World of Warcraft Guides - Spellsurge - Page 2
Maximizing Both the Spellsurge and Offensive Caster Enchants
The best way to maximize your enchant options is to have multiple weapons with different enchants. For example, a DPS caster might have one weapon enchanted with Major Spellpower, and a second weapon with Spellsurge. This way, the caster could equip his Spellpower weapon when playing solo, when with large numbers of melee classes, or on short trash fights when mana would not be an issue. The caster could then equip his Spellsurge weapon only when the benefit it provides would outweigh the loss of 40 spell damage. This example would also apply to a healer with one Major Healing-enchanted weapon and one Spellsurge weapon.
For end-game raiders who generally do not switch weapons for different stats, enchant your primary weapon (that with the highest spell damage or healing) with Major Spellpower or Major Healing. Then, enchant the secondary weapon (the one with lower stats) with Spellsurge.
For end-game raiders who already have multiple weapons for different stats, enchant each weapon based on when it will be used. For example, dps casters who have a +spell hit weapon for boss fights and a +spell crit weapon for trash fights might choose to enchant the +spell hit weapon with Spellsurge and the +crit weapon with Major Spellpower. Healers who use a high spirit/mana regen weapon for boss fights and a high healing weapon for trash fights might choose to enchant their spirit weapon with Spellsurge and their healing weapon with Major Healing.
Casual players or nonraiding players who have a high-stat solo weapon and a high-damage instance weapon may choose to add Spellsurge to their instance weapon and Major Spellpower, Major Healing, or Major Intellect to their solo weapon.
If you only have one weapon, you may consider farming instances, honor, or rep for your secondary weapon. Blade of the Archmage, Gavel of Unearthed Secrets and Gavel of Pure Light are all excellent purchasable weapons that can be attained by reaching exalted with each seller's faction. In fact, Gavel of Unearthed Secrets is NOT unique, so you can purchase two or more of these maces!
Make the Most of the Spellsurge Proc's Cooldowntime
When your Spellsurge weapon is equipped, you will likely experience a small loss in DPS or HPS. Even if your two weapons are identical, you will lose the +40 spell dmg or +81 healing you would have had by using a different enchant. The best way to minimize this loss of DPS or HPS is to have your primary weapon (high spell damage or healing) equipped while the hidden cooldown on Spellsurge is ticking. During the 50 second cooldown, Spellsurge cannot proc again, thus it is equivalent to using a weapon with no enchant at all.
Unlike the jewelcrafter-made necklaces with "on use" properties, you can unequip your Spellsurge weapon once the 10-second buff hits you and your party members, and the buff with remain.
Keep in mind that swapping weapons in combat triggers the global cooldown-- a fact easily forgotten by casters who rarely swap weapons in combat.
Let Addons Do the Work For You
Although the above concept is great in theory, it may be hard to actually execute in a raid encounter. Watching for a Spellsurge proc, swapping weapons, counting to 50, swapping weapons, rinse, repeat.... it's not going to be easy while focusing on a heal or spellcast rotation!
The most invaluable tool to a Spellsurge user is an addon called CasterWeaponSwapper. It maximizes the Spellsurge downtime by only equipping that weapon when it is able to proc! You will also notice almost no additional global cooldown triggers; the addon is smart enough to do the weapon swaps immediately after you begin to cast another spell. The global cooldown happens WHILE you are already casting, and you won't experience any additional inturruption.
CasterWeaponSwapper has additional weapon swap functions as well: There is a high mana set (to start combat with the highest possible mana pool), low mana/mana regen set (when you hit low mana, it will automatically equip your mana regen set) and druid sets that automatically equip and unequip while shapeshifting. It supports all three weapons slots: Main hand, offhand, and wand or relic.
For the purposes of this guide, I will focus on how this addon applies to Spellsurge and benefits casters who use Spellsurge.
