I have been playing a mage as a main character for almost a year and a half now. I considering myself a really good player but I'm not above asking for help.
Pretty much, I have been wanting to rank on any fight in Firelands and I have found it pretty difficult to keep up.
Here is a video of us downing Heroic Majordomo for the first time. I already noticed some mistakes which I could correct.
#1. Hit by leaping flames, I'm a mage it shouldn't happen!
#2. Forgot to use evocation at one point for almost 30 seconds after a burn.
If you could point out anything else that I could improve upon it would be greatly appreciated!
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/a ... nny/simple
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKxMpnO7icQ
Seeking Improvement
Re: Seeking Improvement
27 Aug 2011 12:10
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Yukimi
- Posts: 4
Ok so I'm going off entirely on this effort as non fight pertaining.
The quintessence of your play is entirely there Danny from how I see it. You have some very major flaws that are quite easily corrected however. First and foremost is your mana management could be innumerably better especially seeing your slot in a 25 raid and not running 10's. It's absolutely paramount that you have your mana bar set to display in % differences.
With this tool at your disposal it's going to allow you to have a period to watch throughout your entire fights; while watching your video's I'm seeing a major portion of time spent at 115k/140k (82%) on and never pulled out. With the % meter you'll see the effects of Power Torrent directly and the impact of things like Volcanic Pots as well. Another little point here I notice on your pot useage, why do you think VP's have 25s and our cd's have 15s? Using your VP at the edge of a conservation ramp, ie 2ab's 1am, 1ab/am will allow your mana with a CC proc especially, you'll see your burn phase start in that 17-15s left on VP at 90-95% mana, allowing more of your impressive 220k crits.
I've just recently gotten caught back up on Cata Maging, and while I can't say I've done any heroic anythings yet, and am still pretty small time with my raiding, my putout already with my gear level is astronomical in my 10 man entirely melee raid. I would personally extend your Recount to show yourself so you have a conscious position of yourself as well at all times as this will let you know when your needing to pickup.
Session 2 idealism to think on that I notice you have an extreme tendency to lean on is indecision or down time with targeting. I suggest what I do, using the Majordomo fight for instance, setup a target/cast macro list for your weekly fights if your changing targets in fights. A simple:
/target Spirit of the Flame
/cast Arcane Blast
/target Majordomo
Allowing you to get the one cast off before swapping back to the boss when he leaps in range, etc etc. The idealism with the mage is to stand still and never stop casting ever. Never waste a GCD what so ever and I think this ascension is exactly what your looking for. When you can blink directly out of an AoE and without even 0.3s delay of possibly running a little bit further or mouse turning your camera and then casting. This is a huge Blink macro I'd die without:
/stopcasting
/cast Blink
/script FlipCameraYaw(180);
You'll quickly gain the ideal that you'll have one ability and 3 macros for it. It can seem daunting entirely, but I want to open up a new degree of playing.
Your extremely limited I feel like with your action bar and the abilities you give yourself, you should have rows of macros for different fights and things like that, multiple cs macros, even pvp focus macros have come in handy for me, such as Baleroc and the movement coordination on shadow spikes. There's many ways to do this however I don't know how you play as they're all custom tailored, some people flip bars, some people alt/ctrl/shift/tilda there ways all over the place, others mouse scroll, others have the left handed button pads etc etc. Let me know your style and we'll think something up to extend your bar from 24 to over 140 possible buttons.
This is a quick glance at your video though in between League of Legends games though lol so take my ideals for what they're worth and think over a little part of it all. Let's see if we can't stir up some intellectual conversation here mate. What are you thinking?
The quintessence of your play is entirely there Danny from how I see it. You have some very major flaws that are quite easily corrected however. First and foremost is your mana management could be innumerably better especially seeing your slot in a 25 raid and not running 10's. It's absolutely paramount that you have your mana bar set to display in % differences.
With this tool at your disposal it's going to allow you to have a period to watch throughout your entire fights; while watching your video's I'm seeing a major portion of time spent at 115k/140k (82%) on and never pulled out. With the % meter you'll see the effects of Power Torrent directly and the impact of things like Volcanic Pots as well. Another little point here I notice on your pot useage, why do you think VP's have 25s and our cd's have 15s? Using your VP at the edge of a conservation ramp, ie 2ab's 1am, 1ab/am will allow your mana with a CC proc especially, you'll see your burn phase start in that 17-15s left on VP at 90-95% mana, allowing more of your impressive 220k crits.
I've just recently gotten caught back up on Cata Maging, and while I can't say I've done any heroic anythings yet, and am still pretty small time with my raiding, my putout already with my gear level is astronomical in my 10 man entirely melee raid. I would personally extend your Recount to show yourself so you have a conscious position of yourself as well at all times as this will let you know when your needing to pickup.
Session 2 idealism to think on that I notice you have an extreme tendency to lean on is indecision or down time with targeting. I suggest what I do, using the Majordomo fight for instance, setup a target/cast macro list for your weekly fights if your changing targets in fights. A simple:
/target Spirit of the Flame
/cast Arcane Blast
/target Majordomo
Allowing you to get the one cast off before swapping back to the boss when he leaps in range, etc etc. The idealism with the mage is to stand still and never stop casting ever. Never waste a GCD what so ever and I think this ascension is exactly what your looking for. When you can blink directly out of an AoE and without even 0.3s delay of possibly running a little bit further or mouse turning your camera and then casting. This is a huge Blink macro I'd die without:
/stopcasting
/cast Blink
/script FlipCameraYaw(180);
You'll quickly gain the ideal that you'll have one ability and 3 macros for it. It can seem daunting entirely, but I want to open up a new degree of playing.
Your extremely limited I feel like with your action bar and the abilities you give yourself, you should have rows of macros for different fights and things like that, multiple cs macros, even pvp focus macros have come in handy for me, such as Baleroc and the movement coordination on shadow spikes. There's many ways to do this however I don't know how you play as they're all custom tailored, some people flip bars, some people alt/ctrl/shift/tilda there ways all over the place, others mouse scroll, others have the left handed button pads etc etc. Let me know your style and we'll think something up to extend your bar from 24 to over 140 possible buttons.
This is a quick glance at your video though in between League of Legends games though lol so take my ideals for what they're worth and think over a little part of it all. Let's see if we can't stir up some intellectual conversation here mate. What are you thinking?
Re: Seeking Improvement
27 Aug 2011 17:44
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Guromin
- Posts: 190
Danny,
I carefully watched your video. I haven't killed Majordomo yet, but I've had some sub 20% wipes on it and enough experience to share my thoughts.
Your interface really does look fine for the most part. Your action bar appears to have a sufficient amount of macro's and keybinds. You could of course add in the stop casting blink macro if you don't already have it. You and I both know that taking any damage in that fight is a huge dps loss and should be avoided at all costs. What I see that you really need is a way of knowing exactly how long before a spell comes off CD. An addon that counts down how long until spells like Evocation are ready so you know when to start your next burn phase. I don't know what addon I use off the top of my head, but I'm sure a quick search on Google would give you a plethora of options.
Your mana really is the next big thing you want to look at fixing. Your sitting at close to 80%-ish sometimes and other times you above 100% mana, which means your getting overflow. Then Power Torrent falls off and your loosing mana. I think you really just need an addon that better tells you what your mana is. I would recommend MagaManaBar, but anything you find will work just fine. You could additionally alter your Pitbull setting to show more about your mana. The advantage to MageManaBar is that it shows your mana % excluding power torrent and other procs so you can see when your above 100% mana. It's highly customizable so hopefully you can make it work for you.
Next is Mini Burn phases. According to some research and number crunching done on Elitist Jerks if your damage is increased by an amount greater than or equal to roughly 6% a mini burn phase will increase your dps. Mini burn phases in this fight are great for when Evocation is on CD and you have double damage. I generally wait for Power Torrent to proc and then burn down to roughly 60-70%. Then use Flame Orb to proc lots of arcane missiles and keep using them to get back to 90% mana. This should increase your damage, especially in this fight.
Along with burn phases comes your big burn phase. Never. Never. Never start your big burn phase unless you have double damage up (unless the boss is going to die). I saw at least once where you had less than 100% increased damage and you were burning down to use Evocation. I would always wait for a time when you have 100% and are relatively sure you won't get hit soon. Your CD's increase to your damage is really insignificant compared to your double damage buff.
Moving on to your gear, which includes a Legendary staff soon. Congratulations in advance. I know there must be something wrong with your gear right now because your hit chance is at 13%. Maybe you got a new upgrade and you haven't redone your reforging or maybe you were just testing something. Either way since I don't think that's your normal hit chance I will wait until your armory is updated with your 'normal' gear. I'm pretty sure I checked before and it was at 17.05%...
Nothing will be exact here, but I recommend grabbing those non-set items from heroic bosses like Beth'tilac. The non-set heroic items do provide a benefit greater than the heroic t11 set bonus at a certain point. When you get heroic shoulders, chest, and legs I would switch over. Even if those items are all non set items, because the intellect itself will outweigh the old bonus. When you drop it you will want to be careful of the soft haste cap. You don't want to have too little haste.
As a side note I really don't think having recount up during a progression fight is a a great idea. Especially one that requires split second reflexes. I defiantly use it and look at it on farm fights like Shanox so I can see if I'm close to setting a record on World of Logs, but it's a distraction more than a help.
-Guromin
I carefully watched your video. I haven't killed Majordomo yet, but I've had some sub 20% wipes on it and enough experience to share my thoughts.
Your interface really does look fine for the most part. Your action bar appears to have a sufficient amount of macro's and keybinds. You could of course add in the stop casting blink macro if you don't already have it. You and I both know that taking any damage in that fight is a huge dps loss and should be avoided at all costs. What I see that you really need is a way of knowing exactly how long before a spell comes off CD. An addon that counts down how long until spells like Evocation are ready so you know when to start your next burn phase. I don't know what addon I use off the top of my head, but I'm sure a quick search on Google would give you a plethora of options.
Your mana really is the next big thing you want to look at fixing. Your sitting at close to 80%-ish sometimes and other times you above 100% mana, which means your getting overflow. Then Power Torrent falls off and your loosing mana. I think you really just need an addon that better tells you what your mana is. I would recommend MagaManaBar, but anything you find will work just fine. You could additionally alter your Pitbull setting to show more about your mana. The advantage to MageManaBar is that it shows your mana % excluding power torrent and other procs so you can see when your above 100% mana. It's highly customizable so hopefully you can make it work for you.
Next is Mini Burn phases. According to some research and number crunching done on Elitist Jerks if your damage is increased by an amount greater than or equal to roughly 6% a mini burn phase will increase your dps. Mini burn phases in this fight are great for when Evocation is on CD and you have double damage. I generally wait for Power Torrent to proc and then burn down to roughly 60-70%. Then use Flame Orb to proc lots of arcane missiles and keep using them to get back to 90% mana. This should increase your damage, especially in this fight.
Along with burn phases comes your big burn phase. Never. Never. Never start your big burn phase unless you have double damage up (unless the boss is going to die). I saw at least once where you had less than 100% increased damage and you were burning down to use Evocation. I would always wait for a time when you have 100% and are relatively sure you won't get hit soon. Your CD's increase to your damage is really insignificant compared to your double damage buff.
Moving on to your gear, which includes a Legendary staff soon. Congratulations in advance. I know there must be something wrong with your gear right now because your hit chance is at 13%. Maybe you got a new upgrade and you haven't redone your reforging or maybe you were just testing something. Either way since I don't think that's your normal hit chance I will wait until your armory is updated with your 'normal' gear. I'm pretty sure I checked before and it was at 17.05%...
Nothing will be exact here, but I recommend grabbing those non-set items from heroic bosses like Beth'tilac. The non-set heroic items do provide a benefit greater than the heroic t11 set bonus at a certain point. When you get heroic shoulders, chest, and legs I would switch over. Even if those items are all non set items, because the intellect itself will outweigh the old bonus. When you drop it you will want to be careful of the soft haste cap. You don't want to have too little haste.
As a side note I really don't think having recount up during a progression fight is a a great idea. Especially one that requires split second reflexes. I defiantly use it and look at it on farm fights like Shanox so I can see if I'm close to setting a record on World of Logs, but it's a distraction more than a help.
-Guromin
Re: Seeking Improvement
27 Aug 2011 18:53
-
danny-ap
- Posts: 2
I really appreciate both of you taking the time to view my video and give me suggestions on how to improve my raiding ability.
I have taken everything that both of you have posted and I will be trying to improve upon it this week when we do Majordomo Heroic again.
I've never actually thought of mini burning phases Guromin. I normally save Flame orb for when I have to move so my dps isn't going to suffer because of not having many damage skills that I can use while moving, although I will most definitely give this a try.
As for Recount being up, I normally don't even look at it until the fight is over. The reason I have it up is because I am one of the three raid leaders. I use this as a tool to help me discern why people are dieing, who is blowing up others with seeds etc.
As for the 3 heroic pieces replacing my current tier, we have only downed Beth'tilac twice with no chest drop, we haven't done H Baleroc for the shoulders and we just actually started on H Alysrazor this week. We were very close and we will hopefully get this down next week!
My armory states 13% because I was actually testing out the tier chest+gloves and reforged to be able to use those. After replacing with my t11 my hit drops because of the difference in reforging. I have reforged back to 17.05% hit.
The blink macro is very handy, I can't believe I never thought of it. I actually do use a macro for Counterspell as well to stop casting.
I have taken everything that both of you have posted and I will be trying to improve upon it this week when we do Majordomo Heroic again.
I've never actually thought of mini burning phases Guromin. I normally save Flame orb for when I have to move so my dps isn't going to suffer because of not having many damage skills that I can use while moving, although I will most definitely give this a try.
As for Recount being up, I normally don't even look at it until the fight is over. The reason I have it up is because I am one of the three raid leaders. I use this as a tool to help me discern why people are dieing, who is blowing up others with seeds etc.
As for the 3 heroic pieces replacing my current tier, we have only downed Beth'tilac twice with no chest drop, we haven't done H Baleroc for the shoulders and we just actually started on H Alysrazor this week. We were very close and we will hopefully get this down next week!
My armory states 13% because I was actually testing out the tier chest+gloves and reforged to be able to use those. After replacing with my t11 my hit drops because of the difference in reforging. I have reforged back to 17.05% hit.
The blink macro is very handy, I can't believe I never thought of it. I actually do use a macro for Counterspell as well to stop casting.
Re: Seeking Improvement
28 Aug 2011 00:29
-
Yukimi
- Posts: 4
Well definitely let us know how it turns out this coming week. Guro has some great ideals with the mini burn phases, I've been toying with Flame Orb for this specific reason as well, I do hope that in the 25's with the regen rate you'll be able to extend even deeper into your pool with the AM bringing you back up.
Quick thought here, entirely abstract, but with Bloodlust up I think we could see this Flame Orb tactic used under the haste to obscenely increase damage time. Where as now you'd spend the first half of bloodlust ramping up then burn phasing in the last 20-25s to not be using evocation under bloodlust, we could fill the first 15-20s with a mini burn realizing that Bloodlust is coming in a fight and just spamming down quickly near the start of bloodlust and using the AM procs under the heat should see an ever further dps gain and you won't have to return to 90% mana but rather 80%ish due to mana gem being used allowing you even deeper in the mini burn phase. Food for thought.
Back to the play though, I entirely understand what your saying with recount. But I'd like to point out my UI with the bar above the target bar with the timers and icons. It's called Forte Xorcist. Absolutely paramount when I was fire back in WotLK to keep on top of things, with arcane however I don't need any dot timers even though they're there if I want them to be, the CD bar is immensely helpful, and you can add plenty of things to it as well, mine is setup weirdly I know. But it allows you to flash large icons, ie Arcane Power icon, anywhere on your screen when it comes off CD and stuff like that so your consciously aware of the usages.
The macros are pretty fun and you could even add an alt modifier to the blink to utilize the camera yaw and just regularly blink when you wanted to not press alt. Everyone plays differently, assuredly as Guro pointed out but I do insist at least trying a targeting macro for casting so your not caught with multiple 0.3-0.5s downtime delays ultimately costing you 10-20 AB casts.
Quick thought here, entirely abstract, but with Bloodlust up I think we could see this Flame Orb tactic used under the haste to obscenely increase damage time. Where as now you'd spend the first half of bloodlust ramping up then burn phasing in the last 20-25s to not be using evocation under bloodlust, we could fill the first 15-20s with a mini burn realizing that Bloodlust is coming in a fight and just spamming down quickly near the start of bloodlust and using the AM procs under the heat should see an ever further dps gain and you won't have to return to 90% mana but rather 80%ish due to mana gem being used allowing you even deeper in the mini burn phase. Food for thought.
Back to the play though, I entirely understand what your saying with recount. But I'd like to point out my UI with the bar above the target bar with the timers and icons. It's called Forte Xorcist. Absolutely paramount when I was fire back in WotLK to keep on top of things, with arcane however I don't need any dot timers even though they're there if I want them to be, the CD bar is immensely helpful, and you can add plenty of things to it as well, mine is setup weirdly I know. But it allows you to flash large icons, ie Arcane Power icon, anywhere on your screen when it comes off CD and stuff like that so your consciously aware of the usages.
The macros are pretty fun and you could even add an alt modifier to the blink to utilize the camera yaw and just regularly blink when you wanted to not press alt. Everyone plays differently, assuredly as Guro pointed out but I do insist at least trying a targeting macro for casting so your not caught with multiple 0.3-0.5s downtime delays ultimately costing you 10-20 AB casts.
5 posts -