As most Wow players know, Blizzard announced some upcoming class changes for Cataclysm over the last few days. For the most part, I don't worry too much about these announcements, as things usually will change before the expansion is released and I generally agree with most of the changes.
If you want to read up on the changes, you can read the blue posts, here.
Of course the one I will read about is the mage. Because, well, that's what my main is. Most notably, the fire mage. I was excited to see what they would do as there are so many improvements that can be made for mages, of all specs, and I am now bummed. Let's go over it.
New Spells
"Flame Orb (available at level 81): Inspired by Prince Taldaram’s abilities in Ahn'kahet and Icecrown Citadel, this spell allows the mage to cast a flaming orb that travels in front in a straight line, sending beams that cause fire damage to passing targets. Once it’s cast, the mage is free to begin casting other spells as the Flame Orb travels. While the spell will be useful to any spec, Fire mages will have talents that improve it, possibly causing the Flame Orb to explode when it reaches its destination.
Time Warp (level 83): Grants a passive Haste effect much like Bloodlust or Heroism to party or raid members. It also temporarily increases the mage's own movement speed. Time Warp will be exclusive with Bloodlust and Heroism, meaning you can’t benefit from both if you’ve got the Exhaustion debuff, though the movement-speed increase will still work even when under the effects of Exhaustion.
Wall of Fog (level 85): Creates a line of frost in front of the mage, 30 yards from end to end. Enemies who cross the line are snared and take damage. The mana cost will be designed to make Wall of Fog efficient against groups, not individuals. This spell is intended to give mages a way to help control the battlefield, whether the mage is damaging incoming enemies (Blizzard can be channeled on top of Wall of Fog) or protecting a flag in a Battleground. 10-second duration. 30-second cooldown."
Pretty standard spells, nice for each spec. No complaints there.
Changes to Abilities and Mechanics
"In addition to introducing new spells, we're planning to make changes to some of the other abilities and mechanics you're familiar with. This list and the summary of talent changes below it are by no means comprehensive, but they should give you a good sense of what we intend for each spec.
- Arcane Missiles is being redesigned to become a proc-based spell. Whenever the mage does damage with any spell, there is a chance for Arcane Missiles to become available, similar to how the warrior’s Overpower works. The damage and mana cost of this spell will be reworked to make it very desirable to use when available. This change should make gameplay more dynamic for the mage, particularly at low levels.
- We are planning to remove spells that don't have a clear purpose. Amplify Magic, Dampen Magic, Fire Ward, and Frost Ward are being removed from the game, and we may remove more.
- The ability to conjure food and water will not become available until higher levels (likely around level 40), as we're making changes to ensure mages generally won’t run out of mana at lower levels. Once mages learn how to conjure food and water, the conjured item will restore both health and mana.
- Scorch will provide a damage bonus to the mage's fire spells. Our goal is for Scorch to be part of the mage's rotation and a useful damage-dealing ability, even if someone else is supplying the group with the spell Critical Strike debuff. Scorch will provide the mage with more specific benefits, which can also be improved through talents."
Again no complaint here. Blizzard is making things far more mana efficient (and woot for that at low levels!); finally making food and drink one item. I don't know why they are removing the frost & fire wards, as they are helpful in pvp, particularly with the right talents & glyphs - not to mention a fire ward has saved my life a couple of times after I hit something with a reflective shield on it.
New Talents and Talent Changes
"-Arcane Focus will now return mana for each spell that fails to hit your target, including Arcane Missiles that fail to launch. We want Arcane mages to have several talents that play off of how much mana the character has and give the player enough tools to manage mana.
-The talent Playing with Fire will reduce the cooldown of Blast Wave when hit by a melee attack, instead of its current effect.
-Pyromaniac will grant Haste when three or more targets are getting damaged by the effects of your damage-over-time (DoT) fire spells.
-The Burnout talent will allow mages to cast spells using health when they run out of mana."
So now we have come to the part where I start freaking out.
The arcane talent change I totally agree with - for the 13 seconds where I tried arcane out, mana was my biggest problem. I frequently hear about how arcane mages have to really watch their mana use. I don't know, however, how many arcane raiding mages actually miss their target. Every raider who knows what they are doing are hit capped to minimize that chance. I know its an event for me when my spell doesn't land. So this may be more of a levelling buff, I don't know.
The next three...
Playing with Fire Rank 3
Increases all spell damage caused by 3% and all spell damage taken by 3%.
Sigh. So now instead of a damage buff, I can blast wave mobs off if I'm hit. Here is my problem - if I am a decent mage, I WON'T GET HIT. There are several crowd control devices already in the game that will negate that. The only benefit to this talent is for PvP.
Pyromaniac Rank 3
Increases chance to critically hit by 3% and allows 50% of your mana regeneration to continue while casting.
I really, really, really hope this is a case of "in addition to" not "instead of". As a fire mage, I depend on high crit ratings to get my instant pyroblasts. Haste is nice, but not as big as crit. To remove that 3% in favour of haste is not a cool move and honestly I don't see the benefit.
Burnout Rank 5
Increases your spell critical damage bonus with all spells by 50% but your non-periodic spell criticals cost an additional 5% of the spell's cost.
Yes, I like that I can now use my life to cast spells. But again, this critical damage bonus should not suffer. I never have a mana problem. Never. I have a mana gem in my bags that hasn't been touched in 3 months. Again, hoping that this is an "addition to". But realistically, this is Blizzard, it isn't going to happen.
Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses
"Arcane
Spell damage
Spell Haste
Mana Adept
Fire
Spell damage
Spell Crit
Ignite
Frost
Spell damage
Spell Crit damage
Deathfrost
Mana Adept: Arcane will deal damage based how much mana the mage has. For example, Arcane mages will do much more damage at 100% mana than at 50% mana. If they begin to get low on mana, they will likely want to use an ability or mechanic to bring their mana up to increase their damage.
Ignite: All direct-damage fire spells will add a damage-over-time (DoT) component when cast. The flavor will be similar to how Fireball works; however, the DoT component will be much stronger.
Deathfrost: Casting Frostbolt places a buff on the mage that increases the damage for all frost, fire, and arcane spells. The only damage spell that won't be affected by this buff is Frostbolt."
I hope, for arcane mages sakes, that they will have a lot of mana increasing mechanics. Because that will suck if they don't.
Ignite - again, it currently gives us a 4% crit buff. Unless the dots are going to crit, this is again going to suck.
Deathfrost - the only really exciting thing I see here. Frost mages have been passed over time and again, and this is something totally usable. Why it would not affect frostbolts, since that is the frost mages #1 spell, I don't know, but we'll take what we can get.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that Blizzard is taking the fire mage into PvP more and more. There are very few usable raid changes here, and I find it upsetting. I realize this is just a preview of changes, and I hope some fire mage at Blizzard wakes up and makes a stink. Of course, I could just be panicking because I haven't had my morning coffee. Either way, boo!
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