Originally Posted by
lovestar
hot streak, a helpful lecture by professor magey t. Magicus
/removes pipe and tobacco pouch and begins to puff thoughtfully
the primary obstacle to creating magically-generated flame is concentrating enough arcane energy into one spatial region to overcome the low combustibility of the mostly inert atmosphere of azeroth. On its own, the element of air is highly combustible, but in everyday life it mingles with water vapor and earth dust to create a neutral substance highly resistant to alchemical or magical conversion to the element of fire.
Hence, generating fire requires a period of time to draw sufficient arcane energy from passing ley-conduits to overcome the high ignition point of largely-inert atmosphere. This is referred to, in layman's terms, as "casting time". A brief, poorly-controlled burst can singe foes, but to truly devastate them with, say, a pyroblast requires sometimes untenable seconds to finish gathering enough energy.
Surrounding temperatures have a strong effect on the atmosphere's combustibility and, hence, the time needed to reach ignition point. Usually the intense heat released by a fireball or similar spell will dissipate rapidly, having little lasting effect on the target's ambient temperature. However, a sufficiently intense burst of flame can bring the ambient temperature up by enough margin, and for long enough seconds, to cause a relevant change in combustibility.
The warps and ripples in typical ley energies used for arcane manipulation can cause significant enough spikes in released energy, called "critting" in the vulgar slang the younger mages seem fond of. Now, due to the nature of target-concentrated energy release (a concept we should all be quite familiar with from the lecture on alturian and ur's third fundamental treatise), it is the ambient temperature around the target, not us as the caster, that matters.
A relevant phenomenon that should help put this information into practical perspective is the so-called "hot streak", wherein repeated bursts of high-potency fire magic can cause a sudden and dramatic drop in the energy required to reach full ignition and hence, the perceived "cast time" of even major effects (eg, pyroblast). It should now be apparent that this effect is due to the rapid and lasting spike in target spatial region ambient temperature.
That concludes today's lecture. Remember, your in-depth report on the kinetic factors contributing to the shatter effect is due tuesday and we'll have a midterm covering both frost and fire specializations before dismissing for noblegarden break.
/puffs pipe