DPS very low

[Enzyte 11]

Hi guys!

I have my mage on 90 and I playing as a frost. My /played on 90 is like 24 hours. (That's why I don't have that good gear yet). The thing is I don't really like frost. I mean it's fun while I doing dailies globalling everything, but I don't like it in instances. I like fire so I've changed to fire...

I was reading the guide here but I don't think it's a good idea to play fire with this gear. I don't get any heating up procs, casting is uber slow. It's very low DPS.

So do I need better gear for fire? Should I go arcane til I get some better gear? Or stay frost? D:

Here is my armory:

http://eu.battle.net...n/Wyrick/simple

Yea I know my reforging is bad and my gems are terrible but I wanted to try out anything to maximize the damage D:

Thanks for reading!

[areanu 16]

According to http://simulationcraft.org/, fire starts to outperform frost at about ilvl 520-ish.

However, it's how comfortable you are with the spec that makes your dps great or terrible, imo. As to frost, PoM and Frost bomb are not the best talents. Consider blazing speed and any of two other bombs. :)

Also, make sure to maximize uptimes of Invoker's energy and the bomb you pick.

If you don't like frost, it sounds quite reasonable to switch to fire and keep practicing. This way, you will have a good grip on the spec and won't have to re-learn it at higher ilvls. :)

[Oltier 471]

Hello Enzyte!

I will be frankly honest in a short way. On your item level, fire sucks... I will not get enough crit, consequently not enough pyros, consequently bad Combustions. This will of course affect your DPS.

Arcane is the same. It can shine on many encounters where you don't have to move frequently. Once you have to, your DPS will drop signifficantly.

Frost can shine anywhere :3

The most important thing is, that you should play the spec you enjoy the most, and gear for that. Go into LFRs, HCs, gear your character up and your DPS will increase for sure. Nobody will care about your DPS in HCs and LFR... Once you can get into ToT LFR and your gear is optimized and you still feel that your DPS is low, I am sure we will be able to help you.

And yea... What Areanu said before me. Just drop Frost bomb and start using NT or LB. NT shines on multi-dotting, LB shines on single target. Try to have close to 100% uptime with your dots. If you choose frost of fire spec, you should choose Invocation talent, for Arcane rune of power keep those up close to 100% on you.

If you stay frost mage, choose blazing speed instead of PoM. As fire/arcane PoM shines

For Frost mage glyph of ice lance is mandatory, as well as glyph of water elemental in many fights. Later on, you will want to choose glyph of icy veins but only when you realize that your frostbolt casts are being overlapped by the GCD.

Just for curiousity. Why don't you like frost in instances? I found it super fun with frozen orbing down huge packs :DD

[Mit213 20]

I agree with pretty much everything said on here, but I do disagree with 1 thing said.

As arcane, PoM is pretty bad. If you have to move, you aren't standing on your RoP and therefore aren't regaining mana as fast as possible, so unless you have to move for a very long time without casting so that your mana has time to completely regenerate, you aren't going to want to waste that big glob of mana on an instant Arcane Blast that doesn't have the 15% increased damage. Blazing Speed is off the GCD, and can get you pretty much to wherever you need to go to set up your new RoP while you spend a global refreshing your mage bomb or hitting Fire Blast. Blazing Speed basically gives you 2.25 extra seconds of movement throughout its use, and it is every 25 seconds instead of 90 seconds, so that coupled with Arcane Blast being (at base) a 2 second cast, means that you're better off after your first use of Blazing Speed, and every use after that adds to it even more even without taking into consideration increased mana consumption and how much time you spend outside of RoP.

^^^^ This is all from what I understand, I'm pretty sure it is right, but correct me if I am wrong. I feel I have a better understanding and grasp of arcane than any other spec for mages, but sadly I've had to go frost because it is just so much less of a liability on a majority of the fights.

Something to note is that I still enjoy Icy Veins unglyphed because I can pre-load my NT/LB with 1-3 of my intellect procs up (Jade Spirit, 2/2 H-LotC, and 10 stack 2/2 Wushoolay's is just scary for your DoT, especially with Tempus Repit up too) and the haste still helps with those ticks being faster. I feel that the glyph is nice and helps, but on a few fights I just can't let myself believe that it is worth a glyph spot. It doesn't feel mandatory by any means, so at best it seems as though it should be a last priority glyph depending on the encounter and your raid's needs.

[Oltier 471]

I have to aggree with you in connection with arcane. I haven't played that spec in MoP too much, so I am pretty glad someone could correct me. :)

However, I actually found myself using Icy Veins glyph because there's no other glyph that is worth it for most of the fights. The problem is, while it indeed helps your bombs tick more, you will find yourself most of the times wasting GCDs. I mean.. I actually cast faster than the GCD only with Tempus repit and Shado-pan trinket. Not even mentioning what is happening with heroism up. Glyph of Icy veins basically helps you get fewer number of wasted frostbolts.

[Centrian 6]

Your first comment "You don't really like frost" is a dead giveaway, drop it and go arcane. I've only played arcane and fire, but if you don't like the frost spec, stop wasting time practicing. Fire "could" be good, but very luck dependent (for me) and not very consistent dps. My arcane spec, however, is the closest toon to my simcraft numbers. Sure, having to move "can" reduce your dps, but if you really know the fight you can usually have you RoP x 2 placed where you need no move, blink to other RoP, or blazing speed, b4 next cast. Some fights are impossible to do that, like drumu, my deeps almost stops, until i figured out the close in pattern and keeping dots up, but tough. I'm ilvl508 and am sticking with arcane at least til 520-526 ish. I have yet to have a complaint from a Raid leader about my dps, and I would likely find a different group before switching as I really trust Arcane spec. As everyone said before, "play what you are good at" and you will do well. p.s. Arcane is actually the easiest and kinda boring spec to play, but you get a good view of the raid.

[Tarazet 144]

I like Arcane too, for the same reason as I like my bear tank. When the rotation is simple and doesn't require a lot of micromanaging, it gives you more mental bandwidth to react to the mechanics and exercise good raid awareness. And I definitely agree with the comments about Blazing Speed for Arcane; the low cooldown and ability to use it in mid-cast make it indispensible for that spec. Leave PoM to the Mages that don't need the help with mobility.

Edited May 28, 2013 by Tarazet

[Enzyte 11]

Thanks for the many answers, sorry I didn't have much time to reply.

Soo... Thanks for the suggestions towards my build, I will change them. Yesterday I've tried nether tempest and living bomb in LFR, yea they are pretty awesome :)

Many people asking why I don't like frost. That's probably because of my gear as well. Low casting speed but huge numbers. I was playing mage back in WoTLK. I used to THAT type of mage. It's kinda different now.

Yesterday I've seen the best geared mage on Silvermoon doing Brawlers Guild. She was casting frost bolts in like 0,5-1second. I was like; What... the...

Whatever that helped me to stay frost but reading these comments make me to try arcane instead of fire.

Thank you for the excellent posts!

[Oltier 471]

And you haven't seen the 1,2 second Invocation cast... :D