Frost VS Fire

[Alexanderjac]

I just rolled a new mage toon, and when I asked my guild what spec I should choose, they all said frost. What troubles me is that fire looks really cool and I like the idea of being able to shoot fire at things, but everyone keeps telling me fire is garbage. Is this true?

[Worgslarg]

No.

While Frost outshines fire and arcane at low gear levels, it is out-scaled by both.

[Alexanderjac]

Is it really that big of a difference though? Is frost any fun to play? Fire looks cool, and I'm not concerned with damage that much while leveling as long as it's fun.

[MerinPally]

Play frost until you get into some raiding gear. Like a small amount of raiding gear. Then go into arcane. Then when you start getting set bonuses and a lot of raiding gear (involving a lot of crit) then go fire.

Yes it's that big of a difference. Arcane is really high single target, above both other specs. Frost and fire are a way behind. Add a second target and Fire runs into the lead by a large margin and frost stays behind.

[Alexanderjac]

So if I was going to stay the same spec for the long run, then fire would be better?

Also, which spec is the most fun to play? I personally am not a fan of having a pet or waiting to cast (my main is a warrior).

[MerinPally]

No, fire would suck until you got your 2pc and some raiding gear. As in, many many k dps lower than you should be pulling.

Fun is subjective, can't answer you there. You don't wait to cast because all you do is cast. If you're waiting to cast as a mage then you're literally doing 0 dps unless you have some DOT's ticking. The idea of casters is to be casting.

[Therec]

So if I was going to stay the same spec for the long run, then fire would be better?

Also, which spec is the most fun to play? I personally am not a fan of having a pet or waiting to cast (my main is a warrior).

Depends on what you find fun.

Fire is a very simple rotation, you dont really have to think too much about what your doing. Arcane is much more involved, and you'll be watching your mana bar a lot to maximize your dps. So fire if you like an easy rotation, arcane if you like a more involved/complex rotation

[MerinPally]

I'll cut to the chase - you can't just pick a spec and stick with it if you want to pull good numbers. You're asking on a forum so I imagine you want to pull good ones. That would involve changing your spec on both your gear and the boss you're fighting. To do well in BRF you want both fire and arcane. There is a point prior to this where frost is better than both.

If you don't want to pull good numbers then it doesn't matter, play anything, whatever you find the most fun. But you can't just pick a spec and go with it and hope for the best, because the best will involve adaptation.

To answer your question more directly - start with frost, then go into arcane, then finally into fire when you're very well geared.

[Nairesha]

It's possibly subject to change - with the buff to comet storm and the glyph the AoE part of frost mages will become viable again.

However it's still true that some speccs perform better against some bosses than the others. I for one stick to frost and only change talents as necessary.

It's also about "skill". If you do not (ever) feel comfortable with let's say Arcane (as in my case), stay clear of it.

Edit says: of course if you are all for "max" DPS? Arcane. It's nuts, currently.

[Amsden]

So if I was going to stay the same spec for the long run, then fire would be better?

Also, which spec is the most fun to play? I personally am not a fan of having a pet or waiting to cast (my main is a warrior).

Assuming your not in a hardcore mythic type guild and just looking for the most fun spec, then yes fire wins and it's not even close.

[Karumai]

Play whatever mechanics you like the most. Fire most certainly is not garbage as soon as you get good gear.

I personally play Frost and I won't ever change my main spec, no matter how bad it gets. At the moment I'm pulling decent numbers at 678 GS and I'm among the top DPS wise in my guild

[Midoree]

I raid as fire and love it. I find frost and arcane extremely boring. While leveling I would switch between frost and fire, both have great utility.

[Deleted]

All mage specs are very strong and fun to play, but it takes a bit to get the cool skills/procs iirc, especially frost. If you just want to casually level up a character pick whatever you want. Frost's snares and added survivability do make it better than arcane or fire while levelling though.

In raids, all 3 specs are perfectly viable. Arcane excels at single target, fire at aoe, frost is a good compromise and is slightly more mobile and less gear dependant than the other two.

start with frost, then go into arcane, then finally into fire when you're very well geared.

This is wrong; the specific fight mechanics are actually much more important than gear; arcane is always king on single target, fire is always king on aoe, frost is always the most versatile stat, no matter the gear. Fire can get up to ~30% crit with hardly any contribution from gear, which isn't ideal for single target but it's more than enough in a lot of situations. Proof here: http://altered-time.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=750 and http://altered-time.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1178

with the buff to comet storm and the glyph the AoE part of frost mages will become viable again

Also wrong. Comet storm splits its damage among all the targets hit like Meteor and Crystal, so it doesn't get stronger when Aoeing. Also, frost already has strong aoe with frost bomb/thermal void/splitting ice/improved blizzard, it just so happens that fire has even better aoe.

[Invrlose]

Once you get either your tier pieces or you get around ilvl 680 you should go arcane. You want mastery haste on every slot. Mastery enchants. Bis trinkets are the blackhand trinket and the haste proc for arcane, and blackhands with crit one for fire. All you use fire for is AoE fights if you want you can try to get some mastery crit gear for fire but you can really just use your mastery haste arcane Gear.

[Muddler]

Once you get either your tier pieces or you get around ilvl 680 you should go arcane. You want mastery haste on every slot. Mastery enchants. Bis trinkets are the blackhand trinket and the haste proc for arcane, and blackhands with crit one for fire. All you use fire for is AoE fights if you want you can try to get some mastery crit gear for fire but you can really just use your mastery haste arcane Gear.

What about 672 with 2 tier bonus? Good enough for Arcane?