Cata - Frostfirebolt over Fireball ?

[Deleted]

yo

I was looking at the new spell glyphs and spell changes and noticed something:

Fireball
Hurls a fiery ball that causes 802.49 to 1023.43 Fire damage.
16% of base mana, 40 yd range, 2.5 sec cast

No longer has an "and an additional X Fire damage over X sec" DoT effect on your target?

Frostfirebolt
Launches a bolt of frostfire at the enemy, causing 636.88 to 812.23 Frostfire damage and slowing the target by 40% for 9 sec. This spell will be checked against the lower of the target's Frost and Fire resists.
16% of base mana, 40 yd range, 2.5 sec cast

Doesnt have this either, but there is a glyph for frostfirebolt:

Glyph of Frostfire
Prime Glyph
Increases the damage done by you Frostfire Bolt by 15% and your Frostfire Bolt now deals 3% additional damage over 12 sec, stacking up to 3 times, but no longer reduces the victim's movement speed

So if i understand correctly than (if you glyph it) FFB now does have a DoT and Fireball doest ?
Wouldn't it then be better if we spam FFB instead of fireball, since the DoT even stacks 3 times, and we need as many DoTs as we can for

Pyromaniac Rank 2
Increases spell haste by 10% if 3 or more targets are taking Fire damage over time from your spells.

I'm not in the Beta so i don't know if my thoughts are true but i just noticed it and thought this might be a good thing to post so maybe someone who is in the beta can tell me if this is true .

[Serenah]

I believe you use fireball as the primary spell but use ffb once every 10 seconds to refresh the dot.

[Spoonguard]

The guys on the Mage forum over at Elitist Jerks are doing their number crunching and (if I'm reading it correctly) it looks like stacking the FFB DoT to 3 and using Fireball with the occasional FFB for refreshing might be the way to go (at the moment - beta is beta)

[Deleted]

You forgott the Fireball Glyph.

FFB will have a dot and nearly the same dmg as Fireball, but Fireball can have additional 5% crit what gives you a better chance for Hot Streak procs which you need to hold up the 3% more dmg on the target (without scorch).

It is up to you if you want a dot or crit.
3 dots is no problem with Living bomb, and while boss fights it wont bring much.
If they would change it to 3 DOT effects on at least 2 targets it would bring something, but else you have to cast 2 living bombs to get that boost for around 12 sec (if enemys life that long).

You have Pyroblast DOT and loving bomb on the main target and that would make 2 DOTs and 1 target already.

But with its current implementation it is a pvp and bomb only skill but when you bomb you dont need a lot haste.

[Koltak]

I think, I read somewhere, that FFB is the way to go, when preferring Mastery, while FB will be the way to go, if you prefer Haste or Crit.

[Spoonguard]

You forgott the Fireball Glyph.

FFB will have a dot and nearly the same dmg as Fireball, but Fireball can have additional 5% crit what gives you a better chance for Hot Streak procs which you need to hold up the 3% more dmg on the target (without scorch).

It is up to you if you want a dot or crit.
3 dots is no problem with Living bomb, and while boss fights it wont bring much.
If they would change it to 3 DOT effects on at least 2 targets it would bring something, but else you have to cast 2 living bombs to get that boost for around 12 sec (if enemys life that long).

You have Pyroblast DOT and loving bomb on the main target and that would make 2 DOTs and 1 target already.

But with its current implementation it is a pvp and bomb only skill but when you bomb you dont need a lot haste.

Sorry, I must have missed it - what is a PvP and bomb only skill? FFB?

[Bellenova]

Unless they change the DoT from the FFB glyph I dont see a need to use it. It only ticks for like 350 with 440 mastery. Also if you wanted to rotation the FFB with FB you would only be able to cast 2 FB before having to cast FFB; not even counting applying LB

[Koumaru]

Kalgan stated that FFB was intended to replace FB in a fire mage's rotation if glyphed and with high mastery rating.

Hey Kalgan, if FFB is supposed to be spammed -- with a TWELVE-second DoT -- that DoT needs to be more than stackable; it needs to roll like Ignite/Deep Wounds/Piercing Shots. At the moment, the DoT damage is tuned for an excessive duration if it's really intended to be clipped after only 1 of its 4 ticks.

[PlatedPriest]

i remember reading a blue post a while back saying if u rather cast ffb use the glyph. which will be stronger than fireball....other wise glyph of fireball used with fireball will be stronger than ffb without it's glyph.

but....

The guys on the Mage forum over at Elitist Jerks are doing their number crunching and (if I'm reading it correctly) it looks like stacking the FFB DoT to 3 and using Fireball with the occasional FFB for refreshing might be the way to go (at the moment - beta is beta)

sounds like a good min and max tech using both glpyhs?

[Juber]

Edit: Post deleted due to stupidness

[Skarrd]

sounds like a good min and max tech using both glpyhs?

Probably not, given that there are only three glyph slots and pyro/fireball/ffb/lb/MA are all good for fire. It's possible that FFB and FB will both be good, though.

[DirewolfX]

It's a pretty simple math problem to figure out what's the best glyph, unfortunately. Within a month or two, we'll have proper modeling in Rawr. Now it would be interesting if the top glyph choices change depending on our other stat balance. Here are my guesses for when the glyphs will be used:

Fireball - Favors high haste.
Frostfire Bolt - Favors high mastery.
Living Bomb - Favors high mastery.
Molten Armor - Favors low crit.
Pyroblast - PvP Glyph

Traditional wisdom suggests that you'll pick either FB or FFB and use LB/MA, but later in the expansion, we might start to see people use both FB and FFB and skip MA. I suspect LB will always be used.

I don't see Pyroblast being a major PvE glyph. Fireball is the only spell cast enough where a pure 5% crit on itself would help more than a 2% crit buff across the board (MA glyph) and Living Bomb seems like a shoe in. If you start with FB/MA being stronger than PB glyph, the only chance you'd use it is if it can beat out LB, and that seems unlikely.

Meanwhile, in PvP, you will mostly be casting mobile scorch, with Pyroblasts on Hot Streak. This leaves you free to use LB/MA/PB as your major glyphs.

[chrion]

It's a pretty simple math problem to figure out what's the best glyph, unfortunately. Within a month or two, we'll have proper modeling in Rawr. Now it would be interesting if the top glyph choices change depending on our other stat balance. Here are my guesses for when the glyphs will be used:

Fireball - Favors high haste.
Frostfire Bolt - Favors high mastery.
Living Bomb - Favors high mastery.
Molten Armor - Favors low crit.
Pyroblast - PvP Glyph

Traditional wisdom suggests that you'll pick either FB or FFB and use LB/MA, but later in the expansion, we might start to see people use both FB and FFB and skip MA. I suspect LB will always be used.

I don't see Pyroblast being a major PvE glyph. Fireball is the only spell cast enough where a pure 5% crit on itself would help more than a 2% crit buff across the board (MA glyph) and Living Bomb seems like a shoe in. If you start with FB/MA being stronger than PB glyph, the only chance you'd use it is if it can beat out LB, and that seems unlikely.

Meanwhile, in PvP, you will mostly be casting mobile scorch, with Pyroblasts on Hot Streak. This leaves you free to use LB/MA/PB as your major glyphs.

The dragons breath glyph is pretty critical in pvp for fire mage, as is the mana shield glyph, not sure if those are going to end up being majors in the final release.

[DirewolfX]

Those are major glyphs. The five I listed are the only reasonable fire mage prime glyphs.