dreamwalker fire mage

[nozrean]

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...nn&cn=Arrakeen

i've read fire bomb everything it doesn't work if its down before it blows.
the only strategy that kind of works for me is scorch & fireblast go to next target and that gets me a whopping 3k dps where as most ppl do 5k HALP!

pls other than changing specs and getting better gear etc... ow yea its a healing dagger i know but its the best i got so far replacing the seeth.( no i didnt ninja no one need it)

[Metasynaptic]

I generally arcane this fight, but as a trash fight fire should be ok if you keep a few things in mind.

As you are probably aware, the kill priority is the main thing about this fight. As a raid leader, I really couldn't care less about the dps of each player at the end of the fight, as long as Dreamwalker made it up, and we didn't wipe from Lay Waste.

Whatever you are doing, drop it to kill Blazing Skeletons. You don't really have the time for a living bomb to tick down, but put it on anyway, and throw as many frostfire bolts and instants that you can.
If a tank calls out that an Abom is about to die, AoE down the worms. As arcane, I'd be dropping a blizzard down on it. In your case, you are probably looking at a Dragon's breath/flamestrike/pyroblast/flamestrike rotation.

You can living bomb the suppressors. Risen mages burn rather nicely with some frostfire bolt work.

Meters are NOT important if the skeles and worms go down smoothly.

[nozrean]

I can hardly shoot any fireballs, frostfire is a longer cast even, dragon breath is not on my spec and aoe is not allowed for agro problems.
yea and its a fail on boss so raid leader is looking for fails my dps is FAIL compared to others.

[Metasynaptic]

That's pretty silly. Any tank worth his salt should be able to hold agro ont he worms long enough for them to be aoe'ed down. Simple as that.

[Goros]

Burstyness from Arcane is very nice for getting trash down in a hurry in fights like saurfang and dreamwalker. Because you don't need to ramp up for arcane to be effective, taking out blazing skele's becomes much faster on a barrage proc than trying to fireball it down.


I'd skip fire for that fight.

[nozrean]

why go fire if you need arcane in certain fights?

[chaoswhite]

Slightly off-topic, but does it amuse anyone else that Duel-Spec is practically required for Mages now? Almost like it's just another one of their abilities?....

"No, this fight - go Arcane." - Not being mean, just saying. I know our Mage prefers Frostfire herself. Matter of fact, I know a lot that don't like Arcane at all, just spec it because "they have to". Where would we be without Duel-spec?

But on point, I agree to top poster - long as you focus on Blazing Skellys and AOE on the worms, you're doing your part. And yes, any tank that can't hold aggro on the worms isn't going to make it to the end of the fight anyway.

Just remember DPS rules - do as much damage as you can, just don't pull aggro. Long as your tank is doing their job, it's a non-issue. This fight is about everybody doing their job with their assigned targets. Long as everybody has a handle on those targets, the fight is just a matter of waiting for the healers to finish. Then loot. Yay!

[Akeber]

Dual spec is useful for lots of classes, not just hybrids. My brother swaps from affliction to destro for DW and DBS on his warlock, for the same reason a mage wouldn't be fire for those two fights. It doesn't really matter, if you're clearing the bosses don't bother swapping specs. However, if you're looking to do competitive damage on those fights, switch to arcane.

And yes, any tank that can't hold aggro on the worms isn't going to make it to the end of the fight anyway.

Don't drop AOE on the worms as the are spawning. Wait until they've all spawned, become active and are on the tank (2-3 seconds after they spawn) before you AOE. I play a pally, but D&D, Tclap, and swipe will all have the same problem, if you're dropping AEO as the adds are emerging from the abom's corpse, you'll be tanking worms in no time. Make sure the tank gets initial threat.

[Bashal]

If enough people AOE on the worms at the same time, they die fast enough that it doesn't matter what they were aggroed to. And since those worms (I think) stack a debuff on what they hit, single-targeting them down or waiting a considerable amount of time for a tank to get "good" aggro on them before AOE usually means a dead tank. The worms have to die fast, and before they hit the tank much.

It's a coordination fight for the raid, and an HPS race for the healers. Whenever I have run a group that wipes on Val before the enrage timer, I find coordination issues, not DPS issues. If we hit the enrage, it's HPS issues.

Switching to a burstier spec like Arcane will help, but ultimately if the group is well-coordinated, and the healers can get their buff stacked high enough, the encounter becomes simple (becomes simple. I'm not trying to say "omg this fite is ez lol").

[nozrean]

noone has posted a strategy to increase dps overall, please HALP

[Sky]

Blizzard is good for against packs of Suppressors and rot worms, LB the Abominations and the ...walking green abominations of they live long enough. Use your CD's and try to stay close to the middle of the room so you don't have to move much to get to other side. Use your CD's.

If you're talking about 10man, then fire is at a disadvantage because mobs don't stay alive long enough for LB to be worth it and fireball has a long cast time + travel time.

Your gem choices are not helping, either. Or your Talisman of Resurgence. Or your impressive amount of hit.

[Harmacy]

Your gem choices are not helping, either. Or your Talisman of Resurgence. Or your impressive amount of hit.

Holy crap! 21.8% hit is wayyy over the cap. All you need is 17% to be capped - 14% if there is a SPriest or Boomie in the raid.

There's a Fire guide over in the DPS forum, you should read it and gem/gear accordingly.

[Sky]

Yes, that fire mage guide is quite excellent, I recommend reading it.

[nozrean]

about hit is not a choice is what i have as drops come in
im aware of the overhit but i dont have other gear to replace
As soon as i get another drop without hit ill roll on it. basically what i hear so far is your not geared enough for fire and that in 10m fire is useless...ie go arcane.

[Akeber]

about hit is not a choice is what i have as drops come in
im aware of the overhit but i dont have other gear to replace
As soon as i get another drop without hit ill roll on it. basically what i hear so far is your not geared enough for fire and that in 10m fire is useless...ie go arcane.

There is almost always a choice, but that choice requires some effort on your part outside of a raid. The abyssal rune (http://www.wowhead.com/item=47213) would be an upgrade over that hit trinket, and over the int one too. It drops from ToC 5 man in normal mode, which means you can run the instance repeatedly, back-to-back, until it drops. Yes, I understand that it's still a random drop, but if you ask a guildie tank or healer to help you out the queues will be short and you can clear the place in 10-15 mins over and over again. Drop the hit trinket for the abyssal rune, and your next trinket upgrade will replace the int trinket.

Fire isn't "useless" for a ten man, but it's going to need some help in the way of raid buffs. I wouldn't even think of going fire without a boomkin or ele shammy in the raid for a 5% spell crit buff. Arcane does a better job of "standing alone".

Also, gemming for crit like you have done isn't optimal. The fire mage guide in the DPS forum has this to say about gemming:

Meta- Chaotic Skyflare Diamond
Red Socket- Runed Cardinal Ruby, Potent Ametrine, or Reckless Ametrine depending on what is better for your current gearset.
Yellow Socket- Either Reckless Ametrine or Potent Ametrine, depending on what is better for your current gearset.
Blue Socket- Purified Dreadstone.

For TTW/Fire, -ALL- socket bonuses, except for ones that give Intellect and Spirit, are worth getting.

Personally the only thing I'd change about that list is to say that I'd always gem a red socket with a runed Ruby, and yellows always with a Reckless Ametrine, provided the socket bonus is SP. Potent Ametrines (+crit+sp) may be close to reckless (+haste+sp) for fire, but reckless will be better for arcane. Using reckless ametrines will make your gear more flexible to work well in both specs.

Lastly, you've misallocated a few talent points in your fire spec, filling out arcane concetration is a good idea. From the fire mage dps guide, this is the "cookie cutter" http://www.wowhead.com/talent#of0Vck0cZ0Ec0RhIhVubhct , which leaves two points left. Your choices for those points are either flame throwing in the fire tree for a little extra range, or filling in the last two point in "Student of the Mind" in the arcane tree wich will give you more spirit. Rememeber molten armor gives you crit from spirit, so those two points will boost your crit a little. So, you're choice for those two points are more range, or more crit.

[Loganisis]

noone has posted a strategy to increase dps overall, please HALP

Switching to Arcane for the fight is the most posted strategy to increase DPS. Because the adds tend to die quickly a bursty spec like Arcane will allow you to deal a higher amount of damage than a ramp up spec like Fire.

It's probably not the EZ button you were hoping for, but it's pretty clear that if you are looking to increase your DPS for this fight, Arcane is the way to go.

***

What's your groups composition? Are you 1 tanking it? TBH the only success we've ever had in our guild is with 1-tanking it. The extra DPS brings the adds down fast enough and there's really on 2 tankable adds, aboms and mages. Zombies should be kited and Skeletons and Suppressors are essentially untankable. One tank should be enough, assuming one of your tanks has a DPS offspec (also we found it this reduced the healing burden on the healers since all damage was focused on 1 tank instead of 2).