Arcane Mage looking for some help

[Nesella]

So last night during our Friday raid we had a pug Mage with us. She didn't have the HFC 4Set (she was using Mythic BRF 4Set) and she was still out DPSing me on every fight.

This is my armory: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/s ... a/advanced" target="_blank

And hers: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/l ... e/advanced" target="_blank


And some logs from last night: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/6fNQWrJpznBaXDbg" target="_blank

It felt like she was always bursting a lot more than me during the opener, even without the 4set. I also checked after some fights and noticed she got A LOT more Doom Nova procs than I did. That trinket is so lame. I really hate it. I'll burst max 200k without it, and sometimes 350k if it procs on the boss and my crystal. It's like your DPS is just going to suck if it doesn't proc all the time. And sometimes it only procs once per fight and then your DPS is just awful.

Could someone go over my logs and point out any mistakes? And tell me why she might be out-dpsing me by so much? I guess it's partly because her ring was much higher iLvl than mine but I feel like the difference was way too big. She was also using Supernova on every fight. I asked her why and she said it was because she didn't have the 4set. Which I didn't understand because the 4set has nothing to do with Unstable magic or Supernova.

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/6f ... gs&boss=-2" target="_blank

[Wilderness]

HFC tier bonuses and the class trinket shift UM to be better than SN, because of how the class trinket works casting SN during AP becomes less valuable than previously, and our wanting more haste this tier also works better with UM. If she had the class trinket but not 4-set UM is still probably better (UM simmed better than SN for me with all BRF gear + class trinket). Still, either choice isn't going to have a drastic impact on her, or your, dps. Doom Nova of course will, and having a much higher ilvl ring also makes a big impact on burst and overall dps. Kind of surprised to see someone with a 780-something ring who didn't have 4-set but RNG is RNG I guess.

You seem to be gemming/enchanting to get to 2100 haste, which isn't a real breakpoint. You're probably better off going for more or less haste but you'd have to sim yourself to find out. And swapping stats around in either direction also isn't going to have been huge factor in your dps either.

Kilrogg - you didn't get to go into a vision, so you're never going to compare with someone who did. But your burns don't look that great either - especially the 2nd one with BL I don't know how you aren't dipping below 50% mana.

Here's your mana on that fight: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/6f ... &spell=100" target="_blank

Your mana consistency isn't very good. You should never be dipping down to 80-ish percent during your conserve phase and you did that at least a couple of times.

Fel Lord Zakuun your burst was mostly higher than hers until the ring hit, which makes sense since she has a much higher ilvl ring than you. You did more dps than her as well, you just had a lower uptime which could happen depending on who gets picked for seeds and that sort of thing. You said she was using BRF set pieces but her ilvl was still only a few behind you, and she has a much higher ring, so I wouldn't expect you to do a ton more dps than her.

Your mana on that fight still wasn't very consistent either, with a few dips down to 85% or below. You should focus on managing your mana better - its just not worth it to dip down that far. That means you are casting 1 more AB when you shouldn't be. If you're below 93%, Abarr and start over. don't cast an AB at 91%. If I'm right at 93% I usually don't cast another unless I already have an AM proc ready to go. You do your main damage during burns, so keep your conserve phases tightly controlled. Eking out another AB here and there isn't going to do much except hurt you unless you get good AM RNG to balance it out.

[Nesella]

Thanks for the help. The reason I didn't drop below 50% mana was because arcane missiles kept proccing for me(I think) so I was trying to use them as well. Something I like to do when I have 100% mana and 4 AB stacks is to cast arcane blast, use my belf racial, and cast one more. I'll be at 90%~ mana when I use my arcane barrage.

What does SN, APL, and EKing mean?

Is there a list somewhere that explains what all the different abbreviations mean?

Honestly, all this about simcrafting really confuses me. I don't really understand it properly. Like how I'm supposed to see if haste>mastery or if it's the other way around.

And during my burn phase with PM and AP, should I even use arcane missiles? When do they stop being worth using? I can sometimes stay at 80-90% mana just because AM's keep proccing during my burn phase.

[Wilderness]

Sorry, sometimes its easy to forget not everyone on here is familiar with the usual abbreviations.

SN = Supernova, AP = Arcane Power, and EK wasn't anything, just my capitalizing E in the word eking , which what I meant is trying to squeeze in extra ABs when you should just reset instead.

You want to use AM on your PC during your burn when possible (but avoiding capping mana) but once PC is gone you usually don't want to cast AM and just use AB since that's where the class trinket gives benefit.

[Nesella]

So you're telling me to use AM on my PC (which I'm already doing) instead of AB? I sometimes get a crazy amount of AM procs and end up being at 90% mana after PM and AP have run out. I don't even need to use evocation sometimes.

That doesn't really make any sense to me. How could that be worth it unless you get doom nova procs? Which I never do during my openers.

[Wilderness]

Yes, I'm telling you its worth it only on your PC, but the rest of your burn you should be ignoring it. If/when Doom Nova is up on anything, you'd cast them on that target of course. You can dig around these forums if you want, Frosted ran sims a while back that showed ignoring AM on PC was a big dps loss. Outside of that though, just cast AB while AP is up. If you're casting too many AM during your burn then you are not utilizing the benefits of the class trinket as much. In prior tiers we used to have a general rule that you'd ignore AM after you got to 70% mana (or higher if you got a ton of procs), just so that you'd keep your burns from going too long and getting CDs out of sync. We don't have that problem this tier because we're saving CDs for the ring anyway, but the class trinket only benefits AB so you want to maximize that.

[Nesella]

Thank you for your help. I really appreciate it. I'll work on my mana management. Can you try and sim my character to see how much mastery/haste I should get? I'm trying to figure it out myself but I'm not quite there yet.

Totally fine if you don't want to, I'm grateful either way.

[Wilderness]

No, but you should check out: http://www.altered-time.com/forum/viewt ... f=2&t=2355" target="_blank

[Nesella]

I just did that, and it doesn't mention mastery or haste anywhere. I'm probably being stupid, but I can't find anything that helps.

[Wilderness]

You have to select stat weights or scale factors (I forget what they call it) when you go through the options for the sim.

[Nesella]

Yea, and I can't find that anywhere.

[Wilderness]

Calculate Scale Factors is a checkbox literally right above the "Queue Simulation" button.

[Nesella]

I think I figured it out..

http://puu.sh/nPHXg/3c2d658885.png" target="_blank

So apparently Multistrike is best for me? Haven't heard of that before.