What to become?

[Nerdanel]

I was wondering what mages should do with the burning crusade.
I used to be a fire mage but got the feeling that without some high level armor I was worth nothing so I respeced to frost. I don't know if this was good or bad.
Frost deffinatly gives more control but lacks the power sometimes. I noticed this change came after the burning crusade.
Are mages still pure DPS or do we need to have some other function? Was jusr wodering what spec we should choose these days

[Splishy]

I think a lot of the problem you may be having adjusting is how entirely different the 2 builds are - when I respecced from fire to frost at 60 it took almost 2 weeks to get used to. I would say that fire mages are 100% pure DPS (and good at it, too!) whereas frost is more about control.

I'd say give it another few days and if you're still not comfortable respec to fire (or even Arcane for a bit of an experiment - arcane spec mages are seemingly very handy in the high end stuff now!)

[Choleric]

I have never tried a totally Arcane build but have considered it.  Fire and Frost seems to have move apart since TBC, Frost providing more control while Fire deals insane dps.  I don't think I would switch from Fire now, I enjoy being one of the primary damage dealers in a group and although I don't have as much control as a Frost mage, I manage.  Control has never been a problem for me because I can kill mobs so fast they deal no more damage than they did when I was Frost specced.  In cases when I am paired up with a Frost mage the combination is outstanding.

To answer your question I think it still comes down to personal choice just as it did before TBC.  It really is as simple as Damage vs. Control.  As most of your runs will be within the guild it's all down to you to pick your own style and we will play with your build accordingly.

[Daffyd]

I believe Slow (41 point arcane talent?) is considered very useful in instances, certainly with only an infrequent Warlock presence for Curse of Tongues it would be a viable alternative.  Anything that reduces the damage the tank takes is a bonus to the run, doubly so if it reduces the damage someone other than the tank takes as well.

As always in SoG it's your call, I'm a big fan of alternative specs* though so I'd love to see someone have a pop at arcane in a big way.





* I still hate badly researched specs though, wasted talent points make baby Jesus cry.

[Becka]

im specced arcane/fire and i think that works really fine

[Choleric]

I don't think I would switch from Fire now

I did say this.... but have tweaked my talent build slightly, I am now 31/30/0 - Arcane/Fire specced.  The reason for this was looking at my talents I realised I could stand to lose some of the Fire talents and replace them with what I see as more useful talents in the arcane tree, improved clearcast/arcane power/presence of mind being the primary ones.  I had to sacrifice combustion and a sizable chunk of fire crit chance but I think it was worth it, my mana is now increased by 1000 and all I had to do was give up (from what I can tell after 2 hours of playing with this build) a small amount of fire power. But with the ability to crank up the damage output considerably every 3 minutes, I am pretty happy with this descision.  Unfortunately for the tanks I could not learn Slow without losing some pretty serious aspects of the Fire tree so I chose to pick the build that made me slightly more efficient in a group.

Out of interest, does anybody know if Slow works on bosses?

[Daffyd]

Out of interest, does anybody know if Slow works on bosses?

When I was reading up on Arcane a week or two ago I found a general consensus of "Yes".

[Splishy]

I'm personally holding onto my Frost/Arcane spec for when I have the other 2 pieces of my frozen shadoweave kit - the set bonus on that should help massively reduce the grief I give healers.

[Daffyd]

Not wanting to sound like a whiny bastard, but I'm going to whine.  How the Hell did tailors get an entire epic set that needs no primal nether?  The rest of the professions have to grind heroic mode for primal nethers and not one of the LW sets is actually worth the effort

[Splishy]

Because they rock. Also because Spellcloth is a bitch to make, perhaps?

[rox0r]

Try getting biffed on by an elemental every time you spin one off.

[Daffyd]

Try getting biffed on by an elemental every time you spin one off.

Sounds rude!

Being serious though, I'll have to do (on average) 2 heroic instance runs per primal nether so there's a lot of getting biffed on the head for those too.  I'm just bitter because I hoped Leatherworking would be slightly less shiz in TBC but I was sadly wrong.

[rox0r]

I'm just bitter because I hoped <insert any element of WoW> would be slightly less shiz in TBC but I was sadly wrong.

 

[Choleric]

Primal Nether is indeed an absolute git to get hold of but making our Tailoring sets is no picnic either.

Consider this, my very first Spellfire piece is a belt which requires 4 Spellcloth and 10 Primal Fire.  Each piece of Spellcloth requires a primal mana and a primal fire plus an Imbued Netherweave Bolt.  So to create one piece of Spellcloth either costs about 100g or 1-2 hours of solid grinding.  So practically one day to make enough Spellcloth for the belt.  
Then it's just a small matter of getting 100 motes of fire to complete the belt.  That's the easiest piece.  The other parts need something between 8 and 12 Spellcloth to make, plus the Primals, which btw are an arse to get because you are fighting fire with fire.

I'd say it's pretty even to be honest.  The only "benefit" we have is that we can buy our mats in the AH, but the cost would be greater than the value of the gear.

Look on the bright side, one day when we attempt the heroic instances the Primal Nether will effectively be yours because you and Alt are the only LW that are likely to be contending for them

[Daffyd]

Consider this, my very first Spellfire piece is a belt which requires 4 Spellcloth and 10 Primal Fire.  Each piece of Spellcloth requires a primal mana and a primal fire plus an Imbued Netherweave Bolt.  So to create one piece of Spellcloth either costs about 100g or 1-2 hours of solid grinding.  So practically one day to make enough Spellcloth for the belt.  
Then it's just a small matter of getting 100 motes of fire to complete the belt.  That's the easiest piece.  The other parts need something between 8 and 12 Spellcloth to make, plus the Primals, which btw are an arse to get because you are fighting fire with fire.

I'd say it's pretty even to be honest.  The only "benefit" we have is that we can buy our mats in the AH, but the cost would be greater than the value of the gear.

Spellfire Belt
4x Spellcloth = 340g
10x Primal Fire = 300g
2x Netherweb Spider Silk = 8g
Total cost = 648g
     
Windhawk Belt (Tribal LW equivalent)
6x Heavy Knothide Leather = 40g
16x Wind Scales = 28g
12x Primal Air = 360g
2x Primal Might = 250g
1x Primal Nether = Average 2 heroic instance runs
Total cost = 678g and 2 heroic instances

That's based on current AH prices and I have to pay for 290g worth of mine because I'm neither a skinner nor an alchemist, at least you have the option of making your own mats purely by being a tailor.  To top it off, it's only a marginal improvement on The Sleeper's Cord as a healing belt which is a regular mode 5 man drop.  It's a good job the Sleeper's Cord is decent though, it's the only level blue 70 leather healing belt in the game.

Look on the bright side, one day when we attempt the heroic instances the Primal Nether will effectively be yours because you and Alt are the only LW that are likely to be contending for them  

And enchanting, and blacksmithing, and tailoring (some of your 375 recipes need it).  The only bright side to leatherworking is at least it's not engineering (the only profession in even more trouble than leatherworking).

As you may have guessed, I somewhat regret taking leatherworking past the warbear harness/devilsaur gauntlets level.  I seem to have taken this thread way off topic though, apologies and I'll shut up now.

[Splishy]

I was about to say you're directing your anger at the wrong people...

[Daffyd]

I was about to say you're directing your anger at the wrong people...

Not anger, just trying to explain why I think leatherworkers got dicked badly.

[Nerdanel]

I'm still not sure about my spec maybe back to fire but I do shiz damage (only 2300 crit). About the profs I think blizzard pulled a nasty stunt cause i'm a stupid engineer and respeccing now would take me ages. I'm really useless when it comes to damage dealing cause I don't understand anything about armor and stuff like that

[Choleric]

I did say this.... but have tweaked my talent build slightly, I am now 31/30/0 - Arcane/Fire specced

Further to what I said earlier, I have found Fire/Arcane to be excellent.  You miss out on any 41 point talents with my build but what you do get is the ability to dish out some awesome firepower.  New crit record yesterday of 3700 in Netherstorm says it all really.

[Flashkid]

Being a fire mage myself since i started WoW im gunna stick with it. i once respecced to frost but as nerdanel said they lack in dmg. But lots of dmg isnt always a good thing. so id say the best for instances/grouping is frost....Soloing, quests etc is for fire mages and arcane.....well ive never really seen a FULL arcane mage but after Blizz edited mage talents in the tbc Arcane mage dosent seem a bad idea  

But as for me.....IM FIRE!