Mages - How to Max your PVE DPS

[TeaLeaf]

Back in the days of Molten Core 40 man raids Frost was 'it'.  Arcane was laughable at the time and Fire was out of the question, predominantly as MC mobs and bosses were mostly immune to fire!  Then came BWL since then and for the longest time, deep Fire was *the* build for top end PVE dps and it remained so , unsettled briefly only by the 2 piece T5 arcane bonus, until the more recent patches in WotLK.  Now it is the turn of the Arcane to rule the DPS roost.  And rule it does by some considerable margin.

Frostfire Bolt (FFB) was seen as the way forward during the gearing phase of a mage in WotLK, but as spell power and mana pools improve significantly with T7 gear, so does the viability of an Arcane build for PVE dps.  And with the Arcane build comes its higher burst DPS and with the larger mana pools, the burst dps becomes sustainable!

So, mages, go think about these builds:

(1) Deep Arcane with IV - 57/3/11

(2) Deep Arcane with Imp Scorch - 53/18/0*

*ideally one person needs to have a build with Improved Scorch in it, it ups total crit rates and therefore dps massively.  Everyone else should go Arcane with IV.

Arcane is built on the premise that you have a mana pool to use and a 2 minute cool down on Evocation.  With some minor variations to suit certain fights the principle is to blow your entire mana pool in 2 minutes, use a manastone as early as possible, then Evocate to refill, rinse and repeat.

For the full low down on arcane and how to use it read the Elitist Jerks arcane thread which can be found here.  For those that can't be bothered to read the whole thing, here's the summary highlights:

• The Arcane with IV build gives you a talented +6% to spell hit, which means more gem slots and gear can be slanted towards DPS.
• Glyph for:

-Arcane Power
-Arcane Blast
-Molten Power

• Basic spell rotation:  Arcane Blast x3, then Arcane Missiles (usually with a Missile Barrage proc), then Arcane Barrage.  This can be improved & tweaked and if you read the above linked thread you can see how to improve it, which procs to watch for and when to alter the rotation to squeeze the MAX dps from the build.
• AOE:

-ranged aoe: AP/IV/blizzard + POM/flamestrike
-close aoe: same as ranged. do not go in melee range.

• Stats Priorities (assuming you are hit capped):

-always gem spell power where you can
-if not spell power then gem haste
-never gem for crit if you can avoid it, it's the most expensive stat you can buy.

SPELL POWER > HASTE > CRIT
[/LIST]

DPS Effect
So what do these changes do to your DPS?

If you're a deep fire FFB mage doing 2k dps in a raid, the deep arcane with IV build should see you improve your dps by at least 25% and probably to the 3k dps range.  This is a conservative estimate.  Yes you'll need to use your mana stone all the time, yes you might even need to pop a mana pot, but heck you'll be topping the DPS meters.  As an example here's a WWS report from a raid from last night.  Check out the mage DPS.  The lowest DPS was from a FFB mage, the highest from the pure arcane with IV mage:  

FFB with IV build:           3,750 dps average  (1,800 sp, 27% crit)
Arcane with IV build        5,100 dps average (2,000 sp, 24% crit)

These were average dps figures across a 'Malygos and 3 wings of Naxx' raid.

So go try Arcane.  The damage is insane and the good news with a 2 mn Evo you can keep the dps up even in heroics.

TL.

[FatBob]

Looks good mate, i've never played with arcane before so might give this a serious go.
 
(just need to save up 4million gold to regem : )

[KKND]

Back in the days of Molten Core 40 man raids Frost was 'it'.  Arcane was laughable at the time and Fire was out of the question, predominantly as MC mobs and bosses were mostly immune to fire!  Then came BWL since then and for the longest time, deep Fire was *the* build for top end PVE dps and it remained so , unsettled briefly only by the 2 piece T5 arcane bonus, until the more recent patches in WotLK.  Now it is the turn of the Arcane to rule the DPS roost.  And rule it does by some considerable margin.

Frostfire Bolt (FFB) was seen as the way forward during the gearing phase of a mage in WotLK, but as spell power and mana pools improve significantly with T7 gear, so does the viability of an Arcane build for PVE dps.  And with the Arcane build comes its higher burst DPS and with the larger mana pools, the burst dps becomes sustainable!

So, mages, go think about these builds:

(1) Deep Arcane with IV - 57/3/11

(2) Deep Arcane with Imp Scorch - 53/18/0*

*ideally one person needs to have a build with Improved Scorch in it, it ups total crit rates and therefore dps massively.  Everyone else should go Arcane with IV.

Arcane is built on the premise that you have a mana pool to use and a 2 minute cool down on Evocation.  With some minor variations to suit certain fights the principle is to blow your entire mana pool in 2 minutes, use a manastone as early as possible, then Evocate to refill, rinse and repeat.

For the full low down on arcane and how to use it read the Elitist Jerks arcane thread which can be found here.  For those that can't be bothered to read the whole thing, here's the summary highlights:

• The Arcane with IV build gives you a talented +6% to spell hit, which means more gem slots and gear can be slanted towards DPS.
• Glyph for:

-Arcane Power
-Arcane Blast
-Molten Power

• Basic spell rotation:  Arcane Blast x3, then Arcane Missiles (usually with a Missile Barrage proc), then Arcane Barrage.  This can be improved & tweaked and if you read the above linked thread you can see how to improve it, which procs to watch for and when to alter the rotation to squeeze the MAX dps from the build.
• AOE:

-ranged aoe: AP/IV/blizzard + POM/flamestrike
-close aoe: same as ranged. do not go in melee range.

• Stats Priorities (assuming you are hit capped):

-always gem spell power where you can
-if not spell power then gem haste
-never gem for crit if you can avoid it, it's the most expensive stat you can buy.

SPELL POWER > HASTE > CRIT
[/LIST]

DPS Effect
So what do these changes do to your DPS?

If you're a deep fire FFB mage doing 2k dps in a raid, the deep arcane with IV build should see you improve your dps by at least 25% and probably to the 3k dps range.  This is a conservative estimate.  Yes you'll need to use your mana stone all the time, yes you might even need to pop a mana pot, but heck you'll be topping the DPS meters.  As an example here's a WWS report from a raid from last night.  Check out the mage DPS.  The lowest DPS was from a FFB mage, the highest from the pure arcane with IV mage:  

FFB with IV build:           3,750 dps average  (1,800 sp, 27% crit)
Arcane with IV build        5,100 dps average (2,000 sp, 24% crit)

These were average dps figures across a 'Malygos and 3 wings of Naxx' raid.

So go try Arcane.  The damage is insane and the good news with a 2 mn Evo you can keep the dps up even in heroics.

TL.

This one still good to follow those spells.?

[TeaLeaf]

Not for levelling no and things have changed slightly.  Personally I would level in full frost.  It's highly mana efficient (less drinking time needed), gives you great survivability and superb crowd control for those difficult to kill melee elites.

TL.

[Azunai]

Frost ftw for lvling. Brain Freeze, FoF, and nowadays even replenishment basically means that you can last for ages before drinking, and you dish out alot of dmg too (relatively, it's not like you're a dps-sacrifice-for-more-mana spec or anything).