Ignite stacking infinitely?

[Swat Shifter]

Having a guild debate about Ignite on fire mages and there was a split of whether Ignite stacks forever or if there was a cap to ignite's damage. No one can provide a link to an article about there being a cap to the damage but I feel like there is. (I believe it stacks indefinitely) I can't find anything on google related to mages on the current patch.

Any links or information to help out a friendly guild debate?

[Imnick]

It doesn't stack, it rolls.
It hasn't stacked to an infinitely high damage cap for years.

It is always going to end up pretty close to a set % of your damage based on your mastery.

[Swat Shifter]

It doesn't stack, it rolls.
It hasn't stacked to an infinitely high damage cap for years.

It is always going to end up pretty close to a set % of your damage based on your mastery.

Maybe I'm unsure as to how ignite works. Let's say mastery high enough to be 20% on the tooltip. I thought it would take 20% of your fireball/scorch/etc and apply it as a dot for 6 sec. Then, if you hit that enemy again, another 20% dot would be added to that ignite. How do you determine when the ignite stops "rolling"?

[Imnick]

Your fireball hits the boss and applies a dot for 6 seconds.
Two seconds later, your second fireball hits the boss and applies a dot for 6 seconds.

For two seconds Ignite does damage equal to x% of one fireball. (After the first cast)
For four seconds Ignite does damage equal to x% of two fireballs. (After the second cast)
For two seconds Ignite does damage equal to x% of one fireball. (Six seconds after the first cast)

I believe it is slightly more complex than that but this is the basic explanation.
If Ignite simply stacked in that it refreshed duration and increased intensity every time one of your spells hit then Fire would be the highest DPS class in the game by far.

[Fifty Snakes]

Hypothetically, what if you're in melee range of a mob, under a power haste effect, or using scorch, and your damage applies before ignite can tick? Wouldn't it just continue to bank the damage until you stop nuking?

[Imnick]

Hypothetically, what if you're in melee range of a mob, under a power haste effect, or using scorch, and your damage applies before ignite can tick? Wouldn't it just continue to bank the damage until you stop nuking?

That did happen for a while, I'm not sure that it does any more. I think they fixed it at the same time as they fixed the "munching" effect (finally) in 5.0.4.
I haven't played Fire for a while though so if anyone knows better please step in and correct me.

[Deleted]

Not since vanila.

[Pulski]

Ignite ticks every two seconds, lasting for four by default. If you get additional damage, it gains a tick, up to a maximum of 6 second duration, adding to the total damage remaining. You start running into a point where no matter how fast or how hard you hit the target, the total damage of Ignite is reduced at each tick by more than you can deal in damage over 2 seconds.

[JohnnyQuest]

Hypothetically, what if you're in melee range of a mob, under a power haste effect, or using scorch, and your damage applies before ignite can tick? Wouldn't it just continue to bank the damage until you stop nuking?

That is basically the explanation for broken Fire DPS on Alysrazor.

[Frostbites]

Has anyone noticed DoT crits refreshing ignite?
Im pretty sure they took that out in Cata, but I've noticed it happening.

[Racthoh]

ignite doesn't work like that anymore. just try soloing alysrazor.

[Imnick]

Has anyone noticed DoT crits refreshing ignite?
Im pretty sure they took that out in Cata, but I've noticed it happening.

DoT ticks were removed from Ignite before Firelands was out, casting Flame Orb on a pull could completely ruin your Combustion sometimes in BWD or whatever the other place was called (it's not been long enough that I should have forgotten the name yet ) before they patched it.

[spaace]

Hell, even living bomb crits fucked up combustion at one point....

Back in MC/BWL days, ignite stacked with every mage... They tweaked it a bit in TBC, but it still stacked if you had a fireball under 2s (nomnom rolling ignites on brutallus).. Only problem with that is if you got a smaller crit then you just did, you'd lose the damage dot difference between the two.

After years of breaking ignite, they made it really good now.. During lust, and getting lots of crits(gg rng), you can easily roll an ignite up to 90k+... thats when you want to hit combustion and watch your dps double. ;D

[huth]

Hypothetically, what if you're in melee range of a mob, under a power haste effect, or using scorch, and your damage applies before ignite can tick? Wouldn't it just continue to bank the damage until you stop nuking?

No, because the tick-timer does not reset. You will get a tick after 2 seconds, no matter what you're doing.

[Raugnaut]

Yea, I remember back during wrath, at the higher gear levels towards the end, we had a mage who would have absurdly low dps for the first 50% of the fight, and then shot up to an ABSURD number, like 200k or something. He hit the crit cap for scorch, and just rolled his ignite for a couple minutes, and then let it go. Of course, on progression fights, he actually played correctly rather then hold out for a few seconds of extremely high dot damage.

But yea, currently, Ignite will keep ticking rather then hold out on the dot damage-Itll only ever stack up to 3 fireballs worth of damage I believe.

[spaace]

Itll only ever stack up to 3 fireballs worth of damage I believe.

That's about what it feels like.


Maybe in later tiers we'll start to see some nice mastery/ignite(/combustion) #s

[DeathDefier]

During lust, and getting lots of crits(gg rng), you can easily roll an ignite up to 90k+... thats when you want to hit combustion and watch your dps double. ;D

I was able to get around a 180k ignite combustion without time warp, but using the pom/alter time combo, on the last phase of Elegon. Combustion was ticking non crit for a little over 100k lol. We used time warp earlier in the fight for some reason (we normally use it in the beginning). Peaked my burst in that phase near 700k dps according to WoL, it was pretty silly.

edit: Here's a video of it actually, forgot I was streaming during that. http://www.twitch.tv/deathdefier/c/1706853

[azzgunther]

I was able to get around a 180k ignite combustion without time warp, but using the pom/alter time combo, on the last phase of Elegon. Combustion was ticking non crit for a little over 100k lol. We used time warp earlier in the fight for some reason (we normally use it in the beginning). Peaked my burst in that phase near 700k dps according to WoL, it was pretty silly.

edit: Here's a video of it actually, forgot I was streaming during that. http://www.twitch.tv/deathdefier/c/1706853

It's.....*sniff*....it's beautiful.

[elpadrino293]

it does not stack indefinitely. if you had 3 seconds remaining on your current ignite when you added new damage to its pool, the new timer on your ignite would be 5 seconds. no matter how short the intervals between your fireballs, pyroblasts, or scorches, ignite will still be ticking away.

---------- Post added 2012-10-20 at 11:50 PM ----------

isnt 180k the expected value of the 90k+ ignites he/she was mentioning given the 10+stacks from elegon?