Mages

Is there an error? Something missing? Funky grammar? Do not hesitate to leave a comment.

Textual configuration interface

This section is a part of the TCI reference.

Regular spells are not mentioned here, you just have to follow the standard names formatting rules.

Actions

Burn phase

Burn phase can be started by start_burn_phase and stopped by stop_burn_phase. These actions set and reset the burn_phase flag, which can then be used in conditions of other actions.

actions=start_burn_phase,if=!burn_phase&cooldown.evocation.remains<20
actions+=/stop_burn_phase,if=prev_gcd.1.evocation
actions+=/arcane_blast,if=burn_phase
...

Water Elemental

Water Elemental's Freeze can be controlled manually via the freeze action.

...
actions+=/freeze,if=ground_aoe.comet_storm.remains>0.6
...

Expressions

Burn phase

burn_phase expression evaluates to 1 if burn phase is currently active. burn_phase_duration gives the duration (in seconds) of the current burn phase. Outside of burn phase, it returns 0.

Incanter's Flow

incanters_flow_dir can be used to determine if Incanter's Flow is currently gaining or losing stacks.

Time                   | 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 ...
-----------------------+---------------------------------------
Incanter's Flow stacks | 1  2  3  4  5  5  4  3  2  1  1  2 ...
incanters_flow_dir     | 1  1  1  1  0 -1 -1 -1 -1  0  1  1 ...

incanters_flow_time_to.<stack number>.<stack type> evaluates to remaining time (in seconds) until the next occurence of the specified stack. When the buff is in the desired state, this expression evalutes to 0.

stack_number is a whole number between 1 and 5, stack_type can be up, down or any. up checks only stacks on the raising part of the cycle, down checks stacks on the falling part of the cycle and any checks both types.

Ground AoE

Ground AoE can be tracked by ground_aoe.X.Y.

X can be any of:

• blizzard
• comet_storm
• flame_patch
• frozen_orb
• meteor_burn

Y can be any of:

• remains

If the specified ground AoE is currently not active, this expression evaluates to 0.

For example:

...
actions+=/flurry,if=buff.brain_freeze.react&prev_gcd.1.frostbolt&ground_aoe.frozen_orb.remains=0
...

Firestarter

The expression firestarter.active can be used to check if Firestarter is active. Time until Firestarter becomes inactive is represented by firestarter.remains. See below.

actions=fireball,target_if=firestarter.active
# Cast Fireball on any target that will make it crit.

Brain Freeze

brain_freeze_active expression helps distinguish between normal and Brain Freeze empowered Flurry casts. This expression evaluates to 1 (true) if the last Flurry was cast with Brain Freeze, otherwise it evalutes to 0 (false).

Mage options

Firestarter

Firestarter's value hugely depends on a raid composition. In a single actor simulations, it is usually overvalued.

firestater_time can be used to combat this. It turns off the standard Firestarter behavior and gives Fireball and Pyroblast 100% crit chance for the specified time after combat starts.

Note that with this option, Firestarter won't have any effect on enemies that join the fight later (for example adds raid event).

mage=Mage
level=110
...
spec=fire

firestarter_time=20
# Firestarter is only active for the first 20 seconds

Greater Blessing of Wisdom

Arcane mages benefit from the extra mana gained from Greater Blessing of Wisdom. greater_blessing_of_wisdom_count can be used to simulate this exact scenario.

mage=Mage
level=110
...
spec=arcane

greater_blessing_of_wisdom_count=2
# Two paladins buffed us with GBoW

Shimmer Ice Lance

This combo can be enabled via allow_shimmer_lance. When set to true, Shimmer temporarily reduces Ice Lance's travel time (as if the player was 20 yd closer). Note that this doesn't actually model player movement.

If you want to try it out, you can make the following change to the default APL. Replace this Ice Lance line

actions+=/ice_lance,if=!buff.fingers_of_frost.react&prev_gcd.1.flurry

with the following three lines

actions+=/ice_lance,if=prev_gcd.1.flurry
actions+=/ice_lance,if=prev_off_gcd.shimmer&debuff.winters_chill.remains>travel_time
actions+=/shimmer,if=spell_haste<=0.666&prev_gcd.2.flurry&charges>=1&!buff.fingers_of_frost.react

If you don't want to use Shimmer back to back, you can enforce time between two Shimmers in this way.

# Do not allow two Shimmers within 5 sec of eachother.
actions+=/shimmer,line_cd=5,if=...

Freeze effects

Since all freeze effects available in simc break on damage and thus almost never last their full duration, we opted to use one shared duration for all of them. In Battle for Azeroth, all freeze effects are guaranteed to last at least 1 s, which is why simc uses 1 s as the default freeze duration.

frozen_duration=<time in seconds> overrides this default duration with a user specified value. When frozen_duration is set to 0 or lower, freeze effects are assumed to be permanent.

Frost Mage Rotations

There are multiple Frost Mage builds that use different rotations. The rotation option can be used to specify which APL will be loaded. The valid options are rotation=standard for the standard Frost Mage rotation applicable to most cases, rotation=no_ice_lance for the No Ice Lance rotation, and rotation=frozen_orb for the Frozen Orb rotation.

Overriding APL variables

The default Mage APLs include several variables, which can be configured through the apl_variable option.

Disabling Combustion

Combustion and any cooldowns such as Essences or Trinkets that are only ever used with Combustion can be disabled with apl_variable.disable_combustion=1. This is mainly useful for exploring scenarios where Combustion will not be used, such as some trash pulls in dungeons.

Delaying Combustion for Essence cooldowns

Sometimes, it can be better to delay Combustion for Memory of Lucid Dreams or Worldvein Resonance. By default, if Combustion is ready and one of those essences will be ready within 20 seconds, then Combustion will be delayed. The threshold where this occurs can be configured with apl_variable.hold_combustion_threshold=<time in seconds>.

Channeling Azshara's Font of Power before combat begins

It is common for Mages to channel Azshara's Font of Power long before combat begins so that another trinket can be used with their cooldowns. By default when two on-use trinkets that are used with Combustion or Arcane Power are equipped, the Fire APL will channel Azshara's Font of Power 18 seconds before combat and the Arcane APL will channel it 12 seconds before combat. This timing can be configured with apl_variable.font_of_power_precombat_channel=<time in seconds>. This can also be configured globally for all players by using bfa.font_of_power_precombat_channel=<time in seconds>. If both options are specified, then the value given by bfa.font_of_power_precombat_channel will be used.

Configuring Flamestrike usage

The number of targets at which Flamestrike should be used can vary significantly with gear and talents. Due to this, the thresholds used by the default APL may not be optimal for all gearsets. The target thresholds for using Flamestrike can be configured with apl_variable.hot_streak_flamestrike=<number of targets> and apl_variable.hard_cast_flamestrike=<number of targets>. These will configure the number of targets at which Flamestrike will be used outside of Combustion with Hot Streaks or as hard cast filler, respectively.

After Combustion, a large Ignite will usually be present on the primary target. Due to Ignite spreading mechanics, using Flamestrike is often a significant DPS loss after Combustion while this Ignite has a lot of damage stored in it. By default, Flamestrike usage will not resume until 25 seconds after Combustion ends. This delay can be adjusted with apl_variable.delay_flamestrike=<time in seconds>.

Crowd control

Some abilities have different effect depending on whether the target is susceptible to crowd control. For example, against targets that are immune to crowd control, Freeze will not apply the root effect.

Target is susceptible to crowd control in these situations:

• Target's level is strictly smaller than player level + 3
• Target is an add spawned by the adds raid event