Fix My DPS - Ilvl 930 Fire Mage

[chrisjahn]

Greetings,

I am currently looking for tips and advice for improving my DPS, after taking a short break from the game. I've read up on Icy-Veins and Altered-Time, but I still can't tell what I'm doing wrong, as even when I think I'm doing well, I still parse very low, at around 30-40 percentile. I'm including below a link to my Armory page as well as some logs from Heroic Avatar, a recent fight my guild did that's pretty straightforward with 1 target. Any advice is much appreciated. Thank you.

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports...pe=damage-done

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/ch...rasz/chrisjahn

[Bladeface]

Greetings,

I am currently looking for tips and advice for improving my DPS, after taking a short break from the game. I've read up on Icy-Veins and Altered-Time, but I still can't tell what I'm doing wrong, as even when I think I'm doing well, I still parse very low, at around 30-40 percentile. I'm including below a link to my Armory page as well as some logs from Heroic Avatar, a recent fight my guild did that's pretty straightforward with 1 target. Any advice is much appreciated. Thank you.

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports...pe=damage-done

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/ch...rasz/chrisjahn

No idea about you, but your vengeance tank is playing the spec completely wrong. Makes me cringe so hard to see SOUL CLEAVE as their top damage. GROSS.

[chrisjahn]

How much DPS should he be doing? Always knew he was low, but I don't know DH tanks, so I always just ignored it.

[Bladeface]

IDK if its comparable because I don't know his gear (Ill look for his armory if ya want) but my best on that fight is almost double what he is doing.

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports...-done&source=1

(To be honest though, your healers are so low that he might actually HAVE to use soul cleave just so he doesnt get slaughtered, which is really sad.) (Actually scratch that. I am doing 100k more healing than him without even using soul cleave)

Okay like 7th edit:

looked him up and at his current ilvl I was doing almost 400k more dps than him.

[chrisjahn]

IDK if its comparable because I don't know his gear (Ill look for his armory if ya want) but my best on that fight is almost double what he is doing.

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports...-done&source=1

(To be honest though, your healers are so low that he might actually HAVE to use soul cleave just so he doesnt get slaughtered, which is really sad.) (Actually scratch that. I am doing 100k more healing than him without even using soul cleave)

Yeah, as you can see, our raid team isn't all that great. Kinda why I want to boost my numbers to help even things out, in my own small way.

[Bladeface]

Yeah, as you can see, our raid team isn't all that great. Kinda why I want to boost my numbers to help even things out, in my own small way.

I wish you all were horde so I could like show that guy how to actually play the class >.> should tell him to check out the demon hunter discord though. The vengeance channel on there is pretty good and most of the top dh on warcraftlogs post in it

- - - Updated - - -

BTW sorry I can't actually help with YOUR problem. I've never played a mage >.< but from what i can see on other mages on that fight is uhhhhh get more mastery because its your best stat apparently, and use that there legendary belt if ya have it? Only looked at the top 3 fire mages on avatar heroic and a quick glance at icy-veins so take it with a grain of salt

like this here Deftz guy. top mage on avatar, uses the belt thing. I guess also get an arcanocrystal because people seem to like that trinket.

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/ch...ndrunner/deftz

Here's his log for it if ya wanna compare?
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports...-done&source=3

[chrisjahn]

I wish you all were horde so I could like show that guy how to actually play the class >.> should tell him to check out the demon hunter discord though. The vengeance channel on there is pretty good and most of the top dh on warcraftlogs post in it

- - - Updated - - -

BTW sorry I can't actually help with YOUR problem. I've never played a mage >.< but from what i can see on other mages on that fight is uhhhhh get more mastery because its your best stat apparently, and use that there legendary belt if ya have it? Only looked at the top 3 fire mages on avatar heroic and a quick glance at icy-veins so take it with a grain of salt

Thanks for the help. I passed your advice onto our Tank. Currently doing KJ Prog. Hopefully it results in some gains. Even though you dont play a Mage, I thank you for the attempt. I tried the TW ring for Avatar because our Shaman Heroes at the start of the fight. Though i do have the belt. Getting more Mastery will come down to getting good gear. Fire was crit heavy for the longest time. But yeah, thanks a ton. Hoping to get more advice from here.

[Zenfoldor]

Let me ask you a question just to verify something. On the fallen avatar pull in your logs when you wore the hero ring and belt, did you cast combustion on pull, or when the boss reached 90% health?

Also, how do you do your opener when you take firestarter(do you combustion on pull or at 90%?). Finally, what bosses do you use firestarter on, vs conflag?

[chrisjahn]

Let me ask you a question just to verify something. On the fallen avatar pull in your logs when you wore the hero ring and belt, did you cast combustion on pull, or when the boss reached 90% health?

Also, how do you do your opener when you take firestarter(do you combustion on pull or at 90%?). Finally, what bosses do you use firestarter on, vs conflag?

I typically open with pre-pot, Hard Pyro at 4 secs from pull, drop RoP, Combustion, standard Combustion rotation, second RoP after, then chain pyros until sub 90%. Never even thought of holding Combustion until 90%, though it makes a lot of sense. Is that the better opener now?

I haven’t really been using Conflag, though that’s mostly because our raid has been doing Prog on Maiden, Avatar, and KJ for more than a month now, so I just haven’t had good fights to use it on. Is Conflag better on fights with clumped up adds?

Also, for the record, I do have the Bracers, which probably would’ve boosted my DPS that fight, but I wanted to experiment with the TW Ring and use the belt to help in last phase, since our raid was having trouble with it

[Ambereldus]

Something to note about stat weights:

The reason why mastery is heavily valued in high ranked logs right now is because of the free crit you get from Firestarter and the Belt. The idea behind it is to use the Wrists, combined with all that free crit & combust, to create insane Ignites on the boss.
Being able to get guaranteed crits until 90% health and easy Hot Streaks sub-30% means that the overall value of crit falls (since it only makes a difference for 60% of the boss' health).

If you aren't using that legendary+talent combo, you're probably better off sticking with your normal values. Sim yourself for accurate answers.

Also, yes, delaying Combustion in your opener is typically seen as superior, as long as you're running Firestarter. I don't run RoP, but I think you'd want to use one charge as you are currently, and save the second for your Combustion. I'd use 1 charge of PF and FB at the start of the fight too, to get their cooldowns running.


Off topic, while scrolling through your logs, I giggled at the 4 melee attacks.

[Zenfoldor]

I typically open with pre-pot, Hard Pyro at 4 secs from pull, drop RoP, Combustion, standard Combustion rotation, second RoP after, then chain pyros until sub 90%. Never even thought of holding Combustion until 90%, though it makes a lot of sense. Is that the better opener now?

I haven’t really been using Conflag, though that’s mostly because our raid has been doing Prog on Maiden, Avatar, and KJ for more than a month now, so I just haven’t had good fights to use it on. Is Conflag better on fights with clumped up adds?

Also, for the record, I do have the Bracers, which probably would’ve boosted my DPS that fight, but I wanted to experiment with the TW Ring and use the belt to help in last phase, since our raid was having trouble with it

Check out this thread:

https://www.altered-time.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4673

Now check out this link and see how many top parses are not using firestarter:

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/ranking...Mage&spec=Fire

Also I would suggest going Incanter's flow. If you start parsing well and feel like you would like to try adding RoP back into the mix, by all means give it a shot.

I suggest targeting the shark trinket if you don't already have it.

FYI, you can double dip on firestarter on avatar. Fire is great for a lot of reasons, on avatar.

[chrisjahn]

Something to note about stat weights:

The reason why mastery is heavily valued in high ranked logs right now is because of the free crit you get from Firestarter and the Belt. The idea behind it is to use the Wrists, combined with all that free crit & combust, to create insane Ignites on the boss.
Being able to get guaranteed crits until 90% health and easy Hot Streaks sub-30% means that the overall value of crit falls (since it only makes a difference for 60% of the boss' health).

If you aren't using that legendary+talent combo, you're probably better off sticking with your normal values. Sim yourself for accurate answers.

Also, yes, delaying Combustion in your opener is typically seen as superior, as long as you're running Firestarter. I don't run RoP, but I think you'd want to use one charge as you are currently, and save the second for your Combustion. I'd use 1 charge of PF and FB at the start of the fight too, to get their cooldowns running.

Thanks for the advice. I have the right legendaries for it, so gonna play around with the Mastery build a bit more. Mastery is still a bit lower than I would like, since I’m still regearing from my old Crit build. Makes a lot more sense now. Thank you for explaining it.

Off topic, while scrolling through your logs, I giggled at the 4 melee attacks.

Look, I can dream about having a Battlemage spec, can’t I? :P

[Zenfoldor]

Thanks for the advice. I have the right legendaries for it, so gonna play around with the Mastery build a bit more. Mastery is still a bit lower than I would like, since I’m still regearing from my old Crit build. Makes a lot more sense now. Thank you for explaining it.




Look, I can dream about having a Battlemage spec, can’t I? :P

Just a bump to make sure you saw my last post. The first link I posted is a discussion on the subject from a very well respected member of the community(first poster after the OP) who will give you your opener for firestarter(which is your biggest problem imho). Second link is the fire mage top parse + top legos/talents for ToS heroic. It will show you current top parses and what the best legos/talents are with recommendations for each boss. Save that second link and swap it to the new raid next tier. You probably will be referencing back to it regularly in order to stay current on strats and parse better.

Now many will say that you should not strictly go by top parses if you don't truly understand them. That said, you are doing a mastery build and have most of the correct gear. Those recommendations for ToS at least should be relatively accurate no matter how you play. Plus, you want to dress for the job you want, not the one you have, so getting accustomed to those talents will make sure you know how to take advantage of your top potential when the times comes.

My final recommendation is to have a viable frost offspec. It is better to have slightly lower parses but higher overall dps by duel speccing. That's just my opinion, but duel speccing can help create opportunities to win every boss fight instead of just the ones current spec A is strong on. Frost is great for pure single target, fire not so much, but who knows how things will change(and even that old adage is not 100% correct anymore). In the end, it's great to have 2 specs going full steam as a long term goal.

[chrisjahn]

Just a bump to make sure you saw my last post. The first link I posted is a discussion on the subject from a very well respected member of the community(first poster after the OP) who will give you your opener for firestarter(which is your biggest problem imho). Second link is the fire mage top parse + top legos/talents for ToS heroic. It will show you current top parses and what the best legos/talents are with recommendations for each boss. Save that second link and swap it to the new raid next tier. You probably will be referencing back to it regularly in order to stay current on strats and parse better.

Now many will say that you should not strictly go by top parses if you don't truly understand them. That said, you are doing a mastery build and have most of the correct gear. Those recommendations for ToS at least should be relatively accurate no matter how you play. Plus, you want to dress for the job you want, not the one you have, so getting accustomed to those talents will make sure you know how to take advantage of your top potential when the times comes.

My final recommendation is to have a viable frost offspec. It is better to have slightly lower parses but higher overall dps by duel speccing. That's just my opinion, but duel speccing can help create opportunities to win every boss fight instead of just the ones current spec A is strong on. Frost is great for pure single target, fire not so much, but who knows how things will change(and even that old adage is not 100% correct anymore). In the end, it's great to have 2 specs going full steam as a long term goal.

Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely gives those links a look.

[Lond]

I am having the same problem with my mage, with whom I have played fire since Wotlk. I finally got the gear so that mastery and haste are almost equal but now my crit has suffered. I can burst at 190k but after about 30 seconds it starts to taper down to a final resting of 700k. My raid leader has told me it's not good enough for Argus and last night I got asked to leave. I have tried everything I can think of to fix this including stripping down to nothing and starting over. Please, please, please! If you find out what is wrong let me know.