Fire Mage Guide

[Llewllyn]

Can someone explain to me how to use inferno blast correctly? I have been using it when I get a heating up proc, in order to load a pyroblast, and then I wait until I have both a pyro proc and a heating up proc before using pyroblast, since it will proc another pyro if it crits with a heating up.

When fireball is cast or nether tempest is refreshed, many times the heating up proc vanishes. This is problematic since I am usually spamming fireball right before I line the procs up for an Alter time. Many times my heating up proc will fall off right before I alter time, which reduces my chance to proc multiple pyros in a row.

Also, when I have a long range on a boss like magaera, the pyroblasts are taking forever to get to the boss, so I don't know if I have extra procs or not until it is too late. Many times I will cancel alter time macro, and right when I do, I get a proc, but it goes to waste.

So I'm trying to figure out the tricks on how to deal with this and what to do to maximize dps. If anyone can help me with these nuances, I would be very thankful.

The most logical course of action is to use Inferno Blast to convert Heating Up into Hot Streak. Then while Inferno Blast is on CD you should hold onto your instant cast Pyoblast and continue spamming Fireball or Pyroblast until you either get a Heating Up proc along with your Hot Streak proc. Or your Inferno Blast CD has less that 3 seconds on it at which point you should go ahead and use the Hot Streak proc.

An example of why this is true is as follows. Lets say you have a 40% crit chance after CM and raid buffs and boss crit suppression. Launching your Fireball and Pyroblast at the same time to convert your Heating Up into another Pyroblast gives you a 1 - (.6*.6) chance of that occurring. Which is 64%. So while this is higher than your base crit chance of 40% if Inferno Blast was available to you when you gained your Heating Up proc you would have had a 100% chance of converting it into a Pyroblast. And since 100>64 you should always try and use Inferno Blast to convert Heating Up when its available. Now while this analysis doesnt take into account the differences in dmg of these 3 spells it should be relatively obvious that the massive amount of dmg that Pyroblast does will outweigh any lost dmg from Inferno Blast vs Fireball.
The only exception to this rule is if Combustion is coming off CD and you need to have your Hot Streak/Heating Up procs ready so as to game the Heating Up window to get a good Ignite. This allows you to maximize your chance of getting an instant cast Pyroblast from the duo proc chance of a Fireball and Pyroblast landing at the same time and turning your Heating Up into another Pyroblast while also maximize your usage of Inferno Blast to catch single crits and turn them into Pyros.

Hopefully my coffee addled brain has allowed me to write this typo free and in a comprehensible manner. PM me with further questions.

As to your problem of not catching the Heating Up proc all the time this could simply be due to your latency or your reaction time could be to low.

[Deleted]

how strong is the 2p t14 bonus? got 3rd piece t15 and was wondering about giving up t14 2p bonus for int / 2nd stats upgrade, can anybody help me?

[spaace]

2pc is pretty strong, with that 10% nerf..

depending on pieces, i'd keep it till 4pc

[cockaroo]

The most logical course of action is to use Inferno Blast to convert Heating Up into Hot Streak. Then while Inferno Blast is on CD you should hold onto your instant cast Pyoblast and continue spamming Fireball or Pyroblast until you either get a Heating Up proc along with your Hot Streak proc. Or your Inferno Blast CD has less that 3 seconds on it at which point you should go ahead and use the Hot Streak proc.

An example of why this is true is as follows. Lets say you have a 40% crit chance after CM and raid buffs and boss crit suppression. Launching your Fireball and Pyroblast at the same time to convert your Heating Up into another Pyroblast gives you a 1 - (.6*.6) chance of that occurring. Which is 64%. So while this is higher than your base crit chance of 40% if Inferno Blast was available to you when you gained your Heating Up proc you would have had a 100% chance of converting it into a Pyroblast. And since 100>64 you should always try and use Inferno Blast to convert Heating Up when its available. Now while this analysis doesnt take into account the differences in dmg of these 3 spells it should be relatively obvious that the massive amount of dmg that Pyroblast does will outweigh any lost dmg from Inferno Blast vs Fireball.
The only exception to this rule is if Combustion is coming off CD and you need to have your Hot Streak/Heating Up procs ready so as to game the Heating Up window to get a good Ignite. This allows you to maximize your chance of getting an instant cast Pyroblast from the duo proc chance of a Fireball and Pyroblast landing at the same time and turning your Heating Up into another Pyroblast while also maximize your usage of Inferno Blast to catch single crits and turn them into Pyros.

Hopefully my coffee addled brain has allowed me to write this typo free and in a comprehensible manner. PM me with further questions.

As to your problem of not catching the Heating Up proc all the time this could simply be due to your latency or your reaction time could be to low.

Thanks for this info, sounds like I am doing it right, but it's nice to also understand the basic arithmetic behind what is going on.
How do you take into account the boss crit suppression? Also, Does CM automatically calculate under the spell crit stat in your stat window, or do you need to make additional calculations?

[Llewllyn]

CM is not shown in the character pane. The character pane shows your base crit chance with all abilities and CM is only applied to a few.

[Squinty]

Your question being ?

AMR stats weight are almost always right, but if you want more precise stats weight, or if you're going for "another version" of a spec (e.g Mastery vs Haste in arcane 5.1), you sometimes have to change them manually.

Was only asking as I was looking at AMR at work and it was asking me to change most of my things then. But when I got home AMR is set to custom weights. So now i'm lost at what to use Think I will just keep it as it is with the custom weights. Get more crit in the end with it.

Here is my profile, Please let me know if I have done anything wrong.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...%B2wy/advanced

[Malfecto]

Snowy, When I pull you up in AMR, using the default weights to optimize, I get:

Legs : MasteryRating -> CritRating
Head : MasteryRating -> HasteRating

and changing the mastery to gloves to Haste to gloves.

AMR is reporting these stat weights:

Int: 4.8
Hit: 3.79
SP: 3.62
Crit: 3.12
Haste: 2.62
Mastery: 2.23

I find when using AMR, if you get stuck with your custom weights, to go to the build toggle and make sure you select default build from the list. That should reset your weights.

[voltaa]

Just wondering, is anyone else going to be using 2pc t14 mixed with 2pc t10 until they get 4set? If this doesn't get nerfed it's going to be pretty good for us, I just ran LFR with this setup and this was the result for horridon (yes i just tunneled boss)

http://i47.tinypic.com/2q99tvq.jpg

did another LFR and logged it just for comparison sake, both myself and antirabid were using two set t10
http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-g2jlyhrwp52syz7y/

[Arghh151]

Coming back to fire after awhile, I am shocked to see just how low combustion's are.. I am trying to set my 'sound' warning when I have a good combustion was 30k from early in the expansion but I can't seem to break 20k consistently even with a few crit pyro's in a row. Not sure if I am missing something? Or is breaking a 20k combustion considered lucky now?

[elpadrino293]

"lucky" ignites are more in the 150k range or 75k combustion ticks

[Arghh151]

"lucky" ignites are more in the 150k range or 75k combustion ticks

Then I must be doing something horribly wrong. Even when I get 3 pyro crits in a row (without a dmg modifier encounter buff) I am not even close to 50k comb ticks (100k ignites). Ilvl 503 and 32k sp...

[Methusula]

Elpad is always exaggerating Combustion numbers. He has a shitload of crit and I think for him, that's the norm. Most people are gonna be happy with 30k Combustion ticks.

[Zavri]

Interesting simcraft stat weights in my i511 gear

Simcraft 520-2 Build

[Methusula]

Interesting simcraft stat weights in my i511 gear

Simcraft 520-2 Build

I can't tell what your haste is at, but it's likely very close to a break point that would net another tick from something. The mastery stat weights are kinda interesting though.

[elpadrino293]

Elpad is always exaggerating Combustion numbers. He has a shitload of crit and I think for him, that's the norm. Most people are gonna be happy with 30k Combustion ticks.

i'd just like to make the distinction between "lucky ignites", and "ignites we can be happy with". there are several factors that will lead to the lucky ignites, such as time warp, troll racial, tailoring/engineering/jade spirit/trinket/trinket/potion combinations of intellect procs, skull banner, tricks of the trade, and then most importantly... your gear. but they will not always line up, and even when they do, it is still possible to not crit successively during those procs... i believe using combustion on a 60k ignite is quite acceptable, but i would wish you better luck on the next combustion as well.

[Zavri]

My Lucky ignites are between 105-120k. I always combustion at the start with my shit up if I get an ignite higher then 75k. Allthough I have quite frequentely being doing 85-100k ignites.

---------- Post added 2013-03-14 at 03:13 AM ----------

Re-ran simcraft but I forgot to screenshot my stat weights. ilvl514, Crit is now equal to haste at 2.78 and mastery is 2.73. Very interesting, 2pc T15 will definitely be a big dps boost once I get it. Will result is VERY nice combustions with the proc up.

---------- Post added 2013-03-14 at 03:19 AM ----------

Just wondering, is anyone else going to be using 2pc t14 mixed with 2pc t10 until they get 4set? If this doesn't get nerfed it's going to be pretty good for us, I just ran LFR with this setup and this was the result for horridon (yes i just tunneled boss)

http://i47.tinypic.com/2q99tvq.jpg

did another LFR and logged it just for comparison sake, both myself and antirabid were using two set t10
http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-g2jlyhrwp52syz7y/

2pc T10 is definitely NOT worth using. You're looking at an average of 5-7% haste ( depends on uptime, in your log you had roughly 40% uptime ) in exchange for 2k+ intellect alone. That's a huge dps loss by itself, now factor in secondary stats. Definitely not worth using. The 4pc WAS worth using when we could "pre pop" the mirror images and re-swap gear in. If a flat 30% damage increase every 3mins wasn't worth using the set for without swapping on the pull, then this definitely isn't worth using.

Now if the T12 4set was a 2set bonus.... Then we could be talking depending on the actual numbers.

[Milamber]

Why didn't they make Critical Mass a flat crit chance (fe. +10%) increase instead of a multiplier (1.3x)?

[mrgreenthump]

Why didn't they make Critical Mass a flat crit chance (fe. +10%) increase instead of a multiplier (1.3x)?

Maybe they will, but atm 10% would be a nerf to most mages, and that is not something we need..

[Zavri]

Maybe they will, but atm 10% would be a nerf to most mages, and that is not something we need..

A flat 10% would be a buff for every fire mage until they get around 54% chance to crit. Which not a single mage in the world has atm. 4set could change the numbers though, since we get 6.5% pyro crit before CM.

[mrgreenthump]

A flat 10% would be a buff for every fire mage until they get around 54% chance to crit. Which not a single mage in the world has atm. 4set could change the numbers though, since we get 6.5% pyro crit before CM.

Hmm check your maths.. CM atm is 1.3 multiplier and flat 10% would result to 1.3*x=x+10 --> 0.3*x=10 -->x=10/0.3=33.333.

Now you need 36.33(before crit suspension or CM) Crit chance average in raids for 10% to be a nerf, and frankly most mages should be able to hit that shortly.

At the magical 54% you threw out.. CM would give 66.3% chance to crit with fireball/scorch/pyro(before 4 set).. And flat 10% would give 61% chance to crit on fireball etc