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Molten Armor

From WoWWiki

Molten Armor
  • Molten Armor
  • Instant cast
  • 28% of base Mana
  • Causes 170 Fire damage when hit, increases your chance to critically hit with spells by 35% of your spirit, and reduces the chance you are critically hit by 5%. Only one type of Armor spell can be active on the Mage at any time. Lasts 30 min.
Usable by
ClassMage
Properties
TypeUtility, Defensive
SchoolFire
CooldownNone/Global Cooldown
Talents
Improvement
talents
Impact, Elemental Precision, Pyromaniac, Fire Power, Critical Mass, Arcane Instability, Spell Power, Playing with Fire, Molten Fury, Molten Shields, Shatter
Other information
Ranks1
Related buff
  • Molten Armor
  • Causes 170 Fire damage to attackers. Chance to receive a critical hit reduced by 5%. Chance to critically strike with spells increased by 35% of your spirit.
  • Duration: 30 minutes
"As if bein' encased in ice wasn't bad enough! How's a rogue to make a living?" - Rotun DaggerhandTCGFoO 44

Born of the belief that "the best defense is a good offense", Molten Armor is a Mage spell that both imbues the caster with greater offensive power and protects him by harming his assailants, as well as greatly increasing the possibility of a critical strike. It is a self-buff armor spell. Molten Armor was introduced in the Burning Crusade expansion.

Rank Mana Cost Level Cost
1 28% of base mana 62 5g 10s TBC
2 28% of base mana 71 15g
3 28% of base mana 79 15g

Notes

Unlike the damage caused by damage shields, Molten Armor's damage is considered direct damage, and as such can crit and can proc both talent effects like Impact and item effects like the one of Mark of Defiance.

Talent improvements

Impact: The chance to stun is applied to this damage as well. At 5/5, anyone attacking you essentially has a 10% chance to be stunned, giving you time to throw a Scorch in unmolested, or a head start on getting away.

This spell benefits from all other talents that increase damage and critical strike chance for all spells and fire spells. This spell does not trigger the mana replenishment effect from Master of Elements, however.

Fire vulnerability from Curse of the Elements will also increase the damage dealt by this effect.

As of patch 2.3 Molten Armor will no longer trigger Ignite. This is significant because an unexpected DoT from this talent could cause problems when trying to polymorph a mob.

Starting in patch 3.1 Molten Armor was changed to a spirit conversion to Spell Critical Rating. Without the glyph, Molten Armor converts 35% of your total Spirit into Critical Rating. With the Glyph of Molten Armor, 55% of your Spirit is converted.

Glyph Changes

Glyph of Molten Armor: Your Molten Armor grants an additional 20% of your spirit as critical strike rating.

Tips and tactics

The last acquired armor spell is generally considered one of the best. The large increase to crit chance is unique, and by far the best offensive augmentation available from the armor spells. For solo and PvP, this alone makes the spell worth taking. However, in group PvE, it is sometimes better to use Mage Armor as the longevity increase from the mana regeneration while casting effect outweighs the damage increase.

The damage to attackers may not seem like a lot, but it quickly adds up if you are being attacked by a rogue or other fast attacker. It's also wonderful for taking multiple mobs at the same time. The damage can crit and is affected by talents like Impact, so additional effects can be triggered by it. Especially when combined with Molten Shields, it will prove a very good defensive combination, as Molten Shields extends the damage caused by Molten Armor to ranged and spell attacks, resulting in a 10% chance to stun an enemy on any attack.

While Fire Mages and most Arcane Mages use this armor for PvP, it is suggested that Frost Mages use Ice Armor as Frostbite and Ice Lance can be deadly to melee classes.

It is unclear whether or not this buff can proc while the mage is sitting: this has been included in numerous patches.

Past changes

Patch 2.1.0 (2007-05-22): Molten Armor will no longer be triggered erroneously by some non-melee attacks, such as Feral Faerie Fire. It will also no longer break crowd controlling affects such as Polymorph.
Patch 2.1.0 (2007-05-22): A data error was fixed that was causing Molten Armor to generate more threat than intended.
Patch 2.1.2 (2007-06-19): Molten Armor can now proc when the Mage is sitting.
Patch 2.3.0 (2007-11-13): Ignite: This talent is no longer triggered by damage dealt by Molten Armor.
Patch 3.1.0 (2009-04-14): Molten Armor now causes 170 fire damage across all ranks, and increases critical strike chance by 35% of your spirit.