My least favorite thing about the Mirrors is that they have a tendancy to sheep adds on Fearlina so if you DPS them down to say 20% for the enrage, there's a good chance one will sheep it and heal it back to 100%.
We tend to just not use Mirror Images in Faerlina and just count them as the "Go fucking nuts" phase.
Captain Radical: Is that true? I was under the impression that they inherited 1/3rd of your threat (Split amongst 4 people, that means they all take YOUR threat). Or does it give you your own PERSONAL threat back, and the threat they inherited is gone?
If you do want to start putting points into frost, here is the build I have now, which is what I believe to be the standard frostfire build.
Er, not without at least Ice Shards and typically Piercing Ice. You're losing damage on your frostfire bolts without those two. edit: actually you're not 5/5 into Burnout, either. That's another loss on ffb damage
bog standard frostfire builds are usually 0/51/18 with 2 points that you can invest variously without impacting the FFB dps. A point each into Improved Blizzard and Shatter makes for a nice increase in AoE damage
Yeah...linking errors, so the spec was completely butchered. What I meant to post was this
Habidaccus on
"Just Meade, thank you."
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
"A Rogue snuck up behind me once while I was questing on my mage in Un'Goro Crater. He stunned me, and started swingin' and slashin' and prickin' and all that jazz, but eventually that stun wore off and I was able to distance myself from him long enough to pop a heal, and pop him. "
-Tumedeous, Forsaken Death Knight, Aegwynn
So all of a sudden frost spec is decent damage... first heroic I ever did with it it was awful on the order of like... far less than 2k DPS. Now, with much improved gear (mostly T7 at this point), I seem to be able to hold around 2.7k, and that's without a DK in the party for the juicy damage bonus...
Guess there was a major gear hump to get over... gonna take it to Naxx and hope nobody notices
Captain Radical: Is that true? I was under the impression that they inherited 1/3rd of your threat (Split amongst 4 people, that means they all take YOUR threat). Or does it give you your own PERSONAL threat back, and the threat they inherited is gone?
Testing by the folk at EJ has shown that the mirror images are actually gaining 133.33% of your threat each, obviously something that needs to be fixed.
I'm not all that certain on the threat return at the end, I was just trying to say that you won't be on 0 threat after that 30 seconds is up.
That's an interesting question, I would be surprised if it didn't. It would totally ruin the point of the glyph which is to optimize PVE damage where the chill is pointless.
Yeah, I'm assuming it does since the glyph is worthless if it doesn't, but keep in mind things don't always work as intended (look at the problems with the Mind Flay glyph). I'm guessing the glyph is pretty rarely used.
So I'm about to head out into the world and level my 70 mage.
What level will I replace my Spellfire set? That shit is seriously ugly.
Oh, and frost or fire?
Rizzi on
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
edited December 2008
Arcane.
I'm surprised at how great it is, and even more surprised at the buffs it is getting next patch. If I read the patch notes right, the charges on Arcane Blast will go away when you use another arcane spell (the tradeoff being that the charges last 10 seconds now). This really improves the cast order. Every fight, I pull with Arcane Blast, immediately use slow, hit Arcane Barrage, Arcane Blast, Arcane Barrage, etc, and use Arcane Missiles when Missile Barrage procs. It's just too fucking easy.
What? For levelling? No. Arcane is a pain in the ass to level compared to Frost. There's more downtime and all of your killing power comes from unpredictable procs.
Go Frost and actually enjoy yourself. Arcane is a frantic scramble in the solo context.
Go Frost and AoE down the entirity of Northrend. Nothing makes me giggle like watching Blizzard crit on 10-15 mobs over and over again. Caster/ ranged in that group? No Problem! Ice Barrier and they'll be dead before it breaks.
You can also pull some fantastic tricks with Shatter Barrier (or whatever it's called).
a penguin on
This space eventually to be filled with excitement
Does anyone here play in Kel'thuzad? I want to go on a frostweave grinding excursion, and my guild lacks mages. Now that the level grind is over I need to devote my life to gathering this splendid cloth from corpses throughout the continent. On that note, where would any of you recommend I go for said task? Right now I'm in Icecrown tackling the fallen hero spirits and it's been going alright, but I feel that maybe there are greener fields to pasture on. Deny/Confirm?
Habidaccus on
"Just Meade, thank you."
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
"A Rogue snuck up behind me once while I was questing on my mage in Un'Goro Crater. He stunned me, and started swingin' and slashin' and prickin' and all that jazz, but eventually that stun wore off and I was able to distance myself from him long enough to pop a heal, and pop him. "
-Tumedeous, Forsaken Death Knight, Aegwynn
There's a spot in Icecrown, The Vile Hold or something. It's Northeast of Icecrown citadel, on a little ledge. There's 3 tables, and a bunch of little ghoulies chillin' around them. There's also a couple pats that wander around, and some abominations that can be avoided. If you're frost, you can take all three tables and AoE them down for fun and profit. Ice barrier, round them up, go aggro them all. Run around until they break the barrier. Re-cast the barrier and Iceblock, that should get them all bunched up on you. When block fades, the barrier will shatter and they'll be frozen. Instablink, Blizzard, try and loot them before they respawn. They have about a two minute respawn timer, so get to a safe spot quick. Usually there are other mages there doing the same thing, we just take turns. I've gotten tons of cloth, greys, greens and the Fire Resist to cloak enchant farming there. Good Times.
a penguin on
This space eventually to be filled with excitement
0
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
What? For levelling? No. Arcane is a pain in the ass to level compared to Frost. There's more downtime and all of your killing power comes from unpredictable procs.
Go Frost and actually enjoy yourself. Arcane is a frantic scramble in the solo context.
Fingers of Frost!
"Enjoy yourself" meaning what exactly? Last time I spec'd frost, I was repeatedly mashing my frost bolt button with the occasional CoC.
Being Arcane spec keeps me more alert, and because of the procs and "frantic" scramble (especially with adds) it makes things more interesting. Predictability and routine damage the fun of this game.
What? For levelling? No. Arcane is a pain in the ass to level compared to Frost. There's more downtime and all of your killing power comes from unpredictable procs.
Go Frost and actually enjoy yourself. Arcane is a frantic scramble in the solo context.
Fingers of Frost!
"Enjoy yourself" meaning what exactly? Last time I spec'd frost, I was repeatedly mashing my frost bolt button with the occasional CoC.
Being Arcane spec keeps me more alert, and because of the procs and "frantic" scramble (especially with adds) it makes things more interesting. Predictability and routine damage the fun of this game.
Yeah... I've always found frost to be kinda boring too. I've been either fire or arcane most of the 4 years I've played. Only spec'd frost for MC and BWL (and technically, it was arcane power frost ) and a short time as deep frost for learning Illidan. The rest was some sort of arcane power fire or deep fire build.
TheTish on
-- Gnome mage enchantress and inscriptionologist... er scribbler --
I'd agree that frost is boring for raiding. But for leveling, if all you're doing is mashing Frostbolt, you're doing it wrong.
a penguin on
This space eventually to be filled with excitement
0
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
edited December 2008
Admittedly I haven't tried frost spec since 3.0 landed. Am I missing something that makes it 'fun'? Is it the occasional fireball I can throw out for free and instantly?
There's a spot in Icecrown, The Vile Hold or something. It's Northeast of Icecrown citadel, on a little ledge. There's 3 tables, and a bunch of little ghoulies chillin' around them. There's also a couple pats that wander around, and some abominations that can be avoided. If you're frost, you can take all three tables and AoE them down for fun and profit. Ice barrier, round them up, go aggro them all. Run around until they break the barrier. Re-cast the barrier and Iceblock, that should get them all bunched up on you. When block fades, the barrier will shatter and they'll be frozen. Instablink, Blizzard, try and loot them before they respawn. They have about a two minute respawn timer, so get to a safe spot quick. Usually there are other mages there doing the same thing, we just take turns. I've gotten tons of cloth, greys, greens and the Fire Resist to cloak enchant farming there. Good Times.
Backing this up. It's really an amazing spot to farm cloth, but I can't remember if it gets instanced out or not.
Admittedly I haven't tried frost spec since 3.0 landed. Am I missing something that makes it 'fun'? Is it the occasional fireball I can throw out for free and instantly?
Yeah, that part is fun. Most of the fun I get from it is in seeing exactly what I can AoE down. Blizzard critting is the greatest thing ever. So big blizzards, ice lance, free fireballs, eeking out an extra crit on frozen targets, Drippy the retarded water elemental ...that's about it. Oh, and insane survivability. Nothing kills a frost mage. Well, ok, some things. But not much, not like when I was fire.
Once again, that's only for leveling/ grinding. It's great for 5 mans as well, since everything has turned into, "AoE down the entire instance". For raiding, I went Frostfire. Honestly, it's not much more excting than frost (Keep Living Bomb up, Spam Frostfire Bolt, throw out insant pyros, profit).
re: Cilla- I don't know either. I haven't finished out Icecrown quests.
a penguin on
This space eventually to be filled with excitement
Arcane solo mob grinding: cast two spells in rotation; cast one spell based on procs.
Frost solo mob grinding: cast one spell in rotation; cast two spells based on procs.
Frost is the most plain of the three builds but when you are raiding 18 hours a week that has its virtues.
I went to 25 man Naxx last night as PVE Frost with a full compliment of caster support classes. I pulled 3.5k DPS on Instructor, and averaged 3.1k on every fight last night. My gear is blue/T7 mix.
The only challenge of Frost is in keeping your Elemental up as often as possible, knowing when to use Cold Snap, etc.
Brain Freeze is alright but it's nothing to write home about. It's only actually a really big deal if you can get it during a Fingers of Frost when it will hit for nice numbers.
As far as enjoyability, it depends on what you want out of the game. I would rather soak in the game world and be on "cruise control" instead of having to drink every third mob and potentially die to a multi-pull.
Frost has great burst and a well talented Blizzard is possibly the most OP soloing ability in the game.
Jasconius on
0
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Frost is the most plain of the three builds but when you are raiding 18 hours a week that has its virtues.
I guess that's my issue, working 40+ hours a week and all. x_x
All kidding aside, I think I'll go ahead and respec later tonight (yay days off) to try out frost. A lot of people are swearing by it yet again for the first time since vanilla WoW. May as well see the benefits first hand.
As soon as I hit 75 and I got frostfire bolt, I specced straight for it. I don't see how anything else could be this sexy. Snaring effect? yes. Dot? yes. huge crits? yes. frostbite? yes. ignite? yes. hot streak instant pyros? yes. burning hot sexiness? hell yes.
Frost is the most plain of the three builds but when you are raiding 18 hours a week that has its virtues.
I guess that's my issue, working 40+ hours a week and all. x_x
All kidding aside, I think I'll go ahead and respec later tonight (yay days off) to try out frost. A lot of people are swearing by it yet again for the first time since vanilla WoW. May as well see the benefits first hand.
I think you do need a certain level of epic gear. I was frost initially when I hit 80 and in greens/blues and it was awful.
Now it is by far the easiest play style given the DPS output. Also the Water ele is about 110 MP5 for me in raid buffs and as much as 190 for some of our healers.
I've heard a lot that frost requires better gear. I think it's the fact that FFB scales so well with crit that it makes up for lacking spell power. But as you get more and more other stats I think frost/arcane closes that gap.
Of course, I'm only level 75 and don't have personal experience for raiding. But, I do have a lot of free time to read forums and junk.
Frost is the most plain of the three builds but when you are raiding 18 hours a week that has its virtues.
I went to 25 man Naxx last night as PVE Frost with a full compliment of caster support classes. I pulled 3.5k DPS on Instructor, and averaged 3.1k on every fight last night. My gear is blue/T7 mix.
The only challenge of Frost is in keeping your Elemental up as often as possible, knowing when to use Cold Snap, etc.
Knowing when to use Cold Snap? Just for DPS purposes, I always just used it after Water Elemental and Icy Veins were on cooldown. Is that pretty much it or am I missing something?
Frost is the most plain of the three builds but when you are raiding 18 hours a week that has its virtues.
I went to 25 man Naxx last night as PVE Frost with a full compliment of caster support classes. I pulled 3.5k DPS on Instructor, and averaged 3.1k on every fight last night. My gear is blue/T7 mix.
The only challenge of Frost is in keeping your Elemental up as often as possible, knowing when to use Cold Snap, etc.
Knowing when to use Cold Snap? Just for DPS purposes, I always just used it after Water Elemental and Icy Veins were on cooldown. Is that pretty much it or am I missing something?
Depends on your team, I tend to save Cold Snap for a potential second Heroism. But if that isn't happening in your group then basically, yeah, as soon as you can.
Jasconius on
0
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
Frost is the most plain of the three builds but when you are raiding 18 hours a week that has its virtues.
I went to 25 man Naxx last night as PVE Frost with a full compliment of caster support classes. I pulled 3.5k DPS on Instructor, and averaged 3.1k on every fight last night. My gear is blue/T7 mix.
The only challenge of Frost is in keeping your Elemental up as often as possible, knowing when to use Cold Snap, etc.
Knowing when to use Cold Snap? Just for DPS purposes, I always just used it after Water Elemental and Icy Veins were on cooldown. Is that pretty much it or am I missing something?
Depends on your team, I tend to save Cold Snap for a potential second Heroism. But if that isn't happening in your group then basically, yeah, as soon as you can.
Very few fights last long enough for two heroisms.
Dhalphir on
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Frost is the most plain of the three builds but when you are raiding 18 hours a week that has its virtues.
I guess that's my issue, working 40+ hours a week and all. x_x
All kidding aside, I think I'll go ahead and respec later tonight (yay days off) to try out frost. A lot of people are swearing by it yet again for the first time since vanilla WoW. May as well see the benefits first hand.
I think you do need a certain level of epic gear. I was frost initially when I hit 80 and in greens/blues and it was awful.
Now it is by far the easiest play style given the DPS output. Also the Water ele is about 110 MP5 for me in raid buffs and as much as 190 for some of our healers.
Edit - Oh wow, Deep Freeze doesn't do damage anymore. See, this is how much I stay away from frost; I don't pay attention much to nerves / buffs it gets.
Henroid on
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
edited December 2008
So I tried the frost thing for a bit. Now, I can see why it's enjoyable. Lots of survivability. I was in an area which was going through a fucked up respawn rate (things were sometimes coming back instantly, others within a minute) and never died despite the tremendous amounts of adds.
Still, though, I find myself frost bolting a lot until a target is frozen somehow or fingers of frost procs or brain freeze. Very proc dependent just like my arcane methods, only instead of just one proc I've got three to help.
I went back to fire just for shits & giggles, and goddamn the survivability is shit.
The only time fire really sucks is when you and your social guild decide you want to low man the early classic game raids and you realize that the first three of them are fucking fire immune heavens!
Of course does fire get its revenge with a ton of frost immune shit in Northrend, land of motherfucking ice? NOT REALLY.
The only time fire really sucks is when you and your social guild decide you want to low man the early classic game raids and you realize that the first three of them are fucking fire immune heavens!
Of course does fire get its revenge with a ton of frost immune shit in Northrend, land of motherfucking ice? NOT REALLY.
Curse you BLIZZARD and your frost mage agenda!
to be fair when you hit certain spots with frost-immune or frost-resisting enemies it really sucks shit as a frost mage.
fucking you part of howling fjord that needed me to kill 23 frozen ice elementals
Frost is the most plain of the three builds but when you are raiding 18 hours a week that has its virtues.
I guess that's my issue, working 40+ hours a week and all. x_x
All kidding aside, I think I'll go ahead and respec later tonight (yay days off) to try out frost. A lot of people are swearing by it yet again for the first time since vanilla WoW. May as well see the benefits first hand.
I think you do need a certain level of epic gear. I was frost initially when I hit 80 and in greens/blues and it was awful.
Now it is by far the easiest play style given the DPS output. Also the Water ele is about 110 MP5 for me in raid buffs and as much as 190 for some of our healers.
Edit - Oh wow, Deep Freeze doesn't do damage anymore. See, this is how much I stay away from frost; I don't pay attention much to nerves / buffs it gets.
Well Frost is great while levelling regardless of gear, it's only at 80 where it matters, because when you first hit 80 it will be crap compared to say, an equally geared ret paladin.
As tehmarken said, FFB starts out great because it is really easy to stack crit with little to no effort. The problem is, the play style is soul crushing. Scorch has gone from being a passable alternative to the loathsome 3 second cast bar when movement is required to being unusable. The whole game is just getting your FFB's in and praying for Hot Streak, which is fine on boss fights but everywhere else you are lucky to get more than 2 casts in on a trash mob (especially if you run with a lot of melee). So you ultimately end up spamming Blizzard for 60%+ of any raid/dungeon to be useful. I did a Naxx run recently when Blizzard ended up doing more damage than Ignite overall.
My biggest problem with FFB is that the build is intended to be god mode on fights where you can just stand still and hammer, but there's only a few fights like that in the entire game right now.
Arcane is the opposite, Arcane excels in fights where moving around is required. I personally think that Arcane is underpowered and it's just the current raid bosses that is making it seem even. I think the Arcane Blast change is going to address that and Arcane may be the premier spec in Naxx depending on how strong the buff really is.
Frost is right in the middle. Fast casts, procs that aren't subjected directly to gear (haste has nowhere near the impact on FoF as Crit does on HS), reasonable crit, a crit debuff that isn't a detriment to sustain, and a lot of utility including Frost Shield (which got a major buff at 80) and Water Ele which is at minimum 100 MP5 in T7 gear.
The crit is insane too, Frost crits more than Frostfire, believe it or not. In Naxx 25 with a Moonkin Druid I ended up with 69% (tee hehe) Frostbolt crit overall (5 bosses).
Bottom line seems to be that in mostly T7 gear, frost is at least comparable to FFB, but with far less exertion and effort - since I am a lazy bastard, meeting adjourned.
As tehmarken said, FFB starts out great because it is really easy to stack crit with little to no effort. The problem is, the play style is soul crushing. Scorch has gone from being a passable alternative to the loathsome 3 second cast bar when movement is required to being unusable. The whole game is just getting your FFB's in and praying for Hot Streak, which is fine on boss fights but everywhere else you are lucky to get more than 2 casts in on a trash mob (especially if you run with a lot of melee). So you ultimately end up spamming Blizzard for 60%+ of any raid/dungeon to be useful. I did a Naxx run recently when Blizzard ended up doing more damage than Ignite overall.
My biggest problem with FFB is that the build is intended to be god mode on fights where you can just stand still and hammer, but there's only a few fights like that in the entire game right now.
...
Really not sure what you mean by 'soul crushing'. I'm having more fun than ever with my FFB build. I guess it just really boils down to getting comfortable with the build. I am able to just get into the rhythm of keeping scorch up, utilizing living bomb to its full potential, and taking advantage of hot streak whenever it procs. Movement fights aren't a problem for me at all, but maybe that's because i have enough haste to take FFB down to a 2.5 sec cast, and take advantage of very fast scorches, instant cast fireblasts, and throw pyros on the run when hot streak procs.
TheTish on
-- Gnome mage enchantress and inscriptionologist... er scribbler --
I am still disappointed Frozen Orb isn't in WoW. That spell was so amazing in D2 and if there was a wow clone of it I would likely level a Mage (one of my I can't get past 30 classes)
TheUnsane1 on
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
I am still disappointed Frozen Orb isn't in WoW. That spell was so amazing in D2 and if there was a wow clone of it I would likely level a Mage (one of my I can't get past 30 classes)
Hey man, you're a few years late on the whole "Why isn't this more like Diablo 2?" dumbshit train.
Why is the 25-man badge loot so miserably itemized? There's spirit on everything except the tier pieces.
I see this as good itemization myself. The only stuff that should not have spirit anymore are items with Hit on them, because those are the only items which are now 100% dps items. And even that lack of spirit shouldn't be absolute anymore as supposedly arcane mages use it now too. DPS don't own crit rating anymore. Priests at least (both disc and holy) arguably get more benefit from having higher crit than higher mp/5. But the fact is they need both, and pre-raiding you have to choose one or the other. I very much like that 25-man gear has fuckloads of both spirit and crit and everything else as it means I won't have to choose between having one or the other.
Posts
Captain Radical: Is that true? I was under the impression that they inherited 1/3rd of your threat (Split amongst 4 people, that means they all take YOUR threat). Or does it give you your own PERSONAL threat back, and the threat they inherited is gone?
Yeah...linking errors, so the spec was completely butchered. What I meant to post was this
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
"A Rogue snuck up behind me once while I was questing on my mage in Un'Goro Crater. He stunned me, and started swingin' and slashin' and prickin' and all that jazz, but eventually that stun wore off and I was able to distance myself from him long enough to pop a heal, and pop him. "
-Tumedeous, Forsaken Death Knight, Aegwynn
Guess there was a major gear hump to get over... gonna take it to Naxx and hope nobody notices
Testing by the folk at EJ has shown that the mirror images are actually gaining 133.33% of your threat each, obviously something that needs to be fixed.
I'm not all that certain on the threat return at the end, I was just trying to say that you won't be on 0 threat after that 30 seconds is up.
What level will I replace my Spellfire set? That shit is seriously ugly.
Oh, and frost or fire?
I'm surprised at how great it is, and even more surprised at the buffs it is getting next patch. If I read the patch notes right, the charges on Arcane Blast will go away when you use another arcane spell (the tradeoff being that the charges last 10 seconds now). This really improves the cast order. Every fight, I pull with Arcane Blast, immediately use slow, hit Arcane Barrage, Arcane Blast, Arcane Barrage, etc, and use Arcane Missiles when Missile Barrage procs. It's just too fucking easy.
Go Frost and actually enjoy yourself. Arcane is a frantic scramble in the solo context.
Fingers of Frost!
You can also pull some fantastic tricks with Shatter Barrier (or whatever it's called).
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
"A Rogue snuck up behind me once while I was questing on my mage in Un'Goro Crater. He stunned me, and started swingin' and slashin' and prickin' and all that jazz, but eventually that stun wore off and I was able to distance myself from him long enough to pop a heal, and pop him. "
-Tumedeous, Forsaken Death Knight, Aegwynn
"Enjoy yourself" meaning what exactly? Last time I spec'd frost, I was repeatedly mashing my frost bolt button with the occasional CoC.
Being Arcane spec keeps me more alert, and because of the procs and "frantic" scramble (especially with adds) it makes things more interesting. Predictability and routine damage the fun of this game.
Yeah... I've always found frost to be kinda boring too. I've been either fire or arcane most of the 4 years I've played. Only spec'd frost for MC and BWL (and technically, it was arcane power frost
-- Gnome mage enchantress and inscriptionologist... er scribbler --
Yeah, that part is fun. Most of the fun I get from it is in seeing exactly what I can AoE down. Blizzard critting is the greatest thing ever. So big blizzards, ice lance, free fireballs, eeking out an extra crit on frozen targets, Drippy the retarded water elemental ...that's about it. Oh, and insane survivability. Nothing kills a frost mage. Well, ok, some things. But not much, not like when I was fire.
Once again, that's only for leveling/ grinding. It's great for 5 mans as well, since everything has turned into, "AoE down the entire instance". For raiding, I went Frostfire. Honestly, it's not much more excting than frost (Keep Living Bomb up, Spam Frostfire Bolt, throw out insant pyros, profit).
re: Cilla- I don't know either. I haven't finished out Icecrown quests.
Frost solo mob grinding: cast one spell in rotation; cast two spells based on procs.
Seems about even to me!
I went to 25 man Naxx last night as PVE Frost with a full compliment of caster support classes. I pulled 3.5k DPS on Instructor, and averaged 3.1k on every fight last night. My gear is blue/T7 mix.
The only challenge of Frost is in keeping your Elemental up as often as possible, knowing when to use Cold Snap, etc.
Brain Freeze is alright but it's nothing to write home about. It's only actually a really big deal if you can get it during a Fingers of Frost when it will hit for nice numbers.
As far as enjoyability, it depends on what you want out of the game. I would rather soak in the game world and be on "cruise control" instead of having to drink every third mob and potentially die to a multi-pull.
Frost has great burst and a well talented Blizzard is possibly the most OP soloing ability in the game.
I guess that's my issue, working 40+ hours a week and all. x_x
All kidding aside, I think I'll go ahead and respec later tonight (yay days off) to try out frost. A lot of people are swearing by it yet again for the first time since vanilla WoW. May as well see the benefits first hand.
I think you do need a certain level of epic gear. I was frost initially when I hit 80 and in greens/blues and it was awful.
Now it is by far the easiest play style given the DPS output. Also the Water ele is about 110 MP5 for me in raid buffs and as much as 190 for some of our healers.
My armory, for reference: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Muradin&n=Jasconius
Of course, I'm only level 75 and don't have personal experience for raiding. But, I do have a lot of free time to read forums and junk.
Depends on your team, I tend to save Cold Snap for a potential second Heroism. But if that isn't happening in your group then basically, yeah, as soon as you can.
Very few fights last long enough for two heroisms.
Epic gear isn't much of an option at level 74.
Edit - Oh wow, Deep Freeze doesn't do damage anymore. See, this is how much I stay away from frost; I don't pay attention much to nerves / buffs it gets.
Still, though, I find myself frost bolting a lot until a target is frozen somehow or fingers of frost procs or brain freeze. Very proc dependent just like my arcane methods, only instead of just one proc I've got three to help.
I went back to fire just for shits & giggles, and goddamn the survivability is shit.
The only time fire really sucks is when you and your social guild decide you want to low man the early classic game raids and you realize that the first three of them are fucking fire immune heavens!
Of course does fire get its revenge with a ton of frost immune shit in Northrend, land of motherfucking ice? NOT REALLY.
Curse you BLIZZARD and your frost mage agenda!
to be fair when you hit certain spots with frost-immune or frost-resisting enemies it really sucks shit as a frost mage.
fucking you part of howling fjord that needed me to kill 23 frozen ice elementals
Well Frost is great while levelling regardless of gear, it's only at 80 where it matters, because when you first hit 80 it will be crap compared to say, an equally geared ret paladin.
As tehmarken said, FFB starts out great because it is really easy to stack crit with little to no effort. The problem is, the play style is soul crushing. Scorch has gone from being a passable alternative to the loathsome 3 second cast bar when movement is required to being unusable. The whole game is just getting your FFB's in and praying for Hot Streak, which is fine on boss fights but everywhere else you are lucky to get more than 2 casts in on a trash mob (especially if you run with a lot of melee). So you ultimately end up spamming Blizzard for 60%+ of any raid/dungeon to be useful. I did a Naxx run recently when Blizzard ended up doing more damage than Ignite overall.
My biggest problem with FFB is that the build is intended to be god mode on fights where you can just stand still and hammer, but there's only a few fights like that in the entire game right now.
Arcane is the opposite, Arcane excels in fights where moving around is required. I personally think that Arcane is underpowered and it's just the current raid bosses that is making it seem even. I think the Arcane Blast change is going to address that and Arcane may be the premier spec in Naxx depending on how strong the buff really is.
Frost is right in the middle. Fast casts, procs that aren't subjected directly to gear (haste has nowhere near the impact on FoF as Crit does on HS), reasonable crit, a crit debuff that isn't a detriment to sustain, and a lot of utility including Frost Shield (which got a major buff at 80) and Water Ele which is at minimum 100 MP5 in T7 gear.
The crit is insane too, Frost crits more than Frostfire, believe it or not. In Naxx 25 with a Moonkin Druid I ended up with 69% (tee hehe) Frostbolt crit overall (5 bosses).
Bottom line seems to be that in mostly T7 gear, frost is at least comparable to FFB, but with far less exertion and effort - since I am a lazy bastard, meeting adjourned.
Really not sure what you mean by 'soul crushing'. I'm having more fun than ever with my FFB build. I guess it just really boils down to getting comfortable with the build. I am able to just get into the rhythm of keeping scorch up, utilizing living bomb to its full potential, and taking advantage of hot streak whenever it procs. Movement fights aren't a problem for me at all, but maybe that's because i have enough haste to take FFB down to a 2.5 sec cast, and take advantage of very fast scorches, instant cast fireblasts, and throw pyros on the run when hot streak procs.
-- Gnome mage enchantress and inscriptionologist... er scribbler --
Hey man, you're a few years late on the whole "Why isn't this more like Diablo 2?" dumbshit train.
I think it's alright.
1) Badge gear shouldn't be the best gear you can get. It's something you get just for showing up.
2) A haste/spi item here and there isn't bad. Having 8, however, is. But most people just start buying PVP gear at that point.
3) Did I mention you can get PVP gear with this shit? Fucking. Awesome.