Mage Tier 16 (T16) Set Bonuses

[Oltier 471]

Mage T16 2P Bonus - Arcane Missiles causes your next Arcane Blast within 10 sec to cost 25% less mana, stacking up to 4 times. Consuming Brain Freeze increases the damage of your next 30455, 116, 44614, or 120 by 20%. Consuming Pyroblast! increases your haste by 750 for 5 sec, stacking up to 5 times.
Mage T16 4P Bonus - Arcane Missiles has a 15% chance to not consume Arcane Missiles!. Consuming Brain Freeze has a 30% chance to drop an icy boulder on your target. Inferno Blast also causes your next Pyroblast to be a critical strike.

Set models in the following order: LFR, Normal, Heroic




(http://www.wowhead.c...ews#tier16-mage)

• Opinion about 2p bonus:
  • For ​arcane mage, the change brought by the 2 set bonus will not really change anything in your rotation. You will want to use as much Arcane Missiles as you can in a row, so that you can have one mana-free Arcane Blast.
  • For fire mage, you will probably be keep doing your usual "Pyroblast trick" rotation, making you able to get some extra haste before combusting. This is going to be especially useful, when you are performing the Alter Time rotation, and you might be able to get extra ticks on your combustion by the extra haste gained.
  • For frost mage, well... Nothing gamebreaking... Don't use Brain freeze, if you already have 2 charges of Fingers of Frost. The only difference this set bonus can mean to us, is our mage bomb talent choice. We will have to find out which bomb gives us the highest numbers of Brain freeze in order to get the maximum out of this bonus.
• Opinion about 4p bonus:
  • Arcane mage: Pretty straightforward. More Arcane Missiles. Especially good combined with the 2p bonus.
  • Fire mage: I am not sure if this if going to affect our gameplay and rotation by any means. You can obviously have more Pyroblasts. I even have a terrible idea in my mind, using 2 Inferno blasts in a row, then cast Pyroblast. But this is probably stupid. Less ignite : So overall, I don't really see the usefulness of this bonus, but we shall see later.
  • Frost mage: Again, nothing gamebreaking. Extra dps. I can only repeat what I've said at 2p bonus.

[Damien 1,514]

I played Frost extensively on the PTR. I have both bonuses. They're pretty good, but I find that when using Frost Bomb, the 2-piece bonus makes it a bit annoying to handle Alter Time. Usually, I always find myself with enough time to cast Frost Bomb before Alter Time runs out, which means that when Alter Time does run out, I need to consume Brain Freeze instantly, so as not to waste the Brain Freeze that my Frost Bomb is about to grant me. Now, with this bonus, I feel that I have the choice between wasting a proc of Fingers of Frost or delaying my cast of Frost Bomb (and I don't like either choices).

[Akomagus 8]

I played Frost extensively on the PTR. I have both bonuses. They're pretty good, but I find that when using Frost Bomb, the 2-piece bonus makes it a bit annoying to handle Alter Time. Usually, I always find myself with enough time to cast Frost Bomb before Alter Time runs out, which means that when Alter Time does run out, I need to consume Brain Freeze instantly, so as not to waste the Brain Freeze that my Frost Bomb is about to grant me. Now, with this bonus, I feel that I have the choice between wasting a proc of Fingers of Frost or delaying my cast of Frost Bomb (and I don't like either choices).

Could you provide an overall summary of Frost Mages on the PTR?  Their gear scaling, damage output etc....  What's your overall opinion of them compared to Arcane and Fire at this point.  Thanks!

[Damien 1,514]

Could you provide an overall summary of Frost Mages on the PTR?  Their gear scaling, damage output etc....  What's your overall opinion of them compared to Arcane and Fire at this point.  Thanks!

As far as I can see, it's probably going to be Haste > Mastery > Crit. We now have so much Intellect that it brings us enough Crit to easily reach the crit cap.

Regarding damage output, I don't think we'll see a revolution, in the sense that Arcane and Fire will still be the preferred specs for raiding. I've been doing a lot of Brawler's Guild (because it's easier to get gear on the PTR and we have a bit of catching up to do with our guides), and I had to switch to Arcane when I really needed throughput and to Fire when I needed mobility.

With the introduction of the new Mastery (Mastery: Icicles), we may need to cast Ice Lance when we get to 5 icicles, in order to prevent wasting them. I haven't tested this much, so I guess it will need more testing.

[deleteme 0]

With the introduction of the new Mastery (Mastery: Icicles), we may need to cast Ice Lance when we get to 5 icicles, in order to prevent wasting them. I haven't tested this much, so I guess it will need more testing.

There's no overcapping. Whenever you get a 6th icicle the first will autotrigger.

[Damien 1,514]

There's no overcapping. Whenever you get a 6th icicle the first will autotrigger.

 

 

Indeed, it autotriggers. I hadn't noticed and I think it's pretty cool :p

 

Also, I updated the descriptions of the bonuses in the opening thread.

[icyhott 6]

Been playing fire for awhile now, 530 ilvl going into SoO (pending no upgrades from Qon this week). Still think fire it go to for starting or should it be arcane? There is a lot of mobility fights from what I have seen, but there is also the change to rune of power lol.  But with the major nerf to combustion, I am little scared. The set bonus will help with the haste and guarentee pyro if you use it at the right time, but the arcane bonus seems to be a little better. Any advice on how the nerf to combustion is playing in with the set bonus or is it not really doing much because of the big nerf?

[Vladamyr 169]

Combustion is way less of a damage source in 5.4.  That doesn't mean you don't want to set it up correctly still but most of your damage is going to come from Pyroblasts.  With the amount of crit you can get to, fire still has better single target potential.  On fights with lot's of multi-dotting, arcane pulls ahead.  It will depend on a fight by fight basis as to which is the best spec but neither will fall far behind the other if properly executed.  With that said, I'm for sure going fire this tier * (at least till we see more data) as I feel deals damage in a more effective manner and the mobility is still there.

 

* If i can be pulled away from the awesomeness that is prot paly! :)

[Beer 0]

With what spell do I take the most advantage of the 2 set bonus or doesn't it affect the priority of spells?

[Belicosa 11]

I can see how the set bonus won't change arcane's rotation, but with 4, missile procs increase. Now to get my 4th piece; hoping for the head from Thok since I got warforged chest from Ordos. Currently rocking shoulders, hands and legs (after crafting the celestial legs, sigh).

 

However, thank g-d for reforge. Why are almost all of the mage t-sets ugly as f*k? Still need to return to BWD for some "magelock" tier.

[Oltier 471]

"ugly f*k" is a subjective attribute :) One might like it.

 

I personally also don't like the current mage sets, but the CM transmog set is just pure awesomeness. Dark-mage style :)