Frostfire macros?

[Decadence]

I was using /cast Frostbolt with full frost till 80, then I switched to frostfire after reading elitist jerks a bit...

Anyone have any advise on frostfire with getting the 5 scorch debuff?

[Vicker]

You will need two buttons. For the first button, create a macro that casts pyroblast. For the second button, use the following macro:


/castsequence reset=target scorch,scorch,scorch,scorch,vickerisawesome
/castsequence [combat,exists,harm,nodead] reset=12/target ,scorch,,frostfire bolt,,frostfire bolt,,frostfire bolt,,frostfire bolt,,frostfire bolt,,frostfire bolt
/cast living bomb

What this does:
The first cast sequence will apply four stacks of scorch and then get stuck where it says "vickerisawesome". You can replace "vickerisawesome" with any random word that isn't the name of a spell. The nonsense word is there to get the cast sequence to get stuck and not go back to the beginning.

Once the first cast sequence gets stuck, it goes on to the main rotation. Every 25 seconds or so, it will reapply scorch. At each of the double commas, the macro tries to cast living bomb. If living bomb is up already, it won't cast living bomb and the cast sequence moves on to the next frostfire bolt. The beauty of this is that if you try to cast living bomb on a target that already has your bomb on it, you get an error message of, "a more powerful spell is already active," and the spell doesn't cast, so the macro can move on and cast another frostfire bolt.

Summery:
Casts 4 stacks of scorch,
then applies living bomb,
then spams frostfire bolt.
Reapplies scorch before the stacks wears off.
Reapplies living bomb as soon as the previous living bomb has exploded.

When hot streak procs, use the other macro to cast a pyroblast.

I suggest using the addon "Power Auras" on your lead character. You can set this addon to pop up a warning on your lead character's screen whenever your mage has a hot streak buff.

[Queshank]

I am probably the laziest, sloppiest multiboxer to frequent these forums. In all likelihood I'm the last person who should give anyone any kind of advice on multiboxing. Also my mages are only 74th (one frost for replenishment and blizzards, the other I just spec'd fire to see if I could up her dps.)

But I just want to make sure you're aware of the Improved Scorch glyph...that automatically makes every Scorch apply 5 applications of Improved Scorch (Glyph of Improved Scorch). I just have scorch periodically in my cast sequence one time then.

But if there's a reason that's a bad idea, I'm here to learn heh.

Queshank

[Multibocks]

You will need two buttons. For the first button, create a macro that casts pyroblast. For the second button, use the following macro:


/castsequence reset=target scorch,scorch,scorch,scorch,vickerisawesome
/castsequence [combat,exists,harm,nodead] reset=12/target ,scorch,,frostfire bolt,,frostfire bolt,,frostfire bolt,,frostfire bolt,,frostfire bolt,,frostfire bolt
/cast living bomb

What this does:
The first cast sequence will apply four stacks of scorch and then get stuck where it says "vickerisawesome". You can replace "vickerisawesome" with any random word that isn't the name of a spell. The nonsense word is there to get the cast sequence to get stuck and not go back to the beginning.

Once the first cast sequence gets stuck, it goes on to the main rotation. Every 25 seconds or so, it will reapply scorch. At each of the double commas, the macro tries to cast living bomb. If living bomb is up already, it won't cast living bomb and the cast sequence moves on to the next frostfire bolt. The beauty of this is that if you try to cast living bomb on a target that already has your bomb on it, you get an error message of, "a more powerful spell is already active," and the spell doesn't cast, so the macro can move on and cast another frostfire bolt.

Summery:
Casts 4 stacks of scorch,
then applies living bomb,
then spams frostfire bolt.
Reapplies scorch before the stacks wears off.
Reapplies living bomb as soon as the previous living bomb has exploded.

When hot streak procs, use the other macro to cast a pyroblast.

I suggest using the addon "Power Auras" on your lead character. You can set this addon to pop up a warning on your lead character's screen whenever your mage has a hot streak buff.

You know the "official" way to stop a macro line from casting further? Use "Null," I learned that the other day =)

[Vicker]

I am probably the laziest, sloppiest multiboxer to frequent these forums. In all likelihood I'm the last person who should give anyone any kind of advice on multiboxing. Also my mages are only 74th (one frost for replenishment and blizzards, the other I just spec'd fire to see if I could up her dps.)

But I just want to make sure you're aware of the Improved Scorch glyph...that automatically makes every Scorch apply 5 applications of Improved Scorch (Glyph of Improved Scorch). I just have scorch periodically in my cast sequence one time then.

But if there's a reason that's a bad idea, I'm here to learn heh.

Queshank

The scorch glyph is a major glyph. If you want to maximize your dps, the best three glyphs to be using are the glyphs for frostfire bolt, molten armor, and living bomb. You could give up one of those for the scorch glyph, but you will be losing dps. It is an acceptable loss if you are unable to maintain the scorch debuff without using the glyph, but if you are able to macro appropriately the debuff shouldn't be falling off.

The way my macro works is that if you change targets and then return to your original target, the first spell that you cast will be one scorch to refresh the stack.


You know the "official" way to stop a macro line from casting further? Use "Null," I learned that the other day =)

I don't know if that's really "official"... I think Null is just a nicer sounding word that isn't the name of a spell. =P


I should add one more thing about my macro. It is an excellent macro for boss fights and those really big trash mobs that last for more than 30 seconds, but it's not quite as good for smaller trash. For smaller trash, you don't need to worry about the scorch debuff. A similar macro for small trash would look something like this:


/castsequence [combat,exists,harm,nodead] reset=1,target ,frostfire bolt
/cast living bomb

This macro will refresh living bomb when needed while spamming frostfire bolt.

[zanthor]

Since Living Bomb can be cast over it's self (and thus delaying the explosion @ the end) wouldn't these macro's simply recast Living Bomb WAY more often than necessary?

I see it casting scorch (Line 1),scorch (Line 1),scorch (Line 1),scorch (Line 1), living bomb (Line 3), scorch(Line 2),living bomb(Line 3),ffb(Line 2),living bomb(Line 3),FFB(Line 2),etc...

Is there a mechanic here I'm not aware of?

[Vicker]

Since Living Bomb can be cast over it's self (and thus delaying the explosion @ the end) wouldn't these macro's simply recast Living Bomb WAY more often than necessary?

I see it casting scorch (Line 1),scorch (Line 1),scorch (Line 1),scorch (Line 1), living bomb (Line 3), scorch(Line 2),living bomb(Line 3),ffb(Line 2),living bomb(Line 3),FFB(Line 2),etc...

Is there a mechanic here I'm not aware of?

I addressed this in my first post. You cannot override living bomb. If you attempt to cast living bomb on a target that already has a living bomb from you on it. If you try to, you will get an error message of, "A more powerful spell is already active." When the macro tries to cast living bomb and can't cast it, due to living bomb already being applied, the cast sequence in line two moves on to the next spell. That is the purpose of having two separate lines for line two and line three.

My macro will only apply living bomb AFTER it has run its full duration and exploded and will never apply living bomb before it has exploded.

Try it on a target dummy. It does a flawless rotation. My mage gets around 3k dps with it.

[zanthor]

Thanks for the clarification, one of my ret pallies was questioning it, and apparently on test server when he was playing with it you could overwrite your own living bomb...

[Owltoid]

Very nice macro. I have a feeling it's just a matter of time until Blizz fixes that oversite and allows for spam casting of living bomb (which would be a bad thing from a mana and DPS perspective). Otherwise you're basically using the same mechanic that caused /castrandom to change.

Use it until you lose it, though :)

[Decadence]

thanks i went from 1400 to 2000 dps in my newly dinged 80 mage.... now i just need to get some gear to see the real numbers.

[Queshank]

The scorch glyph is a major glyph. If you want to maximize your dps, the best three glyphs to be using are the glyphs for frostfire bolt, molten armor, and living bomb. You could give up one of those for the scorch glyph, but you will be losing dps. It is an acceptable loss if you are unable to maintain the scorch debuff without using the glyph, but if you are able to macro appropriately the debuff shouldn't be falling off.


Aha! Thank you very much. I knew there had to be a catch to using that glyph. Now I just gotta get my mages to catch up to my elemental shaman's dps. 74th frost mage does around 700 to 750dps, 74th fire mage does around 750 to 800 dps, and the 74th shaman does upwards of 1200dps. I have 2 60th lvl shamans waiting in the wings to replace the 2 mages if they don't start performing! Since I've played tanks and healers since WoW's release (and in fact in the old EQ days), I've got a lot to learn about dpsing.

Queshank

[outdrsyguy1]

I think the Living bomb is overwritable in PVP vs players, just not on mobs. Not sure why either. I like it the way it is with mobs for sure.

sidenote, for some reason my mage had better dps with frost than with fire, probably had to do with the /castseuence function sucking but could have to do with the super spell buffed features of a shaman druid paly mage type team.

[Vicker]

I think the Living bomb is overwritable in PVP vs players, just not on mobs. Not sure why either. I like it the way it is with mobs for sure.

sidenote, for some reason my mage had better dps with frost than with fire, probably had to do with the /castseuence function sucking but could have to do with the super spell buffed features of a shaman druid paly mage type team.

Try this spec: http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=8&tal=0000000000000000000000000000000305032012303330 0531203003512033030310030000000000000000

Your frost mage has precision. When you say "fire" spec, I assume you mean a fireball based spec. Fireball specs are the best option only if you have very high end raid gear. If you're not at 1.8k spellpower and 450 spell hit, you will get higher dps from a frostfire spec. Frostfire is better for low end gear because you get the precision talent to help with your spell hit. Fireball is better for high end gear because fireball is a 3.5sec untalented cast time (versus frostfire bolt's 3 sec cast), so it benefits a little bit more from spellpower gear.

Also, don't forget about icy veins and combustion. Skipping out on those will really hurt your dps. You can add them to the macro I posted:


/castsequence reset=target scorch,scorch,scorch,scorch,vickerisawesome
/castsequence [combat,exists,harm,nodead] reset=12/target ,scorch,,frostfire bolt,,frostfire bolt,,frostfire bolt,,frostfire bolt,,frostfire bolt,,frostfire bolt
/cast living bomb
/cast combustion
/cast icy veins



Asside from that if you have a really high latency, frost might be the way to go for you. A frost macro consists of casting frostbolt over and over, so you don't have to use castsquences. Castsequences get hung up by higher latencies. In a zero lag situation, however, frostfire bolt is the way to go.

[outdrsyguy1]

thanks vicker, i'll def try that out once i finish my current project of getting 5 pvp mages. 3 levels to go!

[Allecto]

Can you take this a step further?

I want to use the /targetenemy functionality for quickly applying LB on multiple targets, then once I rotate back to a target that already has LB on it, start casting Fireball. Any ideas?