[WoLK] Mages

[Surehand-SiN]

Man this is so nice, they are finally giving mages a full review.

So they took away the healing benefit of Imp water elemental, but that wasn't a surprise. Instead of 3% healing every 5 seconds it will be 3% mana regen for the party every 5. Still nice.

Additionally they made some really interesting changes.

I will post the full list, but some highlights are:

1. Impact can now proc off all dmg spells
   
2. Fingers of frost will now treat the next two frost spells as if the target was frozen ( free shatter combo ftw )
   
3. Molten shields will now have a 50% reflect for frost and fire spells
   
4. A few 5 point talents ave been changed to 2 and 3.
   
5. And shattered barrier will now Freeze all enemies within 10 yards when Ice barrier is broken. (LOL freaking amazing)

This is the spec I am thinking about now

Here is the full list:

Arcane

* Arcane Shielding (Tier 4) now decreases the mana lost per point of damage taken when Mana Shield is active by 17/33%. (Previously was 10/20%)
* Improved Counterspell (Tier 4) now has a 100% chance to silence the target for 2/4 secs. (Previously was a 50/100% chance to silence the target for 4 secs.)
* Torment the Weak (Tier 4) is a new 3 point talent. It increases damage done to slowed targets by 2/4/6%.
* Incanter's Absorption moved to Tier 7.
* Spell Power moved to Tier 10.


Fire

* Impact (Tier 3) has been changed to give your damaging spells a 4/7/10% chance to stun the target for 2 secs. (Previously was a 5 point talent 2/4/6/8/10% and only worked on fire spells)
* Molten Shields (Tier 4) now includes both Fire Ward and Frost Ward, and now increases chance to reflect the incoming spell by 15/30%. (Previously only worked on Fire Ward and was 10/20%)
* Fiery Payback (Tier 8 ) changed to include all damage, and now increases the cooldown of pyroblast by 2.5/5 secs when below 35% health. (Previously only worked on physical and fire damage, and did not increase cooldown time)
* Firestarter (Tier 9) is now a 2 point talent and was changed to 50/100% chance to make your next Flamestrike instant cast. (Previously was 15/30/45% and a 3 point talent)
* Burnout (Tier 10) has been increased to 10/20/30/40/50% critical damage bonus to all fire spells. (Previously 5/10/15/20/25%)
* Living Bomb (Tier 11) has been completely changed and now the target becomes a Living Bomb, taking 612 Fire damage over 12 seconds. After 12 seconds or when the spell is dispelled, the target explodes dealing 306 Fire damage to all enemies within 10 yards and knocking all targets up in the air. This spell can only affect one target at a time.


Frost

* Frost Warding (Tier 1) has been changed and now increases the armor and resistances given by your Frost Armor and Ice Armor spells by 25/50%. In addition, gives your Frost Ward and Fire Ward a 15/30% chance to negate the warded damage spell and restore mana equal to the damage caused. (Previously was 15/30% increase to resistances)
* Improved Frost Nova (Tier 2) has been replaced with Ice Floes (Was Tier 6) and reduces the cooldown of your Frost Nova, Cone of Cold, Ice Block and Icy Veins spells by 7/14/20%.
* Arctic Reach (Tier 4) now includes the spell Deep Freeze.
* Frost Channeling (Tier 4) now reduces the mana cost of all spells by 4/7/10%. (Previously only affected frost spells and was 5/10/15%)
* Cold as Ice (Tier 6) is a 2 point talent and replaces Ice Floes. It reduces the cooldown of your Cold Snap, Ice Barrier, Deep Freeze and Summon Water Elemental spells by 10/20%. Requires Cold Snap.
* Winter's Chill (Tier 6) is now a 3 point talent and gives your frost spells a 33/66/100% chance to apply the winter's chill effect. increases the chance Arcane, Fire and Frost spells will critically hit the target by 2% for 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
* Shattered Barrier (Tier 7) now gives your Ice Barrier spell a 50/100% chance to freeze all enemies within 10 yds for 8 seconds when it is destroyed. Requires Ice Barrier.
* Empowered Frostbolt (Tier 8 ) changed to a 2 point talent and now increases the damage of your Frostbolt spell by an amount equal to 5/10% of your spell power and increases the critical strike chance by an additional 2/4%.
* Fingers of Frost (Tier 8 ) now works on 2 frost spells. (Previously only affected the first one)
* Improved Water Elemental (Tier 9) changed to restore mana to all party or raid members an amount equal to 1/2/3% of their total mana every 5 secs. (Previously health was restored)
* Deep Freeze (Tier 11) is now Instant Cast. (Previously had a 1.5sec cast time)

Source

[Xalroth]

glad they are trying to make mages worthwhile again. they keep this up, i might actually re-roll one

[Synapse]

Wanna study any new specs? Vartt and I agreed on a 53/18 arcane spec. it *seems* viable, since you can get quite a few more bonuses, and they apply to more than arcane spells.

[Surehand-SiN]

Content patch PVP spec Update:

So the word from the Beta is that the OP build when the content patch comes out will be 2/0/59.

I hear that Deep Freeze is really powerful, and the change to Arcane subtlety from spell pen/threat to dispell resist is too nice to do without.

Most of the new arcane talents are interesting but not as efficient for pvp. To be honest, Imp CS is only helpful with Druids, and the added stun will more than compensate.

Here is the build I will be going for 3.0

After WoLK I'll add the talent points to fire for imp scorch, impact etc.

I'm expecting much chaos with Blizz adding this patch prior to season 4 ending.

Hopefully that chaos and these changes will allow mages to finally have more than 8% representation in top 3s and 2s teams. I guess time will tell.

[Surehand-SiN]

WOW

Expect a nerf, but this is a really nice addition.


Mage (Skills List / Talent Calc. (8905))

* *New Skill* Mirror Image (80) - Creates 3 copies of the caster nearby, which cast spells and attack the mage's enemies. Lasts 30 sec. 10% of base mana, Instant cast, 3 min cooldown.

I's speechless. Lets hope it stays in.

YouTube - New Mage Spell - Mirror Image

More detailed version" target="_blank">More detailed version

[Surehand-SiN]

Just got off the PTR's testing out the new mage talents.

Mark my words:

Mages will dominate arena in every bracket after the content patch goes live.

Assuming they don't hit us with the nerf stick.

I'll frapse my duels after the lag settles down.

[Abso]

Yeah, mages recieved a much needed buff. When patch 2.0 hit, I was completely overpowered as a warlock. We could easily take 3-4 people at once just because of how hard our dots would hit.

The same is going to be true with this patch and I wouldn't be surprised at all if season 4 ends when patch 3.0 comes out, because it should.

What can't be seen now is how HP, armor, etc. scale at 80. Caster classes remain fairly low HP by comparison. Bonus armor has been removed from all PvP gear and Warriors/Rogues/DKs have a lot higher levels of stam on their gear. Blizzard seems to be moving towards the "casters should be glass cannons approach".

I know in my partial pvp set I have over 20.5k HP unbuffed where as a caster is at about 14k hp. So yeah, they can do more damage, but you're also going to need it.

[Surehand-SiN]

Mage Glyph Update:

Glyph of Remove Curse - Your Remove curse Ability also makes the tgt immune to all Cursed for 6 seconds

Glyph of Polymorph - Your polymorph spell also removes all DoT effects from the tgt

Glyph of Fire blast - Increases the critical strike chance of Fire Blast when the tgt is stunned or incapacitated

Glyph of Frostbolt - Increases the damage dealt by Frostbolt by 5%, but removes all movement imparing effects

Glyph of Ice lance - Increases the range of your Icelance spell by 5 yards

Glyph of Improved Scorch - applies 5 stacks on a single cast

Glyph of frost nova - Increased the dmg taken amount before nova breaks by 20%


I'll post more when PTR's come back up.

[Hibernicus]

Originally Posted by Surepaw

Glyph of Frostbolt - Increases the damage dealt by Frostbolt by 5%, but removes all movement impairing effects

That's gonna get a nerf. No way in a hell a glyph should be allowed to give you a 5% increase on your primary PvE spell, with no drawback since the slow is worthless in PVE anyway.

I also heard that the Improved Scorch glyph got nerfed in a recent beta patch.

[Surehand-SiN]

lvl 80 pvp spec.


With the glyph of Imp scorch, frost nova, polymorph and remove curse.

Seems pretty OP. Any thoughts?