Player Spotlight: Drjay

Hello everyone! Welcome to the seventh week of the RaiderIO Player Spotlight. My name is Samantha aka Vitaminpee and with this series, I am aiming to highlight the amazing players of World of Warcraft regardless of their chosen class, spec, language, and/or region. I hope to bring you valuable information and help you learn more about your favorite top players or discover new ones from around the world that you may not yet know.

This week, we have Drjay here to chat with us about Mage in high Mythic+. Drjay ended Season 1 of BFA with the top Mythic+ score in the world, tied with group-mates Ashine, Asmondh, and Divinefield.

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“Understand the mechanics of the dungeon, gain awareness for value plays, and acquire knowledge in order to become a high Mythic+ player. If you want to be a Mage main, always go big.”

VitaminP: Can you please tell us a little bit more about yourself?

Drjay: Hey! My name is José and I am almost 28 years old. I am Italian with a Spanish name and I live in Germany. I’ve played both PvE and PvP on a higher level from Vanilla through Cataclysm, but nowadays I mainly compete in PvE - especially M+. I recently finished my studies in Real Estate, so at the moment I’m focusing on full-time streaming.




VitaminP: What do you think is the strongest Mage spec for Mythic+ and why? Do you foresee this changing at all based on the new Azerite pieces from Battle of Dazar’alor?

Drjay: So far, Frost and Fire have been pretty dominant in this expansion due to the Infested affix. Being forced to isolate single mobs and finish them off by themselves or paired up with other single infested mobs was not in favor for Arcane. Also, the consistent output in general of Arcane is low compared to the other 2 specs. For Season 2, I predict that Frost will be the superior spec, (especially at the start of the season) due to the slow. Having the Frost Mage slow utility for Reaping enables very interesting and creative big pulls. Ultimately though, Fire Mage output could be slightly higher in these bigger pulls.



VitaminP: What is your go-to talent build for Mythic+?

Drjay: For Frost, my general build is this:



Talent change for Sanguine:
→ (having a stronger slow will most likely lead to more sanguine heal, so we spec out of it)

Talent change on 6+ mob pulls or more AoE:
→

The main rule here is that, the bigger you pull, the more you want to play Comet storm. A consistent pull size of 6+ targets is the magic number. The smaller you pull, the better Splitting Ice will be. Awareness over your pull pattern is key when it comes to your talent choices. If you know that the pulls are going to be small but your group still needs some additional AoE power due to your group composition, then choose Comet Storm. Try to find what fits your group best.

“Commitment is the main reason for my success. Without commitment to my stream, my community, and Mythic+, I would have never been able to get to this point.”

VitaminP: What do you attribute to your success in Mythic+? What do you think the biggest personal factor was for you to be rank 1 in Season 1?

Drjay: Commitment is the main reason for my success. Without commitment to my stream, my community, and Mythic+, I would have never been able to get to this point. Commitment to Mythic+ brings knowledge. The more you play, the more you will know and the more experience you will get. Knowledge is power.



VitaminP: Do you play any notable alts in Mythic+? If so, how does the playstyle differ from Mage?

Drjay: I also play Elemental Shaman, Outlaw Rogue and Moonkin Druid. I picked Sham and Moonkin up some weeks ago and Rogue was my main for years back in the day. Mage and Shaman are similar when it comes to the damage pattern, since they do a lot of direct damage with burst phases depending on CDs. Moonkin is different because it’s based on multidotting and ramp-up. Outlaw Rogue is just perma AoE blast and a little underwhelming on Single Target.



VitaminP: What do you think about the upcoming MDI? Do you feel prepared?

Drjay: You can never be prepared enough. In team games, there are so many factors that can make a difference on a competitive level. I am happy that I get to play with people who I enjoy working with and consider to be some of the best players out there. I like the new format, since you will not be forced to grind as hard as in Legion. It seems like Blizzard wants to bring MDI to the next level, which I salute.



VitaminP: You have a rather unique UI that people can download if they subscribe to your Twitch channel. Can you explain the rationale that led you to color-coding your nameplates? Has it worked well so far for BFA?

Drjay: The reason for that is that I’ve been a shot-caller and leader of M+ for a while now. I tried to find a way to make it easier for me to emphasize mobs that have some kind of importance. It also makes it easier to mark these targets and coordinate interrupts. It has worked very well so far.





VitaminP: What’s the funniest bug you’ve encountered in Mythic+ so far this xpac?

Drjay: The funniest might be this, where some engineering item made the spores become a zoo on the last boss in Underrot.



Some people might also remember the BRH cheese that I invented back in Legion which was also used by a lot of teams during MDI in Legion. I found another way to do it here in Waycrest. This is basically BRH 2.0.





VitaminP: What is the biggest challenge of running Mage in high Mythic+? What advice do you have for someone wanting to main Mage?

Drjay: For a DPS, the main goal is always the same regardless of spec: to get the highest value out of your class. As a Fire Mage, you depend a lot on your 2-minute cooldown Combustion. Because of that, the highest value for Fire Mages would be to use Combustion on as many targets as possible on cooldown. The main challenge is to find a proper pull pattern for Fire Mage, which means playing around the cooldowns in order to make it really good. Frost is more linear, so you can use everything on cooldown and have a lot of damage and superb utility with the slow. If someone wants to main mage in Mythic+ I would say: listen my friend, it’s not only about the Mage. Understand the mechanics of the dungeon, gain awareness for value plays, and acquire knowledge in order to become a high Mythic+ player. If you want to be a Mage main, always go big.