A few questions relating to the AA.

[Goldom111111111]

Ok, so from reading every AA thread I see and being on the wiz channel, I know the current favorite line is AGI/WIS. But to put it as honestly as I can, I'm no high end raider, and I like seeing a huge number over the enemy's head more than I care about what I'm parsing at. So I've been going into STR/WIS instead. (When I started, this was the standard, but looks like times have changed).Question #1 is, at the high end, should I ever get there and care, how much dps am I losing over AGI/WIS?2: Catalyst and Freehand -can- be used at the same time, right? I'm 4 pts away from getting Cat, but want to be sure.Now for questions on the other line.In line with my love of big crits, I really would love to see Manaburn. But I am having a quite hard time reconsiling that with wasting 20 points, and I know it too is worse in the dps department. In this case, I may abandon the burn for a better average, but some questions here too:3: Can Manaburn crit ever? and 3b: Can Manaburn be Catalyst/Freehanded?4: For people that do go MB, what do they do with the other 39 points, fire or ice? I know iceshape/gift is awesome, but if you only get one or the other, does it beat out the boosts to BoL, etc?and last, 5: What sort of dps loss is expected from going MB instead of pure fire/ice?Thanks for any insight into any of the above.

[Kaycerzan]

The AGI line is favored by those with a large number of "on hostile spell" proc items.  More spells = more 'bonus' damage.Catalyst and Freehand sorcery can be used on the same spell, however, I'm not sure how the Freehand bonus applies to the critical.   (Spell Damage + Freehand) x 1.3 = Total      or      (Spell Damage x 1.3) + Freehand = Total. I know straight up spell damage modifiers follow the second rule, don't know how Freehand / Plasma wand, etc... apply.Manaburn is gonna for heroic encounters, big booms at the end of an epic mob's life, if you have good mana regen, or buggering your dps completely.  Depends on how you want to use it.Manaburn does 4 damage per mana point. It is not affected in any way by ANY modifier, and I do not *believe* it can crit, though I could be mistaken on that point. I do know it can not be used in conjunction with any item / AA / Deity modifiers.For the most part, 80% of your damage is fire.  It would be wise to get the points into Ball of Lava, Irradiate, Fiery Convulsions, and Rending Icicles. Those are the important ones. Going MB / Ice Trick is sort of a conflict of interests. Ice Trick is too slow to use on most heroic encounters, or generates too much hate.  Manaburn is poor on epic battles, but leaves Heroics missing two arms and a leg.  I recommend Fire + MB or Ice Trick.The dps loss on manaburn will not be seen on many epic mobs if you learn to use it right, but on any mob with manadrain, hp% based effects, and most EoF epic named, that's where your dps is going to hurt, and where people are going to question why you're not on the parse. You'll make pretty numbers on trash mobs and you'll probably still compete on the zonewide, but when it really counts you'll be playing with one arm tied behind your back.

[Goldom111111111]

Thanks for the reply. Answered just about all my questions. Was a little confused about proc thing, do you mean agi is good for them cause faster casting means more casts means more things that proc on cast?I think for now, while I'm low and single-grouping/soloing, I'll go for the fun lines and play with manaburn, then probably respec to fire/ice later when I'm all "grown up" as it were. Thanks for the help.[edit: Forgot I also had one more question. Though I know it's not worth using, I was curious how much warding the magi's shielding spell gets in that line, since it doesn't specify in the description]