good weave for a group mage

[Cindayen1234]

I know I asked this in serverwide, but i've already forgotten it all and was wondering if it could be posted here again so I will be able to retain it better.

I was wanting to know what a good weave would be for a group mage. My current one is for raid mages and eats my mana. For those who want to know if it'll help, I have a 38.1k mana pool. I currently use RS, bolt, shock, fickle. I did find that in an old thread and I think it could be outdated given the newer added spells to our list like clash and what not. If anyone has anything that they think would help me please post!

[nahseev]

For me the use of a weave is to maximize DPS, not conserve mana. In groups or solo/molo trash I usually just rock Fickle/Bolt with RS and Spear on GoM's.

[Cindayen1234]

RS eats mana to, unless thats on GoM proc. so fickle bolt rs and spear? I will try that out.

[Failcon]

If you stay on top of your mod rod, both pet based regens and gather potential, you can weave RS, Fickle (place this first for proc chances), Spear, Bolt on a multi-bind. This set-up is a way to max your grp dps. I actually have 2 multi-binds. The second places Blazing Sands at the end of the weave and removes RS, this is good for the end of fights so not to waste mana on RS pets that spawn for last 5 sec of fight. You can also use the second multi-bind as a more mana friendly weave that lets you cast RS only on GoM procs instead.

[Sillaen]

In groups I use Fickle --> Spear --> fickle --> bolt; rinse and repeat. Fickle will refresh while casting spear. I'll toss RS on a GoM proc, or at the beginning of a fight where I'm at 100% and hit thaumatize right after. Between rods, thaumatize, symbiosis and gather potential I can pretty much keep mana up in the positive for a couple of hours before I have to ooc med, well unless the healer decides to stop healing me, or I run out of healing potions.

[Savil]

In groups I use Fickle --> Spear --> fickle --> bolt; rinse and repeat. Fickle will refresh while casting spear. I'll toss RS on a GoM proc, or at the beginning of a fight where I'm at 100% and hit thaumatize right after. Between rods, thaumatize, symbiosis and gather potential I can pretty much keep mana up in the positive for a couple of hours before I have to ooc med, well unless the healer decides to stop healing me, or I run out of healing potions.

This is very suboptimal. Holding RS for GoM procs is a *great* way to waste mana and kill your overall dps in both raid and group.

In a full group that your killing a mob every say 30-40 secs, holding back RS pet can lead to wasted RS pet time. If your going to hold RS pet until GoM you should at least look to see the HPS the mob is currently at and figure out if the mob will live near long enough to get use out of the RS pet. If not your better off using another nuke. Remember, RS pets are 20 sec *dots* (yes, I called it a dot).

I didn't see using Force of Elements anywhere in this list... you should *always* be using this, its free dmg.

What I do when grouping, look at the speed the group kills (there is NO hard and fast WEAVE you use in groups) mobs. If this time is around 20-30 secs, LEAD with RS pet, and then nuke a few times, maybe just once. If your group is killing faster, say every 10-15 secs.. using RS pet at all is POINTLESS.

You will save more overall mana starting off with RS pet and nuking 1-2 times, than casting 3-5 nukes and hoping for a GoM proc that results in an RS pet that does 1/2 its dmg and then sits around waiting to expire.

Again, a good mage adapts to the group / area, there isn't a one size fits all here. Using TP / GP / Rods is a very good start, as well as casting Aegis (aa is great) every time you see it go down. I find myself more times than not starting off with RS, and tossing 1 spear, and maybe a bolt, then just watching to see if more is needed. In groups that are killing to fast for RS pet, I usually nuke each mob 2-3 times.

The worst thing a mage can do is to ever hold back for GoM procs.

Savil

[Failcon]

I spam thurm/rod/gather and burn mobs. Only RS in start. If you need a lil down time that is cool. Just remember that if you kill 10 mobs in 10 min and med for 2 min or go slower and kill 10 in 12 min it's all the same. Just find your grove.

[Sillaen]

In groups I use Fickle --> Spear --> fickle --> bolt; rinse and repeat. Fickle will refresh while casting spear. I'll toss RS on a GoM proc, or at the beginning of a fight where I'm at 100% and hit thaumatize right after. Between rods, thaumatize, symbiosis and gather potential I can pretty much keep mana up in the positive for a couple of hours before I have to ooc med, well unless the healer decides to stop healing me, or I run out of healing potions.

This is very suboptimal. Holding RS for GoM procs is a *great* way to waste mana and kill your overall dps in both raid and group.

True and I know it's not optimal. When everything works right and you get the full duration from every RS you cast, it's more DPM than any other spell you can cast. More often than not, I'm the only DPS in my group so I keep an eye on mana especially for constant pulling, so I'll lead with RS when high on mana, but only pop another one on a GoM proc. I can usually manage to keep my mana high for quite a while, so typically every mob gets at least 1 RS to start out with. My typical group allows me to use twincast every few mobs, so you see we're not killing mobs every 30 secs. This is not my raid setup.

I didn't see using Force of Elements anywhere in this list... you should *always* be using this, its free dmg.

I have force tied to my spell casting keys (doesn't everyone) so it gets casted every time it's up.

Again, a good mage adapts to the group / area, there isn't a one size fits all here. Using TP / GP / Rods is a very good start, as well as casting Aegis (aa is great) every time you see it go down. I find myself more times than not starting off with RS, and tossing 1 spear, and maybe a bolt, then just watching to see if more is needed. In groups that are killing to fast for RS pet, I usually nuke each mob 2-3 times.

True. No arguments there. I never find myself part of groups that are killing mobs too fast for RS. That's because most of my group friends are tanks or clerics. It's not uncommon for me to have 2 or 3 clerics/tanks in my group Yes, it's very inefficient.

I spam thurm/rod/gather and burn mobs. Only RS in start. If you need a lil down time that is cool. Just remember that if you kill 10 mobs in 10 min and med for 2 min or go slower and kill 10 in 12 min it's all the same. Just find your grove.

True dat.

[nahseev]

Again, a good mage adapts to the group / area, there isn't a one size fits all here. Using TP / GP / Rods is a very good start, as well as casting Aegis (aa is great) every time you see it go down. I find myself more times than not starting off with RS, and tossing 1 spear, and maybe a bolt, then just watching to see if more is needed. In groups that are killing to fast for RS pet, I usually nuke each mob 2-3 times.

The worst thing a mage can do is to ever hold back for GoM procs.

Savil

Like you say, adjust to the situation. Holding back for GoM's is NOT the worst thing you can do depending on the situation. My normal group takes 1-2 min per mob. I can easily cast 10-12 spells in that time. You will be out of mana blasting RS and Spear eventually depending on your mana pool. Lowering your dps a little is a lot better than having the group or yourself take a break because you need mana. Toggling two spells and waiting for GoM will allow you to go hours without needing a break but then again that might not be what the OP is after. I read the question as needing another spell rotation because mana was being burnt too quickly.

[Savil]

Like you say, adjust to the situation. Holding back for GoM's is NOT the worst thing you can do depending on the situation. My normal group takes 1-2 min per mob. I can easily cast 10-12 spells in that time. You will be out of mana blasting RS and Spear eventually depending on your mana pool. Lowering your dps a little is a lot better than having the group or yourself take a break because you need mana. Toggling two spells and waiting for GoM will allow you to go hours without needing a break but then again that might not be what the OP is after. I read the question as needing another spell rotation because mana was being burnt too quickly.

In cases where I take longer to kill (say 1 full minute to kill) and I'm casting that many spells, I still don't hold back for gom's. I would much rather abuse OOC more often than nerf my overall DPS by waiting for gom procs.

The test for this is simple enough, get a copy of gamparse, install it, and watch your DPS for a night your way. Then do it my way the next night and abuse OOC, at the end of that night compare them and see which works out best for you.

Savil