Xterminatz Gaming

Ghostcrawler finally confirms that Mage damage overall is lower then expected and we'll be seeing passive fixes made before raid reset / heroic unlocks this week.

- After a few more days, we now think mage DPS is low. We want to keep parity among mage specs so the buffs will likely be fairly passive.

https://twitter.com/Ghostcrawler/status/311285889487732737

- The intent is before the raid reset / heroics unlock.

https://twitter.com/Ghostcrawler/status/311278474507714563

With Patch 5.2 now live I've taken the time to go through the changes for Mages. If you want to see the full list of changes you can find it here however I'll be focusing mainly on Mage since that's the main character I'm raiding with for progression purposes.

• Invocation now removes Evocation's cooldown, and reduces its channeling time and duration by 50%. A completed Evocation now grants 15% increased damage for 1 minute after an Evocation is completed, instead of 25% increased damage for 40 seconds. Passive mana regeneration is reduced by 50% only while Invoker's Energy is active.
• Glyph of Evocation now causes the Invocation talent to restore 10% (was 20%) health after completing an Evocation.
• Greater invisibility now has a 90-second cooldown (was 2.5 minutes).
• Frostbolt cast by Mirror Images now deals 50% more damage.
• Glyph of Fire Blast has been replaced with Glyph of Inferno Blast. Glyph of Inferno Blast causes damage-over-time effects spread by Inferno Blast to spread to 1 additional target.
• Blazing Speed is now a level-15 talent, replacing Scorch.
• Flameglow, a new talent is available at level 30 and replaces Blazing Speed. The passive ability encases the Mage in fiery energy, absorbing damage from each attack made against the Mage equal to 20% of their spellpower, up to a maximum of 30% of the attack.
• Ice Floes now has a 45-second cooldown (was 1 minute) and its duration has been increased to 15 seconds (was 10 seconds).
• Incanter's Ward can now be removed by magic dispels.
• Ring of Frost cast instantly through Presence of Mind now has a 2-second arming period before the Freeze effect is activated against targets in the area of effect. The 2-second arming period can be reduced by Haste.
• Temporal Ripples from Temporal Shield can no longer be dispelled.
• Deep Freeze now stuns the target for 5 seconds (was 4 seconds).
• Rune of Power increases the Mage's mana regeneration by 75% (was 100%) while standing inside the rune.
• Glyph of Deep Freeze now removes it from global cooldown but also reduces its duration by 1 second.
• Mage PvP 2-piece bonus now requires Counterspell to successfully interrupt a spell before applying the 4 second cooldown reduction to Counterspell.
  • Arcane
    • For Arcane Mages, Evocation now restores 40% (was 60%) of total mana over 6 seconds, and consumes all Arcane Charges. For each Arcane Charge consumed, the total amount of mana regenerated is increased by 10%, up to a maximum of 80% over 6 seconds. Evocation remains the same for Fire and Frost.
    • Arcane Blast's damage has been reduced by 22.9% and mana cost has been increased to 1.66667% of base mana (was 1.5%).
    • Arcane Missile's damage has been reduced by 22.1%.
    • Arcane Barrage's damage has been reduced by 16.1%.
    • Arcane Charges now stacks up to 4 times (was 6), increases damage by 50% (was 25%), and increases mana cost by 150% (was 75%).
  • Fire
    • Pyroblast has its direct damage reduced by 10%.
    • Scorch is no longer a talent and is now available to all Fire Mages.
  • Frost
    • Fingers of Frost now has a 15% (was 12%) chance to activate from Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt and Frozen Orb, and a 5% (was 4%) chance to activate from Blizzard.
    • Glyph of Ice Lance now causes Ice Lance to deal 50% damage to 1 additional target, up from 40%.
    • Frostbolt now deals 32% more damage.
    • Water Elemental Freeze no longer does damage and only provides Fingers of Frost on a successful freeze.

Main Hand (535) Suen-Wo, Spire of the Falling Sun
Head (535) Hood of the Chromatic Hydra
Neck (541) Megaera's Shining Eye
Shoulder (535) Mantle of the Chromatic Hydra
Back (541) Red Sky Cloudcloak
Chest (535) Robes of the Chromatic Hydra
Wrist (535) Bracers of Fragile Bone
Hands (535) Crystal-Claw Gloves
Waist (541) Vita-Binder Wrap
Legs (535) Leggings of the Chromatic Hydra
Feet (541) Starwalker Sandals
Ring 1 (541) Ra-den's Summoning Band
Ring 2 (535) Ro'shak's Remembrance
Trinket 1 (541) Wushoolay's Final Choice
Trinket 2 (541) Breath of the Hydra

Main Hand (528) Nadagast's Exsanguinator - Horridon
Off Hand (528) Fetish of the Hydra - Megaera
Head (522) Hood of the Chromatic Hydra - Twin Consorts
Neck (528) Necklace of the Terra-Cotta Invoker - Trash
Shoulder (522) Mantle of the Chromatic Hydra - Iron Qon
Back (528) Deadly Glare Cape - Durumu
Chest (522) Robes of the Chromatic Hydra - Dark Animus
Wrist (528) Bracers of Fragile Bone - Primordius
Hands (522) Gloves of the Chromatic Hydra - Council of Elders
Waist (522) Cord of Cacophonous Cawing - Ji_Kun
Legs (528) Legwraps of Cardinality - Lei Shen
Feet (528) Sandals of Arcane Fury - Megaera
Ring 1 (528) Ro'shak's Remembrance - Iron Qon
Ring 2 (528) Jin'rokh's Dreamshard - Jin'Rokh
Trinket 1 (528) Unerring Vision of Lei-Shen - Lei Shen
Trinket 2 (522) Volatile Talisman of the Shado-Pan Ass - ShadowPan Rep 1750 VP (Friendly)

So last night before 5.2 patch went live I spent a considerable amount of time using SimulationCraft to try and theorycraft what the DPS will look in Tier15 Heroic gear for myself as a Mage and for the raid as a whole. Remember that the sims that have been run are based on the latest PTR build.

Mage T15H Sims - http://www.xterminatz.com/sims/mage_t15h.html

Mage_Arcane_T15H : 189316 dps
Mage_Fire_T15H : 186350 dps
Mage_Frost_T15H : 180221 dps

Raid T15H Sims - http://www.xterminatz.com/sims/raid_t15h.html