Who do you give Focus Magic and why?

[Unicornjuice]

Giving it to the tank, just to see people bitch about why they should have it and why I'm a tard.

[bahumut5]

I used to have ~40% on my Warlock with the buff, critting enough to replace the buff for the mage every now and then. Ironicly enough, when the other mage joined, they buffed each other, which decreased the total raid dps, but actually buffed the dps of one of the mages.

I never really understood why they dps'ed each other, because there are enough classes that have more need for a little bit of crit than over-crit-rated mages.

[Reynard]

I would say give it to whatever caster gets the most out of crit. Unfortunately I'm fairly new to WoW so the only caster I have experience with is my Mage so far. It's enough to know that I would very much prefer to give FM to a FFB mage (316% damage from crits!!) or a Fire mage (Hot Streak procs, something shared with FFB specs too) over an Arcane Mage. All casters crit frequently enough to keep the kickback crit bonus on often enough so far as I know.

How do boomkins/locks/other casters deal with crit? Or healers? Who benefits the most?

[Silvereen]

We swap it with the other mage in our 25-man raids and in our 10-man it usually goes to my lock friend or to an ele shammy.

[gehennaspawn]

I would say give it to whatever caster gets the most out of crit. Unfortunately I'm fairly new to WoW so the only caster I have experience with is my Mage so far. It's enough to know that I would very much prefer to give FM to a FFB mage (316% damage from crits!!) or a Fire mage (Hot Streak procs, something shared with FFB specs too) over an Arcane Mage. All casters crit frequently enough to keep the kickback crit bonus on often enough so far as I know.

How do boomkins/locks/other casters deal with crit? Or healers? Who benefits the most?

The self-confessed noobie has the most coherent response in the thread.

[Xiangu]

I mostly give it to the healer - they have a high chance of critting their heals so it proc's a lot and I can enjoy my additional 3% too.. aside from that sometimes there's no other caster in the group so you're only left with the healer anyway

[Vashta]

I would say give it to whatever caster gets the most out of crit. Unfortunately I'm fairly new to WoW so the only caster I have experience with is my Mage so far. It's enough to know that I would very much prefer to give FM to a FFB mage (316% damage from crits!!) or a Fire mage (Hot Streak procs, something shared with FFB specs too) over an Arcane Mage. All casters crit frequently enough to keep the kickback crit bonus on often enough so far as I know.

How do boomkins/locks/other casters deal with crit? Or healers? Who benefits the most?

Please have 1 internetz

[Deleted]

I give it to the unholy DK...

[torny]

holy paladin / Resto shaman!
Let the flaming begin ^_^
Screw 3% crit for dps go awesome Healers!

[kronpas]

I would give it to another mage, obviously. If no mage is present at the time, it would be given to whoever benefits most from it. I got another heal toon, so the list would be disc priest > pally > shammy > .. <insert random caster with high crit rate here>

Most casters have high enough crit rating to provide reasonable buff uptime back to the mage, so the question isnt who has the highest crit, but who benefits most from it.

[Guitarn]

4x3% > 2x6%

No one caught this little gem?

[smeegoan]

the healer you nubs.

[Nillo]

How do boomkins/locks/other casters deal with crit? Or healers? Who benefits the most?

Casters:
Boomkins - have several procs related to it on of them giving 20% haste and the other one being their main source of damage (Eclipse) => very useful
Locks - Destro gets 6% extra damage for 10 sec after each Conflagrate crit , that's just 3%*6% extra damage => probably better than arcane
- Affliction gets the standard +100% crit mod => just as bad as arcane
- Demo : Should slightly increase the uptime of Demonic pact => if you don't have an ele shaman for +280 that might be something to consider.
Shadows - get the standard +100% crit mod => just as bad as arcane
Ele Shamans - get 10% extra damage for the next 2 casts after each crit, but one of their main nukes already has a 100% chance to crit => not that great either, but you will have a good uptime

=> Boomkin or fire mage.

Healers:
Paladins: A rather small amount of mana regen (30% of the cost of the spell cast) and a lot more overhealing (crit does close to nothing for their throughput) => good uptime , but else rather meh
Priests: More uptime on inspiration and more shields if they are discipline => If they're tank healing it might be something to consider else it's meh.
Shamans: More uptime on Ancestral healing and more water shield procs => Only if they're tank healing or running into serious mana problems.
Druids : A small heal that triggers after the target gets hit => Low uptime and almost completely useless.

=> Priests/Shamans if they're assigned to tank healing.

[Asgard]

You just have to think who to give it to, depending on the classes in the raid, and (sometimes) the encounter. First, you've got to chose between a healer and a DPS.

Healer :
- Holy Paladin is the obvious choice
- Disc Priest is a good second choice
- Other healers might be okay, but never exceptionnal (both in terms of the need for 3% crit and the uptime of the buff they'll give you), especially resto druids

Now, among the DPS :
- Affliction Warlock :
- Destruction Warlock
- Demonology Warlock
- Elemental Shaman
- FFB / Fire Mage
- Arcane Mage
- Balance Druid
- Shadow Priest

From my experience, all of these are good in terms of the uptime of the proc. Now who needs the most crit ? All of these need crit but I usually choose between the classes which have on-crit procs :
- Demonology Warlock (Demonic Pact)
- Elemental Shaman (Clear casting)
- FFB / Fire Mage (Hot streak)
- Balance Druid (Eclipse)

And yeah, a healer is fine, but I rarely pick one because a healer can sometimes not cast for 2-30sec if no heal is needed.

As a rule of thumb, just try and give it to the top DPSer.

[Zelven]

I just give it to who I think will benefit most while on my mage. And I tend to get the buff quite a bit while on my shaman, Resto or Enh. Enh has a pretty decent ability at proccing the buff due to it being able to trigger off of Flametongue Weapon, Fire Nova, Chain Lightning, Shocks, Static Shock, and Lightning Bolt. :P I laughed rather hard when it was given to a rogue, though... Over the six casters and myself as Enh...

Raids I have gone to, though, typically don't do the Focus Magic circle of mages.

[avrillapete]

If there is another arcane mage we usually give it to each other for the 6% crit, if not then whatever caster dps is there. I'll sometimes check to see who is doing the most dps, which hopefully means they are criting the most. In 5 mans it seems to default to the healer because they are the only other caster.

[Nillo]

No one caught this little gem?

No because going from 3% to 6% crit will result in slightly less damage gained, than going from 0% to 3% crit.

Healer :
- Holy Paladin is the obvious choice

All they get is giving you a good uptime - so it is not that obvious.

[Xiangu]

Healer :
- Holy Paladin is the obvious choice

And yeah, a healer is fine, but I rarely pick one because a healer can sometimes not cast for 2-30sec if no heal is needed.

I wouldn't say holy paladin is the obvious choice and the reason is the second statement that healers sometimes don't cast for longer durations. While that might be true for the holy paladin (no hots/instants) I would give FM to a priest/druid anyday. Even if there's nothing to heal they will still cast their generic hots/shields/prayer of mending/whatnot and if they crit (and they do) I get my 3% back
Heals crit surprisingly often while I've seen dps classes with a 50% crit chance not criting for half the duration of the fight.

[Guitarn]

No because going from 3% to 6% crit will result in slightly less damage gained, than going from 0% to 3% crit.

Actually, I'm pretty sure the difference is so tiny that ignoring it for humor really doesn't affect anything. And it's not funny if you say that.

[Crepuscular]

Casters:
Boomkins - have several procs related to it on of them giving 20% haste and the other one being their main source of damage (Eclipse) => very useful
Locks - Destro gets 6% extra damage for 10 sec after each Conflagrate crit , that's just 3%*6% extra damage => probably better than arcane
- Affliction gets the standard +100% crit mod => just as bad as arcane
- Demo : Should slightly increase the uptime of Demonic pact => if you don't have an ele shaman for +280 that might be something to consider.
Shadows - get the standard +100% crit mod => just as bad as arcane
Ele Shamans - get 10% extra damage for the next 2 casts after each crit, but one of their main nukes already has a 100% chance to crit => not that great either, but you will have a good uptime

=> Boomkin or fire mage.

Healers:
Paladins: A rather small amount of mana regen (30% of the cost of the spell cast) and a lot more overhealing (crit does close to nothing for their throughput) => good uptime , but else rather meh
Priests: More uptime on inspiration and more shields if they are discipline => If they're tank healing it might be something to consider else it's meh.
Shamans: More uptime on Ancestral healing and more water shield procs => Only if they're tank healing or running into serious mana problems.
Druids : A small heal that triggers after the target gets hit => Low uptime and almost completely useless.

=> Priests/Shamans if they're assigned to tank healing.

It was information like this I was really looking for - thanks a lot for all the answers!