Master of Flame or Spellstorm?

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jerrocko

lordmanshoon wrote: »

I had already developed my playstyle with 7 SS CWs, by time MoF came around. So i only made one of that path for variety. Still bummed that a mage with a such a title doesn't even have the ol' classic 'Fireball' spell. In pvp, just zone in on MoF chanting ha,ha,ha as they stand idle trying to sustain damage...makes one of the more easier kills (better than facing an OP HR or perma-stealthed rogue holding your base). From my pov, mages (player or mob types) always pose a threat to any group, and are my main targets (unless of course i need to toss in some mob cc first). Just like in PnP, mages can swat down armies and the mightiest of foes. Hence, why they are my favorite class to play. ~ Just your average spellcaster

I miss a good old fireball, too. Same as Magic Missile from the old days. On the plus side, Boulder (SofEA) is pretty cool.

jerrocko

c1k4ml3kc3 wrote: »

I've started playing the MoF and it will probably be a Oppressor build with more WIS since I've found that control's been lacking post-MOD4.

As a MoF I've noticed that a slightly slower/defensive play will come in handy, which differs greatly from the extremely active play I've had with a SS CW.
Since MoF can't do as much damage as SS CW, the oppressor MoF is hands-down the best combination for control and debuffing.
On MoF I never or rarely have to use shield since I don't have to go close to the mobs, which is a positive side arcane-wise. I have great use from Entangling Force on Spell Mastery which is instant 5 arcane stacks followed by Conduit of Ice which somehow procs crits more often on at-wills.

I have to say that I've seen some very arrogant MoFs around, too, who wanted to completely play damage builds yet not utilizing any critical damage increase. But I think that the ratio on the servers is 80% SS CW (out of whom 50% are still living in MOD2 and wear 2+2 armor sets) - 20 % MoF (and usually not very good ones ).
I fathom that there're not many good CW players out there and the reason why they fail is their own arrogance and the unwillingness to adopt/change depending upon the situation.

I agree. I like Crit Action builds to build up my AP for the daily spells. Lately, I've been getting mobbed in some party queues, I don't know if it's the party or the queue event that's hurting me. Some of the mobs are just on me SO FAST and I can't get away, even with Shield on, esp. on those ones where you have to enter an area, and if you die, you must wait for everyone else to die too or you just stand there. So I'm trying to readjust my power uses to accommodate such situations, but if I get mobbed, I'm pretty much going to die. The Aberrant queue is the worst, the opening shoots me into red-damage zones upon entering, and I die right away. Very frustrating.

jerrocko

chemboy613 wrote: »

I don't see why this topic results in so much flaming. Both specs play great? I don't get the anger.

Just because I play MoF doesn't mean I this SS is silly or stupid.

Agreed. MY OP was just a simple question, not meant to be a battle-ground of flame and rudeness. They're both fun, and that's ALL that this should be about: fun. Not insults or attacks or obnoxiousness.

c1k4ml3kc3

jerrocko wrote: »

I agree. I like Crit Action builds to build up my AP for the daily spells. Lately, I've been getting mobbed in some party queues, I don't know if it's the party or the queue event that's hurting me. Some of the mobs are just on me SO FAST and I can't get away, even with Shield on, esp. on those ones where you have to enter an area, and if you die, you must wait for everyone else to die too or you just stand there. So I'm trying to readjust my power uses to accommodate such situations, but if I get mobbed, I'm pretty much going to die. The Aberrant queue is the worst, the opening shoots me into red-damage zones upon entering, and I die right away. Very frustrating.

Which is the reason why I go with the Entangling Force, CoI, Steal Time, Icy Terrain and another spell of choice depending upon the situation. It really hurts MoF too much to wear a shield which is understandable why there're not many Oppressor MoF's around. People just go with def/hp on MoF and build a lot of critical, but party-wise and mechanic-wise I think that the daily from MoF is at least 300 x better than Arcane Singularity. It takes the same amount of enemies, debuff applied, easely dropped on someone's Icy Terrain (say, drop Icy Terrain on spell mastery, prepare the execution and build-up the lack of Arcane stacks by using artifact weapon).
If only Steal Time would allow more than one arcane stack. . .

I've been thinking that with MoF I can play Both oppressor and Thaum, carrying around two sets of armor (with my SS CW I carry around 4 sets of armor and all three artifact weapons) and even two artifact weapons (PvP excluded). Oppressor MoF would be a great asset to any team, but as usual only those who really know what they're doing with the class can play it flawlessly. WIS+CHA, or pure WIS can be applied in the case.

chemboy613

Truly prefer conduit on tab since the entangle need. Extra chill and great damage works well for me. I think entangle on tab has too low of a target cap to be effective in my play style.

It's my opinion that critical power is grossly underrated. It is 10% of my ap gain and I have a ton of things boosting my ap. for a less geared player it could be as high as 20%, which is huge!

miaskydust

Did anyone else notice a considerable decrease in dmg for SS CW (thaum) in mod 5? Also the defense seems to be off .I agrro more and fall a lot more often. I know now that arcane mastery is only activated by encounters (which i really don't like ) but can it make such a huge difference?

beatannier

I play Master of Flame from the beggining.
One of the first words I heard joining the guild was "Respec".

I made many respecs. I was both renegade and thaumaturge, with many feats, powers, sets and boons combinations.
But I never changed my path. Even if I make a few times less output damage, I have insane control and debuffs in comparation to SS.
I rather to make an instance easy thanks to control and debuffs than be at the top of a table with single damage.

About daily
I used to Arcane Singularity and Oppressive Force as everybody was using this, but since module 4 I use Furious Immolation only as with the Twisting Immolation it groups all add in one place, then dazes them for a really long both for mobs and a group of players in PvP (yes, I use it often than Ice Knife in PvP). Seconds daily, I use Ice Knife if I left with a single mob / boss / player / Valindra`s hand.

About encounters
For common PvE and quests (I will mainly not talk about PvP / Bosses due to post reability):

1. Shard of the Endless Avalanche — Control + Damage (mainly control). Usually used right before Furious Immolation, so after throwing adds away by explosion, they are grouped again by a daily.
2. Steal Time — Really nice damage and a really nice control. After module 4, its damage is even higher, so its nice not to miss any cast.
3. Icy Terrain — DoTs keeps all debuffs and makes my glyphs to proc often. Also freezes everybody in a few seconds thanks to the Chill stacks. It is yet another control that complements Steal Time, Shard of the Endless Avalanche and Furious Immolation. But the most important, It turns Smolder into Rimefire Smolder.
4. Tabbed Fanning the Flame — When used correctly, will affect most (or often all) mobs, making it the 4th AoE spell, that procs like crazy and provides all possible debuffs constantly refreshed by Chill and… self. Also, thrown on boss or bigger mob makes every adds to cause him an additional fire damage.

About class features (passives)

1. Combustive Action — Lets you use your dailies like encounters thanks to insane Action Point Gain. Also, increases all fire and smolder damage by 18%.
2. Swath of Destruction — Insane damage boost and befull keeper. Can you beat +15% damage for everybody and +45% from Smolder in a single passive?

About At–Wills

1. Magic Missile — You heard about glyphs, right? You remember the opponent should have and insane debuffs already, right? Finally, you heard that all cry about CWs OP on PvP thanks to their At-Wills spam? If not, try Magic Missile rotation (1+1+2) on a single opponent debuffed by Rimefire Smolder and with Greater Red Dragon Enchantment or Greater Black Dragon Enchantment. No other At-Will can beat it.
2. Scorching Burst — An object of dreams for SS. AoE At–Will. Mmmph… Use it whenever you run on CDs on encounters / miss Action points to Daily and there are still many adds around. Also, togheter with Arcane Burst, allows to really fast get a 5 stacks of Arcane Mastery (granting self +15% damage) by non–incantated casts on a single target (check it on PvP right after Entangling Force).

About feats
While Heroic feats are a subject of many my personal changes, I will skip them here.
About all the rest, after many respecs I found myself the Renegade to be the most powerful path.
And after recently changes got out of any considerations about changing Renegade to other path.

1. Renegade
   1. Critical Power — Cast dailies even faster (who doesn`t get a single crit once every 10 seconds?) It it a 50% Action Points every minute!
   2. Arcane Burst — Like told above, a nice trick to get a personal +15% damage buff really fast.
   3. Nightmare wizardy — Provides a Combat Advantage for the whole team most of the time. While Charisma is CW secondary stat and every point over 10 provides +1% damage, It is really a nice buff for the whole party.
   4. Phantasmal Destruction — Absolutelly complementing Nightmare wizardy feat, providing +15% Critical severity. Two in one! More damage, more crit and it everything keeps refreshing thanks to the perma ticking Smolder.
   5. Chaos Magic — We provide one of these 3 insane buffs to the whole party / raid / even instance (especially while Heroic Encounters):
      1. +30% damage + 10% LS. The "basic". For the whole team. For free. 1/3rd the time. Beat it!
      2. +30% AP & +30% Critical chance — Maybe it`s not an Eye of the Storm, but +30% to propably basic second as much given to the whole team? Try to get called useless.
      3. +250% weapon damage as HP every half second — You will ofter beat lower geared cleric in overall heal in instances / skirmishes, trust me. Also, try to get killed while this buff on PvP. Only one–hits can kill you while this buff is active with a T2+ weapon.
2. Oppresor
   1. Bitter cold — +5% damage for everybody thanks to Icy Terrain, yeah, just another complementing feats that affects almost every mobs and every player.
   2. Twisting Immolation — The best (imo) MoF paragon path`s feat. I told about it above a few times, but will talk it again: Really nice control boost to the daily we use like a encounter. worth it more than any Thaumaturge feat. You know; you can cast it whenever you want and always cause to daze the enemies for a long, all the time letting all the DoT let it its job and making you able to perma control adds by daily & steal time & shard & freeze. Don`t remember you keep grouping mobs so melee parties like GWF can maximize their DPS. All thanks to the MoF what SS can`t do at all.

About Gear and Glyphs
I assume you have a gear with overload slots. If not, look at these bonuses!
Every set with overload slots it useful (Both Black ice gears (empowered to T3) and Draconic +10% recharge speed aura set).

Why not the new PvP Draconic set?
See my Draconic Templar Set vs Black Ice Set topic.

I also strongly recomment to always equip two enchantments of the same type so they cover most of the time, not stacking unneccessary, providing the most damage bonuses togheter with boost you can assume semi–permanents.

1. Greater red dragon enchantment — +800 AP boost and a +600 +buffs (remember you get fire buffs too?) every tick! (Not attack, tick!) — Who ticks often than MoF?
2. Greater black dragon enchantment — +800 CS boost + AOE 450 damage every seconds to every add (isn`t Smolder cool?)
3. Corrupted Black Ice Enchantment — +800 Power boost + 20% Action points every minute. Ready to Daily even often?

About the perks
Besides all consumables, consider:

1. Doohickey — Both on PvP and PvP usable; 30s CD a fair, AoE attack that scales with your power and can crit! Unfortunatelly, a lower range that your common used spells, but can often makes about 15k damage to a group of adds or takes about a half of life from the opponent at PvP. Treat it as a 5th encounter. With a nice stacked power, and closely grouped adds it can be as useful as other encounters.
2. Poking Stick — PvP only; An additional DPS boost vs melee ranged situations (like GWF or GF fights) with a fairy low, 12s CD. It makes more damage than glyphed and reinforced At–Will shot and treat it as additional, 6th encounter used in specific, rarely occuring situations. Also a really good to finish off an opponent who failed but has active Soulforged enchantment. Besides the visual effect, it is a much better way to finish off opponent that a few At–Will as it takes more DPS and less time, reducing a chance when opponent who woke up by Soulforged will control us before we will finish him off.

chemboy613

beatannier wrote: »

I play Master of Flame from the beggining.
One of the first words I heard joining the guild was "Respec".

I made many respecs. I was both renegade and thaumaturge, with many feats, powers, sets and boons combinations.
But I never changed my path. Even if I make a few times less output damage, I have insane control and debuffs in comparation to SS.
I rather to make an instance easy thanks to control and debuffs than be at the top of a table with single damage.

About daily
I used to Arcane Singularity and Oppressive Force as everybody was using this, but since module 4 I use Furious Immolation only as with the Twisting Immolation it groups all add in one place, then dazes them for a really long both for mobs and a group of players in PvP (yes, I use it often than Ice Knife in PvP). Seconds daily, I use Ice Knife if I left with a single mob / boss / player / Valindra`s hand.

About encounters
For common PvE and quests (I will mainly not talk about PvP / Bosses due to post reability):

1. Shard of the Endless Avalanche — Control + Damage (mainly control). Usually used right before Furious Immolation, so after throwing adds away by explosion, they are grouped again by a daily.
2. Steal Time — Really nice damage and a really nice control. After module 4, its damage is even higher, so its nice not to miss any cast.
3. Icy Terrain — DoTs keeps all debuffs and makes my glyphs to proc often. Also freezes everybody in a few seconds thanks to the Chill stacks. It is yet another control that complements Steal Time, Shard of the Endless Avalanche and Furious Immolation. But the most important, It turns Smolder into Rimefire Smolder.
4. Tabbed Fanning the Flame — When used correctly, will affect most (or often all) mobs, making it the 4th AoE spell, that procs like crazy and provides all possible debuffs constantly refreshed by Chill and… self. Also, thrown on boss or bigger mob makes every adds to cause him an additional fire damage.

About class features (passives)

1. Combustive Action — Lets you use your dailies like encounters thanks to insane Action Point Gain. Also, increases all fire and smolder damage by 18%.
2. Swath of Destruction — Insane damage boost and befull keeper. Can you beat +15% damage for everybody and +45% from Smolder in a single passive?

About At–Wills
Magic Missile — You heard about glyphs, right? You remember the opponent should have and insane debuffs already, right? Finally, you heard that all cry about CWs OP on PvP thanks to their At-Wills spam? If not, try Magic Missile rotation (1+1+2) on a single opponent debuffed by Rimefire Smolder and with Greater Red Dragon Enchantment or Greater Black Dragon Enchantment. No other At-Will can beat it.
Scorching Burst — An object of dreams for SS. AoE At–Will. Mmmph… Use it whenever you run on CDs on encounters / miss Action points to Daily and there are still many adds around. Also, togheter with Arcane Burst, allows to really fast get a 5 stacks of Arcane Mastery (granting self +15% damage) by non–incantated casts on a single target (check it on PvP right after Entangling Force).

About feats
While Heroic feats are a subject of many my personal changes, I will skip them here.
About all the rest, after many respecs I found myself the Renegade to be the most powerful path.
And after recently changes got out of any considerations about changing Renegade to other path.

1. Renegade
   1. Critical Power — Cast dailies even faster (who doesn`t get a single crit once every 10 seconds?) It it a 50% Action Points every minute!
   2. Arcane Burst — Like told above, a nice trick to get a personal +15% damage buff really fast.
   3. Nightmare wizardy — Provides a Combat Advantage for the whole team most of the time. While Charisma is CW secondary stat and every point over 10 provides +1% damage, It is really a nice buff for the whole party.
   4. Phantasmal Destruction — Absolutelly complementing Nightmare wizardy feat, providing +15% Critical severity. Two in one! More damage, more crit and it everything keeps refreshing thanks to the perma ticking Smolder.
   5. Chaos Magic — We provide one of these 3 insane buffs to the whole party / raid / even instance (especially while Heroic Encounters):
      1. +30% damage + 10% LS. The "basic". For the whole team. For free. 1/3rd the time. Beat it!
      2. +30% AP & +30% Critical chance — Maybe it`s not an Eye of the Storm, but +30% to propably basic second as much given to the whole team? Try to get called useless.
      3. +250% weapon damage HP every hal second — You will ofter beat lower geared cleric in overall heal in instances / skirmishes, trust me. Also, try to get killed while this buff on PvP. Only one–hits can occur with a T2+ weapon.
2. Oppresor
   1. Bitter cold — +5% damage for everybody thanks to Icy Terrain, yeah, just another complementing feats that affects almost every mobs and every player.
   2. Twisting Immolation — The best (imo) MoF paragon path`s feat. I told about it above a few times, but will talk it again: Really nice control boost to the daily we use like a encounter. worth it more than any Thaumaturge feat. You know; you can cast it whenever you want and always cause to daze the enemies for a long, all the time letting all the DoT let it its job and making you able to perma control adds by daily & steal time & shard & freeze. Don`t remember you keep grouping mobs so melee parties like GWF can maximize their DPS. All thanks to the MoF what SS can`t do at all.

About Gear and Glyphs
I assume you have a gear with overload slots. If not, look at these bonuses!
Every set with overload slots it useful (Both Black ice gears (empowered to T3) and Draconic +10% recharge speed aura set).

Why not the new PvP Draconic set?
See my Draconic Templar Set vs Black Ice Set topic.

I also strongly recomment to always equip two enchantments of the same type so they cover most of the time, not stacking unneccessary, providing the most damage bonuses togheter with boost you can assume semi–permanents.

1. Greater red dragon enchantment — +800 AP boost and a +600 +buffs (remember you get fire buffs too?) every tick! (Not attack, tick!) — Who ticks often than MoF?
2. Greater black dragon enchantment — +800 CS boost + AOE 450 damage every seconds to every add (isn`t Smolder cool?)
3. Corrupted Black Ice Enchantment — +800 Power boost + 20 Action points every minute. Ready to Daily even often?

About the perks
Besides all consumables, consider:

1. Doohickey — Both on PvP and PvP usable; 30s CD a fair, AoE attack that scales with your power and can crit! Unfortunatelly, a lower range that your common used spells, but can often makes about 15k damage to a group of adds or takes about a half of life from the opponent at PvP. Treat it as a 5th encounter. With a nice stacked power, and closely grouped adds it can be as useful as other encounters.
2. Poking Stick — PvP only; An additional DPS boost vs melee ranged situations (like GWF or GF fights) with a fairy low, 12s CD. It makes more damage than glyphed and reinforced At–Will shot and treat it as additional, 6th encounter used in specific, rarely occuring situations. Also a really good to finish off an opponent who failed but has active Soulforged enchantment. Besides the visual effect, it is a much better way to finish off opponent that a few At–Will as it takes more DPS and less time, reducing a chance when opponent who woke up by Soulforged will control us before we will finish him off.

Really interesting.

I understand why people like combustive action, but in a big pull (like CN) I have never see CA work for applying smolder the way Crit Conflag works. I'd love to see if you pull it off, of course.

Interesting spec, honestly Wouldn't mind doing a dungeon together sometime so i can see it.

c1k4ml3kc3

I thought I saw somewhere, like two days ago, a talk about MoF skills which won't be Single Target anymore and actually properly count as AOE. Among them - Smolder and AT-will power?

I could be wrong, though, but I was sure I saw it somewhere here talked nonchalantly in regards to the Focused Wizardry and I thought "wait, if it's not AoE anymore, MoF's might need to respec the important feat now".

Fix my dilemma.

chemboy613

AFAIK, FW benefits smolder.