Empowered Fire

The New Hotness – Incanter's Absorption

I’ve been scratching my head for blog topics after our Great Reader Windfall of Aught Nine, and this one came to me via my friend.

He asks: “What’s up with Incanter’s Absorption?!”

Both Meta and I are pretty big proponents of this talent. Most people only heard of it back when it got nerfed during Naxx content due to the insane soloing a mage did in the Military Quarter by spell-stealing Bone Armor – the talent effectively allowed the mage to gain boss-level spell damage due to absorption mechanics from the armor. It’s been hotfixed since then to cap your effective SP gain to no greater than 5 percent of your health.

Still, why is this noteworthy? In light of recent changes bringing more arcane mages into raids, as well as how the boss mechanics in ToC/ToGC work, this is an amazingly useful little talent that can effectively work as an extra trinket proc or overall SP bonus on certain fights.

How Do I Work This Into My Own Talent Tree?

Arcane does have a certain number of “free” points, but when I made the switch to having Incanter’s Absorption in my build, I did so by dropping the two points out of Student of the Mind. I don’t have a ton of mana problems that Frost Warding (a pretty nice talent to have in combination with IA) and Arcane Meditation don’t fix.

Okay, So I Have It, Now What Do I Do?

Stand in fire. No, really.*

Joking aside, taking incoming damage and absorbing it is what drives IA. This means on fights where you know you could be taking possible frost or fire damage, taking a GCD to pop Fire or Frost Ward can reap benefits.

The overall usefulness of this talent skyrockets when you have a capable disc priest and a Val’anyr-equipped healer (may be the same person) in your raid. I so happen to have both (my wonderful raid leader is a holy paladin with the mace) and therefore have communicated with them that bubbling me when I take damage or are about to take damage increases my SP and therefore, my DPS. Having a raid that takes little things into account is beneficial and drives talents like this forward.

The caveat to having IA in your spec means that you do have to be a lot more mindful of how using wards or what the healers in your raid do. It can be a loss if you’re  not casting a ward on the move. Not having a disc priest or Val’anyr consistently in your raid also does decrease the usefulness as well. Using Mana Shield also tends to not be as effective given how much of you mana can be eaten through as well but I often bubble myself during “OH CRAP” moments so this is again something to consider.

However, if you do have all these things, it’s quite nice.

Quick and Dirty Cheat Sheet for IA:

Because I know you just want to know what to do on certain bosses. A lot of IA uptime will come from a competent disc priest or Val’anyr proc, however. This is all stuff you can manage yourself.

Northrend Beasts -
If you get hit with a flame patch on Gormok the Impaler, pop Fire Ward and move. This becomes a lot more important on hard-mode beasts, since there’s a DoT that stacks on you.

I’ve also popped Fire Ward on the one or two times I’ve ever gotten hit with Burning Bile as well.

See Also: Razorscale, Ignis the Furnace Master, hardmode Mimiron.

Lord Jaraxxus –
There’s a lot of random fire damage during this fight. If someone near you gets targeted for Legion Flames, you can always pop Fire Ward and take advantage of it.

See also: Sartharion.

Faction Champs –
I only really ever get IA from this fight if I Mana Shield to save my pathetic mage-y behind. Take that as you will. Key concepts in this fight are more survival-oriented rather than max DPS.

Twin Val’kyr-

Honestly where this talent shines the most. I came upon this little dissertation from Euripedes (love him!) of Critical QQ for the best breakdown of how it works:

“With an AoE hitting you, and getting completely absorbed by you, for 1500 every 2 seconds, this means your spellpower is being increased by 225 every 2 seconds. Effectively, you will hit the IA cap 10 seconds into the fight, and remain at that cap for the entire duration of the fight.”

The natural absorption mechanics of Twins makes both normal and hard-mode versions the best for Incanter’s Absorption out of all the bosses in TOC/TOGC. If you are one of the people designated to take Dark Essence, you can grab an extra few seconds of IA uptime by Fire Warding yourself from incoming “Light” at the beginning of the fight since it is actually fire damage.

I’ve had 98.7 % IA buff uptime on this fight and gained over 1K SP. It’s pretty intense.

Anub’rekhan -
If you’re paying attention, you can Frost Ward yourself from Penetrating Cold.

See Also: Hodir, hardmode Thorim

*Disclaimer: While having a SP boost is nice, do not stress your healers on high-damage fights by taking uneccessary damage by intentionally standing in fire or other things. Most of these suggestions are for incoming damage you’d already be taking by the very nature of the fight. The first rule of magecraft is that you don’t do any DPS if you’re dead.

Other than that, have fun with IA!

Tags: arcane-mages, arcane-talents, fire-ward, frost-ward, incanters-absorption, valkyr-twins