PvE Mage FAQ (The A B C of basic mage questions)

[Korred]

Okay. There are many, many very "basic" questions popping up in this forum

-

so why only use "learn the A B C first" to show, that someone just asked a stupid question?
Why not put that A B C together? Help a bit to reduce the amount of those "basic" questions!
(I know there are other Posts like this - but not everyone got EJ, AJ, and all the other WoW-related boards on their shortcuts + the endurance to read those sometimes 100+pages threads)

(A) Hit Rating: (Caps)
(B) Spelldmg vs. Crit vs. Haste - Stats & Socketing
(C) Raidbuffs
(D) Professions
(E) Glyphs
(F) How to kill Onyxia on your own.
(G) Cookie Cutter Specs
(H) Buffoods, Potions & Consumables
(I) Rotations
(J) Moar Stuff - to be continued & completed

This thread is a Work in Progress, help, number checking, different opinions are highly appreciated

(this post is focused on raids. I won't tell you what hitcap you need for Nexus-nonheroic.)

(A) Hit Rating: (Caps)
numbers used: 1% hit = 26.232rating

• 17% are needed! - Hitcap is VERY important, maybe even the most important stat for mages
• 3% may be gained through raid buffs (IF you have a Shadow-Priest or Moonkin with you)
• 3% may be gained through elemental precision
• 3% (only affecting arcane spells) may be gained through arcane focus

• If you have 0% through those means: Hitcap = 446rating(+17%)
• If you have 3% through those means: Hitcap = 368rating(+14%)
• If you have 6% (e.g. Precision & Misery[Shadow Priest]) through those means: Hitcap = 289rating (+11%)
• If you have 9% (arcane build + debuff) through those means: Hitcap = 210rating (+8%)

• If you have the extra 1% from a Draenei: Hitcap = take off 26rating
• 4% through buffs & talents: Hitcap = 341(+13%)
• 7% through buffs & talents: Hitcap = 262(+10%)
• 10% through buffs & talents: Hitcap = 184(+7%)

(B)Spelldmg vs. Crit vs. Haste - Stats & Socketing
This is a VERY controversial issue.
Basically: Get the Hitcap & spelldamage is king.
In the following it is assumed that you have reached the hitcap.

arcane mages spellpower > haste > int > crit. Arcane mages want to gear like this: Lots of haste, lots of SP, lots of int. Glyph of Molten Armor.

ffb mages spellpower > haste=crit > white stats. and yes for those ffb mages who have about 33% self buffed crit, haste scales SLIGHTLY (about 0.01% higher dps increase per rating) better than crit, but not so much as to start ignoring crit altogether. Fire/arcane mages gear pretty much the same as ffb mages in this respect.
In a nutshell: The difference between haste and crit is very small. After you reached 50% crit raidbuffed, get what you like better. If you care about every single 0.1% dps - check RAWR for optimal stats. Also consider the mana-factor of haste vs. crit.
my numbers behind this: My number plotting (FFB @2000dmg, 50%crit (raidbuffed), hitcapped ) resulted in a dps-difference of 1crit vs 1haste rating of 0.01%.

Some more details behind those numbers, thanks to norroar for the numbers
(in code, because it is additional information, so it doesn't take too much space 
in the post)

If you have 0% haste, you will cast 100 spells over 300 seconds.
If you have 1% haste, you will cast 101 spells over 300 seconds.
If you have 15% haste, you will cast 115 spells over 300 seconds.
If you have 49% haste, you will cast 149 spells over 300 seconds.
If you have 110% haste, you will cast 210 spells over 300 seconds.

With every percentage of crit you gain, 1 of your 100 spells will do 150% increased 
damage and 40% of your critical strike over four seconds!
Every time you score a critical strike, your spell will do additional 50% damage, ontop 
of the regular 100% of your hit.
Burnout will increase the additional damage of a critical strike to 75% (50 x 1.50).
Ice Shards will increase the additional damage of a critical strike from the previous 
75% to 150% (75 x 2.00).
Ignite will increase the critical strike damage (after calculations) by 40%.

Now the problem is % haste vs % crit is not rating vs rating. 45.91 critical strike 
rating = 1% - 32.79 haste rating = 1%. This has to be taken into consideration 
when comparing percentages.

Norroar gave me those numbers, to show how crit is stronger. Many of you may 
come up with the same numbers. Let me explain to you why I'm saying crit is 
pretty much equal to haste

0% haste - 0% crit
100 x 2.800 = 280.000 total damage over 300 seconds.
10% haste - 0% crit
110 x 2.800 = 308.000 total damage over 300 seconds.
0% haste - 10% crit
(100 x 2.800) + (10 x 7.000) = 350.000 total damage over 300 seconds.

When I'm crunching numbers, I'm always assuming you have 32% crit unbuffed 
and the 18% you gain through raidbuffs. Thus 50% "basecrit" - every raiding 
mage should have that much before considering socketing haste or focusing on 
haste.

Now let's look at the numbers again:

0% additional haste - 0% additional crit
(50 x 2.800) + (50 x 7.000) = 490.000 dmg over 300 seconds
10% additional haste - 0% additional crit
(55 x 2.800) + (55 x 7.000) = 539.000 dmg over 300 seconds
0% additional haste - 10% additional crit
(40 x 2.800) + (60 x 7.000) = 532.000 dmg over 300 seconds

So within 100, or 110 FFB casts there is a difference of 7.000 damage - which 
will be eaten up by the RNG nature of crits. Of course there's LB and scorch in 
there, so these numbers are somewhat unrealistic when it comes to actual 
raid-damage. But they give an impression of how the stats affect your damage.

Considering that 10% haste are easier to reach than 10% crit, these numbers 
even favor haste... but then there is the mana issue, the RNG issue of crit and 
all the other stuff again.

Thus:

• red sockets: 19dmg (red stone)
• orange sockets: dmg+hit/crit/haste (orange stone, oriority as stated above)
• yellow sockets: dmg +hit/crit/haste (orange stone)

or

• yellow sockets: pure hit if you REALLY need it to get capped (yellow stone)
• blue sockets: dmg +stamina/mp5/whatever (purple stone)

Sadly there's no way (except levling JC!) to avoid those 2 purple stone. If you don't have 2 blue slots but need 2 blue stone for the meta, use the chromatic one in your belt or put it in a red one. (And try to get another item with a blue slot asap!)

frost mages spellpower > haste > crit > white stats. Lots of haste to keep FoF up as much as possible. That's all I (arnorian) have on frost mages, as i have never actually raided as one.


(C) Raidbuffs
In raids you (may) gain a lot of stats + the Mobs get debuffs. (How do I link skills & spells here again?)
Here's a short summary of those:

overall damage
ferocious inspiration/sanctified retribution (3% increased dmg)

spelldamage
ebon plaguebringer/earth and moon/curse of elements (~13% increased spelldamage taken on target)
totem of wrath (+280 spellpower)
demonic pact

crit
Scorch/Winter's Chill/Warlock Buff (5%)
Moonkin (5%)
Focus Magic (3%, assuming you have more then 2 or more mages, you should circle-jerk your Focus Magic for 6% crit instead of just 3% (FM has ~97%+ uptime on any mage).)
totem of wrath/heart of the crusader (3% crit on target)

haste
improved Moonkin arua/swift retribution (3%)
wrath of air totem (5%)

hit
3% Misery (Shadow Priest)/Improved Fearie Fire (Moonkin)
1% Draenei Aura

stats
Blessing of Kings
Mark of the Wild
Arcane/Dalaran Brilliance
[...]

(D) Professions
thanks to Norroar for this summary (contains some edits)

Alchemy: 37 Spell Power
Alchemy grants you the passive ability named Mixology. It increases the duration of the elixir and flasks you can create by 100% and effect by up to 50%. Flask of the Frost Wyrm wich usually to increase your spell power by 125, now increases it by 162.

Blacksmithing: 38 Spell Power
Blacksmithing teaches you the ability to put an additional socket into your bracer and gloves. This will allow you to put a Runed Scarlet Ruby into each one for an increase of 38 spell power.(Blacksmithing is however VERY expensive to level)

Inscription: 37 Spell Power
Inscription grants you the opportunity to create a unique shoulder enchant, Master's Inscription of the Storm. This enchant will increases your spell power by 61 and critical strike rating by 15, whereas the second best shoulder enchant only gives 24 spell power.

Enchanting: 38 Spell Power
Enchanting gives you the formula to enchant each of your rings with an additional 19 spell power.

Jewelcrafting: 39 Spell Power (based on replaced Runed Scarlet Rubys, may be more.)
Jewelcrafters can buy the design that let's you create three Runed Dragon's Eye. These gems will increases your spell power by 32, if you compare it to the Runed Scarlet Ruby wich only gives 19 spell power, that's an increase of 13 per Dragon's Eye. However, if you replace a Glowing Twilight Opal, the spelldamage is increased by 23 per gem - considering two "blue" gems are needed, and the Dragon's Eyes fulfill this requirement, the profession is very powerful.
You can only create three of the Runed Dragon's Eye, but they count as any type of gem.
This bonus may be weakened if the new epic-northrend-gems are introduced and the JC gems are not updated - but that's speculation for now.

Leatherworking: 37 Spell Power
Leatherworking allows you to "enchant" your wrists with +67 spellpower.

Tailoring: -- Spell Power
Very Cheap Pant-Enchant with the same effect as everyone else's.
Cloak-Embroidery that provides a spellpower proc. One of the strongest dps-boosts for one profession out there (for mages).

Engineering: ?? Spell Power
There are many gadgets available to Engineers, extrudedcow explains the one relevant for improving a mage's armor quite nice:
Engineering's Hyperspeed Accelerators are on a 1 minute cooldown, so they provide 340 haste for 10 seconds out of every minute, an average of 56.6 haste per minute (it's actually more due to fights durations not being at exactly 60 second intervals, and due to spell cast time being determined at the beginning of the cast). This does come at a loss of a 28 spellpower enchant, but when paired with good gear it's competitive with other tradeskill buffs.

(E) Glyphs (major ones only, minor are just for fun)
Frost
Water Elemental
Frostbolt
Molten Armor

Fire
Fireball
Molten Armor
Living Bomb

FFB
Frostfirebolt
Molten Armor
Living Bomb

Arcane
Molten Armor
Arcane Blast
Arcane Missiles

another option might be to replace molten armor with Arcane Power; I don't know how the numbers work out on that with the change to Arcane Power (whether 2%crit = 7% extra time on 10% dmg).

(F) How to kill Onyxia on your own.
Killing Onyxia on your own is A LOT of fun. Now I know how the Paladin who oneshotted Kazzak felt..
This is based on absorption. Icebarrier. Mirror Images + Bandages. Ivy Veins + Evocation (Glyphed). Managems (Glyphed). Throw Frostbolts. Survive. Kill.
I used this build.
If you have, use t4 2-piece bonus (t3 is really cool if you got it!), t6 2piece bonus isn't to bad either, same goes for t7 - all are (pretty) easy to get.
HP is worth nothing, Spellpower (increases damage absorbed) and hit are all you want.
I used this guide for preparation, tried it one evening (got her to 67%...) and then 2 days later after 3.0.8 with some adjustions (mainly the build posted above and a lot more healing through evocation)
(And that's what the kill looks like: my killshot)

(G) Cookie Cutter Specs

18/51/0 +2 Fireball-Torment of the Weak

0/52/18 +1 Frostfirebolt

57/3/11 Arcane

20/0/51 Frost


(H) Buffoods, Potions & Consumables
Flask:
Flask of the frost wyrm (125 spelldamage)

Buffood
Fish Feast (46 spelldamage)
Firecracker Salmon (46 spelldamage)
Tender Shoveltusk Steak (46 spelldamage)

Great Feast (35 spellpower)
Smoked Salmon (35 spellpower)
Shoveltusk Steak (35 spellpower)

Potions
potion of speed: 500 haste rating for 15 seconds = ~ 35dps increase over a 4 min fight.
potion of wild magic: 200crit & 200spellpower for 15 seconds = ~ 41dps increase over a 4 min fight.

no, i didnt pull those numbers out of my ass. someone else did, but they seem about right to me w/o doing any maths. i use mana pots personally; if your oom, your not doin any dps at all.

(I) Rotations
Arcane

ABx2(or 3, depending on Mana) --> Abrr/Mbrr proc. --> repeat.

fire/frostfire

LB--> scorch x2 --> Fireball/Frostfire Bolt --> Hotstreak proc

frost

Frostbolt

(J) Moar Stuff - to be continued & completed

• available and useful enchants & stuff

[redfly]

it is 17% hit to be capped since 3.0

3% through Shadow Priest (skillname?) / Moonkin (skillname?)
misery / improved faerie fire

[Korred]

It always has been, but the last 1%-gap could not be closed through hit - at least that's how I understood it? If not, I will need to resocket

[Topcraft]

They removed the 1% gap. You can now be fully capped, 17%.

Also, sticky this.

[redfly]

yup, just modified for clarifications

[Lusi]

Always fun to start reading bout "teh teaching thread" where OP starts with wrong info

Thumbs up for trying though .

[Topcraft]

1% hit = 26.232
Lvl 83 mob has a 17% miss rate for a level 80 mage
17 * 26.232 = 446 Hit Rating
3pts in Elemental Precision means 3% Hit, so my Hit Rating now will be 14 * 26.232 = 368 Hit Rating required

[Korred]

Always fun to start reading bout "teh teaching thread" where OP starts with wrong info

Thumbs up for trying though .

This is not about teaching, it is about collecting information to avoid hundreds of topics with the same basic question.

+ behold the almighty "edit-button"!

[Korred]

1% hit = 26.232
Lvl 83 mob has a 17% miss rate for a level 80 mage
17 * 26.232 = 446 Hit Rating
3pts in Elemental Precision means 3% Hit, so my Hit Rating now will be 14 * 26.232 = 368 Hit Rating required

Thank you, fixed the numbers.
btw: You usually gain 3% through raiddebuffs (misery, improved faerie fire)

[Tanen]

B) Crit vs. Haste
This is a VERY controversial issue.
Basically: Get the Hitcap - If you are there, get what you like better (If your mana is good, get haste, if you like crits, get crits)
Whats behind this: My number plotting ( @2000dmg, 50%crit (raidbuffed), hitcapped ) resulted in a dps-difference of 1crit vs 1haste rating of 0.01%.

IMO , crit is good for FFB/fire, haste for Frost and for arcane i would say Spell power is more important.. maybe change the title to crit vs. haste. vs spell power?

[Tanen]

Spell power is more important to any tree than any other stat.

yes, very true....my comment was more for gemming purposes.. seems FFB wants to try to mix it up a bit and gem spell power/crit... frost needs spell power/haste , and lots of it .. and arcane really only focus on Spell power when gemming .. you can do cirt and haste for arcane but i think spell power is over all best to just focus on..

( this is assuming you are hit capped through just gear stats and raid buffs/debuffs)

[Korred]

IMO , crit is good for FFB/fire, haste for Frost and for arcane i would say Spell power is more important.. maybe change the title to crit vs. haste. vs spell power?

I cleared that up, ty

[arnorian]

Ok, for arcane mages spellpower>haste>int>crit (assuming hit cap). Arcane mages want to gear like old holy priests. Lots of haste, lots of SP, lots of int. And yes, you want glyphed mage armor up instead of molten. Ideally, we want to be able to spam AB the entire fight (no possible) but we gear to that end.


For ffb mages spellpower>haste=crit>white stats, and yes for those ffb mages who have abour 33% self buffed crit, haste scales SLIGHTLY better than crit, but not so much as to start ignoring crit altogether. Fire/arcane mages gear pretty much the same as ffb mages in this respect.

For frost mages, SP>Haste>Crit>White stats, Lots of haste to keep FoF up as much as possible. That's all i have on frost mages, as i have never actually raided as one.

[Evets]

One point of the stat turns into the equated point of dps...

Arcane Mage
hit_rating=2.46
spell_power=1.32
intellect=0.90
haste_rating=0.71
crit_rating=0.66
spirit=0.45


Frost Mage
hit_rating=2.05
spell_power=1.24
haste_rating=0.94
crit_rating=0.40
intellect=0.17
spirit=0.00

Can't find something for FFB or fireball mages but i know that crit_rating give them more dps than haste rating.

Btw i think this post is a great idea

[Numbnut]

Wouldn't an arcane mage only need 8% hit to be capped with a moonkin or spriest in the raid?

17% - 3%(Arcane Focus) - 3%(Precision) -3%(Imp Faerie Fire) = 8%

[seen]

Wouldn't an arcane mage only need 8% hit to be capped with a moonkin or spriest in the raid?

17% - 3%(Arcane Focus) - 3%(Precision) -3%(Imp Faerie Fire) = 8%

yeah u're right. also it's only 7% if you have a draenei in your party

[Korred]

So arcane mages skill precision? Thanks for that.. didn't really know what arcane builds look like today.. will correct that

[Korred]

I implemented Norroars Mage-Profession guide and updated it according to the discussion of the thread (http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=37013.15)

[moongleam]

Tailoring is not mentioned (understandable, since it basically sucks for endgame).

Arcane mages can use mage armor or molten armor, and frequently get more dps out of the molten armor, tho it is very close, depending on fight length and your specific spirit. This assumes you glyph the armor you are wearing of course.

You should tack a section on glyphs in there, it is also a frequently asked question.

-Moon

[Korred]

Ty, put Tailoring in, and added a Glyph section (that still need works)

Anyone wants to help me on Arcane Frost and PvP Glyphs?


BTW: Does ANYONE know, how I can link Skills and Items for mouseover? It would help a great deal to make the post more informative!