Mage DPS?

Pitbull

Pitbull

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So i have found a little gap in my commitments and had a few hours to play WoW since Sunday. I figured I'll give playing a Mage another shot. I got to about level 18 and did a few instances.

Now for my questions:

1. Are they actually good DPS? (Struggling still with Mana issues, running out through a boss fight and have to wand the rest)

2. I'm frost spec cos I like the survivability, is it Good DPS or should I just go Fire ?

3. Pls tell me at what level a Mage starts to show true DPS potential :D
 
Pitbull said:
So i have found a little gap in my commitments and had a few hours to play WoW since Sunday. I figured I'll give playing a Mage another shot. I got to about level 18 and did a few instances.

Now for my questions:

1. Are they actually good DPS? (Struggling still with Mana issues, running out through a boss fight and have to wand the rest)

2. I'm frost spec cos I like the survivability, is it Good DPS or should I just go Fire ?

3. Pls tell me at what level a Mage starts to show true DPS potential :D
Click to expand...

For leveling, which does most dps isn't as important as which you enjoy the most - for raiding however, frost is significantly weaker than fire and arcane. Frost is generally nice for leveling when the mobs don't ever get to you (Frostbite proc)

Frost is tons of survivability as you said, fire is full out damage (Hot streak is a bit of fun) and arcane only get nice at 55-60 (when you get access to 5/5 Missile Barrage)

Pitbull, have you gotten Evocation yet? With a deep arcane build you have 2min evocation cooldowns - which balances itself out due to the mana cost of most arcane abilities
 
Oculate said:
For leveling, which does most dps isn't as important as which you enjoy the most - for raiding however, frost is significantly weaker than fire and arcane. Frost is generally nice for leveling when the mobs don't ever get to you (Frostbite proc)

Frost is tons of survivability as you said, fire is full out damage (Hot streak is a bit of fun) and arcane only get nice at 55-60 (when you get access to 5/5 Missile Barrage)

Pitbull, have you gotten Evocation yet? With a deep arcane build you have 2min evocation cooldowns - which balances itself out due to the mana cost of most arcane abilities
Click to expand...

No evocation yet :(

I love playing Frost for leveling :) But once I hit 40 I can just Dual spec Frost/Fire :)

So Fire DPS is way up there amoungst the top of them ? How big are the Fire crits at level 80 ? I would love to get a Nice Pyro Crit one day at level 80 :D
 
Evocation rocks. The glyph that enables you to restore health and mana with evocation also rocks.

Im building a frost mage... only level 44 :D The mana was a problem in the begining, but now I am pretty much on top of it. I have to kill a group before I run outta mana (unless I am going bananas with Blizzard).

Once I get to level 55 I will be building a bit of arcane into my frost build. Frost owns for control. I love it. It does decent damage and lets you shut down and control mobs or just down another player.

Rouges.. Warriors.. Hunters... I love finding them. Im pretty weak atm against Healers.. I run out of mana before they do :( Your nova is also pretty useless against spell casters.

My friend gets 6000 on average with his lvl 80 fire mage.... though he is only really good in PVE.. He sucks in PVP.
 
Pitbull said:
No evocation yet :(

I love playing Frost for leveling :) But once I hit 40 I can just Dual spec Frost/Fire :)

So Fire DPS is way up there amoungst the top of them ? How big are the Fire crits at level 80 ? I would love to get a Nice Pyro Crit one day at level 80 :D
Click to expand...

I leveled 75-77 as fire, was getting 5k pyrocrits (had roughly 1,100 spellpower), recently I ding'd 80 and specced Deep arcane, biggest crit I've seen so far: 11.2k Arcane Barrage (after stacking 3 AB buffs, with Lightweave embroidery buff, Arcane Power and my trinket)... to achieve those crits you burn through 15k mana in 25seconds :o
 
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Oculate said:
I leveled 75-77 as fire, was getting 5k pyrocrits (thanks for Hot streak), recently I ding'd 80 and specced Deep arcane, biggest crit I've seen so far: 11.2k Arcane Barrage (after stacking 3 AB buffs, with Lightweave embroidery buff, Arcane Power and my trinket)... to achieve those crits you burn through 15k mana in 25seconds :o
Click to expand...

Aracane drinks mana... insanely..
 
So how do mages rank in the DPS chats at level 80 Raids?

I did my fair share of raids just never really checked anyone else's DPS :D
 
Heres a wws of a recent guild run... wws is blocked on my side, so i can't tell if there are any mages raiding :o
 
Well there goes my Mage leveling, just got feedback from SARS that I have been selected for an Audit (2 years in a row) So guess what I'll be doing till 3am for the next couple of days /cry
 
Mage dps> fire and arcane is much better for raiding. Considering that your toon is only lvl 18 i suggest frost. The fact that you are running out of mana on a spec (frost) that is more mana-efficient than the others (arcane/fire dmg per mana) in leveling spec means your rotation is a little AWOL/F'd.

You need to look at the rotation first and foremost, then check for the right gear.

bottomline: fire is fast! frost is safer.... but frostfire spec is the shhht! Check wowwiki.com for the builds.
 
Pitbull said:
So i have found a little gap in my commitments and had a few hours to play WoW since Sunday. I figured I'll give playing a Mage another shot. I got to about level 18 and did a few instances.

Now for my questions:

1. Are they actually good DPS? (Struggling still with Mana issues, running out through a boss fight and have to wand the rest)

2. I'm frost spec cos I like the survivability, is it Good DPS or should I just go Fire ?

3. Pls tell me at what level a Mage starts to show true DPS potential :D
Click to expand...

traitor, what happened to you leveling your warrior!!!
 
Frost bolt - SPam fireball until dead :)

Use frostbolt to snare and fb for the dot and damage.

FFB at 80 insane crits I just hate the rotation so arcane is my speck
My gear is not so hot but in NAXX and other HC's I crit between 7k and 15k with good buffs. Average dps +- 2.4k.

Grinding after lvl 30 or so frost nova / blizzard aoe grinding u gonna use a lot of manna here if u have a main give u nab toon some dosh to buy pots keeps downtime to a minimum. But fast xp :)

Erm my humble advice.
 
semaphore said:
traitor, what happened to you leveling your warrior!!!
Click to expand...

I want to play it. Just I figured I don't have much play time as it is, I'll check a Mage to see how ti is, that was Sunday morning :D It takes about what 3 hours played till level 18 ? That is what I have been doing since Sunday then.... 3 hours played :o
 
The Yogg encounter is not a very good example to base a DPS comparison.

There is waaaaaayy to many dedicated roles on the encounter.
Portal teams, tentacle duty, add kiting mob duty, dedicated boss nukers in phase 3.

AOE is pretty much the cookie mages excel at.
Single target nuking... nope.
 
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