Firemages and Stolen Time

[schleck]

As if fire was not RNG enough, Blizzard decided to give Stolen Time debuff only a 50% chance to proc. Therefore, after 10 Fireballs/Pyroblast hits you might not end up with the 10 stacks in order to be "able" able to cast that Combustion asap. Not to mention that your initial proc from Insignia of the corrupted mind will not benefit your first Combustion. I have some questions regarding this forever problematic issue for Fire mages (RNG):
1. Would it be better if you pop a Combustion during the trinket proc even if you don't have the 10 stacks just to benefit from the increased number of ticks or just leave it to "waste"?
2. What if you were to start off with 10 AB casts just to get those stacks up fast in order to be able to benefit a little bit, if you were to eventually get a good ignite, from the trinket and to use combustion earlier.
In fights like blackhorn hc it's almost impossible to get to the 10 stacks (unless you're really lucky) so as to spread combustion on first drake + the adds.

-- Schleck

[Reckert]

Hi.

This is a very annoying subject idd. Fire is very RNG, and you can be unlucky to get neither HS or Stolen time buffs. My rule is in general that if I get a solid combustion at the beginning, I use it (taken it's a tank and spank fight). For every 1 stack you gain, you will have 7 seconds less cooldown. It will take you around 5-6 seconds to cast 2 fireballs, meaning you, with 50% chance to add stolen time, will in average gain 1-2 seconds faster combustion. Personally I don't think that it is worth it to build up a full stolen time before using combustion the first time. If I happen to get an ignite of 30k+ (which is very often at the beginning of fight, taken you prepot and have trinkets), I fire it away. Hopefully at this time I have 5-6 stacks. If I don't get anything useful, I settle for a minor but more frequent combustion.

There are situations where I don't do this, most of the time I'm thinking Yorsahj (save it to see if we get black in first round adds) and some time Hagara, to make sure it is ready for the burst phase. But when it comes to tank and spank, I use my first rule. About the AB spam, there is no way I can see it work, but actually haven't tested it, it never occured to me.

About Warmaster, just spread when you see a good combustion. If you aim for it you can acheive the 10 stacks, but I hardly do it. I prioritize my position above my DPS and rarely do less than 40k DPS on the first 3 rounds of adds.

Hope this helps a bit

Shizzy @ Darksorrow

[schleck]

thanks for the tips :) i'll use that then.