Mage Spell Choice

Discussion in 'Casters' started by Xarbokk, May 4, 2019.

  1. Xarbokk Elder

    I'm thinking of adding a Mage to my box grp but have no clue what spells to use. Is it pretty much rotate Chaotic Inferno with Spear of Molten Arcronite?
  2. Yendar Augur

    Yes, and the other 105 spear when twincast is up.

    If you have appt of pets up (host of elements) or from your other rooms swarms you can move volley of many above the spears.

    If you’re boxing and just want an easy macro id do chaotic remorseless servanr spear spear volley (volley procs theft on pets)
    Or chaotic remorseless volley spear spear wif you have a lot of pets up
  3. Cicelee Augur

    On standard mobs, I generally do the rotation of Chaotic- RS- 110 spear- Chaotic- 105 Spear. If mana is an issue, or if multiple non mezzed mobs are in camp, I may replace 105 spear with fire rain or magic rain or both rains. If I am using ITC then I do not use Chaotic and instead go RS- Volley (if enough pets are on mob)- 110 Spear- 105 Spear. I am casting Volley whenever (a) there are enough pets on mob to maximize damage, in which case it replaces 110 spear in standard rotation and 110 spear replaces 105 spear) or if Theft of Essence is down, in which case I am casting it to proc Theft. I am summoning a Firebound Orb and clicking every time it refreshes except after RS, where again it is 110 spear or Volley. I am also using Force of Elements AA on refresh.

    On fire resistant mobs, I am casting RS- Shock- Korascian Bolt, with Annihilate (summoned DD) thrown in if applicable and magic rains if I can. Also am using Thaumatize Union for burn situations when using magic spells only, not fire.

    If you just want to do a box thing or make it as simple as you need to, I would just go Chaotic- RS- 110 Spear- Chaotic- 105 Spear and cast Volley to proc Theft and refresh it when Theft fades. Hope all of this helps.
  4. IblisTheMage Augur

    Good advice above. I would add Orb as well.

    What is in your group already?
  5. Daedly Augur

    On my mage box, with the exception of an assist and a burn macro , I run an actual multibind with no macros. When looking over DD information from parses, I had removed volley dude to it's low avg damage per hit. However, losing Theft took more than 10k DPS away from my pets. The increase in damage from DD by removing volley wasn't enough to offset the loss I was seeing on the pets. So I put it back in.

    That was before I got into the %base damage per spell AA's though. I also have an enchanter pet and SK pet and usually pulling multiple at a time. So mage RS has a chance to roll directly into the next mob where I at times have 2 RS pets up at once. With all of that, my Volley has been averaging about 210k per hit. Less than both Spears, but not too far away from chaotic.

    Maybe things will be different for you though.
    IblisTheMage and Brohg like this.
  6. IblisTheMage Augur

    Also, Of Many is cheap and fast. I choose toons that have pets and swarm pets, and try to drive patterns that increase number of pets on mobs.

    Bards are good at this, with 2 AA abillities for swarm pets.

    With ISB, I run all but the bard on multibinds, with main mage AA swarm on Engage, and a Gina counting when the other toons should swarm.
  7. Tucoh Augur

    Skewert likes this.
  8. IblisTheMage Augur

  9. IblisTheMage Augur

    I had to spell Lord Bob's real name....

    Not THAT easy :p
  10. Time zone Journeyman

    Can we just list the spell's used

    Spear (110)
    Spear (105)
    Chaotic
    RS pet
    Fickle
    Bolt
    Volly of many
    Spell twin cast
    Promised
    Gather

    What spells am I missing?
  11. Nylrem Augur

    Need info on your box group... what classes and how many of each, how many primary pets can be on the mob, and how good are you at using their swarm pet AA. This matters A LOT, due to volley.

    Shouldn't need promised at all, unless pet is tanking, and don't have any healer at all in group...

    Don't need bolt or fickle at all.

    If box group, and magician has the mana for it, I'd probably add Dissident Blessing. It increases pet's DPS a good bit, if it doesn't currently have FBO on. Probably not worth it if mana is an issue for your magician though, it's a very mana intensive spell.

    Also, you're spells' cast order is important for a magician, because RS pet procs Conjurer's Synergy (AA in FOCUS tab, max it asap). So, you want to cast a high damage nuke immediately after RS pet. If using Volley and have lots of pets on mob (need 15 pets to max it, want at least 10, for it to be good), then you want to cast it. Otherwise, you want 110 Spear immediately cast after RS pet.

    So, generally, for sustained DPS, want to do Chaotic > RS > 110 spear > 105 spear > Volley if not many pets on mob. Depending on your average number of pets on the mob, will depend on where Volley should be moved up to in the lineup. If have 10 or more pets consistently on mob, then probably want to move Volley right after RS pet.

    Twincast
    Gather Capability
    Thaumatize Pet (level 83, short duration, minor mana regen buff, never been upgraded since level 83)
    Burning Symbiosis (short duration mana regen buff)

    Additional spells used vary a lot, and get swapped out consistently... Here's one list of swapped/possible spells:

    Arcane Distillect (level 85, pet damage aura)
    Grant Wim's armaments (pet weapons)
    Iceflame Keep (pet's prism skin/ice nuke proc)
    Burnout (pet's haste buff)
    Circle of Inferno (damage shield)
    Grant frostbound paradox (5 count ice nuke clicky)
    Summon firebound orb (level 103, 10 count fire nuke clicky)
    Summon insurgent servant (one count clicky earth pet)
    summon insurgent minion (one count clicky fire pet)
    Dissident companion (pet DPS increase and heal)

    ** Firebound orb is only one I personally consistently recast when all 10 clicks consumed. Rest of summoned clickies usually just for named prep & use, for me.
    Skewert and Yendar like this.
  12. Wicked_old Journeyman

    The mage community is always on point and awesome. Thank you all.
  13. Brackson New Member

    Why chaotic before RS?

    I just recently started Mage Druid with my Paladin main. I alt tab, so I use macros on the casters. My spell weave macro is RS > 110 Spear > AA nuke > Chaotic > 105 Spear. I volley when Theft drops.

    I was using Rogue and Shaman but got tired of positioning the rogue, especially with tbl mobs casting knockbacks. So far the Mage doesn't come close to the Rogue but I'm going to keep working on this trio and see what I want to use in ToV.
  14. Cicelee Augur


    Chaotic procs a lot of happy things for a magician, most importantly the chance for twincast. By doing Chaotic- RS- 110 Spear- Chaotic- 105 Spear, you get two chances out of every 5 spells to get twincast and be happy. Whereas the weave you listed only has one chance out of every 4 spells. Not as high of a chance to be happy.

    And at the end of it all, we just want to be happy. Am i right?
    Marquele and IblisTheMage like this.
  15. Brackson New Member



    Thanks, that makes sense. Would you suggest those spells in that order for a 5 line macro? I don't flip back to Mage when TC procs so curious what macro weave would be best in my situation. Also, Druid follows Mage and I have NBW first in her macro for Mage synergy proc. If I move Chaotic to first, I'll need to change Druid's macro as well unless there is another spell I should use for Mage's synergy.
  16. Cicelee Augur

    Chaotic- RS- 110 Spear- Chaotic- 105 Spear

    Depending on lag, you will have anywhere from 0-2 seconds in between the end of that rotation and the start of the next. That is when Force AA or Volley (if necessary) happens. Or just wait for Chaptic to refeesh.
  17. gnomeboss Augur

    i use RS, 110 spear, CI, 105 spear (and if i don't get any refreshes, finish with volley) because i thought i was getting the most bang for my buck on the synergy procs with the 110 spear. can you double dip the spear with a synergy and flames of power? and i was using CI third cause i was hoping it would refresh RS so i could repeat the synergy fishing.

    now, for the record, i know absolutely nothing about mage and i'm saying anyone is wrong for their rotation and certainly i'm not saying i'm right for mine. =p not even a tiny bit. noob mage here! i'd really just like to understand the math better of leading with CI. i work really hard at not using RS when twincast (of any kind) is up and i stopped using my orb during improved twincast, synergy, or any enc goodies because i swear to cazic i saw it eat a counter once.

    but now that CI has been buffed, and i see from this thread that people who actually know how to play mages are using it first anyway, i'd just like some smart talking about why CI first is ideal.

    just guessing here, but is it just because the twincast buff from CI is going to last long enough to get a synergy proc from RS so you're still getting a buffed 110 spear?

    what about during twincast from the spell? do you adjust your rotation there? aren't the buff from the proc twincast and twincast the spell the same duration? so that leads me to believe that in a perfect world, you cast CI, see if TC procs, if not, cast your TC spell, and go from there. i'm not in game, just going off of what i recall as far as duration, so pls correct me if i'm wrong.

    and improved twincast is straight chain spear, spear, CI based on their base dmg? or 110 spear, CI, 105 spear and hope CI refreshes 110 spear?

    i guess i'm confused as to how the weigh the benefits of twincast vs synergy procs.

    and i never have 10 pets so volley is just relegated to meh status. but even with 10 pets, if i'm reading the spell parser correctly, it's still less base damage than CI and both spears, so unless i really want that theft buff, it's to the back of the bind for theft.

    wtb your insight.
  18. Tucoh Augur

    For posterity here's a breakdown of what I'm doing with my mage group, a lot of it is specific to having three plus mages in the group.