Altered Time - your #1 World of Warcraft Mage resource!

I made a thread like this for Heroic SoO, so let's start one for Mythic Highmaul! Here's my notes, in progression order:

Kargath:
- Used standard SN/PC setup.
- RoP is fine as long as you are comfortable with Ice Floes. Fire from pillars have 10 yard diameter. Shouldn't be enough to force you out of RoP if you're smart about positioning and nobody else is standing in your Rune.
- Prismatic Crystal CD seems to coincide with Berserker Rush on 2nd usage. Might want to check boss timers before using it.

Twins:
- Ran NT/AO, but SN/PC might work depending on strats. NT/AO provides the best mobility though.
- Passing AO through both bosses may be an issue if your raid doesn't position them nicely.
- RoP is screwed, go IF.
- Double blink is very good for getting around blazes.
- Using Greater Invis + Ice Block liberally against Blaze stacks and Pulverize helps DPS a lot.
- Big pulverize has a knockback element if you're too close. Might want to use Ice Floes on it.

Brackenspore:
- Used NT/OP. NT because of strong haste scaling, which means it benefits a lot from blue shrooms. Less certain about AO/OP, AO is probably better with the big add.
- Blue shroom mana regen causes ~3AB+1AM to be mana positive with ~10% gear haste. Not actually enough to sustain AB spam.
- Greater Invis/Ice Block can both remove Infesting Spores.
- Blinking through waves works.
- Glyph of Counterspell is good for interrupting Spore Shooters. (Credits to Vog)

Tectus:
- Don't ask, just respec. Mastery gear works fine with Fire, by the way.
- Still reading? NT/IF/AO, have fun. Name of the game is high mobility + max AOE. Hugging the back wall causes camera angle issues, so most targeting reticule abilities (ie. PC) are really frustrating to use.
- Contact your nearest psychiatrist after attempts.
- Invisibility does not work on Crystalline Barrage. It will keep chasing you. Ice Block + Blink also doesn't work because Barrage will damage/kill you before you Blink. (Credits to Vog)

Ko'ragh:
- Standard SN/PC.
- Careful with vulnerability phases if running PC. Split damage can kill adds unintentionally.
- Your raid might get angry at you if SN knocks adds out of void zones.
- NOTE: Mage Armor will lead to your Fire debuff expiring earlier than others. Spread out early.
- RoP can work if you're not soaking early. It's a risky choice because of Fire, Fel, and Tramples. Trample seems to have ~14 yard diameter, which is barely enough to not cover an entire Rune if it lands on the center.
- Can Greater Invis when Expel Magic: Frost is cast on you, prevents the spell from being casted. Cast time is ~1 sec so you need to be prepared and react quickly.
- Greater Invis removes Expel Magic Fire but not shadow (not fel I think?). Ice Block removes everything. Fire still explodes when removed.
- Alter Time helps with soaking center. If you're not soaking, Flameglow is an option for reducing Fire damage by a little.

Butcher:
- There's the infamous "two mage soak" strategy, where you alternate blinking and using Greater Invis to soak all cleaves. I won't go into too much detail because I don't really recommend it, and it's not necessary.
- Alter Time is pretty good for healing yourself after he charges you.
- Ice Floes to prevent spell interruption from the knockback. Note that it doesn't work on AM - you still get interrupted.
- Since it's a 4 min fight, delay the second usage of 2 min clickable trinkets to sync up with Arcane Power/Prismatic Crystal. If you're using 2 min ICD trinkets such as Sandman's Pouch, hold onto Supernova charges after the 2nd PC and use them when the trinket procs.
- Greater Invisibility and Ice Block do not remove the bleed from the cleave. If you're silly enough to go full glass cannon, you can consider using Cold Snap for 2 extra PoM charges.
- Berserk will happen soon after 3rd Evocation. Just go full 4AC burn as it is the end of the fight.

Mar'gok:
- NT/IF/AO for maximum mobility and AOE.
- AO is amazing. The ridiculous number of adds means that you can instantly generate 4AC 3AM, and stay at full mana for most of the fight. Abusing travel time, you can even get 4 AM out of a single cast. Remember to Barrage before using AO.
- AP timings: On pull, 1st intermission, delay until 2nd intermission, 2nd Arcane Aberration during P3, 1 minute into Cho'gall. Save second potion for Cho'gall.
- Alter Time is nice for negating Arcane Wrath or Force Nova damage.
- Evanesce is 45 seconds. Arcane Wrath happens every ~47 seconds. The timers sync up perfectly for you to use Evanesce to soak every single one. Unfortunately, playing without Ice Floes is rather painful.
- Ice Block prevents Arcane Wrath's damage, but does not stop it from jumping to another player. (Credits to Vog & Nisroc)
- Greater Invisibility does not remove Gaze of the Abyss, but mitigates the explosion damage very well.
- Staying alive on this fight is much, much more important than dealing maximum damage. Play defensively!

How do you use Alter Time on Ko'ragh? When charging up the shield healers end up focusing on me anyway, do you just tell them you have AT up and they don't need to heal you just yet?

Think you got most of the tips covered, Komma. Some minor points:

Tectus:
-Greater Invis won't stop the Crystalline Barrage from chasing you.
-Ice Block to keep the clouds stacked in one spot + cancelaura Iceblock Blink macro doesn't work, the damage will be applied before the Blink.

Brackenspore:
-Glyph of Counterspell is nice here for Sporeshooter interrupts.

Hey Komma,
Thank you for your Insight!

Have one question. If I run PC+SN, Should I unglyph Arcane Power, so I can always use PC+AP together?

It feels like kinda strange, 'Cause when the Crystal expires - it feels like I can't burst my mana as hard as with the glyph (with glyph: more Burst Duration to spamm AB and missles until 50% mana)

-Ice Block to keep the clouds stacked in one spot + cancelaura Iceblock Blink macro doesn't work, the damage will be applied before the Blink.

Huh, I've seen Paladins do this with Divine Shield. What if we Glyphed Ice Block for the 3 sec immunity?

Have one question. If I run PC+SN, Should I unglyph Arcane Power, so I can always use PC+AP together?

I'd just keep it glyphed anyway.

Huh, I've seen Paladins do this with Divine Shield. What if we Glyphed Ice Block for the 3 sec immunity?

The Crystalline Barrage does physical damage so Glyph of Iceblock doesn't help unfortunately. Hand of Protection and Divine Shield work, but Paladins run out of the cloud before the shield expires.

Have one question. If I run PC+SN, Should I unglyph Arcane Power, so I can always use PC+AP together?

I asked myself the same question a couple of days ago and I ended up doing a simulation with and without glyph.

The results were showing a very small dps difference that was not much bigger than the dps simulation error with 25k iterations (< 0.4%). I also noticed that depending on the fight length, both of the alternatives ended up slightly on top on some simulations so there was no clear winner.

So I think it doesn't really matter if we have AP glyph enabled when using PC+SN and I don't think I will always change my glyphs for a (almost) negligible dps difference.

Added some Butcher notes.

on butcher, with a 2 min icd trinket, thoughts on saving PC until trinket procs, then syncing PC and Arcane Power at 3:30 instead of 3:00? Problems I can see are that if the trinket procs late, with glyphed AP, butcher could be enraging with AP still running.

Small tip for Ko'ragh: if your raid is slow at freeing you from mind control, you can burn a bit more mana before getting mind controlled and let your mana regenerate to full during MC.

How do you deal with PC timings on Ko'ragh outside of the shield being down? Do you just hold it for a while, or try to get a halfway-okayish Crystal when he's running around by catching him in a spot where he'll stay still for at least a few seconds?

How do you deal with PC timings on Ko'ragh outside of the shield being down? Do you just hold it for a while, or try to get a halfway-okayish Crystal when he's running around by catching him in a spot where he'll stay still for at least a few seconds?

There's more than 12 seconds between charges. If your tanks aren't moving him unnecessarily, it shouldn't be too much of an issue!

Observations about Imperator:

This is a fight where your guild's strat makes or breaks Arcane. Since mine seems to create as much movement possible (Ugh...), Arcane is almost out of the question. I've been trying to master Alter Time/Double Blink/Ice Flows uses as much as possible to limit the movement but my team simply does way too much. If your guild is similar, Frost and Fire are most likely superior.

Benefits to Arcane: Strong Single Target with Free Cleave(Nether Tempest)/Good Swapping to the Aberration/Generally one of the highest on Warmages.

So far the best Talent Set-Up for Arcane I've used is NT/IF/AO. It's the most helpful with the massive amount of movement my guild does and even then I rather play frost or fire (Which to be fair Fire Single Target on boss is actually rather good since you have so many living bombs going off. You will be weak on the Warmage/Aberrations though which may be a critical factor for your guild while progressing - currently the reason why I'm not going Fire. Hopefully with rings rolling in this week it won't matter).

Side note: I glyph Arcane Power so it's on a 3 minute CD. I might remove this glyph because I have a hard time actually burning mana - lol; meaning there are so many targets I can keep a 4 stack with 2-3 AM Procs with the power of Arcane Orb. I find I only need to evocate during P2 since it's the only phase w/o a stack of adds.

Also - If warmages are your guild's highest DPS check. Your 2nd - Glyphed - AP will be up for Intermission 1 and your 3rd AP will probably be up towards the end of P2 but I highly recommend using it for the 2nd Intermission. P2 is an absolute nightmare for Arcane Mages is you're doing the Stack up and rotate the range around the room strat.

If anyone else is trying to go Arcane for this fight - share your thoughts?

So far the best Talent Set-Up for Arcane I've used is NT/IF/AO. It's the most helpful with the massive amount of movement my guild does and even then I rather play frost or fire (Which to be fair Fire Single Target on boss is actually rather good since you have so many living bombs going off. You will be weak on the Warmage/Aberrations though which may be a critical factor for your guild while progressing - currently the reason why I'm not going Fire. Hopefully with rings rolling in this week it won't matter).

NT/AO is amazing. All the extra adds basically meant that you can get 4AC+3AM every two AO casts! The Arcane logs from WCL (Asian) also show several mages running this combo.

I am also running NT/IF/AO for Mar'gok and it's working out really well. Pretty much keeps 4 stacks rolling throughout the encounter. It also works well in the transition phases, can AO the adds (if allowed) to regain stacks while AP is up for Warmages. I have not seen the Cho'gall phase yet, but I assume it will still perform well.

IMPERATOR
Talents/glyphs
I can only speak from watching mythic imp and doing it on heroic, but I have found that the add dying lines up nicely with the CD of IBarrier and it absorbs a very good amount(especially if you can apply it during arch mage ring proc+CC=60-70k absorb at 677). cold snap is best in all cases in my opition being a dps increase as well as a strong heal. some are gonna say but what about Ginvis for adds dying, simply take the ice block glyph for the 3 second immunity and make yourself a cancelaura macro. WAY too much movement for rune of power so IF is the simple answer here. SN has a very nice synergy with IF so I take that. Lastly we have PC or AO; (sorry OP is really only best for single target and mythic is far from that) PC is very nice synergy with SN, but AO is amazing for stack building and a little padding . AO if you can use it off CD properly (Barr-AB queued-AO) for instant stack refreshes, but your guild is kiting adds I would advise PC for better burst on the warmages.

IFloes/IBarrier/CS/SN/IF/AO--- funny enough also how my PvP talents are too

Tricks/more glyphs
Double blink glyph is mandatory for dodging nova(IMO). Milk the hell out of the floes "bug"(working as intended?) works nicely when nova + tank explosion orbs come at you, always run from nova to and avoid an orb *finish cast* blink to a safe location continue casting 2 floes charges that will be ready with 2 charges again on the next combo. For the adds I like to pool my SN charges (never have 2 longer than 3 seconds EVER, best to not have it happen at all though) and use them on a 5 stack IF for best dps. During transitions I stand closeish to where the small adds are being tanked/grouped so that I can always have a source of missile procs to camp max mana 4 AC stacks for the whole phase pumping out dmg into the big adds due to block glyph you should take little to no dmg from small add mass explosions and if you do just snap/pot for a quick 150k+ heal.

Majors: Rapid displacement/Ice Block(NOTREGEN)/Arcane explosion
minors: lol so momentum is pretty OP if you are a pro with ur camera GL with that though

Spell Tricks
-Barrage+AO+Barrage this is a strong combo it you are a high IL with lots of INT and mastery obv if u can get a darkmoon trinket proc and use say SNx2-ABarr-AO+blast-Barr u can do a lot of cleave to the aberations- this would lower ur single target so I only opt for this during a crit OR multi proc (if you have neither I wouldn't advise doing this at all)
-AO+AE during transitions stay near your small add tank and throw AO into the adds after barraging a warmage/reaver and use AE to phish for missile procs to never drop below 90% mana .
-Presence of mind if you need to soak a high of the debuff use PoM blink out blast block macro+snap pom blast again while running back to save a floes charge this also means you can soak a debuff while being immune to tank explosions, force nova, and even a rune explosion if you have the unfortunate teammate going full retard.

This fight is a lot of movement which is why I prefer to take the AO/barr setup taking advantage of my single target abilities at 4-5 stacks of IF and using missiles in the lower stacks generally while repucing mana.

IF your guild is running A LOT of cleave dps you may want to consider PC for purely boss dmg and reaver dmg if that is what your guild is lacking.

Good luck on the first "final" boss of the tier

Added some notes after killing Imperator. Hurray!

Do you guys also feel weird casting on spore shooters? i feel like casts connect too slowly to be worth it. (AM)
Sometimes they just die instantly at 40% before my cast even connects and i feel like i should just stick to the big add and focus on interrupts instead.

and is it worth it to cast AB endlessly if the boss is about to die?

I'm linking this post on my guide! I assume that's ok with you Komma?
Also huge gratz on killing him!

Do you guys also feel weird casting on spore shooters? i feel like casts connect too slowly to be worth it. (AM)
Sometimes they just die instantly at 40% before my cast even connects and i feel like i should just stick to the big add and focus on interrupts instead.

This is something you should be discussing with your raid leader. All we can say is "yes, i get the same thing" or "no, my raid is crap at switching so it is just me doing it normally".

and is it worth it to cast AB endlessly if the boss is about to die?

Yes. After the boss is dead, there is nothing you need the mana for so you may as well use it killing the boss, just make sure you don't start too early and run out of mana before he dies and with Evo on CD.