Fireball!

[Choleric]

Mages of the land come forth!  Have been tinkering with FB and FFB builds for a while now as I am slightly unimpressed by my current dps and I was hoping some other mages could discuss their spell rotations/talents/glyphs.

I currently have Living Bomb/Molten Armour/Fireball glyphs as I am using 18/53/0 with TTW in Arcane.  My hit is 346 (as I understand it, that could be the reason why Fireball build isn't working so well).  Spell power is 1700 which again, could be the source of my problems but I am reluctant to drop hit and crit to aquire more through gemming.

I tend to get the best out of Fireball Spam (or FFB in FFB build) as much as possible, Pyroblast on each Hotstreak, Living Bomb up at every pop and a Fire Blast if I can spare it.  Crit is 34% with fire, with a further 3% for Fireball through Imp. Scorch. which of course I keep on the main target at all times.

FB build barely gives me the dps I get from FFB build, which leads me to think that it is my gear in some way since I have read FB build is only good beyond a certain point.  But I'm struggling to keep up with the pack and would appreciate any tips.

I suppose my most nagging question would be: Should I be trying this build on a raid for the best performance?  Is 4% damage going to show in a big way in raiding?

Anyway, any input at all will be appreciated as always.

[Splishy]

While I've not been playing my mage as I got a little... bored of him I have been following the EJ threads - what is your crit in FB spec? If anything like it is in FFB I'd suggest that you can afford to drop a little crit and aim for a chunk more SP - a target of 2000 seems a good number. Obviously dropping below the hitcap would be Very Baaaaaaaaaaaaad mmkay? The other thing to bear in mind is the amount of effects that can help with a TTW reliant build - it's much more likely to be seen in a 10/25man than solo vs a target dummy or in a 5 man.

Have you checked out magegraf? That's a handy tool to see where you can improve stuffs by tweaking builds etc, far more reliable than Rawr.

[Amberley]

I don't know anything about it but you could maybe ask irulan (pallystill) he sits in fuzzyglory channel about it, I know he was getting some mental numbers at one point:)

[Choleric]

Well according to Magegraf the best I could hope for right now is what I'm getting (reassuring at least), and 2000 spellpower would increase it by about 150dps - allowing for a drop in crit rating.  So perhaps it's my gear - I am still wearing a few iLevel 200 items so maybe I just need gear upgrades.

[Splishy]

The gear really does make a world of difference, and if Magegraf says you're about right then I'd say you're not doing much wrong. Did you factor in a ret pally with your calculations?

[Choleric]

I don't think so, what would I be missing?

[Splishy]

+3% haste (Swift Retribution), +3% crit chance on the ret paladin's target (Heart of the Crusader) (not so much use on trash, very handy on bosses). Both of those should have a fair impact on your damage output. Other classes also have handy things that you should take into account - I believe shadow Priests bring +3% hit to the raid too, and since most progression raiding has Ky in shadow form you might be able to drop a little +hit and still stay capped.

[Choleric]

Good points, I will try Ulduar on Saturday in FB spec in that case.

[Dar]

Dont forget that i'm nearly always there with my awesome awesomeness, +13% damage and +3% crit chance for you as caster. Youd better use it!

[Sylantar]

i got the cookie cutter fire spec at the moment but i would recommend getting precision down the frost tree as the hit talent in arcane only works on arcane spells
the glyph of scorch is awesome. 1 cast = 5 so you don't have to build that up anymore
my rotation is living bomb - dot damage - scorch - frostfire repeat until need to top up living bomb or scorch or instant cast pyro from talents

though i'm not playing much or raiding at all at the moment so may be out of date info.

[Choleric]

i got the cookie cutter fire spec at the moment but i would recommend getting precision down the frost tree as the hit talent in arcane only works on arcane spells
the glyph of scorch is awesome. 1 cast = 5 so you don't have to build that up anymore
my rotation is living bomb - dot damage - scorch - frostfire repeat until need to top up living bomb or scorch or instant cast pyro from talents

though i'm not playing much or raiding at all at the moment so may be out of date info.

Aye I replaced Glyph of Scorch with Fireball when I respecced, very handy.  Precision is indeed the one to use in FFB spec, in FB/TTW the arcane hit talent is of no consequence but you have to put the points in somewhere to get to TTW and that is more useful than arcane subtlety.

Rotation about the same, though I don't use scorch unless I need to refresh the effect of imp. scorch.  Fire Blast is a better option I find.