What about TF mages?

Reason

New Member
I haven't seen any posts lately about this class. It is to my understanding that all of the mages in TF are now, for the most part, fire spec. Is this true? Even though I don't play her much anymore, Reasonable is now an 11/47/3 build. I have to say that play with the fire tree is a whole lot more fun and enjoyable than the frost tree. I actually have to watch my agro now (no ice block) which makes it a bit more challanging. Stacking scorch is very nice as well and Pyroblast crits......just wow. :)

ttyl
 
I'm pretty sure Dave is still being different and running primarily arcane, although I'm not positive about that.

As I was telling you last night I was very concerned switching to fire that by losing the slowing effects of frost, which helped me kill targets before they reached me, that I would be taking a lot more damage and using a lot more mana. I'm finding however that most mobs are dead upon arrival to me and usually within 2-3 casts.. With master of the elements I get back 30% mana for that spell and I'm actually finding I end up with more overall mana available with Fire than with frost.
 
I take a lot more damage and have to sit more often to eat/drink than I did with frost, but there is a higher damage output. with basically the same gear, switching specs added about 75dps.

I still love the frost, but I can't do the same damage in an instance, which makes me ineffective :(.

My current build is 10/48/3. You can see the details on my armory. I don't like my current spec - 2/3 scorch is a waste. I need to either dump Scorch or find a way to get 3/3. Either way doesn't matter to me.
 
I "retired" Lynus at 61 and switched mains to Lidex (Druid) to play with Laura as she liked the Hunter class better than her Pally. Currently we are both 61 and slowly growing while questing together. Before scrapping the mage, I went with Fire for PvP purposes and it worked out slightly better than Arcane in the end just due to the instant casts. However, I stand by Arcane doing more damage than Fire.
 
I take a lot more damage and have to sit more often to eat/drink than I did with frost, but there is a higher damage output. with basically the same gear, switching specs added about 75dps.

I still love the frost, but I can't do the same damage in an instance, which makes me ineffective :(.

My current build is 10/48/3. You can see the details on my armory. I don't like my current spec - 2/3 scorch is a waste. I need to either dump Scorch or find a way to get 3/3. Either way doesn't matter to me.


I have an 11/47/3 build as I posted above, which has 3/3 in Imp Scorch. This is what I'm using currently.

11/47/3

I tested it out in the instance last night and loved it. Wouldn't change it for the world. Well, maybe the world, but nothing less. lol
 
I like the overall look of your spec, but until I start raiding, I'm keeping impact 5/5 in the first tier fire. while in the smaller runs, most mobs are not immune to impact and it just buys me a little extra time to run away.... it's especially nice when it procs off of molten armor :)

Once I free the 5 from impact, I'll probably take something very similar to your build (although that 11th point in arcane is kinda a waste, IMO)
 
I love frost as well, for 5-mans I think (especially pugs) I think it's an outstanding spec because you can push the dps as hard as you like (even when you don't have invisibility yet), and ice block if you get aggro.

Now obviously some common sense in the first few seconds of the fight go a long way, but after that I can test a pug tank out by slowly ratcheting up the dps on subsequent trash mobs... until I find that point at which I need ice block, and there's where I know the limit of the current tank is.

I also love frost for pvp as a mage. Ice block makes you so much more survivable as a mage, and makes matchups against warlocks winnable (not most of the time or anything, but at least it's possible).

But overall no doubt fire does far more dps.
 
Frost mage

I have still stuck to my frost mage , zennen .

with a upgrade to my dps gear find I can crit for 2500 now and again.
may not be the most damage in a group but still feel I can hold my own.

have been able to pull agro off tanks once in a while.
 
I still love the frost, but I can't do the same damage in an instance, which makes me ineffective :(.

I'd take a frost mage over a fire mage any day for Heroic instances or Karazhan. The damage difference isn't that great and the added CC/slowing ability of a frost mage is awesome. In Karazhan we often resort to having a frost mage kite a mob around while the rest of the group works on other mobs. And ice block is super-awesome for a lot of fights. 5 and 10 man is much more about using all your tricks than raw DPS. That's why I'm still a 0/40/21 warlock. Utility FTW.
 
but on the other hand, the void fight in SL, the portals in BM require someone (or multiple someones) with high DPS to get rid of the adds. I know that I couldn't do the burst damage I needed when I was dealing with void adds in SL as a frost mage.
 
Yes, but if *I* take a mage along then they are not there to be the primary DPSer. That role is already covered, frost, fire, or otherwise. ;-)
 
Put that point into mana feed I see. I guess that's good for farming/grinding. I find that in instances my pet never needs mana and that when I grind or farm I have enough plus damage to sac my pet for mana or health regen and go solo.

I'm thinking about juggling a couple of points around and picking up imp succy for longer charms. And I still want to switch to an affliction build but I can't justify it since 0/40/21 is so useful for heroics and to a lesser extent, raids.
 
Everyone is building stuff around raids..but really you should play what makes you happy and the others will have to suck it up. If people dont want me in a raid because I didnt spec exactly how they wanted me to they can kiss my bears furry butt! When you play what you enjoy you do a little better and pay more attention because you are comfortable doing it and probably having fun.. So yeah.

I have a warlock who is leveling and she will not be demonology most likely, Im really enjoying a spec upto nightfall with affliction and the rest in destruction, its FUN -- so shoot me! haha (a joke)
 
well, part of my enjoyment comes from being able to successfully complete encounters. When I was frost spec'd, i liked it better, but I didn't do the dps, and consequently, there were times that we were overwhelmed because the groups overall dps was too low to finish a boss before the healer ran out of mana.

I get to play my mage, that makes me happy enough :) Before TBC, I felt like I had to play my warrior, priest, or druid because we didn't have enough people to do instances. At least now, I'm not forced to play my alts. I play them by choice.
 
I changed angus around because I was finding that I did not like to quest solo with him. This spec change has helped a little in that regard. I do like the extra options though that sacrificing my pets give me in instances. I will probably respec again in a month or so depending on where I go with him play style wise.
 
Honestly, I'm not a big fan of my spec because it is boring and sometimes limiting, but it sure fits heroics and Karazhan pretty well. Once we finish clearing Kara I will probably switch to affliction.
 
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