The Undermine(d) set bonuses coming in Patch 11.1 have a chance to activate a semi-random proc buff, depending on your role. As a ranged caster, Fire Mage has
"Jackpot!". Despite sharing the same name, this buff has very different effects for each ranged specialization.
Fire Mage's
"Jackpot!" is very straightforward. The 2-Set Bonus gives cooldown reduction on
Возгорание, and the 4-Set Bonus adds a damage increase buff on top. This buff is random (3 RPPM,
Not Hasted) but it is guaranteed to activate when you cast
Возгорание with increased effectiveness. This tier set heavily benefits from a shorter
Возгорание cooldown but also works to deliver a shorter cooldown as well.
Note: The cooldown of Возгорание is variable due to many sources of cooldown reduction (Разжигание, Высвобожденное пламя, Переходящая сила, Jackpot!, etc.). Update: Now that the tier is available on PTR, we can confirm that this tier is very strong.
Возгорание cooldown is about 30 seconds on average, and the damage buff is up around 50-60% of the time. The longer cooldown for
Огненный взрыв and
Пламя феникса can be felt in a big way, but having a shorter
Возгорание cooldown and more Haste helps to counteract this. More testing will come, I will update this post after testing tomorrow.
Despite its simplicity, this set will certainly be effective. I appreciate that the damage increase (
Адская жара) it isn't completely random and will last longer during
Возгорание. This is when you would want it most, so having it be tied to the cooldown removes a bit of the frustration with random damage increase procs. Based on the wording, this buff will likely not activate from other sources (
Благословение Солнечного короля &
Аномалия времени).
Damage procs are a but hard to discuss without context, but there is no doubt this tier bonus heavily synergizes with
Высвобожденное пламя. As Sunfury, we are already seeing
Возгорание's cooldown falling sub 40 seconds, and even as low as 30 seconds in some cases. If we assume a more modest 37 second average cooldown, the guaranteed 9 seconds will already lower the cooldown by 24%. With just a little luck, we will likely see the cooldown approach 20 seconds. This is pretty crazy, since this will also give 14 seconds of the 15% increased damage each time we use the cooldown and we also have the 15% damage buff on average for 21 out of every 60 seconds before factoring for
Высвобожденное пламя. With that being said, these numbers are based on the current design of Fire, which is receiving an overhaul with 11.1. It is likely that less
Огненный взрыв and
Пламя феникса will slightly offset gains made by higher haste values with newer gear
With so much uptime, there are some concerns for how the damage buff will actually function since the random nature of it will certainly be a point of friction. Will it extend duration with multiple procs or override the time? What if it procs right before you activate
Возгорание? My assumption is that it will waste uptime, but you can always dream. Until we are about to log in and test things, its really hard to say.
Regardless of how Fire shapes up in 11.1, this tier bonus is certainly a strong (but slightly uninspired) addition to the spec that Fire Mages won't be able to live without.
