I got in an argument with people in my guild a few nights ago when they protested as to why I wasn't using Frost Bomb. They pointed to the top mages (all fire) who were all using Frost Bomb. Their argument is essentially "those top mages are better than you, therefore they're right and you're wrong."
As frost, I get more dps when I use Living Bomb as Frost spec because of the increased Brain Freeze procs from Living Bomb spread.
Is it faulty for assuming that because the top mages (who are FIRE) use Frost Bomb, that my dps will go up if I use it (as FROST spec)? They highlighted the fact that a large percentage of their damage came from that one spell.
My argument is that just because their damage came mostly from that source doesn't mean that the spell itself causes them to do more damage...because then you're neglecting the fact that they're getting far fewer Frostfire Bolt casts...and ALSO, Frost Bomb can be quite clunky since it has a cast time, and a cooldown that differs from the time it takes to explode (causing weird gaps when you can't refresh the bomb when you want to). Also, they might do more of their damage from that source, whereas my damage will derive more of itself from Frostfire Bolt than theirs...and thanks to the extra Frostfire Bolts I'm getting, and a more seamless rotation using instant-cast-no-cooldown Living Bomb, I feel that my single target damage would be better at bursting down the kill targets quicker (causing the linked adds to die and giving us less mechanics to deal with).
Keep in mind...this is all moot now because I went back to fire after they gave us the courtesy buff back to 1.30 critical mass and now I'm raping the charts again. The only reason they were trouble-shooting my dps that night was because I was pulling really low numbers due to other factors that they didn't know about, and that I neglected to tell them (out of fear of annoying them with long-winded vent chatter).
My friend, when revisiting this later, argued that because I'm not a top-of-the-parses-performing mage in a top heroic guild, it means that my speculation on this issue is big-headed, and that it's fool-hearty to think I might be using a more optimal bomb than them (even though they're fire and I was frost at the time).
Restated question: On that fight, wouldn't Living Bomb be a better choice for Frost-specced mages since they get increased single target damage, and a better suited bomb for the other 50% of the fight (when all adds are dead and you're just attacking Wind Lord)? Remember, as those mobs die off, Frost Bomb does less and less damage...until finally you're stuck with just 1 target (the boss itself) and using the worst suited bomb for 1 target fights. Parses show mages using Frost Bomb, but I'm of the opinion that most are doing it because they've been told to do it by merely looking at other parses and simulations of multi-add situations. Might the hordes of mages be just following the FotM spec choices without questioning them and missing out on a more optimal choice?