Riot Act Forum

Pushing the Limit

2010-02-12T20:23:12Z

Since acquiring the 2pc T-10 Bonus, I’ve ran into the same problem that many mages serverwide have ran into, and that’s missing the Pushing the Limit buff in your first cast of ABlast *after* Arcane Missiles (due to clipping it based on your Quartz bar).

I haven’t made a decision on how I want to handle this just yet, though to me it reeks of “be more pro and hit your ABlast button right as your cast bar ends on AMissiles”. I was curious what the mages of Riot Act thought about the subject, or what you guys have already came up with to make it easier to ensure you’re getting the first cast of Ablast hasted.

BiS List Fire (Rawr 2.3.13)

2010-04-08T13:16:36Z

Made a separate thread because its more convienent to have more sets in the first post and comparing DPS numbers between 2 specs with rawr isn’t very precise.

Standard raid buffs + Demonic Pact (5000 SP) and ICC Buff. Professions are Tailoring / Enchanting.
Updated to 10% ICC Buff.

Fire: 17,063.87 DPS (Only swaps to T10 Gloves, Hit neck, Sindragosa trinket and some different gems from BiS Arcane)

Head: Sanctified Bloodmage Hood
Neck: Amulet of the Silent Eulogy
Shoulders: Sanctified Bloodmage Shoulderpads
Chest: Sanctified Bloodmage Robe
Back: Frostbinder’s Shredded Cape
Wrists: The Lady’s Brittle Bracers
Hands: Sanctified Bloodmage Gloves
Waist: Crushing Coldwraith Belt
Legs: Sanctified Bloodmage Leggings
Feet: Plague Scientist’s Boots
Rings: Ring of Rapid Ascent Ashen Band of Endless Destruction
Trinkets: Dislodged Foreign Object Phylactery of the Nameless Lich
Mainhand: Bloodsurge, Kel’Thuzad’s Blade of Agony
Offhand: Shadow Silk Spindle
Wand: Corpse-Impaling Spike

Gems:
Purified Dreadstone for all blue sockets.
Reckless Ametrine for all yellow sockets and 1 red socket.
Runed Cardinal Ruby for all other red sockets.

Fire: 16,803.21 DPS (Without using HLK25 weapon, about 250dps less)
Swaps: Neck Gunship to BQL, Weapon LK to Putricide, Gloves T10 to Gunship, Ring Gunship to Marrowgar

Head: Sanctified Bloodmage Hood
Neck: Blood Queen’s Crimson Choker
Shoulders: Sanctified Bloodmage Shoulderpads
Chest: Sanctified Bloodmage Robe
Back: Frostbinder’s Shredded Cape
Wrists: The Lady’s Brittle Bracers
Hands: Gunship Captain’s Mittens
Waist: Crushing Coldwraith Belt
Legs: Sanctified Bloodmage Leggings
Feet: Plague Scientist’s Boots
Rings: Loop of the Endless Labyrinth Ashen Band of Endless Destruction
Trinkets: Dislodged Foreign Object Phylactery of the Nameless Lich
Mainhand: Rigormortis
Offhand: Shadow Silk Spindle
Wand: Corpse-Impaling Spike

Gems:
Purified Dreadstone for all blue sockets.
Reckless Ametrine for all yellow sockets and 1 red socket.
Runed Cardinal Ruby for all other red sockets.

BiS List Arcane (Rawr 2.3.13)

2010-03-23T15:19:52Z

Standard raid buffs + Demonic Pact (5000 SP) and ICC Buff. Professions are Tailoring / Enchanting.
Updated to 10% ICC Buff.

Arcane: 16,502.51 DPS (16,485.12 using T10 gloves, Festergut Pants, Rotface Wrists - Essentially identical @17dps difference)

Head: Sanctified Bloodmage Hood
Neck: Blood Queen’s Crimson Choker
Shoulders: Sanctified Bloodmage Shoulderpads
Chest: Sanctified Bloodmage Robe
Back: Frostbinder’s Shredded Cape
Wrists: The Lady’s Brittle Bracers
Hands: San’layn Ritualist Gloves
Waist: Crushing Coldwraith Belt
Legs: Sanctified Bloodmage Leggings
Feet: Plague Scientist’s Boots
Rings: Ring of Rapid Ascent Ashen Band of Endless Destruction
Trinkets: Dislodged Foreign Object Reign of the Dead
Mainhand: Bloodsurge, Kel’Thuzad’s Blade of Agony
Offhand: Shadow Silk Spindle
Wand: Corpse-Impaling Spike

Gems:
Purified Dreadstone for all socket bonuses of 7 or more spell power.
Reckless Ametrine for all other sockets.

Arcane: 16,258.32 DPS (Without using HLK25 weapon, about 250dps less)
Swaps: Weapon LK to Putricide, Wrists Deathwhisper to Rotface.

Head: Sanctified Bloodmage Hood
Neck: Blood Queen’s Crimson Choker
Shoulders: Sanctified Bloodmage Shoulderpads
Chest: Sanctified Bloodmage Robe
Back: Frostbinder’s Shredded Cape
Wrists: Death Surgeon’s Sleeves
Hands: San’layn Ritualist Gloves
Waist: Crushing Coldwraith Belt
Legs: Sanctified Bloodmage Leggings
Feet: Plague Scientist’s Boots
Rings: Ring of Rapid Ascent Ashen Band of Endless Destruction
Trinkets: Dislodged Foreign Object Reign of the Dead
Mainhand: Rigormortis
Offhand: Shadow Silk Spindle
Wand: Corpse-Impaling Spike

Gems:
Purified Dreadstone for all socket bonuses of 7 or more spell power.
Reckless Ametrine for all other sockets.

Also, Fire’s huge lead over Arcane has a lot to do with the availability of a viable 277 trinket, which Arcane does not have. If you change to 4pc T10 (due to limited availability of tokens) and the second best trinket (Heroic Muradin’s) the dps gap closes a bit leaving fire at around 16,010 DPS.

So, when do you swap to fire?! In general, if you get the Sindragosa trinket Fire is better than Arcane, however I would still prefer Arcane for certain fights in ICC. For example, any target swapping that doesn’t allow significant ignite or living bomb ticks ends up favoring Arcane (Blood Beasts).

Which spec is better for the only significant fight, HLK25, is still debatable. Given that Fire’s single target is at the very least as good as Arcane, either spec should be okay.

Arcane Mage 102

2010-01-29T00:34:59Z

Arcane Mage 101
This will be a short guide on how I personally play Arcane Mage. Not everything will be similar to other mages but it is how I interpret the spec and class. I’m not “perfect” so if anyone has comments I’m open to them!

Spec & Glyphs
57/3/11
When hard modes are released I plan on speccing into Magic Absorption because it will be useful on many fights in ICC that has magical damage. This was similar in Ulduar where speccing into Magic Absorption helped on fights like Hodir, Thorim, Mimiron, and etc.

Glyph of Molten Armor
Glyph of Arcane Blast
Glyph of Arcane Missiles
No question about choosing different glyphs

Rotation
The regular rotation of an Arcane Mage is
AB-> AB-> AB->AB->AM (Assuming Missile Barrage proc)
Missile Barrage usually procs because it has a 40% proc rate but if it doesn’t you have three options:
1. Use Arcane Barrage if you need to move right very soon or right away.
2. Keep casting Arcane Blast until MB procs and use AM. You only want to resort to this if you have the mana to keep spamming AB because a 4 stack AB debuff = 1720 mana per Arcane Blast. Remember, only do this if you have an evocation or mana gem up + you won’t run oom before the fight ends. No mana = no dps
3. Cast AM right after your 4th AB because it still yields more damage per minute even without Missile Barrage proccing

Cooldowns
Even though everyone talks about how Arcane Mages are a no skill easy class, to do competitive DPS is about managing your CD’s well (in my opinion). With ICC gear(900-1300 haste) + 2pct10/4pct10 it changes on how I normally run my cool downs. Before that you can macro everything into a one “I win” button but now it’s different.
Since I’m an Engineer-Troll this is how I normally manage my cool downs for fights:
Pre-pull: Potion of Speed right before the pull to get my AB stacks rolling at a quicker speed
If we are lusting early:
Mirror Image(4pct10, 30 percent extra damage), Arcane Power, + Hyperspeed Accelerator
After lust is over:
Berserking + Icy Veins +Potion of Wild Magic when Black Magic comes back up to yield me 1 second AB/AM.
Then just use CD’s as they come back up. I generally try to line up my Beserking/IV/Hyperspeed with Mirror Image since it yields me extra damage with 4pct10. If the fights are short then I generally pop them on CD.

If we lust late then I’d start the fight with the pre-pull Potion of Speed into an ABx4->MB (2pct10) -> Mirror Image (4pct10) ->AP/Hyperspeed Gloves ->Icy Veins -> Berserking (When Hyperspeed Accelerator/Black Magic drop off). After that I just try to align lust with MI/AP/Gloves/Black Magic/Potion of Wild Magic. I do not use IV/Berserking with lust because it drops my GCD down to lower than a second and that will just result in a loss of DPS.

Gear stats
Hit > Spell power > Haste > Crit > Spirit
Hit: 210 (Arcane Focus + Precision + Shadow Priest/Boomkin). 289 without an SP/Boomkin.
Spell power/Haste: After 3000 Spell Power, haste will be really good stat. You never gem full haste gems because by the end of ICC heroic gear you will generally have 1200-1300 haste.
Crit/Spirit: Sucks but if you had a choice go for Crit.

Gem
I normally follow the rule of
Red: Runed
Orange: Reckless
Blue: Purified

Dixz

2010-01-26T20:14:14Z

get this shit started