Another one of those help me threads...

[Risura]

So this is me:

http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...sus&n=Blinkwax

I play in a semi-casual raiding guild who are I would say ToC10 geared and around ToC25 standard. There is a group that is progressing in ToGC10 but as I recently faction changed I have just completed my trial and would not expect to step on the toes of the key raiders quite yet.

I have tried Arcane, Ttw/Fire and FB spec with similar results, following geming, gearing, spec and rotation from forums and fan sites and even compared in programs such as Rawr but I do not seem to be actually progressing in terms of DPS as much as others are.

In a typical guild ToC10 the top DPS are putting out around 5.5/6.8k (Hunters, Rogues and Pala's) Then there is me with anywhere between 3.9 and 5.9k (This is with both ttw + my current spec). My DPS usually varies in terms of raid DPS, as in the better there's is the better I do, I assume this is due to a better mix of buffs.

First off I know that FFB < Ttw/fire < Arcane at present *as per rawr info I lose around 200DPS from Ttw and 350 DPS from not being Arcane.

Secondly I am the unlucky git who is stuck with applying scorch, hence the glyph.

I am aware for FFB I am way over the hit cap, I plan on ditching the staff ASAP, it's not as if I am gemming for it.

Latency does not seem to be an issue, never above 125 in raid.

Rotation is to the book, keep LB up, Scorch never off, Pyro on proc, otherwise use main nuke, cooldowns worked around Bloodlust to make the most of them.

To the questions:

1. I have seen other mages gem purely for SP and just keep the two blues for the meta to work, is this applicable in all specs and should I follow suite?

2. We are a melee heavy raid, should I just ditch scorch?

3. What attainable gear (as in not heroic or hard mode) should I aim for at present?

and finally...

4. What the hell am I doing wrong?

I can take criticism, but please avoid posting if you are not going to be constructive.

[joeyhsk]

1. I have seen other mages gem purely for SP and just keep the two blues for the meta to work, is this applicable in all specs and should I follow suite?

If the socket is yellow and the socket bonus is +7 spell power, then I would gem the yellow socket with +12sp/+10haste.

2. We are a melee heavy raid, should I just ditch scorch? You should just try arcane, but if you really want to be frostfire and the raid is melee heavy, then forget it.

3. What attainable gear (as in not heroic or hard mode) should I aim for at present?

Replace your pvp legs with t9/t9.25, as you are only 1 piece away from 4 set bonus. Replace the staff with peridition from anub10.

and finally...

4. What the hell am I doing wrong?

Dont be frostfire =)

[extrudedcow]

Since you're stuck scorching, I would recommend swapping to ttw/fire. You should probably look into replacing your pants (and swapping to the spellpower/spirit spellthread). Otherwise your gear itemization isn't bad, it just needs some upgrades.

You may be able to boost your dps by tightening your rotations a bit. Quartz (addon) can help you time your next cast so it's more likely to be queued up properly, and there are several addons that help track debuffs and hot streak procs. I use Powerauras myself, but there are several others that do the job as well.

Use Rawr as a guide for gemming and selecting upgrades. It's optimize function is also very powerful, as it can select the best possible combination of gear you have available.

[Risura]

Since you're stuck scorching, I would recommend swapping to ttw/fire. You should probably look into replacing your pants (and swapping to the spellpower/spirit spellthread). Otherwise your gear itemization isn't bad, it just needs some upgrades.

You may be able to boost your dps by tightening your rotations a bit. Quartz (addon) can help you time your next cast so it's more likely to be queued up properly, and there are several addons that help track debuffs and hot streak procs. I use Powerauras myself, but there are several others that do the job as well.

Use Rawr as a guide for gemming and selecting upgrades. It's optimize function is also very powerful, as it can select the best possible combination of gear you have available.

Oh yeah, my equipment manager seems to be goosed, I actually have the t8.5 legs with the correct embroider.

I currently use class timers which is tracking my procs.

[Elliahna]

OK i have a solution : ). Switch to TTW/Fireball spec. You have the required hit which isnt easy to do. 15.37% is actualy like ideal. If you have a boomkin they will have Imp Fairy Fire specced which is 3% hit. So realy right now being FFB you are losing dps due to the hit being wasted. Keep in mind with all TTW specs such as arcane/fire....Buffs are crucial. Another thing to keep in mind is if you are playing arcane..make sure to be using your CD's at smart times. If the Worms will burrow before you get the entire IcyVeins used just wait. As for gemming Match all your socket's that give +Spell power. Unless the overall gain isnt htat much. For arcane you can match every socket without losing dps since haste is almost=SPellpower in item points. Keep in mind playing a fire mage is very unpredictable. There has been times that i have went a full minute without any hot streak procs do to alternating crits and non crits. RNG can screw you over a lot more then anything else

[DirewolfX]

1. The difference between pure SP and matching socket colors is negligible. If you really want to know the best setup, use Rawr, but you're looking at only a few dps difference per a gem (assuming you're using appropriate gems, which it sounds like you are).

2. In 25-mans, the +5% scorch is mandatory. In 10-mans, you could go Arcane and skip it with a melee-heavy raid. Frostfire should always put it up, because it's a huge self DPS buff. Not sure about TTW/FB. You should not glyph for it. The DPS loss for casting a few extra scorches at the start of a fight/phase is much lower than the DPS lost by not having one of the better glyphs. Just don't put it up on weak adds like Snobolds or Nerubian Burrowers.

3. Use Rawr. 4pt9 is incredible for all specs, so get the legs (skip the chest). Get the crafted bracers (Bejeweled Wizard's Bracers). Merlin's Robe is also going to be best in slot at your gear level (you should get plenty of hit from other sources). Head of Ony or Anub'arak rings are good to replace the FL one. Cloak could use an upgrade too. I don't think your gear is that bad at all, though.

4. Well, besides swapping the glyph, I don't think you're doing anything particularly wrong. You said your raid is melee heavy? What's the composition? I bet you're missing some major caster buffs, while the melee is getting all of their buffs. That shouldn't be the case in your 25-man, so I'd use those numbers for a better comparison.

[donnamatrix]

I'm with you Blinxwax. I recently went back to arcane, my favorite spec, from ttw/fire as we migrated from Ulduar to TOC.

We are a 10-man raiding guild, so your DPS numbers are in-line with what I see in non-gimmick TOC fights. I'm generally around 4200 DPS, and by no means an elite player.

OK i have a solution : ). Switch to TTW/Fireball spec. You have the required hit which isnt easy to do. 15.37% is actualy like ideal. If you have a boomkin they will have Imp Fairy Fire specced which is 3% hit. So realy right now being FFB you are losing dps due to the hit being wasted. Keep in mind with all TTW specs such as arcane/fire....Buffs are crucial. Another thing to keep in mind is if you are playing arcane..make sure to be using your CD's at smart times. If the Worms will burrow before you get the entire IcyVeins used just wait. As for gemming Match all your socket's that give +Spell power. Unless the overall gain isnt htat much. For arcane you can match every socket without losing dps since haste is almost=SPellpower in item points. Keep in mind playing a fire mage is very unpredictable. There has been times that i have went a full minute without any hot streak procs do to alternating crits and non crits. RNG can screw you over a lot more then anything else

Elliahna is right-on.

Your gear seems heavy on the crit, as mine was for fire two weeks ago. Your dps should be pretty close to what is is now in Arcane, then just start working on the arcane-focused gear. Starting with the trinkets, farm TOC reg for the Abyssal Rune, and buy the Talisman of Resurgence as soon as you can. I just picked up both this week and my dps shot up.

Bejeweled Wizard's Bracers are a nice upgrade if you can get someone to make it for you http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=47586

I run a Mac, so can't run Rawr, but get most of the tips from folks here. DPS can be a nice yardstick, but I find a better metric is who is left standing at the end of the fight.

Best,

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...&n=Donnamatrix

[Herrbrun]

*bullshit*

If you wanna go TTWFire, you need 14% hit, you're over 1% over cap. Maximize your gear, don't go with ifs.

[DirewolfX]

If you wanna go TTWFire, you need 14% hit, you're over 1% over cap. Maximize your gear, don't go with ifs.

Assuming he has a boomkin or a shadow priest, which may not be the case for his 10-man raid. Really, we need to see some more information about raid composition.

[Skarrd]

You're in pvp gear, so I can't give gear pointers, but here's how I handle 10 mans. Keep it mind that I raid 10 mans with a group of raiders that are 4/5 heroic toc25 (500k hp anub wipe yesterday /wrist).

If you have 3 casters or less run arcane, assuming your gear supports it. ToC gimmicks favor arcane heavily over fire because of it's ability to sync cooldowns with burn phases, yes jaraxxus counts as a burn phase. The first 4 bosses are mostly irrelevant, however, and a fireball spec will pull ahead of arcane on anub for both add dps (living bomb) and anub dps where it counts (molten fury).

I would run fire assuming the first 4 bosses are jokes and you dont have two available specs. Frostfire is worthless for everything but heroic anub25, so dont use it. Also, don't glyph for scorch, and if you really want to, drop your FFB/fireball glyph, not molten armor and NOT living bomb.

[Risura]

First of all, back in my PvE gear.

I made the switch to arcane last night after a pitiful showing in an Ulduar 25 run. I got my rear end royally served to me by our resident Arcane Mage (http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...sus&n=Kreacher).

I started the night in FFB spec, switched to Ttw/fire for kolo, which came off pretty well until someone passed me with the eye beams then I got it straight after (was sitting on 6.5k at that point).

Cat lady, OMG 2.9k, I may as well have went AFK by anyones standards.

We got to Hodir and even when I was sitting comfortably in the haste buff and occasionally crossing over with the crit buff I was only up to 9k whilst our Arcane mage was pushing 13k, if not more.

I had a look at some of the suggestions listed in this thread and made a few changes to my gems, gear will have to wait as I only have 15EOT at present until next weeks runs in ToC+Dailies, then its the decision to either go for the T9/T9.5 legs or the Talisman of Resurgence. In addition from what I have read the trinket from ToC5 normal would also be an upgrade over my EoH trinket.

Depending on drops also my staff I aim to replace with Perdition or Illumination. From Rawr this in addition to the above should boost my DPS by around 1k (on paper/screen)

*I presume stat order for arcane goes Hit > SP > Haste > Crit?*

Also to answer the question regarding raid composition; I will have to do this from memory and do not hold me to it as being new to my current guild I have not took everything in yet.

10 man - Hunter, Rogue, Lock (not imp sb spec), Priest (the healing kind) Shammy (resto), Druid x 2 (1 fera + 1 resto), Warrior (DPS/tank), Paladin (DPS or heal) and me. *these can vary.

25 man - Typically including the above + another lock (sometimes imp sb spec), another druid who switches between Resto and Balance depending on other heals. 2 more Mages, both currently arcane, multiple paladins, another hunter, warrior and rogue, priest who also switches between healing and shadow, plus another shaman, and a couple of DK's.

So essentially I can not rely on having a boomkin, spriest or another mage/lock to give the scorch/imp shadow bolt buff, which I am used to from past guilds anyways.

So yeah, thats about all I can offer off the top of my head.

[Jaqerainey]

Do you use keybindings or click?

[Skarrd]

9k on Hodir is just you not abusing your buffs correctly. I was doing 15k every "hardmode" kill back during ulduar as ttw/fire, cleared ulduar last week for fragments and I used my anub FFB spec and pulled 24k. Hodir is about getting your crit buff before other people steal it. We have a ret paladin who beats your arcane mage, but FFB is tops for hodir because of it's giant crit modifier. Even that arcane mage was doing it wrong if he only pulled 13k with toc gear.

Anyway, run arcane for 10 mans if you're only running you+lock for dps casters. If you have a third caster, the choice is yours, but I would stay arcane personally. The dps loss for you going fire is much larger than the benefit from him having scorch. For 25 mans you'll always want one mage scorching, assuming no demo/aff locks are around. We don't scorch for normal mode clears, but anything that is progression for your guild should have a scorch debuff running. We run 3 mages for our 25 mans and one of us will always be scorching the heroic modes. The dps requirements for normal 25 mans are tiny, so don't worry about scorch there.


On to gear:

Eye of the Broodmother is bad for arcane. It's not terrible, but Talisman of Resurgence is third best in slot and costs 50 badges, get it. Your primary mistake was grabbing FOUR pieces of t9 conquest gear. That shit is bad. You should have waited on trophies, because about half of the t9.232 is a downgrade from t8.5 and the ones that aren't are very very marginal upgrades. You have a good amount of haste, but you shouldn't be gemming your boots for it, toss a 23 SP gem in there. Your spellpower is quite low and your ring and boots are very weak pieces for arcane as they have no haste. Your weapon is also rather weak, I'd look into grabbing a barb of tarasque or sunreaver disciple's blade + lightbane focus, heroic of all if possible of course.

Match all spellpower and haste socket bonuses as long as you're running 2pc t9. Put SP/spi in blues, SP/haste in yellows, SP in reds. Don't match crit bonuses that require blue sockets.


Your spec is suboptimal. Drop all points from student of the mind and arcane stability. There are virtually no cast time interruptions in current content. Put 2/2 in magic attunement, 2/3 in incanter's absorption, 2/2 in arcane subtlety, and your last point in arcane barrage. You can sac points in clearcasting to max out magic absorption if you so choose, the extra resists are pretty invaluable for a lot of ulduar hardmodes, as toc as well. That's the spec I run, some of it is debatable of course, but I would never run a raid without any of those.

[DirewolfX]

Your primary mistake was grabbing FOUR pieces of t9 conquest gear. That shit is bad. You should have waited on trophies, because about half of the t9.232 is a downgrade from t8.5 and the ones that aren't are very very marginal upgrades.

Umm... what? T9 is much better itemized than T8 (unless you're somehow missing hit, which shouldn't be an issue for Arcane)...

Head:
Trade spirit on T8.5 for haste on T9.232. Lose a small amount of spell power, but the haste more than makes up for that.

Shoulders:
Trade spirit for crit? Yes please. Plus, we're assuming he even had these, which drop off Yogg.

Chest:
I think they're roughly even, but it doesn't matter, because you skip the chest for T9 anyway.

Gloves:
Trade hit on T8.5 for crit on T9.232. If you need hit, the T8.5 are better, I suppose. But who still needs hit? For most people dropping surplus hit for more crit, slightly better overall stats and a better set bonus is a bargain.

Legs:
T8.5 is better here, but the T9 4 piece is the best set bonus we have (even for Arcane), so we take this piece, since it's less bad than the chest and the other leg options aren't as nice as Merlin's Robe.

Anyway... back to the OP's issues. Looks like you're not really getting proper caster DPS support in your 10-man group. You're missing hit, crit, 13% damage and the good spellpower buff (Wrath or DP). Go with Arcane since there aren't enough casters to benefit from the 5% crit and you're gimping your dps keeping it up.

For the 25-man, your group should get a permanent Shadow Priest or Boomkin for 3% hit. If none of the DKs are Unholy or the other shaman isn't elemental, it should be a boomkin for 13% damage and/or 5% crit. Also, if the Imp. SB specced lock is not there, you should go TTW/FB and keep up scorch. Your DPS will suffer, but the raid DPS will increase. Do not glyph for scorch. If the lock is there, stick with Arcane. I went up like 1000 dps when I switched to Arcane... it's just that much more powerful now.

[nanessa]

What poster above me said.
Also Id like to add you should change your trinket as you have way to much hit as it is. Get Abyssal rune from 5 man toc normal, you can farm it whole day until you get it and its one of the top 10 trinkets for arcane. Also as some others said get the badges trinket as well in place of sundial.
Good luck and dont worry to much , relax and dmg / dps will come with it

[Risura]

I think the penultimate poster may have been looking at the link of the other main raiding mage in my guild as I am currently running with the T9.5 Head and gloves and only the t9 shoulders as I failed to pick the t8.5 ones up.

As for the hit, yes if I swap out the hit trinket for the EoT one it boosts DPS, then if I swap out the EoH one for the ToC5 one it boosts DPS, but as soon as I take out the staff (Intensity atm) I fall around 100 points lower than the hit cap, gemming for hit is possibly the last thing I want to do, I will see what else drops come my way.

I think I will keep this thread as a reference point while I go through the changes.

Was nice to see such helpful information and a lack of flaming, thank you very much all