Some frost mage questions

[chKaze 1]

Link to askmrrobot (cant access armory):

https://www.askmrrob.../die_aldor/érzà

Rotation:

I use frostbomb to ensure that I will get a brainfreeze every X seconds. Opening: Mirror Images, Prepot, Frostbomb, Frozen orb after trinketprocs + Icy Veins (Glyphed), Alter Time. Afterwards spam frostbolt and frostbomb while using all ice lance or frostfirebolt procs.

Logs:

http://www.worldoflo...7gv/details/14/

http://www.worldoflo...g5pm/details/5/

Not sure if I linked it right, if it doesnt work EU- Die Aldor -> Arkanum des Sonnenfeuers -> Érzà

Invocation uptime is around 80% but I am working on it (created a weakaura which warns me 5s before it runs out).

Questions:

1) As you can see on my gear I lose a lot of mastery and some int in favor of haste. I'm currently at 36% buffed. Is it okay to give away mastery and some int in that case? Or should I regem/reforge?

2) Should I switch frostbomb to livingbomb or nethertempest? Or should I wait for the Megaera trinket which procs with periodic damaging spells?

3) Should I switch to fire? With 4p T15 I can get to 37-39% crit (With 2p I can get to 40-41%) or should I wait until I get a cloak with crit and the shado pan assault 522 ring? I've played fire in LFR but even with 41% crit it felt very RNG dependent (But I must say getting off a big Combustion+Spread on council was fun).

4) Does Mastery Frostburn work on a raidboss? The target has to be frozen or am I missing something?

Thank you for your time

Edited July 22, 2013 by chKaze

[RunicLovePotion 9]

The Frostburn Mastery will still work for bosses but only for your procs Brainfreeze and Fingers of Frost (because they treat the target as if it was frozen)

That said there is a crit cap for frost which is around 28% to make sure your procs always crit in the target then I think you need to reforge everything to haste until your frostbolt's cast gets to less than a Global Cooldown (~1seg).

You might prefer to switch to Living Bomb since it has the highest single-target damage and while its brainfreeze proc are more based in lucky which greatly differs from the Frost Bomb brainfreeze proc (100% when it explodes) I think that Living Bomb and Nether Tempest are far more easy to use specially when you stack haste because you just need to use them once every 12sec.

Also in a fight like Megaera you can put two LBs in two heads to increase your chances of getting a brainfreeze proc.

Luckily some mage expert will come to explain better than me

Edited July 22, 2013 by Johnzinho

[Vladamyr 169]

Also in a fight like Megaera you can put two LBs in two heads to increase your chances of getting a brainfreeze proc.

That part actually isn't true (though it was news to me at the time also) . Brainfreeze procs can only occur based on the last bomb you cast, so multi-dotting does not increase your brainfreeze procs.

Everything else is spot on!

[chKaze 1]

I see. Wouldn't it be better then to get to the critcap first? Or should I reforge hit to mastery (where I have hit to crit) and remove mastery to crit reforges?

I am sorry if I ask stupid questions, I have started playing WoW after 5.1 and actively started to raid mid 5.2, I have never thought about these things until now.

EDIT: Nevermind, it is better to go critcap first if I dont manage to get over 50% mastery. I used to have nether tempest as my bomb before the changes to living bomb, I will try Lei Shen today with living bomb and compare the results.

Another big question:

When does the spell define how much damage it does?

For example:

I cast frostbolt with 10k spellpower, while the projectile is midair living bomb procs a trinket which gives me 5k spellpower total. Is the frostbolt affected by 10k or 15k spellpower?

I want to ask this because I cast my frozen orb pretty early (where not many trinkets have procced) and I don't know if I lose damage this way.

Edited July 22, 2013 by chKaze

[RunicLovePotion 9]

That part actually isn't true (though it was news to me at the time also) . Brainfreeze procs can only occur based on the last bomb you cast, so multi-dotting does not increase your brainfreeze procs.

Everything else is spot on!

Fix'ed!

(...)

Another big question:

When does the spell define how much damage it does?

For example:

I cast frostbolt with 10k spellpower, while the projectile is midair living bomb procs a trinket which gives me 5k spellpower total. Is the frostbolt affected by 10k or 15k spellpower?

I want to ask this because I cast my frozen orb pretty early (where not many trinkets have procced) and I don't know if I lose damage this way.

I am not quite sure about frozen orb (at each tick it may be affected by trinkets) but I'd risk saying that all casts are only affected by the buff in the exact moment they are casted just like Living Bomb and Nether Tempest. The only exception to this is Frost Bomb which is affected by the procs and trinkets in the moment it explodes not in the cast.

And by the way you aren't making any stupid questions! I personally have had this doubt since very long ago.

[Mit213 20]

From what I understand, for mages the following is true:

• Spellpower increases the damage of NT and LB when applied.
• Crit increases the crit of NT and LB when applied (from shattering people in pvp with NT/LB and seeing it crit every tick).
• Spellpower is constantly updated for your Frozen Orb, so with 10 seconds left of Wushoolay's is the best time to use it (from what I had noticed).
• Around 23% crit is pretty much the best you're going to get until you get a crapton of mastery and you're at 50% haste (28% crit is cap on raid bosses for shattering, but before you hit 100% crit chances with procs it is better to increase the damage of procs instead of worrying about that one or two procs not critting each minute as opposed to dealing an extra 10% damage with each proc).
• As for your Frostbolt question, I believe that it captures your spellpower at the end of the cast, and it doesn't change in midair if a trinket procs or drops (for projectiles, it seems like damage is calculated when it leaves the source, and only immunities and such can stop that, like for Ji-Kun you can't pop Greater Invis when the quills start hitting you to get the reduced damage, it has to be when they're being launched, so about halfway through in the quills you'll start to get the reduction) (Also, this is something I am not sure about at all, just observations).

Edited July 22, 2013 by Mit213

[chKaze 1]

I've recently tried fire with 43%crit (buffed) and the 4p set bonus and I must say that I rather play frost for a while ^^

 

The initial burst is huuuuuge with a good combustion but after that I seem to lose a lot of damage, I think it's mostly because I don't get high combustions midfight.

 

I'm close to 50% Haste as frost and seem to perform better overall as the rotation is less RNG dependent.