Why my Fire DPS is lower than Arcane

[khumash]

ilevel 335~340, gs 7000

I know people all saying fire spec is way powerful than arcane. When I tested it in 5 man heroic, my arcane dps is about 8k while fire is only 6-7k or lower. Below is my rotation:

arcane: ABx4+ AM or AB2 ABr/AM
spec: http://wowtal.com/#k=lsn89E-.a5o.mage.l204C73

fire: chain casting Fireball, use Living Bomb and Pyroblast! when possible, and all CD skills (except time warp).
spec: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#o0hZfshbk0RRsfoc24

My gear: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...thalas/shinan/

Can anyone tell me what's wrong with my fire spec? Why is the dps so low?

[spiny]

Would be nice to see your gear as well.

As for spec, there's a now well-known bug with Pyromaniac. Put one point in it and it grants you 5% flat haste all the time, in addition to the extra 5% when 3+ targets are present.

Without seeing your gear, its possible your crit is too low for fire to do much more than arcane, in which case I'd suggest you go Frost as it can blow Fire dps out of the water in my experience.

Are you soft capped with haste? (gives your dots an extra tick). This is very important for fire spec but not as important for frost/arcane and could account for the discrepancy.

Lastly, you haven't mentioned combustion. Get CombustionHelper. It will basically tell you when to use Combustion. Used properly, esp on reasonable fast boss fights, can add huge dps.

[khumash]

@spiny, I've edited my post and added my armory link. Thanks for your reply.

[Mystykall]

Your crit could have a lot to do with it, fire relies highly on crit where arcane isn't as reliant. If you aren't critting a lot fire is Meh.

[spiny]

# 3 empty glyph slots
# 6 unenchanted items
# 7 empty sockets in 5 items
# Missing Ebonsteel Belt Buckle

Also, looks like you're 4.63% over the hit cap for Heroic dungeon bosses, so that's dps lossed from being overequipped with hit rating. 7% for level 87 bosses IIRC.

Replace those bracers. Spirit is wasted stats. Even though its 333 item, its probably not better than a BOE green from the AH that is just loaded with crit and int. Also, dont equip that spirit wand you just won yesterday either :P

Essentially, you have a good amount of work left in setting up your gear before we can evaluate your talent spec or dps rotation.

[Skarrd]

As for spec, there's a now well-known bug with Pyromaniac. Put one point in it and it grants you 5% flat haste all the time, in addition to the extra 5% when 3+ targets are present.

orly...brb!

[edit] This does not work :x

[theanomaly00]

I had the same problem when switching from arcane to fire. Like others have said you need a good amount of crit for fire. Reforge for 12.5% haste and the rest crit. You don't really need much hit for heroics. After making those changes, I am able to do the same dps I was doing as arcane, but now with better mobility and better aoe.

[Tirsten]

OP: You're incorrectly spec'd, incorrectly glyphed, and your gear is missing enchants/gems/buckle. Given all that, I'm sure you're making other mistakes too. Read this, it will answer 95% of your questions: http://elitistjerks.com/f75/t110326-...ge_compendium/

[Deleted]

This does not work :x

It does work. Test casting fireball without the 1 point in the talent then cast it with the 1 point in it. You will see a difference.

[foodstamp]

Reforge all your haste/mastery to crit and make sure you are using scorch first for critical mass like the guy above said get CombustionHelper it is awesome.

[Gnomity]

orly...brb!

[edit] This does not work :x

Yes it does. It doesn't show the % gain in your character sheet, but test it out by casting, say, teleport and look at the total cast time with the 2 spec options.

[BurningStick]

You should exchange Glyph of Arcane Missilies with Glyph of Fireball / Glyph of Frostfire (depending on which one is your primary nuke). Shatter and Improved Cone of Cold is a waste of points. You should put two points in Improved Scorch and and one in Arcane Concentration or another in Improved Fire Blast.

Also:
# 3 empty glyph slots
# 6 unenchanted items
# 7 empty sockets in 5 items
# Missing Ebonsteel Belt Buckle

Reforge your mastery and haste (since you cant reach 12,5% in that gear imo) to crit. And if you are only doing heroics, 7% hit should be sufficient to be hit capped for lvl 87 so you can reforge some of that hit into crit.

And read the http://elitistjerks.com/f75/t110326-...ge_compendium/ as Tirsten suggested, it is great.

[Skarrd]

It does work. Test casting fireball without the 1 point in the talent then cast it with the 1 point in it. You will see a difference.

Ah, I figured the bug was that the buff was permanent, not that it was hidden and applying the haste. I even went to a dummy to see if it needed a dot on a target! Neat though, now I can has clearcasting.

[khumash]

Armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...hinan/advanced

Thanks everyone for the help. I put gems and enchanting on most gears (mostly >346 ones), and reforge to increase crit if possible, otherwise increase haste. Also reset my talent, and get a exalted glove (haven't got gem yet, not sure which to use). CombutionHelpler installed as well.

Then I ran a couple normal dungeon, the dps is around 6k-7k, just same as arcane. My rotation is:

Always keep critical mass + living bomb up.
Use burn rotation (chain FB) or mana reserve rotation (5 scorch + 2 FB).
Use combustion whenever there are 2 or 3 DOTs.
Use Flame Orb, Mirror Image too.
Time warp when fighting boss.

So with all these I've done...

1. I was expecting like 9k dps or so. Is there anything I can improve?

2. For blue gem, should I use Veiled Demonseye (purple, 20 int+20hit)?

3. To proc Pyromaniac, can I just flamestrike then get the buff? or need to throw living bomb on 3+ mobs?

Thanks.

[Tirsten]

1. At this point proper play is the biggest factor. Make sure your dps uptime is 100% (i.e., you're never not casting something). Casting something sub-optimal is much better than pausing dps. Make sure you're spreading dots effectively to adds/trash. Bind fireball to your mousewheel. Use a living bomb mouseover macro so you don't create dps downtime swapping targets.
2. Enchant your gear.
3. Finish gemming your gear. Since you're using the ember meta, gemming +40 int is generally better than gemming for socket bonuses, unless the socket bonus is int.
4. Flamestrike does not put a debuff on mobs, so it will not proc pyromaniac.
5. Read http://elitistjerks.com/f75/t110326-...ge_compendium/ again, because you probably missed things.