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Again I've visited the wow mage forums and taken from it's wealth of knowledge.
A mage named Lhivera made a wonderful FAQ about the mage class. I've enclosed some of the thoughts from the thread Please read the thread in its entirety as it will provide you with a wealth of knowledge.
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How Do Crit Talents Stack? Or, "what is a "critical strike damage bonus?"
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Short Answer
Untalented spells: 150% crits
Spells with Spell Power only: 175% crits
Frost spells with Ice Shards only: 200% crits
Frost spells with Ice Shards and Spell Power: 225% crits
Fire spells with Ignite only: 210% crits
Fire spells with Ignite and Spell Power: 245% crits
Long Answer
This question generally comes in two forms: "Do Spell Power and Ice Shards stack?" and "Do Spell Power and Ignite stack?" The answer in both cases is simply "yes," but that leaves the question of exactly how much damage you get out of the stacking. Here's how it works:
Let's say you have a totally untalented Frostbolt that hits for 1000 damage. On a critical strike, the damage would be 1500 points. The extra 500 points is your "critical strike damage bonus." This is commonly referred to as a "150% crit," and is the standard critical strike for any spellcasting class.
So, first, let's look at Ice Shards. With 5 points, this talent increases your critical strike damage bonus by 100%. 100% of 500 is 500, so your total damage is 1000 + 500 + 500 = 2000. This is commonly referred to as a "200% crit."
Now Spell power. This talent increases your critical strike damage bonus by 50%. 50% of 500 is 250, so your total damage is 1000 + 500 + 250 = 1750. This is commonly referred to as a "175% crit."
If we combine them, their bonuses are simply added together: 1000 + 500 + 500 + 250 = 1250. This is commonly referred to as a "225% crit."
Now let's say it's a 1000 point Fireball (yes, it's feeble, but it's an easy number to work with). As with Frostbolt, the standard crit is 150%, with a 500 point critical strike damage bonus.
With Ignite, you get 40% of your critical strike's total damage added as a DOT, so the Ignite damage is (1000 + 500) * 0.4 = 600. The total damage is 1000 + 500 + 600 = 2100, or 210%.
With Spell Power, but no Ignite, it works exactly like Frostbolt: 50% of 500 is 250, so the total damage is 1000 + 500 + 250 = 1750, or a 175% crit.
If you combine Spell Power and Ignite, you first determine the damage of the critical strike itself, which we just did: 1750. Ignite is then calculated from this value: (1000 + 500 + 250) * 0.4 = 700. Total damage is 1000 + 500 + 250 + 700 = 2450, or a 245% crit.
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How Exactly Does Ignite Work? Or, "roll, roll, roll your boat."
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Short Answer
Despite the clever subtitle, Ignites do not roll. Except in very rare cases, you should now always get 40% of your crit damage in Ignite damage. No more, no less. It may sometimes be delayed, but it'll get there.
Long Answer
You can think of it this way: every time you crit, 40% of your crit damage is deposited into the "Ignite Bank." If two seconds pass without a crit, half of the damage is withdrawn from the Ignite Bank and applied to the target. If another two seconds pass, the other half is withdrawn and applied to the target, leaving the bank empty. Here is an example:
0 seconds: Fireball crit for 2000 (800 Ignite damage banked)
1.5 seconds: Scorch crit for 1000 (400 Ignite damage banked; 1200 total)
3.5 seconds: Ignite ticks for 600 (600 remaining)
4.5 seconds: Fireball ticks for 2000 (800 Ignite damage banked, 1400 total)
6.5 seconds: Ignite ticks for 700 (700 remaining)
7.0 seconds: Molten Armor crit for 125 (50 Ignite damage banked, 750 total)
9.0 seconds: Ignite ticks for 375 (375 remaining)
11.0 seconds: Ignite ticks for 375 (0 remaining)
Total crit damage: 2000 + 1000 + 2000 + 125 = 5125
Expected Ignite damage: 5125 * 0.4 = 2050
Actual Ignite damage: 600 + 700 + 375 + 375 = 2050
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Should I take Improved Fireball/Frostbolt in my build?
Or, "because they supposedly reduce my damage, and that's bad, right?"
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Short Answer
Yes.
Long Answer
The DPS increase provided by the reduced casting time always outweighs the decreased damage resulting from the lower Damage coefficient. Here's the math (thanks to Aerinia):
A = average base spell damage
B = elemental spell coefficient
Damage per second without improved fireball = (A + B)/3.5 = (2/7)A + (2/7)B
Damage per second with improved fireball = (A + .9B)/3 = (1/3)A + (3/10)B
Since 1/3 and 3/10 are both greater than 2/7, you always achieve a net DPS gain from taking improved fireball over not taking improved fireball. Your DPM suffers, though, as you do get less damage from each fireball.
The same analysis can be applied to frostbolt with similar results.
The only time you would not take these talents is for a deep Arcane build that only casts Fireball or Frostbolt with Presence of Mind or as an opener.
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Does Firepower/Piercing Ice/Arcane Instability Affect Base or Total Damage?
Or, "it's altered my tooltip, and I'm confused!"
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Short Answer
These talents affect your total damage. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Long Answer
One of the sources of confusion with these talents is that, unlike many talents, they alter the tooltip damage of the affected spells. A Frost mage with Piercing Ice will show a higher damage range for Frostbolt than a Fire mage without Piercing Ice. This is one of the cases where the tooltip system falls down on the job; it doesn't show what your gear is doing to the damage range, it doesn't show what most of your talents are doing to the damage range, but for some reason it does show what these three talents are doing to it. And people assume that what they see in the tooltip is the only affect the talents have.
This is not the case. These talents have been tested many, many times, and they definitely increase the total damage, including gear and other damage bonuses.
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How Does +Damage Work?
Or, "what is a damage coefficient?"
Short Answer
Any spell with an untalented casting time of 3.5 seconds will receive the described amount of extra damage. Any spell with a shorter casting time will receive less, any spell with a longer casting time will receive more.
Long Answer
+Damage gear is usually described in tooltips with the phrase "Increases damage and healing done by magical spells and effects by up to X." There are other similar wordings used in some tooltips, but the effect is the same, and the description is misleading, as some spells actually receive more than the listed amount.
Every spell has what is called a "damage coefficient." This coefficient is based on the spell's casting time, with 3.5 seconds being the divisor. The untalented casting time of the spell is the dividend. Instant-cast spells, such as Fire Blast, are treated as 1.5 second spells (the length of the global cooldown). Thus:
Fireball: 3.5 / 3.5 = 1.000
Arcane Missiles: 5.0 / 3.5 = 1.429
Scorch: 1.5 / 3.5 = 0.429
Fire Blast: 1.5 / 3.5 = 0.429
We multiply the +damage total of your gear and buffs by this coefficient to determine how much benefit that specific spell receives from the +damage. Let's say you have +900 damage (using normal rounding):
Fireball: 3.5 / 3.5 * 900 = 900
Arcane Missiles: 5.0 / 3.5 * 900 = 1286
Scorch: 1.5 / 3.5 * 900 = 386
Some spells, such as Frostbolt, have a coefficient penalty based on an additional effect (0.95 for its snare, in the case of Frostbolt):
Frostbolt: 3.0 / 3.5 * 0.95 = 0.814
The Empowered Frostbolt, Fireball, and Arcane Missiles talents provide bonuses that are additive to the base coefficient:
Fireball: 3.5 / 3.5 + 0.15 = 1.150
Frostbolt: 3.0 / 3.5 * 0.95 + 0.1 = 0.914
Arcane Missiles: 5.0 / 3.5 + 0.45 = 1.879
The Improved Frostbolt and Fireball talents reduce the coefficient multiplicatively with a 0.9 modifier:
Fireball: (3.5 / 3.5 + 0.15) * 0.9 = 1.035
Frostbolt: (3.0 / 3.5 * 0.95 + 0.1) * 0.9 = 0.823
Note that this is unique to these talents; most talents and effects that reduce casting time do not create such a penalty. Spell Haste, for instance, has no effect on your benefit from +Damage gear, nor does using Presence of Mind to cast a spell instantly. Arcane Blast receives the value expected from its 2.5 second base casting time:
Arcane Blast: 2.5 / 3.5 = 0.714
There are some unique cases, such as Pyroblast, which have seemingly arbitrary coefficients. Pyroblast gains a total 171.43% benefit from damage gear (as expected from its casting time), but only somewhere between 100% and 120% is applied to the direct damage, with the remainder applied to the DOT.
AOE spells suffer a penalty as well; they gain approximately 1/3 the benefit that would be expected from their casting time. The exact coefficients were adjusted slightly for each spell in 2.0.
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Total visists: 4931
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