Trouble with Frost Mage (or mage in general)

[Negativity 0]

Recently hit 100 on mage, sitting at 601 ilvl trying to gear for heroics and eventually cms. I need some help with mage dps. I'm using FB over IN currently.

 

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/proudmoore/Yusaris/simple

 

On the 100 raiding dummy I burst around 15k depending on crits/mulstrikes (without consumables or TW) and sustain around 10-11k.

 

My questions are: 

 

•How do you do sustain dps on like trash? I only ever seem to pull around 8-10k on really small trash pulls. I only use frozen orb/pet freeze for FB.

 

•How do you handle single ice lance procs? From what I've read it says you're supposed to pool 2 ice lance procs before using FB, so if you only get one, should you FB before ice lancing or just throw the ice lance away without FB?

 

•How many ice lances do you need per FB to make it better dps than IN? I've read like 3-4 but I almost never get that many outside of frozen orb/water jet.

 

•If you have 2 FOF with no FB up on target, is it worth it to cancel frostbolt to FB the target to throw away your ice lances to prevent the possibility of overcapping FOF?

[TLTeo 29]

1) If you don't have cooldowns up, you really don't have good sustained damage as Frost, it's how the spec works. When i'm running hcs i just rotate cooldowns between pulls to smooth things out (IN/FO+PC/MI with the occasional IV in there). It's not ideal but eh.

 

2) If you are specced into FB you should pool procs until you get 2, then cast FB. This means that you should only ever cast icelance a) if the boss has FB on it or if the FoF proc is about to run out.

 

3) That's the number that is mentioned, but tbh FB and IN are pretty close to each other so they are both viable. I personally prefer IN.

 

4) I don't think so but i'm not sure. It depends on the situation; if your WE is casting water jet you should predict the extra FoF charge and plan accordingly (ie you shouldnt have been casting frostbolt in the first place), if it's a random proc you should probably keep casting. A good rule of thumb is that when in doubt, do not cancel any spell cast.

Edited December 6, 2014 by TLTeo

[Nozome 1]

Well , for trash packs you really can't sustain dps , we only have bursts from frozen orb/freeze and (optional) prismatic crystal.

You should always pool 2 ice lances and use FB . The only exception is when your target is about to die , in that case use FB with the one ice lance proc (1 hit from FB>1 frost bolt).

IN=3-4 FB , as you get gear they will become closer and closer and FB will pull ahead eventually , but for dungeons IN is better due to the interrupt aspect of it.

You get the FoF proc when the frostbolt connects with the target , so you would see the second FoF usually at 50% of casting frostbolt , at this point its better to let frostbolt finish the cast and immidiately cast FB . It takes some time but you will learn to play with the range , for example when you are using water jet , its possible to get 2 FoF from the first frostbolt , then cast your second frostbolt and  use 3 FoF (because you will cast 1 FoF  when the second frostbolt is mid flight and get up to 2FoF when it connects)

Edited December 6, 2014 by Nozome

[Oltier 471]

As a caster the first rule: Always cast something! If you used the wrong spell, let it finish. casting. Unless it's like Teleport: Dalaran or I don't know.. :D

[Negativity 0]

Yeah Im aware of that "always be casting something" rule but with frost the sustain is so low and frostbolt's damage is so pitiful that I'm not entirely sold on it being worth it to continue a frostbolt cast over stopping to fb -> 2 ice lances if you have 2 FOF with fb not previously on the target.

 

I mean I already am waiting around anticipating when Im going to next cast FB either from natural FOF procs or upcoming FO or water jet but sometimes I just get 2 almost simultaneously so thats more specifically the situation Im curious about.

 

On another note: Is it possible to get 3 FOF from a single water jet? I'm talking like timing the projectile speed/cast of frostbolt with water jet to get 3 FOF purely from the frostbolts connecting with water jet. I feel like I've come so close a number of times but I never get it.

[Nozome 1]

On another note: Is it possible to get 3 FOF from a single water jet? I'm talking like timing the projectile speed/cast of frostbolt with water jet to get 3 FOF purely from the frostbolts connecting with water jet. I feel like I've come so close a number of times but I never get it.

 

Its possible , but hard , you need like 0 latency . You must use Water Jet the moment your previously cast frostbolt is about to connect with the target .

[spadeshift 0]

What you want to do with prismatic crystal.

 

Cast FB>FO>PC. Aim to cast FO and PC as close to your FB target as possible. Spam ice lances on FB target and enjoy infinite procs and wtf dps for 10 secs.

 

As TLTeo pointed out, make sure you have 2 ice lance procs before you FB. One proc is okayish but not ideal.

Edited December 10, 2014 by spadeshift

[TLTeo 29]

As a caster the first rule: Always cast something! If you used the wrong spell, let it finish. casting. Unless it's like Teleport: Dalaran or I don't know..

 

Note that Portal: Ancient Dalaran is, on the other hand, a perfectly fine spell do use in your rotation :D