Mage AOE

[Vladamyr 169]

I have tried all 3 specs and am finding them very lacking on 5+ target AOE and really bad for burst AOE. Anyone else seeing the same thing or am I missing something? Arcane may be decent but nothing is alive long enough for me to build stacks of Arcane charge.

[Sagetastic 20]

I play as Frost/Fire, and feel they are very much even in AoE DPS. Although, I do think the damage done by mage in AoE has dropped since patch.

With ignite and combustion's spread on FB limited now, our AoE dps as fire is definitely cut.

I like that the AoE dps has been balanced for mage, but I don't like that it feels wear in comparison to other DPS classes in general.

I always seem to be getting out DPS'd by Warlocks, Warriors, Hunters, etc - even rogues :

Not sure how other people are doing though.

When I know I'll be AoEing enough to make it worth it, living bomb is a must. I'll Flamestike and Arcane Explosion, I don't use blizzard unless I must keep myself at a range. Fire Blast glyph is really handy to cut down on GCDs for spreading LB when AoEing.

I really REALLY want to try AoE kiting (like the adds on Nef). The improvements there are something I look forward to playing with.

Not even positive how I'd roll, probably Glyph of Frost Nova, Glyph of Fire blast/IL, Glyph of CoC/WE.

With Frost Bomb's AoE slow on explosion, you could Fire Blast a cast to slow a whole group on pull and wait to use Freeze, Nova/CoC.

I wouldn't glyph CoC unless I was doing this though.

~Sage

[MichaelTheys 10]

You still have Arcane explosion i know it aint the best of the best but it still works :)

[Vladamyr 169]

Even using the rotation of frost bomb, flamestrike and arcane explosion, I am pulling less than a 1/3 of the dps of any other player in our raid on 5+ mobs. This is making me a sad panda.. oh wait not yet :) just sad. I guess I am wondering if everyone else is having this issue and if so, are there any MoP raid bosses that this effects? Without the ability to have burst AOE I am not sure I will be able to be competitive in the timed dungeon runs, so am thinking that my Paly, DK or Hunter will move to my main.

[MichaelTheys 10]

To be honest AoE from a mage never has been amazing :) except fire mayby but ofc the reduciton in the amount of targets screws it up. But if your frost Use your Frost Bomb for AoE it does quite deals a lot of dmg per mob :)

[Sagetastic 20]

To be honest AoE from a mage never has been amazing except fire mayby but ofc the reduciton in the amount of targets screws it up. But if your frost Use your Frost Bomb for AoE it does quite deals a lot of dmg per mob

With the Fire blast glyph it arguably has the best burst AoE on pull.

I'd still go with LB for any AoE pack that lasts beyond one cast though.

Bomb, spread/explode with Fire/Inferno Blast, Flamestrike, Arcane Explosion when possible and cast Bomb+Blast to keep as much damage going out while you spam AE.

I'ts not pretty, but for anything 5+ it seems to be the best choice.

Not sure if Flamestrike is worth casting again. I wouldn't expect an AoE pack to last long enough to find out.

~Sage

[Azden 1]

I would have to say that Frost mages are quite capable of insane AoE damage. Using Frost Bomb + a well timed pet Freeze, along with Frozen Orb and Glyph of Ice Lance, I've been able to dish out some impressive DPS. Granted, Frozen Orb has a 1-min CD, but it's a pretty devastating ability to have in our arsenal.

[Sagetastic 20]

I would have to say that Frost mages are quite capable of insane AoE damage. Using Frost Bomb + a well timed pet Freeze, along with Frozen Orb and Glyph of Ice Lance, I've been able to dish out some impressive DPS. Granted, Frozen Orb has a 1-min CD, but it's a pretty devastating ability to have in our arsenal.

When I made my above post, I was habitually restraining from using frozen orb on AoE pulls.

Frozen Orb is my Go-To AoE ability now (as long as I am running IL glyph).

Also, I've had a ton of fun kiting this xpack so far. If you go to the tree north of Niuzao temple in townlong steppes where the Sra'Thik Incursion is, I practiced my large scale AoE kiting using the massive mantid spawns there. Also, there were "healers" that put a rejuvenation-like buff on the mantids I could spellsteal off.

Running Glyphs: IL/CoC/Evo, I would pull about 30-50 at a time and kite them back and forth in a large figure-eight.

I found it to be great practice, and use the same strat to kill Omnis in Dread Wastes (rare spawn that spawns with 4~ other mobs and pats with them).

I still don't have my Golden Fleece :(

CoC glyphed hits for about 20k on avg for me. I love this glyph for soloing.

~Sage

[Belicosa 11]

Pretend you are a warlock for a second and put Nether Tempest on every target you can. Remember it not only ticks on the target, but adds 50% damage to nearby targets. If all the mobs are dotted, you're doing 150% tick damage plus whatever spells you add. On a crowd of "medium strength" targets you can ice-barrier and basically stand there and watch them die, or Arcane explosion to speed up the process. Just have iceblock on a convenient hotkey because using this method in a dungeon/raid setting will always pull aggro.

[Sagetastic 20]

Pretend you are a warlock for a second and put Nether Tempest on every target you can. Remember it not only ticks on the target, but adds 50% damage to nearby targets. If all the mobs are dotted, you're doing 150% tick damage plus whatever spells you add. On a crowd of "medium strength" targets you can ice-barrier and basically stand there and watch them die, or Arcane explosion to speed up the process. Just have iceblock on a convenient hotkey because using this method in a dungeon/raid setting will always pull aggro.

this is very time consumptive and while fun to watch, actually a bit inefficient.

It's a viable way to aoe down a group as long as you have a tank, but I suggest glyphing fire blast and keeping flamestrike on CD when AoEing like this.

Edit: Also, sir...

Pretend you are a warlock

NO.

~Sage

Edited October 30, 2012 by Sagetastic

[Vladamyr 169]

this is very time consumptive and while fun to watch, actually a bit inefficient.

It's a viable way to aoe down a group as long as you have a tank, but I suggest glyphing fire blast and keeping flamestrike on CD when AoEing like this.

Actually without a tank, it's the way to go. It allows you to pull some really good aoe dps on 5+ mobs while staying on the move. Use your kiting tools! I would love to see some sims on the efficiency of Nether Tempest as I am not convinced that Living bomb is ever the way to go.

[Belicosa 11]

Sage, I'm Arcane, so glyphing fireblast is not an option. And Vlad is correct, it is excellent for kiting.

And I also play an afflic lock, so the pretend comment came from there.

[RunicLovePotion 9]

Hello!

I am a frost mage and my glyphs are Glyph of Ice Lance, Glyph of Icy Veins which when used in combination of Frozen Orb and Frost Bomb seens to make a good AoE damage because of the Fingers of Frost buff which may be a constant depending on the number of mobs that you are facing. I also use Flamestrike when it's avaible.

It seens to be a good dps but I am not really sure of it.

[Sagetastic 20]

Hello!

I am a frost mage and my glyphs are Glyph of Ice Lance, Glyph of Icy Veins which when used in combination of Frozen Orb and Frost Bomb seens to make a good AoE damage because of the Fingers of Frost buff which may be a constant depending on the number of mobs that you are facing. I also use Flamestrike when it's avaible.

It seens to be a good dps but I am not really sure of it.

When doing the orb+lance spam, I prefer to use living bomb since it procs brain freeze more and you can glyph fire blast and just living bomb one mob and blast it to spread it.

I always reapply the bomb and spread it during a slight lull in the ice lance spam in those occasions.

Sage, I'm Arcane, so glyphing fireblast is not an option. And Vlad is correct, it is excellent for kiting.

And I also play an afflic lock, so the pretend comment came from there.

I guess I just don't play arcane anymore, but if I am feeling lazy I do go with NT and just tab+NT everything while running in a circle to kite it.

I just find it kinda boring otherwise... no offense intended.

edit: It sure looks pretty while killing everything though!

~Sage

Edited November 6, 2012 by Sagetastic

[Vladamyr 169]

I did finally figure out aoe burst and its as frost. Frost Bomb > Flame Strike > Pet Nova > Ice Lance > Frost Fire Bolt > Ice Lance will result in some crazy numbers for you, throw in a Frozen Orb if it's a longer aoe fight and Ice lance spam away. The reason this is so effective is because of all the targets being frozen right as Frost Bomb detonates. It results in massive damage to frozen targets. You need to be able to time the Pet Nova relatively close to Frost Bomb detonation however so that other dps classes damage won't break the Pet Nova before Frost Bomb detonates.

Fire is great for longer setups of 2-3 targets but it is nowhere close to frost for actual AOE and remember that Living Bomb can only be on 3 targets maximum. I'm still trying to test living bomb in multiple scenarios. According to everything I read, it's the best for 2-4 target fights (with glyph) but I'm not able to corroborate this in practice (could be gear deficiency on my part).

One thing to note, I don't know if they have fixed this yet, but early on if you had the glyph of fire blast the damage of Frost Bomb was less on frozen targets (inexplicably) even if you didn't use Fire Blast to trigger it. Currently for testing I would recommend keeping a note as to whether you had Glyph of Fire Blast learned or not.

[Mixae 0]

I use Flamestrike and Blizzard all the time. But I'm also only level 70 I haven't gotten all my skills yet. (I'm Fire)