Inconsistency using Mage/thermostrike

[Corey Sayre]

Hey everyone. I've been playing eternium for a few months now, and I feel like I'm getting pretty close to being able to push into the 130s on the mage (started with BH got him competitive with no hangups) but I am just so terribly inconsistent at clearing bosses after 120-125 that it just feels like complete RNG as to whether or not I'm gonna clear a run in 2-3 mins all the way to not even finishing in 10.

To elaborate, I have watched people enough to learn the proper combo (immolate>FB>FN) to get the high damage strike, and I do time it as best as I am able with the various procs--yet i just finished a handful of runs where I flat out kill the boss in one hit with just my cape and ELR damage buff going, and then on the last run I just did before coming here and writing this post, I just barely managed to finish the 105 boss (usually taking 2-3m) after repeatedly timing the charm and passive damage proc and having TS hardly notch its life...

What gives? is it really just that wide of a possible range on damage? I am even running the fire lily set up this anb with the idea that hopefully it would make my runs feel more consistent but if anything its less so than the crit charm I ran a few weeks ago. It's such a love hate relationship with the mage for me because I feel like there's just something I'm not understanding and it either goes super well or super poorly.

Sorry for the disjointed rambling post, I had to let off some steam, lol.

Thanks to any who might be able to enlighten me!

-Corey

[Tin Man]

Yeah, RNG can come into play.

I can be happily plugging along with clearing times sub-1:30 and get a crappy run that takes 2-3m but that is usually related to the mob phase rather than the boss.

You really do not say much about your gear other than that you switched to Fire Lily. What is your other trinket? Are you running with Slayer on your staff? How about other enchantments?

Blaming RNG is easy but is likely not the real story.

You mention the "various procs" but do not clearly indicate which processes that you are syncing up with. The devil, as usual, is in the details.

Based upon the rotation that you mentioned, I am guessing that you are running with a touchscreen device. Correct?

Your huge variance in clearing TL 105 is a flag that something big is being missed.

That you typically take 2-3m to clear TL 105 does indicate to me that you are still mid-game gear/Champion Levels.

What is your mages name and current leaderboard ranking. Giving the information for both your non-ANB mage and your ANB mage would be helpful.

The more information that you give? The more that the players that actually know what they are doing, not me, can help.

[Bali_Lenni]

"not me" ...yeah Tin Man does not know what he is doing and never helps
or
(where would this forum be without him?)
;-)

[Corey Sayre]

Hey Tin Man, I'll go ahead and try and fill in the questions you asked.

To start with, I am playing through the steam client on my laptop (keyboard and mouse). I think I am approaching end game on the bounty hunter but you're probably right about my mages still being solidly in the mid game,

So, the hero I was/am playing, the one that triggered me to write the OP, is named "Bigpimpn" and is currently ranked 42 on the ANB mage ladder. I'm about to do the 120 trial and maybe one more before my timer is up, The almost failed 105 the other day was using XP/XG gear, and while using that setup my average 105 runs are around 2:30-3m with a few outliers like that one 105 before I wrote the post.
His champion level is gonna end up near 1280.

My main mage is Kota, rank 234 on mage season ladder currently, although I haven't actually finished pushing her yet. She's at TL125 currently, but I expect to get around 10 more trial levels out of her before the season ends. She runs 105s averaging around 1:30. Champion level on this one is just over 2k (2006 i think).

Both are ELR build, the ANB mage is built for fire lily (which I pair with Power charm) the season mage uses the crit damage charm with vial of the wind spirit. I'm just about to push on both heroes so the rankings will probably shift upwards

I keep both main and ANB heroes fully enchanted with: the slayer/-20%dmg taken offhand enchant, and the osmosis/vitality/crit damage/power/runspeedx2/parry enchants for the armors.

by various procs, i am referring specifically to:
the cloak CDR buff
the dps charm buff
votws charm haste
elr 4pc dmg buff
40%dmg passive skill buff
basically any proc that shows up under our health bar.

Then there's the other procs that show up under the target health bar that I have not been able to effectively learn and identify. I'm pretty sure the slayer proc, the belt, and helm procs (and a number of others) show up there but to be honest I don't know that I am skilled enough to time those alongside my proc buffs without dying or messing up my rotation. I'll elaborate on how this translates into my play:
Basically, when the boss pops I will focus on syncing the DPS charm proc to occur during the FB>FN part of my rotation and once that's set it usually will proc again every second rotation so I switch focus on to micro so I don't get hit or miss my attacks

What i don't understand is how every once in a while it will either just outright kill a boss without even having any of the damage proc buffs up. or the opposite happens and even after getting say, the DPS charm and power passive buff stacked prior to triggering TS and it basically doing nothing to the boss.

Actually, as I reading this post over It just occurred to me that I wasn't accounting in my mind for the debuff procs and other effects that end up under the target health bar and this probably has a lot to do with my confusion.

I guess I kind of answered my original question, but if you can think of anything else I might be missing I would be grateful for any suggestions. Thanks for taking the time to help!