Mage and Lock castsequences

[Bunny]

Hey everybody,

I run a team of 1 priest, 2 mages and 2 locks. For the mages and the locks I have castsequences set up that I simply spam. I use those for elite mobs, for non elite i just have a nuke button - no need to debuff or dot here.

I whould like to hear suggestions for the best castsequences. The mages are specced fire, the locks are currently both specced demo (I might respec one of them if someone has a good idea, but one lock needs to stay demo for the void tank).

My mages castsequences are:

mage 1: scorch, scorch, fireball, fireball, fireball, fireball
mage 2: scorch, scorch, scorch, fireball, frostbolt, fireball

This way i have the fire debuff stacked 5 times asap. The frostbolt is mixed in there to prevent fleeing of the mob - I know it isn't necessary for every kind of mob.

My locks castsequences are currently not very good. One of them casts the fire debuff, the other one casts the shadow debuff and then they dot up and spam shadowbolts. I think there is a lot of room for improvement here.

I whould like to hear your suggestions about castsequences and maybe a good nuker-lock build + castsequence.

Any input is appreciated,
Bunny

[Otlecs]

The mage/lock combo is great. Locks bring alot of utility to the team that mages don't, and that's pretty much self-evident so let's not derail the thread too much on the question of "why".

One of my teams is always played with two friends. One provides the tank (pally), one provides the healing (priest) and I provide the DPS (2 mages, one lock).

It's a great team.

Cast sequences are pretty much down to personal choice but I have mine as follows. Bear in mind that they're only level 41 here, so I don't have as many spells to worry about as you might:

Opening sequence:
Mage: Pyroblast (long cast, no sequence).
Lock: CoA, Corr, Immolate.

I just hit the opening move button three times. It's no big deal.

Nuke:
Mage: Scorch, Scorch, Scorch, Fireball, Fireball, Fireball
Lock : Shadowbolt, and... erm.... oh yeah, shadowbolt

I use the same sequence on both mages just to keep them in sync.

My lock is destruction specced, having been distinctly underwhelmed with afflication damage output at low levels, and I hit Conflagarate manually because you often end up with a stalled cast sequence otherwise (resisted, bad timing, whatever).

"I need a shard" end-of-fight nuke:
Mage : Arcane Missiles
Lock : CoR, Drain Soul.

Instant nuke:
Mage: Fire Blast
Warlock: Shadowburn.

I used to have a FB->CoC->Blast Wave insta-nuke sequence for the mages, but found it was wasted more often than not due to range / positioning.

Works for me.

[Bunny]

why didn't you just roll another (fire) mage to begin with?

Well - if i had to do it all again i whould go with 1 lock and 3 mages but i started months ago and the guys are lvl 66 by now. I really don't want to change the setup since i have arrived at the fun part of the game (aka 58-70).

It is true that i have problems with aggro and that the voidy looses it pretty quick - I will see what can be done about that when I hit 70. If nothing helps i might need to level a tank but I really don't have the time to do that so i'll try to avoid it.

Thanks for the idea of the "I need a shard" macro - i'll setup something like that to make my life easier

Keep the suggestions coming,
Bunny

[Otana]

The Priest, 2x Mage, 2x Warlock is the dynamic I am currently using.

Heaps of fun, PVP Power house, and a part of the best taxi service in the game.
Portal to Orgrimmar, Summon back! It should be illegal!

Combat looks a bit like this as far as cast sequencing goes:

<NUKE>
Priest: Mindblast,smite
Mage: Pyroblast, Fireball, Fire Blast
Warlock: Shadowbolt

<DOT>
Priest: SW:Pain, ,Holy Fire,
Mage: Scorch, Scorch, Scorch, Fire Blast
Warlock: CoA (One lock casts CoElements),Coruption, Siphon Life,,
the extra "," turn this into a four step macro before it repeats itself

<AOE SPAM>
Priest: Holy Nova
Mage: Arcane Explosion

<AOE DAMAGE>
Priest: Prayer of Healing
Mage: Blast Wave, Arcane Explosion
Warlock: Hellfire :twisted:

<FROST NOVA ROTATION>
MAGE1: /castsequence reset=24 Frost Nova,
MAGE2: /castsequence reset=24 ,Frost Nova
with both on a 24 second reset there will allways be 2x frost novas ready to go

<CROWD CONTROL> I use focus for targeting information.
The Priest Has 4 Hotkeys for each slave:
/SetRaidTargetIcon("target",x) "x" being a number 1 to 9 for lucky charms
the same hotkey is bound on the Slaves to
/assist Priest
/focus
another hotkey bound on the mages reads like
/target [target=focus]
/cast Polymorph
and another on the warlock reads like
/target [target=focus]
/cast seduction

<BUFF ME>
Buffs are done with a common bound key. in my case its G4 on my Logitech G15 Keyboard.
Priest selects the party member, hits her commonly bound /assist key, then hits G4, an everyone casts a buff. AI, PW:Fort, Detect Lesser Invis, Underwater Breath.
You get all your buffs at once this way.
It's also helps when your buffing another player out in the world.. this goes a long way to helping sway people who think your a bot.. when was the last time a gold farmer handed out a buff?

As with all my multiboxing at this time, its all still a learning experience. I hope to refine the way i handle combat, crowd control, pvp, dungoen crawling as I continue to level but I hope i helped just a bit.

[Otlecs]

the extra "," turn this into a four step macro before it repeats itself

I never knew that :-o In conjunction with your frost nova macro as shown, that's really neat. Consider it stolen! That'll save me two G-keys.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

<FROST NOVA ROTATION>
MAGE1: /castsequence reset=24 Frost Nova,
MAGE2: /castsequence reset=24 ,Frost Nova
with both on a 24 second reset there will allways be 2x frost novas ready to go

OK, this is a new one on me. I think I get the extra comma adding a step. Let me see if I understand how this would help my warlocks:

<FEAR ROTATION>
LOCK1: /castsequence reset=40 howl of terror,,,
LOCK2: /castsequence reset=40 ,howl of terror,,
LOCK3: /castsequence reset=40 ,,howl of terror,
LOCK4: /castsequence reset=40 ,,,howl of terror

So if I read you right, this should (by pressing the same key) cycle through either all 4 locks fears one at a time until the first one is up or 40 seconds has passed?

[trainwr3ck]

<FROST NOVA ROTATION>
MAGE1: /castsequence reset=24 Frost Nova,
MAGE2: /castsequence reset=24 ,Frost Nova
with both on a 24 second reset there will allways be 2x frost novas ready to go

OK, this is a new one on me. I think I get the extra comma adding a step. Let me see if I understand how this would help my warlocks:

<FEAR ROTATION>
LOCK1: /castsequence reset=40 howl of terror,,,
LOCK2: /castsequence reset=40 ,howl of terror,,
LOCK3: /castsequence reset=40 ,,howl of terror,
LOCK4: /castsequence reset=40 ,,,howl of terror

So if I read you right, this should (by pressing the same key) cycle through either all 4 locks fears one at a time until the first one is up or 40 seconds has passed?

This is much better than what I was thinking of doing. I was just going to insert junk commands in but I didn't realize commas would work as well. I don't think you'll need the commas at the end though.

[Otana]

So if I read you right, this should (by pressing the same key) cycle through either all 4 locks fears one at a time until the first one is up or 40 seconds has passed?

Exactly! For Every hotkey press, the macro moves to the command after the comma.

eg /castsequence reset=target/combat Curse of Agony, Corruption, Siphon Life, Immolation

I use this on my Number 3 key, an everytime I press it, it casts each spell in turn before Cycling back to the start.
First Press: CoA
Second Time: Corruption
Third Time: Siphon Life
Forth Time: Immolation
Fifth Time: CoA
etc etc.

[Otana]

How do you account for "resists" ?

Meh.. If i get a resist, i get a resist.
At the extact same time im casting this DoT on one warlock, the other warlock is also casting DoTs, the two mages are casting Direct Damage spells, and the priest is casting SW:Pain and Holy Fire... It'll land on the next cycle through.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

<FROST NOVA ROTATION>
MAGE1: /castsequence reset=24 Frost Nova,
MAGE2: /castsequence reset=24 ,Frost Nova
with both on a 24 second reset there will allways be 2x frost novas ready to go

OK, this is a new one on me. I think I get the extra comma adding a step. Let me see if I understand how this would help my warlocks:

<FEAR ROTATION>
LOCK1: /castsequence reset=40 howl of terror,,,
LOCK2: /castsequence reset=40 ,howl of terror,,
LOCK3: /castsequence reset=40 ,,howl of terror,
LOCK4: /castsequence reset=40 ,,,howl of terror

So if I read you right, this should (by pressing the same key) cycle through either all 4 locks fears one at a time until the first one is up or 40 seconds has passed?

Tried this macro series above with my lock single-target fears. Works like a champ!