Mage Update

Evening,

So I was able to hit level 62 yesterday. This has given me a chance to play a little with each spec in both questing and dungeons. My thoughts,

Fire-

• Actually is able to AOE but not as much at a time or as safely as frost can. It basically comes down to Living bomb on everything and then use all of your abilities to keep them as far away as possible for as long enough for them to all die. Its not easy, very mana intense and uses almost everything every pull to keep from dieing.
• In dungeons the cast times are still very slow. You can spec to get instant Flame Strikes when using Dragon Breathe but this puts you fairly close and aggro is a real problem. Other than that one ability everything cost a lot and Evocation is never off cooldown soon enough. This may be a lack of crit since that's where fires mana regen comes from but at this point I wouldn't suggest fire.

Frost-

• By far the best for AOE bar-none for both grinding, questing and dungeons
• Single target dps is very low even when popping Icy Veins and Elemental and then using Cold Snap to keep both up through entire fight.
• I will still be using this as my main leveling spec because of the AOE control and survivability

Arcane-

• Even without having Arcane Blast yet has by far the best single target dps so far!
• Can be mana intense or no thought of mana depending on Clearcasting procs, just be sure to be at full before a boss fight and you will be able to go the whole fight.
• AOE I personally have found to be very hard on mana if you try to go all out as well as the tanks tend to have aggro problems in that case. I have been dropping Flame Strike then just single targeting. It keeps up the dps and is sustainable.
• Rotating Arcane Barrage between Arcane Missiles for Missile Barrage procs is ok but using straight Arcane Missiles is likely better dps at this point. But the first time you get a Barrage proc you will love is so much you will find yourself weaving Arcane Barrage also.
• I will be using this as my dungeon spec for awhile.

So for now I against fire though if you prefer it that awesome. Its just not my style at the moment. I will likely try it again at some point but I will be sticking to Frost for AOE grinding and questing and Arcane for my dungeon runs.

Helping is Rewarding

Evening,

Did a few randoms last night but that was not the highlight of my night. A couple good things happened. First the paladin I was having a hard time figuring out got to go to ICC last night. And I heard that he doubled his single target DPS over what he was doing before. Now I don't have hard numbers which would be nice so we could keep him improving but it looks like he has his raid spot back which is the best part. I'm very happy to have been able to help. And I will continue to help him to keep him in his spot. Also I got to do several parses on the dummy with my hunter friend. I'm so happy cause he has improved by about 1500 DPS since our last session. And I had been doing some reading on ArP and had him drop his Arcane shot and got him another 300 DPS last night on the dummy. This is what it is all about. This is why I play now.

Also I'm getting incoming request for help from more and more people. So I have set up a email for them to get hold of me with their info so that I can do my best to get the info I need to help them the best I can. I also think I'm getting into the theory crafting side of things as well. Which is an interesting thing cause the numbers get so confusing when your staring at them but I understand the point of them. Its just nice to be able to pass on all that hard work others do to people who have a need for it.

As for myself I took my disc gear I am working on and used my crummy shadow spec while doing the parses with my hunter friend. So I have like no hit and only 4 purples currently but I was able to start at 2200 DPS and over 3 runs improve it to 2700 DPS. I'm so happy with that cause I find shadow DPS very difficult. I don't like how long it takes to ramp it up at all so heroics make me look incompetent. But the possible output is there which makes me very happy.

And last for today, my wife is continuing to improve everyday. She is now pushing around 4800 DPS on the dummy. She is a little upset with her raid progress but she is taking the control and working on making her own raid team. Now I'm not sure she is aware of the work that can be but I am hoping for the best with it. She deserves to get in there and get the experience and loot.

/rambles out

Helping is Frustrating

Evening,

So I got to run several randoms on my priest last night and other than one idiot tank it was smooth and fun. Ran with the best and funniest hunter pretending to be a paladin. It is so much fun running and playing with other people you can talk to and laugh about things with. I have never really been apart of that side of the game. Yes a RL friend got me involved but our schedules never matched and he was always farther along doing things with the guild I wasn't ready for. I'm not the most social person but I still enjoy it. Especially when the other people are so easy to get along with. And I have been finding myself only really playing when I have someone to play with which is a change for me. Not thinking its a bad change, just different.

With this I have been helping others with there DPS. I currently have a ret paladin I am working with that I cant figure out. Got his spec straightened out and the proper glyphs. I have explained the proper rotation, and even have parses from the test dummy now. But some how I cant pin point where he is falling short. It has me very frustrated. I even went over to my other realm and respeced my forgotten paladin and put her ret gear back on. It sucks completely, blues and some tank gear still. Only has 2 pieces over 200 ilvl. Yet on the dummy I'm only about 700 DPS short of the paladin I'm working with. He is teir 9 and equivalent gear. I even took to explaining to my wife how easy it was, just put the buttons on the numbers in order of importance and roll your finger over them. I only lost 100 DPS doing this. Now 100 DPS is 100 DPS and at the level I am about 5 % of my DPS but still for just literal face roll that is to easy. How does this not work for my ret friend? Is there more I am missing? I have been trolling through the Elitist Jerks forum and have learned some nice things but nothing that would really change anything as drastically as he needs. I will get this figured out, but I don't yet know how or when. Hopefully soon since he is being sat out of raids til he gets his single target DPS up.

ARGHHHHH!