Black Magic (BM) versus +63 Spell Power (sp) for 1 handers. I've done a lot of reading on various sites and most of them state BM > 81 sp (staffs) > 63 sp (1 handers). However after doing ICC 25 last night I realize that almost all of the first 6 fights have alot of movement which for mages means less dps. So although when theorycrafting BM is better; i'm finding alot of time my BM proc is wasted due to movement. Have any of you guys done any testing or have any opinions on the matter? In the future most of us will be using 4/5 T10 and crafted leggings or some similar variation. Most of us will be losing 2pT9 which means our spirit -> crit conversion is dropped to 55%. This will mean our blue sockets will be much less useful. I tried downloading Rawr to test this but I couldn't download it on my work PC. Should we switch from 12 sp/10 spirit to 23 sp for blue sockets and forgo the socket bonus? EDIT: My roommate had rawr on his computer so I did a quick experiment. I uploaded my armory into then replaced the helm/shoulders/gloves with my current gear and consistent gemming. It gave 10244.36 dps. I then replaced all 12 sp/10 spirit gems with 23 sp (1 of them 39 sp to keep my 3 dragon eyes) and it went to 10364.72 dps. Obviously this is a very simple case but wanted to share this with you as well.
I haven't done any testing on BM vs 81 sp to staves, but on my 1H BM definitely seems to be better than 63 sp even with the movement. As for the gems, I'm a little confused on what you're saying. You're talking about blue sockets but then you talk about sp/crit gems which are orange and have nothing to do with blue sockets. On top of that frostfire is the only spec you'd ever use sp/crit gems; arcane will always utilize sp/haste gems when going for an orange gem. If you meant the sp/spirit gems, then yes you should definitely switch those out to pure sp gems when the socket bonus is +5 sp. As it is right now I'm getting almost identical DPS numbers from using sp/spirit or straight sp on blue sockets with a +5 sp bonus, so with the lack of the 2p t9 I'm sure it will be much better to just use 23 sp gems. If i'm not understanding the second part right let me know
