Please breakdown "Rolling Ignites"

[meddlingmage 3]

So I have very limited knowledge on "Ignite" I know its a mage ability or passive correct? I know I should be able to "look it up" but here at work virtually ALL WoW databases (vanilla wowdb, wowpedia, etc) are blocked behind a work firewall (deemed as "gaming related" content). So I was wanting a breakdown of what exactly Ignite is, more specifically when people state "rolling ignites" is it a passive or an ability you need to cast?

 

My understanding is that it effects aggro potentially causing problems or...? Also, when does one switch over to a fire build in 1.12 raids? Don't you level up as frost (w/a bit of arcane mixed in) and then switch to fire only after a few tiers of raids etc?

 

I thank you in advance.

[gotmilk0112 10]

IIRC they're talking about Ignite damage stacking instead of overwriting.

 

Like when you get two crits in a row, the second Ignite would add to the first Ignite's damage, instead of overwriting it (and thus losing damage from it)

 

Not entirely sure of all the terminology, but I think that is what "rolling ignites" means.

[killerduki 54]

https://forum.elysium-project.org/index.php?showtopic=22298

 

Here is full explanation of how it suppose to work with evidence from 2006 Video

 

/Kind regards Killerduki

[cryofsorrow 5]

10/10 explanation, Duki.

Here are some readings about Ignite:
http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Ignite_(old) (make sure you copy the "_(old)" part too, for some reason it's not automatically added to the hyperlink)
http://www.wow-one.com/forum/topic/88471-how-does-ignite-actually-work/

Edited November 22, 2016 by cryofsorrow

[Undertanker 88]

To go a bit deeper into your other questions about this since Killer already explained how it is supposed to work "first 5 crits".

 

It is not something that needs to be cast.  It is a talent that is passive to the crits your fire damage spells do.

 

All mages in raid would try to get their big crits off with trinkets and what not at the start of the fight.  They typically then switch to scorch spamming to keep the ignite from falling off, as they only need to do a fire spell crit to reset the timer on it.  These lesser crits wouldn't affect the ticking damage already on.

 

In regards to threat,  hell yes this can be an issue.   There needs to be communication between the mages in raid to keep things under control.   Which ever mage gets the first crit to start the ignite debuff on the boss, will get all the subsequent ignite ticking damage aggro, along with their own cast, this is a lot of threat per second.   To counter this, you can do 1 of 2 things,   the first is around 65% of boss HP is normally when the ignites aggro starts getting out of hand.  Mage class leader or raid leader calls for mages to stop fire damage.   They can either take this time to use evocation for a few seconds or pop off a couple frost spells.  After a few seconds all the other mages except the mage who initiated the first ignite begins casting fire spells again, the high aggro mage continues with frost spells until he sees one of the other mages gets an ignite going and then he can resume fire spells as well.   1 reset should be good enough on a pure dps race.  In Naxx, boss mechanics will cause this to fall off more often than not, a couple bosses you may need to call for a reset, but shouldn't be too bad.

 

For leveling, some will say fire, but IMO just go pure frost.  So much survival and the Shatter talent is OP since you don't have crit gear while leveling.  Make use of rank 1 frost bolt during world pvp, is epic when they get frozen from that spell (0.5 second cast) and then hit them with a big frost bolt (+50% crit), then nova, big frost bolt + cone of cold (+50% crit), use Cold snap and repeat nova frost bolt, Cone of cold.   Then blink out if by some way of god somebody lived through that.

 

 

For raiding, the mix between arcane and frost will come into play.

 

Before AQ-40:

 

You'll want either a mage with 100% raid attendance or 2 mages running either:

10/0/41 21/0/30  both get the Winter's Chill debuff to give all mages 10% more chance to crit with frost spells.   The first one includes improved blizzard which makes farming easier, and certain mechanics like phase 1 of Nefarian really easy.   Also a lot of 20 man trash and BWL goblin backs easier as well. You get shatter for more burst damage and pvp/farming.  The second of the two is more focused on raid damage going deeper into arcane for Presence of Mind for an instant cast frost bolt to add to your rotation.

 

The rest of the frost mages will want to spec: 31/0/20 this takes you all the way down arcane for Arcane Power for a dps cooldown and still picks up the direct increase to damage frost abilities.

 

When AQ-20/40 is out, all mages will want to be Fire and work together on rolling ignites as explained above.