Magician NoS Guide

[Erasimus]

Thank you for this great guide! I did my own independent research and calculations and arrived at the same conclusions. The multibind below stops after casting Firebound Orb, though. It waits for servant to repop instead of activating Chaotic, Force of Elements, or spear. Any idea why?  There is definitely nothing else bound to this keystroke.

A second multibind with chaotic through spear on another key does work.

Servant
Many (to capitalize on synergy)
Firebound Orb (during GCD)
Chaotic
Force of Elements (during GCD)
Spear

[Sancus]

Erasimus, are you still having issues with that multibind? The issue is likely having an item and an AA in the same multibind, but I know there were two patches around the time of that post that adjusted EQ multibinding rules.

That having been said, I generally opt to not include Firebound Orb or Force of Elements in a multibind. Firebound Orb will fire whenever it's up, and that can lead to it consuming the Conjurer's Synergy proc during the GCD between RS and Of Many if multibound.

Force of Elements has a cast time, and depending on when it refreshes, it can end up casting at the end of a GCD such that by the end it finishes casting, the GCD has been over for a few tenths of a second. That's not huge, but it does cost you a few spell casts over the course of a raid event that Force does not make up for. Beyond that, with the amount of lag often present in modern raids, it actually takes much longer than 0.5s for Force of Elements to fire. If you find Force of Elements is not firing smoothly (especially during burns, which are often most laggy), it is better to use it less frequently than to not cast your primary damaging spells that do far more damage.

[intered]

Nice guide! But... maybe I missed it... but what are the spells you all got bound to the shortcuts? And how does your spell bar looks like?

This:?

1: Riotous Servant, Shockwave of Many, Chaotic Pyroclasm, Spear of Molten Komatiite
3: Riotous Servant, Shockwave of Many of Many, Spear of Molten Komatiite, Spear of Molten Arcronite
R: Chaotic Pyroclasm, Spear of Molten Komatiite, Spear of Molten Arcronite
E: Ritotous Servant, Rain of Scimitars, Korascian Bolt, Shock of Burning Steel

Or... ??

And this still valid at lvl 115?

[Sancus]

The guide is current as of Torment of Velious (last expansion, which raised the cap to 115). It hasn't been updated for Claws of Veeshan yet, but the changes are minor:

• Firebound Coalition replaces Firebound Covenant. This requires some updates to the GINA triggers.
  
  
• Summon Molten Komatiite Orb replaces Summon Firebound Orb. The new Orb is worth using during Improved Twincast, though not during the GCD between RS and Of Many.
  
  
• Komatiite Bolt replaces Korascian Bolt. There are some Improved Twincast lineups with Komatiite Bolt used in conjunction with Thaumaturge's Focus that are very slightly better than a "standard" ITC weave, but I don't think those are worth including in a more generalized guide like this. Otherwise, Komatiite Bolt will only see use on fire resistant content, which is almost nonexistent in ToV/CoV (the fire dragon in The Call being the only exception).
  

As far as which spells I have bound to which keys and what spells I keep loaded, that omission is intentional. My UI is set up in a way that works for me after years of playing this way, but I don't think it's the best way by any means. Others have found creative and often very different ways to effectively set up their multibinds. The list you provide would be totally viable, as would a number of other combinations. The important part to get right is the spells in those various weaves, which is what the guide goes over.

You obviously need to load all of the spells necessary for the weaves you may need on a given raid, in addition to staples like Twincast, Summon Molten Komatiite Orb, Firebound Coalition, and Shield of Destiny. There are a lot of situationally useful spells beyond those, and therefore a number of equally valid spell sets for different situations. Being that as it is, I don't intend to post one.

[Sancus]

Updated for CoV. Changed the section about our sustained weave some to put a greater emphasis on how the weave rotates. Otherwise materially the same, though I updated some wording here and there.

[Sancus]

The updated guide for ToL can be found here. I added that link to the top of the original post as well. I left the text of the CoV version just in case, though I can remove it if it's confusing.

[Sancus]

NoS version of this guide can be found here. The link is new given I largely re-wrote it.

[satash]

question.  why are saying to not use alliance spell?  it gives a nice added damage to each spell and over 3 million damage hit at the end.

[Sancus]

question.  why are saying to not use alliance spell?  it gives a nice added damage to each spell and over 3 million damage hit at the end.

The total damage added by a cast of Firebound Conjunction is 4.6 million (560k added damage + 4 million fulmination). Under certain circumstances, that can be a reasonable return on the time spent casting. In particular, as noted in the guide, it can be worthwhile under certain circumstances when you are missing ADPS.

That said, if you have full ADPS, the average damage from casting any of our direct damage spells, when including procs and twincasts, is at or above that of casting Conjunction. Additionally, Conjunction has a higher execution requirement than a normal damaging spell given you need nine incoming spells to fulminate it and you run the risk of conflicting with Conjunctions of other Mages. Therefore, with full ADPS, it is generally not additive to people's DPS, and I therefore don't recommend using it in the guide.

If you can find times where it is additive - and there are scenarios where it is - you can definitely use it. I'd just err on the side of not using it unless you're sure the scenario you're in warrants it.