Help a Fellow Mage Out (Full Details Inc)

[Deleted]

Hello fellow Mages.

I'm posting this because I'm keen to improve my own performance in Raid as a Mage and hopefully have any errors pointed out to me that I've misssed in relation to my rotation or actions in raid.

I'm hoping for general some advice but I'm also going to focus a little on Imperator Mar'gok HC, which is what my guild are focusing on at the moment. We are 6/7 HC now.

I've been comparing my logs to mages of similar iLvl and raid size and I've noticed my numbers seem to be lower than some others and I'm trying to get to the bottom of the cause of it. It may be gear or I may be doing something wrong - that's what I am hoping to find out.

In Mar'gok's fight, I am using Ice Nova/Mirror Images/Prismatic Crystal.I am also:

• Using Blood Fury (Orc Racial) with Mirror Images on CD (together)
• Using Frozen Orb with Prismatic Crystal (Every 1.5mins)
• Spamming Ice Lance into PC when its up
• Using Frost Bolt as filler
• Ensuring I have 2 Ice Novas available for Aberation spawns
• Chosen "Ice Foes" for extra mobility so I can continue casting when moving from traps
• Blinking forward in order to avoid Force Nova
• Pet ability set to water jet
• Icy Veins used every 3 mins along with PC and Frozen Orb

My iLvl at the time of the fight was 645 iirc. Here is my armory: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...eddon/advanced

I will use this fight as an example which ran for just over 11 minutes (which is approx the transition into the final phase)
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports...-done&fight=12

This is a breakdown of damage done by ability:
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports...t=12&source=83


I have searched for fights with the same boss, same raid size and same iLvl gear (+/-1 ilvl) and picked on parse at random as a comparison from another Mage. Damage by ability is below for this Mage:
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports...-done&source=2

I notice looking at this that my Ice Lance average hit is a lot lower and I am not casting Ice Lance anywhere near as often as the other Mage on a similar amount of time fighting. This is the case on a lot of comparisons I've made. Is this purely a gear issue? Or am I doing something wrong?

I'd just like to add that today I've replaced the Munificent Ice Orb (615 Trinket) with the Sandman's Pouch. I've also upgraded shoulders from (1/3) to (2/3). These may not show on the armory yet.

I would also like something clarifying; When a Fingers of Frost proc takes place OR a Brain freeze proc AND you have a frostbolt cast underway, is it better to stop casting your FB to fire of your Frost Fire Bolt/Ice Lance or is it better to finish casting your FrostBolt.

Is there anything else you notice that could be done differently on my part?

I have noticed that my MultiStrike total is usually 3-4% less than most of the Mages I compared myself to, so I definitely need to secure more MultiStrike gear.

It's taken a bit of time to put this post together so any opinions I'm thankful for.

[prestilence]

Hello fellow Mages.

I'm posting this because I'm keen to improve my own performance in Raid as a Mage and hopefully have any errors pointed out to me that I've misssed in relation to my rotation or actions in raid.

I'm hoping for general some advice but I'm also going to focus a little on Imperator Mar'gok HC, which is what my guild are focusing on at the moment. We are 6/7 HC now.

I've been comparing my logs to mages of similar iLvl and raid size and I've noticed my numbers seem to be lower than some others and I'm trying to get to the bottom of the cause of it. It may be gear or I may be doing something wrong - that's what I am hoping to find out.

In Mar'gok's fight, I am using Ice Nova/Mirror Images/Prismatic Crystal.I am also:

• Using Blood Fury (Orc Racial) with Mirror Images on CD (together)
• Using Frozen Orb with Prismatic Crystal (Every 1.5mins)
• Spamming Ice Lance into PC when its up
• Using Frost Bolt as filler
• Ensuring I have 2 Ice Novas available for Aberation spawns
• Chosen "Ice Foes" for extra mobility so I can continue casting when moving from traps
• Blinking forward in order to avoid Force Nova
• Pet ability set to water jet

My iLvl at the time of the fight was 645 iirc. Here is my armory: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...eddon/advanced

I will use this fight as an example which ran for just over 11 minutes (which is approx the transition into the final phase)
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports...-done&fight=12

This is a breakdown of damage done by ability:
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports...t=12&source=83


I have searched for fights with the same boss, same raid size and same iLvl gear (+/-1 ilvl) and picked on parse at random as a comparison from another Mage. Damage by ability is below for this Mage:
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports...-done&source=2

I notice looking at this that my Ice Lance average hit is a lot lower and I am not casting Ice Lance anywhere near as often as the other Mage on a similar amount of time fighting. This is the case on a lot of comparisons I've made. Is this purely a gear issue? Or am I doing something wrong?

I'd just like to add that today I've replaced the Munificent Ice Orb (615 Trinket) with the Sandman's Pouch. I've also upgraded shoulders from (1/3) to (2/3). These may not show on the armory yet.

I would also like something clarifying; When a Fingers of Frost proc takes place OR a Brain freeze proc AND you have a frostbolt cast underway, is it better to stop casting your FB to fire of your Frost Fire Bolt/Ice Lance or is it better to finish casting your FrostBolt.

Is there anything else you notice that could be done differently on my part?

I have noticed that my MultiStrike total is usually 3-4% less than most of the Mages I compared myself to, so I definitely need to secure more MultiStrike gear.

It's taken a bit of time to put this post together so any opinions I'm thankful for.

Already found your problem... "Spamming ice lance into PC"
That's incorrect. Try to think about the old way Alter Time used to work.. The best way to optimize it was to have as many procs as possible up, Alter time, dump abilities, try to get a quick proc before they come back via alter time.. then dump again. The key to that burst was the amount of high damage abilities in a short amount of time.

So, how does this translate? Easy! Get ALL your procs BEFORE you prism crystal!. This is what I do on Imperator.

3 sec pre pull.. Pre-pot + Mirror Images + Icy Veins.. at 1 sec= cast frost bolt with water jet active
(so far I have built 2 Fingers of Frost... witha chance to Brainfreeze from the frostbolt cast at 1 sec pre pull timer)
Cast frost bolt again and try quickly to get a second brainfreeze..
Frozen orb > Crystal > FoF Ice lance x2 > Brain freeze x2 > Icy Nova x2 (hopefully with orb being up while you drop crystal, you will gain a 3rd maybe 4th FoF before crystal expires... Also, if you dont get a second brain freeze, thats fine. Itll just cut off 10k'ish dps with only 1 BF proc on crystal.

using this burst pushes me around 58-62k opening burst on Imperator.
also, I have Berserking (troll) I use in conjunction with Icy Veins since it allows me more frostbolts on opener which is more chance to brain freeze... Also.. After you dump your procs into Crystal.. the duration will have about 3-4 secs left, try to frostbolt if you dont have anything like FoF icelances or brainfreeze... getting that last frostbolt might let you get a brainfreeze proc you can launch before it expires. Never just spam ice lance because theres nothing left. Definitely use lance if you have FoF and nothing else tho.

After looking at your logs you linked, you overlap Fingers of Frost. Try your best throughout the fight to have only 1 atleast of FoF. If you have 2... and try to save them for anything like a crystal or burst phase, youre losing dps. It is ALWAYS a dps gain to use a fingers of frost Ice lance > anything else except brainfreeze. So basically unless you have brainfreeze proccd.. always sit on 1 FoF. If you have 2.. then water jet is cast, and youre still frostbolting, youre doing it wrong.

- - - Updated - - -

For imperator I use Blazing speed.. You can pretty much use blink to have a better uptime of dps during transitions when boss teleports into next phase..
Note: (Hunters can use aspect of the fox during transitions so you can cast and run into new position w/o using blink)

Also on the Force Nova's, you can time all of them with blazing speed to push through them quickly... rather spending more time trying to run through it while casting with Flows. Also, you can jump over them to have less exposure to damage.

Blinking through them can be problematic. Let's say for example, a bomb spawns on someone near you, an arcane add is up... right when you go to blink through nova the add dies, knocks you back, you hit bomb. The only time I ever blink on that fight is if I'm targeted by the Mage fixate during transition. Or when the tank gets his Debuff in phase 3-4. And I have 100% uptime on casting during the boss.

(Boss is also immune for 4 seconds when he is fully in the air during transition.. Dont waste procs on him during that phase)

[Silverlite]

A few simple things I can help you with:

Talents:
-Pick Ice Nova instead of Frost Bomb. It's simming higher and you can use both charges on PC when you don't have FoF or BF procs.
-Pick Mirror Image instead of Incanter's Flow. MI sims higher atm, especially with the Icy Veins Multistrike Buff.

Opener:
-Frostbolt
-mid cast Water Jet
-Frostbolt (2 FoF procs)
-Mirror Image
-Icy Veins
-2x FoF procs
-Frozen Orb
-Prismatic Crystal
-Priority of: FoF, BF, Ice Nova

CD Lineup:
-Save Frozen Orb only for Prismatic Crystal
-Use MI on cooldown or for burst phases
-Line up Icy Veins with Frozen Orb/Prismatic Crystal
-Use Water Jet on cooldown, when you don't have any FoF procs
-Make sure you have 2 Ice Novas for PI/FO combo

Stat Priority:
Int > Multi > stuff > Mastery

[Deleted]

Prestilence, thanks for taking the time to reply. I may have this totally wrong but didn't they change Alter Time in patch 6.0 so it only tracks health and location. I was under the impression it stopped extending buffs/debuffs/mana. My burst at the start is usually reaching the 60k-65k mark on the meters so my initial burst seems okay.

I can definitely confess there may be instances of Fingers of Frost accumulating when I already have 2 - this is why I was curious about whether you should stop casting Frostbolt in the event that you get a proc of Fingers of Frost.

So when I have no procs of brainfreeze or FoF and PC is up, I should cast Frostbolt instead of Ice Lance? Okay, cool.

[RandomHero]

It is ALWAYS a dps gain to use a fingers of frost Ice lance > anything else except brainfreeze. So basically unless you have brainfreeze proccd..

This might be a minor thing but it is closely related to wasting procs. If you are at two stacks of FoF its always better to cast Ice lance instead of using the Brain Freeze proc. This is because Ice Lances cannot proc another Brain Freeze while Frostfire Bolt can proc FoF.

Other than that I would also like to point out that it is better to keybind Water Jet than just having the Water Elemental cast it on cooldown. It does give you another button to press but it should help you control procs better during the fight. This could be one reason why your average damage of Ice Lance is lower while also having fewer casts compared to other mages.

[Invrlose]

You don't uSe water jet in your opener. You're just munching procs.

Proper opener:
Pre pot and images before pull
Frost bolt as tank is pulling
Frost bolt while tank positions boss
Frost bomb if you have it
Frozen orb
Prismatic crystal and icy veins
2xnova>2fof>2bf>1nova>bf>fof ppriority during prismatic
Oncr crystal is down water jet + 2 frost bolts as trinkets are just finishing