Mage: 1.11 Build

[Meffe]

Hello people,

Now that 1.11 is on its way, I thought it would be nice to hear people's opinions about different build styles, mainly for pve.
How well do you consider different builds will go with Naxxramas, any favourites?

0/30/21 (http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?RZxgMzdcuxVI0cofz) - Firepower/Iceblock - Really attracts me
0/20/31 (http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?RZVgMzbcZVA0ckfzIo)- MoE/IB - Probably my choice for frost

Above are just examples of what I've been thinking about, I have no experience of Naxx, which I'm particulary interested about. Which do you consider more appealing with that in your mind?

Feel free to give indepth feedback for the builds, aswell as share your thoughts and opinions on other possible solutions.
- Meffe

[Galad]

We dont bring mages to raids, we find them extremelly useless and low DPS. Mooncow (brilliance) and Bloodshot convinced us of this fact.

The only mage that is gaurenteed a spot is the very talented Elani.

[Klean]

I like the first spec 0/30/21. It's pretty versatile for PvP and PvE.

Except I think MOE isn't worth it for 3 points. Refunding 150-170 mana every crit doesn't seem like a good investment of those points. But I still need to do more testing to be sure.

The second spec is pretty decent as well, but I'm not that big of a fan of ice barrier anymore. I thought it would be great with the 30 sec cooldown, but at 400ish mana a use, it starts to eat up your mana pool fast.

I guess I'm still not sold on dropping my current AP/Frost spec. BUt like I said, I need to test different builds, it's still early.

[MoonStar]

Elani is the #1 mage in our guild, hands down.

This is what I am looking at specing. (http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?of0V0oZZiAGcofpVo) It lets me solo grind // some pvp, and then excell @ PvE. And I get a bonus 500 more armor. Oh yea.

I dont see Fire being any bit better for PvE, outside of Master of Elements, but to go down that far you lose some good talents out of frost, and Master Of Elements just doesnt touch the mana cost of Frostbolt.

This would be my fire//frost build (http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?obZxg0zbcZVAMcofzVo)

[swift]

sup moon

http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?oi0VfoboZEg0z0cux

thinkin about that build

[Broox]

This is what I currently am on the test server.
http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?RfxV00bZZVAGcoft0o
So far I'm very happy with it. A few other mages in my guild already spec'd into Winter's Chill so I figured I'd just leech off them :). I just couldn't give up imp cs right now.

[swift]

http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?obZxg0zbcZVAMcobtco

prob would go this if i went elemental

[Schmitty]

Imp frostbolt and fireball...ew

[Galad]

I'm not a mage but wouldn't something like frost channeling be better then arcane subrlety in that build?

[MoonStar]

This is what I currently am on the test server.
http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?RfxV00bZZVAGcoft0o
So far I'm very happy with it. A few other mages in my guild already spec'd into Winter's Chill so I figured I'd just leech off them :). I just couldn't give up imp cs right now.

Why in gods name do you have Imp Am? Its like putting points into wand spec. Go get 5/5 Winters Chill and make the debuff stack alot faster.

Edit- I didnt see the IMP CS, but seriously, there are better points to waste in the arcane tree to get CS. The new Imp Dampen is amazing, also Arcane Resilience (I know, lol) and Imp AE are better then Imp AM. Honestly, who the fuck AM's anymore?

[Blackened]

who the fuck gets interrupted when they use am =\

[MoonStar]

who the fuck gets interrupted when the am =\

. . .

[Klean]

who the fuck gets interrupted when the am =\


Sup Moon.


But ya Pie, imp arc missiles is a waste for PVE. With the new aggro reduction talents we won't have to use that anymore. THANK GOD

And with the change to arc missiles in PvP (it stops when they get out of range), it's not even worth casting anymore.

[Blackened]

dude i cant concentrate help me =[

[swift]

ice barrier is so good next patch on 30 second cool down and stacks with mana shield

[Sokkou]

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/mages2/talents.html?0000000000000000455222010000315120303 230110050000

Shrug thats the build I use on Svendel, for test realm instant PVP queues :)

[Klean]

ice barrier is so good next patch on 30 second cool down and stacks with mana shield


I thought so too, untill I tried it. Spamming it, and you end up OOM really fast. Which means you can't DPS. It's definately useful for PvP though. But PvE, it's a waste imo.

[swift]

3 builds ive been trying are
31/0/20
http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?Ri0VcofquZVi0c0f

and
31/17/3
http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?ki0Vcofqugg0zbZ0h

elemental
2/18/31

http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?RbZxg0zbcZVAGcobt0o

[Flamespout]

At first Ice Barrier sounded useful when they talked about implenting +frost damage while it holds, then they removed it. I do not follow everyones obsession to have Ice Barrier in a PvE instance. A priest bubble feels much better and you can not afford to spare all that mana during combat. While pvping 3 classes can dispell all 31 point special abilitys, making them lose most of their desirability.

If I was in a guild that needed help with aoe and wanted to have, a solid source of damage, then I would consider http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?obZxg0dbcuZbAG00bxh as an optimal build.

Personally I see fire as the future for mages, since it yields higher damage output then frost with the proper mana management. I could see this build becoming ideal when you fight long duration high health mobs, especially the ones that are immune to frost(Sapphiron.)
http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?kw0E0ocahxgM0dch , the only problem that I see with fire mages is they take up extra debuff slots on the mobs and that could hinder raid dps on that boss.

When respecing in a top end guild, you have to be consience of your peers and spec as a whole, not an individual. Having Winter's Chill if you are the only frost mage is a waste of talent points and should be avoided if you want to keep productivity in mind. On the flip side, having 100% frost mages and 0 Improved Scorch in the raid, only hinders your conflag warlocks in the raid by 15% damage.

-FS

[Broox]

http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?Rf0VZZVAGcoftio
This is what I've been rolling around on the test server with right now. So far it's the best build I've tried as far as the frost tree goes.

I took your advice on the AM too ;)

[MoonStar]

http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?Rf0VZZVAGcoftio
This is what I've been rolling around on the test server with right now. So far it's the best build I've tried as far as the frost tree goes.

I took your advice on the AM too ;)


Yea, thats pretty much the best frost build out there. You get 3 freebie points to float betweening CoC/Shatter/Frost Warding/Arcane Resilience (I took the later of the two, since I do a little too much tanking, but thats works)

I really want to know the viability of Fire with the new talents, although it wont touch Frost in terms of effiency. Maybe on our next run I will try my fire build and see how it works in a PvE enviroment.

(http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?kf0VrofZxg0zfcut in full NW, for the PoM pyro, and keeping scorch up at all times)

[Broox]

Yea I hear you on effiency problems with fire, even with MoE it still seemed pretty bad mana wise. I'm pretty partial to Iceblock know though so I guess I'm a little bias there.

[Flamespout]

Yea, thats pretty much the best frost build out there. You get 3 freebie points to float betweening CoC/Shatter/Frost Warding/Arcane Resilience (I took the later of the two, since I do a little too much tanking, but thats works)

I really want to know the viability of Fire with the new talents, although it wont touch Frost in terms of effiency. Maybe on our next run I will try my fire build and see how it works in a PvE enviroment.

(http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?kf0VrofZxg0zfcut in full NW, for the PoM pyro, and keeping scorch up at all times)

Interesting build, if your guild raids 10 hours a day on average, then why pick up non useful PvE talents? If you are tanking the most time, I doubt 200 armor will let you take more then .1 of a hit for most things that hit you, which usually spells wipe anyways.

I tell my mages all the time that this guild is built on numbers, simple math increases your knowledge darastically.
+crit%*damage modifier = added damage

take your arcane explosion talent points for example
+4%*.5= +2% damage with arcane explosion only, how often do you plan on spamming arcane explosion, during end game bosses?

You are forgetting the benefits of the under-rated talent Magic Absorbtion. The 10 resist that you receive from the talent, raises your resistance closer to the natural limit 300(315 for lvl 63 bosses,) letting you wear more damage/stat gear for those long resist fights.

I agree Magic attunement will be awesome next patch, for the melee encounters and helps just as much in PvP too. I just hope that all the mages do not get this talent, as it takes 1 person to buff the whole raid(give us an aoe damp/amp please blizzard.)

Improved Counterspell is worthless in end game PvE and IMO is a talent for the less skilled in battlegrounds.

If you ever fight a Shaman, Priest or Warlock(Felhunter) with any type of skills, the first thing he will do is dispell all of your buffs (Combustion included.) If you want to receive the maximum amount of benefits from Master of Elements(overall +crit*30%base mana of spell = avg. mana saved) then you will want a high amount of +crit gear, making this talent even more useless.

I heard they are taking out the cooldown on Pyroblast. It would be a great combination to have +15% fire vuln from scorch, catch a Netherwind Focus proc and cast back to back pyroblast on your enemy during PvP. Why not take the point from the over-rated MoE and apply it into PoM?


-FS

[Cyburnett]

I like the Fire/Frost spec the best!