Nerd Culture Podcast

Burn to Ashes is a Fire Mage talent spec designed around encompassing your enemy in fire until they become dust in the wind.

Click here to see the spec on WoWhead!

The main spells used will be Living Bomb, Combustion, and Pyroblast. However, Pyroblast will mainly only be cast when you are either just starting out a fight, or in the cases of PvP whenever you don’t have an enemy up close. These situations call for Dragon’s Fire, so they can be dazed and allow you to move away from your enemy via Blink (utilizing the Glyph of Momentum, which will help you to move backwards while still facing your enemy).

To further help in survivability (as always mentioned first since I like to protect myself while doing damage), Ice Floes can also help buy some time, allowing you to move around while casting your spells. Also, even though Flameglow doesn’t add much to damage mitigation, it is an effect that is on going in helping to protect your character. Ice Ward and Frost Nova help to also keep enemies away from you, freezing your enemies in place allowing you to move away with Blink, or walk away while casting via Ice Floes. There is also healing available to the Mage (sometimes a much needed attribute) via Glyph of Evocation, which can be activated at anytime with the Invocation talent and also gives a good amount of added mana at the same time along with a 15% added damage buff. Also, whenever things get too hairy for the Mage, Greater Invisibility can get enemies off of your back in a flash, as well as give you a better vantage point over your enemy (in the case of PvP). Also, the Armors Glyph will allow your Molten Armor to withstand more damage (especially in conjunction with Flamglow).

Groups are easier to take down due to Inferno Blast and it’s associate Glyph, which allows the player to spread a Pyroblast, Ignite, or Combustion effect to an additional enemy. However before you begin with taking on a group, there will be some precautions that should be taken first. To begin, I recommend casting an Invocation to gain the damage bonus.  Then use Living Bomb on up to 3 of your targets and follow up with a Pyroblast and a couple of Scorches until you get a critical hit, causing an Ignite effect. Then, once you have your critical hit, cast Inferno Blast (which is an automatic critical hit) allowing for a free and instant cast of Pyroblast. After this, you can continue to cast either Scorches or Fireballs while using Frost Nova, Ice Ward and Dragon’s Fire to keep your enemies off of you while burning them to the ground.

All in all, Burn to ashes is based around the thought of keeping a lot of damage on your enemies while continually bathing them in more fire!

Hail Storm is designed to keep your enemies in the cold, while you shatter them into tiny pieces with barrages of ice and frost. The main purpose for this spec is to keep enemies frozen or chilled at all times to allow for better targeting, damage, and survivability.

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#my\N|kmozR0

This Frost spec should have an easier time with adds and group pulls due to the total of 3 Frost Nova types of attacks, being Frost Nova, Ice Ward, and your Elemental’s Freeze spell. With these, it is far easier to single out a large mob from a group, or hitting them all with Blizzard, Cone of Cold, and/or Frozen Orb.

As for the damage aspect, all of these freezing abilities allow for the use of a more powerful version of Ice Lance (4x normal damage) or Deep Freeze (5 sec stun). Also, due to Fingers of Frost (passive) your Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt, Blizzard, and Frozen Orb all have a chance to make your next Ice Lance or Deep Freeze act as though your enemy was frozen. Invocation will also keep damage up by 25% so long as its used every 40 seconds, easily enough time to dispatch of your foes.

Survivability will be increased not only due to the fact that you are slowing or rooting your enemies, but also due to Ice Barrier and Presence of Mind. The reason why I included Presence of Mind is due to the face that it allows for a split second reaction for a just in case situation. One such situation for me was a point when I had a few adds on me in the Jade Forest, I used Presence of Mind to cast my Frost Bomb on a mob. Yes, it may have only a 1.5 sec cast time, however, when you are near death from having fought several enemies and was interrupted by the current mob from replenishing HP and MP, an instant cast for a few second to an explosion that slows enemies is very handy. Especially when it’s followed by an Ice Barrier then Frost Nova and AoE damage galore!

GLYPHS
For Major Glyphs, I chose 2 for damage, and 1 for utility. Cone of Cold and Ice Lance increases the damage of 2 of the main 2 instant cast damage spells that will be used with Frost spec. Frost Nova is a keystone for this spec, so a reduced cool down time is very beneficial. For Minor Glyphs, Momentum is great for gaining more distance from frozen enemies, so long as you make sure there are no enemies in the area you are going. Loose Mana is not a requirement for this spec, but there may be some moments where gaining mana a little slower could be useful, especially since having Invocation, which reduced mana regeneration by 50%.

ROTATION
Try to make sure Ice Barrier stays up at all times along with your Invocation bonus (if you are level 90 that is). Your go to spell will always be Frostbolt. It places up to 3 stacks of vulnerability for a total of 15% to a few of your main spells, and that of your Water Elemental as well.  After you have your stacks, or if you feel your enemy is too close, feel free to use Freeze from your Elemental, or go for Frost Nova. I recommend keeping Ice Ward for just in case situations. Then when they are covered in ice, you can go for a Deep Freeze, or If that’s on cool down, go straight for a barrage of Ice Lance and Cone of Cold. Also, be sure to use Ice Lance whenever you have a proc from your Fingers of Frost (or Deep Freeze if necessary). As for groups, be sure to put in a Frost Bomb as early as possible. Then try to get the group of enemies clustered together, so you can freeze them with one of your 3 options from above, then Blink and us Frozen Orb and Blizzard.

Welcome to my latest Wow Yoda spec – Fiery Whim! This Fire Mage spec is all about setting as many targets ablaze as possible, and for as long as possible. This is made possible through talents such as Ignite, Blast Wave, Improved Flamestrike, Living Bomb, and Improved Fire Blast. This isn’t just about being an all area of effect talent spec either, as there is plenty of single target incandescence as well, for a well rounded Mage

Fiery Whim can cause tremendous damage over an area. I recommend starting off with using Living Bomb on 3 targets and follow up with a Blast Wave, to slow your enemies and get an additional free Flamestrike in the same spot due to Improved Flamestrike! Then continue with more Flamestrikes until your enemies get in close and hit them with either Frost Nova (for a bonus 300% chance to critically hit from Shatter), then follow with more Flamestrikes and Blastwaves, OR you could use Cone of Cold, which would have a similar effect as your Frost Nova, but with a lesser area and more damage. If you need a quick heal you could use Dragon’s Breath to disorient them all for a few seconds to use your Evocation, which with the Glyph will now heal you for 40% of your health).

Now, for single target incineration the rotation can be somewhat random, but that makes it more fun and unpredictable… just like normal fire!* However, there are a few key notes that will make enemies turn to ashes in no time at all. First, always start with a Pyroblast, if that is you are the person that gets to make the first strike. Follow that with a Fireball and continue with Scorches.  When the enemy gets close, you may chose then to use your Frost Nova, Cone of Cold, or Dragon’s Breath to keep them in one spot and continue to roast them at four hundred degrees Fahrenheit for ten minutes per pound, adding the potatoes at…  sorry, wrong type of post!  I would advise to go with Frost Nova or Cone of Cold since they offer the Shatter bonus, along with your Glyph of Fireball and Glyph of Pyroblast to ensure that your enemy is Ignited for the additional 40% damage over the four seconds. The part where this gets unpredictable, is when Hotstreak and Impact kick in.

Ensure you keep your Cone of Cold and Frost Nova at the ready, as well as Ice Block in case you just recently used your Frost spells but didn’t get the effect you wanted and now have too much unwanted attention. And don’t forget about Improved Counter Spell against enemy casters.

Also, some may wonder why I haven’t included the talents Blazing Speed or Fire Power.  The explosion damage of Fire Power is nice, but it can be difficult to target enemies with it, and for only a 3% increase for 3 talents points, it is pretty useless. As for Blazing Speed, yes it is a very interesting and useful talent, however this spec’s mobility is derived from Cone of Cold and Frost Nova, (with Blink if needed).

All in all, Fiery Whim is ready to burn away any foe that you have to cross your path.

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#oMZff0bkbRRsfocbb:zocRsMmVo

*Disclaimer:  I am in no way saying that playing with fire in real life is an ideal situation and should only be used under adult supervision.