So am trying to get things right. I really need help!!
Ilvlis 466 got cloak rank15 everything.
Yet I can’t pull more than 30k dps.
Also i seem to hit 100k with my opener and from there it goes down.
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I’m not a fire mage expert, but seeing your gear stats i’d say that your mastery rating is at least half of what it should be.
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Am working on that but i simed my character and am supposed to be doing around 57k dps yet i am never been able to sustain such dps after my combustion run out i start to drop to around 39k and thats it can’t get it up
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Thats kinda normal. By default sims have all available buffs, flask, food, bloodlust, runes, dh buff etc. Aswell as that they have a perfect rotation so maybe it should be a bit higher but not much, you probably just need to perfect your combust which takes time.
Also mastery is only a good ST want you have a handful of masterful corruptions.
I agree but mages with such gear are pulling alot more dps so i was wondering am the only mage that is suffering.
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When you say such gear, do you mean ilvl or specific azerite traits, essences, bracers, trinkets, corruption…
Fire mage is about specific gear not ilvl.
Don’t worry about matching your sim DPS. It’s sim DPS and assumes fully raid buffed and perfect scenarios/play.
But understand Fire is not a class that’s “iLvl driven”. Much of our gear is about what stat is available and specific pieces; for instance I’m i481 bags, but I only have i472 equipped because iLvl =/= better gear.
Now if you’re wondering why you’re doing significantly less than other Mages:
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You’re missing the Hyperthread Wristwraps. Fire Mage is loaded into Combustion, if you’re not using an item that powers your Combustion you’re going to see weaker performance.
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Two of your minor essences are suboptimal - one of the corruption resistance ones should be replaced with another essence (usually C&S), and the other needs to be improved to rank 3.
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The corruptions you’ve been assigned are awful. Fire Mage only wants one - and it wants a lot of it. And that one is Masterful.
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You’re running a Pyroclasm build. It’s a fair build, but it’s worse than the standard Meteor or even the minute-mage Kindling build. Pyroclasm builds are also the most-likely to suffer performance drops because of it’s hardcasting-Pyro playstyle.
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You have an unenchanted ring, and your weapon enchant is probably sub-optimal (I would expect Torrent of Elements to be better than yours).
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Vessel of Skittering Shadows is a pretty awful trinket, even if we compare it to non-Font trinkets. There’s not too much you can as most dungeon trinkets are pretty awful for Mage, but it definitely is contributing to a lower output than fellow Mages.
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Your stat distribution is not where it should be for a still-gearing Mage. You have way too much Mastery for someone who doesn’t have Masterful corruptions, as Mastery is very much an AoE stat without them. Additionally, you likely have too little Crit for a Pyroclasm build or too much Crit for a Kindling/Meteor build.
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You only have 2 Blaster Master traits. They are easily the most valuable trait to a Mage, and it is a trait that is available on your Shoulders. You need to switch so you have 3 of them.
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Your rotation/gameplay might be wrong, but we can’t help you there without logs etc.
Even if you were to make minimal changes - such as swapping to a Meteor build, acquiring hyperthreads, reforging your shoulders so they have Blaster Master and substituting just a couple of your items to ones with more preferable stats (prime targets are your Logic Loop ring and your pants), I’d expect an immediate improvement by at least 5k DPS, and you’d be able to pump that higher with a bit more practice.
Unfortunately, gearing a Fire Mage isn’t the easiest thing in the world.
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No its not. At 465 its probably better than a hc wrathions trinket (depending on stats), will be better than a hc shredder in dungeons. It’s not a bad passive trinket.
That being said font adds another level to combustion and should be used if you can get it.
I think you first aim should be azerite pieces, they still have a ton of power and the ilvl of yours is low.
I really appreciate all the details you give out and i do understand that am lacking alot of bis items for mage.
Am going to download logs and have them so if you have a look at them, maybe point where am going wrong.
Also i got a question do i have to wait on memory of lucid dreams to be up to use combustion or its ok to just burn my combustion?
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Seeing as the above advice is mostly gear related, I’ll jump in and analyze your gameplay a little bit, since that’s where your DPS really comes from.
Your biggest problem seems to be downtime (meaning you’re spending time not casting something). Always cast something during boss fights. You can use scorch if you have to move, but preferably instead use shimmer to dodge mechanics while not cancelling your casts. Usually downtime is indicative of clumsy game play, so this is something you’ll have to actively improve on.
Another problem: you waste a lot of fireblasts. Don’t use them unless: 1. You have a heating up proc 2. You’re about to cap at 3 fire blast charges.
Also, start weaving your fireblasts. This is slightly tricky to explain via text, but basically means that you’re supposed to use your instant pyroblasts immediately and not sit on them. Example: fireball (heating up procs) -> fireball -> fireblast -> pyroblast -> fireball. And you would cast that fireblast during your second fireball cast of that sequence, and pyroblast immediately after your second fireball finishes (you can just press the button midcast and it queues it up). Feel free to ask about this if you’re still confused.
Other problems I noticed from some fights:
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You don’t use rune of power enough. It is not supposed to be capped at 2 charges. Here is how you use rune of power properly as a fire mage 99% of the time: Rune of power just as you’re about to start combustion. I’ll post a combustion image at the end to help you visualize this. After your first combustion, cast another rune of power immediately after. Next, wait until your meteor is off cooldown, and use rune of power with that meteor. Next, don’t use rune of powers until your next combustion is off cooldown, repeat. The cooldowns line up very nicely if you follow this plan.
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You have the same problem with meteors. Proper meteor usage: 1. At first combustion (again, look at the image at the end to get an idea of how combustion works), then after that use it once it comes off cooldown, and then wait for the next combustion to use it there. Important: you always need to meteor during combustion. So it would go like this: Combustion (meteor here) -> meteor when it comes off cd (remember to combine with rune of power!) -> combustion (meteor here) -> repeat. So only use it once between combustions.
And this is how combustion works with different setups: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/524387813060247553/606533890080899083/bm_combustion.png. As you can see, it changes based on your setup. For example, if you had lucid dreams and BM traits, you’d use the “lucid major with BM”. Also, try to save a couple fire blast charges for when you’re about to use combustion. It makes it go a lot smoother. Yes, this means you might miss some instant pyroblasts, but that isn’t as important.
This also answers your previous question. Yes, always lucid with combustion. You’re supposed to use them together, meaning they’ll come off cooldown together. DO NOT USE COMBUSTION WITHOUT LUCID. This completely defeats the purpose of the essence, and it would mean you’re playing incorrectly anyway because you should always have lucid up for combustion!
Last, some resources. You don’t need to download logs or whatever, although I’d recommend still setting logs up so you can log your future raids. Here is a guide: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/help/start. Also, here’s a link to your logs: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/character/eu/draenor/tety#difficulty=3 (you’ve been in raids where someone else has been logging).
Once you have logs, you can use wowanalyzer.com which I used to analyze your gameplay here. Just paste a log there and select your character and it’ll show the mistakes you make during fights. You should only be happy once you’ve reached a point where it doesn’t complain about anything, as in you play well enough to not make major mistakes.
Also feel free to join the mage discord. There is a text channel for questions, and you can find a lot of guides/information in the respective channels/pins. Here is a link to the discord: https://discord.gg/makGfZA.
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I agree with everything and i have been working on my gameplay because i know i was suffering in this part alot.
But am doing like 37k dps while am supposed to be somewhere around 50-60k . This huge drop in my dps do you think is because i get my rotation wrong?
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Yes, rotation greatly affects your DPS and the mistakes I pointed out in my post alone would explain why you are about 20k short of your simdps. Rotation is your foundation, and your gear is the house. But if you have a great house on a poor foundation, it’s only going to collapse. This is why rotation is the #1 important thing when it comes to your DPS.
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Awesome!! Really appreciate your feedback.
Am going try work harder on my rotation.
Now that i know its not the gear but rather the rotation.
Also you think i would be better off if I change my spec if I cannot nail the rotation?
I tried out arcane and i seem to hit the 50k with the gear i got atm!
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It’s up to you. Fire is the most difficult mage spec to play properly currently in my opinion coupled with the fact that gearing a fire mage takes a long time. Frost is very easy and arcane I’ve never really played, but it’s not too complicated either. The problem with arcane is that it’s very inflexible and is not that great except in pure single target patchwerk fights.
I’d suggest you would take a look at frost. There is an extremely easy frost spec out there that also happens to be the best frost build for raids currently called the no icelance build (or noIL). Here is a pretty good guide on frost mages I’ve found: https://www.altered-time.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6894 (don’t mind the 8.2 title, it’s still relevant and updated) . It goes over all 3 of the major builds and how to play/gear them. But in the end it comes down to what you want to play yourself, I think fire is the most enjoyable spec, but at the same time it can be frustrating due to the gearing.
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It’s worse than Hadal’s (I used a 460 of this for a long time, it always simmed higher than my 475 VoSS) and Conch (even though Crit is non-Clasm Fire’s worst secondary). I’d say it’s worse than equal-iLvl Wrathion trinket either, and that’s another trinket that is pretty low-tier that you largely only see so much because it’s very easy to get.
It’s about on-par with the Music Box but VoSS seems to be more iLvl dependant, probably due to the scaling on damage increase with multiple targets, so not having a i475 from the weekly one really does just doom it to the “avoid unless in dire straits” tier. The only time VoSS would be better in a dungeon than Hadals, Conch, Shredder or Vita are on huge pulls, and if you’re doing pulls that big you should either be playing Frost (such as at the start of TD), you’re doing gimmicky MDI-strats (which generally wouldn’t involve Fire in the first place) or you’re playing on keys that are too low for you.
Fact of the matter is there’s no passive trinkets that are good for Fire which you plainly acknowledge, even Psyche/Vita are pretty disapponting while still clearly the best options, and VoSS is one of the worst, and that’s according to both my personal sims from pre-Font days and external resources like Bloodmallet. Personally, go-to trinket for PUG M+ is a Conch.
It’s generally not good defense to claim “this items not crappy, look it’s better than some of the crappest items around!”
OP was looking for reasons his damage would low. To dismiss VoSS as a contributor to this is incredibly insincere.
Edit: I’m going to walk it back just a little lest I make it seem like there are chasms between many of the above trinkets I’ve named. The dungeon ones are largely close, but I’d put VoSS as the worst. Let’s remember that Trinkets are one of the most important item slots and huge contributors to overall performance.
I’d more likely categorise the 2nd trinket slot into tiers:
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Top tier: exclusively Font of Power. Nothing else competes and we all know this, so there’s no discussion here.
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Good tier: Psyche Shredder and Vita - remembering that Vita gives minor eDPS as it provides a small Haste buff to allies too. Conch belongs in this tier on a Pyroclasm build.
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Mid tier: Hadals and Conch. I’d put Psyche Shredder here for Fortified dungeons.
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Low tier: VoSS, Music Box and Alchemy stone.
Nothing below that is worth considering outside of Fontless minute-mage builds. Of course, “chance on damage to do damage” trinkets like Hadal’s, Shredder and VoSS become better the worse geared and worse skilled the Mage is as their damage is independant of skill and other items, yet at the same time they’re the most iLvl dependant.
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Shredder, music box, vessel and hadal are all passive dmg trinkets and they all scale with haste. Shredder and Music box are ST, vessel and hadal scales with more targets. Shredder is a better trinket in most situations but the dmg different isn’t as great as an 15ilvl azerite upgrade. Also shredder is far from a weak passive trinket as you suggested, dhs have been using it on ST despite having int it’s so strong.
Hadal’s may sim well but in reality, on dungeons, it often procs on pull after its internal cd has cleared and the tank is positioning mobs. The travel time on the thing is so long that half the time it misses. I personally thinks its awful in dungeons. That being said on a fight like vexiona it could be quite strong.
Conch is good in m+ because crit has more value in packs. I believe this is because of living bomb but also my be due to more instant pyros which produce double ignite. Crit is also closer to vers/haste for fire mages than people seem to think.
Vita and dragonscale are as you say both similar although vita has the bonus of gifting haste to your group. The value of these trinkets goes up with the less haste you have. These are also more valuable if you don’t have masterful corruption and therefore are running flame patch in m+. Interestingly a 460 vita is much stronger than a 460 dragonscale but they are a lot closer in value when both at 475.
I also see you have dismissed the alchemy trinket. The alchemy trinket is actually quite strong and being a flat stat proc is extremely versatile and is likely to over take shredder on any cleave fights. An example of this my spriest had 3 CoI but no SA azerite traits and it simmed ahead of a socketed 460 vita and vita and shredder is bis for spriest.
My point is dependant on your gear, stats and the situation the value of these trinkets varies alot and just because your sim says this trinket is better than that, doesn’t always make it true for everyone. I would recommend coining on azerite gear before trinkets as the value of ilvl and traits on azerites pieces is much greater than passive trinkets this tier. Especially with that 475 branch 
Ok so after some work on my rotation i was able to improve for a bit now should i work more on my cloak resistance or do more raiding. I know am missing some gear as u mentioned but what would be better gear or corruption atm?
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I’m probably not as experienced as some of the other people in this thread, but as a fellow mage who also hasn’t been able to get all of the BIS items, I can say that the corruptions make a large difference and are much easier to get.
According to Wowhead, Masterful 3 will be up again this Saturday, so my suggestion would be to spend as many echoes as you possibly can then. 
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