Davidus

I notice here the key is to stay under the 30% mark for VM, but I have to ask when during these casts are you using Savante and the mana stone and all the other mana regen options like hearts and shards to keep you from running out of power? yes devitalizing gazes helps but still there has to be time to use these other forms of mana regen and I just want to keep the timing right.

Manyak

It basically comes down to something like this....

Start the fight at 35-40% and cast manaflow on yourself to bring you under 30%. Spam your spells as shown above, and eventually mana flow should trigger just as you are about to hit 0% mana, putting you back up to 20-25%. At this point, what you do depends on how much mana proc gear you have. If you don't have many procs, then wait till around 20% and cast savante. If you do, then wait till you are at something like 10%.

Now, with savante up (assuming you have the AA maxed), wait till the time left on savante hits 20 sec, and then mana flow yourself again. This should bring you down to around 5-10% mana by the time savante is over, leaving you 10 seconds to drop down as low as you can for when mana flow hits again. By using mana flow while savante is still up, you only lose 5% as opposed to 10%, making your net gain on this flow 15%.

Anyway, at this time, you should be just over 20% mana again. Now, your goal here is to make sure that your mana is JUST under 30% (like 28%-29%) after 30 seconds (for mana flow to come back up). The best way is to just use Extract Essence along with hearts/shards while still alternating all your nukes, this way you don't really lose much DPS while regenning. And after all this, once mana flow is back up, use it on urself yet again.

I think you get the idea.

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Cupcake

I must be missing something; when did Manaflow give you back 20-25% power?

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Manyak

It takes away 10% of your power when you cast it. Then after 30 seconds, it gives you back that 10% power, and then whoever you cast it on gets 10% of their power pool as well.

So if you cast it on yourself, you get your original 10% + the 10% that was meant for someone else. So yeah its a total gain of 10%, but your mana bar jumps up 20% when it hits you (if you cast it on yourself).

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Davidus

Good stuff Manyak thanks for the tip. I worked with VM all night and was getting the timing down on the mana flow trying to keep myself under 30% at all times. With very little proc gear and an Int of 650 and all spells but beam being mastered I was on average of 1.2k on solo mobs and my highest parse last night was 1.6. Look forward to more proc gear.

Next question I have now is the pet... I have never really ever considered using the pet in a raid, but have read a couple places that if I were in a mage group with a troub that my pet would be more dps than 3 synergisms. How accurate is this especially since my pet is only adept 3 and would have no proc buffs.

I am not out to just increase my own dps but the raid as a whole and if the pet can add 500 dps to the raid total and not hinder any of the mages not getting synergism then I may try it out.

I want feedback though before I just whip out a pet and have to hear mages go WTF!!!


BTW the 1.2k was in the melee group and the 1.6 I got was in the mage group. WTB a troub.

Pinski

The mages will bitch even if it's better for DPS.

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Davidus

So Pinski do you use your pet?

Frodogorn

Outside of getting in your zone and casting rythm, as well as managing your power, the group setup is HUGE.

Practice practice practice (EH trash is great practice fodder) your dps in whatever group you get placed in, then push to get put in caster group with troubador and wizard. If you can get consistant you should be able to top the parse now and then or if good, top the parse alot.

A good or great illusionist in this type of group pushes ALL the dps to higher lvls. So many people out there have this misconception that we are buff bots. SO WRONG! Sure, there is only a tiny fraction of GOOD illusionists out there, but when you get good, there is no other class like it!

If you want to come close to maximizing raid dps and have a sick illusionist group, get with the raid leader and convince him to give this a shot. Illusionist, Wizard, Troubador, Healer (Templar or Fury is great, but any healer would work), Summoner (w/ casting pet) or any other caster, and good target for haste/IA (I like Swashy). This group setup allows for you to buff wizard with TC and a melee with IA/Haste. This also allows you to drop group int/wis buff, synergism yourself, and cast your pet (I drop pet for certain named fights). If you want to rationalize being able to cast pet instead of 3 synergisms you better get with the troub and the wizard and make sure they cast Precision of the Maestro and Frigid Gift as much as possible.

If you are really good, you will find yourself winning some zonewides and pushing the raid force to parses they might not see otherwise. I know I for one keep the assassins, ranger, wizards, and others on their toes.

We may not be a spike damage class, but if you keep at it, hone your skills, and are consistent you will see some pretty high numbers. Numerous times tonight in EH I parsed over 3k, best being 3400+ (1:16 fight).

I can't wait to get more proc gear! Note: Finger Bone Manacles suck balls. It may be contrary to the procs>crits>boe, but i'm probably going to replace them with the bracelet from Wuoshi's heart if I don't get Nizara Sash or Matron Bracelet 1st. One more piece to go to complete fabled set. I will most likely use the full set, even if I was able to get sage gloves and breath helm (I have enough mana options that i'm not concerned about mana proc gear).

Good luck Illusionists, don't to many of you get uber or we will get nerfed!

-Gerrod

Vayn

Earlier Cupcake asked about using Tumor and that kinda got skipped over. Is there a reason it's not in your spell rotation?

Manyak

I would gladly be dropped to the DPS of an ungeared bard if it meant that proper crowd control would be NEEDED on raids.

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