Just Wondering

[Navi]

How far behind is Frostfire in DPS when compared to Fire and Arcane?

I ask this as my mage is almost 80 (still frost atm)

[DirewolfX]

The difference is pretty significant. If you're just playing casually, I wouldn't sweat it. If you plan to raid, I'd go Arcane or TTW/Fire. Thanks to TTW, Fireball spec hits hard enough that its crits are almost the same as FFB crits and its regular hits are stronger.

[nerfproof]

^ agreed. For me TtW/Fire is more fun to raid with than Arcane, however Arcane still tops Fire on charts. Im not positive but I think the last time I checked Arcane was going about 5-7% more dps than TtW/Fire. I'm sure DireWolfx will correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure I'm close. In my 10man guild run there is me and a Arcane Mage and we are both equally geared and he only does about 3% more than me atm. So yea as Dire said if u just wanna play casually then it really doesn't matter what spec u play, infact play which ever spec you have the most fun with. But if your going to raid, and want to stay competitive, I would go Arcane at first since the hit req is only 11%(since you spec for 6%) and then if you decide to go fire make sure you get the hit for it.

[Smallnuts]

^ agreed. For me TtW/Fire is more fun to raid with than Arcane, however Arcane still tops Fire on charts. Im not positive but I think the last time I checked Arcane was going about 5-7% more dps than TtW/Fire. I'm sure DireWolfx will correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure I'm close. In my 10man guild run there is me and a Arcane Mage and we are both equally geared and he only does about 3% more than me atm. So yea as Dire said if u just wanna play casually then it really doesn't matter what spec u play, infact play which ever spec you have the most fun with. But if your going to raid, and want to stay competitive, I would go Arcane at first since the hit req is only 11%(since you spec for 6%) and then if you decide to go fire make sure you get the hit for it.

Not to be picky or anything, just thought I'd point out that the raid cap is 7/8% depending on the mage being alliance or horde, being hit capped out of raids is not a bad thing, but whenever you get into a raid situation that's dead stats.

FFB will be a little closer to Arcane when 3.3.3 hits because of the pyroblast buffs, however both arcane and FB/TTW will still be ahead, so it won't be competetive anytime soon. It's fine in heroics and low end raiding though.

[nerfproof]

Not to be picky or anything, just thought I'd point out that the raid cap is 7/8% depending on the mage being alliance or horde, being hit capped out of raids is not a bad thing, but whenever you get into a raid situation that's dead stats.

FFB will be a little closer to Arcane when 3.3.3 hits because of the pyroblast buffs, however both arcane and FB/TTW will still be ahead, so it won't be competetive anytime soon. It's fine in heroics and low end raiding though.

Actually, FFB isnt going to get any closer to Arcane seeing as how the pyroblast buff pertains to TtW. So since FFB doesnt spec for TtW it's still going to trail Arcane and TtW/Fire a bit. Now TtW/Fire is deff going to catch up to Arcane come 3.3.3 with Combustion only having a 2min CD and Pyroblast getting added to TtW. Like I said in my previous post I've been raiding as fire for a while now in my 10man and the other mage in my run doesn't out dps by much, and even then he only does on certain fights. So I'm deff looking forward to these changes.

[DirewolfX]

Since we're all being nitpicky here:

1. The 7%/8% number only applies if you have a Shadow Priest or Boomkin in the raid. This is not necessarily true for 10-mans. The hit cap outside of raids is 6%, which means Arcane is capped from talents alone and Frost/Frostfire needs only 3%.

2. FFB gets a small buff, too. Empowered Fire is part of the FFB spec, which affects FFB Pyroblasts. They don't get the 12% damage buff from TTW, but it does close the gap a little bit.