Dear Community,
I am thinking of starting a new character - mage, after playing exclusively a holy priest since 2006. So, I am rather new to the class, though I have considerable experience in both PvP and PvE.
I am think about many specs, but one that interests me the most is the so called "elemental mage" speck. It somewhat reminds me of meteorb sorc in Diablo 2, and I like it for versatility. However, lacking exp wanted to check the mechanics. Elemental mages rely mostly on fire (if we take traditional builds), right? That said, does it make sense to invest into improved frost bolt skill? It is 5 skill points, and I found out that many use just rank 1 spell. However, if you get interrupted, would it make sense to have a fast casting alternative to your fire spells? Like that max rank frostbolt. On the other hand, I guess one can always use longer cast spell for that period.
From the info I gathered, I see elemental mage fighting rather close to the targets, to get the maximum of spells like novas (fire and frost) and cone of cold. In that sense it seems logical to ignore the forstbolt and focus more on buffing cone of cold and frost spell crit (effectively buffing the cone of cold mostly). Is that how this speck traditionally functions?
Here is what I came up with after giving it some thought:
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#oZETMzr0zZbIGbobth
However, many questions here.
In the fire tree, how important is 70% to avoid interruption? My initial thought that it is a must have, since you won't always be fighting 1v1 or away from the melee, if someone is sitting on you, probably using scorches may help. Or does this mage only use instants and freezes in melee and always casts fire based spells with casting time from the range? If that is how this speck is supposed to function, then I guess just 1 point for 35% can do and 8% stronger dot may be an option. Though I still guess it is best to keep the point there.
I took improved fireball and the stun as I guess I will be using firebolt quite often, by that I mean, perhaps 25% of the time, the rest being aoes, slow and engineering supplies (I plan to take engi/enchanting). Does it make sense to invest 5 points for a faster cast? I think 3 seconds is way too long for a pvp cast with that high amount of use.
As for the spells, I figured I will be using scorches to buff the damage, then firebolt when possible, the rest being frost spells that ideally should trigger freeze to get the max effect from shatter and using firebolt on it. Does it work like that btw, the fire spells, do those work with shatter?
In the ice tree I tried to maximize slowing/freezing potential without compromising the build. So, I invested in damage where I could but put the rest into slow/freeze. Do you have any suggestions on improving that part?
Generally, any knowledge about the speck will be highly appreciated! My main question so far is how often does the speck use 2nd school of magic, when gets locked from the primary one. Do mages fake cast, does it make sense? As a priest I did that quite often in arenas and bgs, but I had more time to do that I guess.
Please share your thoughts and if you have any suggestions, please tell me:)
