Ten Random Little 4DPS Mage Stuff

Pretty obvious to some but:

1. Shadow reflector is a decent way of defending your frostbolt casts to guarantee shatter combos especially when you know that the opposing lock likes to defend you. A lot of people would say to never waste a trinket slot on something like this, but it is actually pretty good especially against lock heavy 4DPS opponents. (like the double lock/priest/rogue style)
   
2. Generally, a target below 75% should be shattered if its up, otherwise hard cast and save nova for next cast. You certainly won't do 75% even with a double crit and a fireblast, but your goal is not always to kill targets but to force defensive play and healing.
3. This is going to sound a bit scrubby, but LOOK AROUND while hard casting. Even with heroism or lust, you're not kiting, so you should be surveying and planning your next few moves. Generally, casting is the best time to think about your next move as you can't really plan ahead anywhere near as well in 5s.
4. Consider using Imp CS as a silence only when casting on targets below 60% when you're about to shatter. Factor a global on bubbling and another 2 seconds on that Holy Light Cast and you have plenty of time for a shatter combo before a heal can land, which is often all you need.
5. Playing 4DPS is not about just dumping your CD into one target and hoping to win. HOWEVER THIS DOES WORK PRETTY WELL EVEN AT THE HIGHEST RATINGS. I think as we get more comfortable, we learn to move damage around a lot, and I see one of the major advantages of a caster-style 4DPS setup as the ability to switch between targets VERY quickly. The advantage to being Water Elemental comes from the frequency you can use shatter combos compared to just a single AP-PoM-Pyro-Fblast.
6. I've said this many times, but you should never be using your pet nova defensively. Sheep and use personal nova to protect your teammates, your pet nova is the entirety of your burst. You should never be trying to manual nova for shatter combos; there are always better things to do than use a personal nova "for damage."
7. You can always check my armory for gear and spec, but for those who don't care THAT much, I favor damage heavy gear with a balanced spec -- I don't run around with Emp Bolt instead of Perma or AW. Perma is extremely strong in 5s, it's the most underrated frost talent imo. You can very often rank 1 bolt while your lock dots at the beginning of games when teams like to poke at each other and often you're getting a good length snare on a target that can't be safely dispelled as combat actually begins. Plus CoC > hamstring. ^^
8. When 4DPS play 4DPS, sente is critical. The team who sets up CC and their first offensive has a huge advantage as neither team is designed to be on the defensive or recover from being on the defensive. That being said, the CC aspect is more potent than damage in 4DPS vs 4DPS, whereas I don't find this to be true against more conventional teams. That is to say, you gain momentum against normal teams by putting out damage and forcing defensive play, but you can momentum against 4DPS teams by getting out the first CC and forcing them to dispel and adjust while setting up your damage.
   
9. After second pet nova, you should be summoning your next pet; it's pretty sad how often I play against 4DPS teams and see mages not snap-second pet till the game is WAY over. Especially when your pet has heroism or lust, he will go OOM fast, 13 bolts per pet generally either way, so might as well get that second pet out early and keep or retake control.
10. Lock+Classic is surprisingly effective against 4DPS caster; the idea is to CC spam to stagnate the damage effort of the 4DPS team and to protect the warrior from too much initial burst. Once a few offensive cooldowns are wasted or opposing healer control is down, the team shifts to the offensive by leaving the lock to CC the pally while the mage and warrior burn down the weakest link on the 4DPS team, which is generally the elemental shammy or shadowpriest. Trying to just zerg damage is not going to win this with any consistency; you need to counter the opposing CC and this can be done by having your shaman use grounding and tremor to protect your lone healer while you control the opposing mage. You should definitely get first pet out before you get into a poly war, but worst case, you waste a few seconds and put both you and the other mage on DR, which is great for you as you just wanted to reduce the effect of CC on you while you do your initial damage. Of course they can use spell locks and CS on you, and you should expect this and adapt accordingly by letting your teammates know quickly if you're locked and quickly switching to missiles and fireblast for damage. If you're a baller and it's a good time to snap anyways, don't forget snap removes spell lock.

That's all I have on my mind that I can quickly jot down for now. ^^

This week is going well for us, went undefeated in 3s and 5s again tonight, and generally I'm having a lot more fun playing these damage oriented teams than last season's "CC and manaburn till they lose their will to play" type of games.

The WSVG finals are up on WCM and are definitely worth a watch for anyone amazingly out of the loop. It's a bit hard to learn much from the fights because of the persistently changing camera perspective, but they're entertaining to watch at least.