Magicians versus "a pile of haunted bones"

[Szilent]

in the Drusella's Vault raid event, a pile of haunted bones has the effect on it Highly Flammable, making it take 100x damage from fire. This effect sounds great for magicians, but it functions to make all non-fire damage almost worthless. Further, as a pile of haunted bones is a non-agro object rather than a fighting monster, it has no agro list. This means the "of Many" nukes which depend on pets_on_the_agro_list do 0 damage. Not "very little" - actual 0.

So. Special multibind just for killing a pile of haunted bones:

Twincast
Chaotic Pyroclasm
Rain of Molten Komatiite
Spear of Molten Komatiite
Spear of Molten Arcronite

These spells will hit for millions of damage at a time on a pile of haunted bones.

The list has no Servant spell, because Servants aren't fire damage so compared to just another fire spell they're real bad on a pile of haunted bones. The list has no "of Many" nuke because there's no pet agro list on a pile of haunted bones.

Magicians should have their fire pet summoned for hitting on a pile of haunted bones. The fire pet's nuke damage is normally less than a water pet's backstab damage -- but the fire pet's nukes are fire so incredible on a pile of haunted bones. It should be armed with summoned fire swords; fire pets won't rush up to their target, but if Summon Companion AA is used to position them, they will melee to get even more fire damage procs.

Dedicated magicians can also add Tonic of Resonant Fire. This is a lower level potion than Restless Focus, but it makes fire procs so it's amazing on a pile of haunted bones.

Same with augments:
Living Golem Heart
Heroic Golem Heart
Spirit of the Gorgon
Sodkee's Sympathetic Stone (special: fits range slot)

are all much lower level procs than modern Sympathetic augments -- but they're fire, so they're amazing on a pile of haunted bones.

[Furro]

Thanks for the fire tips, Szilent!

[Sancus]

Great points, Szilent. Additional notes for this:

• Frenzied Burnout dramatically increases the rate at which Fire pets cast, and therefore is very potent when used while fighting a pile of haunted bones. Ideally, one would have a fire pet suspended with Frenzied Burnout prior to the raid, allowing for six minutes of uptime during the raid (if you kill piles fast enough, this may be unnecessary). Note that Frenzied Burnout will fade on your suspended pet after zoning, so you will need to do this after zoning into the raid instance.
  
  
• It's important to maintain good uptime on burns on any event, but note that most of your burns are relatively ineffective versus piles of haunted bones, because they do not impact the damage added by Highly Flammable. Take Heart of Skyfire as an example; this spell adds a 95 to 145% focus. Highly Flammable is a 7,000 to 10,000% focus. In other words, in the absence of Heart of Skyfire your spells are doing 70 to 100x their base damage; Heart of Skyfire makes that 70.95 to 101.45x their base damage (it is a tad more complicated, but that's the gist). You can often get better "bang for your buck" using these abilities at other points during the event. So what can you use during the piles to augment your DPS? Twincast (the spell) and Improved Twincast. During the latter you can drop Chaotic and weave Rain -> Spear -> Spear. Enchanter Twincast Aura is similarly effective, as is Fortifying Aura.
  
  
• In TBL we received the spell Frostbound Paradox. This doesn't normally see much use, but it is actually quite strong against the globs of goo.
  
  
• Tonic of Resonant Fire is flagged as not focusable, so unfortunately it does not do extra damage against the piles.