Mage Talents

[merlot]

I feel they made PvE raid builds a lot better, and nerfed 5man builds / pvp builds. Frost mages are still very viable, just in a different manner. And also it looks like Blizz is trying as hard as possible to make crit gear actually useful rather then the trash it used to be

[shiv_]

Yeah free, thats why i was saying tier 3 is just stupid :\

[Yume]

YEP frost is ZZZZ imo.

Arcane tree is lame too
tier 3 = LOL JOKE

31 fire 20 frost join pvp guild... even though combustion is a pve skill now

Meh. I was hoping that fire would get buffed damage wise to recreate the damage gap between frost and fire that was closed with the aq20 ranks but it looks like for sustained raiding dps frost is going to be the way to go.

I'll put my money on combustion being dispellable and therefore still useless for pvp.

It seems like they're trying to make fire raiding pve viable but to be honest you take up so many debuff slots and the mana use is still high, might as well just stick with frost. And crit is still utter crap when it comes to direct comparison of crit to damage gear.

As for my spec I'll have to toy around a lot but for raiding, the patch changes just about nothing. I'll probably go to some incarnation of frost/arcane. I'd rather not have to wade through all the crap in arcane to get to imp CS, POM and instability but there's not many other worthwhile talents.

Edit: btw I like the frost changes. previously shatter was the most out-of-place talent in the game because it was a huge burst damage inside of the tree that shouldnt be about damage. The new tier 1 kiting talent is what frost should be.

Or maybe I'll just play my priest. The efficiency increase and cast time reduction on gheal that they gave priests alone is better than 100% of the mage changes.

[shiv_]

It just annoys me that in a lot of places they free up talent points so you can put them in new abilities, but then the abilities that replaced those old ones are just stupid.

Who cares about 5% to crit with aoe's when the only time you aoe is in a controlled environment where you're [supposedly] getting healed?

Who cares about an extra 200 armor based off of .5 int?

Who cares about a TIER 6 talent that gives everyone 5% to crit with frost. If you crit for double dmg, then that is the same as getting a 1% dmg increase per 1% crit. Which means this gives you a whopping 5% dmg bonus. Compare that to shadow weaving, or improved scorch. It's just lame.

Then they go and put all the movement imparing abilities that frost is known for at the beginning of the tree and, and make it cost less talent points to get. That is great, but it only effects pvp'ers and chinese farmers that like to kite the crocks in zg. And in pvp you don't even need those movement imparing abilities, because the only classes they have any worthwhile effect on are warriors and rogues. And a mage should smoke both of those classes anyways.

Overall they made an effort to take all the various spec's that mages have and try and make it possible to touch on all of them at once. And then they took some strong points and nerfed them a tad, while buffing some of the weaker points.

[Savior`]

mages need buffs? 4k crits not doing it?

[Lyion]

Take it mages are still going to arcane power eh? or some weird iceblock+fire spec

[Yume]

Who cares about a TIER 6 talent that gives everyone 5% to crit with frost. If you crit for double dmg, then that is the same as getting a 1% dmg increase per 1% crit. Which means this gives you a whopping 5% dmg bonus. Compare that to shadow weaving, or improved scorch. It's just lame.

Yeah I forgot about that. Atleast it's a halfway decent (raiding) talent, not some worthless 150 armor POC. And another strike against raiding with fire.

And those frost movement impairing effects are good for:
- nef stage 1
- keeping goblin bwl packs in place
- AV
- solo kiting (mainly for farming) lots of content (libram of focus farming, any sort of elite mob that instagibbs you at melee like the WS demons or risen constructs for phat skin of shadow)

I guess it comes down to what naxx needs. Im always hoping for more encounters where movement impairing effects play a role, they always seem to be more fun.

mages need buffs? 4k crits not doing it?

lol? Apparently you aren't aware of the big tradeoffs you make to get big crits. You have to sacrifice every decent defensive talent, compounded with the fact that you're already above and beyond the most squishy class in the game, have the lowest crit rate of any dps class, and sacrifice any and all stats on gear. Only through very liberal use of limited invulnerability potions (I go through 2-3 stacks a week) am I able to do decent burst dps without dying constantly. And hell, I still die constantly. GG speccing iceblock before c'thun/ouro tonight.

Take it mages are still going to arcane power eh? or some weird iceblock+fire spec

Think of it this way: The patch will change nothing.

[Lyion]

Man im glad im a priest =P Shammys probably get sweet ass review.

[Cavos]

-16:00:33- (Vidar) Tseric said shatter is a mistake, it's 50%
-16:00:33- (Vidar) and btw
-16:00:39- (Vidar) it applies to all spells

TOASTY!!#!

[merlot]

-16:00:33- (Vidar) Tseric said shatter is a mistake, it's 50%
-16:00:33- (Vidar) and btw
-16:00:39- (Vidar) it applies to all spells

TOASTY!!#!

50% to all spells? this sounds hihgly doubtful, though it would be SWEEEET

-still still manx

[Snow]

Fyi to you mages, when sheeped, warriors can drop combat now (yep they "fixed" the totem bug and added a new one it seems while completely funking up our charge ability). So put those frost changes to good use lol.

I cant wait for the new warrior bugs (or maybe they are being called intentional nerfs now, I'm not really sure) this upcoming patch will introduce. Though I do kind of like being able to stay in combat forever in pve and have 45 rage before every pull (stance dance to stay in combat forever with 25 rage + bloodrage right before the pull), I dont really like the side-effects in pvp.

[Samelina]

# Conjure Food now has a new rank (Rank 7) available in Stratholme.



About fucking time

[Lyion]

What the fuck are you talking about?

[merlot]

# Conjure Food now has a new rank (Rank 7) available in Stratholme.



About fucking time

no more sweet rolls?!?!?!?!

[Snow]

What the fuck are you talking about?

I assume you are talking to me so I'll answer based on that assumption.

Before this patch, a warrior would drop combat after killing a mob or player. This was quite nice because in a group pvp situation they could kill a guy, drop combat, change stance, and charge the next target.

With this latest patch blizzard "fixed" a bug involving totems. Apparently when a warrior killed a totem they would drop combat, and this was unintentional. Though I cant drop combat by killing a totem now (well actually I dont remember ever dropping combat by killing a totem before but I suppose that is moot), there are several side-effects from this change:

1) you can drop combat when sheeped
2) you are stuck in combat about 10-20 seconds longer than you use to be after winning a fight (and hence you cant instantly charge someone after a kill)
3) you can stay in combat forever with 25 rage by switching stances


I dont fully understand the mechanics yet of the new dropping out of combat, but I suspect it has to do with the time since the last ability was used or you were hit/had a spell cast on you. For example after killing a player or mob in 1v1, you are no longer instantly out of combat. If you do nothing and wait 10+ secs or so you will drop combat. If you battleshout or change stance, etc, you wont drop combat until roughly 10 seconds or so after the last ability used. If you change stances with 25 rage every 8 seconds or so you can stay in combat with 25 rage for ever (I tested this for 2 minutes duration of stance switching). If you are sheeped and unable to use an ability and if noone resheeps/uses any spell on you in less than roughly 10 seconds you can drop combat and charge the mage when the sheep breaks (this happens more in a group fight than a 1v1 situation obviously).

It also looks like there might be funky dropping of combat going on in a warrior vs priest pvp situation that seems somewhat unintentional. However I have yet to make enough solid observations to come to any firm conclusion or hypothesis about this yet.