Mage class changes in patch 3.1, so far

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

2-06-2009 @ 5:19AM

Rikitiki said...

I'm confused, don't frost mages already have a PvE shatter combo? When I get a proc of fingers of frost, I cast two frostfire bolts and deliver an instant ice lance or fireball (if brain freeze is up) just as the second bolt finishes. All three spells get the benefit of fingers of frost, and thus shatter. Combined with ignite, ice shards, and the T7 four-piece bonus, that's a really hefty chunk of damage as long as I'm paying attention to my procs.

As for raiding as frost, I do it. I use this spec: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oZfVbcM0hhZhIcskfu0fzxfkh

It may not be the theoretically optimal DPS for me, but I get a lot of control and survivability out of it which is not to be discounted. And really, I think the DPS is pretty competitive... I often top the meters on both aoe-heavy and single-target encounters. The above nuke strategy combined with three or four water elementals and icy veins per boss fight makes up a lot of the difference from omitting the deep fire "glass cannon" talents.

2-06-2009 @ 9:38AM

Gormakr said...

No, it doesn't work this way. FoF works on the next 2 spells. It's not like Frost Nova/Frostbite in that if a spell leaves you and the target is still affected, it gets the shatter benefit. Once your second FFB is cast, the FoF buff is consumed and the Ice Lance won't get FoF treatment.

2-06-2009 @ 2:11PM

Rikitiki said...

Yeah, um, have you actually tried it, Gormakr? It's really easy to test... figure out how much your Ice Lances hit/crit for against non-frozen targets, and then find a target dummy and try the FoF shatter combo I was describing. It should get the 3x multiplier if you do it right. It does for me, anyway.

Maybe this is a bug (in which case forget I said anything!) but I kind of assumed FoF was *intended* to give mages the shatter combo in parties or raids where your target is either immune to rooting effects or quickly broken out of them by other dpsers.

2-06-2009 @ 5:04PM

Momijizukamori said...

It's a bug - one they never bothered fixing, but it's akin to being able to chain Arcane Missiles and Arcane Barrage together and get the Arcane Blast damage buff to both (which they _did_ fix because it was overpowered). If your latency is nice and steady, yeah, you'll get the Ice Lance in pretty often. If it's not, though? Nope. Also, Ice Lance scales terribly, so in another tier up of gear it doesn't matter if you can do it or not, you get more DPS out of just hitting frostbolt again than wasting 1.5 sec to cast Ice Lance.

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