Sunday, May 13, 2007

What 5v5 Spec for Next Patch?

If you've seen me or talked to me on test, you'll probably find me respeccing between a half dozen WE specs.

I'm still very undecided what I'll play for sure, but I'm looking at one of these:

Maxed out burst bolt dps w/ Imp CS: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=of0VrobZZVVGcobxkmqt

More rounded frost build w/ Imp CS:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=Rf0VrobZZVVGuobxswqz

Generic, rounded 0/17/44:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=kZVgh0bZVVGuobxswqz

MoE style 0/18/43:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=kZVgh00cZVVGIobxswRz

The main differences between all these builds lie in a few choices in frost:
  1. Permafrost - I really love this talent for world pvp and dueling. I used to consider it a joke talent, but 3 seconds of a more severe snare is generally more useful than 50 more damage you'd get from other talents. The question is how much do you get out of this in 5s; I plan on playing a lot of my games with no hunter, thus CoC gets heavier use. If I was on a team where I always played with a hunter, I'd definitely opt out of permafrost.
  2. Piercing Ice - The best DPS frost talent. I always prefer to have this over Empowered Bolt, but in general, my personal preference is to take talents that increase my abilities in ways that gear does not.
  3. Imp CoC - If you don't put 1/3 in at least, there's almost no reason to ever use max rank CoC. If you're fine with using rank 1 CoC all the time, more power to you, I really like having an additional powerful instant. I typically prefer maxing out CoC even though the number of times I use CoC in 5s is pretty limited. The fusion of talents for Cone of Cold is severely underestimated, with Ice Floes, Permafrost, and full Imp CoC, Cone of Cold becomes a very powerful tool.
  4. Winter's Chill - I always opt for 4/5 in any deep frost spec. You really don't need 5/5 to reliably frustrate dispels with Winter's Chill.
  5. Arctic Winds - Really more of a dueling talent still. If you're on a team or battlegroup where you know you'll be often the focus fire talent, this isn't a bad compromise, and probably a better option than Empowered Frostbolt.
  6. Empowered Frostbolt - I'm really not a fan of this talent, but if you find yourself continually able to chain cast, which is pretty common as frost mages are not typically regarded as the highest priority, this helps become more of a threat when left alone.
  7. Ice Floes - Recognize that this talent is solely for the benefit of Cone of Cold. You will almost never get any benefit out of the other cooldown reductions; this is a hugely overrated talent if you don't use CoC heavily.
I'm currently leaning towards a rounded frost side with either Imp CS or MoE. Imp CS is really a lot better than previously with the change to Counterspell. The spell lock is much less important, and using silence more proactively and more frequently can really help maintain sente. (momentum!) As for MoE, Burning Soul is really pretty mediocre when you have Concentration Aura all the time, and even as 0/17/44, you're still hoping to cast frostbolts when you can and not minuscule damage scorches.

As for dueling, the specs with the more balanced frost trees are definitely more powerful. That being said, some of the most challenging matches are Resto Druids, Resto Shamans, and Disc Priests; stronger and longer snares are of no use in these fights while the extra damage might help marginally.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey raddy. just about the Arctic Winds talent:


I did some reading up on wowiki, and did you know it doesn't affect the miss chance on basically any ability that requires mana/rage/energy.

This means all it does is affect the miss chance on WHITE SWINGS.
Auto-attacks, autoshot, pet damage.

That's about it....

What are your thoughts on that?

Anonymous said...

I believe in a Fire/WE build that ignite is a total waste of 5 points, especially without incinerate. You'll be lucky to have a 8% crit rate once you factor in resilience from your opponent. 5 talent points for something that unlikey, and in a secondary school of magic is not good. I put 2 pts in incinerate and put the other 3 back in ice. Now at least I "may" actually get a fire crit but I think hoping for ignite is a bit unrealistic overall to pay off with 5 talent points.

Fisherqoow said...

Available for download nowCrazy Monster Trucker game, Crazy Monster Trucker games were prepared for you in our Truck Games site. Change Avatar No Thanks An off-road racing game featuring monster trucks and. Drive monster trucks, crush cars and do incredible stunts in our monster truck games.|| Y11 has online games to play for free, all games at.

Kristenfiiu said...

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: There are different sizes of mini fridges you can get.One of the most common sizes available is the 4 liter mini refrigerator.Bebe Sounds is a popular brand that makes great quality fridges. On the contrary, some people argued that because cooking microwave oven is faster than the conventional way of cooking, it really can preserve more vitamins.