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re: Mage Thread 3.2: Crying Exploding Tears

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Mage-relevant Changes in 3.2

I. General
Replenishment now gives 1% of max mana over five seconds instead of four seconds.
Arcane Torrent now doubles as an interrupt, meaning Blood Elf Mages can interrupt silence-immune mobs.
All pets, notably including Water Elemental, now inherits our stats on a percentage basis, meaning that if we are hit capped, he is; if we are half crit capped, he is; etc.
Internal cooldowns are triggered upon equip.
All mp5 on items was increased by roughly 25%. (Yes it is still not a dps stat.)
Professions have been buffed all across the board. Tailoring is the only profession which stands head and shoulders above the others (35% proc chance, 60s internal cooldown). Jewelcrafting/Blacksmithing/Alchemy/Enchanting/Leatherworking all offer roughly equitable bonuses.

II. Talents
Empowered Fire now gives 2% base mana per Ignite tick when fully talented.
Empowered Frostbolt removes .2s from Frostbolt when fully talented instead of giving 2% crit to Frostbolt.
Permafrost now prevents 20% of healing done on a target when fully talented in addition to its previous effect.
Living Bomb is now castable on many targets.

III. Skills
Arcane Blast, Frostbolt, Cone of Cold, Frost Ward, Frost Nova, Ice Lance, Ice Barrier, Frost Ward, Ice Armor, and Frost Armor have had their costs reduced by 12% to 15%.
The Invisibility buff can't be removed by hostile actions. Enjoy 'invising' at will.
Mirror Image Mages now do not break Polymorph.

Table of Contents
code:
I. Post 1
A. What can I expect?
B. Race Relations
C. Tradeskills
D. General Playstyle and Leveling
E. Gear for Tier Seven
F. Ratings
G. External Resources and About Your Author

II. Post 2
A. F.A.Q.
B. Specs
C. useful Macros
D. Math

III. Post 3
A. Faction Reputation Rewards
B. Level 80 Instance Items
C. Quick Setup Guide for Rawr
I want to be a Mage. What can I expect?
Mages fill the role of DPS. Mages are one of the four pure DPS classes, meaning that your role in a group will never be to heal and never be to tank. Mages can do single target DPS as well as Area of Effect (AOE) DPS. Currently Mages have excellent crowd control combined with AOE in the form of Blizzard, as well as other tools in the form of roots such as Frost Nova, Freeze and snares such as Blast Wave, Cone of Cold. Finally, Mages are valuable in groups due to their Arcane Intellect spell, their conjuring of food and water, and their ability to disable Humanoids and Beasts with the Polymorph spell.

What race should I pick?
Blood Elf- Arcane Torrent restores 6% of mana to the Mage along with a 2s silence effect.
PVE Verdict: restoration of 6% of your mana translates to roughly 900 mana restored every two minutes. Go with Troll.
PVP Verdict: this is an extra 2s silence to go with your Counterspell. The downside is that you must be near melee range. Go with Undead.

Troll- Berserking is a free haste effect grants 20% haste for ten seconds.
PVE Verdict: a very powerful cooldown to stack with other +damage or +haste cooldowns. This is the strongest Horde Mage racial.
PVP Verdict: much of your casting will be done on the fly, so the GCD reduction is useful. This is a good, but not the best racial for PVP.

Undead- Will of the Forsaken removes charm, fear, and sleep effects.
PVE Verdict: not useful in most cases, Will of the Forsaken and increased underwater breathing are largely useless in PVE.
PVP Verdict: excellent PVP racial for any Horde Mage, Will of the Forsaken can allow you another anti-CC ability which can often turn the tide of an arena match or a BG encounter.

Draenei- Inspiring Presence is a free hit bonus. Gift of the Naaru is a HOT effect which scales with your spellpower.
PVE Verdict: both very solid racials make Draenei a good choice for an Alliance Mage.
PVP Verdict: Gift of the Naaru is nice for PVP, but largely plays second fiddle to other racials, such as the Gnome's.

Gnome- Escape Artist allows you to remove snare or roots effects. Expansive Mind is +5% Intellect.
PVE Verdict: Escape Artist is possibly less useful than even Will of the Forsaken. Expansive Mind provides about +2.5% mana regen as well as a larger mana pool. Useful, but not the best Alliance PVE racial.
PVP Verdict: Escape Artist is a godsend and in WLK, the talent cannot be resisted. EA is a very, very strong PVP racial.

Human- The Human Spirit increases Spirit by 5%, Perception gives an extra level of stealth detection, and Diplomacy grants +10% rep gains. Also, Every Man for Himself is a free trinket.
PVE Verdict: The Human Spirit gives roughly +5% mana regen and Diplomacy makes rep grinds noticeably shorter. This is my pick for most powerful Alliance Mage race.
PVP Verdict: The extra stealth detection is nice and Every Man for Himself is a free trinket. Take Human for PVP.

Tradeskills TL;DR
Pick Tailoring and Enchanting as your primary professions. Also pick up First Aid, Fishing, and Cooking, especially First Aid.

Tradeskills Technical
Tradeskills give some bonuses to people who have that skill only. The following are Mage-relevant bonuses granted by having the specific tradeskill. This section was created with the help of the Mage Copernicus of Tichondrius.

Alchemy: Mixology, Crazy Alchemist's Potion, Endless Mana Potion, Flask of the North
Leatherworking: Fur Lining - Spell Power
Skinning: Master of Anatomy (Crap)
Mining: Toughness
Herbalism: Wild Growth
Enchanting: Enchant Ring - Greater Spellpower
Jewelcrafting: Quick Dragon's Eye, Rigid Dragon's Eye, Runed Dragon's Eye, Twilight Serpent
Inscription: Master's Inscription of the Storm
Tailoring: Lightweave Embroidery, Darkglow Embroidery
Engineering: Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket, Hyperspeed Accelerators, Noise Machine
Blacksmithing: Socket Gloves, Socket Bracers

Playing and Leveling a Mage
As a ranged caster class, we don't tank well. We have two options for soloing: kill it before it gets to us or slow it to give us more maneuverability. At this point, leveling is sufficiently easy that you really can't go wrong. If you want to go the "control your foes and never be hit" route, then you should level as Frost. If you want to go the "nuke the hell out of them and take a few hits" route, then level Fire. Check out post number two for leveling glyph advice in the F.A.Q.

Frost:
10-14 Improved Frostbolt (5/5)
15-17 Ice Shards (3/3)
18-20 Frostbite (3/3)
21 Icy Veins
22-24 Ice Floes (3/3)
25-27 Shatter (3/3)
28-29 Arctic Reach (2/2)
30 Cold Snap
31-33 Improved Cone of Cold (3/3)
34-36 Piercing Ice (3/3)
37-38 Cold as Ice (2/2)
39 Winter's Chill (1/3)
40 Ice Barrier
41-42 Shattered Barrier (2/2)
43-44 Arctic Winds (2/5)
45-46 Empowered Frostbolt (2/2)
47-48 Fingers of Frost (2/2)
49 Arctic Winds (3/5)
50 Water Elemental
51-53 Enduring Winter
54 Arctic Winds (4/5)
55-59 Chilled to the Bone (5/5)
60 Deep Freeze
...


Fire:
10-14 Improved Fireball (5/5)
15-19 Ignite (5/5)
20-21 Flame Throwing (2/2)
22-24 Impact (3/3)
25-27 Master of Elements (3/3)
28 Pyroblast
29 Improved Scorch (1/3)
30 Blast Wave
31-33 Playing With Fire (3/3)
34 Critical Mass (1/3)
35-39 Fire Power (5/5)
40-41 Molten Fury (2/2)
42-43 Critical Mass (3/3)
44 Combustion
45-46 Fiery Payback (2/2)
47-49 Empowered Fire (3/3)
50-52 Hot Streak (3/3)
53 Dragon's Breath
54-55 Firestarter (2/2)
56-59 Burnout (4/5)
60 Living Bomb
...

Best leveling tip: collect gear with the suffix "of Fiery Wrath" or "of Frozen Wrath" from the Auction House. This will greatly increase the speed at which you kill things. If you have problems with mana longevity or with not having enough Hit Points, check the Auction House for some gear with the suffix "of the Eagle", which gives both Intellect and Stamina.

Gear to Get You Tier Seven Ready
Late edit: honestly anything works here. Naxx is not exactly difficult, so just be eighty.

What Enchants and Gems Should I Get for All My Gear Now That I'm 80?
Head: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries
Shoulder: Greater Inscription of the Storm
Legs: Brilliant Spellthread
Boots: Tuskarr's Vitality
Bracers: Greater Spellpower
Chest: Powerful Stats
Cloak: Greater Speed
Gloves: Exceptional Spellpower
Weapon: Exceptional Spellpower or Greater Spellpower to Staff

Meta: Always use Chaotic
Red: Always use Runed
Yellow, Blue: Check Rawr for your optimal gemming or just gem as if it were Red if you don't want to simulate, the change in outcome is minimal.

Mage Ratings (basic)
First off, let's stop using these silly ratings and use more convenient percents. In order to convert, use this handy table (courtesy of Lhivera):
code:
Rating 1% at Level 60 1% at Level 70 1% at Level 80
Hit 10.00 12.62 26.23
Crit 14.00 22.08 45.91
Haste 10.00 15.77 32.79
Resilience 25.00 39.42 81.97
In short, a very important stat to stack in PVE is Hit Rating. This is the table telling you what hit percent chance you have against mobs when you are level 80:

code:
. Untalented Talented +3% Hit
Target Level Hit Chance Rating to Cap Hit Chance Rating to Cap
80 96% 105 99% 26
81 95% 131 98% 52
82 94% 157 97% 79
83 (Boss) 83% 446 86% 367
To recap, you need 17% hit rating against bosses. You can deduct 3% from Elemental Precision and 3% from Shadow Priest/Moonkin/Elemental Shaman. The rest has to come from your gear.

External Resources
Note that this thread can help a little with support for these things, but you ultimately should contact the authors with technical questions such as bug fixes.
Rawr, a modeling tool used to answer questions about gear, dps, dpm, glyphs, consumables, etc. This is your god. Download it, configure your character's settings, and go to town.
Vontre's Magegraf, basically an online DPS simulator from the number wizard Vontre.
This is the Item values page from Wowwiki.
This is the Theorycraft-o-matic. Use it to see relative stat weight.

F.A.Q.
Q. Considering I just hit 80 and have crappy gear, what spec should I be?
A. Stay Frost for strong-hitting Blizzard in five mans. When you are ready to go to 10 man raiding, spec immediately into Fireball. Your lack of stats is not nearly as important as you think it is and you do not need to spec FFB or Arcane to make up for your lack of hit rating.

Q. Frostfire Bolt is hard.
A. Frostfire Bolt does Frostfire element damage. It does not do Fire damage or Frost damage. It is a Fire spell and it is a Frost spell. You should be able to infer any implications by carefully reading your talents and gear.

Q. Torment the Weak makes me do extra damage for snares. What is a snare?
A. A snare is an ability which reduces the move speed of a mob, such as Hamstring. Related to a snare is a roots effect, which immobilizes a mob, such as Frost Nova. All tanks have cast speed reduction effects such as Thunderclap which count as snares for purposes of Torment the Weak.

Q. How can I track my Missile Barrage, Hot Streak, and Brain Freeze procs easier?
A. Buff Warn and Power Auras are mods made to track buffs.

Q. Should I bother AOE leveling?
A. No, in my estimation, not taking the time to correctly set up AOE pulls and just rushing through quests right now is the best way to level. AOE leveling, like any other form of leveling, is viable, it's just a personal decision. I'm confident that if someone really wants to go off the beaten path and do AOE leveling, he can figure out that Improved Blizzard is a good talent for that.

Q. What glyphs do I want for leveling?
A. Evocation if you're leveling on a PVP server can be helpful in avoiding getting ganked. Ice Barrier and Mana Gem are my recommendation for bonus utility though. Glyph of Water Elemental is an absolute must have when you get the talent.

Q. Give me the low-down on the Tier Eight Four Piece.
A. It has a 20% proc rate of not consuming your Hot Streak on Pyroblast cast. It has no internal cooldown.

Q. Are you SURE Scorch Glyph isn't worth using? How nerdy are you?
A. The mark of a true nerd: wear it proud, wear it loud.

Specs and Glyphs (included in the links)
The first three of the following specs are viable in the sense that the content is doable with them, but each have particular gear sets or circumstances in which they excel.
Choose Fireball for the best single target DPS spec with the highest mobility and good AOE.
Choose Frostfire Bolt for competitive single target DPS with great AOE and similar mobility to Fireball.
Choose Arcane if you are already freeloading off someone else's Scorch and you want to try something different.
Choose Frost if no one else in your raid is providing Replenishment. Frost does not do competitive DPS, so this is really a last resort option, as many other specs which provide Replenishment at no great DPS loss to themselves exist.

Fire/Frostfire Bolt Priority List
code:
Is Scorch up? ---> No. ---> Cast Scorch then go to the beginning.
|
v
Yes.
|
v
Is Living Bomb up? ---> No. ---> Cast Living Bomb then go to the beginning.
|
v
Yes.
|
v
Is Hot Streak buff active? ---> Yes. ---> Cast Pyroblast then go to the beginning.
|
v
No.
|
v
Cast Fireball/Frostfire Bolt then go to the beginning.
Arcane Rotation List
code:
High DPS Rotation High DPM Rotation
1. Arcane Blast 1. Arcane Blast
2. Arcane Blast <---SWITCH---> 2. Arcane Blast then Missile Barrage Arcane Missiles
3. Arcane Blast (-->you are running OOM) -or-
4. Arcane Missiles (you have Arcane Barrage if Missile Barrage didn't PROC
5. Arcane Barrage enough mana<---)

Useful Macros
Water Elemental
This casts your Water Elemental, then immediately casts its Freeze when you click it again.
code:
#showtooltip Water Elemental
/cast Summon Water Elemental
/click [pet] PetActionButton5
Polymorph
Use the first macro to sheep a target on the pull, then use the second one to resheep. You don't need to retarget him to resheep the mob.
code:
#showtooltip Polymorph
/focus
/cast Polymorph

#showtooltip Polymorph
/cast [target=focus] Polymorph
Mana Gem
Left click: use Mana Emerald
Right click: conjure Mana Emerald
code:
#show Mana Emerald
/cast [button:2] Conjure Mana Emerald
/stopmacro [button:2]
/use Mana Emerald
Invisibility
Click once to cast Invisibility. When you have the buff, click again to remove Invisibility.
code:
#showtooltip Invisibility
/cancelaura Invisibility
/cast Invisibility
Couple Trinkets with a Nuke and Disable Errors
code:
#showtooltip Frostbolt
/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX","0")
/use 13
/use 14
/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX","1")
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/cast Frostbolt
Math Nerds Unite or I Love It When We Talk Numbers, clamiam45...
This section is a combination of FAQ's and fun little math illustrations.
How Does Ignite Stack?
Here's how ignite banks. In this example, Fireball is cast three times. First it crits, then crits again, then hits normally:

t+0: Fireball crits for X.
t+0: Ignite dot applied.
t+2: Ignite ticks for .2X (tick one from the t+0 fireball).
t+2.5: Fireball crits for X.
t+4: Ignite ticks for .4X (tick two for .2X from the t+0 fireball and tick one for .2X from the t+2.5 fireball).
t+5: Fireball hits for 2X/3.
t+6: Ignite ticks for .2X (tick two from the t+2.5 fireball).
t+6: Ignite debuff removed.
...

A Simplified DPS Model:
To estimate the average DPS of a spell, I use the following model:

D = +damage
C = crit rate/100
CT = base cast time
CF = spell coefficient
CM = crit modifier (Crits hit for 1.5 normal damage, so CM = .5 [note: the modifier is what comes on top of your normal damage] when you're unspecced. Certain talents like Ice Shards or Ignite increase this number.)
B = base damage of a spell at a given rank
H = % spell haste

code:
Damage (1 + CM*C)(1 + H)(B + D*CF)
------- = ---------------------------
second CT
Stats Stacking (In this section, [] brackets are read "The stat ___." [Spirit] is "The stat Spirit.")
In order to talk stats stacking, the very first thing we need to bring up is item value.

For nonmath people: The way items get their stats is every stat has a weight. Stamina, Spirit, MP5, Resistance, etc. all have a value. Spirit is worth fewer points than MP5, for example, so you can have more points of spirit than MP5 for the same ilvl, or item level.
For math people: Each statValue (amount of a stat on an item), is multiplied by a statMod (relative weight given to a stat), and added in a root sum of powers fashion. This means that lower values of multiple stats are in fact cheaper ilvl-wise than a high value of a single stat.

Now that we understand item value, let's solve a simple problem. The problem is determining when it's better to stack MP5 and when it's better to stack Spirit.

Let's refer to the wowwiki link just provided and get the relevant statMods for Spirit and MP5.

[Spirit] is worth 2.5*[MP5] ===> [Spirit] = 2.5*[MP5]

Borrowing from my good friend Incoherence's Priest thread title, we know that MP5 = Spirit * sqrt(Int) * 0.046635 which is outside the five second rule, so for our purposes, MP5 = Spirit * sqrt(Int) * 0.046635 * .6. The .6 comes from 30% regen with Arcane Meditation and 30% with Mage Armor.

Now, we just need to find the following condition:

code:
.MP5[sub]spirit[/sub] MP5[sub]MP5[/sub]
----------------------- > -----------------------
.statMod[sub]spirit[/sub] statMod[sub]MP5[/sub]
... and then we have our answer. Compute this condition with our given equivalences, and we arrive at Spirit beating MP5 when Intellect > 204, a condition always met in TBC! The lesson is to always stack Spirit instead of MP5 if you're a Priest, Druid, or Arcane Mage.

Modeling Uptime of Procs
Procs are always interesting, but it can be hard to judge just how good they are. For example, take the Tier Five Four Piece Bonus, Arcane Madness.

In general, the way you calculate the percentage uptime is with 100%*[1-(chance to not proc)^(number of casts per unit proc time)]:
chance to proc = 1 - chance to not proc = 1 - (1 - C)^(6s*(1+Y)/2.5s)
C is crit rate, Y is percent haste, 2.5s is the cast time of fireball, 6s is the duration of the effect

With some sample values of 40% crit rate and 10% haste, that gives uptime of 74%. To get the average effect of the buff, take the uptime and multiply it by the bonus, so .74*70, or roughly 52 damage.

Faction Reputation Rewards

Argent Crusade:
Signet of Hopeful Light, Exalted, Ring

Kirin'Tor:
Shroud of Dedicated Research, Honored, Haste Cloak
Arcanum of Burning Mysteries, Head Enchant
Flameheart Spell Scalpel, Revered, Weapon

Knights of the Ebon Blade:
Dark Soldier Cape, Honored, Hit Cloak
Belt of Dark Mending, Exalted, Haste Belt
NB: I omitted some healer gloves which you can use in an absolute pinch.

Kalu'ak:
Turtle-Minders Robe, Honored, Chest

The Sons of Hodir:
Lesser Inscription of the Storm, Honored, Shoulder Enchant
Greater Inscription of the Storm, Exalted, Shoulder Enchant

The Wyrmrest Accord:
Sash of Wizened Wyrm, Honored, Hit Belt
Sandals of Crimson Fury, Exalted, Boots
A Mage-centric Rundown of Items of Interest From Level Eighty Dungeons

My general agreement with healers/dps casters in WLK is there are two "you cannot roll" stats. If the item has MP5, healers can invoke this agreement on dps casters. If the item has hit rating, dps casters can invoke this agreement on healers.

Ahn'Kanet (Heroic):
Staff of Sinister Claws, 2H Weapon, Haste+Spellpower
Silken Bridge Handwraps, Gloves, Haste+Spellpower
Amulet of the Spell Flinger, Neck, Crit+Spellpower
Necklace of Taldaram, neck, Hit+Spellpower

Azjol-Nerub (Heroic):
Rod of the Fallen Monarch, Wand, Crit+Spellpower
Sash of the Servant, Belt, Crit+Spellpower
Egg Sac Robes, Chest, Haste+Spellpower
Stone-Worn Footwraps, Boots, Crit+Spellpower
Rinf of the Traitor King, Ring, Crit+Spellpower

Culling of Stratholme (Nonheroic):
Sepiternal Staff, 2H Weapon, Crit+Spellpower
Tome of Salramm, Offhand, Crit+Spellpower

Culling of Stratholme (Heroic):
Belt of Unified Souls, Belt, Hit+Spellpower
Band of Guile, Ring, Haste+Spellpower

Drak'Tharon Keep (Heroic):
Cursed Lich Blade, 1H Weapon, Hit+Spellpower
Temple Crystal Fragment, Offhand, Haste+Spellpower
Savage Wound Wrap, Wrist, Haste+Spellpower

Gun'Drak (Heroic):
Nothing! Enjoy not doing this instance.

Halls of Stone (Nonheroic):
Static Cowl, Helm, Crit+Spellpower

Halls of Stone (Heroic):
Mantle of the Tribunal, Shoulder, Haste+Spellpower
Dark Runic Mantle, Shoulder, Haste+Spellpower (Better than Mantle of the Tribunal)
Forge Ember, Trinket, This looks like shit

Halls of Lightning (Nonheroic):
Ancient Measuring Rod, Wand, Hit+Spellpower
Volkhan's Hood, Helm, Haste+Spellpower
Cape of Seething Helm, Back, Hit+Spellpower

Halls of Lightning (Heroic):
Traditionally Dyed Handguards, Gloves, Haste+Spellpower
Ornate Woolen Stola, Chest, Crit+Spellpower
Woven Bracae Leggings, Legs, Crit+Spellpower (This is the first time I've seen Blizzard misspell an item name in LATIN. Braccae is Latin for "trousers.")
Flowing Sash of Order, Belt, Hit+Spellpower

Nexus (Heroic):
Telestra's Journal, Offhand, Hit+Spellpower
Gloves of Glistening Runes, Gloves, Crit+Spellpower
Cleric's Linen Shoes, Haste+Spellpower
Rippling Azure Cloak, Back, Crit, Spellpower

The Oculus (Nonheroic):
Vestments of the Scholar, Chest, Crit+Spellpower
The Conjurer's SLippers, Boots, Haste+Spellpower
Tome of Arcane Phenomena, Trinket, Spellpower

The Oculus (Heroic):
NB: This instance has a lot of really good items for healers and dps casters, so be prepared to roll off against them due to overlap. I mark these items with an asterisk.
*Staff of Draconic Combat, 2H Weapon, Haste+Spellpower
*Crown of Unbridled Magic, Helm, Spellpower+Metagem
Drakewing Raiments, Chest, Haste+Spellpower
*Cuffs of Winged Levitation, Wrist, Haste+Spellpower
Ancient Dragon Spirit Cape, Back, Haste+Spellpower
Pendulum of Telluric Currents, Trinket, Haste+Damage Proc

The Violet Hold (Heroic):
Azure Cloth Bindings, Bracer, Crit+Spellpower
Water-Drenched Robe, Chest, Hit+Spellpower
Globule Signet, Ring, Crit+Spellpower
Solitaire of Reflecting Beams, Ring, Haste+Spellpower
Mark of the War Prisoner, Trinket, Hit

Utgarde Keep (Heroic):
Wand of the San'layn, Wand, Hit+Haste+Spellpower
Annhylde's Ring, Ring, haste+Spellpower

Utgarde Pinnacle (Nonheroic):
Seal of Valgarde, Offhand, Haste+Spellpower
Signet of Ranulf, Ring, Haste+Spellpower

Utgarde Pinnacle (Heroic):
Staff of Wayward Principles, 2H Weapon, Haste+Spellpower
Netherbreath Spellblade, 1H Weapon, Crit+Spellpower
Sorrowgrave's Breeches, Legs, Crit+Spellpower
Girdle of Bane, Belt, Hit+Spellpower
Ring of the Frenzied Wolvar, Ring, Haste+Spellpower


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