The Magician's Tower

Focus of Arcanum lasts 5:08 with a 10 minute refresh.
First Spire lasts 1:32 with a 10 minute refresh.
Fire Core lasts 3:44 with a 16 minute refresh.
Elemental Union lasts 2:02 with a 19 minute refresh.
Current Burn hotkey involves Focus, First Spire, Fire Core, Arcane Whisper, Servant of Ro

As I try and improve my personal DPS, I am wondering how I can become more synergistic (sp) with other classes, primarily Druids/Enchanters/Bards. On raids, I am always with a Druid... 99% of the time with an Enchanter... and maybe 10-20% of the time with a Bard. When a burn is called, I am hitting my burn hotkey as listed above and doing the standard RS/Salvo/Rain/Rain/Spear combo, all tied to one hotkey (I find in this setup that Spear does not come up that much since generally RS or Salvo have already refreshed after that second rain). If there is no burn in the immediate future, and I know I can refresh Focus/Spire before a burn is called, then I am hitting my burn hotkey and letting it refresh for the next go around (i.e. Chelsith raid I can use my burn hotkey once or twice before actually needing it on last named).

My first question is regards to Elemental Union. When do you guys use this? On a single burn I will use this once Fire Core wears off. If on multiple burns I will hold onto it for the second Focus/Spire burn 10 minutes into the event, with Fire Core being used on the first burn I do. By the time the third burn comes around then Fire Core is up and available.

My bigger question is when should the support classes use their burn discs/AA that affect us so that it does not overlap us and we are maximizing our DPS? There is an enchanter that will not use Illusion of Grandeur until the final 15% of a named's health... by that time my Focus and core/spire/union has already worn off. Should the enchanter be using Grandeur earlier in conjunction with some of my discs/AA?

Furthermore, when should Druids be casting Wolf? Bards casting whatever spire they use? Should we just use everything at once? Should I/they stagger our burn discs/AA to maximize the benefits? Does some overwrite others so that if you use both then one is for naught?

I am sorry if this has already been answered previously. I see a lot of threads about what a magician can personally do, but I do not recall reading anything about how our discs/AA are used in conjunction with other classes...

Pie's burn thread in the Spell forum has all this info...

http://www.eqmagetower.com/forums/viewt ... f=6&t=3666

Thank you for the link. I have visited that thread on multiple occasions. Nowhere in that thread, however, does it answer the two questions I posed above. I was hoping for some high end raid magicians to communicate

A) When do you use Elemental Union in relation to Fire Core and Focus/Spire

B) What order/when should other classes use their discs/AA in conjunction with our self discs/AS

A) Elemental Union after Fire Core ends if the fight is still going (or you are discussing theoretical maximums)...but that could change depending on tactics. Some fight you might do an early burn and then a later one, and you would want to use Fire Core on the one that is supposed to be the heavier/harder burn.
B) This one is more complicated because it depends on the group and raid makeup...in my guild, for example, mage DPS is not something they try to maximize as I am the only mage right now and they structure things around other classes. In Pie's guild the mages have more "clout" as it were and things are structured more to boost them. I guess what I am saying it depends on what the class mix in your group and raid is to really answer that because it will be different for everyone...unless you are talking about the theoretical maximum?

Question(s):

A) When do you use Elemental Union in relation to Fire Core and Focus/Spire?

B) What order/when should other classes use their discs/AA in conjunction with our self discs/AS?

Answers:

A) Usually, if it is a single target mob, lets use NToV dragons as an example, I will use Elemental Union after Fire Core. I use Focus/Spire in conjunction with Fire Core, since Focus will continue into Elemental Union. There are times that I will use Elemental Union first (Kael and Plane of Shadows are good examples).

B) This depends on the fight, but I usually have my support do this: I hit my burn key (Fire Core, Empowered Focus, First spire, and Silent Casting). My Enchanter will hit IoG in conjunction with my burn key, and my bard will hit their epic. With ranger auspice this puts us around 108% crit, iirc. We usually have rangers chain auspice on certain targets, but if its just a short burn (Last phase of PoS), then this suffices. Make sure to have your pet out when MGBs are going off, it helps it's dps.

If the fight will last longer than one minute, then have your Druid cast group black wolf after IoG fades.When 1st spire wears off (21%) crit, you can then have your bard hit Fierce Eye, and you Enchanter hit third spire. If the fight will end before these buffs fade, have Enchanter use 3rd during first phase, and bard save epic for 2nd phase. If the fight goes longer though I prefer to have bard epic 1st, so I can be cast again very shortly.

So, in short: Phase 1: IoG, Bard Epic (or third spire, depending on time), Auspice.

Phase 2: Black wolf (after IoG), auspice, third spire (after 1st fades), fierce eye (after 1st fades).

If the fight lasts past these, now use Glyph of the Cataclysm. Glyph of the Cataclysm does not stack with IoG or Group Black Wolf, so it is now a sustain glyph of sorts. I need to do more parsing, but Courage might be more beneficial now, but I am not certain. Hopefully this answers some of your questions.

That is exactly what I was asking for Enkel- which order and when to use certain buffs from other classes to prevent stacking issues. Now I can work with my support classes so that we have the best possible scenario for maximum DPS.

Glad I could help

Pie pointed out something. I posted exactly how I do things, but a tip, if you have mana issues, have your enchanter run 2nd spire for the mana regen. I have over 25k AA, so I can burn a glyph every raid, but some cannot.

Here's a series of parses I did with a Bard, and an Enchanter... The spells/songs they used are listed on the screenshots.
The Spells weaved were Rain/Rain/100 Spear/95 Spear... Enchanter burns made spells hit noticeably harder than bards did, but bard spell-haste had a significant effect on overrall dps & also lasts throughout an event, not just for 90 seconds as an enchanters enhancements do... If you have a druid healer ( I usually do ) you can use wildblaze aura in place of mana recursion to help fill the gap.

Notice, Glyph has no real effect in conjunction with Enchanters IoG + Spire , but it did help out during the bards burn.

With the enchanter, my rains were hitting for 90k + , while with the bard, they were hitting for only 73k or so... 82k with a glyph.