Decent spec for a low geared lvl 80 who wants to do heroics?

[firenova]

Hi

I havnt played my mage in months because iv been too distracted leveling my dk and priest. Now, however i wish to use my mage not as an active raider but as more of a heroic badge farmer for heirlooms for my next toon.

My gear is quite rudimentary; some quest blues mixed with a few epic pieces from guild naxx runs, mixed with instance blues mixed with crafted epics (check out the armory if u need more details).

I am temped to spec in fire purely because of my toons name :P but will settle for any spec that keeps my dps acceptable in heroics. Iv been looking all around the net for spec but most seem to be aimed at hardcore raiders or leveling/solo mages.

Could anyone suggest a full spec suitable for my low gear level? A spell rotation to go with it would be awesome also - im really very noob with my mage

Thanks in advance

[nerfproof]

Yea dude any spec would really work if your just going to farm heroics. Ill post all 4 specs just so u can get an idea of what you might want to use.

Frost - http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?mage...H,QMJ-OH,11623

The rotation for this is really simple. Spam Frostbolt until FoF procs, when that happens you can do 1 of 3 things.
1. On the first charge use a Frostbolt and on the second charge use Deep Freeze. (FYI you can only use Deep Freeze on the Heroic Bosses)
2. If your latency is great, on the 2 charges of FoF use frostbolt and if Brain Freeze has procced, after 3.3.3, use a FrostFire Bolt on the ghost charge. If your latency isnt that great use FFB on the second charge of FoF.
3. If both Deep Freeze and Brain Freeze are not available you just keep spamming Frostbolts till either one becomes available. Never use IceLance.

FrostFire - http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?mage...D,wtJ-OH,11623

The rotation for this and TtW/Fire are exactly the same with the exception for this spec you use FFB were as the other one you use Fireball. The rotation is
Living Bomb > Scorch > FFB spam until Hot Streak procs. When it does use Pyroblast. Rinse and repeat.

Ttw/Fire - http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?mage...W,StJ-OH,11623

The rotation for this spec is the same as FFB, just use Fireball instead.

Arcane - http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?mage...i,q3J-OH,11623

This spec is a little diff from what arcane mages raid with, but this will be better for just heroics. Pretty much, depending on what your mana pool looks like, you should do Arcane Blast 3 times, or 4 if you think your mana can handle it, and then use Arcane Missles. I wouldnt try and fish for more AB's to try and get Missle Barrage to proc, but you can if you want.

I hope this helps you out some!

[tekoix]

Arcane so you don't make every group your in suffer with lack of dps.

[nerfproof]

Arcane so you don't make every group your in suffer with lack of dps.

Lol he is talking about heroics. He could roll Frost and still do a fair amount of dps to not get Lol'ed outta the group.

[Samin]

Lol he is talking about heroics. He could roll Frost and still do a fair amount of dps to not get Lol'ed outta the group.

Fire DPS is harder in heroics than Arcane. Definitly. Frost DPS without gear is horrible.
Sadly you have to go Arcane if you want to deal good damage at start (e.g. you need 0 hit from gear for heroics). It's just the least gear depending spec.
If you don't care, go whatever you want, try a bit around and see what you like.

[obc]

you can do well with ANY spec. the downside of fire is that you wont have as much hit as with the other spec BUT you have living bomb which can provide with a hell of trashdmg (which you will be mostly dealing with) and is a lot of fun.

but really as long as you are gearing up choose whatever you like and go with it. all the grinding for gear in heroics can get tedious so my opinion: try all of em if you have the gold and choose the one you like and stick with it. come 3.3 you will be able to raid with about any spec in pug raids so the time you are gearing up is best spent choosing what spec is most fun for ya

tldr: each spec works fine.

[Kelth]

Run heroics with your dk or priest! As tank or healer you have instant joins => more effective

[Twoflower]

Do a arcane spec with the most important dmg thingies, and support it with frost to blizzard spam on trash. Best spec for heroics. If not best, then certainly easiest to play

[bingbong]

Do arcane.


If i ever ran into a frost pve mage in my daily randoms, i'd vote to kick.

[ripponesan]

Arcane has scaling problems with low level gear and so i would persuade frostfire, which is actually THE spec for lower geared mages.

Fire is completeley out of thinking since oyu got 0 skilled hit and needed 341 hit on gear. you simply DONT HAVE THIS on low level gear...

[Maliander]

My advice would be to definately go frost for heroics. I'd change the spec nerf suggested into something with a bit more control like this. Your maximum theoretical DPS will be a tiny bit less, but the real DPS of you and the aggro-hungry 5.8kGS warlock standing next to you will be a lot higher due to a combination of "dead DPS do zero DPS" and "PuG tanks just might not be perfectly skilled and geared".

If you find that Improved Blizzard + Frostfire Bolt gives enough control, you can put the Frostbolt glyph back in for higher single target DPS.
I don't know the theorycrafting on Brain Freeze post 3.3.3, but I suspect that even without the 2-piece t10 bonus it's a nice DPS increase to pick it up. Should you drop it and don't want to use Frostbolt Bolt glyph, I suggest putting Ice Barrier glyph into that slot instead, though it's mostly a filler glyph.

The main reason why mages spec fire or arcane for heroics is that it's the highest damage raiding spec. For heroics (which mainly consist of trash packs that die in <15 seconds nowadays and which require very little hit%), frost is the most reliable spec and does very good damage too. If you prefer fire because you like to blow things up (and I agree, Living Bomb is heaps of fun), it'll do just fine too. Arcane doesn't do too well on heroic trash, but to compensate it really shines on heroic bosses. Frostfire is pretty much dead, just go fire instead for pretty much the same feel, but higher damage.

Some common misconceptions:
- Frost is LoL low DPS. Seriously, just try it yourself. For heroics it will do very well.
- You need XXX hit. Yes, for raids you do. For heroics, the cap is much lower and your average BoA gear should be enough. It is something to consider though, you may want to remove some +hit talents in favor of other talents, depending on how much over the heroic hit cap you already are.

[scism]

If i ever ran into a frost pve mage in my daily randoms, i'd vote to kick.

Some common misconceptions:
- Frost is LoL low DPS. Seriously, just try it yourself. For heroics it will do very well.

frost is back, baby! From tomorrow / wednesday when frostbolt scaling is improved and FFB is valid for brain freeze it will be a totally valid heroic spec and even (non-progression) raiding. For trash / AoE fights, frost > fire > arcane. For single target fights arcane > fire > frost

[Geckomayhem]

Do arcane.


If i ever ran into a frost pve mage in my daily randoms, i'd vote to kick.

That's a highly ignorant and bigoted comment to make.

Go any spec that you desire. In heroics, you can go the spec that you enjoy the most and still do ok DPS. With the right group makeup and still mostly in Naxx gear, I do over 4k dps as an Arcane mage. With no real buffs to my damage, it drops to about 3.2k, but still; you can definitely hold your own as Arcane, and I don't see why any other spec wouldn't be able to.

[Aliceinhell]

Do arcane.


If i ever ran into a frost pve mage in my daily randoms, i'd vote to kick.

Are you insaine? It's Heroics.... Besides the fact that any spec will carry you through, Heroics are more about clearing trash then bosses - and Frost AOE'ing down trash will get u there faster then arcane.

Did I mention it's just Heroics?

[ripponesan]

please just igonre the people who are telling you to go frost. I read all their posts, and like it seems people do frost if they have no clue of how to play a mage.
Frost is for PVP and for leveling thats ALL. Sure frost will do enough DMG for any heroic instance, But still it feels like driving a Ferrari which has a speedlimitier to 50 miles per hour built in.

Either drive faster or get another car.

[Maliander]

Frost is for PVP and for leveling thats ALL.

• Spec frost
• Turn on recount
• Queue for random daily HC
• Wait for 20 minutes, then click "accept"
• Spam Blizzard on AoE packs, Frostbolt/Brain-Frozen Frostfire Bolts/Deep Freeze on bosses
• Check recount for overall data
• ??
• Profit!

[Neuriot]

I'll back up Frost being a decent spec for a new level 80 doing heroics. Anybody who claims otherwise has most likely lost his pack and needs to be lead back to the other sheep. Especially after the changes coming to it today. With the focus in heroics being AE damage with only the occasional single target Frost is a great choice until you feel comfortable with your gear.

The only thing I'll say about Frost is that it is somewhat boring to play. AE is essentially just Blizzard and single target is spamming Frostbolt while watching for FoF and BF procs. It's a nice change of pace at times for me to play, but it isn't extremely interesting if that matters to you.

[Laadeeda]

Fire is worthless in heroics. Mobs die in less than 12 seconds, meaning living bomb loses its bomb.

Frost would be blizzard spam on trash then bad dps on bosses.

Arcane would be blizzard/arcane explosion spam on trash then great, CD assisted dps on boss.