5.4 PTR Mage Changes/Thoughts - LAST UPDATE: 2013. 07. 15.

[Akomagus 8]

This is really bumming me out big time!!  My raid group almost kicked me because I suck so bad at fire.  I can rarely get a good ignite because crap like sand traps, rockfalls, you name it always screw up my combos and makes for a brutally low combustion.  I couldn't do well at all so I had to go back to frost.  If frost scaling hasn't been fixed then I am royally screwed and will probably lose my raid spot because I hate arcane and I just can't do fire well. 

 

Looks like it may be a time for a class change post 5.4......  I don't like melee and hunter dps is lame so now what?  Maybe shammy or warlock?

[Vladamyr 169]

Rune of Power changes really add a lot to arcane, you may want to give it a try next patch.  For the most part it's multi-dotting and arcane missile spam once you are at 4 charges.

Fire is being brought back in line with arcane and combustion is kinda worthless.  Fire with it's crazy crit scaling will still be competitive but rely more on just using pyro procs and proper cleaving (for multi-target) and very little on lining up amazing combustions.  I am really sad about the current state of frost.  Keep your fingers crossed for a balance pass.

[Akomagus 8]

Rune of Power changes really add a lot to arcane, you may want to give it a try next patch.  For the most part it's multi-dotting and arcane missile spam once you are at 4 charges.

Fire is being brought back in line with arcane and combustion is kinda worthless.  Fire with it's crazy crit scaling will still be competitive but rely more on just using pyro procs and proper cleaving (for multi-target) and very little on lining up amazing combustions.  I am really sad about the current state of frost.  Keep your fingers crossed for a balance pass.

Hmm, if they brought down the importance of huge combustions then I probably can be competitive with fire.  It was trying to get off a huge combustion that killed me on it.  If they remove that rng and make it stable then I probably can do fine with it.  Never have I felt the mage spec decision so muddied since I've been playing.  What the heck is going on!!!

[EgoReaper 9]

I don't know if this has been stated already, but Alter Time does interact with Icicles. (They are not displayed in the buffs so I was not sure).

Also, if they're trying to nerf pvp burst, then why are they making icicles trigger with a spell that was already strong that they buffed? =/

[EgoReaper 9]

Using a mastery build and mage armor for frost I feel I am doing more dps, if not more than my haste build before. People say it was nerfed, but for how bad I am at keeping certain buffs/dots up, I feel my dps is higher than usual.

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/xe8fh6i6b3nui841/details/5/

and my mage:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/area-52/Firefrostego/simple

Edited September 10, 2013 by EgoReaper

[eraze 0]

Yeah I'm about to try the suggestion to reforge more mastery.  AMR suggested almost 10% more mastery based on the current 5.4 optimised build and about 5% more haste (mostly through gems) at the expense of spellpower.  Perhaps that will make more of a difference.

Edited September 11, 2013 by eraze