Here I have decided to share with you answers of the questions you can asked me by the Google Form shared on the home page of the website !
Question: (Asked the 16/12/2017)
"I'd like to inquire about a build I'd like to ask your opinion on, as of right now. LoD/Halions HC farming guilds do a significant higher dps compared to retail guilds.
Whats your take of moving 2x points from Master of the Elements to Student of the Mind.as of now thats how I'm playing my mage whom is only 5.8ish and isn't facing much mana issues with crappy dps I have with pugs.
But again I wouldn't know how it will fare in 25man PP hc or even LK. but during LK we have good time with the transition for invocation I reckon?.
anyway I'd like to hear an opinion of an expert such as yourself.
thank you,"
My answer:
I assume you are speaking of a TTW Fire spec. And especially going from this template (here) to this one (here).
First I will approximatly show you the huge amount of mana given by this talent (Master of Elements). We will use under estimate scores. At icc raiding, a mage have a mana pool somewhere between 25 and 30k+ at icc let's assume 27k. A critical chance (real) around 60-70% lets say 65%. He regen around 160 mana per sec. And have 3 gems which give each 3k3 mana. Evocation have 4 minute cd so let's say we take a fight of 4 minutes. All the numbers are irrealistic because we cannot be sure the mage can blow away all the amount of mana (I'm pretty sure he cannot). But the potential mana he can have in a 4 minutes encounter without evocation are like that: 27k + 160*4*60 + 3*3k3 = 75300 and that's and underestimation. Assuming he is 1/3 Master of elements he will get 10% of 65% of 75300, means 4894 mana back by this talent. If he goes 3/3 on this talent he will get around 10k more manaback, a fireball cost 620 it means he will get 10K/620+(10K/620)*0.65 = 26 additionnal fireball. Before he will actually need to evocate or whatever.
Now you need to figure it out my number take as hypothesis are not realistic, and in 4 minute he will not blow all his mana, so in extension if he don't have to evocate in a longer fight and he don't use all the amount of mana, the additionnal mana gived by this 2 Points even if he is huge he is useless.
But if you go in a situation where the mage will have to evocate you have to figure it out with these points he can delay the moment he evocate by a minimum of 30 fireballs (and I say atleast because of on one side my underestimation and on the other side the fact that time (before requierement of the evocation) will be longer then 4 minute. So the manaback the player will have is larger and so the effectiviness of the Master of Elements).
As a brief recap, the amount of mana gived by these points is huge and can delay the moment of the evocation by 30 fireball, equivalent of 1 minute of encounter. But this effect his usefull only if the all manapool is consume during the encounter and the evocation is requiert.
Other side 2 points in Student of Mind give 13 point to the critical score. (Refer to the 4- Template section of the part 1. Fire)
Ok here we are and you have not made even one step foward in your interrogation !
Lets speak about the LK run, the most longer encounter of the expension. And actually the only one where you have to evocate if you are full gear and even if you have Master of Elements.
Speaking about my personnal experience:
- BIS geared (I miss the offhand in 277H)
- With the talent Master of Elements 3/3 and the Talent Arcane concentration 4/5 (mean I have on less Fireball free mana cost out of 50, it count but comparing to the intake of the Master of Elements it's not that much)
- On the LoD encounter
- With my level of playing mage (means that i actually cast way more spells than a random mage because I'm experienced on the respect of the most important rule of a caster which is Always Be Casting)
I never stop dpsing during the encounter, neither during encounter mechanic such as transition etc even when I have to move out of the plateform. I actually have no time to do even 1 tic of evocation without losing potential dps.
After many try and test, I have figure it out that with my guildies (assuming our raid dps) I can go to the Frostmourne phase without being Oom (I properly use my gems etc), so I prefer Evocate in the frostmourne when my dps lost by evocation is close to zero. But I enter the Frostmourne with a manapool between 3 and 7 percent, every time, depending on my crit on the encounter. So in my case removing 1 point off the Master element, will not allowed me to go this far in the encounter without evocate myself. (Btw I choose to remove 1 point from Arcane Concentration especially because I can do it without being Oom before the Frostmourne).
So if you ask me I prefer losing 13 crit score points then 6 sec of casting time by evocate myself.
But speaking of your case, with a gear as your, i will never ever take the risk of trade these 2 points for student of mind, you have a huge risk of being Oom on more then just LK encounter ! And if you are doing test without theses points and it's not the case (you being Oom) I'm pretty sure is more a question of not playing well your mage and not cast as much spell as you actually can.
To conclude, do not always considere that what the highest level players do is the best way to, because if you are not at their level you cannot properly judge on their level and you will only see the huge numbers, and you will not get that in fact the difference of the player who can pull 18k on PP and the player who can reach 20k is huge way more then the difference of a 8k and a 10k at low level. And do not have false idea the guild name do not assure skill, lot of mages in most of end game raiding guilds are not truely good/exceptionnals. In fact a high level guilds way prefer players doing a not so good dps but mastering encounters by do not ever make mistakes.
For what I seen the most powerfull spec is this one:
I personnally use this one:
Why Magic Absorption is more powerfull, I think it's explain on another section but, it's because as an experienced player, you can use it in the way to sustain much longer on certain situation, and that's allowed you do do not break you cast before moving. It make you able to overpowered some other really good mage by having a longer activity (mean casting time) during the encounter.
On my side I chose to take 4/5 Arcane Concentration and not 1/3 Student of mind, to keep an error marge on LK encounter. But as I said I am at 3-7% mana when I go to the Frostmourne, so I could improve my dps by going down to 0-4% and taking 1/3 student of mind.
You will find a lot of differents specs in the armory, I saw a lot of differents things, let me give you some examples:
The traditionnal build - Fair enough to my mind but the player have not saw the value i saw in the Magic Absorption
The build without Flame Throwing - Also standard but the player don't understand that the range is not only about "I don't have range issues during the encounter" (except if he only play this spec for Halion encounter)
The build for short encounters - If the player have to evocate with this build, he will be beated by the others.
This man seems lost - This guy seems to have seen players using magic absorption but didn't get why.
All theses examples was picked up in most imminents guilds of the server, some are played by really good players,
At the end the efficiency of a player cannot be reduce at the build he use.
But I'm also glad that players to whom I have explain my point of view have all adopted on of the 2 spec I recommended; and have gived me good feedbacks about it.
Tiny.
PS: Forgive my orthography mistakes on this post.
Feedback: (Gived the 17/01/2018)
"You could have like a good starter gear for lvl 80 which gear to use before raiding."
My answer:
Since a while I really want to create a section about BIS gear for each ilvl stage starting at 200. So a part about which gear farm first and easely when the mage is new as a lvl 80 can enter in that area. But I need someone really experienced to help me if I want to go through that part (without a huge amount of time to devote in). I don't have made the complete progress through Naxx and Ulduar (I came their sometimes but every time overgeared). I only know how to burn the steps in terms of gearing in order to go at the most valuable potential of the mage as soon as possible.
Question: (Asked the 11/07/2020)
"I've seen some recommend Misty Eye of Zul in blue slots for TTW fire at higher gear (more stable DPS). I tried it a bit myself, and it doesn't seem so good at my gear level but I'm wondering what your thoughts are.
https://www.gnarlyguides.com/wotlk/guides/pve-fire-mage/ "
My answer:
Hi, to my mind, Misty Eye of Zul in blue slots doesn't worth it it's a too strong SP loss. Purified dreadstone give +12sp +5.5crit, meanwhile Misty eye of zul give 10+5.5crit, it means you are trading 12 sp for 10 crit, meanwhile SP have more value then crit in TTW fire (especially high gear), it's a loss.
I took a look on that guide, i respect the job done but i don't recommend it lot of things are uncorrect. examples of wrong things : [Frostfireball build] is more suitable for new players with lower gear level. / [About specializations] Both builds can redistribute one point from Master of Elements into Blast Wave for increased utility. / Minor Glyphs : Glyph of Fire Ward Glyph of Frost Ward Glyph of Slow Fall (Arcane illumination minor glyph is way better than any other in pve, it reduce the mana cost of a rebuff on a reborn ally) / Option 2: high-level gear, enough spell damage to add some crits: Red: Potent Ametrine Yellow: Potent Ametrine Blue: Misty Eye of Zul / Hit -> Spell Power & Crit -> Haste -> Spirit -> Intellect (SP is > to crit)
Feedback/Question: (Asked the 20/12/2020)
Hi,
first of all, thanks for the compilation of knowlegde, it's been really helpful !
I found a slight problem in your hast cap section. I found everywhere on the internet that the hast cap allows to pull 4FB in 1 t10proc. The problem is, considering, the t10proc lasts 5 secs, and that it starts after the release of PB, how could you fit 4 FB in the remaining 4 secs (with a 1sec GCD which is not in reality, especially because your PB's GCD isn't affected by the t10proc) ?
This fact considered, I think your maths are wrong here and might need some fixing. I would love to see an update if you're still active Thanks again.
My answer :
Hi,
Thanks for the feedback !
You seem to sligthly misunderstood how is calculated the haste for a fireball cast. To be applied a haste buff must be "up" when you start casting a spell, dot during is complete duration.
So let do an example assuming you are spamming and you have enough haste to cast FB in one sec and get a 1s gcd (~50% haste), just in order to show you it is possible to benefit from pushing the limits on 4 FB:
You just finish a fireball, you use Pyroblast under the effect of hotstreak, let's call the moment you push the Pyro button the time 0s
0s : Pushing the limits start, at this same time you Pyro GCD is starting too.
1s : Pyro gcd end, 4secondes remain on Pushing the limits
1.00...1s : you press the Fireball button, 3.99....9s remain on Pushing the limit, it's your 1st Fireball benefiting from Pushing the limits
2.00...1s : your Fireball cast is done, same for the GCD, you press on the Fireball button and the next cast start, 2.99...9s remain on Pushing the Limits, it's your 2d Fireball benefiting from Pushing the limits
3.00...1s : your Fireball cast is done, same for the GCD, you press on the Fireball button and the next cast start, 1.99...9s remain on Pushing the Limits, it's your 3d Fireball benefiting from Pushing the limits
4.00...1s : your Fireball cast is done, same for the GCD, you press on the Fireball button and the next cast start, 0.99...9s remain on Pushing the Limits, it's your 4th Fireball benefiting from Pushing the limits.
I hope it's clear enough, that even with latency you can start casting 4 FB under one same Pushing the limits buff, and doing that the all 4 benefit about the haste buff because the casting time of a spell, is cast calculating when you are starting the cast of it.
Question: (Asked the 09/11/2022)
[Talking about TTW Spec] Optimization section, i would like to see a explanation of why 5 t10 pieces are not the optimal
My answer:
Hi,
There is a pretty simple and generally appliable answer, the Set Gear pieces are design with slithly less statistics than the items which are not included into a Set (probabily a sort of counterpart of not having any combine effect)
So basically (and it's appliable for any classe and any specs) if you have to choose between two items at the same level of object (ilvl) and the same combo of stats but you don't need any more piece to activate usefull set bonus, you should always prefer non-set items over set items.
More specifically about TTW fire spec BIS gear, on that spec it's even more true because the Robe of the weaking nightmare is an amazing item, it's a perfect fit for the TTW fire spec with the 3 strongest stats of the spec : Hit score, Spell power, Crit score. Plus the fact it's located on a chest part which are with the head and the legs (and the weapon), the most powerfull parts of the equipment. These points combine allows you to get so much hit score out of 2 items (the chest and the legs (set)) that you can totally cut off a lower piece of equipement which is providing you hit and (...with addition of a few spell+hit gems...) turn it into a more offensive combo of stats. With that item you can restreint the number of pieces carring hit from 4 to 3 (the 3 are : hand (set), legs (set) and the Robe of the waking nightmare)