Katokal - Mage

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katokal
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Katokal - Mage

Postby katokal » Mon Jan 04, 2016 6:13 pm

Player information:
- Age & Location: 34 - Wisconsin
- Number of Testicles: 2
- Do you use a blizzard authenticator? If not, why? Yes.
- How long have you played WoW: Since classic beta.
- Endgame experience (What bosses have you killed): In this tier, I've gone 9/13 mythic as of last week.

Character Information:
- Name, & Class: Katokal - Mage
- Link to Battle.net Armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/malganis/Katokal/advanced

- Race & why you chose it:
I chose to be a Blood Elf back in MoP for the extra crit (as fire was so great in SoO), as well as the AoE silence for challenge modes last season. However, I am willing to switch it to Troll as that is better overall for PvE dps. Just haven't had a need to do it thus far due to the lack of motivation of my current raid group to actually try to push any content.

- Professions and why you choose them:
Tailoring and Engineering. For WoD, it doesn't really matter too much if you're not pushing realm-best times for challenge modes. I simply chose these for little helpful things for achievements, mounts, and pets. In Legion, dependent on what becomes finalized for professions, they should be changed accordingly.

- Spec, Dual spec. How often do you play other specs?
My current two specs are arcane and frost, I swap to frost generally for Mannoroth, Mannoroth, and of course for PvP.

- Explain your choice of gear for main & offspecs (include stat priorities and breakpoints):
For my arcane spec, my gear is setup to be sitting around 1900 haste unbuffed before raid, and the remainder is optimized toward mastery. With best-in-slot gear, you can stay around 1300 or 1800-1900 haste and focus primarily on mastery. This entirely depends on which breakpoint you want to hit with raid buffs. Priorities for stats accordingly: Int/SP > Haste (to breakpoint of your choosing) > Mastery = Multi (barely off from each other) > Crit > Vers.

For frost, I haven't gotten enough gear to set up a separate gear profile that would be somewhat respectable, but I do well with what I have. If I were to actually allowed the opportunity to acquire better gear for it, I would set my priorities as follows: Int/SP > Multi >= Crit (to 33% if you've got a hard on for 100% from shatter passive) > Haste > Vers > Mastery.

- Explain your normal rotation and spell/ability priorities:

Preface - Rotation generally depends on what talents/trinkets you're using this tier as a mage.

Generally, you want to get four stacks of Arcane Charge, drop your Prismatic Crystal if you're using it, then "burn" into the crystal until you need to evocate back to 93% mana (usually around 50-55% before hitting Evocation). Then you've hit the conserve phase, where you want to try not to go below 90-93% mana (depending on your haste breakpoint) while casting Arcane Blast. You dump Arcane Missiles to try and keep your 2pc/4pc procs up for maximum damage. However, the use of Arcane Misses though can held until you're around 90-93% mana to keep your four stack of Arcane Charge and still be able to get another 1 or 2 casts of Arcane Blast in when you're done casting Arcane Missiles to bring yourself back down to 90-93% mana before using Arcane Barrage. The basic priority is to keep yourself between 90-100% mana during this "conserve" phase, while prioritizing Arcane Blast, and using Arcane Missiles to keep your procs up if possible, Arcane Barraging to clear your stacks before going below 90-93% mana. Some of this is also dependent on movement and particular abilities that will be happening in whatever encounter you're facing. You would tailor this general approach as necessary for optimal DPS.

For arcane talents I primarily choose whatever is best for the encounter, dependent on the raid strategies employed. Generally this only entails me changing the tier 15 talent from Ice Floes to Evanesce (for Cavitation on Fel Lord), and then changing Tier 75, 90, and 100 talents accordingly. This is all with the idea of maximizing DPS with primarily the Tier 90 talent (Unstable Magic or Supernova [very minimally used with better gear due to proc chances on trinkets from Unstable Magic being better with better gear]); and Tier 100 talents being swapped from Prismatic Crystal and Arcane Orb, again dependent on where the focus of DPS needs to be for burst damage, or for particular strategies.

- Prior guild(s) & your reasons for leaving:
Going back to Vanilla days, raided with High Caliber, server first for Onyxia, Ragnaros, Nefarian, and C'thun. High Caliber decided to take a break and I ended up rerolling Alliance Mage to raid with top alliance guild on the server (Forceful Entry was the name) for Naxxramas. After that, I left to play with some real life friends on a different server for SSC, TK, Gruul, Magtheridon, getting server first end boss kills for each of those raids. Then for Sunwell, we ended up with server first M'uru pre-nerf kill (ultimately soul-crushing), and server first Kil'jaeden. Moving into Wrath, I played with a few friends on Mal'ganis for the re-vamped Naxxramas which ultimately ended before Ulduar. At that time, I apped to Aurora (pre-Vigil / Death and Taxes merger) on Mal'ganis. I raided with Aurora/Vigil for a while during Wrath from Ulduar on. My time ended with them prematurely due to real-life issues that came up and forced me to stop playing WoW for a while. I ended up leaving Vigil in May 2010, taking another break for a bit, then coming back to play in December, joining zZq for three years in early 2011. They were a very progressed 25m when I joined, later they transitioned to a 10m group that raided 3 nights a week for a few hours. I ended up leaving them because of attendance issues with filling raids, and wasting lockouts as a result. After that, I joined Vintage (who have since disbanded or moved on to other guilds) 20/25M guild who raided 3 times a week as well for a few hours, for 10 months of the Siege of Orgrimmar grindfest. In this tier, I have raided with a group of friends from Mal'ganis very casually. They don't take much of any of this seriously, and have not killed Archimonde heroic as a group yet. I have had to pug a lot to get the gear I have, and make some headway on the overall progress I want for my character before Legion. That being said, I dislike not raiding mythics for the best rewards, and that is primarily why I want to leave my current guild for a better raiding environment.

Other Information:
- A Screenshot of your character's UI (THIS NEEDS TO BE A SS IN A RAID):
http://i.imgur.com/TtuDyPD.jpg Not posting the full image here as to not bloat the screen, but this is from a pug in late December for Heroic Archimonde.

- Logs from warcraftlogs or worldoflogs:
This link is from <Serious Casual> on Mal'ganis, the primary group I've raided with for BRF and HFC. https://www.warcraftlogs.com/guilds/272/
This next link is for the guild I trialed with for the week of Dec 27 through Jan 2, for my 9/13 mythic progress.

Unfortunately, they seem to have only recorded the second night, which has me on fights for Socrethar, Fel Lord, and Gorefiend for Mythic kills. I was not a part of the heroic kills for those logs. https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/DLJFQnZ8cC1bT6AV#fight=1

- Why Simple Math? How did you find us? Is there anyone you know in Simple Math?
I found you guys from a friend and knew of you from Wowprogress lurking. Also, I have a tendency to use the phrase: "... it's just simple math..." at work some days.

- What kind of computer do you use? CPU/Memory/Video Card? Typical FPS during a 25-man raid?
Running an i7 4790k slightly OC'd to 4.4GHz, 16gigs or DDR3 G.Skill PC3-10700 (2400MHz), MSi GeForce GTX 980 OC. Typical FPS is over 100. (in before missed opportunity to say "over 9000.")

- Run an internet speed test against New York at speedtest.net and pingtest.net. Link the results below.
Speedtest - http://i.imgur.com/jn9rLE6.jpg
Pingtest - http://i.imgur.com/wlHd3pu.jpg

- Finally, we ask that you draw us a picture using MS Paint (Windows) or Paintbrush (OSX). Link it below.
Kappa - Kind of looks like Bob Hope in his younger years, end result? I suck at paint.
http://i.imgur.com/sLljZ5d.jpg

- Closing Remarks
I just want to say thanks to Storm for taking some time with me late last night to talk about your guild, recruitment, and setting the right foot forward for making this application. Also, thank you for taking the time to read this as I'm sure a lot of it is TL;DR for most people. Regardless, I appreciate the time, and hope you all are having a good day when you read this.
"From Light comes Darkness and from Darkness comes Light."

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Xiun
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Re: Katokal - Mage

Postby Xiun » Tue Jan 05, 2016 1:28 pm

Hey katokal! I'm one of the mages here in SM and I have some questions.

- Why mastery gems and enchants? You say break point of your choosing, what what are those breakpoints? What do they mean? The only break point I'm aware of you're currently not at, and haste is still good beyond that.
- I'm assuming your frost spec is pvp currently? What glyphs do you use while raiding?
- Why do you use frost for only one fight? It's a great spec to use on more than just mannoroth (which can actually go both frost and arcane). Are there any mythic fights you can see going frost on? If not why?
- I know frost is a piss easy spec to play, but mind giving a quick and dirty rotation for it with 4-p and trinket?
- Please explain what you do with PoF as arcane.

Something to note - You do not need a new gear set for frost - a full arcane gear set works great with frost still. You are also incorrect on gearing for a crit cap - it's not needed and you'll get plenty of crit passively from your gear and isn't something you need to work for.

Don't have time to really go over logs ATM but I'll take a look when I can. Thanks for taking an interest in the guild!!!
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katokal
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Re: Katokal - Mage

Postby katokal » Tue Jan 05, 2016 1:42 pm

Just noting that I've seen your reply, at work right now. Will give response when I get home.
"From Light comes Darkness and from Darkness comes Light."

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katokal
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Re: Katokal - Mage

Postby katokal » Tue Jan 05, 2016 7:55 pm

Hello Xiun, I appreciate you taking the time to look through my application, I'd be glad to answer your questions.

Xiun wrote:- Why mastery gems and enchants? You say break point of your choosing, what what are those breakpoints? What do they mean? The only break point I'm aware of you're currently not at, and haste is still good beyond that.


I just did that yesterday just to see how it felt with less mastery honestly. I brought my haste down 1,915 because I found myself being right at 93% right before my fifth arcane blast would be cast. Just wanted to see how much I could squeeze in with max mastery gems and enchants. Sorry for the poor timing to satisfy my curiosity! I intended on regemming and enchanting it back to haste last night after messing around with it. I simply forgot to do it before I got tired and logged for the night.

In regards to the breakpoints I spoke of, as you know already, you want to be around 2,100 haste. When using Unstable Magic, that breakpoint can go up to approximately 2,600. In regards to what they mean, the breakpoints come down to being how long we can extend our burn phase (ideally, as long as Arcane Power is active) before having to use evocation (because of how haste affects our mana regeneration). Then in turn, how quickly we will get through our cast of evocation to get back to our normal rotation. It also affects how often our PoF, UGoS, and DSI proc.

Xiun wrote:- I'm assuming your frost spec is pvp currently? What glyphs do you use while raiding?
- Why do you use frost for only one fight? It's a great spec to use on more than just mannoroth (which can actually go both frost and arcane). Are there any mythic fights you can see going frost on? If not why?


Yes, when you went over my profile it was set up for PvP, again, my apologies. I would run Rapid Displacement, Ivy Veins, and Splitting Ice. I generally go frost for Mannoroth and Archimonde (I realized I missed a mistake in my original statement. I meant to say Mannoroth and Archimonde, not just Mannoroth). In terms of Mythic fights I can see using Frost for, I would say Hellfire Assault, Kormrok, Tyrant, Mannoroth, and Archimonde, as mentioned before. I think a case could be made for Xhul'horac due to the two larger adds before getting to the third phase. Then later on in the fight, with some decent RNG with respect to the voidfiends placement and movement, and then with how quickly the fel imps get cleaved into oblivion.

Xiun wrote:- I know frost is a piss easy spec to play, but mind giving a quick and dirty rotation for it with 4-p and trinket?


I don't know if I'd necessarily agree that it's "piss easy" to play, but just entirely different than how arcane plays. Assuming you mean "trinket" as in the mage class trinket, having 4pc, and taking UM, IF, and TV for talents; although you can use PC instead of TV. The difference being that with PC you have to place it well and cleave the hell off of the crystal while you weave your FoF procs. But down to the quick and dirty!

Lead off with frozen orb and use Icy Veins, and you'll want to start weaving FoF procs between frostbolts when you've got 2 or 3 charges. The only thing to worry about here is that you don't want to use FoF procs if you have 4 BF procs, dump at least one, then continue to weave. Do so until you're out of FoF procs, and be sure to not waste the BF procs as well. With this setup you can essentially use waterjet on cooldown (provided that your frozen orb is not also being used at the same time), and maintain the frostbolt and FoF weaving as much as possible, to maximize the class trinket for optimal DPS.

Xiun wrote:- Please explain what you do with PoF as arcane.


To answer this question, it entirely depends on whether or not I'm using Prismatic Crystal, and whether my Mark of Doom proc goes onto my crystal, or onto the primary target. So let's explain both ways.

If I'm not using Prismatic Crystal - Arcane Missiles procs become priority as soon as they're available when Mark of Doom proc is up.

Mark of Doom procs on Prismatic Crystal - use arcane missiles procs no matter what, regardless of how many stacks of arcane charge you have, or whatever your percentage of mana is left.

Mark of Doom procs on primary target (with crystal being up) - you use Arcane Blast on the crystal, and weave your Arcane Missiles procs into the primary target for maximum explosions from the proc to the crystal and back to the primary target.

Xiun wrote:Something to note - You do not need a new gear set for frost - a full arcane gear set works great with frost still. You are also incorrect on gearing for a crit cap - it's not needed and you'll get plenty of crit passively from your gear and isn't something you need to work for.


Just looking at what I listed for stat weights, I have crit and haste reversed, It's meant to read: Int/SP > multi > haste > crit > mastery > versatility. Haste and crit are very close, but not close enough that I would label them "greater than" or "equal to."

My statement about critical strike was if you felt like just going for it (as I said, "if you've got a hard on for it"); I understand it's not something you want to do as multistrike is the top priority for stat weights with the talents I listed above.

Again, thanks for your questions!
"From Light comes Darkness and from Darkness comes Light."

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Stormingire
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Re: Katokal - Mage

Postby Stormingire » Tue Jan 05, 2016 8:29 pm

Would you be able to chat after our raid tonight?

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katokal
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Re: Katokal - Mage

Postby katokal » Tue Jan 05, 2016 8:31 pm

Sure, just send me a message on bnet when you guys are finished!
"From Light comes Darkness and from Darkness comes Light."

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Xiun
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Re: Katokal - Mage

Postby Xiun » Wed Jan 06, 2016 10:41 am

Your points on haste are incorrect - we stack haste to those points because of you 4-p bonus and 2100 haste giving every pet an additional attack (since arthas is melee and scales dif. than the other 3). 2600 is when haste starts to lose it's DPS value, and you go back to mastery. In between there you can start to swap to mastery, obv. Has nothing to do with mana regen (which is just an added bonus).

Xhul is not a frost fight and very heavily favors arcane because of the ST burst you need on void fiends and the 20% burn. Not only that but SN knockup is godly for intterupting adds and PoF AoE is great for the fight on the boss mobs + adds.

Krom is also more of an arcane fight (ST) but frost is OK for it (since f arcane on the pull)

And a fallow up question for clarification - for frost, are you every w/o FoF procs? Do you try and dump them all before orb/WJ?

I logged off last night so IDK if you guys talked.
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katokal
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Re: Katokal - Mage

Postby katokal » Wed Jan 06, 2016 11:44 am

Ah, good call. I remember vaguely reading about that when people were running sims when the 6.2 PTR was up (I think back in June 2015?) and the new tier (now current) was available there. Thanks for reminding me, and as a result I went back and found the post on altered-time.com regarding those specifics. Appreciate the criticism!

Regarding Xhul and Korm, I can understand those points. I have yet to get to Xhul on Mythic, and have only had one kill on Kormrok so far. The more you know!

I do try to weave the procs out before I use orb and WJ if I can. The only time that I've not done that is if I know I have to move for an upcoming part of the encounter, and save a proc or two for movement, while still trying to weave using Ice Floes.

Yes, Storm and I talked last night. If you want to chat as well, I'd be more than happy to come into mumble tonight after I get out of work, or whenever you're around.

Again, appreciate the criticism, notes, and ideas. Always nice to made aware of better ways to refine my play.
"From Light comes Darkness and from Darkness comes Light."

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Xiun
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Re: Katokal - Mage

Postby Xiun » Wed Jan 06, 2016 11:52 am

The thing about frost and FoF procs is that you ALWAYS want to be generating more, using them, and not capping them, all at the same time.

You should never be casting "naked" frostbolts - every frostbolt should have an IL after it, or should be generating ILs (like during waterjet you can just chain cast frostbolt so you get more IL's out of the cast).

It's extremely common (and a good sign) if you have 80%+ up time on the FoF buff. You keep these FoF buffs up by alternating orb and WJ. Obv you'll have points where you have no FoF/can't generate more, but that shouldn't be your goal.

But rly I'm jut nitpicking and frost is shit teir this late in the x-pack and it'll all change in legion lmao. You seem to do you research and have a p good grasp on things atm, just a bit of clearing up needed.

Prob won't be around to chat on mumble this week due to IRL but I like the incentive to chat. GL on the rest of your app
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katokal
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Re: Katokal - Mage

Postby katokal » Wed Jan 06, 2016 12:10 pm

About the FoF procs, ah, I always thought it was a good idea to keep one if you know you have to move coming up in an encounter. But, good to know regardless. I'll be sure to do that when I get the opportunity this week on a few fights. I do try to alternate WJ and orb as much as possible, like you said, there will be a bit of downtime at times, but that's expected.

Nothing wrong with nitpicking, just shows that the expectation is to know as much as possible. To be fair, I would not expect any less of another mage reviewing another mage. I prefer to be nitpicked to be better if it's possible. I wouldn't have volunteered for the examination if I couldn't handle someone coming back at me with finer points to think about. I do appreciate it.

I also appreciate the kind words regarding what I research in my free time. I try to keep things retained, especially when it comes to playing better. Doesn't hurt to be reminded to refresh yourself from time to time though.

Alright, if you can't this week, you can't. No big deal, but add me on battle.net if you want, Katokal#1844, to talk "shop." Thank you!
"From Light comes Darkness and from Darkness comes Light."

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