WoW Confidential

(Written by Karch) (Write for us!)

Back before the last patch, when all we had to run were Naxx, Maly, and OS, gearing questions for mages were a lot simpler.  Regardless of spec, the Tier-7 4-piece set bonus was powerful enough to overcome any minor stat differences between tier gear and non-tier gear.  Basically, every raiding mage aimed to have four pieces of the tier 7 set, leaving room for one “off-set” piece.  And given the relative ease of that content, most raiding mages achieved it.

But those days are long gone now.  Not only has the much more challenging Ulduar brought Tier-8 gear (and a pair of new set bonuses), but Tier 9 is on the very near horizon.

Given this explosion of new gear, it can be difficult to know what exactly different kinds of mages should be aiming for.  So, let’s take a walk through the Tier 7, 8, and even 9 (courtesy of www.mmo-champion.com) set bonuses to break down their benefits.

Note:  As always, this is not designed for hardcore raiding mages who are min/maxing their gear and looking for specific numbers.  Elitist Jerks (www.elitistjerks.com) is the best place for that kind of discussion.

Tier 7

2-piece bonus: You gain 40% more mana when you use a mana gem.  In addition, using a mana gem grats you 225 spell power for 15 seconds.

Comments:  While the spellpower bonus benefits all mage specs roughly equally, the additional mana clearly benefits arcane mages much more heavily than deep fire or frostfire.  Arcane’s strength is its ability to convert mana into damage at a much more controllable rate than fire/frostfire, and with the extra 1200 mana per gem and 3 gems per fight, this works out to be quite a considerable overall damage boost.

4-piece bonus: Your offensive spells gain an additional 5% increased critical strike bonus damage.

Comments:  Remember, this is crit damage, not crit chance.  That means that this scales best with big crits, making it especially useful to frostfire mages, but still very useful to deep fire and arcane mages.  Basically, regardless of what spec you are, the damage you do from critical strikes is going to be a large portion of your overall damage, and therefore this set bonus has obvious value.

Overall Thoughts: The two piece bonus is highly forgettable for deep fire and frostfire mages, who should have no issues with replacing it even if it’s with non-set (but higher quality) gear.  Arcane mages, on the other hand, will have a very difficult time parting with the unique mana increase the two-piece bonus provides, meaning that it should take a considerably large upgrade in gear quality to sacrifice it for.  As for the four piece bonus, it’s nice and certainly not worth breaking for a single piece of gear.  However, if you’re progressed into 25-man Ulduar and you’re passing on gear just to keep this set bonus active, then you are probably doing yourself a disservice.  At the very least, as soon as you have access to two pieces of Tier-8 gear, it is definitely time to break your 4-piece T7 bonus.

Tier 8

2-piece bonus: Your Arcane Blast, Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt, and Fireball spells have a chance to grant you 350 spell power for 15 seconds.

Comments:  Very solid (if not particularly sexy) straight-up increase to your DPS.  The effect has the standard 45-second internal cooldown, and will generally proc very quickly when it’s not on cooldown.  Regardless of your spec, when you factor in the upgrade in terms of gear quality, this is absolutely worth dumping your 4-piece Tier 7 bonus for.

4-piece bonus: You have a chance for the effect of your Missile Barrage, Hot Streak, or Brain Freeze talent not to be consumed when you cast the spells which benefit.

Comments:  Whoa there.  This is definitely the most interesting set bonus, and it has very different implications for the different mage specs.  For deep fire and frostfire, the ability to occasionally hit two consecutive pyroblasts represents a considerable DPS increase.  There’s nothing better than firing off two instant-cast pyroblasts!  But for arcane mages, this set bonus is a major disappointment.  Since casting the first arcane missiles consumes the arcane blast damage buff, the second one (the one that this set bonus provides) is much, much weaker.  In fact, casting arcane missiles without three stacks of arcane blast is simply not worth the mana – therefore, arcane mages basically have to sit on the extra proc until they cast three more arcane blasts (all of which would have a chance to proc missile barrage anyway) before using it.  So basically, this proc works out to being really nothing more than a relatively small increased chance to proc missile barrage.  Not exactly life-changing.

Overall Thoughts:  Deep fire and frostfire mages should set their sights on the Tier-8 4-piece bonus and get their by any means necessary (even if it means taking 10-man gear before the 25-man version is available to them).  The ability to get “two for one” hot streaks is simply too good to pass up.  In fact, until Tier 9 gear is available, fire mages should be aiming for the familiar “four tier pieces + one off-set piece” configuration.  On the other hand, arcane mages should probably forego the 4-set bonus entirely, and should seriously consider keeping two pieces of Tier 7 gear to pair with two pieces of Tier 8 and one off-set piece.  This not only allows arcane mages to capitalize on two super-useful set bonuses, it allows them some freedom to mix and match gear to their liking (maximizing haste and minimizing unnecessary hit rating, for example).

Tier 9

Note:  This is all based on the current public test realm information reported by mmo-champion.com, and as such is subject to change.

2-piece bonus: Increases the armor you gain from Ice Armor by 20%, the mana regeneration you gain from Mage Armor by 10%, and converts an additional 15% of your spirit into critical strike rating when Molten Armor is active.

Comments:  First, just ignore the ice and mage armor aspects of this – raiding mages do not use either of these.  So, on to Molten Armor:  this is a significant increase to your crit chance.  On the original PTR build, the set bonus granted 25% more spirit conversion, which was overpowered to the point that you could be getting as much as 7% crit to all your spells just from this set bonus alone!  Even with the number now down to 15%, you’re still talking about an additional 2-4% crit chance when raid buffed.  This is certainly helpful to all mages, with frostfire getting the most help from it, followed by deep fire, followed by arcane.

4-piece bonus: Increases the critical strike chance of your Fireball, Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt, Arcane Missiles, and Arcane Blast spells by 5%.

Comments:  This certainly isn’t the sexiest set bonus, and it’s interesting that both the two and four piece bonuses involve critical strike chance – but whatever.  The benefit for all specs is clear – 5% more crit on your main nuke!  This alone would seriously favor fire and frostfire mages due primarily to the mechanics of hot streak vs. missile barrage, but Blizzard (smartly) added Arcane Missiles to this set bonus in the latest PTR build, evening things out a bit.

Overall Thoughts:  While nothing conclusive can be said before this goes live, it appears that mages of all types will be gunning for the Tier 9 4-piece set bonus.  While it will be difficult for fire mages to drop their extra pyroblasts from the Tier 8 bonus, the massive amount of extra crit combined with the upgraded gear quality should be more than enough to warrant the switch. For arcane mages, maintaining the much-beloved 2-piece Tier 7 bonus will no longer be worth the now-vast difference in gear quality, and the 2-piece Tier 8 bonus isn’t dynamic enough to be worth it either.

So to summarize:  As of right now, deep fire/frostfire mages should be gunning for the 4-piece Tier 8 bonus plus one off-spec piece, while arcane mages want to maintain their 2-piece Tier 7 bonus to go along with the 2-piece Tier 8 one.  When patch 3.2 hits, all mages will likely be looking to get the 4-piece Tier 9 set bonus.  Of course, like everything in the World of Warcraft, this is subject to change!