4.0 continued

[vezax]

So has anyone played around on PTR? I think its pretty needless to say that a lot will change for mages next patch, my main question is:

Has anyone fooled around to see whats best as far as reforging goes? I reforged most of my gear for mastery (obviously changing spirit on the pieces that have it) However i'm questioning this because fires crit rate is lower in 4.0.

[vezax]

Head..will..explode

I'm so not sure of the optimal reforging for 4.0, crit rates are way lower in 4.0 so i'm guessing that converting some haste to crit is a given, and i'll probably switch spirit to mastery.

Even with suboptimal gear i'm doing ridiculous dps to target dummies, 14-15k with no buffs.

Blastwave and flamestrike are both instant cast talented and they're pretty ridiculous, it appears that mages will be undisputed as aoe kings in cataclysm. Its so ridiculous that a lot of mages are using them as GCD fillers on single target.....

Someone join me on PTR and help me do the maths!

[Kimano]

Free PIs? =P

[Tashur]

Well, mage nerfs are in. I think they're going to overreact and we'll be back where we were or worse, and then in cata, we'll go oom immediately and all go frost.

That said, Arcane seems pretty competitive, and if it was nerfed less, it's going to probably be firmly ahead now.

I initially reforged crit=>mastery, but I'm not sure that's the right choice.

(1) We no longer use icy veins
(2) We now have 200% crits
(3) MoE is a viable talent to grab and is a nice rebate on mana
(4) More haste = more casts = more mana used. More crit = more dmg = less mana used (MoE).

Our burn phase is also done entirely without PTL, which also nerfs haste as a stat.

Going to probably reforge and regem back to crit from haste and see how that goes.

[Tashur]

Side note: the Pyromaniac bug will "stick" through a spec change if you run dual specs.

[Zerstorung]

Well, mage nerfs are in. I think they're going to overreact and we'll be back where we were or worse, and then in cata, we'll go oom immediately and all go frost.

That said, Arcane seems pretty competitive, and if it was nerfed less, it's going to probably be firmly ahead now.

I initially reforged crit=>mastery, but I'm not sure that's the right choice.

(1) We no longer use icy veins
(2) We now have 200% crits
(3) MoE is a viable talent to grab and is a nice rebate on mana
(4) More haste = more casts = more mana used. More crit = more dmg = less mana used (MoE).

Our burn phase is also done entirely without PTL, which also nerfs haste as a stat.

Going to probably reforge and regem back to crit from haste and see how that goes.

Tash, I think MoE only returns mana based on the base cost of AB, not the debuffed cost. I guess it's better than nothing.

For comparison, last nights Festergut:

Tashur: 3605 mana from MoE as Arcane.

Festergut from 9/28 (when I still had MoE)

Zerstorung: 12,034 mana from MoE as Fire.

[Tashur]

Yeah, true. I'd forgotten that detail. I guess the question is just whether you get more out of the multiplication on the haste, or the saved mana.

I mean, with no buffs and no cooldowns, 1% crit = 1% haste, right? Over the long haul, you get 101 casts instead of 100, or you get 1 extra crit, and either way, that's the same total damage.

Except the 101st cast cost you mana.

So haste actually gets amplified by raid buffs - each point of haste is multiplied by PTL, wrath of air, bloodlust, etc, since the sources are multiplicative - but all that haste still costs mana. Probably requires simming to really know.

[Faerwin]

Tashur, it depends on your level of crit and haste. 1% crit is also worth slightly more than 1% haste due to the meta gem but haste cost significantly less budget to get 1%. There's also the mana part issue, if you have so much haste that your regen can't keep up with your casts, then haste lose a lot of value because it's making mastery worse.