issues of concern, one of which is our mage. Despite having a "high" ilvl of 470+, I'm seeing DPS numbers consistantly under 40k.

Our most recent failshow is found here.

Mostly, I am concerned with the mage's rotation. There might be gear issues too, and general strategy ("stop breaking the chains!"), but those are easier to find. I don't play a mage, so I can't help with that part of the problem. ANY help you can give about spell rotation/priority will be greatly appreciated.

P.S. Also, I am not asking the mage to respec. I do not expect her to get a whole new rotation/gear/reforge setup in the next few hours, that's asking too much.

[Bhorin]

1. Fire is infinitely better than arcane on this fight.
2. The uptime on her bomb spell is terrible. (3.3% over all wipes--should be 90+%)

[Pulski]

Edit: Didn't realize that was for all attempts, not just one.

---------- Post added 2012-10-31 at 03:37 PM ----------

Suggest switching to Incanter's Ward over Rune of Power. On the last try she cast it 9 times over a 4:19 second fight (It lasts for one minute) and still only stood in it 61.5% of the time.

[FourEyesMoniker]

If they really do want to stay arcane, there are a few points they should ensure.
1 - First, Nether Tempest is not the optimal bomb spell to use in most situations. While I think they sim about the same on small fights, Frost or Living Bombs tend to show better results, especially in any fight with 3+
2 - For mages, if they're still speccing the old way, that is wrong. Mastery is now the end all and be all. So hit to cap, intellect, then mastery, with haste being the next best thing if you cannot get mastery. And no matter what, unless in a burn phase, don't drop below 80-85% mana, or all that mastery is kind of wasted.
3 - For rotation, keep the bomb up at all times, refreshing just before the last tick.
4 - For conserve phase, I'll usually cast Arcane Blast four times, use any missles procs available, then Arcane Barrage. If you get both missles procs early, use it and then keep Blasting till no more than five stacks. Don't Blast during a conserve phase at six stacks, or you'll lose all the mastery benefits.
5 - Glyph for Fire Blast to spread Living Bomb when things are grouped up to save GCDs, and glyph for the mana gem to do a recovery over six seconds, not instantaneous. It's better for the next step.
5 - To save time, make sure for a burn phase they create a macro. You can activate on use trinkets, mirror images, arcane power, alter time, and mana gem all at once. I'll usually Arcane Blast to 3 stacks, hit that macro, then burn, using a single missle proc when I hit two just so none are wasted.
6 - Make certain they aren't forgetting Rune of Power. If they aren't standing in it or have it down, they'll be in a terrible position. I myself have preferred Incanter's Ward, as it helps in movement, doesn't require as much thought, and if I know some dmg is coming, I can shield and restore some mana nicely.

If an arcane mage pays attention, it's easy enough to break 55-60k on that fight with a 470 gear level.

[scuac]

May want to switch specs. Either Fire or Frost should be an improvement. As an anecdote, as Frost with 471 gear I put about 70k on Stone Guard on 10N.

[walbomb]

Uptime on Rune of Power and their bomb spell is awful. On your last attempt she didn't use her bomb spell once and you want to have it's uptime close to 100%!