Post by Sgtpain
The purpose of this thread is to theorize and test the idea of an enhancement mage spec. The idea behind this is to create a close quarter battle mage that can melee and use instant cast burst damage. Since mages can only wear cloth, it's vital that the burst damage be great enough to kill an enemy before it can get any hits off on the mage.
Weapons-Choice of weapons here is obvious. It's going to be a typical spell caster weapon. The best dps you can get is going to be through spell, obviously. The biggest stats to look for are Spell power and haste, then crit. Haste is to be stacked to the point that a GCD is non-exsistant, or at min, down to .5 seconds. This will give the most burst damage from instants at possible.
Armor-The best PvP gear you have. All haste and spell power enchants.
The spec-
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/mage/talents.html?tal=00000000000000000000000000000023050320123033300531203003512033030310030000000000000000The rotation of this is going to be Fire blast, then living bomb to imitate the flame shock, cone of cold if you need to slow them, dragon's breath then instant cast flame strike, living bomb, and then ice lance spam until the others are off of CD.
This combo nets close to 1800 burst dps, which, while meleeing, is quite viable.
The test-I took it to BGs to test out. The element of surpise was on my side. I was using the gnomish cloaking device, so I could stealth up to a mob, and then open up with the above rotation like a rogue, then open up with the burst of an enhancement shaman. In one BG, I managed about 80 kills in one BG and the only time I was killed was when I was sitting to eat after a kill. it was truely amazing what the spec does.
Closing the gap with ranged classes were the most difficult. Mage armor was the most important thing here and sheeping to get close on the initial attack was usually always the most likely thing.