mage missile barrage macro (request)

[FizzyCarter]

hi guys, so anyway yeah i'm not familiar with anything but simple macros

I was wondering if there'd be a way to make a macro/keybind for this

for my mage my #4 button is set for casting arcane missiles
anyway when i'm spamming arcane blast sometimes missile barrage procs

i'm wondering if there's a macro to make it so i can press my
#4 button and have it interrupt casting whatever I was casting and have it
use Arcane missles instead whenever I press it.

[Quinafoi]

Yes, this is possible with a macro that uses the stopcasting command. I'll teach you how to do what you want... and then I'll try to teach you why you don't want to do it in the first place.

#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cast Arcane Missiles

While I'm not an expert on Mage specifically, I can say that for the vast majority of caster classes it is a DPS loss to ever cancel your current cast in order to cast something different. For instance, as a balance druid I have a talent called Eclipse which gives me either +40% damage with Wrath or +40% chance to crit with Starfire. If I just proced Eclipse and gained the +40% damage with Wrath but already started casting another Starfire, it is never worthwhile for me to cancel my Starfire immediately in order to cast Wrath. This always results in a DPS loss. If my Starfire does 10,000 damage and takes 2 seconds to cast and Wrath does 5000 damage and takes 1 second to cast, if I were to cancel my Starfire halfway through I lose 10,000 damage in order to do 7,000 damage. This is almost certainly the case for a mage as well, you should never cancel your current cast in order to switch immediately because it will always result in a loss of DPS. Because of the time you wasted on your current cast, you effectively wasted all the DPS that cast would have done.

[Goros]

Correct. I'm not gonna say I'm an expert by any means, but I DO love my arcane mage.

You don't want any /stopcasting macros on your spells. What you DO want is some nochanneling macros in with your AB and AM to keep from clipping missiles or prematurely ending evocation, and it makes your AB and AM spammable.

You would want /stopcasting on your iceblock, your spell steal and counterspell, and probably on your invisibility with a /targetlasttarget on iceblock and invis combined with /cancelaura.

I also suggest using your #1 and #2 keys as AB and AM...there is no reason to be bouncing all over your keybinds when those are the main 2 spells you should be casting if you're doing it right.

[Quinafoi]

Thanks for the additional input on mages.

Long story short.
For optimal DPS... NEVER use /stopcasting in a macro. So it should never be in a macro with an ability for damage.
For special stuff, it's ok. Such as survival (Iceblock, Invisibility) or raid critical function (Counterspell, Remove Curse).

[sifuedition]

There is another reason you don't want to stopcast your AB. Arcane Missiles only do mediocre damage unbuffed. You only want to use them when they have the full four stack of arcane blast buff and the haste buff for the proc in an ideal situation. I will typically use them with or without the proc after the fourth AB because the AB will not stack any more.

Caveats: If I cannot get another AB off before the buff stack will drop due to movement, whatever, but I do have the barrage proc and at least two stacks of the AB buff, I will use AM early. If the mob is low health and I cannot get off an AB, I will use Arcane Barrage to try to get a proc and missles to squeeze in a little more damage.

[Goros]

You actually take a DPS loss when doing this. Currently hitting your AM every time barrage procs regardless of the number of stacks of AM you have is a slight DPS loss, but a DPM (damage per minute) gain. It is less mana intensive and you will last longer without going OOM. Also, you can keep the haste buff from 2pcT10 up 100% of the time by using the AM proc every time you hit 3 stacks.

As for casting arcane missiles without the proc...don't. EVER. Huge DPS loss. (except maybe under the effects of heroism and IV)

If you don't want to rape your mana pool, just cast Arcane Barrage (the spell, instant cast). It will use the benefit of the 4 stacks and if it happens to crit should do around 15k or more damage, plus it might trigger a proc.

[Terae]

I find that it's better to use Arcane Missiles over using Arcane Barrage to get rid of my stack. It may take longer to cast, but it does more DPM.

[Petninja]

I also suggest using your #1 and #2 keys as AB and AM...there is no reason to be bouncing all over your keybinds when those are the main 2 spells you should be casting if you're doing it right.

What if he finds 3 and 4 to be more comfortable to press? I use R and F. 1-4 is for cooldowns and situational spells :P.

[Goros]

I find that it's better to use Arcane Missiles over using Arcane Barrage to get rid of my stack. It may take longer to cast, but it does more DPM.

It does not. Not even close, not in any modeling.

[Terae]

What if he finds 3 and 4 to be more comfortable to press? I use R and F. 1-4 is for cooldowns and situational spells :P.

I also use 3 and 4 for my main spells because that's where my hand rests most comfortably.

It does not. Not even close, not in any modeling.

In my experience the only time Arcane Barrage is worth using is while moving. I have tried it several times both ways and using Arcane Missiles to break the stack when the it gets too high has been most efficient.

Perhaps the amount of haste plays a great part in it?

[Goros]

It's a dps loss. Think of it this way:

Arcane Missiles, without arcane barrage proc - 5 second cast, 1 missile per second. Damage if crit is around 7-8k per missile assuming good gear. Without a crit it's closer to 3-4k per missile. Hasted @ an average of say 20% (around 700 haste), this means that your damage output over the 4 seconds it takes to get out is (giving the benefit of the doubt that 3 of the 5 will crit at 7.5k each) your DPS output for those 5 missiles is 7,375 DPS, at the cost of around 950 mana.

Now, to cast arcane missiles WITH barrage proc it's a 2.5 second cast, one missile per .5 seconds, minus your haste, so the whole thing goes off at around 2 seconds or less depending on your haste at the time, so it effectively doubles your dps vs using a non-barrage proc'd Arcane Missiles, and costs you NO MANA, since the proc reduces mana cost by 100%, effectively raising your DPM because you don't have to spend mana to get it off, so your mana pool lasts longer.

As for the spell Arcane Barrage, it's an instant cast spell which will deal 7-8k (10-12k in a 25 man) damage on a non-critical hit and 14-16k damage on a crit (20k plus in a 25 man), at the cost of a GCD (about 1.3 seconds under average hasted conditions) putting its dps slightly higher than a non-hasted arcane missiles. It also costs you around 550 mana, but it's still less than you spend on a non-hasted, DPS losing Arcane Missiles. The real advantage is that you can now immediately start spamming AB again and rebuild your stacks without raping your mana and it increases your DPS, giving you 2 reasons to do this, as opposed to just "thinking" it's the right thing to do.

Now keep in mind that my figures are not exact numbers and that I used averages from my experience, and that I did not include the mana you regen while casting to model anything completely, but trust me when I tell you, "You're doing it wrong".

The above numbers are assuming 4 stacks of AB.

[Terae]

Sorry to dig up an old thread but I came across this and just wanted to share it: http://www.wowhead.com/forums&topic=165904. It's a ton of math to prove that it's better to clear stacks with AM

[Goros]

Sorry to dig up an old thread but I came across this and just wanted to share it: http://www.wowhead.com/forums&topic=165904. It's a ton of math to prove that it's better to clear stacks with AM

Not really, no. Read this line again:

This demonstrates that using ABarr to clear stacks is substandard in DPS to using AM, for end-game gear levels. BUT - the gap is negligible, and even possibly outweighed by the higher mana cost in the event that you clear stacks with an expensive mana-per-second ABarr (18% base mana over 1.5secs) instead of AM (31% base mana over 5 secs).

We were talking DPM. From a DPM standpoint, ABarr is superior. Also, this entire thread states that it's negligble at endgame gear levels - so anyone under a 6k gearscore (the vast majority of players) will benefit from clearing AB stacks with ABarr instead of AM.

[Terae]

Okay fine, you win. :P

Can we just agree that it's really not that big of a difference to tell people to change their habits over?