[Faestia]

Discuss your talents and tell us how long you have been this particular spec:
Tell us about your spec. Why did you pick what you did? Is your spec cookie cutter? Do you know some secret we don't? Show us you have an understanding of your talents and you didn't just close your eyes and click all over your screen hoping for the best.
My current spec is pretty cookie cutter at 34/4/3. I did do some research into different specs and tried different things out to see what I felt like worked best for me. I thought the points in Imp MG would be helpful for the increase in SP. Also with the points in Burning Soul for reducing lost cast time, and points in piercing ice to increase the chance of a critical strike.

Ventrilo and do you have a mic:
Yes, I have both.

Do you have an authenticator?
I do have an authenticator.

Typical Weekly Playtime:
I am available for raiding on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays. I play some during the day. I am usually on at night doing dungeons and sometimes doing older content with friends.

Time Zone:
MST- 2 hours behind realm time.

Previous Guilds:
This toon has been in Velocity, Darkest Royalty and Ancients

Previous Raiding Experience:
I started playing WoW during Wrath. I have only been playing this toon for about 8 months or so (started after Cata came out). While I haven't completed all old content on this toon, I've done some.
As far as this toon goes:
Classic: BWL, Temple and Ruins of AQ, MC
TBC: Tempest, Kara, Mag and Gruul
Wrath: Ony, EoE, Malygos 10, Ulduar full clear on 10, OS 10/25, have killed the LK but not cleared the entire raid. ToC reg and heroic both cleared
Cata: I have cleared BH, BoT 10, BWD 10 and I'm 1/7 in FL

Why are you applying to us:
Honestly, I'm looking for a chance to grow and progress. Your raid days and times seem to fit with my schedule also.

Link us your Armory:
http://us.battle.net.../Faestia/simple

Screenshot of your UI, preferably in a raid environment:
http://img.photobuck...1911_151612.jpg

World of Logs Report:
http://www.worldoflo...zjvt/details/0/

Do you know anyone in guild? If so please list your pals.
I do not personally know anyone in the guild. I know I've run with some of them in various raids or dungeons though.

Tell us a bit about yourself:
I am 36 years old. I'm a stay at home mom of 2. I have a wide variety of hobbies including 4 wheeling, reading, fishing and playing WoW :)I love music, and listen to pretty much anything.

[Wrathblood]

Gear and attitude were generally good, and had done enough homework to put together a good cookie-cutter-ish spec, gemming and reforging. I'd reconsider the wrist and boot enchants, but that glove enchant might actually be genius.

A few questions, though. First, how did you decide on reforging into Mastery instead of Haste?

Second, tell me a little about how you view mana management as arcane.

Third, not so much a question as a chide. You spec'ed into Incanter's Absorption and Impr Mana Gem for the SP, but then only cast Mana Shield once during ZA, didn't cast Mage Ward at all, and only used 2 mana gems...

[Faestia]

Wrathblood, on 19 September 2011 - 07:24 PM, said:

Gear and attitude were generally good, and had done enough homework to put together a good cookie-cutter-ish spec, gemming and reforging. I'd reconsider the wrist and boot enchants, but that glove enchant might actually be genius.

A few questions, though. First, how did you decide on reforging into Mastery instead of Haste?
I did a lot of reading about what was better for an arcane mage as far as mastery vs. haste, but I got alot of conflicting information. I actually went back and forth quite a few times to see which I thought was better and I felt my performance was better reforging into mastery. Although my cast times are slightly longer, it seemed that I could proc more/better using more mastery and my crits were better.

Second, tell me a little about how you view mana management as arcane.
It's pretty important for an arcane mage. I think that my views were a little skewed until I took the advice you gave me today. I think the Burn and Conserve is a much better tactic. I used it again this afternoon and I felt I did pretty well with it. Before I was only trying to keep my mana above a certain amount. Although I had talked to a few other mages I know, where I got conflicting advice, I wasn't quite set on what I should do. So I was just doing the best I could.

Third, not so much a question as a chide. You spec'ed into Incanter's Absorption and Impr Mana Gem for the SP, but then only cast Mana Shield once during ZA, didn't cast Mage Ward at all, and only used 2 mana gems...
A little embarrassed here.. I typically don't use mana shield unless I know I am going to take damage, and I try to use it when I am taking damage from a distance, such as an attack from a caster. I've gotten scolded in the past because of the knock back from it, so I stopped using it so much. Secondly, at one point my action bars were all messed up, things missing, moved around and such. I never got Mage Ward back on my bar, so it hasn't gotten a lot of use lately. Kinda of out of site, out of mind. As far as the mana gems... I'll refer back to the burn and conserve discussion. I really didn't use them much before that.

Points well taken. I've added these things to my notes from our talk earlier.

[Deceax]

Quote

I did a lot of reading about what was better for an arcane mage as far as mastery vs. haste, but I got alot of conflicting information. I actually went back and forth quite a few times to see which I thought was better and I felt my performance was better reforging into mastery. Although my cast times are slightly longer, it seemed that I could proc more/better using more mastery and my crits were better.

Have you ever used a tool like simulationcraft to test your theories on dps? It helps to sim test your theories instead of just guessing.

Quote

It's pretty important for an arcane mage. I think that my views were a little skewed until I took the advice you gave me today. I think the Burn and Conserve is a much better tactic. I used it again this afternoon and I felt I did pretty well with it. Before I was only trying to keep my mana above a certain amount. Although I had talked to a few other mages I know, where I got conflicting advice, I wasn't quite set on what I should do. So I was just doing the best I could.

Burn and Conserve is the only way to play arcane. Describe your burn phase and your conservation phase in more detail.

Quote

A little embarrassed here.. I typically don't use mana shield unless I know I am going to take damage, and I try to use it when I am taking damage from a distance, such as an attack from a caster. I've gotten scolded in the past because of the knock back from it, so I stopped using it so much. Secondly, at one point my action bars were all messed up, things missing, moved around and such. I never got Mage Ward back on my bar, so it hasn't gotten a lot of use lately. Kinda of out of site, out of mind. As far as the mana gems... I'll refer back to the burn and conserve discussion. I really didn't use them much before that.

If you are specc'd for IA then you should definitely be popping mage ward. You want to stay away from mana shield since it costs mana when it absorbs damage and you want to keep your mana high. Only pop mana shield if you expect to take a hit that would kill you. Mage ward is very useful in firelands for popping before you know you are going to be taking a hit of fire damage. Your spec seems to be geared more towards five mans which is understandable if you aren't doing a lot of raiding. If you were going to respec for raiding what changes would you make to your choices if any?

[Faestia]

Deceax, on 19 September 2011 - 08:48 PM, said:

Quote

I did a lot of reading about what was better for an arcane mage as far as mastery vs. haste, but I got alot of conflicting information. I actually went back and forth quite a few times to see which I thought was better and I felt my performance was better reforging into mastery. Although my cast times are slightly longer, it seemed that I could proc more/better using more mastery and my crits were better.

Have you ever used a tool like simulationcraft to test your theories on dps? It helps to sim test your theories instead of just guessing.

I have not used simulationcraft before, but it was a suggestion I got today. I plan on checking that out shortly when the kids are in bed and I can concentrate more

Quote

It's pretty important for an arcane mage. I think that my views were a little skewed until I took the advice you gave me today. I think the Burn and Conserve is a much better tactic. I used it again this afternoon and I felt I did pretty well with it. Before I was only trying to keep my mana above a certain amount. Although I had talked to a few other mages I know, where I got conflicting advice, I wasn't quite set on what I should do. So I was just doing the best I could.

Burn and Conserve is the only way to play arcane. Describe your burn phase and your conservation phase in more detail.

This is what I'm doing now, per suggestion earlier. I found it MUCH more effective that what I was doing.
AB 4x's, Pop all cooldowns (putting them all on a macro to be more effecient), mana gem, AB until I'm at 35% mana then stop dpsing and Evocate. Then conserve my mana buy AB 4x's for buff then missles or barrage if I haven't proc'd- keeping mana around 90-95% until I have about 30 seconds left on my CD for Evo and then I start the process over.

Quote

A little embarrassed here.. I typically don't use mana shield unless I know I am going to take damage, and I try to use it when I am taking damage from a distance, such as an attack from a caster. I've gotten scolded in the past because of the knock back from it, so I stopped using it so much. Secondly, at one point my action bars were all messed up, things missing, moved around and such. I never got Mage Ward back on my bar, so it hasn't gotten a lot of use lately. Kinda of out of site, out of mind. As far as the mana gems... I'll refer back to the burn and conserve discussion. I really didn't use them much before that.

If you are specc'd for IA then you should definitely be popping mage ward. You want to stay away from mana shield since it costs mana when it absorbs damage and you want to keep your mana high. Only pop mana shield if you expect to take a hit that would kill you. Mage ward is very useful in firelands for popping before you know you are going to be taking a hit of fire damage. Your spec seems to be geared more towards five mans which is understandable if you aren't doing a lot of raiding. If you were going to respec for raiding what changes would you make to your choices if any?

Honestly, I'm not sure what changes to make. My spec is more geared towards 5 mans. I would like to do more raiding, therefore I'll be doing more research on changes to make to be spec'd more for raiding.

Thanks for the tips. Like I said in my app I'm looking to grow and become a better player, so all advice/criticism I get will be taken

[Faestia]

Wrathblood, on 19 September 2011 - 07:24 PM, said:

Gear and attitude were generally good, and had done enough homework to put together a good cookie-cutter-ish spec, gemming and reforging. I'd reconsider the wrist and boot enchants, but that glove enchant might actually be genius.

I just saw that I didn't reply to this. I'm looking at my enchants right now to see what changes I could make to benefit me more.

[Deceax]

Quote

Honestly, I'm not sure what changes to make. My spec is more geared towards 5 mans. I would like to do more raiding, therefore I'll be doing more research on changes to make to be spec'd more for raiding.

http://www.wowhead.com/talent

Make your own spec that you think would be good for raiding. I want to see what you come up with. Give an explanation on any talents you are unsure about or give your reasoning for why you think they are appropriate choices. Aren't really any wrong answers here; just want to gauge your thought process in making a spec.

What role does flame orb play in your rotation?

[Faestia]

Deceax, on 19 September 2011 - 10:00 PM, said:

Quote

Honestly, I'm not sure what changes to make. My spec is more geared towards 5 mans. I would like to do more raiding, therefore I'll be doing more research on changes to make to be spec'd more for raiding.

http://www.wowhead.com/talent

Make your own spec that you think would be good for raiding. I want to see what you come up with. Give an explanation on any talents you are unsure about or give your reasoning for why you think they are appropriate choices. Aren't really any wrong answers here; just want to gauge your thought process in making a spec.

What role does flame orb play in your rotation?

Sure will! Be back shortly with what I come up with.

As far as flame orb. I typically use it on bosses. As soon as it's off CD I hit it again, usually at the same time my AP is up. Even though it only lasts 15 seconds it deals just under 20k damage within those 15 seconds. So working it into a burn and conserve tactic, I would hit it before I start my cycle and hit it again when CD is up.

Enchants- I think that for my wrist an intel enchant would be better and for my boots I'm thinking Lavawalker would be better than Earthen Vitality.

[Faestia]

Here is what I came up with for a spec that would possibly be more suited for raiding!

http://www.wowhead.c...ohIMrRhRrkRorZc

Explanation of changes made from mine to this one:
I would remove the points from improved polymorph- My reasoning for this is #1- When I poly something I pay attention to it and if it needs to be redone I make sure it happens for the time is up. #2 When cc is broken it's typically because the tank has taken that target to start attacking it,so the stun isn't necessarily needed. #3 those point could be used better elsewhere.

I would also remove 1 point from nether vortex. Reasoning- I don't believe I need 100% chance of the slow happening. If it doesn't and the target actually NEEDS to be slowed, I have that and can quickly apply it.

I felt those 3 points could be put to better use in Prismatic Cloak. Reasoning- I felt the reduction in damage taken is more beneficial than the others, and the reduction in fade time of invisibility is useful as well.

I felt all the other points were pretty well placed and those talents useful.

Alternatively, you could take the 2 points out of arcane explosion and put one back in Nether Vortex to ensure that slow and add a 3rd to Burning Soul to further reduce lost casting time from damage taken.

[Deceax]

You made mostly the right choices. Taking points out of improved poly is something I definitely wanted to see; you will be using polymorph none during raids. Nether vortex is one of those all or nothing talents. You either go 0/2 or 2/2 in it. If you wanted to go out of nether vortex the other point would be well spent in burning soul. Glad to see you also put some points into prismatic cloak as a 6% damage reduction is helpful to the healers and an instant invis is great for an instant threat drop.

Quote

Alternatively, you could take the 2 points out of arcane explosion and put one back in Nether Vortex to ensure that slow and add a 3rd to Burning Soul to further reduce lost casting time from damage taken.

This is actually the spec I use for raiding. Improved arcane explosion could be useful if you are on add duty on beth'tilac or if your group is having trouble taking down adds on ryolith but other than that it's not very useful. Three points into burning soul is pretty standard as quite a few of the bosses have abilities that will increase your cast time. Going 2/2 nether vortex is something that might not be obvious to take but you want this talent because of the 3/3 spent in torment of the weak.

You made mostly the right choices and had pretty good reasoning behind the somewhat misguided choices you had made. Armory is down but I think you also had Polymorph as a major glyph. I would take improved evocation over this to help healers.

Also a trick to use for flame orb is to use it during your conservation phase. Flame orb can proc arcane missiles and can help you keep your mana above 90%. Not something obvious, but a useful thing to know.

Overall I like the effort put in to the app. Has my vote for some trial runs to test raid awareness.

[Faestia]

Deceax, on 20 September 2011 - 09:29 AM, said:

You made mostly the right choices. Taking points out of improved poly is something I definitely wanted to see; you will be using polymorph none during raids. Nether vortex is one of those all or nothing talents. You either go 0/2 or 2/2 in it. If you wanted to go out of nether vortex the other point would be well spent in burning soul. Glad to see you also put some points into prismatic cloak as a 6% damage reduction is helpful to the healers and an instant invis is great for an instant threat drop.

Quote

Alternatively, you could take the 2 points out of arcane explosion and put one back in Nether Vortex to ensure that slow and add a 3rd to Burning Soul to further reduce lost casting time from damage taken.

This is actually the spec I use for raiding. Improved arcane explosion could be useful if you are on add duty on beth'tilac or if your group is having trouble taking down adds on ryolith but other than that it's not very useful. Three points into burning soul is pretty standard as quite a few of the bosses have abilities that will increase your cast time. Going 2/2 nether vortex is something that might not be obvious to take but you want this talent because of the 3/3 spent in torment of the weak.

You made mostly the right choices and had pretty good reasoning behind the somewhat misguided choices you had made. Armory is down but I think you also had Polymorph as a major glyph. I would take improved evocation over this to help healers.

Also a trick to use for flame orb is to use it during your conservation phase. Flame orb can proc arcane missiles and can help you keep your mana above 90%. Not something obvious, but a useful thing to know.

Overall I like the effort put in to the app. Has my vote for some trial runs to test raid awareness.

Thanks! I think this process has helped me to think a little more about the decisions I made with my spec and will help me make improvements.
When I got off the computer last night I was still thinking about those points in IAE, and I was thinking the same thing. As far as glyphs, I was thinking about those too, and plan on going over and making some changes within my spec and glyphs when I can log on today

[Sobeyet]

3 things:

• Clicker
• Should have known the class information / put in the effort before the application, still seems like you're making it up as you're going along
• Just not seeing the raw numbers; in your gear and the comp you had for that 5 man (MotW, Might, 5% crit, AI, FM, 10% Luck of the Draw) you should be averaging +25k, with peaks of +30k. Simulationcraft has you at 26.9k without Luck of the Draw for a 150 second tank-and-spank fight. Of course there's some movement involved, but I need to see at least 23k, not 17k.

Going to need some drastic improvement, right now I don't think there's enough there.

[Faestia]

Sobeyet, on 20 September 2011 - 11:26 AM, said:

3 things:

• Clicker
• Should have known the class information / put in the effort before the application, still seems like you're making it up as you're going along
• Just not seeing the raw numbers; in your gear and the comp you had for that 5 man (MotW, Might, 5% crit, AI, FM, 10% Luck of the Draw) you should be averaging +25k, with peaks of +30k. Simulationcraft has you at 26.9k without Luck of the Draw for a 150 second tank-and-spank fight. Of course there's some movement involved, but I need to see at least 23k, not 17k.

Going to need some drastic improvement, right now I don't think there's enough there.

I've changed my key bindings. I was using the number keys on my keyboard for my main spells and only clicking a few things that weren't used all the time. Also, got my CD's on one macro.

Working on getting those new enchants for my wrists and boots. I have a friend that is an enchanter and he is going to make them for me when I log back on and give him the mats.

I respec'd earlier and made changes to my glyphs in accordance with the changes in my spec.

I realize my knowledge of what I should have been doing was wrong. I know I should have done more research, and tried other things out. I am however eager to improve and I've taken the suggestions given to me and put them in place.

I'd really like another chance to show Wrath the changes I've made and that I'm doing better if it's possible. If it is, I'll be logged on later, or tomorrow during the day. I know you guys are raiding tonight. So tomorrow would probably be best I'm going to assume.

[Wrathblood]

As it happens, we have a number of people out tonight and there's an outside chance we might be able to bring you along. I'd say its maybe 1/3 so I wouldn't get your hopes too high, but if you can be on around 7:45 the fates might smile on you.

[Faestia]

Wrathblood, on 20 September 2011 - 06:37 PM, said:

As it happens, we have a number of people out tonight and there's an outside chance we might be able to bring you along. I'd say its maybe 1/3 so I wouldn't get your hopes too high, but if you can be on around 7:45 the fates might smile on you.

I'll try to be on! I'm trying to get dinner on the table and had a few minutes to reply. Off to try to get dinner finished quickly!

[Sobeyet]

From what I hear Wrath ran another troll dungeon with you last week and you were better, but still not where you need to be. Going to be a no, but good luck in your search.

[Faestia]

He did run another one with me, and I was having a couple issues with some of the changes I made. He had told me I could work with it while he was gone and to get back to him today.

[Sobeyet]

Faestia, on 26 September 2011 - 03:37 PM, said:

He did run another one with me, and I was having a couple issues with some of the changes I made. He had told me I could work with it while he was gone and to get back to him today.

Okay, sorry for the mix-up. We'll do one more review of how things are coming along then.

[Faestia]

No problem! I'll be getting ahold of him tonight when my kiddies are in bed to see about running another one tonight or tomorrow sometime I've worked out the kinks and things are much better. The only thing I haven't done is changed my enchants, as my friend hasn't been on at the times I was able to be on the last few days, but I am working on that

[Sobeyet]

Wrath showed me the log from today's ZG and we chatted about it. He's more optimistic about you than I am, but he also has a tendency to let things drag on longer than they should (see: boss explanations) and I don't think it's fair for all parties involved to leave you in limbo. So I'm pulling rank and making an executive decision, going to be a no. If you want the specifics I've quoted my review below, but it boils down to:

• Too much time not doing anything - You're spending anywhere from 15-40% of the fight not casting. Even while you're moving there's almost always something you can cast.
• Lack of class knowledge - Still not using your CDs or class abilities effectively.
• Taking avoidable damage - It's easy to disregard trivial damage in troll dungeons (fight's only going to last 1-2 minutes, stuff doesn't hit hard), but considering these were your trials you really needed to be flawless on avoiding fire. Wasn't there.

Sobeyet, on 27 September 2011 - 03:46 PM, said:

Wrathblood, on 27 September 2011 - 03:16 PM, said:

Did a follow-up troll heroic with that mage. Actually, I did like 1.2 troll heroics with her. We queued, then got put into ZA at Lynx, but the healer was pretty awful and kept letting people die, plus I DC'ed, so we did ZG after. She's gotten better. As a handy calibration tool, we had Germah (solid hunter from KS) along. She need to work on her positioning and not over-moving for stuff like Mandokir's slam, but I think she's prob improved enough for a raid-trial. She was actually quite impressive on the Panther boss, which I wasn't really expecting.

http://www.worldoflo...d5sfsejvgmuzvw/

56% DPS time on Venoxis?

What was impressive about Panther? She did about as much damage as you did (15.4k eDPS, 86.8% DPS time) and got hit by 3 waves. Was single targeting the cats for whatever reason.

58% DPS time on Jin'do, even though she didn't bother with the adds (2.6% of her damage were on spirits, the rogue did more than her. Other 97% was on chains or Jin'do.)

Didn't use her mastery on-use trinket at all in the entire instance, guessing she doesn't have it bound (she's had it for over 2 months, no excuse). Same for PoM, didn't use it at all. 4 mana gems throughout all bosses, should've been 6. Lower priority stuff (but things that would tell me she's thinking about using her class abilities) - one arcane torrent, one incanter's absorption, 2 blinks.

Sobeyet, on 27 September 2011 - 04:37 PM, said:

Wrathblood, on 27 September 2011 - 04:14 PM, said:

not on Venoxis, she got stuck off to the side on the Poison stream part

Blink? She didn't cast it once during Venoxis. She ended up eating 4 ticks of the stream and 5 ticks of the pool anyway (no armor for IA proc either).

Wrathblood, on 27 September 2011 - 04:14 PM, said:

The leaping panthers mess with your AB casts and its always tight as to whether there are enough mobs in range to bother using AE. Also, I do a pretty substantial amount of damage on that fight with the free cleaves and all. Warriors and Frost DKs can tear that fight up, and demo locks, but its a little rocky for most other folks).

Range of AE (10 yards) is greater than Multi-Shot (8 yards) and for the most part I just Multi. Standing on the boss and AE'ing when the cats get near by should be pretty effective (or stand at a distance if you want to single target so that cat pounces don't cancel your casts, but I'd think AE would do more DPS and make it easier to avoid waves). Just because you can do 15k DPS as a tank on the fight doesn't mean she shouldn't be doing 25k as a DPS.

Wrathblood, on 27 September 2011 - 04:14 PM, said:

Hmm. The trinkets/arcane torrent/Absorption stuff is a concern because I'd talked to her about it before. Maybe see how Skuggi does in his trial. If he's crushing the meters, then she's just short, if he disappoints, we can give her a try.

Judging by her post "Also, got my CD's on one macro" she doesn't really know how to use CDs at all. Just has it macro'd to one button without timers, procs, etc. Usually a bad idea to bind CDs to one key blindly, especially if they have different timers (Not sure if PoM and Arcane Power still lock each other out for a few seconds, that would explain why she's not using it at all). And if she's using a macro, she wrote it wrong since she's casting Arcane Power after Mirror Images instead of before (again, just not thinking about how the class abilities work together).

Don't really see her being enough of an asset to even bother with a raid trial imo. Mashing's not there, class knowledge still lacking after multiple opportunities, and seems like she'd be average at best at avoiding fire.