Opening moves?Follow

Can you post your armory to see where your talents are?

First of all: Get a threat meter

Secondly: If the mob is going to last ~12 seconds or less fireball spam is the most efficient unless you can't get the last fireball off then do a fireblast to try to get it in.

For quick fights, Scorch spam with a 4x/2x/x spec works wonders (Ignite, Incineration, and Imp Scorch are a must), particularly if you lack decent spell dmg to get the most out of the deeper fire talents. Throw in a PoM/Pyro if you're not riding the line on the threat meters.

For bosses, I think leading with Pyro doesn't sufficiently answer the old risk-vs-reward question. The 6 seconds are probably enough to give your tank time to establish agro, but what if you crit? What if your next Fireball crits? You're likely hopping on the agro wagon at that point. Yeah, you've got IB and Invis which are a mage's PvE dps iwin buttons, but have you really increased your dps that much with the Pyro opener? idk, I think I'd rather start stacking Scorch during those 6 seconds than lead with Pyro.

In my experience, Pyro is tasty for grinding with its nice dpm but otherwise I only like it with a side of PoM.

edit: wording

Edited, May 16th 2008 2:11pm by AynLoD

From the question and the # of spells this sounds like a boss fight(at least I hope so). I never use pyro in an instance - 6 secs seems like an eternity. Also, from your rotation, you are missing out on the benefits of having 5 stacked scorches - crits, incinerate, ignite, and increased vulnerable to fire dmg spells.

I now do what AynLod states and have gone from #3-4 in dps to #1 in most instances. I noticed that a lot of my fireballs looked great criting for 3.5+K on a trash mob that had 700 life left. What a let down.

On bosses I count 1-2-3 to let the tank get aggro and then spam scorch until 5 stacked. Then spam fireball until time to hit scorch again to keep the 5 stack going. You have to have a threat meter to keep an eye on your threat and to make sure you dont pull aggro otherwise your dps is not as high as it could be(especially if you never pull aggro - because we all do occassionally).At the end if there is not enough time to fireball then fireblast and maybe scorch.

Hahaha--and how. Too often I've stared at my quartz castbar thinking c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon DAMN IT Fireball into a dead trash mob.

I feel we should add the obligatory "ofcoursenoneofthismattersbecausewhocaresaboutdpsontrash" disclaimer, but hey, I don't care what you purist raiders say, topping dmg meters in 5mans is still fun...so long as you're not constantly pulling agro. :P

edit:

If you really really must use Pyro, I would strongly recommend NOT doing it right after popping all your trinket type dmg-boosters.
The 6-sec cast time is wasting too much of those c/ds. Really, full-cast pyro should just not be in any boss rotation.

Edited, May 16th 2008 5:42pm by AynLoD

What I do on bosses (raids only) is fairly dangerous, but hasn't gotten me killed yet is:

5x stack scorches
Use macro which automtically casts PoM, Arcane Power, Pops DPS trinket, and then sends a Pyroblast flying
7-8X Fireball
1xscorch
repeat Fireball and scorch rotation until cd for PoM and AP is ready, then send another pyro in when I can insta cast it. I only Fireblast if my Arcane Concentration procs, or if there are shammy's hooking up the mana regen.

-V

I actually do use Pyroblast at the beginning of a boss fight before the 5 Scorches. You may disagree with how good the TPS drop is at the beginning of the battle, but it's nice DPM to start off without chance of pulling right off the bat... but the real reason I like using it there is because of the DoT effect. It's not too much more, but hey, it's once at the beginning of a boss fight, and that's it.

I can't think of any reason not to do it, I personally use a separate macro to pop all of my abilities and not just link it to fireball, it may mean that they are not used every single time that they are up, but I can choose the most opportune time for them to work instead of when I am low on mana or something or right at the beginning of the fight when I am still letting the tank get threat. When I use everything I have to let the tank have at least 25-30k threat lead on me or I will pass him. If there is bloodlust/drums involved it has to be closer to 40-45k.

Well.. Do what you feel is most fun. I personally went frost while leveling because those ghost runs are taking time away from killing and gaining xp and with frost I had better control and longer uptime.

With regards to where to put your talent points.. just do a search on google and plenty should pop up :)

Oh.. and before you do anything else.

Read this post:

Best Mage Post EVER

Edited, May 19th 2008 5:58am by Verndroid

My trinkets are set to my fireballs button so I never have to think about them. Since fireballs are the spamming cast and used more than anything else might as well make it a no brainer and concentrate on the other things I have to do. Have not had any problems with aggro except fot the aggro dumper mobs or the tank having issues with missed hits. Rarely if I'm lucky and crit frequently with the scorches I may have to wait a sec or 2 before I start the fireball spamming. Usually not a problem tho since with scorching im low on the threat meter and then as soon as fireballs start going will pass everyone (except beyond 115% of tank). Combustion is then used only on the long bosses and I can pick the time based on the threat meter and how close I am to the tank. No sense using if I am going to be having to sit and watch for awhile and cant afford too frequent of crits.

As to the comment about dps meters, which I think have made more headaches then helped. As a warrior also it is frustrating having dpsers in a group whose sole purpose is to be #1. Who cares, your #1 and we wiped 5 times on the trash mobs yippeeeeee!!. I use the meters only to try different techniques to see what is going to benefit my group and to learn to be better. That is how I found to use scorches and fireblast at the end on low trash mobs and fireballs only if there was enough time on the longer trash mobs. The meters are good for learning and finding out who is not very good player (as a prot war coming in 3rd in a 5man beating a moonkin comes to mind LOL )

Just wanted to add while playing ffxi I played on that server above ^^.75rdm, and had a 75 pld. But enough with ff. Were not here for that are we. In the greatest mage post ever guide. Is it current and up to date. And going frost do I still stick with INT-STAM gear with +spell crits or what. Frost is gonna be a blast. Almost went fire. But I have to try frost. Looks to amazing not to. Thanks <o><o>