I have a question about rotation I hope someone can help with. I’ve already asked it on a reply I made on another post I made, but no answers yet so I thought I’d make it a post in its own right.
On Icy veins it says this under Combustion usage:
Before activating Combustion you should generate a Hot Streak. You should also try and save at least one charge of Fire Blast though preferably all charges will be available.
I find this in itself a little confusing, as I’m not sure how I would have all charges of Fire Blast available when using Combustion. The only way I can see of doing this is to wait until it comes off cd after generating the pre-Combustion Hot Streak, but if I do this, what do I do in the time between generating the Hot Streak and Fire Blast coming off cd? Just cast Fireballs and Meteor if it’s off cd? If I do cast Fireballs, what do I do if I get a Heating Up? Risk wasting it, use my Hot Streak and another Fire Blast charge and prolong my use of Combustion, or something else?
The way I’ve actually been using Combustion may not be optimal, but I’m wondering how much of a difference it has made. The way I’ve used it to wait until I get a Heating Up, then cast Scorch and then pop Combustion just before the Scorch cast completes. The reason for this is so that I have all charges of Fire Blast up and don’t have to wait for Fire Blast to come off cd to use Combustion. I wouldn’t have thought I lose that much dps by doing this, if any, but please correct me if I’m wrong.
Your hot streak lasts longer than your fire blast cooldown, so if you get a heating up (which you often do) just before combustion comes off cd you can just turn it to hot streak and wait for fire blast to come back before popping combustion.
If you are doing it on pull it might not matter because waiting for that proc and then the cooldown might lose you a whole combustion in a boss fight.
I dont often wait for the cooldown either, but i do admit that in most cases it does increase your damage output.
also saving all fireblasts is more important than generating that hot streak, you having either the hot streak or 1 more fire blast isnt that big of a difference, the thing just is that you can have both.
By which you mean that you just pop Combustion as soon as you get a Hot Streak without waiting for Fire Blast to recharge to full charges?
So it seems my problem/s lies/lie elsewhere.
Well even with the way I’ve been doing it, I have all Fire Blasts. It’s just that I’ve been popping Combustion just before getting my Hot Streak rather than when I already have one. You seem to contradict yourself here though. Firstly you say that having all Fire Blasts is more important than having a Hot Streak, which in itself makes sense to me, but then you seem to indicate that having both an extra Fire Blast and a Hot Streak is a big deal but earlier you said you often don’t wait for the cooldown, so in practice it seems you don’t have all Fire Blast charges when you pop Combustion, the very thing you said was most important.
i never said its a bid deal, but i did admit that having them both clearly is better than only having 1, im not perfect either.
In raid situation i try to always have all my fire blasts, but situations change, sometimes you are running out of time, have a high prio target, have to move or deal with mechanics, not every combustion is going to be perfect.
Ok so just to be clear, what I think you’re saying is to aim for having a Hot Streak and all Fire Blast charges, but accept that it isn’t always optimal to do this in practice.
Ok so I take it I would just risk wasting any Heating Up proc I get while I have a Hot Streak in this situation by casting more Fireballs, not that I would think this would happen very often.
The only thing that I can think of then that would be causing my dps to be that much lower would be just not casting enough in general, for whatever reason that might be.
I don’t play fire mage much at the moment but isn’t it heating up you wait for not hot streak? If you use FB at the start of your burn one charge will be off cd just before the end.
Just reading on altered time and it seems like more of a case that an ideal comb is set up with hot streak and 3 fbs but if your crit rating isn’t high enough then you’ll end up dropping dps by waiting for fireball to get it. You shouldn’t be getting the proc using fb then waiting for the cd to reset. Use fireball to get heating up, then interupt you next fireball and cast rop, fb while thats casting, then comust. The fb you used will come off cd in the middle of comb. Icy viens says to have at least one fb which seems odd to me, you’d want at least 2 I would think.
You wanna get on the altered time discord fella, they have a question section which would be perfect for you and the mages that answer are generally cleverer than I.