Help my Mage friend.

[Ogudei 0]

So our Prot. Paladin recently swapped to Mage. And a lot of people feel like his DPS is lacking and he's making poor choices concerning spec. I really have no Mage knowledge so I'm hoping somebody can help me, and him, out.

 

Here's his armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/dark-iron/Morgaus/advanced

 

Here's our logs this week where he was playing his Mage:

http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/q1tfJk4W7AhbVMFH

http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/ZHTm6G78rh3Rcbnp

 

Any bit of help is greatly appreciated!

[Berlinia 168]

Okay so now a question before I unleash my posts :P
How advanced do you want me to go?
Want me to give advice on each boss etc etc?
Or just the basics first?
Additionally do redirect him here so he can read whatever we comment on and have it as a refference!

[Ogudei 0]

He's a heroic raider so I'd suggest touching on as much as you can, basic and in depth. I'm sure he'll understand any implications it might have. And yeah he's aware of the post.

[Berlinia 168]

Okay so point 1)
Gearing: He has geared and reforged correctly. Just forgot a bracer enchant. What I am wondering though, did he have the same gear I see on his armory with the logs you posted?

 

The Fallen Protectors: 
He did pick nether tempest, but his uptimes are very very bad. It's the first problem every new mage has. He wants Nether Tempest to be at as close as 100% uptime whenever the bosses are up. If the phasing takes ages, then you could still have 75% Uptime. He has 17%, 14% and 8% uptime. He has far too little casts of Nether Tempest going for him. That is generally a UI problem. A huge tip here is using the boss frames provided by example Elvui to use Nether Tempest and track them. You can even make specific weak auras for Rook, He and Sun showing if he has the bomb on them. 

 

An additional thing I am seing is that he doesn't have high Rune of Power uptime. He does manage to keep 81% but he doesn't occasionally drop for a couple of seconds. He rather has moments where it drops for 30-40 seconds. This makes him not regen any mana dropping his potential damage to the ground.

I saw he had one of the worst pull RNG moments with PBoI not proccing till 20 seconds into the fight. He did at least wait for ARcane power + Alter Time. But what he did do is pop his second potion immediatelly after the CD went off. You always want to tie the potion with Arcane Power and Alter Time.

 

Rotationally wise he is going wrong. He is building up arcane charges and then at 4 charges dumping all his missiles followed up by Arcane barrage. What he wants to be doing is building up with Arcane Blast, and at 4 charges do Arcane Missiles, Arcane Blast (as off to benefit of the Profound magic 2set).
These are the mana costs:
AB with 0 PM: 10% Mana

AB with 1 PM: 7.5% Mana

AB with 2 PM: 5% Mana

AB with 3 PM: 2.5% Mana

AB with 4 PM: 0% Mana

He doesn't want to cast Arcane Blast if he would get under 80% mana by doing so. Here's mine:

 

dWtIcaGELqTlGABsYTrYPLQzdX4ij3KK6xsu13uQopIANsXEP2TG9l0OGQgMk9BqEkXqvczWqA4KQdQe4ui4yQY5GswOsYFrKflrPLRIfPQSkjkwMe55O8oLOMkOMSKA6IUiuORcf8mLuxhWgHIMgsTzsSDOsFujOzbv8zP03HsDzfpMugncnEGCjLs3sP4As4EsuzLQQomQ(PsK9ZWwOSuBP2WwuGcP0x84M1vw0GqGog2np3CDtjJzrvXRyV6ElH1o9o91kBkkCAPUZ0r4KHhqPLTAX)4F8p(BrdGLquWdO0Icqql7qb8eI)iqACKiQEeTCrukEsemfhe(lorume6PAEGJ)thHtEoFeierlFeLINebtXbH)HtefdHEQMh4Q5GW)PJWjpNpceIOLjI(U3LJ)NjboHiklp9qlyfOdfpX)TfSYhoruDcruWGJOFB3(TC8Fc1wotBhkatwFSKdO0sE6TTZXWwsY6JfwYtaMfa2qshc754vwgCNqAzrqyphlAaSeIIeXE9yj7utTfa2qci0tVYcqyWDcPfoqc50c5LuuytAm3qVFVV37wI(vD3RuzLn00wWUxNenMvf0RRW6U(wIwLQI9kRSHUYsaGc(0BBNdZnplGwsrHnPBkaJ1BDXoDPNQ9cleNElX0npvxl9AlQ5bUfeiETHTaWgsbo14YA5aHmg2cfas2nStNwaydjM(O5vwaydjneoJ5vwy6JMHTW6HwKXnpNw0q4mMHTW6HwKXI6fSqm60Ptlmlh6RfCDZJ(DDAd

I suggest a weak Aura showing his mana % close to his character. 

Generally you want to cast as few Arcane Barrages as possible when damaging less than 4 targets.

 

On Sun phase for some reason he doesn't AoE

Tell him to glyph Cone of Cold and then CoC on cooldown and Arcane Explode when there are adds around.

 

So for the Fallen Protectors:

Become better at uptimes. You can practise this in LFR and Flex.

Make a weak aura that shows when you don't have RoP. Lot's of dps loss there.

Keep in track of mana and know mana costs.

 

I shall make one post at a time for each boss. You can start by reading this

 

Edit: WAUW I FORGOT TO ADD
Cheers 
Berlinia

Edited June 27, 2014 by Berlinia

[Sikkz 27]

Is this his first time playing mage?

 

Worst case scenario he could go frost, he has proper gear for it, and playing it well is considerably easier than arcane (just my opinion) because rune of power doesn't have the best synergism with the bosses in SoO.  Either way, listen to Berlinia's suggestions, and you will do just fine!

 

Best of luck to you!

Edited June 27, 2014 by Sikkz

[Berlinia 168]

Nah let him play Arcane. No point dropping a spec just because you play for the first time!

I know I did and I still regret it

Could have 5 months of Arcane experience behind me

Norushen

On Norushen he didn't log himself but still the same apply.

Nether Tempest should be on all targets that are going to be alive for at least half of it's duration.

He also focuses the Amalgam of corruption for too long. The other targets have prio as you can do more damage on them.

I guess that's his tank past talking!

[Berlinia 168]

Sha of Pride
 

You skipped Sha of Pride. Sha is one of the bosses were analysis positioning and single target is the best and easiest so I recommend you provide logs of him playing there at next reset!

 

Galakras

I suck at Galakras so I will not pretend I know how to do high numbers on that fight. I follow the rule Nether Tempest everything that is going to live long enough and then AoE mostly xD

 

Iron Juggernaut

 

I know I will sound like Akraen but Uptimes, Uptimes, Uptimes.

He already picked the wrong mage bomb. Living Bomb for 1 or 2 targets spread apart, Nether Tempest for 3 or more in close range and Frostbomb for immerseus. But he had an uptime of 11% which is very very low.
He also died there which makes it hard to see his reaction times. 
Generally however he did the same rotational mistakes as on TFP.
He really needs to do AM + Arcane Blast, AM + Arcane Blast, effectively camping at 4 stacks.

 

Dark Shamans

 

Here his RoP uptime is quite bad. But i give him kudo's for the uptime he has managed to have considering it's his first play. This is a high movement fight and he needs to know before hand where he will be going.

Again bomb uptimes are low, but I guess that's in general a problem he needs (and will be able) to fix so I won't mention it anymore. 
Also a nice tip is going in range and doing CoC (glyphed) + Arcane Explosion on the green blobs.... if you are sure you can do it and not die horribly.

Also he didn't have mage armor on. This is probably due to him have respecced and realising too late. I would recommend he makes a textual weak aura that shouts at him whenever one of his armors are off.

Mine is:
STEFAN YOU ARE A FUCKING DUMBFUCK.
You'll never forget that when you have something like that on the middle of your screen.

 

Cheers
Berlinia

[Berlinia 168]

 In a more concluding note. It is a pitty you didn't post logs from Malkorok and Sha. His main problems are one who can be fixed easily. I can tell he has a feel for the spec and for a first time, he didn't even do that badly. Basically the prime thing he needs to work upon is to stop thinking like a tank but like a dps. 

 

 In general he needs to preplan the RoP placement on all fights. Some are more of a pain than others. I would recommend as to not make his life more difficult than it is, to not have him perform mundane tasks like Super Mega Hero 7 Team on garrosh, or far prisons on Sha. Let him work around RoP for a while. If he really wants to go hardcore, and he already has some BiS Proving Ground gear, I would recommend he tries doing Endless Proving Ground as arcane. This is by far THE best way to learn how to play the spec (apart from in raids of course) but he should be prepared to wipe hours and hours there. He also needs to understand his rotation abit more. Cycobi has made an excellent guide on Arcane Mage which can be found here.

This is literally Arcane Mage in a nutshell.

You can always post logs here, and both me and other members of the community will try and answer.
Good look next reset
Cheers
Berlinia