Arcane Brilliance: Pyromaniacs unite!
by Amanda Rivera 
Jul 28th 2007 at 2:00PM
It's Arcane Brilliance time again, and we're back with our third installment on the three types of mages. We've already talked about some helpful aspects and defining characteristics of both the Arcane and the Frost mage. Now we turn to the Firestarters among us.
About two weeks ago I actually respecc'd from Arcane/Frost to Arcane/Fire because I decided to get into raiding, returning to my roots as I originally played a fire mage. I'm still playing a blended spec, but my dps automatically went up a hundred points. Why is that? Because the fire tree is where the damage is at. Originally I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to change my frost-loving ways, but after one instance run I can confirm I am hooked on the flame. I really do miss the mana efficiency of my previous spec, but what I noticed as I burned down Bladefist without batting an eye, was that with a good potion supply and a reasonable spell rotation I was sitting pretty. Yes, I am drinking after every fight, but when you're critting like crazy, a girl builds up a thirst.
The Fire mage isn't about mana efficiency, or control, they are all about burning things to a crisp, damaging their foes into oblivion. If anyone has ever been one-shotted with a Pyroblast in the arena as I have, you'll know what I mean. I myself have started a new love affair with the fire talents, the first being Combustion. It's weird to think that I have come full circle back to the days when I obsessively hit this talent every time it came up, but I have. My god, how did I ever survive without Blast Wave? I recall it being my absolute favorite spell when I first got it oh so long ago, and I am very grateful to have it back again.
There is a small amount of control when you beef up Impact as your target has a chance for stunnage, and that few seconds really can make a difference. But I find that the control of the Frost mage is pretty much negated by the increase in damage that the Fire talents contain. Fire Power, Ignite, Incinerate, among other spells, all increase your fire damage. I have noticed now that instead of my total spell damage being higher across the board as I had with my Frost spec, I now have my fire and arcane damage increased, so that I have greater dps by virtue of my more efficient plusses to spell damage.
I am currently running in a Kara group with a full fire mage, who out damages me on nearly every pull. For this reason, I am considering trying the 61 points, but my debate lies in the viability of Dragon Breath versus the utility of Presence of Mind. Having that instant cast Pyroblast is pretty sweet. Pyromaniacs out there, do you recommend the blending of Arcane with Fire talents, or do you prefer the purity of a 0/61/0 spec?
Filed under: (Mage) Arcane Brilliance, Mage
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Panagiotis Jul 28th 2007 2:12PM
Even tho i am not a mage i think spending at least 10 points in arcane for clearcasting is more than worth it :)
Dabura Jul 28th 2007 2:21PM
Indeed, I was 40/21 in arcane/fire and I recently respecced 10/48/3 and I have to say that it is much better in Pve, dragon's breath can be used in more situations then ppl would think. I have to say 61 in fire is silly, because there are serveral talents that are purely Pvp and others are just not useful in a Pve situation. Having said that I do miss having arcane power.
Nic Jul 28th 2007 2:23PM
I plan on using the following spec once i get to 70.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=kf0VZxgRzfcIoeRt0h
The rotation the mage will be using is as follows:
5 scorches, 7 fireballs, 1 scorch, 7 fireballs, etc.
A fireblast may be interspersed every 2 fireballs.
thats what wowwiki says =)
Dave Jul 28th 2007 2:23PM
Cleacasting in Arcane and Elemental Precision in frost will get you the best bang for your buck (damage for your mana) if you're looking at spec'ing deep fire. 33/28 arcane/fire is a compromise spec and can outshine 10/48/3 later on in raiding. It gives you AP/PoM in addition to a good amount of fire boosting talents.
TotalBiscuit Jul 28th 2007 2:45PM
If you're raiding pre-tier5 level, you really should be using 10/48/3, it's the effeciency spec of choice. The reasoning is pretty simple, you get yourself clearcasting without having to compromise any of the useful PVE fire talents.
Back in the day, it used to be all about the 17/31/3, that was the Naxxramus spec of choice, but with so many great talents so far down the tree now, there's little point in not taking Dragon's Breath since you'd be mad not to take empowered fireball.
If you want to know more about mages, we aired part one of our 'World of Theorycraft' shows, covering mainly the arcane viability debate and a few other things, particularly mana-effeciency, and part 2 will be airing Tuesday at 7pm GMT (2pm EST) at http://www.wcradio.com going a little more indepth with fire and frost.
TB.
TotalBiscuit Jul 28th 2007 2:49PM
Also here's a little something to bear in mind about the scorch rotation. Sometimes it's not worth stacking. In 5-mans, heroic or otherwise on trash, your dps will be far higher simply nuking fireball. If you have 2 firemages with imp scorch then it's often worth negotiating with the other mage for a 3/2 scorch-stack rotation on a mob to mob basis, then the dps gain of the stacks works out just fine. We usually have 3 10/48/3 specced mages in our raids in SSC and TK so we just stack 2/2/1 and get back to nuking fireball, taking it in turns to restack the scorch debuff (the entire stack is renewed for another 30 seconds simply with one scorch cast). Using NaturEnemyCastBar is the best way to monitor whether or not the scorch is gonna run out, so just keep one eye on it at all times.
TB.
Tyler Jul 28th 2007 3:31PM
My spec is 37/24 arcane fire. You get massive crits and lots of + dmg skills. I still throw fireballs of course as my dmg source. With over 1000 + damage and 35% crit, this is the spec to be. The amount of dps you can put out is simply insane. I'll sometimes see ignite tick for 2000+ !!
http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Kel'Thuzad&n=Speakerbox
Tyler Jul 28th 2007 3:32PM
It cut off my armory link to see my spec; just put these lines together;
http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Kel'Thuzad
&n=Speakerbox
Tylenol Jul 28th 2007 3:51PM
Does everyone get happy when you get put in a group with a Shadow priest, or is it just me. ... Free Mana!!!! /hug priest.
Josh Jul 28th 2007 4:43PM
@9 Oh yeah I play with a Shadow Priest all the time (although he just recently respeced :( ), but the healing and mana from Vampiric talents were just yummy.
Kristianna Jul 28th 2007 7:51PM
@9
Heh... and I thought it was only me that had noticed grouping with a shadow priest made me damn near invincible... my portable mana/health fountain is my don't-leave-home-without-it accessory!
multikast Jul 30th 2007 11:06AM
i'm thinking of respeccing (just for a few tweaks) to this:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=of0Vf0fzZEg0zf0coeoL
it is meant for a balance of instance and pvp. i'd really like to have the last point in imp. fireball and dragon's breath, but alas, there's just not enough points.
selmak Jul 30th 2007 6:59PM
I am a deep fire raid mage, and I consistently do at least 2-3% more DPS than anyone else in the raid, sometimes up to 5%.
Among the surprising things about my build, I don't PoM or Pyroblast, blastwave, or dragon's breathe. I find these talents only distract from my deep raid build.
Pyroblast/blastwave/dragonsbreath don't really add to DPS, for obvious reasons, and in the place of those 3 points, I can put 2 in arcane subtlety for the 10 points of resistance reduction (not too great, but a decent bump in DPS in fights that have resistant monsters), as well as put in 3/3 in playing with fire, which is a bump in DPS commensurate to the amount that I am ahead of my guild.
As others have said, if you want true raiding DPS, however, 10+/46+/3 is the way to live.