Not sure which spec for raiding.

[omegatrigun]

So I started to level my mage from when I left him at 80 since our guild needs casters for raids. I have done some research, and I thought that frost was just as good as fire single target, but less aoe and more survivability. Now I'm seeing numbers saying that fire is a good amount higher than frost or arcane. Does anyone have a definitive answer as to which spec is best right now? I'm thinking it's fire, but I wanted to hear other opinions/views first.

[IronChi3f117]

My Mage isn't quite 85 yet, but, I have been playing Arcane and Fire, honestly, in the 81-85 Leveling Area's / Dungeons, I go with Arcane, 1) Because you can pretty much 3 shot anything your Killing for a Quest or Quest Item. 2) In Dungeons, you can easily top the Charts, especially on Bosses. So, I would say Fire if you like to DoT Things and simply wait for a Hot Streak Proc, if not (like me and just wanna kill stuff) I would say Arcane.

[Wizie]

If its for raids, fire is overall best, but it involves a lot of RNG and gear checks. Prob go frost to begin with.

If its for leveling, dont even consider going fire. The mobs in the CATA zones hit WAY too hard and have way too much health to die before they reach you without being slowed. Frost is the best i'd say, but arcane might be viable

[omegatrigun]

If its for raids, fire is overall best, but it involves a lot of RNG and gear checks. Prob go frost to begin with.

So, what would be a good time to go fire? At a certain amount of sp or ilvl of gear?

[Cebel]

i got realm first mage by just under 6 hours, and i leveled and dungeoned, and raided as fire the whole time. I like fire. People who say its hard to level fire, or that fire is bad, are noobs.

Honestly though, mages are in a terrible spot right now, without abusing boss mechanics and gimicks our DPS is subpar at best, and its only getting worse with gear. Id recommend if you want to be a strong ranged DPS for your raid, roll a warlock.

[berenzen]

Once I had all 333s plus a couple rep 346s, I could pull some fairly solid dps (9k+/-1k) single target. Once I hit full 346 with some 352s, my dps was solid enough to put me fairly high on the lists during my guild runs.

[omegatrigun]

i got realm first mage by just under 6 hours, and i leveled and dungeoned, and raided as fire the whole time. I like fire. People who say its hard to level fire, or that fire is bad, are noobs.

Honestly though, mages are in a terrible spot right now, without abusing boss mechanics and gimicks our DPS is subpar at best, and its only getting worse with gear. Id recommend if you want to be a strong ranged DPS for your raid, roll a warlock.

Meh, I dunno. My lock is 70, and I have more experience on my mage. I haven't touched my lock since bc, and I'm pretty sure I never raided with him.

It's not like I'm going for super competitive stuff either. My server is pretty meh. Not a whole lot of good players (one reason I'm rolling a caster, since it's hard to recruit new good ones), and our guild isn't amazing either. Probably won't ever do heroics, not even sure about 25 man.

Maybe I will. Not really sure, lol. But I did see some numbers that showed, on average, fire was about 6th place out of all dps specs.

[Flockaflamez]

the gear on my mage isn't the best mostly heroic gear right now and im able to put out a steady 10-12k but it depends how well you know your class but also depends on the boss fights.

[Hotfish]

I find fire damage to fluctuate a lot in raids. Fire spec DPS is completely reliant on crit chance. Sometimes your dps is decent, sometimes it's outshone by many other classes. It's all dependent on your procs, which are in turn dependent on crit.

Frost damage, though not ideal, is still viable in raids. 120k+ deep freeze crits are no joke. Players may find frost spec damage to be more stable.

If you're decked out in amazing raid gear, enough to "free up" the RNG reliance of fire spec damage a bit, then spec fire. Otherwise, don't be discouraged to use frost for raids.

[naowin]

i got realm first mage by just under 6 hours, and i leveled and dungeoned, and raided as fire the whole time. I like fire. People who say its hard to level fire, or that fire is bad, are noobs.

Honestly though, mages are in a terrible spot right now, without abusing boss mechanics and gimicks our DPS is subpar at best, and its only getting worse with gear. Id recommend if you want to be a strong ranged DPS for your raid, roll a warlock.

i kno the feeling :c even with perfect rotation, 10k combustion procs and everything im just barely touching the warlock on the meters

[omegatrigun]

i kno the feeling :c even with perfect rotation, 10k combustion procs and everything im just barely touching the warlock on the meters

Crap. My indecisive nature is kicking in and I'm thinking of leveling the lock. Curse my logical thinking.

[Cebel]

Crap. My indecisive nature is kicking in and I'm thinking of leveling the lock. Curse my logical thinking.

Locks are strong now, and destro is getting even stronger in 4.0.6.... Play the lock :P