FF Mage, 95 frostbadges.. What to buy?

[masterprtzl]

Well, 18% dmg over half a minute on a 3 minute cd, means a 1/6th uptime, putting it at around a overall 3%dmg increase.. no?
And about playing frostfire, to me arcane just is to boring, i know its a good spec, but a rotation made out of pressing the same spell like 75% of the time, just gets to booring, even if it is very effective.

And well, thank you for the people giving advice, instead of just criticizing on my spec choice.

18% for 30 seconds + your arcane power and IV and other trinket CDs makes it worth more than a 3% dmg increase, if you use it with all your CDs its definitely worth more than 3%. This makes it better than lets say the DKs perma 3% increase.

The 2 set is absolutely incredible, I just got mine on my mage and I shot up a good 10-15% dmg just from that. Its essentially a 75% up time 13% haste, its so amazing.

Also, I would get chest first if its your biggest upgrade- my mage personally had the crafted 245 merlins chest piece. I had 232 tier helm. I upgraded it to a 264 sanct helm because it was a significant increase in haste spell power and crit + i LOST all that extra hit on the helm. This was a significant dps increase due to the gear i had available to me.

But lets just say every piece you have is 232. Get the chest > helm > shoulders > gloves. Get crafted leggings, BiS until you do heroic 25, its an incredible piece of gear, perfect stats for arcane.

I would not go FFB at all, its dps is significantly lower than either fire or arcane at any gear level. i would say stick with arcane until you can get the hit / crit for fire, then pick whichever you like. Fire isnt THAT much ahead of arcane, it is less movement sensitive though imo.

[DirewolfX]

Get FFB out your mind, arcane is boring, BUT you're just wasting a raid spot as FFB, you can't go fire until you're geared for it, so get fire out your mind if you don't even have 4pc sanc or any trinkets worth anything. Read Swizzle's Mage FAQ and l2Arcane, and become a useful mage. Replace chest first with Bloodmage, then get helm, then shoulders, then get gloves, and crafted legs, best way to go if you can't get into hardmodes.

Lolwut? What's with these 'you need crazy ridiculous gear to play in my cool spec' posts? You can easily get the required stats for FB/TTW without full 264.

[Blinkinz]

Lolwut? What's with these 'you need crazy ridiculous gear to play in my cool spec' posts? You can easily get the required stats for FB/TTW without full 264.

Lol I didn't say crazy ridiculous, I said 4pce Sanc, if your trinkets are poop, and you are in 4pc 251, ur stats are gonna fail for fire. My argument is you can pump out way more dps, and overall damage done as arcane, until your gear reaches a certain plateau.

[ezmage]

Yea arcane is better than fire till you reach a gearing point but fire is perfectly viable as a raid spec in 251/265 gear

[Blinkinz]

Yea arcane is better than fire till you reach a gearing point but fire is perfectly viable as a raid spec in 251/265 gear

Oh, no doubt it's viable, my first comment was that FFB just isn't the way to go atm, no matter how boring FB and Arcane are.

[Chaoslux]

ur stats are gonna fail for fire. My argument is you can pump out way more dps, and overall damage done as arcane, until your gear reaches a certain plateau.

The point is, at ANY gear levels, Going for Fire is going to be less fail than going Frostfire. at ANY gear levels. And if he can raid with Frostfire, chances are his guild wont mind that he has sub-optimal Fire gear...

IMO: From that post of yours, you seem to be saying "LFM Naxx Weekly MUST HAVE 6K GS" . Or at least that's what im reading when i see "Must have 4pc Sanc and two ICC trinkets before you go Fire"

[Armond]

Lol I didn't say crazy ridiculous, I said 4pce Sanc, if your trinkets are poop, and you are in 4pc 251, ur stats are gonna fail for fire. My argument is you can pump out way more dps, and overall damage done as arcane, until your gear reaches a certain plateau.

...What?

Then how on earth were people speccing Fire in Ulduar and ToC before ICC loot was released?

Besides, he's not in your raid, what do you care?

[Sir Slack A Lot]

Buy a Primordial Saronite, sell it and buy a respec to arcane

[Dazed]

Get FFB out your mind, arcane is boring, BUT you're just wasting a raid spot as FFB, you can't go fire until you're geared for it, so get fire out your mind if you don't even have 4pc sanc or any trinkets worth anything. Read Swizzle's Mage FAQ and l2Arcane, and become a useful mage. Replace chest first with Bloodmage, then get helm, then shoulders, then get gloves, and crafted legs, best way to go if you can't get into hardmodes.

Why is it exactly, that the only correct spec for you is arcane?
Is it because your dumb-minded and tunnelvisioned like no tomorrow?

To be fair to the OP: Of course there is better specs than FFB at this point in time, but if you enjoy FFB then i see no real need to change, it still scales somewhat well with the 30% buff, probably scales better than arcane, due to the OP-ness of Ignite.
And OT: I'd say Helm or Chest, tier obviously

[Prodigium]

1. why the hell are you a frostfire mage? This isnt naxx times! Go ttw spec/deepfire if your going to BE a fire mage which I do not recommend for your gear. Go arcane until gear is end game, And the t10 2/4pc are amazing. Just got my 4peice and my dps increased 1k in 1 hour. Burst is unstopable. Get the t10 4pc dont make the mistake i did, and go respec.

(Sorry for Bad grammar, in a hurry, And mispellings :P)

[Rugz]

...What?

Then how on earth were people speccing Fire in Ulduar and ToC before ICC loot was released?

Besides, he's not in your raid, what do you care?

I don't know how people were speccing fire in patch 3.1 without patch 3.3 gear. Go and read some patch notes.

[Armond]

I don't know how people were speccing fire in patch 3.1 without patch 3.3 gear. Go and read some patch notes.

did you even consider the possibility that I was pointing out that this "your gear isn't good enough" thread is ridiculous

[Twoflower]

Then how on earth were people speccing Fire in Ulduar and ToC before ICC loot was released?

How ? with the respec feature.

Did it make sence ? Probably not from a DPS point of view.

[DirewolfX]

Give some numbers if you're going to assert the minimum gear needed for Fire.

The reason people played fire back in Ulduar and switched to arcane for ToC is because Blizzard buffed the hell out of Arcane (reduced mana costs, made MBAM free, added a fourth stack of AB, etc.).

The reason people are playing fire again in Icecrown Citadel is because (wait for it)... Blizzard buffed fire! Bunch of talents improving Pyroblast damage, glyph changed to be haste instead of crit (since we were nearing the crit cap). Also, the ICC buff helps Fire due to Ignite double dipping.

Also, the biggest gear deficit for fire to make up over Arcane is with hit rating... and amazingly there are a bunch of hit trinkets available with badges! Most experienced players scoff at them because they have a gajillion hit on their gear and really awesome trinkets like Reign, DFO, Phylactery and Spyglass, but for a new mage wanting to go fire, they're an excellent choice. Back in the Ulduar days, trinkets like Living Flame and Dying Curse were highly sought after.

[scism]

Wolfy (or anyone else) - while we're on the topic i had some questions about fire. I'm running with mainly 10Hc gear (plus DFO (drool) and a couple of 25 man pieces) but i'm not finding Fire/TTW beating Arcane in any situation. This may be due to lack of crit (51% raid buffed) due to concentrating on haste (1050) but i'm not seeing many places where i can really significantly improve my crit (Barring the phylactory which i'm never going to get as our 25 man team carries way too many people )

I had read that Fire/TTW overtakes Arcane only in 25Hc gear (but i could recall incorrectly) - is that true? From my personal experiences, unless there are groups of mobs (Eg Dreamwalker, Deathwhisper) i'm not getting the hot streak procs and i miss the "IWIN" feel of popping everything with BL and all procs up.

Hmm.. didnt mean to write so much and sidetrack... sorry should have made (another) thread. TL/DR - when does fire become better than arcane?