PoM as pure arcaneFollow

Hi, I rolled a new mage and he's 29 right now, with talents that look like this. At 30 I get a choice between PoM and Arcane Mind. Would I be missing out that much by skipping PoM till I've maxed AM? I figured I wouldn't get much use out of PoM, since none of the spells I use regularly have casting times (I'm assuming PoM doesn't do anything to arcane missiles, correct?), and on the other hand the extra int looks really tasty (I'm pretty happy with my damage, but mana is often running low; arcane meditation has helped a lot though). When I do get PoM (if I don't pick it up next level, it'll be at 35; I'll get it eventually regardless), what's the best use for it? I can only think of it turning my currently redundant fireball spell into a second fireblast.

Also, on a slightly related subject, does anybody know whether Arcane Mind is additive or multiplicative with blessing of kings?

Loopie, you're correct. Also, it appears to me that in an arcane build POM is only useful as a prereq, not as an actual ability. If PoM is not on the GCD, it could help a small bit with arcane blast or frostbolt (if it is on the GCD it doesnt matter or it hurts), it's biggest use is with pyroblast as mentioned before.

Ever try to aoe a bunch of mobs and bite off more than you could chew? Has happened to me a few times and the pom-flame strike has helped me more than once. There maybe better talents you could take this early on, but its definately worth getting.

Another interesting use of PoM is like in a neutral town like gadgetzan or something. Open up a portal, then target some pathetic unsuspecting fool, pyro pom-pyro fireblast, then jump in the portal to escape the guards. Hillarious.

Edited, Apr 9th 2008 9:09am by uzemaki

when you get much farther into arcane and you get POM you can just mix it with Fire Ball and be fine
that's what i do but i also have 2 piece of spell fire and it add's to the fire dmg
i can hit a 6-8k POM AP ISC Fireball crit easy so PoM pyro really isn't needed
at lower lvls of arcane im not so sure that it would be as effective as other talents but i didn't lvl arcane so i would not know
arcane is very mana inefficient at lower lvls so i wouldn't suggest it in the first place

This doesn't make sense. Spells with longer cast times get more benefit from +spell damage than those with shorter ones. If your fireballs are hitting harder than pyros, its not because they scale better, because they don't. Try again.

Cast time Coefficient Cast time Coefficient
7.0+ sec 200.0% 4.0 sec 114.3%
6.5 sec 185.7% 3.5 sec 100.0%
6.0 sec 171.4% 3.0 sec 85.71%
5.5 sec 157.1% 2.5 sec 71.43%
5.0 sec 142.9% 2.0 sec 57.14%
4.5 sec 128.6% 1.5- sec 42.86%

From wowwiki.

Are you comparing crit for crit?

Make sure you are looking at data on hits vs. the same type of mobs as well.

Pyroblast: Rank 3 Mana: 195 Damage: 291 (avg) DOT:96 (LVL 30)
Fireball: Rank 6 Mana: 185 Damage: 232 DOT: 28 (LVL 30)

With 'empowered fireball', both age 115% of your damage (the Direct Damage portion of Pyroblast and the direct damage part of Fireball) Pyroblast's DoT gets 20% of your spell damage and Fireball's DoT gets 0% (source). But that is only available to a lvl 49 character (to max out).

So, the pyroblast should hit a bit harder and do a bit more DoT damage than a fireball. I'd take a look at your testing method, as WoW is really just a computer crunching numbers, and as such is bound by mathematics.

At Lvl 70:

Pyroblast: Rank 10 Mana: 500 Damage: 1165 (avg) DOT: 356
Fireball: Rank 13 Mana: 425 Damage: 719 DOT: 84

Pyroblast should still do more damage directly and indirectly. It should be more DPM effective, but less DPS effective due to it's long cast time. If in doubt, go do some Dr. Boom and kill him 3 or 4 times to get a really good sample.