Reviews of lvl 50 builds

[Lepew]

Hey guys, I am playing my mage these days and have been mucking around in various Mage builds. I thought I would post out what builds I was trying and how they are working out. I will start with

1. BlueDot's 51 elementalist, 15 stormcaller, 0 chloromancer

(I think he uses Archon, I prefer Chloro as the zero point)

This is a very solid noob build because with 40 points in Elementalist, you get this ability that grants you 20 spell power for each point in Elementalist above 40. In a 51pt build, this is 220 spell power, which can easily double your spell power with poor gearing. Points in Stormcaller are:

5/5 biting cold
5/5 cold weather training
3/3 storm shard
2 pts left in SC (either 2 in lightning mastery or 1 in LM, 1 in ride the wind)

Singles:
- Open with macro with radiant spores and pet attack
- Hit ignite after pet hits enemy
- Lightning strike
- this should proc Storm Shard, which gives you instant-cast icicle
- crystalline missles 1-3x til ignite drops off
- you can quicken elements to heal the pet during the crystalline missiles phase, usually it is best to have one on for the debuff before you pet heal. It is important to keep ignite up on your pets target, since your pet crits 30% more when ignite is on, and when the pet crits, your spellpower goes up. Quicken elements enhanced is a truely overpowered heal, where there is really not much in the game that can kill your pet when you use it. The debuff from crystalline missles ups pet damage a lot, and help it hold aggro. Storm Shard is restricted to occur once per 10s, which is identical to your cooldown on Lightning Strike.

Macros

Radiant Spores Macro
#show radiant spores
suppressmacrofailures
petattack
petdefensive
cast radiant spores

Ignite Macro
#show ignite
suppressmacrofailures
petattack
petdefensive
cast ignite

Main Single Target Macro
#show Lightning Strike
suppressmacrofailures
cast lightning strike
cast crystalline missles
cast ignite

Mount Macro
petpassive
use (mountname)

Discussion of Macros- I bind pet attack and passive to macros to have key controlled pet AI. For instance you can send the pet out with the radiant spores macro, and once it hits the target, hit the mount macro to call him back. The enemy follows towards you and you hit the ignite macro to force the pet to attack it again, this time at a spot of your choosing. Pulling with radiant spores is no threat to you, and it gives the pet some self heal.

For AOE, this 15pt Stormcaller Build does not play like a regular full Stormcaller where keeping electrified and hypothermia on target matters. So while you can cast Artic Blast to apply hypothermia, you lack Lightning Conductor which enhances lightning damage to hypothermal targets. And while you can "finish" with Lightning Field, the main ability that ups its damage (charged field, makes it chain) is not in this build, so you actually hit for less using this than forked lightning. Here then is the macro I use for AE

#show burning ground
suppressmacrofailures
petattack
petdefensive
cast burning ground
cast arctic blast
cast forked lightning
cast lightning field

(if you are moving, insta cast LF will occur, giving you some damage). Burning ground and arctic blast are OK damage even without enhancements, so they are higher in the queue.

As far as pet gathering goes, I have tried several macros to try to get earthquake to work properly. Earthquake is the AE taunt your earth elemental uses. In a default arrangement, your two single target elemental attacks ahead of it, and it comes last. The pet will do the left most attack available on auto, so in the regular configuration, the pet will do 2 GCDs on his other attacks before attempting Earthquake, which works out well.

I did try to move around these pet attacks so that Earthquake was off, and left most, and I put this line in my AE macro

petcast earthquake

Even with the pet cast in the macro, the macro was unreliable, frequently having you do damage while the pet stubbornly refused to Earthquake. I thought this was due to his other single target attacks being auto and him being hung up in a global cooldown, so I turned them off auto (and added petcast commands for them to my single target macro), but even then it was unreliable. So I am right back to using the standard system.

Oh if you accidentally drop a pet ability off the pet bar, resummon the pet and it will be back.

So the way I gather crowds is to use the radiant spores macro to force the pet to attack one, then usually one goes for me, so I target that one and send the pet after it too, and I watch the pet bar to see when an Earthquake autos to start my routine. Usually you can get off about 3-4 casts before you have to quicken elements. This is slow and steady DPS for AOE, and the only thing that speeds it up are the storm shard procs every few seconds.

[Lepew]

I was inspired by DissB's video for 38 warlock/26 pyromancer. The basic idea here is you exploit Spark from pyomancer to reduce your global cooldown from 1.5s to 1s, so instead of 2 instas in 3 s, you now have 3 instas in 3s. This rapidly builds charge by magical affinity, and has a chance to do opportunity procs. The problem however is this is one of those builds that works great for a guy in full rank 8 gear.

Things I tried which did not work

a. 29 pyro, 21 warlock, 16 necromancer- The idea here was to build charge with spark and instants and dump it with soul purge. The problem however is soul purge doesn't really keep up with incoming damage, and there are a lot of "wasted" points in necromancer to get it.

b. 44 pyro, 12 warlock, 10 chloro- The idea here was to use ground of strength to massively reduce damage taken and avoid crowd control. The problems I had with this were frustration with being a slave to the ground, low mobility, weak heals from radiant spores.


My present best incarnations

a. 26 pyro, 26 warlock, 14 chloromancer - The AE instant build

Details of build and macros are below. This is a highly mobile build. AE progression is

2x radiant spores macro
2x radiate macro
2x ae macro -or- mortality if you are pressed

What is nice about this is radiate spreads dark touch and neddra's grasp to up to 6 people which is nice return. Enhanced radiant spores spreads up to 8 people a 16% chance for your damage to return 100% life. You can then flame jet/channel devouring shadows, or if pressed hit mortality. Each and every cast can proc opportunity, which you can pump into damage (the macro included) or if you wish more heals, proc into something like withering vine or vile spores which will return healing via lifegiving veil. Enhanced radiant spores is important for soloing on Ember, as it really helps you stay up.

You have fairly stong self heals with bloom and shadow life and all of the return from radiant spores.

For single targets
2x radiant spores macro
spam ST macro and dump opportunity procs into favored form

Note I chose warlock armor instead of pyromancer. This is a decision based upon the idea that there is not that much fire insta casts in the build and so on average the damage shield and healing return from warlock armor help.

I have been ganged up by 3 people with this build, and I did the old spread and mortailty move, and I killed them all.

26 pyro
3/3 improved fireball
2/5 ignition
3/3 improved combustion
3/3 burning fury
3/3 fiery resolve
1/1 flicker
3/3 improved flame bolt
3/3 burning bright
5/5 spark

26 warlock
5/5 magical affinity
5/5 opportunity
1/1 draining bolt
3/3 neddra's influence
1/5 vitality
1/1 dark fury
3/5 potency
1/1 neddra's grasp
1/1 shadow life
4/5 dark power
1/1 radiate death

14 chloromancer
5/5 natural awareness
3/3 empowered veil
2/2 healing slipstream
1/1 bloom
3/3 phytogenesis


Keybinds
1. radiant spores macro
2. st macro
3. FB macro
4. radiate macro
5. ae macro
q. bloom macro
w. sacrifice life for mana
e. burning shield
x. flicker
t. flashfire
g. mount
h. reconstruct
z. fear
n. water
y. burst macro
j. quest
u. mortality
i. racial

BUFFS
lifegiving veil
neddra's might
flaring intellect
warlock armor


Radiant Spores Macro
#show radiant spores
suppressmacrofailures
cast radiant spores
cast dark touch

ST Macro
#show inferno
suppressmacrofailures
cast inferno
cast flame bolt
cast countdown
cast ruin
cast draining bolt
cast dark fury
cast fireball
cast dark touch

FB macro
#show cinder burst
suppressmacrofailures
cast cinder burst
cast fireball

Radiate Macro
#show radiate death
suppressmacrofailures
cast neddra's grasp
cast radiate death

AE Macro
#show flame jet
suppressmacrofailures
csat flame jet
cast devouring shadows

Bloom Macro
#show Bloom
suppressmacrofailures
cast @self bloom
cast shadow life
cast natural conversion

Burst Macro
#show sacrifice life: damage
suppressmacrofailures
cast internalize charge
cast sacrifice life: damage


b. 31 pyro, 21 warlock, 14 chloro- higher ST dmg doulbe procs build

This build trades off the solid AE damage of the 26/26/14 build for enhanced single target damage from fire. I construced the ST macro to generate more fire procs, and you should stand still where possible and hammer it. There still are death insta casts in it if you are running (below fireball). Opportunity goes into fireball, pyromancer procs go into cinder burst. If you are going to stand toe to toe with something on Ember isle, you better have pretty strong gear as you will take a whacking. The single target rotation is the same as the first build.

AE rotation
1x radiant spores macro
spam AE macro

If the PvP situation is tight, I will not channel devouring shadows and only go for flame jet. Warriors are a problem with this build. I would kite and spam instas, and pump an opportunity proc into fear to get distance.

31 pyro
3/3 improved fireball
2/5 ignition
3/3 improved combustion
3/3 burning fury
3/3 fiery resolve
1/1 flicker
3/3 improved flame bolt
3/3 burning bright
3/3 wildfire
1/1 pyromancer's armor
5/5 spark
1/1 fire shield

21 warlock
5/5 magical affinity
5/5 opportunity
1/1 draining bolt
3/3 neddra's influence
1/5 vitality
1/1 dark fury
3/5 potency
1/1 neddra's grasp
1/1 shadow life

14 chloromancer
5/5 natural awareness
3/3 empowered veil
2/2 healing slipstream
1/1 bloom
3/3 phytogenesis


Keybinds
1. radiant spores macro
2. st macro
3. cinder burst
4. fireball
5. ae macro
q. bloom macro
w. sacrifice life for mana
e. burning shield
x. flicker
t. flashfire
g. mount
h. reconstruct
z. fear
n. water
y. burst macro
j. quest
u. mortality
i. racial

BUFFS
lifegiving veil
neddra's might
flaring intellect
pyromancer's armor


Radiant Spores Macro
#show radiant spores
suppressmacrofailures
cast radiant spores
cast dark touch

ST Macro
#show inferno
suppressmacrofailures
cast inferno
cast flame bolt
cast countdown
cast ruin
cast fireball
cast draining bolt
cast dark fury
cast neddra's grasp
cast dark touch

AE Macro
#show flame jet
suppressmacrofailures
csat flame jet
cast devouring shadows

Bloom Macro
#show Bloom
suppressmacrofailures
cast @self bloom
cast shadow life
cast natural conversion

Burst Macro
#show sacrifice life: damage
suppressmacrofailures
cast internalize charge
cast sacrifice life: damage

[Lepew]

I tried out a couple of things last night.

1. Moved 1 pt from Fire Shield to Pyromancer's armor. As expected there are not that many procs from Pyromancer's, but it can be fun when they happen. The healing and damage shield from Warlock's armor is pretty weak as is, so it really is a toss up. Changed the main ST macro to pull out fireball and put in flame jet and love the fluidiity. Was able to handle singles through Ember, but groups are a bit tough still. My gear is crap (have yet to get the full P1 set), so it still may become my go to build. Sure is fun playing it on WFs and doing Stillmoor/Shimmersand dailies.

2. Tried 44 pyro 8 Warlock 14 Chloro. This build is solid for singles, but you do tend to get trashed on groups. There is no Mortality backup for when things go south, nor any of the Warlock panic buttons. But singles go down like Budder. Tried PvP with this build, and while it did take rogues+warriors longer to take me down. The ground of strength helps but is not as good as being mobile. I take less damage by being mobile and denying line of sight or kiting than I do staying stationary in a ground.

3. Tried a double proc elemental build 32 Pyromancer 21 Elementalist 13 Warlock build. The idea was to speed the killing speed by increasing my offensive power with a deep build in Pyro. The central problem with this build is threat. Without spamming crystalline missiles, it is easy to pull aggro off the pet. You have very little self heal other than reconstruction, so loss of aggro can be tragic. This really ruins most single target attack sequences for fire, as you want fireball as the base attack rather than crystalline missiles. I am also a little leary of the AE build 32 Stormcaller 32 Elementalist build for similar reasons, and I now understand better BlueDot's video in which he bursts AE damage during the taunt period of Earthquake better now. Build that I tried with macros follows.

32 Pyromancer

3/3 Improved Fireball
5/5 Ignition
3/3 Improved Combustion
3/3 Burning Fury
1/1 Flicker
3/3 Improved Flame Bolt
3/3 Burning Bright
1/1 Fire Storm

3/3 Wildfire
1/1 Pyromancer's Armor
5/5 Spark
1/1 Heat Wave

21 Elementalist

5/5 Biting Cold
5/5 Elemental link
1/1 Ice Shield
3/3 Ashen Armor
1/1 Exposure
3/5 Weathered
2/2 Improved Quicken Elements
1/1 Greater Elemental Affinity

13 Warlock

5/5 Magical Affinity
5/5 Opportunity
3/3 Neddra's Influence



1. Ignite Macro
2. ST macro
3. fireball
4. cinder burst
5. AE macro
q. quicken elements
w. mana macro
e. burning shield
x. flicker
t. encase
g. mount macro
h. fast summon macro
z. hose macro
n. water
y. burst macro
j. quest
u. flashfire
i. racial

BUFFS
Pyromancer's Armor
Flaring Intellect
Glyphs of Power

Ignite Macro
#show ignite
suppressmacrofailures
petattack
petdefensive
cast ignite

ST Macro
#show
suppressmacrofailures
petattack
petdefensive
cast inferno
cast flame bolt
cast countdown
cast withering flames
cast fireball
cast dark touch

AE Macro
#show Burning Ground
suppressmacrofailures
petattack
petdefensive
cast Burning Ground
cast Fire Storm


Mana Macro
#show revitalize
suppressmacrofailures
cast revitalize
cast sacrifice life: mana

[CericX]

(Not sure if the topic of your post is for everyone's builds or just your own so I've mixed my response just in case! If it turns out you just want your own builds in thread I'll see if I can go back and delete\edit my bits.)

The focus on pyro synergies is intriguing and I've played with it a bit myself, when I get in game tonight I'll give your 26 pyro\26 warlock\14 chloromancer a swing, though I'll probably break apart the macro's a bit. Made the Zam link for that build as well as it was easier for me to visualize than just the skill names.

Soul Tree Calculator: Pyromancer (26) / Warlock (26) / Chloromancer (14) :: Rift :: ZAM

Looks like you've got your eye on a single build for both PvP and PvE instead of one for each. Previously I've found that having seperate builds for each makes it easier on myself though 1.7 might change that a bit.
I've found myself reverting back to the 38loc\28nec for Ember Isle grinding. Granted P8 makes just about anything work but it just seemed more efficient for me (link below.) It will be interesting to see how this build compares.

Soul Tree Calculator: Warlock (38) / Necromancer (28) / Archon (0) :: Rift :: ZAM

As I imagine everyone does when looking at other builds I've already put a variant together stripped down for PvE grinding and less focus on PvP.

Have you done a parse with DPS\HPS on this build? My numbers might be a bit different than yours based on gear but possibly a baseline could be established for the builds.



That variant I'm thinking of is linked below.

http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=1z...bzhcV.MeMh0VVx

Probable rotation : (Might not be most efficient and subject to change on parse)
Radiant Spores for +25% int
Flame Bolt for +10% dmg
Count Down
Dark Touch\Life Leech (seq depend on opp proc)
Dark Touch\Life Leech (whichever hasn't been cast)
Withering Vine
Vile Spores
Void Bolt (Spam until things start falling off)


Buffs:
Lifegiving Veil
Flaring Intellect
Warlock Armor

Inferno as finisher.

Whether Empowered Veil or Natures Corrosion is going to give more healing back I'm not clear on, might take a bit of theory crafting to figure out.

[Lepew]

Hey CLericX,

Work blocks ZAM for me, and I assume there are others at this site that might have the same issue, which is why I post them like that. Magelo links fine though.

I agree with you in separating PvE from PvP. This mage was a fresh restart with no twink on a new server, so I was cash poor (buying mount) and role poor, and was trying to get a bit more mileage from the builds.

The 26 pyro, 26 warl, 14 chloro is fun to play for PvE. When I started this post, I had crap gear and was still running the Ember Isle quests. Even after completing Ember Isle, my gear was garbage with a bunch of greens and no high end crafted pieces. It was only until this weekend when I went from P1 to P4 in PvP that my gear substantially improved.

Before the gear upgrade, my only real hope was the 51 elementalist build for Ember Isle. Now after gear upgrades, the 26/26/14 build is viable for Ember and is a pure joy for farming stuff/doing the Stillmoor + Shimmersand rep grinds. My new AoE move is radiant spores, dark touch, neddra's, radiate, jet, devour shadows, then go mortality to finish if health is an issue and I have enough charge. Procs from opportunity and Pyromancer's armor go off like popcorn and it is a lot of fun playing this. There is nothing quite like a chain of procs nuking down something fast. For PvP, the spec is highly mobile and works well on fluid warfronts like Codex or Steppes.

This weekend was Library, and so I went healing for PvP. My go to spec right now is 34 chloro, 32 warlock, 0 archmage (will detail it later). It pushes out the heals and has the best chance of surviving multiple attackers with the wild growth/mortality move. Nightblade with Fell Blades poison is a real problem as you have no easy way of stripping them of it.

Another spec I was enjoying quite a bit was 24 dominator, 32 chloro, 10 warlock. I would insta transmorgify a target to get spell haste for 5s, then unload withering vine, natures fury, natural touch, vile spores. The main annoyances of Chloromancer for PvP is your cast time is so very slow, opening you up to counter/silence, and spell pushback. Also you can start a long cast and by the time you complete it, they are out of line of sight. With this transmorgify chloro build, you are going to get off a zippy quick withering vines and likely load them up with a few more casts, and maybe get a proc or two. You pick new targets and see if they will transmorgify to keep the spell haste rolling.

The 24 dom, 32 chloro, 10 warlock spec (Ill detail it later) also lets you deal with problems like rogues and warriors who will not go away. Just transmorgify them, lay on storm shackle and load them up with all your nasty instacast debuffs as you get distance, and things become considerably easier. Where the 34 chloro, 32 warlock spec plays more like a big fat tank that just bulls through everything, this dom build is nimble and fun, and you can really burst up your HPS.

Right now my 4 roles are

51 elementalist, 15 stormcaller, 0 chloro
34 chloro, 32 warlock, 0 archmage
26 pyro, 26 warl, 14 chloro
24 dom, 32 chloro, 10 warlock

I am thinking about dumping the elementalist build (not as much fun and not as necessary) and devising a mass AOE build for PvP to break up those annoying zergs.

[CericX]

This weekend turned crazy on me and I didn't get to try the builds. Rebuilding them in Magelo though so they can be linked.

My previous grinding spec Nec\Loc
http://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#fgIB990/ela8a5g/G

26p/26w/26c
http://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#iJ9aa2/e8iIbELw/Fhag

self-variant on the chloro\loc\pyro for PvE
http://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#ikakE8/ejl444w/FhCV0

going to take a guess at the chloro\dom build
http://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#FkGKy0a8/dA92m8/e8g

[Lepew]

Discussion

32 Chloro 24 Dom 10 Warl

The build/macros/binds for the build is appended.

The aim of this build was to speed up slow casting of Chloromancer spells by Swift Control (50% cast speed buff for 5s after successful transmorgify) and Quick Thinking (1st spell cast after transmorgify is 0.5s less). This means your 2.5s Nature's Fury at the top of the macro takes 0.5s, withering vine is 0.5s, storm shackle/haunting pain is 0.75s right after transmorg. The typical heal sequence-

transmorg
0.5s withering vine (quick thinking + swift control)
0.5+0.75= 1.25s nature's fury
1.25+1.25= 2.5s elapsed nature's touch
1.5+2.5=4s elapsed ruin
4+1.5= 5.5s radiant spores (swift control over)
5.5+2= 7.5s vile spores

If ruin on CD
transmorg
0.5s withering vine
0.5+0.75=1.25 nature's fury
1.25+1.25=2.5 nature's touch
2.5+1.5=4 radiant spores
4+1=5s vile spores

So with the macros I have there, if you transmorg, vine, then spam the heal macro til vile spores, and switch to a new target and repeat, you can dramatically increase your heal speed. To run through 2 targets, you are looking at 12.5+3=15.5s (put 2 gcds for transmorgify) for

2x nature fury (normally 3s)
2x nature touch (normally 5s)
2x radiant spores (normally 3s)
2x vile spores (normally 4s)
1x ruin (normally 1.5s)
2x withering vine (normally 1.5s)
Normal casting time = 18s, with this acceleration you get 15.5s, and you get 2x transmorgify to boot.

Where this build shines is if there are plenty of targets for you to move through. This is particularly helpful in fields like the Library or Black Garden where frequent line of sight interruption happens- the transmorgify will stop their movement and let you get off a few casts before they can move out of line of sight. COntrast that with attempting a cast and having your target make it fail due to line of sight and you can see the benefit.

If you are in a situaion where you can stand there and spam uninterrupted endless heal spells on a single hearty target, a classic warlock/chloro build will outperform the heals of this build. Rarely does this happen in PvP though.

Soul tree decisions- In chloro, I skipped the 5% life damage buff. Other stuff helps more in PvP. Everything in tier 2 is obvious and good. Tier 3 I fill out because I want bloom/flourish to crit, and radiant spores enhanced will help anyone beating on the target heal, even if they move out of your range. I go for synthesis just to get nature's touch which hits harder than vile spores. Vile spores will double its damage over 6s from Nature's Conversion, but if you are in a spam mode, I think the DoT component just resets the timer. Also Warlock is in the build, so an opportunity proc can instacast it. I was thinking about pulling points out here. Raised in Naure is a nice HP boost as you gear up. Living shell is more mitigation when you are taking burst damage, and every bit helps. Essence surge is a full heal, which means for Library you can grab a vessel, find a nice quiet corner, and self heal for a very long time. For dominator the only unusual decisions are picking up priest's lament instead of 1pt in acumen. Transferrence hurts warriors. Improving quicken form via durable control means if you apply withering vine first, control does not immediately break. Warlock is there for opportunity and charge building and sacrificing life for mana. I suppose one could dump warlock entirely and flesh out Dom some, but I think I like the charge building and procs.


BUILD

32 Chloro
5/5 Natural Awareness
3/3 Empowered Veil
3/3 Nature's Corrosion
2/2 Healing Slipstream
1/1 Bloom
5/5 Circle of Life
3/3 Phytogenesis
1/1 Synthesis
3/3 Raised in Nature
1/1 Nature's Touch
1/1 Living Shell
1/1 Wild Growth
2/2 Nature's Swiftness
1/1 Essence Surge

24 Dominator
3/3 Clinging Form
2/2 Quick Thinking
4/5 Acumen
1/1 Priest's Lament
5/5 Controlled Opportunity
5/5 Swift Control
1/1 Transference
1/1 Quicken Form
2/2 Durable Control

10 Warlock
5/5 Magical Affinity
5/5 Opportunity




BUFFS

Lifegiving Veil
Neddra's Strength
Mass Charged Shield
Living Energy



KEYBINDS

1. transmorgify
2. withering macro
3. heal spam macro
4. Melee Hose Macro
5. AE Charge Macro
q. bloom macro
w. flourish
e. caster hose macro
x. sacrifice life: mana
t. grasping void
g. mount
h. cleanse macro
z. thunder blast
n. water
y. entropic veil
j. quest
u. mana wrench
i. racial



MACROS

Withering Macro
#show Withering Vine
suppressmacrofailures
cast withering vine
cast @self wild abandon

-I like this stripping movement impairment if it happens


Heal SPam Macro
#show Nature's Touch
suppressmacrofailures
cast Nature's Fury
cast Nature's Touch
cast Ruin
cast Radiant Spores
cast Natural Conversion
cast Vile Spores
cast Neural Prod
cast @self wild abandon

-Macro Reasoning- In a classic warlock/chloro build I would put ruin up top. Here though, YOu want slow cast time stuff high up to take advantage of quick thinking and swift control. I like autocasting radiant spores and natural conversion.

Melee Hose Macro
#show storm shackle
suppressmacrofailures
cast storm shackle
cast transference
cast incompetence
cast accelerated decay
cast void shroud
cast ruin
cast vile spores

- the most important 2 are at the top. A full hose of a supported warrior would spam down until you see vile.

AE Charge Macro
#show Wild Growth
suppressmacrofailures
cast Wild Growth
cast Corrosion

-A full charge bar is enough to run both of these. Extra AE life damage from corrosion helps.

Bloom Macro
#show Bloom
suppressmacrofailures
cast @self bloom
cast living shell
cast @self essence surge


-Insta cast heals except flourish are there to be hit to save my bacon. I do not monitor health bars with this build other than my own. I can put boom and essence surge on clicks if I am healing a vessel carrier, but that is a really crummy role for a chloromancer.

Caster Hose Macro
#show haunting pain
suppressmacrofailures
cast haunting pain
cast @self reflective command
cast priest's lament
cast incompetence
cast accelerated decay
cast void shroud
cast ruin
cast vile spores

-The top 3 are important. This assumes your caster is going to stand still and cast. If he moves around alot, haunting pain is wasted.

Cleanse Macro
#show Deny
suppressmacrofailures
cast @self deny
cast @self nature's cleansing

-again cleansing is something I do to myself, I do not watch raid bars and cleanse others.

[Lepew]

ClericX- how do you save builds on Magelo? That would make stuff a lot easier. Is your Necro Build the one with the rogue pet and you tank/self heal? Your variant on 26/26/14 is a huge departure from mine. I take it your main sequence involves applying life leach and spamming void bolt? The no pushback talent from mage plus the faster cast time would make that feel ok, but it would not work in pvp opening you up to silence. Were I to do it, like that I would tend to go maybe with 30 pyro and fully enhance fireball, with that at the bottom of the macro being spammed, skip life leech and void bolt and just post/patch heal via spores and bloom and passive lifegiving veil. The entire thing to 26/26/14 is everything is insta-cast (except for devouring shadows, a channel) so you can move all of the time and you never open yourself up to silence. With spark, each insta cast pops off at 1s instead of 1.5, so you generate massive charge and frequent procs. Were I braver, I would zero out Chloro, and put Archon as a zero point soul just to have an insta cast searing vitality at the bottom of the macro that would hopefully give pyromancer procs (if searing vitality triggers Pyromancers, would need to check). That would be a huge hit in the build though because right now it works like an Energizer bunny, healing you up fast and giving you enough to sacrifice frequently for mana.
--------------------------------------------
edit: Learned how to post Magelo. All you do is copy the HTML link and use the hyperlink button in this forum to link it to text. I went back and put up builds I had been testing.

[Lepew]

The build: 34 Chloro 32 Warlock 0 Archmage

As promised here are the details on my take on 34 Chloro 32 Warlock. The points in Synthesis, Nature's Touch, and Accelerated growth can be redistributed. You are not target healing with this build.

Fear is a nice tool. I have run up to a vessel or flag and hit fear, then capped it while the other guy runs around. Also if you see a warrior riding right at you start spaming it so it lands when he gets in range and you can go off. Fear on a caster supporting a big crew is a good move too.

If you are going to get ganged up on, pop Wild Growth and Mortality and keep spamming your spells. At least then, when you go down, you made it hurt a bit.

This build works well if you are in the middle of a zerg so that any rogue who just will not quit hitting you with Fel Blades has a remote chance of dying to your buddies who burn him down.

Generic pattern of healing is to apply withering vines then spam your heal macro. Stream of reclaimation is a lot of life damage. I keep devouring shadows on the bar to de-stealth rogues.


BUFFS

Lifegiving Veil
Neddra's Might
Warlock Armor
Living Energy



KEYBINDS

1. withering macro
2. heal spam macro
3. stream of reclaimation
4. devouring shadows
5. AE Charge Macro
q. bloom macro
w. flourish
e. shield macro
x. sacrifice life: mana
t. wither
g. mount
h. cleanse macro
z. fear
n. water
y. burst macro
j. quest
u. mortality
i. racial



MACROS

Withering Macro
#show Withering Vine
suppressmacrofailures
cast withering vine
cast @self wild abandon
cast break free

Heal SPam Macro
#show Nature's Touch
suppressmacrofailures
cast Ruin
cast Nature's Fury
cast Nature's Touch
cast Radiant Spores
cast Natural Conversion
cast Vile Spores
cast dark touch
cast @self wild abandon
cast break free

AE Charge Macro
#show Wild Growth
suppressmacrofailures
cast Wild Growth
cast Corrosion

Bloom Macro
#show Bloom
suppressmacrofailures
cast @self bloom
cast living shell
cast @self essence surge
cast @self wild abandon
cast break free

Cleanse Macro
#show Deny
suppressmacrofailures
cast @self nature's cleansing

Shield Macro
#show Neddra's Essence
suppressmacrofailures
cast Neddra's Essence
cast Living Shell
cast @self wild abandon
cast break free

Burst Macro
#show Sacrifice Life: Damage
suppressmacrofailures
cast entropic veil
cast Sacrifice Life: Damage
cast @self wild abandon
cast break free

[CericX]

ClericX- how do you save builds on Magelo? That would make stuff a lot easier. Is your Necro Build the one with the rogue pet and you tank/self heal? Your variant on 26/26/14 is a huge departure from mine. I take it your main sequence involves applying life leach and spamming void bolt? The no pushback talent from mage plus the faster cast time would make that feel ok, but it would not work in pvp opening you up to silence. Were I to do it, like that I would tend to go maybe with 30 pyro and fully enhance fireball, with that at the bottom of the macro being spammed, skip life leech and void bolt and just post/patch heal via spores and bloom and passive lifegiving veil. The entire thing to 26/26/14 is everything is insta-cast (except for devouring shadows, a channel) so you can move all of the time and you never open yourself up to silence. With spark, each insta cast pops off at 1s instead of 1.5, so you generate massive charge and frequent procs. Were I braver, I would zero out Chloro, and put Archon as a zero point soul just to have an insta cast searing vitality at the bottom of the macro that would hopefully give pyromancer procs (if searing vitality triggers Pyromancers, would need to check). That would be a huge hit in the build though because right now it works like an Energizer bunny, healing you up fast and giving you enough to sacrifice frequently for mana.
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edit: Learned how to post Magelo. All you do is copy the HTML link and use the hyperlink button in this forum to link it to text. I went back and put up builds I had been testing.

Love the links!

The focus on necro\loc is for PvE grinding in Ember.

Necro has a tanking pet if you're having issues taking the damage yourself, your soul-purge does very good dps and heals the pet as well which makes it very very sturdy. If you can take the hits no problem then use the dps pet and self tank. Essence Link will transfer life to you from the damage your pet does.

First Rotation

Life Leech
Essence Link
Necrosis
Dark Touch
Searing Vitality
Neddra's Grasp
Defile (If you find the target is not hurting you or the pet significantly)
spam Void Bolt

Second Rotation
Necrosis
Dark Touch
Searing Vitality
Spam Void Bolt
Soul Purge

Buff
Warloc Armor
Neddra's Might


The variant to your pyro\loc\chloro is NOT meant as a replacement, but as a PVE only variant it had all the PvP stripped out, simply a grinding spec. Misses out on all the utility but I think keeps the flavor and has large damage increases for PvE content. The switch to life leech\void bolt was for self-tanking npc's! Should still benefit from pyro in
Flame Jet
Flame Bolt
Radiant Spores
Bloom
Dark Touch
CountDown
Inferno
Which should help fuel the opportunity procs for Cinder Burst, void bolt, vile spores.

My thought on the fireball was that a 2sec cast vs ~1.5 with self healing (and additional damage) from the one time cast of life leech and the extra 6% to damage from the additional points in Warloc armor would balance out the crit from fireball.

Trading the Cinder Armor procs for Opportunity procs is a bit of a nuke hit, but sustained dps is probably a bit higher. Intent was to keep the energizer bunny feel as all the damage is giving some life return, life leech gives additional, Reconstruct if required for more health at end of fight,Sac life for more mana, bloom to help balance etc. Should be able to alternate sac life : Damage and internalize charge without compromise I would think.


Searing Vitality IS a fire spell and will proc Pyromancers Armor. If you're thinking of switching it up, might try some testing with life leech from loc for a heal over time effect to keep you bouyed during the fight, not as immediately powerful as bloom but can be stacked on multiple targets and does damage at the same time. You would lose some of the PvP healing aspect of the soul though as you would no longer be giving anyone else AoE splash healing.

I'll do some dps\hps testing when I get home from work and check some of the builds.

[Lepew]

As far as Pyromancer Armor procs go in 30ish builds for Pyromancer, I am not impressed. Opportunity far outnumbers the procs from Pyromancer.

For instance I was trying out my take on Pyro-Dom

33 Pyromancer 23 Dominator 10 Warlock

The main binds looks something like this (havent refined it much)

Keybinds
1. transmorgify
2. spam macro
3. fireball
4. cinder burst
5. flame jet
q. reconstruct
w. sacrifice life: mana
e. burning shield
x. flicker
t. grasping void
g. mount
h. deny
z. heat wave
n. water
y. internalize charge (rarely used)
j. quest
u. mana wrench
i. racial

Buffs
Flaring Intellect
Pyromancer's Armor
Neddra's Strength

Macros
Spam Macro
#show inferno
suppressmacrofailures
cast inferno
cast flame bolt
cast fireball
cast countdown
cast incompetance
cast accelerated decay
cast void shroud
cast neural prod

This is a PvE variant on the PvP build. Were it PvP, I would find some way to work in 3/3 Fiery Resolve.

Basic sequence is
transmorgify
spam fireball until speed buff is off (you slow cast fireball)
spam macro til you slow cast fireball
repeat, proc cinder burst when it occurs

Typically you get 3-5 fireballs off super fast, then you have build up a pile of flame bolt procs, then inferno kicks in, and opportunity procs during the initial phase immediately go into more fireballs. I will go maybe 2-3 kills before I get a Pyromancer's Armor proc for Cinder Burst, but I will have seen maybe 3-5 opportunity procs in between. Spark feeds into the proc speed dumping more damage. I put countdown below fireball in the main spam macro because it was a dps loss. Flame bolts and Inferno are worth it, but rapid cast fireball really works well. I dumped a lot of the debuff goodies from Dom in the bottom of the macro to kite and fish for opportunity procs.

Post combat you sacrifice life: mana to fill up your mana, then reconstruct. Charge is saved for reconstruct. This is a bit slower post combat, but you kill really fast in combat.

In Stillmoor and Shimmersand I would frequently kill singles before they could even close to me in my P4 gear. The Broodmothers Above daily was easy, requiring 2 transmorgify, but I would dip pretty low on health.

If I get 2, I transmorgify 1, then burn down the other, and then deal with the first. If there are more than 2, I work flame jet into the rotation, but otherwise stick with the single target build.

Heat Wave is completely disgusting. You transmorgify then hit heat wave, and for 15s you spew out a disgusting amount of fireballs nonstop, and few things can live through it.

I do not bother with Haunting Pain or Storm Shackle. Its all about the burn. This is a "best defense is a good offense" build, and stuff dies so very fast that it is hard going back to anything else. The combo of Pyromancer's Armor+Spark+Dominator spell acceleration+warlock opportunity makes this a beast. I think in the traditional PvP build they have no warlock points, and go to 38pyro, 28 dom (for enhanced split personality).

I suppose Thunder Blast and Flashfire could be used to kite and take on more difficult targets. If you are in trouble you can transmorgify and run, or use the shield.

But my main point here is that Opportunity >> Pyromancer's Armor for frequency of procs in these sorts of builds.

[Lepew]

I went on a mission to try and beat my 35 pyro 21 dom 10 warlock build. I tried a bunch, but nothing quite compares.

1. 38 pyro 28 dom 0 whatever lacks any sort of health replenishment and mana return is slow. It is a glass cannon build for PvP and if you take fire, you need support.

2. 45 pyro 21 dom 0 chloro was an attempt to see how ground of strength coupled with radiant spores would do in the healing front. You do have more safety, but you lose a lot of DPS without warlock, and you lose fast mana return. Healing is streaky, where you can get a proc off of radiant spores and fill way up, but it is not reliable and you tend to need the ground of strength to feel somewhat safe, which lowers mobility.

3. 35 pyro 21 dom 10 chloro has much better healing at the price of DPS and mana return. While healing is better than 2., dps is still not up to par.

4. 25 pyro 21 dom 20 warlock is my iteration on ClericX's build. Healing is a little better since you trans then life leech and spam void bolt on the open, then move to a dots macro similar to the original build. The problem here is life leech return is pretty low, particularly since stuff doesn't really life that long anyway. You wind up doing the same sacrifice life: mana + reconstruct routine you do in the 35 pyro 21 dom 10 warl build, so there isn't much time savings. DPS is less too. The big plus to this build is AoE safety. You can use mortality to save the bacon.

So I am pretty happy with the 35pyro 21dom 10warlock build. Playstyle is all about transmorgifying stuff then burning it down. You can reconstruct while it is in a squirrel state, then re-squirrel and go to town. AoE is flame jet, then trans one, burn down a different one, and repeat til they die in series. Single target DPS is so high with the trans-fireball spam- macro spam open that frequently melee targets are dead before they reach you. For PvP my gear is not there yet. You can dump what would be a ton of damage on something from Ember Isle, and you barely dent some players. Perhaps in 1.7 with Attunement of War amping this build will it really shine for me in PvP.

[CericX]

Meant to do some parsing but things got a bit hectic with 1.7 etc. A good thing I didn't as all the numbers would be affected.

Not surprised the pyro\dom\loc dps\heal was down a bit. Warloc Armor at 26, Dark Power, Improved Warloc Armor are pretty much required to kick the dps up and the life leech returns. loc at 10 points (opp procs!) or ~30 for all the extra damage are the only two I'd think would be viable.

That being said, 21Dom, 10 loc, 35 pyro using pyro rotation with transmog to start, moving to heatwave with opp procs and back to squirrel... thats some amazingly fast fireball spam.

10 chloro, 21dom, 35 pyro I would have expected to give some very healthy dps. With Natural Awareness kicking int up by 25%. What rotation are you using on that?
Flame Bolt > Radiant Spores > Squirrel > (Internalized charge) Fireball spam (Refresh)

Might be that it scales better as your Int goes up as you'd get a bigger contribution. Fire shield for 5% additional also over Cinder maybe.
Err, just saw something in that build that would drop dps dramatically. 5\5 spark is kinda a pre-req for it. 1.5 seconds saved from the first 3 casts during which the buffs are up then 1sec fireball spam.

10%dmg (8s)+25% Int(6s)+50%Haste (5xfireballs) --> ~8s total covered by all effect
vs
FB (8s),RS (6s),S(5s),(3xFireball)
The third fireball would gain no benefit from Flamebolt or RS

Think thats pretty accurate conceptually. Though not certain if the 10% is from time of cast or time of strike on flame bolt. So could be off 1sec or so either way.

2 extra fireballs in 8 seconds seems significant though. At a guess 33% or more dps.

[Lepew]

Good point on the Warlock break points. I was running instant adventures in the 51 Elementalist build yesterday and had to go to a 51 Warlock, 12 Chloro, 3 Pyro (for uninterruptable casts) just to deal with the fact that Bosses in instant adventures and in chronicles have this really annoying tendency to ignore the pet and toss stuff on you periodically. At 51 Warlock, the DPS is much better and the health return is much better.

For the 35pyro 21dom 10chloro build, I had a macro to do spores then squirrel, and I would FB spam after that. Remember Natural Awareness falls off after 6s, so unless you weave another life based spell in there, the initial buff from spores fades. So you see the buff for the initial burst. 35pyro 21dom by itself is big dps, but when you pop 10 warlock on the back end, those opportunity procs really come into play. Odds are you will get one in the initial salvo and that can be the difference between it dying before it reaches you or not.

I really do love the 35pyro 21dom 10warl build. You don't need heals if it never lives to kill you. Even Ember Isles stuff dies relatively fast. Being able to re-squirrel and have that amazing salvo all over again is huge. Being able to sit there and reconstruct with the piles of charge you generated off of the initial salve is huge. My son and I were out there doing IAs and he would just aggro a ton of stuff, running around with a trail of things chewing on him, and I would follow, picking them off and burning em down one at a time almost as fast as he could gather.

[CericX]

I feel like we're not connecting in that last exchange.

"For the 35pyro 21dom 10chloro build, I had a macro to do spores then squirrel, and I would FB spam after that. Remember Natural Awareness falls off after 6s, so unless you weave another life based spell in there, the initial buff from spores fades. So you see the buff for the initial burst. 35pyro 21dom by itself is big dps, but when you pop 10 warlock on the back end, those opportunity procs really come into play. Odds are you will get one in the initial salvo and that can be the difference between it dying before it reaches you or not."

Switch points into Spark on that build to take advantage of those 6s! Otherwise those beautiful 1s fireballs are taking 1.5s due to GCD. You would pick up another .5 seconds on each spell in that sequence due to dom's 50% haste.

Also, should lead with FlameBolt to pick up 10% dmg buff, instant squirrel, radiant spores (which don't break squirrel) (internalized charge) Fireball spam. IF its done right the times should sync

(8s[6s(5s((1s)(1s)(1s)(1s)(1s))]) = total time 8s
Should all be inside that buffed sequence if Spark is in the spec.

(8s[6s(5s((1.5s)(1.5s)])(1.5s)) = total time 9s
Without spark, GCD eats up all the benefits of the buffs as well as the hasted casting from dom.

[Lepew]

51 Warlock 12 Chloromancer 3 Pyromancer

This is a pretty solid solo build. Single target sequence is

life leech (jump to cast spores first if you need more dps/heals)
dark touch
defile
spam void bolt

All of the stuff below void bolt in the VB macro is there to be cast on the run as you kite for DPS/procs. 3 is in Pyromancer for uninterrupted casting, since your main thing is spamming void bolt. You need to renew Dark Touch and Defile as they fall off since void bolt's damage is increased by 8.25% for each death damage over time spell on target. Neddra's torture is worth applying for a big boss fight, but otherwise leave it off. Radiant spores procs natural awareness, which can help with the initial salvo. It might make sense to put it on top of the void bolt macro to reapply it every 6s for the intellect bonus, but frankly I would rather have another void bolt. Empowered darkness at full charge is a nice boost, and you should use it as much as you can...dont save it for a rainy day.

AE rotation is to gather stuff with dark touch, then spam the AE macro which will apply neddra's grasp, spread dark touch + neddra's grasp, flame jet them, and go into a devouring shadows channel. This macro is a bit weak in that if you have to do more than one channel of devouring shadows, it will recast neddra's grasp. If you have enough charge and your are hurting for life, hit mortality to finish them off.

Return from life leech, radiant spores procs, and lifegiving veil is solid, and you have insta-cast bloom to heal in a jam, along with the other warlock cooldowns (shadow life, neddra's essence). Mass fear is your punt button, where you can mass fear, mount up, and wave buh-bye to all your problems.

While you will not do as much damage with this as other builds, the damage is respectable, and you have plenty of bacon-saving buttons.




Keybinds

1. LL macro
2. Dark Touch
3. Defile
4. VB macro
5. AE macro
q. Heal macro
w. sacrifice life: mana
e. mass fear
x. choke
t. wither
g. mount
h. cleanse macro
z. fear
n. water
y. burst macro
j. quest
u. mortality
i. racial


Buffs

Lifegiving Veil
Warlock Armor
Neddra's Might


Macros

LL Macro
#show radiant spores
suppressmacrofailures
cast life leech
cast radiant spores
cast break free

VB Macro
#show void bolt
suppressmacrofailures
cast void bolt
cast draining bolt
cast dark fury
cast neddra's grasp
cast flame bolt
cast radiant spores
cast dark touch
cast break free

AE Macro
#show radiate death
suppressmacrofailures
cast Neddra's Grasp
cast Radiate Death
cast Flame Jet
cast Devouring Shadows
cast break free

Heal Macro
#show Bloom
suppressmacrofailures
cast @self Bloom
cast shadow life
cast neddra's essence
cast natural conversion
cast break free

Cleanse Macro
#show Nature's Cleansing
suppressmacrofailures
cast @self Nature's Cleansing
cast break free

Burst Macro
#show empowered darkness
suppressmacrofailures
cast sacrifice life: damage
cast empowered darkness
cast break free

[CericX]

1639 spell power, 1106 spell crit.

35p/10c/21dom 800-850dps, 58hps probably not worth being full 10 in chloro, just go 8 and put the other 2 in pyro. This will get 2 fireball procs hasted.

35p/10c/21dom w\spark variant ~1200 dps 19hps, probably not worth being full 10 in chloro, just go 8 and put the other 2 in pyro. This will get 3 fireball procs hasted.

38p/7c/21dom 1250-1400. Swapping from Pyro armor to fire armor raises this ~100dps

Figured out the optimal dps for mobs : Firebolt|squirrel|spores|3xfireball|squirrel|3xfir eball

This is largely in part to the mobs being dead at the end.

51pyro,10loc,2archon
1200-1400 depending on proc

35p/21dom/10loc
1036-1446 depending on proc. The large variance is probably due to Pyro Armor vs FireArmor

[Lepew]

Interesting results. Questions-
1. Why open with firebolt on the 38p/7c/21dom w/fire armor build? Are you going for procs that carry through squirrel?
2. How do you recover mana in the chloro builds? Energizer bunny wants to know...Energizer bunny hates to sit and drink water.
3. In the 51pyro,10loc,2archon build, where did you put the other 3pts? I assume this is a raid DPS build posted for comparison?
4. How were you measuring DPS? On a dummy? Or in the field v. targets? I would imagine if you toss in 1gcd for squirrel and 1gcd for spores that would increase the combat time with no damage logged over those 2s (spark build). I think a burst dps figure may be a better metric since the time in which it is not a squirrel is time in which it threatens you, and your damage in that time interval determines your exposure time to incoming damage. In a 21 Dom build that opening 5s is just devastating, and many times you can kill lower hp targets outright and take no damage.

[CericX]

Duplicate Post

[CericX]

Interesting results. Questions-
1. Why open with firebolt on the 38p/7c/21dom w/fire armor build? Are you going for procs that carry through squirrel?
Improved Flame Bolt to increase damage by 10%
2. How do you recover mana in the chloro builds? Energizer bunny wants to know...Energizer bunny hates to sit and drink water.
Mana Wrench! to start the combat, then squirrel and move on. It really drops the DPS on one kill though. If you get bored just mana wrench the mob, squirrel, get on your mount and ride to the next!

3. In the 51pyro,10loc,2archon build, where did you put the other 3pts? I assume this is a raid DPS build posted for comparison?
Mistype, 5 archon (in soulfire). And yes, raid spec.

4. How were you measuring DPS? On a dummy? Or in the field v. targets? I would imagine if you toss in 1gcd for squirrel and 1gcd for spores that would increase the combat time with no damage logged over those 2s (spark build). I think a burst dps figure may be a better metric since the time in which it is not a squirrel is time in which it threatens you, and your damage in that time interval determines your exposure time to incoming damage. In a 21 Dom build that opening 5s is just devastating, and many times you can kill lower hp targets outright and take no damage.
Ember Isle on live mobs, thats why I can only say approximate ranges. Squirrel and spores is an immediate loss, but no danger to you during grinding as spores won't break squirrel, some damage is still done by combust but not enough to break squirrel.
Pure DPS spec open with cinder or fireball then flamebolt, fireball,fireball, flamejet or flicker and fireball\inferno. Large groups Lockdown\Firestorm giggle.

Humorous note, while I was testing specs at Ember I of course had my PvP flag on and got jumped. Inst-squirrel to 3xfireball to squirrel and finished. Same guy the second time Flamebolt,squirrel,spores,3x fireball. He had a second person with him on the second round in pyro, I got him to 10% or so before popping If I'd had the whole spec laid out instead of just the points I was testing it would have gone the other way.