Weaving and twisting overview
Weaving and twisting are a priority based approach to your globals. It means choosing a specific spell because the conditions are right, not following a fixed rotation. In TBC Enhancement, most weaving decisions fall into three systems: twisting, twisting, and weaving.
The three systems Enhancement uses
Air Totem Twisting
twisting is intentionally alternating air totems to gain the benefit of two different effects over the same window, even though only one air totem can be active at a time. The goal is to maintain required group coverage, of , while briefly activating , until just before is going to fall off your group, then repeating the cycle, so that both benefits are realized without sacrificing overall uptime.
Read the full air totem twisting guide
Fire Totem Twisting
twisting is choosing the fire totem that produces the highest damage for the current situation. Since has a cooldown and a delayed detonation, a common pattern is to drop it, let it detonate, then immediately replace it with your baseline fire totem such as or .
Read the full fire totem twisting guide
Flame Shock Weaving
weaving is deciding when it is worth maintaining the dot versus spending those globals on other priorities. The decision is condition based. It depends on uptime, timing, and whether you can apply and refresh without wasting globals.
Weaving and twisting are always a value check
Every weave and every twist has a cost. You spend a global, you spend mana, and you accept execution risk. The payoff is more damage or more group value. The correct cast is the one that is a reliable net gain in your current conditions.
What you can lose by weaving poorly
- Delaying higher priority actions because you spent a global at the wrong time
- Dropping required group coverage, especially
- Mana headroom, which reduces your options later in the fight
- Extra globals spent fixing mistakes, which turns one decision into a chain of decisions
Strong play is not weaving more often. It is weaving with higher success rate and higher impact per global.
A simple decision framework
Use the same gates for every weave. If a gate fails, skip the weave and keep your priority clean.
Gate 1: Do you actually have a global to spend
If this cast will push back a higher priority action in the next few seconds, you do not have a real global to spend.
Gate 2: Are the conditions stable
Movement, target swaps, and unreliable uptime can turn a good choice into a wasted global. Wait for stability.
Gate 3: Can you afford it
Mana is future options. If twisting or weaving now removes better options later, you are borrowing against yourself.
Gate 4: Can you execute it cleanly
If you are likely to need an immediate follow up global to fix the result, it is often negative value.
How to learn without building bad habits
Add one system at a time. Establish a stable baseline first, then layer in a single weave type until it is automatic. When a weave fails, do not chase it. Return to your baseline priorities, then attempt again when the conditions are better.
Suggested learning order
- twisting, because group coverage pressure makes the decisions obvious
- weaving, because it teaches condition based refresh timing
- twisting, because it is easiest to over spend mana and globals
This order is about building discipline first. The exact priority within your character and raid setup can vary, but the habit formation does not.
Go deeper
This page defines the concept and shared decision rules. The detailed pages turn each system into a repeatable technique.