why am i such a random dps'er? i'm a fire mage

A

Alfred Neuman

Futbal Expert5
i have a potential of dpsing upto 10-17k, yet i do 5-10k.

im a fire mage btw. am i doing something with my rotation? i try to do the same rotation: scorch x 5, living bomb, fireball, blast wave (when possible), flame orb (when it's up), hot streak when it's up.

granted my rotation varies depending on when i get a streak going, as i will stop my cycle and go for that first.
 
Flame Orb->Living Bomb->Scorch x1 (If you dont have a shadowbolt lock) -> Pyroblast (on Hot streak procs)->Fireball Filler

Only blast wave when you're fishing for an Impact Proc in a multi target fight. Don't overwrite living bombs, let them run their duration.

When you have a nice ignite rolling, Pyroblast, Living Bomb all up on the target, pop combustion. Hopefully you can time it with a CD/Power Torrent/Engineering Gloves/Tailoring Back/trinket proc.

So yeah, you were way off >.>

Fire is very RNG. I recommend at least two piece bonus to use it.
 
Combustion helper is really a great mod. And EJ crunched a bunch of numbers which apparently say that it's better to wait on combustion until you get a really big ignite from Pyroblast, even if you don't use combustion each time it's available.

But ya... gear has a lot to do with fire. Frost is still more consistent for me, and for progression, I pick consistency.
 
From the WoW forums Fire Mage guide

You'll want to start your fights with Scorch. This will put Critical Mass on the target, which increases your chance to crit by 5%. Next, throw out your Flame Orb. Followed by Living Bomb. Keep both Living Bomb and Critical Mass up on the target at all times. (Remember: Pyroblast! will also put Critical Mass on your target) In an ideal situation, you would then spam Fireball until the end of eternity. However, you'll find yourself going OOM fast... very very fast. This is where Scorch Weaving comes in.

Scorch Weaving: This is the reason we spec 2/2 into Improved Scorch. Our Scorches cost us 0(!) mana. It makes Scorch our most mana efficient spell by far. However, Fireball does more DPS. In order to keep our mana pools at a constant level, we must Scorch Weave. That is alternating between Scorch and Fireball. Therefore, mages do something like this, during a fight:

Fireball to 80ish % mana, Mana Gem, Fireball to 30% mana, Evocate, Fireball to 50% mana, Scorch Weave. All of this while keeping Living Bomb and Critical Mass on the target and using Combustion (see below for more details on Combustion)

Keeping your mana at 50% allows you to burn down the boss with Fireball if necessary. This could happen if a boss has a mechanic increasing it's damage taken or if an add needs to be burned.

However, keep this in mind: You do NOT want mana left over during the fight. Left over mana is wasted DPS, since you could have (possibly) casted one more fireball instead of a scorch.

Combustion: Finally, I'll talk about Combustion. Combustion is the Fire mages 2 minute cooldown. It has a very interesting mechanic. Let me explain it with an example:

Example:
Your Living Bomb is ticking for 300 ever 3 seconds on the target. =100 DPS
You just got a Pyroblast! You cast it on the target and its DoT is ticking for 75 every 3 seconds. = 25 DPS
The Pyroblast crit, and the Ignite from the crit is ticking for 150 every 2 seconds. =75 DPS

This would be the ideal time to use Combustion. The Combustion would tick for 200 damage per second (Please Note: these numbers are completely made up)
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|Blitzkrieg| said:
From the WoW forums Fire Mage guide
Click to expand...

This is all great advice and is basically what I do. I've start opening boss encounters with pyroblast, and I like it. Seems to help me get my first combustion up faster. :shrug:

Just check out the EJ mage forum. They go into all aspects of the class including priorities. I've never really had a problem with going OOM, and I don' scorch much except if I need to keep critical mass up or when I'm required to move. Some movement heavy fights like Ascendant Council I end up casting mostly scorches and LB's. Fights where you don't need to move a lot like Chimearon, I use a lot more fireballs.

*edit* for shorter fights, fire is somewhat variable since it is a very crit-dependent spec. But for longer fights, it's relatively stable. One of the biggest things is that you should ALWAYS have LB up on as many targets as possible. And you should ALWAYS be casting something even if it's just scorch.

I went from bottom of my guild's charts to near the top recently. Part of that was gear (another part was that I stopped drinking 3-4 beers before raids. I now limit it to 2 :) ). But also I downloaded magenuggets and combustion helped. Magenuggets has a great built in LB counter and proc warnings (and sheep timer). Combustion helper rules and makes combustion really easy to use. It's great for all fights since combustion is a HUGE dps boon. It's even better for fights where mass AoE is necessary (Halfus' drakelings for example). Getting a nice 10000 DPS combustion up (plus the other DoT's on which the combustion is based) on all the drakelings is super super sexy.
 
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Two other things to note.

1. With the next patch, Scorch weaving shouldn't be as needed. They're lowering the mana cost of fireball. Should help with many of the mana "holding" patterns.

2. You can spread combustion with Impact. Halfus is a great fight to do it on.

Another trick that EJ has been talking about lately is to put on your T10 4 piece set before the fight. Ask the tank to count down the pull from say 5 seconds. Pop MI and switch back to your normal gear. Drink up quickly to regain mana from putting on your normal gear and you should still have 20-25 seconds of MI up with the Quad Core buff from the 4 piece set bonus giving you +18% damage. I'd test it on the targetting dummies before trying it in an actual raid, and there's always the chance some moron will pull too soon and you'll end up having to fight the fight in your T10 4 piece, but if done right, it'll add a ton of damage to the start of the fight.

Remember to invis though as it'll generate a ton of agro.
 
Mael said:
Two other things to note.

1. With the next patch, Scorch weaving shouldn't be as needed. They're lowering the mana cost of fireball. Should help with many of the mana "holding" patterns.

2. You can spread combustion with Impact. Halfus is a great fight to do it on.

Another trick that EJ has been talking about lately is to put on your T10 4 piece set before the fight. Ask the tank to count down the pull from say 5 seconds. Pop MI and switch back to your normal gear. Drink up quickly to regain mana from putting on your normal gear and you should still have 20-25 seconds of MI up with the Quad Core buff from the 4 piece set bonus giving you +18% damage. I'd test it on the targetting dummies before trying it in an actual raid, and there's always the chance some moron will pull too soon and you'll end up having to fight the fight in your T10 4 piece, but if done right, it'll add a ton of damage to the start of the fight.

Remember to invis though as it'll generate a ton of agro.
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Seems like too much headache for too little payoff/too much risk.
 
Not really if you use any kind of gear swapping tool. It's just a few clicks, and 20 seconds of +18% damage is a pretty damn big deal.
 
Use justice points :)
I've been capped for a while with nothing to spend em on. Waiting for the damn trade skill vendors.

Oh and according to rumor, don't try this trick on Nef. Apparently it pulls either him or onyxia due to the odd mechanics needed to engage her.
 
my other question: is frost better than fire for raid/heroic dungeons?

also, o heard that flame orb wouldnt be counted into combustions damage. basically its on top of combustion, not included in combustion.
 
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Flame Orb is not a dot/debuff that is on a mob. The only part of Flabe Orb that combustion will affect is any Ignite procs from Flame Orb. But really you should be waiting for a big Ignite from Fireball or better yet Pyroblast/Pyroblast!
 
Alfred Neuman said:
my other question: is frost better than fire for raid/heroic dungeons?

also, o heard that flame orb wouldnt be counted into combustions damage. basically its on top of combustion, not included in combustion.
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Frost is definitely fun. Lots of things flying at the enemy and lots of crits. The raid wide mana regen boost is also nice. But I don't think the single target DPS is as good, and the AoE certainly isn't. Frost might be situationally better for fights the require kiting or something.
 
I don't like raiding with the same spec I solo with. I do look forward to eventually getting back to high crit rates with Fire, but right now it's dull hoping for a decent hot streak proc.
 
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