BiS fire mage gear, come patch 4.0.1 (reforging and all)

[Deleted]

Yes, I was wondering if the BiS list for fire mages are actuelly gonna change with patch 4.0.1.

First of all we won't have any raid hit buffs, and will therefore need to find 17% hit all by ourselves, which current BiS setup of course doesn't support, as it will only have 13% hit (for alliance).

With patch 4.0.1 there will of course be the chance to reforge some of the stats to hit, crit and mastery, but this leaves me thinking that the BiS fire mage gear list will change.

I've stolen this list from Moonfaxx on the WOW official forums:

_______________________________________________________________________________
Note 1: I include Jewelcrafting and Tailoring profession bonuses.
Note 2: I play Alliance, thus my BiS assumes +1% hit from the Draenei racial Heroic Presence.

Head: Sanctified Bloodmage Hood (Arcanum of Burning Mysteries)
Neck: Blood Queen's Crimson Choker
Shoulder: Sanctified Bloodmage Shoulderpads (Great Inscription of the Storm)
Back: Frostbinder's Shredded Cape (Lightweave Embroidery)
Chest: Sanctified Bloodmage Robe (Powerful Stats)
Wrist: The Lady's Brittle Bracers (Superior Spellpower)
Hand: Sanctified Bloodmage Gloves (Exceptional Spellpower)
Waist: Crushing Coldwraith Belt
Legs: Sanctified Bloodmage Leggings (Sanctified Spellthread)
Feet: Plague Scientist's Boots (Tuskarr's Vitality)
Finger 1: Ashen Band of Endless Destruction
Finger 2: Ring of Rapid Ascent
Trinket 1: Phylactery of the Nameless Lich
Trinket 2: Dislodged Foreign Object
MH: Bloodsurge, Kel'Thuzad's Blade of Agony (Black Magic)
OH: Shadow Silk Spindle
Wand: Corpse-Impaling Spike

To give you an idea of how this would look on an unbuffed non-Draenei mage:

Health: 21783
Mana: 27123
Crit: 49.66% (1534 crit rating)
Haste: 32.48% (1065 haste rating)
Hit: 13.00% (341 hit rating)
Spell power: 3326
_________________________________________________________________________

Most people won't have access to the LK hc main hand, but the frozen bonespike will do fine as well.

My question is however, how (if at all) will this list change come patch 4.0.1?

[TruffleMuffin]

Clearly you haven't been paying much attention to the changes coming in 4.0.1 and what they mean to you.

With the introduction of reforging, and the spec choices being dependant on Mastery rating Blizzards intention (AFAIK) is to remove the 'Cookie Cutter' option from people. Certainly, this has happened with talents, simply take a look at that thread and you will see 5/6 different but valid Fire trees. It will be the same with gear. Reforging has ensured that even odd choices might prove to be DPS increases for you with the right reforge.

A BiS list is almost defunct in my mind due to the fact that you can change the gear stats. The only thing you can say for certain is that the BiS lists for 13% hit will be wrong for 17% as reforging for the extra 4% hit is going to be less than optimal.

Perhaps you will see a BiS + Talent + Glyph selection that is specific to those 3 after the SIMS start to Model the Mastery system correctly. But that is likely to be some time away due to the shear number of options available.

[Deleted]

You are absolutely right, I haven't payed that much attention. The last few days, I've been lookign a bit in the forum but haven't really found any substantial information to the changes in patch 4.0.1 and what they will mean to me. I would be very appretiative if you could link a thread where I can find the most relevant information, because so far I've been out of luck.

EDIT:
Are you talking about this thread?
"Hey you need 17% hit when 4.0 hits"

I'm not allowed to post links yet.

[Twoflower]

There is always a BiS list. We just have not calculated it yet.

[Weerra]

To make a BiS list you will need a full, live 4.0.1 patch and extensive calculations.

Without them the only thing that comes close to it is very simple: "grab whatever has highest ilvl and reforge to you liking"


And even with calculations... "Our stat priority is Hitcap>X>Y>Z. After capping hit grab anything that has X or Y and reforge the second stat to one of them."

[Juber]

Quoting blizzard

Here's the deal: level 80 is going to be a little crazy. Combat ratings are much higher than they will be once everyone starts leveling. We're not totally throwing up our hands at level 80, but it's also far less of a concern than level 85.

With that said, the combat ratings will be sky high on 80. Seems like aiming for haste/crit cap instead of mastery is the way to reforge in 4.0.1. Once expansion launches we're going to have alot less crit & haste & more mastery to play around with.

From my own meandering PTR experience testing arcane pulls ahead up to 5800GS where fire takes over. Using highest ilevel items and reforging excess hit to haste/crit instead of mastery. Fireball does more for me than FFB even with everything forged to mastery. But I guess we have to wait until the real theorycrafters are done with all the numbers, they seem to change every build. I bet there will be a sticky here or at EJ's in a few days with a 4.0.1 compendium and BiS lists.

[Samyaaza]

There is always a BiS list. We just have not calculated it yet.

Unfortunately what this guy said, it'll just take some time... for the geeks to calculate it.

[Deleted]

Why reforging stats to hit? If you know how to play and gear a fire mage you'll know that gemming sp/spi in every blue socket is best dps increase. Consindering how spirit is going to be useless come Cata and how hit gems will become blue gems... Well you can do the maths.

[TruffleMuffin]

You are absolutely right, I haven't payed that much attention. The last few days, I've been lookign a bit in the forum but haven't really found any substantial information to the changes in patch 4.0.1 and what they will mean to me. I would be very appretiative if you could link a thread where I can find the most relevant information, because so far I've been out of luck.

EDIT:
Are you talking about this thread?
"Hey you need 17% hit when 4.0 hits"

I'm not allowed to post links yet.

Not specifically, I am talking more along the lines of just the information we have on the changes. A really comprehensive list is available in this forum http://elitistjerks.com/f75/.

To the others telling you about this mystery BiS list that will somehow be calculated in the future, can I ask, Fireball or FrostfireBall, Frost or Arcane, What prime glyphs? what major glyphs?

The answer to those questions alone create at minimum 6 BiS lists and more than likely 12ish depending on your use of Mage Armor, even more come into play when looking at the talent choices.

Mastery will be an important factor, but it will dependant on Spec. As such there could be BiS lists and specs for your level of mastery. Not to mention reforging options could make pieces that seem suboptimal come out on top in certain specs.

For 4.0.1 there will be no BiS list that can actually be backed up by numbers since nobody is simming Mastery and Reforging options automatically on any program or spreadsheet i have seen, let alone with a high degree of accuracy.

For the moment as another person has said, get to 17% and play with the stats to get the most out of them.

[zephid]

I don't think that many people will actually be bothered to calculate a new BiS list, since you are gonna change all the gear when cataclysm hits, and with the current gear lvls ICC is a joke anyway.

[Moonfaxx]

I've stolen this list from Moonfaxx on the WOW official forums:

Bear in mind that post of mine is rather outdated (and was even before 4.0.1 went live). Expect the 4.0.1 theorycrafting to take a fair amount of time with all the changes. And don't feel bad, most everybody will be somewhat clueless until things start to formulate.