Update from: Runemage Tileset & Explanation
This combo at minimum uses 3 tilesets.
Zᛟᚨᛗᚢ
Zᛟᚨᚢᛗ
Zᛟᚨᛗ
You need to be careful with your next 2 tilesets, as they could lower your DPS by overwriting the core 3 tilesets above too soon. I’m using:
ᚾᚢᛗ
ᚾᛗᚢ
3 tiles = 4 seconds
4 tiles = 6 seconds
5 tiles = 8 seconds
(T tiles - 1) * 2 = S seconds
In other news: I have a new affliction shortcut but I’m working on a long memey video for it. For me, it has been significantly easier than the 8-ball, making this tileset very viable for me. The video will be on my youtube channel when I finish it: youtube.com/delceri
Do you know what tileset interference is? If not, read this:
https://wiki.thehall.xyz/wiki/Tileset_103:_Rune_Timing_and_Interference
Z, G-Rune, hitting after a 1-1.99s second delay of not hitting.
ᛟ, O-Rune, Hitting Affliction
ᚨ, A-Rune, Hitting Frost
ᛗ, M-Rune, Hitting Two times in 1 “second” (clock cycle)
ᚢ, U-Rune, Hitting Fireball
Not required, but talked about:
ᚾ, N-Rune, Hitting Three times in 1 “second” (clock cycle)
Not using, but noting:
ᛁ, I-Rune, hitting after 2-3 seconds of not hitting.
ᛏ, T-Rune, receiving a heal from any source
The measuring stick here will be 2.25 fireballs/second, so naturally real numbers vary.
You will need to intentionally cast affliction over 1s, and for your typical mage that will be normal.
Your rotation:
[Any Spell] + (loop: ᛟᚨᚢ* - keep fireballing until affinity wears off/is about to wear-off)
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Using unpotted +5 wands, to include iceheart, I’ve been pulling 70k & sweatier 80k+ (about 1 frost + 7-ish fireballs per rotation for 80k, maybe 8 - when focusing on refreshing affliction-affinity)
Update: I am pretty sure with a +6 good affixed wand I could sustain 93-95k currently on a perfect run… as in most of my tests I am still making some mistakes (but casting really, really fast lol).
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My 80k+ dps while missing 10%+ dmg(depending on int roll) from a good affixed +6 legendary shows that you can cast at n-rune speed but not have to rely on the tile to proc, at all.
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Here’s an unpotted +5 bleed run where I got some bleeds at the end (not triplicity). Prob 7-9 fireballs per cycle, so avg 8 + 1 frost.
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Even though you cast frost after affliction to proc runic diversity on frost rather than affliction, the affinity frost buff will last until the next rotation thus granting you 15s afflictions anyways.
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It still procs incredibly fast because many runes overlap (ie: Zᛟ and usually ᛟ->ᚨᛗ; else ᛟ->ᚨᚢᛗ)
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So it’s basically 3 spells to proc: ᛟᚨᚢ to proc this tileset for 6/8 seconds.
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After casting affliction takes only ~.45 seconds to proc 10%(usually, or 0%), ~.9s to proc 28-29% tiles
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Really your rotation should only be <4s & match affinity dropping off, but this does allow you to linger around for a bit if needed, esp if your 4th and 5th tilesets proc later (but again, make sure they atleast proc 1s x1 in, then 2s, but 3s+ would be ideal)
- Update: I actually find that my DPS is much better casting affliction right as it is about to wear off, such that the last tick goes off & I nearly immediately refresh it. Don’t worry about affinity. I literally have been hitting 85-95k unpotted since changing to this strategy. This makes your rotation about 5 seconds rather than 4 seconds.
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Z will proc just as affliction hits, but comes before it. So your tileset doesn’t actually start until you are done hitting w/ affliction. Waiting to hit 2s will get you ᛁ, so immediately re-attempting affliction over 1s again will make your tiles fail completely. The safest choice is to just reset using a fireball & each fail will be 2% tile loss, per tile. You can use your instinctive frost follow-up as a reset too (as you should be casting when the previous spell has not registered yet).
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You could also drop the Z (ex: ᛟᚨᛗᚢ) but losing a whole second off the tiles is not ideal, and you’d need a new 6s tileset for your 3rd tileset, or the ability to guarantee an additional 4 second tile atleast 1 second later to effectively create a 6s tile, assuming you are not overwriting your other 6s tiles instead. You’d do this to avoid causing interference from accidentally proccing Z and rebooting your rotation to fix your tiles.
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Similarly you could drop the ᛟ (ex: Zᚨᛗᚢ) and this tile would let you fail affliction into ᚨᚢᛗ for a 9% tile proc. Losing an affliction for a rotation is not ideal, particularly if you are the only one casting affliction. This is less of an issue if other mages are consistently putting down afflictions though. This has same issues as above, having 6s and not 8s isn’t ideal.
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The beauty of this tileset is that it really just requires affliction to do good damage. You only need proc ᛗ and then you can squeeze in as many spells, at whatever speed, and whatever mistakes you feel comfortable with: 1 frost + 1-9 fireballs (depending how good you are) & this will proc the tileset. Consistent speed becomes less important, only nailing affliction in 1-2s & the number of fireballs you get in each cycle matters.
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You do need to be cautious proccing the “Z” rune mid-rotation however, aka popping/fizzling 2+ fireballs, as this will cause interference. If you fail fireball twice, you should cast affliction and reboot your rotation, unless you have not procc’d your runes yet & are at the start of a new rotation. Or take a tileset loss, ride out your fireballs/remaining tilesets/affinity timing and try to get your 20% procs from the n-rune set. However your next rotation, you should only cast 1 fireball & reboot your rotation there. Somewhat circumstantial. You definitely don’t want to fail fireball twice, or at all really, so take it at a speed comfortable for you. Alternatively, you may attempt telecasting towards your target to make your next spell hit sooner, either to prevent Z from proccing or re-attempting affliction, but you probably already have frost on your wand.
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In fact you will want to guarantee you proc ᛗ after ᚨ or ᚨᚢ so very slightly slow down your first fireball every rotation, & then you are stress free until your next rotation.
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You can also quickly pump up 6/8s of tiles in just ~2s seconds of casting, 1s of that putting affinity down. So it’s great for keeping up stacks of affinity while maintaining your tiles.
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Because tiles 4,5 are unnecessary… in fact they can hurt you because they overwrite the oldest tile not the next tile that is going to expire… you need to be selective if you use any
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An (untested) example: Zᛟᚨ (should give you an extra 10% boost of dmg on your first fireball, then gets overwritten, but n-rune tiles from prior rotation can do this too). So this is a questionable tileset that would cover you in the situation of losing your 6s tile & not harm your main tiles.
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ᚾ rune tiles work pretty well here & I haven’t come up with anything better. I don’t think there is, since they trigger just enough time later to not mess with your tiles & consist of just fireballs… which is what you will be casting. They also are 9% tiles so only like a 1-2% DPS loss for more time / security that your tiles will stay up
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You can force ᚾ to happen faster at least two ways. [1] Telecast towards your target (pretty straightforward). [2] With lend a hand, flick your spell backwards and then snap it back to your target once your next spell comes out (this is a bit like rubbing your belly & patting your head at the same time). Theoretically you can proc delay runes the same way, as long as your spell has only traveled about half distance or a little more before you sent it backwards (and you don’t smash them into walls, ceilings, pillars, etc…) this will lower your dps momentarily but, if you lose no spells, cause a small spike later with no long term DPS loss.
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The nice thing about the n-rune tiles is that they will make sure your earlier spells used to proc your tileset (aff+frost+fire) in addition with your 8s tiles that those spells will be boosted as well.
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You can also use triplicity tiles but man… triplicity is hard to work with right now. Something like a delay/fireball 3 build might work but I’m not good enough to try it. Triplicity is highly questionable as of now. Although, I have one last idea to try.
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Because the tileset uses Z it really encourages you to slow down your affliction & cast it proper every time.
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To start, just open combat with any spell then start your rotation. Same goes for if you proc ᛁ, say after moving around a lot. I usually just do a fireball.
#1 reason to use this over ᚾ runes:
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Say you open your rotation and hit a couple of ᛗ runes then you fudge your next rotation that would have been ᚾ …well you just lost your tiles. rip.
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With this longer tileset, you proc your tiles easily, immediately, & you’re done. You’ll need to refresh affinity before these tiles are even expired, especially with n-rune subsidization. They are very safe tiles
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ᚾ rune is fantastic, as a slower rune basically guaranteed to proc after some seconds. But as a fast rune it is, imo, too demanding. Especially if you have to dodge/move around. You can’t waste any time with these tiles at all. Another situation is if you momentarily miss the mob you are casting at, rip. They are 4 second tiles that take 2.22 seconds (5 fireballs @2.25/s) at minimum depending on the clock cycle to proc. Reasonably 3 seconds(6.75 fireballs in 3 seconds at 2.25/s). But you could make a mistake & lose even more time. They also give 1% less damage and have the same amount of time for interference to occur(1-2 spells from start). The ᛗᚢᚾ tileset flip flops between 5% and 9% so it averages somewhere a little above 7%.
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Buuuuuuuuut you will need to hit your affliction every time, although in 1-2 seconds
When to not use these tiles:
- You are awful at affliction
- You are only or mostly casting fireballs (but even then… 5s + n-rune procs)
If you are awful at proccing ᚾ-rune, or affliction the best alternative tiles are delay & frost runes.
The best practical alternative looks like:
ᚨᚢᛗ ᚨᛗᚢ Zᛗᚢ Zᚢᛗ & ᚾᚢᛗ (or something else, like ᛟᚨᛗᚢ tileset - no G-rune prefix on affliction if you mess up your spells a lot, as you will have massive interference and make it useless)
- the better you are at proccing ᚾ-rune, put in more ᚾ-rune tiles - but only if you are incredibly consistent w/ 100% uptime (record vid of yourself in real situations and see if you lose your tiles).
- Otherwise you should avoid ᚾ-rune and intentionally cast frost or affliction. I suggest keeping in 1 ᚾ-rune tileset to understand what speeds you need to proc it, if you want to eventually use them.
- The worse you are at affliction, but you attempt it in your rotation often, keep in the delay runes.
- If you pop/fizzle fireball here and there, delay runes are also pretty good. They’ll often trigger when you are moving around, or if you miss a target with your spells.
- Frost runes are also amazing for people who accidentally cast it.
- If you fail affliction a lot its a tremendous, tremendous DPS loss… you are probably better off casting fire/frost & practicing your affliction outside of combat.
- Not using affliction/affinity is quite the DPS loss as well. But if you’re not good at casting it, it’s unavoidable. That said, the extra 1s+ you get from not casting affliction at all adds quite a bit of DPS. Similarly if other mages are applying affinity/affliction, your personal DPS might go up by using affliction (unless your own afflictions are being overwritten…) but regardless your overall group DPS does not. So avoiding affliction is sometimes 100% advisable.
- You can use frost or fireball 3 to proc delay runes, but I can’t cast fire 3 quick enough to really test and frost 3 is questionable when you could frost2+fire2 in the same time. But, Frost 3 would proc all (ᚨᚢᛗ ᚨᛗᚢ Zᛗᚢ Zᚢᛗ).
Pure fireballs is still good with:
- ᚾᚢᛗ
- ᚾᛗᚢ
- ᛗᚢᚾ
- ᚨᚢᛗ & ᚨᛗᚢ (accidental frost, or you mess up and need to atleast recover 19% tiles)
- Zᚢᛗ & Zᛗᚢ (you don’t cast frost by mistake, moving, choking your spells, missing the target)
- ᛏᚢᛗ & ᛏᛗᚢ (heals from any source, lifesteal procs, musky renew, etc pretty decent. More group oriented, not amazing solo tiles)
Untested / not sure dropping one of the n-rune sets is a good idea, but as a theory & jumping back to affliction, you can also:
- ᚾᚢᛗ (to help keep 5s of tiles during normal rotation)
- any triplicity tile - if you want to try working one in lol.
