Professor Turicus wrote:
robertlofthouse wrote:
[quote=Professor Turicus]http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=oMZbEcfR0IuVubGozbhc
Another soloing build which could be worthwhile is a frostfire build ... haven't given THAT much though either, but it could be interesting.
I would drop Elemental Precision for leveling. You won't be fighting against +3 mobs much, it's inefficient to level.
The problem with fire for leveling (similar for trash mobs in raids) is twofold:
1. Without 5x Scorch, damage is 10% lower, but casting it 5 times means using a low DPS spell and the mob is probably dead before you get to cast your first fireball. So you're kind of stuck with bad or bad.
2. Loads of Ignite damage will not tick. You crit twice, the mob dies, Ignite is wasted. So I'd rather have a bit lower front-loaded damage (Frost) than higher sustained DPS that never ticks (Ignite).
A Frostfire elementalist build will only be possible after 75, when you actually get FFB. It could be an option because it has a snare, a good coefficient, high DPM and you can get all the efficiency talents from both trees. But again, Ignite is not very trash mob friendly.
Good point about elemental precision, may open up some options on the arcane side then.
As for fire levelling ... I levelled fire to 70, with a brief jaunt into frost from 64-67, and both are just as good for levelling. I did, however, find frost a tad slower, albeit with a lot more control. The thing is that "2 crits and it's dead" can generally be converted into ... "1 big crit and it's dead". Ignite doing the work there.
This allows you to fire off a pyro, get a big crit, then ignore the mob and start on the next one. By the time the first mob gets to you - he dies from the ignite. 1-shotting mobs ftw. Yes, you need to understand what damage your spells do, and have a good feeling for how your ticks perform, but that should be second nature after 70 levels. I can crit with a ~4600 k pyro on the blood elves on quel'danas (I've done 5500 with stolen fel armour), the ignite tick there is ~1000 each. Those mobs only have around 6k health, so right there, a good opening crit, fire ward up (for the warlock-type BEs), and you're good.
As for 2 forstbolts doing the same job ... maybe they could, maybe they couldn't (depending on your gear) - I always found the mob dieing before he got to me in both situations, with fire, it's 2-3 spells, with frost it's 3-4, sometimes 5 spells, its the chill effect that does the work there. End result ... mob dies before you're hit in both situations, win both ways.
FFB is really going to be interesting, cos it's got the DoT and the slow. Perhaps I'll have replaced my spellfire set by then with general spell power gear, and I can really play with it properly.