Mage question: ffb vs arcane

[Pantalaimon]

1) Hot streak pyro.
2) Living bomb.
3) Keep scorch up.
4) FFB.

Sort of.

Refresh LB before Hot Streak if LB's due to fall off provided you're not in danger of gobbling a hot streak. Hrm, how to explain...

Most often, hot streak will proc while you're charging up a spell. If LB is up for a refresh, that means it will also blow up while you're charging the spell - if the explosion crits, hit your hotstreak at the end of your cast, because if the spell you finished casting crits you'll get another right away. If the explosion *doesn't* crit, you can safely refresh LB, because even if the spell you just cast crit it won't be two in a row so it's not possible to munch a hotstreak.

*pauses for breath* Got all that? Probably not. Yeah, me neither, just something I sort of picked up instinctively:P Doing it that way also supposedly helps with "ignite munching", a phenomenon which is kind of controversial and I've never personally experienced - I just do it for the extra LB uptime.

Also, last caveat: Keep scorch up above everything. Even hotstreaks. Having it fall off means you have to cast it twice instead of once, which is a significant DPS loss. Post 3.1, you'll also have to restack scorch *five* times because you'll want to drop the scorch glyph, so shake the habit now if you can.

As to the topic of Arcane vs FFB vs Fireball/TtW: it's usually all about hit, as Swiss alluded to. Unless you have an atypical crit/haste combination, the specs primary difference is to allow you to take advantage of different hitcaps: you'll want 14% for Fireball, 11% for FFB and 8% (!!) for Arcane, assuming you have a SP/Boomkin along for the ride. 1% less for all three if you're alliance and can count on a spacegoat. Basically, yeah, every mage usually has *too much* hit, hence the prevalence of Fireball/TtW as the "main" raiding spec; I'd love to go Arcane, I really would, but gosh dang if I can't find a way to shed all this hit on my gear.

Edit: Speaking of which, just took a peek at your armory. You're way overhit for your current spec, even without a SP or Boomkin. I'm assuming because you're gemming hit that you don't usually have either, but honestly any more than 14% isn't doing you absolutely anything. If you're serious about Arcane, (and as an aside, given that much hit I'm not sure why TCOM is recommending a spec swap), you'll have to regem and probably drop the mark of the war prisoner to get your hit down to a more reasonable level.

Gem bonuses are rarely worth it; you need two blue gems for your meta, and the rest should more or less always be +19 spellpower; certainly never gem for a socket bonus of intellect, stamina, or hit over cap.

If your DPS is far from "theoretical" levels, I'd examine buffs first before spec - if you don't have a shadow priest or boomkin, do you at least have an undead DK for your +13% damage? Elemental Shammy?