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Frost for raidingFollow

#1 May 28 2008 at 12:31 AM Rating: Good
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Okay, so after ages of not playing my mage I just got her to outlands. (I made her the day BC came out...)

I was spec'd fire so I was used to it for raiding and I died. Alot.

So I decided to respec Frost, just to see how it worked. I fell in love with it.

Now I know Frost is not as good as Fire/Arcane for raiding depending on Tier. But I'm wodnering just how big a difference it is. For example, for Rogues I know that Combat Swords is the best but Combat Daggers does not lose so much DPS that it is impossible to spec.

So I'm wondering, how big is the difference? Is it okay to stay Frost or should I still go Spellfire Tailoring in preparation for raiding at 70?

I checked the sticky and didn't see anything so I figured I could risk posting this without being BBQ'd.
#2 May 28 2008 at 2:05 AM Rating: Excellent
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It depends, really. At early raid levels, all things being equal, frost is more damaging. Unfortunately, all things are not equal and Spellfire >> FSW.

Fire will tend towards higher DPS, but frost will remain respectable. And then there's arcane, which does some interesting things later on.
#3 May 28 2008 at 4:00 AM Rating: Good
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>.< that really didn't help...I guess whhat I wanted to know is just waht is the gap? If a Frost Mage and a Fire Mage with equal gear and equal skill are in a raid are they going to be right next to each other or is Fire going to beat Frost by several slots?

Something along those lines.
#4 May 28 2008 at 4:26 AM Rating: Excellent
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Doing some testing with the Theorycraft-o-Matic, I get this:

spell dmg: 700
Fire: 796.54
Frost: 787.63

spell dmg: 850
Fire: 884.23
Frost: 868.20

spell dmg: 1000
Fire: 972.47
Frost: 948.78

spell dmg: 1150
Fire: 1060.64
Frost: 1029.35

So, fire has better damage than frost, but not by a ton (this is assuming you use your water elemental every time it is up, etc), and this is *NOT* counting dissimilar gear (e.g. FSW vs. Spellfire)... they do *NOT* compare well as the set bonus for the Spellfire destroys the set bonus for FSW. The above is in spec agnostic gear. Once you factor gear in, fire pulls away more and more.

Edited, May 28th 2008 7:28am by ktangent
#5 May 28 2008 at 4:41 AM Rating: Good
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I raided frost for a very long time Moo, and if frost is what you love, stay frost. I ran at the top of dmg meters for a long time with frost. It is true that frost peals away from viable raiding specs, but if your a decent player, that will only come into play mid-late Black Temple.
Raids you can run, and succeed with as frost:
Kara
Grull/Mag
ZA
SSC
TK

*little grey area*
Hyjal, First few bosses of BT*

*Fire takes the cake*
Black Temple
Sunwell

*many mages go frost again while learning Illidan, the last boss of BT due to mages roles and the fire immune elements*

Keep in mind even though frost is laughed at being a one button wonder, to be doing your best dmg possible it takes a lot of button clicking, movement and using your extra survivability to do more dmg. It is very dependent on keeping your WE Alive, this often requires moving him, having him stay somewhere your not. It's harder to do damage as frost, but rewarding. 2 reasons i believe fire walks away at the end of the day.
1. Fire ignites and its talent tree eats +dmg better than frost can. and when that +dmg gets very high you can see the difference.
2. Fights can start to get complicated, with lots of moving or doing things, easy to lose your winter chill effect on boss, and hard to keep the WE alive and active.

Though every mage wants haste, as frost, i believe it to be more neccessary and stacked as much as i could.
Hope this helps, i no longer raid as frost, but i was there a very long time, and miss it.

Edited, May 28th 2008 8:47am by CalenciaBlue

Edited, May 28th 2008 5:05pm by CalenciaBlue
#6 May 30 2008 at 6:41 PM Rating: Good
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Alright, thanks for the advice all.

I think when I get my first piece of Spellfire I'll go back to fire. But until then I'm gonna level as frost for the survivability.

Thanks again.
#7 May 30 2008 at 10:33 PM Rating: Decent
Elemental has 3k HP. If there's raid damage it dies and sadly you depend on it to remain close to fire. Lots of fights will simply kill it (about 50% I'd say).

Edited, May 31st 2008 2:33am by Kavekk
#8 May 31 2008 at 7:44 AM Rating: Decent
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352 posts
My question is similar to the original poster but what I want to know is what gear to look for?
I have a Frosty in frozen shadoweave and spellstrike sets, apart from the spellfire and spellstrike sets what else do I look for in shoulders etc. thats not covered in the fire sets?
Is belt of blasting a good alternative over girdle of ruination?
As Frost you can craft/buy a lot of good gear to start with, fire looks a bit harder to achieve.
I'am currently raiding Kara, Gruuls, have gone into ZA,SSC and MH but I dont seem to be close to the damage the other mages using fire are doing.
Re specing means re gearing means re raiding :)
#9 May 31 2008 at 9:26 AM Rating: Good
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I was never a tailor, so my knowledge of the patterns is limited. I used badge gear and PvP gear mostly until epics in t4/t5 content started to roll in. I'm pretty sure that H.MgT drops a nice shoulder pair which will suffice.
Belt of Blasting if you can get your hands on it is a very nice belt, i believe is good untill you replace with T6 Belt. The girdle of ruination has many upgrades and should be on your list to replace but might not make priority.
As for your dps, If you feel you are doing all the right things, your WE is alive for its duration and the damage is still not there. i would suggest.
1. Is your gear up to par with theirs? Are you hit capped?
2. checking your spec, are talent points wasted?
3. Are the fire mages getting the Ele shammy, or the boomkin, are you consuming? Is there something else that is raising there dps above your own.
4. If everything checks out and you still cant put your finger on it, maybe frost isn't your tree? have you tried other specs to see how they fit your playstyle. I'd advice replacing your frost specific gear to allow you time to find the tree that fits with you.

If you dont think its any of these, feel free to keep asking more questions till we figure it out.
#10 May 31 2008 at 5:07 PM Rating: Decent
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352 posts
Thanks for the reply mate, really appreciate it.
I'll try and answer your questions as best I can,

1: I'am not hit capped but a lot of the fire mages in my guild doing these runs have badge or higher epic gear.
My gear is crafted as a tailor at 375, I have 2 tier 4 items from Kara and a badged item but everything else is crafted.

2: I'am full talented Frost, I have a few arcane points but its all Frost.

3: I use flasks, food and oil for extra firepower.
I rarely oom as I alternate from pots and my stone.
My extra spell damage sits around 770, with the above added its up to 880.

4: I havent tried repecing to Fire yet but its on the cards to see how it goes.The Frost sets are easier crafted so I'll have to research what I can have before I start going back in raiding as a Fire mage.

You can check me out at http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Khaz%27goroth&n=Thunderangel

Thanks for the help, any advice I can get can only make me a better player :)
#11 May 31 2008 at 6:26 PM Rating: Excellent
I looked at your gear, which is fine, but what is with all of the spellcrit on he gems? As frost it isn't that big of a deal for you, that and you were about half the way to being spellhit capped (which is the biggest dps increase you can have). Also, for your meta gem I recommend the chaotic skyfire diamond.
#12 May 31 2008 at 11:58 PM Rating: Decent
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352 posts
Hey mate thanks for the treply, yes your right about the spell crit gems.
I got them before I realised spell hit was more beneficial so I'll go back and buy some new ones.
Any suggestions?
As for the meta its all I could find at the time but I'll look out for the chaotic one you mentioned.
I got a bit lost with your halfway to spellcap comment though, where do I look to see this and what is the cap?
By being halfway does that mean I still have the capability to improve more before I peak with my damage?
I honestly dont understand what capping is and especially how it effects me and where I currently am.
I've seen other mages with 11k spell hit bonus so i've still got a bit more to go.
I just assumed with other gear that would increase.
But thank you for taking the time to help me out, really appreciate it.

as a footnote I checked out the meta gem you mentioned, its purely spell crit...I thought you said I didnt need that as much?

Edited, Jun 1st 2008 10:02am by RodStorm
#13 Jun 01 2008 at 2:19 AM Rating: Excellent
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RodStorm wrote:
as a footnote I checked out the meta gem you mentioned, its purely spell crit...I thought you said I didnt need that as much?


While frost doesn't need much in the way of crit comparatively, it still benefits. Not to mention that there's no meta gem better for a mage of any spec(Ember Skyfire is ok, not great and Mystic Skyfire has been nerfed into craptitude).
#14 Jun 01 2008 at 4:34 AM Rating: Excellent
RodStorm wrote:
Hey mate thanks for the treply, yes your right about the spell crit gems.
I got them before I realised spell hit was more beneficial so I'll go back and buy some new ones.
Any suggestions?
As for the meta its all I could find at the time but I'll look out for the chaotic one you mentioned.
I got a bit lost with your halfway to spellcap comment though, where do I look to see this and what is the cap?
By being halfway does that mean I still have the capability to improve more before I peak with my damage?
I honestly dont understand what capping is and especially how it effects me and where I currently am.
I've seen other mages with 11k spell hit bonus so i've still got a bit more to go.
I just assumed with other gear that would increase.
But thank you for taking the time to help me out, really appreciate it.

as a footnote I checked out the meta gem you mentioned, its purely spell crit...I thought you said I didnt need that as much?

Edited, Jun 1st 2008 10:02am by RodStorm


Until spellhit cap I recommend either great dawnstone (+8 hit) or veiled noble topaz (+4hit +5dmg) to get to it.

Spellhit: Is what decreases your chance to be resisted by the mob/boss. A BC boss qualifies as a level 73, thus with a 3 level differential you have (at 0 spellhit) a 16% chance to miss (resist) when you use your spell. You start at 83% chance to hit and improve upon that. With the talent elemental precision you gain 3% (for fire) and 6% (for frost -- it doesn't say it in the tooltip, but is that way). So in order to be capped (at 99% -- the best you can do) you will need 126 spellhit to be capped as frost or 164 as a fire mage.

With new gear, etc your damage and other stats will increase, sometimes it gets to a point when many items are sidegrades where you may need part of a stamina set or whathaveyou.

As Pold mentioned, the CSD is the best for us, although frost mages do not depend on crit as much as fire mages, it is the best gem for us.

Overall the way that point values work out

1spelldmg = 1spelldmg
1haste = ~1 (at a certain gear level) spelldmg
1crit = ~.5-.6 spelldmg.


spell penetration is situational at best.
#15 Jun 01 2008 at 5:40 AM Rating: Decent
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Thaks guys for the reply, I have a belt of blasting I was going to save for my lock when she hit 70 but I'am going to put it onto my mage.
I'am looking at the glowing shadowsong amethyst and potent pyrestone gems for it as I plan to keep the belt for awhile.
Does this sound ok gem wise?
i was thinking of a reckless pyrestone but do I go spell haste over crit on the potent one?
I was always under the impression spell damage was number one with spell crit, hit and penetration a bit further down the track.
Have I got that bit right?
I'am going to respec to fire to see what its like, if I dont like it I'll go back to frost.
Frost was good for levelling but most of my mage guildies are fire mages now so I'am thinking thats the go for raiding.
I'll have a look at the cap and try and work out what you said, it does make sense I just have to work out where I'am with it.
Thank you again guys for your time and help, appreciate it.

Edited, Jun 1st 2008 1:42pm by RodStorm
#16 Jun 01 2008 at 7:03 AM Rating: Excellent
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1. Spell hit *till capped* *the best you can have is a 99%chance to hit*
2. Spell Dmg

Frost:
3. Spell Haste
4. Spell Crit
Fire:
3. Spell crit *till 30% crit chance with talents*
4. Spell Haste
*with any fire and frost, once your past 1100spldmg, Haste becomes #2*

as for socketing.
you were thinking of
[Reckless Pyrestone]
[Glowing Shadowsong Amethyst]
which puts you at 16dmg, 5 haste, 7stam.

If your lookin to socket now and never again i would go with these.
[Runed Crimson Spinel]
[Runed Crimson Spinel]
24spldmg

and if your spelldmg was higher
[Reckless Pyrestone]
[Reckless Pyrestone]
12spldmg 10 haste

However, since your not hit capped, what i would do is socket it with cheaper gems for now, that add to that plus hit. Untill the rest of your gear catches up
[Great Dawnstone]
[Glowing Nightseye]
8splhit, 9spldmg, 6 stam


**first time trying to do links, hoping that worked, and take my advice with a grain of salt :)

#17 Jun 01 2008 at 9:16 AM Rating: Default
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I do not like Fire, I dunno why, it has nothing to do with damage or anything like that. I just prefer the look of frost/arcane.
#18 Jun 02 2008 at 12:00 AM Rating: Decent
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352 posts
Thanks Cal and everyone else, if I grab the Runed Crimson Spinel now then its done but on a belt of blasting I think I'd lose the socket bonus but the extra 20 spell dam. would compensate for it.
So while I'am able to I'll grab 2 of them I think.
the bit I'am lost with is at what number do I become spell hit capped at?
Will I get the benefit of the 2 above gems at this point?
I plan on keeping the belt for quite some time so I could "grow" into it I'am hoping.
Thanks again for the help :)
#19 Jun 02 2008 at 4:27 AM Rating: Excellent
From my earlier post:

Quote:
Spellhit: Is what decreases your chance to be resisted by the mob/boss. A BC boss qualifies as a level 73, thus with a 3 level differential you have (at 0 spellhit) a 16% chance to miss (resist) when you use your spell. You start at 83% chance to hit and improve upon that. With the talent elemental precision you gain 3% (for fire) and 6% (for frost -- it doesn't say it in the tooltip, but is that way). So in order to be capped (at 99% -- the best you can do) you will need 126 spellhit to be capped as frost or 164 as a fire mage.
#20 Jun 02 2008 at 4:52 AM Rating: Decent
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84 posts
Quote:
Will I get the benefit of the 2 above gems at this point?

not quite sure what you mean.
1. Matching sockets only gives socket bonus. Gems that dont match still add.
2. +24spldmg always benefits.
Good luck
#21 Jun 02 2008 at 12:46 PM Rating: Default
cant say much about raiding, but i can say about fire/frost dps.

up until 65 i was 100% fire and added a few frost just for giggles to not waist my points. my DPS solo and group (instance runs) was very nice. not top of the line as i neglected to grab +damage gear in lue of "of the eagle" as i did mainly solo so HP+mana was king for me.

at 65 i moved to arc+fire and WOW what a HUGE dps difference that was, no change in gear. i did eat up the mana much faster, but mobs dropped like flies now.

at 69 i started going pvp so i respected again to frost+arc. my DPS went way down compared to arc+fire, BUT my mana efficiency went up so much it was not funny. i went from drinking every 2 or 3 fights to hardly drinking at all during instance runs expect on over pulls or on bosses.

now that i have started picking up +damage gear and +resilience gear my DPS is climbing up there and i hit 550DPS in H. Mec the other night with a spriest hitting 600 or so. no we are not UBBER geared, but doing well.

i like the challenge of frost to get my DPS up, but i also like how much harder it is to OVERagro the tank. this makes constant DPS simpler compared to arc+fire, or fire+arc lines.

my ONLY kara run (before i got some of the gear i have now) i was still in the top 5 for DPS on the run and we spanked that instance like it was nothing.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Bladefist&n=Choongsil

that is my armory so you can see my gear and spec. i am happy with it, but might consider going back to arc if i can find a good way of using that in pvp.
#22 Jun 03 2008 at 12:59 AM Rating: Decent
Did u ever try a 10/0/52 built for pvp. Very viable as well.
link
This will boost your DPS in Raids big-times. I was with this built in SSC, TK and was mostly in the top 5 in damage.
#23 Jun 03 2008 at 1:40 AM Rating: Decent
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352 posts
Thanks for the help guys, got the 2 Runed Crimson spinels on my belt of blasting and about to respec to fire so all good.
Sooooo....if I was to gem everything with runed crimson spinels and ignore the socket bonus which is usually crap anyway that would be a good thing right for the rest of my gear?
Thanks to all for the help, especially Calc :)

Edited, Jun 3rd 2008 9:41am by RodStorm

Edited, Jun 3rd 2008 12:04pm by RodStorm
#24 Jun 03 2008 at 6:37 AM Rating: Good
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84 posts
Dont forget your looking to get hit capped, and many people use gems to help them reach it untill gear alone can sustain it. Other than that, once your hit 1100spldmg *unbuffed*. It's recommended that haste takes priority. and starting to socket with reckless pyrestone is a good alternative. Congratulations on the belt and the epic gems. Many mages will be jealous *myself included*

Quote:
Sooooo....if I was to gem everything with runed crimson spinels and ignore the socket bonus which is usually crap anyway that would be a good thing right for the rest of my gear?

it certainly wouldn't hurt, in my own gear, only if the set bonus is +4 or +5spl damage will i consider matching the sockets, specialy if there red and yellow. Blue's sockets kinda hurt. But i'm also waiting for the epic gem vendor to open on my server (97% hurry up) and when i replace all my cheap gems im sure i'll be switching all to runed crimson spinels or reckless pyrestones.
#25REDACTED, Posted: Jun 03 2008 at 8:12 AM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) People look My DPS in Raid Mage Frost Wins !
#26 Jun 03 2008 at 9:05 AM Rating: Excellent
fernandomax wrote:
People look My DPS in Raid Mage Frost Wins !

Agnusmax Top DPS!!!!

http://wowwebstats.com/vy6zr5gmfihii



Do you have fingers? Then will have a DPS, no Sleep!


hmm, pretty sure you weren't anywhere near top dps on VR.
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