Blog Archive by month: December 2009



Tier 10 Set Boni from an Arcane Mage's Perspective

by Tachyon on Wed. 09. December 2009, 18:46

Filed under: arcane, spec, talents, sets, patch, 3.3, haste, tier 10

EDIT 2010-01-22: Tested and verified the mechanic of the T10x2 proc, added and corrected a few things in the article.

Patch day, 3.3 went live today in Europe. This time I refrained from summing up the changes (new raidwide 3% crit buff by Arcane mages, Fire and especially Frost get some small buffs) and instead point to WoW.com's patch 3.3 coverage.

Instead, I will focus on the new Tier 10 sets (presumably the last set we get before the next expansion) that are introduced by patch 3.3.

The Tier 10 armor sets come in three flavours, with an item level of 251, 264 and 279 respectively.
The starting set items are bought with Emblems of Frost, and can be upgraded with normal and heroic (Vanquisher's) Marks of Sanctification.

Emblems of Frost
Emblems of Frost can be obtained from the following sources:
  • (3) as loot from killing any boss in Icecrown Citadel
  • (3) as loot from killing Toravon the Ice Watcher in Archavon's Vault
  • (2) as reward for running the first Daily Heroic Random each day (new in 3.3)
  • (5) as reward for completing the Weekly Raid Quest (new in 3.3)

Mage Tier 10 Set(s)

Bloodmage's Regalia Set Boni:
  • 2 pieces: Your Hot Streak, Missile Barrage, and Brain Freeze talents also grant you 12% haste for 5 sec when the effect of the talent is consumed.
  • 4 pieces: Your Mirror Image ability also causes you to deal 18% additional damage for 30 sec.

Mage Tier 10 2-pieces bonus

After each MBarr cast (Arcane Missiles on a Missile Barrage proc), you gain a buff called Pushing the Limit, which increases your haste for the next 5 sec by 12%.
Note that you gain this buff after channeling Arcane Missiles finishes (or is interrupted), so you gain the full 5 seconds for your next casts.

To find out how much the 2-pieces bonus is worth, I adapted the Casting Simulation acordingly and ran it again with the same parameters as before (3000 Spell Power, Hit Capped, 20% Spell Haste before talents, 50% Spell Crit including CSD). Here are the results:
.A=0A=1A=2A=3A=4A=5
B=0 5261 DPS
14.21 DPM
-10.47% DPS
-16.80% DPM		 5153 DPS
16.19 DPM
-12.31% DPS
-5.21% DPM		 5173 DPS
16.37 DPM
-11.97% DPS
-4.16% DPM		 5257 DPS
15.4 DPM
-10.54% DPS
-9.84% DPM		 5417 DPS
13.39 DPM
-7.81% DPS
-21.60% DPM		 5459 DPS
11.98 DPM
-7.11% DPS
-29.86% DPM
B=15186 DPS
32.99 DPM
-11.75% DPS
+93.15% DPM		5161 DPS
33.43 DPM
-12.16% DPS
+95.73% DPM		 5195 DPS
27.76 DPM
-11.59% DPS
+62.53% DPM		 5315 DPS
21.96 DPM
-9.55% DPS
+28.57% DPM		 5485 DPS
17.42 DPM
-6.65% DPS
+1.99% DPM		 5532 DPS
13.75 DPM
-5.86% DPS
-19.50% DPM
B=25401 DPS
32.77 DPM
-8.08% DPS
+91.86% DPM		5378 DPS
33.02 DPM
-8.48% DPS
+93.33% DPM		 5395 DPS
28.96 DPM
-8.19% DPS
+69.56% DPM		 5499 DPS
22.17 DPM
-6.42% DPS
+29.80% DPM		 5642 DPS
17.5 DPM
-3.98% DPS
+2.46% DPM		 5664 DPS
13.78 DPM
-3.60% DPS
-19.32% DPM
B=35597 DPS
29.15 DPM
-4.75% DPS
+70.67% DPM		5578 DPS
29.2 DPM
-5.07% DPS
+70.96% DPM		 5566 DPS
26.8 DPM
-5.28% DPS
+56.91% DPM		 5648 DPS
21.78 DPM
-3.89% DPS
+27.52% DPM		 5776 DPS
17.24 DPM
-1.70% DPS
+0.94% DPM		 5774 DPS
13.58 DPM
-1.74% DPS
-20.49% DPM
B=45760 DPS
26.16 DPM
-1.97% DPS
+53.16% DPM		5750 DPS
26.22 DPM
-2.15% DPS
+53.51% DPM		 5728 DPS
24.78 DPM
-2.52% DPS
+45.08% DPM		 5783 DPS
20.96 DPM
-1.59% DPS
+22.72% DPM		 5873 DPS
17.08 DPM
+0.00% DPS
+0.00% DPM		 5863 DPS
13.44 DPM
-0.23% DPS
-21.31% DPM
B=55857 DPS
24.1 DPM
-0.33% DPS
+41.10% DPM		5850 DPS
24.18 DPM
-0.45% DPS
+41.57% DPM		 5818 DPS
23.2 DPM
-0.99% DPS
+35.83% DPM		 5861 DPS
20.1 DPM
-0.27% DPS
+17.68% DPM		 5939 DPS
16.75 DPM
+1.07% DPS
-1.93% DPM		 5858 DPS
13.44 DPM
-0.31% DPS
-21.31% DPM
B=65904 DPS
23.15 DPM
+0.48% DPS
+35.54% DPM		5903 DPS
23.12 DPM
+0.46% DPS
+35.36% DPM		 5869 DPS
22.39 DPM
-0.12% DPS
+31.09% DPM		 5903 DPS
19.63 DPM
+0.46% DPS
+14.93% DPM		5980 DPS
16.57 DPM
+1.76% DPS
-2.99% DPM		 5915 DPS
13.36 DPM
+0.66% DPS
-21.78% DPM
B=75936 DPS
22.53 DPM
+1.01% DPS
+31.91% DPM		5933 DPS
22.65 DPM
+0.97% DPS
+32.61% DPM		 5902 DPS
21.96 DPM
+0.45% DPS
+28.57% DPM		 5932 DPS
19.45 DPM
+0.95% DPS
+13.88% DPM		5997 DPS
16.47 DPM
+2.05% DPS
-3.57% DPM		 5940 DPS
13.31 DPM
+1.09% DPS
-22.07% DPM
B=85954 DPS
22.26 DPM
+1.33% DPS
+30.33% DPM		5951 DPS
22.25 DPM
+1.27% DPS
+30.27% DPM		 5916 DPS
21.64 DPM
+0.68% DPS
+26.70% DPM		 5942 DPS
19.31 DPM
+1.13% DPS
+13.06% DPM		6008 DPS
16.39 DPM
+2.25% DPS
-4.04% DPM		 5958 DPS
13.28 DPM
+1.40% DPS
-22.25% DPM
B=infinite5977 DPS
21.83 DPM
+1.72% DPS
+27.81% DPM		5979 DPS
21.84 DPM
+1.74% DPS
+27.87% DPM		 5939 DPS
21.37 DPM
+1.07% DPS
+25.12% DPM		 5970 DPS
19.08 DPM
+1.60% DPS
+11.71% DPM		6031 DPS
16.3 DPM
+2.63% DPS
-4.57% DPM		 5991 DPS
13.25 DPM
+1.96% DPS
-22.42% DPM


The best spell rotations when having the 2pT10 bonus are the A=0|1, B->Infinite rotations (lower left corner in the table above). They even have higher DPS than Arcane Blast spamming (which has 5788.37 DPS @ 6.68 DPM), so it's also the preferred rotation for burst phases.

The A=4, B->Infinite rotation that is the current 'state of the art' shouldn't be used anymore with the 2pT10 bonus, as it yields marginally lower DPS and way worse DPM compared to the A=0|1, B->Infinite rotations.

Recommended 2pT10 rotation: A=0|1, B->Infinity
Spam Arcane Blast, use Missile Barrage immediately or after the next Arcane Blast cast.

But now much is the DPS boost with the set bonus?
A=0, B->Infinite:
Without set bonus: 5560 DPS @ 21.88 DPM, 254.11 mana/sec
With 2pT10 Bonus: 5977 DPS (+7.50%) @ 21.83 DPM (-0.23%), 273.8 mana/sec (+7.75%),

The 2pT10 bonus here gives a plain +7.5% DPS boost, that's pretty massive!

The A=0, B->Infinite rotation with 2pT10 yields 5.43% more DPS compared to the A=4, B->Infinity rotation without the bonus (5669 DPS @ 16.30 DPM), that's the effective DPS increase as we are also swapping our main spell rotation.

New peak haste cap!

The haste peak is defined by:
  • 1% per 32.79 haste rating on your gear
  • 6% from Talents
  • 5% from Wrath of Air Totem
  • 3% from Swift Retribution or Improved Moonkin Form
  • 20% when Icy Veins is active
  • 30% when Bloodlust or Heroism is active
  • 12% from 2pT10 procs after casting MBarr

The haste peak cap is reached when your spells (Arcane Blast and Missile Barrage + Arcane Missiles, both having a 2.5 sec base cast time) have an effective cast time of 1 sec (subsequent spells can't be cast any faster).

The haste% factors scale multiplicatively, so your haste peak cap now is at:
(2.5 / (1.06*1.05*1.03*1.2*1.3*1.12) - 1) * 3279 = 814 (813.337) haste rating.

Please note that I ignored the effect of Speed Potions and on-proc haste Trinkets; if we take those into account the haste peak cap would be even lower.

Black Magic

Also note that the weapon enchant for Black Magic has been changed in patch 3.3, and can now proc 250 haste for 10 seconds (proc chance: 35%, 30 sec assumend internal cooldown). When you're at 564 haste or above, Enchant Weapon - Mighty Spellpower might still be the better choice though.
For PvP though, Black Magic is godsend!

Mage Tier 10 4-pieces bonus

The 4-pieces bonus is really nice and works like second Arcane Power (and yes, it stacks), giving mages an even higher burst potential. With a 30 sec duration and 3 min cooldown, the average uptime on a fight with infinite duration is 1/6, which is a plain 3% damage boost. The shorter the fight duration, the larger the uptime, when we keep Mirror Images on cooldown. If we assume randomly distributed fight durations between 1 min and 10 min, the average uptime is 22%, which is almost a 4% damage boost. If you use it along with your other cooldowns such as Arcane Power, Icy Veins, Bloodlust/Heroism and Trinkets, the bonus is worth much more.

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