So I raid now, (best fun ever!), and very often find myself in a group with no mana-support. Also, I switched to dps proc staff, because I am a dps junkie. So, twice during Goro yesterday, I had to take time out (could somewhat fit it in), to Monster Summon/Reclaim back up. Also use the two rods, the AA, and occasionally the spell if it looks that people are getting ready (but I might rehearse throwing in a reclaim, which is fast and better). I ran out of mana once during a boss, but I could have managed that better, so should be avoidable. It is not a problem, I actually find it interesting that mana is a factor again (when I only boxed, I had brd and enc, so I never ran out). But I just wanted to hear what more experienced dps casters/mages says, with regards to this. Do you swap in mana procs, switch back and forth, or something third?
Are you using evo/conj spec augs? Do you have the shawl aug? Are you using Purified Mana Tonics? Are your beastlords MGBing Paragon as often as they can (and not being dumb and saving it for some moment that never comes)? Those are probably the things I'd use before considering losing the staff proc. It's also worth noting that Jeweled Sarnak Focus of the Elemental Deathseeker's proc returns 280 mana while still having the same proc damage as Rod of Ri`zyr (although if you're absolutely min/maxing it's slightly less DPS). I use that on my Wizard, who's in a guild that only has Goro/OT down and has pretty long fight times and I find that it, in conjunction with all the other items/tricks, works decently. I do make sure I have pretty full support on all of my characters, though, so my experience isn't completely comparable. I don't think it's a bad idea to have a bandolier with Tome of Obulous and I guess Tooth or Blade of Caleus or something, but I really don't see a situation where I'd find myself using it in raids. I sometimes like it when I'm solo in group content, since mana is more of an issue there and it also has the benefit of healing (when I solo without a merc) and the de-aggro proc. Any time you're MS + Reclaiming you're losing DPS, so that does suck. I really feel like there should be enough other tools that you shouldn't reach that point barring death. Congrats on raiding btw!
You may get breaks sometimes to recover mana. You'll never get breaks to recover ... dps... whatever that would mean. For Grindmaster R. Grinderson the super basic proletarian group magician, for whom mana procs make the difference between steady fighting and basically not casting spells, then mana procs are the way to go. For ambitious players, it's dps procs all the way.
As a raiding wizard I actually use mana-return procs(Tooth/Heart of narikor-aug+Tome), since we rarely have optimal raid conditions at the moment(I blame soccer and summer-vacation). Wizards gets extra milage out of DD-procs so I know this is not optimal at all, but I still run out of mana waaay too often for my taste. Maybe I will switch back to DD-procs when we get fuller raids/shorter fights... PS. you can get a symp-DD-proc aug for range-slot from the silver-token vendor in brells rest(the mana return aug from UF doesn't work, avoid it).
Thanks, was also looking at those, the problem was to find out how to actually play the boomerang game (I got as far s getting the task).
It sucks as a mage that you're missing out on ADPS support and Gift of Mana procs from an enchanter. I'm not sure your raid make up, but I'm assuming there's not enough enchanters in raid for all caster groups to get one? If possible, getting in a group with an enchanter on raids will help with your mana issues.
Thanks, yes you are right, it is summer vacations, and a lot of people are watching World Cup on TV, so the roster is thinner than usual.
I think it depends on whether you need short term burns or long term damage. Damage procs are better for quick dps, but if you need your mana to stretch then mana proc is better. If you look at how much mana you get off one proc, then figure out how much damage that mana would convert to, I think you will find that it is quite a bit more damage than you would get from a damage proc.
Sancus has a good point about using your bandolier and there's really no one size fits all answer to this. Start out going full DPS and see how each event goes with your particular raid/class makeup and adjust from there. Look at everyone's spell casts and make sure people are using what they're supposed to for mana recovery and try and figure the optimal equipment for each stage of each event. But always have a backup. FYI. Below I'll list my bandolier options for some ideas. I tweak these a lot though so I won't say this is ideal or anything. And kep in mind that I also melee so I try to lineup my melee and spell cast procs on the same resist for the resist based sets. That's why I don't currently use the EoK staff since it's a mix of cold and fire procs. 1. DPS Rod of Ri`zyr Bone Shards of Frozen Marrow Cracked Shard of Frozen Light Ranged Slot with Sodkee's Sympathetic Stone 2. Fire + Small Mana Return / Small Healing Shissar Arcanist's Stylet Living Golem Heart Invested Tome of Obulus Spirit of the Gorgon Ranged Slot with Sodkee's Sympathetic Stone 3. Cold (only actually use this one for oozes in T2.2) Fathomless Staff of Warding Perfect Chillsphere Ranged Slot with Nra`Vruu's Sympathetic Stone 4. Magic + Small Mana Return Jeweled Sarnak Focus of the Elemental Deathseeker Ancient Diamond Spellcharm Tempest Magic Ranged Slot with SaNril's Sympathetic Stone 5. AE Jeweled Hoarded Worker Sledgemallet Exotic Gem Ranged Slot with Sodkee's Sympathetic Stone 6. Good Healing + Decent Mana Return (I don't have a good alternative for Tome atm) Blade of Caleus Strange Triceratop's Horn Invested Tome of Obulus Spirit of the Gorgon Ranged Slot with Teenta's Sympathetic Stone (life tap) Ideally, I might have a 7th if I could gear one more toward lfietaps and one more toward mana procs.
I personally have three weapon set ups for the magician- 1. Primary one with 2hb, three DD procs (one in range) 2. Mana 1h w/PoW DD/mana return aug, and Tome of Obulus 3. Shissar Arcane Stylist w/fire DD aug, and Tome of Obulus (this primarily for raid T2.2 on the skulls, I will melee and cast on skulls to try and squeeze out a couple more bonus procs via melee) The majority of the time is the 2hb. I no longer use the evoc aug either. I found that as I geared up and my mana pool increased, the need for the evoc aug lessened to the point where I no longer need it on raids...
This is an imperfect approximation (including both melee dmg and melee procs): Drusella Sathir in 172s, 6110k @35526sdps -- Sancus 6110k@(35526dps in 172s) Ironically, because pets are so incredibly broken, I did more melee damage than my pet did : Drusella Sathir in 194s -- #3 Puksu (Sancus) 3903k@(21096dps in 185s) That was with a bard playing a number of melee songs, Jeweled Sarnak Focus of the Elemental Deathseeker, NET, and Mana Infusion. I had to manually comb through logs to get a lot of this, so it is somewhat error prone, especially with regards to the weapon proc. It has the same landing message as the spell proc, and in some cases I had a spell and a melee swing occur in the same second. I just split the difference, but that's not the most scientific way to do it. Jeweled Sarnak Focus does have no item proc mod, though, so it'll proc at a lower rate than Rod of Ri`zyr/other 2HB's. This was on my FV Mage; I've since acquired Rod of Ri`zyr on that server too. It's also worth noting that Troubadour's Synergy will add 45k flat damage to the next melee attack or spell, so not all of this is truly additional DPS (since I would've gotten each 45k proc anyways). There's at least one other proc I would like for our group, as well as a few smaller things I'm too lazy to do. Wizards have a higher potential, given they have Fury of the Gods which adds 3.9k dmg to any focusable proc for 4 minutes (making sheer volume key).
It is really good during a burn but does drop off a lot. NET is pretty key though both for the DPS and keeping you alive lol. Tell your enc to stop wasting it on lesser classes with their tiny crit damage mods for spell procs.
