bumping and reporting for sticky :D

Yeh, this needs to be stickied.

Also Noziv does the gear/talents/glyphs you mention only apply to PvE or is this the best route to go for PvP?

If it doesnt whats the best route to go for PvP talents and starting gear and also what stats lose significance and what stats are more important (as alot of my friends have PvP and PvE gear and dual talents) when you PvP.

this needs a few things b4 it can go to the stikyz ;)

1. FFB ain't the spec to go as a fresh lvl 80 mage --- you won't have the hit cap unless you go tailoring

these items are the first any mage should get at lvl 80 : http://www.wowhead.com/?compare=42101:42111:41984:44173:40698 - they grant 235 hit ans 649 SP ( adding gems and enchants t othem will get you some aditional hit rating )

2. From farming heroics you can gear up a mage in a nice set of epix -
http://www.wowhead.com/?compare=46129:45822:47714:47501:46130:40740:45840:47218:40417:40750:40719:37694:40682:47213:47569:40698:37238

the link above features some really nice gear ( some ilvl245 shoulders that can be yours for just doing your daily HC for 13 dayz .. )


3. Fresh mages at lvl 80 should go arcane - it requires the least amount of hit rating and crit --- remember that FFB or FB/TTW builds require a lot of critical strikes to work ;) . Arcane specc can be mana intensive, but it can be used in heroics as the fights don't last an eternity and a mana gem + evocate solves the mana problem :)

remember to have fun :)


ps :

for PvP ppl say frost or arcane ... but you really need gear and a good team ... ppl are complaining that mages are a litle too easy to lock down and kill ;)

Is FFB really the best spec?
i tend to lose up to 500dps with that spec.
Look what i´m having for spec. i do 4-5k on patch and 3k och trash with 12,5k crits.

Can antone tell me why FFB spec is better and i´ll swap.

the OP is waaay off imo .... i dont' have ulduar exp ..yet :P ... but i kept an eye on the mages evolution in 3.x and FFb lost it's crown when TTW came into play ;)

another sh!t ppl do not take into consideration is that the speccs that we talk about on these forums don't yield the best results b4 you get a certain amount of hit + crit+ haste ... and, as you work your way into increasing these stats you can progress in specc from Arcane to FFb and in the end to FB/TTW

am i the only one who thinks fire is rubbish then :) takes too long to cast and uses too much mana and you got little to no armor lol. Im arcane and a few frost and is awesome and my AoE in naxx and other places always puts me top of the damage metres (need lots of mobs tho its wicked) :) and ive only got a few naxx gear at the moment and i quite regularly out dps FFB mages and while they end up using their wands im still loaded with mana :) BUT ive not done ulduar yet so i cant say whether fire spec is the best or not :) and ive spent over 1500 gold messing with my talents trying different specs and arcane/frost always wins :) for me anyway BUT remember its about personal taste and what you feel comfortable with

An nice usefull guide first i was supposed to use frost as raiding spec wich also was pretty nice because i practiculary dindt run out of mana but then an friend from my guild told me about the FFB spec so i respecced end i like FFB spec so thanks for this Post i will read it alot to be a better mage =D

@ Doomdayz, read my post again, thank you ;)

This specc is for PvE and so is the gear.

Imho this specc (FFB) is easier to handle as a new mage than arcane, that's why I made the guide.
I could prob make one about arcane too.

---

Q u o t e:
Is FFB really the best spec?
i tend to lose up to 500dps with that spec.
Look what i´m having for spec. i do 4-5k on patch and 3k och trash with 12,5k crits.

Can antone tell me why FFB spec is better and i´ll swap.

---

It's better for the new mages, since they don't have the gear to go ttw/fb yet.
When you got the gear for ttw/fb, that specc is better. But this is for the new dinged mages.

Hiya mate just read your guide on newly dinged mages and I am sure that there will be alot of new 80's salivating at being told what stats to build on to prepare for Naxx. I'm just not sure why you have advised them to build FFB when FB is more competitive for a fire mage starting out who would otherwise need to build his crit to 30% and attain the 16% hit he needs to never miss pre-naxx (17% skull level bosses not HC bosses). I'm not sure of the pre-naxx gear that you could get to attain either of these stats without having to gem/enchant for them as you would have to gear for hit primarily at the expense of all other stats. It would be nigh on impossible to attain the crit levels needed to make this a viable raiding build pre-Naxx and in Naxx itself.

That aside, FFB and FB and indeed Frost builds have not been competitive with the Arcane build since patch 3.1 for raiding or HCs. They are great for levelling but should then be shelved until you have 4-piece T9 gear at which stage FFB becomes viable again due to the heavy amounts of Crit in the gear.

I may have mis-construed the advice that you are trying to give and this may be just for mages who want to raid in a lower dps build in order to keep up scorch for warlocks

The hit capp is gained from the gear I listed.
With the gear I listed + buffs you should atleast have 30% crit in a raid. :)
And I think that FFB is easier to manage since your new dinged, might be harder to go arcane since it's such a mana drainer too.

Thats just my oppinion though and that's why I said FFB, but I'll add an arcane build too, when i get the time.

Hope that answered your questions :)