Should I respec?

[Toiletduck]

I'm currently not specced into IA, I've always used SotM instead.

I noticed a lot of mages (well.. almost every mage I see) using IA.

I've always been touchy about losing crit, even if it's not incredibly beneficial to the spec.

Is it worth re-speccing? How much dps does IA provide on average?

Armory: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...&cn=Toiletduck

Thanks

[Swizzle]

read the sticky

[Exera]

It's a hellova alot more DPS Student of the mind will ever provide :P

[kitteh]

Depending on the fight it is much better. In VoA for the newer bosses IA>SotM in ICC IA is almost always up so that makes it much better then SotM. In Naxx and most of Ulduar though there isn't much aoe damage with the exception of the last few bosses so a combination of IA and SotM would probably be the most beneficial. But in older content like Naxx and OS and EoE then probably SotM would be the best. But all of this is considering that you have decent mana and regen all ready.

[Swizzle]

SotM is useless for arcane. read the sticky.

[Skarrd]

Student of The Mind is like, 60 dps total in gear with a decent amount of spirit? It's pretty worthless. IA is worth way more.

[Swizzle]

bro, you be catchin up to my post count!!

need to get you banned for once so i can pull back ahead.....iggity.

[Teckdragon]

I'll refer you to this thread:

http://www.mmo-champion.com/class-ma...t-of-the-mind/


In it I highlighted some math behind the talent, and how it's going to be less than 1% crit between 0/3 and 3/3, so best to stick points elsewhere.

[Valanna]

I'm gonna get you a more thorough picture of how powerful this talent actually is. Any content up to ICC is more or less independent on which spec you use. None of the fights in ToGC are hard enough to consider respeccing for. (Except Anub'Arak 25 where FFB is the better choice so SotM is out of the picture there anyway). Here's a list of the bosses in ICC; and how to use your wards with IA in them:

Lord Marrowgar: Frost Ward up whenever you can, step into fire, take one tick and step out, gives a huge boost.
Lady Deathwhisper: Frost Ward for phase two, for the Frostbolt Volley.
Gunship Battle: Fire Ward, take damage from the missiles coming from the opponent ship (the red circles that pop on the surface of the ship.
Deathbringer Saurfang: No fire or frost damage, but if you have a priest bitching for you with PW:S then you'll most likely get alot of sp from IA if you either get the debuff or the mark.
Rotface, Festergut, Professor Putricide: None of these have fire or frost damage, but with right use of PW:S, you can get alot of sp.
Blood Princes: If you get pursued by a fire orb, pop fire ward and ??? profit for the next 10 seconds.
Blood-Queen Lana'thel: No wards to use here, PW:S will be powerful. If you consider respeccing for this fight, do so with 6yds increased range, not SotM.
Valithria Dreamwalker: Frost ward for the liches, fire ward for the blazing skeletons. I recommend using frost ward since the skeleton should never deal any damage to a ranged dps.
Sindragosa: Dare I even tell you this? Frost ward whenever on ground and off CD, it's grrreat.
Arthas: I got no clue, haven't got there :P. If anything frost ward I'd assume.

So anyway, I think that should give you quite a picture of why IA's proc is way more powerful than 1% crit.

[Skarrd]

bro, you be catchin up to my post count!!

need to get you banned for once so i can pull back ahead.....iggity.

lul, or you can just not get banned so often