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The 35 SC / 31 Pyro build.
The Stormcaller Synergy Crystal does best with this spec.
This is very close to the top AoE dps spec, while also being very competitive when it comes to single target dps. It can even be prefered when it comes to pure single target fights due to the mobile and easy single target rotation - and with the Forked Lightning changed to hitting 8 targets instead of 4 now, this spec will do even better.
It's very mana heavy when AoE'ing of course, as all AoE specs, but it doesn't have any mana regen ability, so it does require Heroic Mana Tonics or your own personal Archon
Self buffs:
- Glyphs of Power
- Fire Armor
- Flaring Intellect
As for the single target rotation:
- Searing Vitality + 5x Pillaging Stone (1xSV + 5xPS initially, as all other mage specs more or less)
- Raging Storm / Thunderbolt - only cast RS in the beginning of every fight to apply the 3 stacks of electrified, then use TB for the rest of the fight to refresh them.
- Ice Shear (IS)
- Flame Bolt
- Icicle - On Storm Shard procs (procs can be used on the boss or a priority target while AoE'ing as well)
- *Hailstorm (HS) - Only include HS if certain of having 30+ seconds without AoE'ing as it has a 30s cooldown.
- Cloudburst (CB) – Spam CB until the electrified stacks are 2-4 seconds from falling off. Use an occasional Lightning Field instead of a CB to proc Storm Shard every 10s and also whenever Thunderbolt doesn't crit and proc the SC synergy crystals 20s +75 SP buff from your Air spells crits.
If only ST dps'ing use Static Flux mostly with Icicle and CB, and use Static Discharge. And as Bluedot put it: "This build also reaches its maximum DPS relatively quickly, making it good for target switching fights.", which means it might be the best option for a fight like Zilas, both because of the occasional AoE, the target switching and the possibility of both Flicker and Ride the Wind (if you choose to spec that one, it's the entirely optional one in this spec currently).
There's the possibility of the usual notactive charge macros for Icicle and Cloudburst:
- #show Icicle
suppressmacrofailures
cast [notactive] Static Flux
cast Icicle - #show Cloudburst
suppressmacrofailures
cast [notactive] Static Flux
cast Cloudburst
As for the AoE rotation it gets slightly harder. This is the '3 targets version':
- Lightning Storm - only cast LS initially to build 3 stacks of electrified. Cancel it after three tics.
- Hailstorm (HS)
- Lightning Field (LF)
- 2x Forked Lightning (FL)
- Lightning Field
- 2x Forked Lightning
- Arctic Blast (AB)
- *Icicle / Ice Shear - Icicle on Storm Shard proc or IS to refresh Hypothermia on the boss/priority target if possible (mainly to avoid AB landing after the no. 9 LF and then hitting with less than the three Electrified stacks on the targets)
- Lightning Field
- 2x Forked Lightning
- Lightning Field
- 2x Forked Lightning - jump to 2 and rinse and repeat
The essence being 2xFL + LF for 3 targets. This part changes according to number of targets though, as Lightning Field spreads back and forth between all and every single target, meaning that it will strip the last stack of electrified if there's 4 or more mobs. In that case we'll have to use an additional FL to build all three stacks again every time. So 4+ targets equals 3xFL + LF.
Whereas only 2 targets will still only require 2xFL (after reaching the initial 3 stacks!), but leaves us the possibility to up our dps by casting an additional LF instead. So 2 targets would equal 2xFL + 2xLF, but as each spell does more damage with each stack of electrified on the mobs it's better to do it as a 1x FL + 1x LF, also to be more certain to keep stacks running at all times. This is very essential to max. the dps, especially on fights like Zamira where there's two targets exactly for a huge part of the fight.
Hailstorm and Arctic Blast are essential for the Hypothermia effect, so it's about making sure to use one of these every time Hypothermia is about to fall off - but ideally only ever when there's 3 stacks of electrified on the target.. They're both most useful on 3 or more targets, and on a fight like Zamira they're needed for the tome phases with all the small adds, so would most likely be better not used on the 2-target phase (mostly just one add + Zamira) as they both have cooldown.
Static Flux is most important to use along with every HS, AB, Lightning Field and possibly Lightning Storm as well if there's charge in the beginning of the AoE part of the fight. These can be macro'd as well for personal preference like the rest of the [notactive] macros, but I prefer doing it manually for the AoE's due to a bit more lag in those fights.
I'd recommend starting using Heroic Mana Tonics on every cooldown at about ~75% mana.
The best 10+ target rotation would be something like Lightning Storm, Hailstorm, Arctic Blast, Flash Freeze (as FF is instant cast it's always a good filler for movement while AoE'ing) and then Lightning Field - all depending on how long the 10+ mobs are alive. After that the normal 4+ target rotation, starting with 3xFL + 1xLF as everything else is on cooldown. Using Flame Bolt just prior to a big burst phase like that is a dps gain as well.
But as long as there's exactly 8 or less mobs the normal rotation is the best as FL now hits 8 targets instead of a max. of 4.
Watertouched Soulstone is also a dps gain (thanks to lgw for that info, as I haven't got a separate essence Sigil for that myself).
Notes:
- For optimising the AoE rotation Hailstorm has to be cast on cooldown, but AB only every 30s as well (thus not on CD which is only 20s), to keep the 15s Hypothermia debuff on the mobs.
- One point can be removed from Burning Bright as well and put in the SC tree resulting in a bit less damage from Flame Bolt, but a tiny bit more from the water-based spells if prefered.
- Static Discharge is a group buff CD, so you would either want two mages in one group using them after one another, or spreading your mages out into different groups for specific bursts. SD is a 1 min. buff with a 2 min. cooldown.
Enjoy!
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