refer to title.
In a party with another caster it should be the best overall dps increase. Rune of power is just really really good for burst phases while FM is more for a consistent damage buff.
For fire, which is all about the burst phase,I do not.
Focus Magic improves the crit of your target 5%, and then when they crit the mage caster gets a short duration 5% crit, 5% intellect.
Assuming the buff is always up, it can be roughly thought of as a 15% damage buff … 10% for you and 5% for your target.
Of course, the actual math is more complex than this:
- Focus Magic buff probably won’t always be up. At the start of a fight before your target gets a crit for example. Or if there isn’t another high crit player to cast it on.
- I’m not sure 5% int calculates to 5% increased damage. I recall the way spell damage used to work is each spell had a fixed amount of base damage, then added to that was a percentage of your int. The result was int was just one component of your damage. I’m not sure if it still works like that.
- Depending on your spec an extra 5% crit might be extremely valuable. A fire mage to get extra hot streaks, or a frost mage to get closer to 33% crit for shatters.
Compare that to Rune of Power, which is 40% during your burns, or Incanters which averages to a mindless passive 12%.
It’s the best talent of you can use it.
It does beat out ROP.
What is your source on this information? Everywhere I look it says Focus Magic isnt viable at all unless under very specific situations.
Mage discord, Altered time.
If you have another mage to trade FM with it over takes ROP.
I think even icy veins says that.
Edit: icy veins even says if you have another person to trade focus magic with it’s the best talent in that row if you can’t trade focus magic then run of power is better.
It also depends on whether you like padding the meters.
Focus Magic might indeed be the best… but 1/3 of the benefit is going to the person you cast it on, not the mage.
If you’re selfish and want to top meters yourself as a mage you’re probably better off going with Rune of Power or even Incanter’s Flow, than with Focus Magic.
The counter to this is that you can’t mess FM up, but you CAN mess up ROP, especially in mythic raiding.
Might be force out of it.
FM is alot easier to play around, buff and forget, and of the person you out it on is a high crit spec, you might see upwards of 85% uptime of the buff.
True. But on the other hand, even if the buff has 100% uptime, your own personal dps increase should only average to about 10%.
Compare to 12% for Incanter’s Flow which is even harder to mess up than Focus Magic.
Well actually incanter’s flow is the worst talent in that row.
You’re also not taking into account the sims for it are in a perfect world where you will be TRADING it to a fellow mage.
You will be getting 5% crit from his buff and him yours, then when you both proc you get 5% more crit and 5% Int.
So 10% crit and 5% int on a buff with over 85% uptime is pretty disgusting ( in a good way).
Good point.
If you’re trading Focus Magic with another mage then it’s definitely the best as you can consider the 5% crit from the other player part of the bonus from taking the talent.
But it’s not so clear cut if you’re trading it to say a healer or a boomkin or warlock and are not getting any special buff cast on you in return.
Yeah which is why I think the Sims are showing it as traded.
I could be wrong though.
Even still intelligence is by far best stat, almost double the others, so 5% is big.
Edit: okay so I was right according to the mage discord it only sims higher if you’re trading it.
So you will definitely be running it in a raid
It actually sims better than RoP if there’s sufficient uptime (eg: on another Frost mage), plus don’t forget mobility is through the roof with the talent.
But what if your raid has an odd-number of mages and you’re the odd one out?
Have fun with rune of power!
Or kick that other filthy mage out da raid!
Or take the dps hit and just give FM away and take 5% crit and 5% int on a 80+% uptime.
Prolly not that much lower than ROP
Mage A to B
Mage B to C
Mage C to A
3 Likes
What if there’s a mage D I think is his point.
Just kick mage D!
Excellent! 
that’s not an odd number then 