I have recently switched guild form my old guild to another, and this has resulted in a little inactivity on my blog, however, I will try to make up for that now.
I have made a couple of posts regarding Telluric Currents in Firelands, and how I made it work for me for the first 6 / 7 bosses, but since I was benched for my old guilds progres and with me being new in the new guild I have only recently been able to try it on Ragnaros HC.
Nonetheless, let me talk about the information and feel that I have got from Telluric Currents on this end boss.
Nonetheless, let me talk about the information and feel that I have got from Telluric Currents on this end boss.
Short version: It is brilliant.
Long version: It is fucking brilliant ! I looked into the last kill of Ragnaros HC with my Telluric Currents spec and I must admit I was a little shocked about how much mana I had gained from it.
I had casted 45 Lightning Bolts while 9 of them had missed, and since I got "Shard of Woe" (Will talk about switching it for 4.3 if the nerf to it goes live) a Lightning Bolt costs me 1000 mana. So I spend 45000 mana on Lightning Bolts and the return was 168019 mana which is a neat gain of some 123000 mana.
However, it must be said that we were running with 5 healers and I suspect that with 4 or even 3 I would have far less time to cast Lightning Bolts, but then again the "dangerous" phases will also be shortened and thereby I think it will equal out.
How to make Telluric Currents work and when to cast Lightning Bolts ?
It is hard to give a do A when B and C when D guide, but in phase 1 you can throw in a LB or two if the tank is toppede and no has suffered damage from knockback, and I personally prefer to throw a LB than a HW, but I play with a shaman how does the opposite and that works for him.
However, when the transition phase starts you got plenty of time to get 3-4 LBs casted on Ragnaros while he "casts" "Sons of Flame" and if you feel like you can manage it then you can always throw a Lightning Bolt on the adds to a) Help out and b) Get a little more mana.
Second Phase is also decent to get a few LBs in when the raid is stacked and you got 4-5 healers looking out for the tank, well - What is the point in keeping anything but a Riptide on him and then throw out some LBs.
For the next transition phase I wouldn't reckomend to cast Lightning Bolts since there is quite a lot of more damage with the two Scions up. However, when you reach phase three where most people pop heroism to avoid getting more than 2 meteors, and the only damage is on the tanks and when people take an Engulfing tick you can easily spam Lightning Bolts during Bloodlust. I usually go from 10-20% mana to 90-100% depending on various factors, but it is important to have a decent amount of mana for the last phase.
There isn't much room for LBing in this phase unless you are very, very low on mana since it does require some moderate use of GHW and Healing Rain which drains mana.
Furthermore, Telluric Currents gets better and better as our haste / crit raitings gets higher, and the more Intellect we get the harder it hits thereby becomming a better and better investment. And since our Water Shield doesn't scale with our stats I do suspect that Telluric Currents will become a mandatory stat for 4.3 unless you go all out with spirit, which in my opinion is silly (depending on the encounter) but if we look at the current encounter design it is "build" arround either a) steady damage - Where spirit can shine e.g Baleroc or b) Damage in heavy bursts as Rhyolith, Beth'tilac and Ragnaros where for progression I would go for mastery since it increase the effieciency of your heal when people are "down there". Some would most likely go for crit after reaching 2005 haste breakpoint of Riptide (since the buff to it I would strongly urge people to aim for that) (1858 for goblins - yah ! ) since it will increase the mana returned from "Resurgence", but I dislike crit after having played a fire mage in WOLTK after the "Cata patch" and crit just went south due to the percentage simply got to low and became to RNG.
Now - Let us see if Telluric Currents will be mandatory for 4.3 and Deathwing - Only time can tell.
