5.4 PTR Mage Changes/Thoughts - LAST UPDATE: 2013. 07. 15.

[Oltier 471]

I am going to collect all changes on the PTR in connection with mages here. Keep in mind, that these changes are datamined and subject to change at any time.

The opinions below, only represent my own thoughts. Note, that I am much more experienced with frost mage, than the other specs, so don't take my words as a law or something. I would like to hear your opinion as well and I will edit this post if your idea is much better and has more experience in it, than my opinion.

I will also add a comment after spell changes if I feel that they will be changing anything mandatory for us.

T16 set bonuses, and models (NEW SET BONUS!)

The Set bonuses changed at 2013. 06. 28.

• Item - Mage T16 2P Bonus: Arcane Missiles causes your next Arcane Blast within 10 sec to cost 25% less mana, stacking up to 4 times. Consuming Brain Freeze increases the damage of your next Frost spell by $2% Ice Lance, Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt, Cone of cold by 20%. Consuming Pyroblast! increases your haste by 750 for 4 5 sec, stacking up to 5 times.
• Item - Mage T16 4P Bonus: Arcane Missiles has a 20%15% chance to not consume Arcane Missiles!. Consuming Brain Freeze has a 75%30% chance to drop an icy boulder on your target. Fireball and Pyroblast have a 10% chance to cause Inferno Blast to have no cooldown for 6 sec.Inferno Blast also causes your next Pyroblast to be a critical strike.

Opinion on Set bonuses:

• The Frost 2p Change might yield in a DPS increase, finally...
• Frost 4p must be something hitting hard, if they nerfed it this much.
• Yaay finally, some better 4p fire. Better Ignites!

Set models

• Set models in the following order: LFR, Normal, Heroic

(http://www.wowhead.c...ews#tier16-mage)

Kids These Days 3 hours ago

"Get this, we're gonna take t13, put spikes on the shoulders, and PUT THE GOGGLES DOWN"

"Have a promotion"

- Youtube comment, which I totally agree with.

Spell changes

2013.06.13.

• Conjure Mana Gem Conjures a Mana Gem that can be used to instantly restore 165 360,000 mana, and holds up to 3 charges. Conjured Items Conjured items disappear if logged out for more than 15 minutes. 18% of Base Mana. 3 sec cast.

  - It's just a tooltip edit.

​2013.06.19.

• Frost Bomb: Places a Frost Bomb on the target. After 4 sec, the bomb explodes, dealing 4600 [+ 344.68% of SpellPower] Frost damage to the primary target, and 2301 [+ 172.5% of SpellPower] Frost damage to all other targets within 10 yds. All affected targets are slowed by 70% for 2 sec. Frost Bomb's countdown and cooldown are reduced by haste. This spell is strongest when it can hit 5 or more targets with the explosion. Now deals 70% damage to players (up from 60%).
• Living Bomb: The target becomes a Living Bomb, taking 4288 [+ 321.44% of SpellPower] Fire damage over 12 sec. When this effect ends, or the target dies, it explodes to deal an additional [0.10000000000000001 * 4288 ( + 321.44% of SpellPower)] Fire damage to the target and all other enemies within 10 yards. Limit 3 targets. This spell is strongest when applied to 1 or 2 targets. This spell has a 1.0 sec global cooldown. Now deals 85% damage to players (up from 70%).
• Nether Tempest: Places a Nether Tempest on the target which deals 3900 [+ 292.32% of SpellPower] Arcane damage over 12 sec. Each time Nether Tempest deals damage, an additional 50% of that damage is also dealt to a random target within 10 yards.This spell is strongest when applied to 3 or 4 targets. Now deals 85% damage to players (up from 70%).

  ​- Tooltip changes.

• Temporal Shield: Envelops you in a temporal shield for 4 sec, reducing all damage taken by 15%. 100% of the damage taken while shielded will be healed back over 6 sec. This spell is usable while stunned, frozen, incapacitated, feared or asleep, and is not on the global cooldown.

  - Woot defensive buff!

• Mastery: Frostburn: All your spells deal 2% increased damage against Frozen targets Fingers of Frost now increases the damage of Ice Lance by an additional 2%, and Brain Freeze increases the damage of the instant Frostfire Bolt by 2%. Increases the damage done by your Water Elemental by 16%.

  - Seems like a PvP nerf. And a PvE nerf on trashpacks. No more huge shatter combo.

• Presence of Mind When activated, your next Mage spell with a casting time less than 10 sec becomes an instant cast spell. This spell is not on the global cooldown.and is unaffected by Alter Time. Mage - LvL 15 Talent. Instant. 1.5 min cooldown.

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Blink Increases the distance you travel with the Blink spell by 5 yards. Major Glyph.8 yards. Major Glyph.
• Glyph of Remove Curse Increases the damage you deal by 10% 15% for 10 sec after you successfully remove a curse. Major Glyph.

  - More DPS on Horridon!

• Glyph of Spellsteal Spellsteal now also heals you for 3% 5% of your maximum health when it successfully steals a spell. Major Glyph.
• Glyph of Combustion Increases the direct damage, the duration of the damage over time effect and the cooldown of Combustion by 100%. Major Glyph. 50%. Major Glyph.

2013.07.05.

• Glyph of Rapid Displacement (NYI) Blink now has 2 charges, gaining a charge every 25 sec, but no longer frees the caster from stuns and bonds.
• Glyph of Evaporation (NYI) Reduces the size of your Water Elemental by 50%.
• Glyph of Feather Fall (NYI) While Slow Fall is active, you will have feathers floating around you.
• Glyph of Abolish Curse (NYI) Teaches you Abolish Curse: Removes a curse from the target instantly, and every 5 seconds thereafter for the next 20 seconds. Replaces Remove Curse.

Blues

Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

Do the devs acknowledge the real issues with the Mage class atm? Heavy RNG/Crit scaling on Fire and poor scaling on Frost.

We're happy with the way crit works for Fire. We understand not every player is tolerant of RNG, but Fire's DPS is competitive. (Source)

Frost is as popular as any time I can recall lately esp. in 10s. Any scaling problems it has don't seem to be holding it back. (Source)

Recall, our guidelines for scaling concerns. We only care if gear scaling causes a 5-10% dps loss within a single tier. (Source)

The PTR Frostburn change makes casting even less appealing in PvP - there is huge objection to this. Why go this direction?

You don't think the amazing synergy of doing more burst damage while someone was CC'd was getting to be a problem? (Source)

give mages some unique raid utility. Locks have tons.Mana gems for healers aka lock cookies? not on the same cooldown?

Do healers want another mana source to manage? (Source)

please find a way to adjust Mage knobs without changing frost mastery

The synergy among the high damage, instant attacks and CC is really hard (impossible?) to balance. (Source)

[RunicLovePotion 9]

About the Fire 4p bonus;

I don't really know how that will be used, but it does seems something promising.

About the New Sets Models;

Looks good! It kinda have a Steampunk feeling, don't you think? Something like a Titan Magical Technology thing, does remind me from the T13 from Dragon Soul (which I loved too :D)

The eyeglasses especially the darker ones from heroic mode have a huge coefficient of badassery.

[Oltier 471]

Yeaa, I am hoping for a more experienced fire mage's opinion on the 4 set bonus. It seems really interesting and maybe a rotation changer.

I have to agree on the models. They look just like the DS set but some color combinations are a bit weird >.>

[Akomagus 8]

I don't understand why it doesn't describe what an "icy boulder" is....

[Oltier 471]

Well, we are free to guess what it will be :)

Ie.: Will it be aoe or single target only? ;)

[Ghanjo 37]

Thoughts about the fire mage 4-set bonus, that removes the cooldown for Inferno Blast. I think we can use it like this:

Somehow get the instant pyro and heating up ready while having the buff.

Use the instant pyro and while it is flying, use Inferno Blast to upgrade the Heating Up to a new instant pyro.

Hopefully, the pyro that is flying will crit, giving you a new Heating Up buff.

Repeat from start, for as long as you have the set bonus buff.

If we can do this, we'll be able to chain-cast Pyro-IB-Pyro-IB-Pyro-IB-Pyro, with each cast having the 10% chance of renewing the buff. I think it'll be kinda awesome.

[MaximMazov 0]

you can correct me, cause i try to reunderstand mage mech after 3.5 years without wow, but...

am i right, that mop bonuses became less interensting from set to set?

i'm judging by frost mages now

[Oltier 471]

you can correct me, cause i try to reunderstand mage mech after 3.5 years without wow, but...

am i right, that mop bonuses became less interensting from set to set?

i'm judging by frost mages now

Well, the thing is... Frost being raid-able again is a pretty new thing in MoP. I unfortunately cannot say anything about set bonuses before cataclysm, because I started playing in 4.2. :) But really, the frost set bonuses in MoP in the previous and this tier were like... Okay-okay more DPS.. But no change in rotation, and no imagination in them.

[MaximMazov 0]

if i remember right, at the beginning of cata(heroic dangeons equip) mages used frost instead of fire because of small manapool

[Oltier 471]

Ohh, I didn't know that. :)

But I remember that, in dragon soul, the mage tier had some kind of buff. I recall its name was "Stolen Time" and if you had 10 stacks when you used combustion, it's CD had been halved. I kinda liked that bonus, seriously :D It required planning on when to use combustion et cetera. :)

[Oltier 471]

Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

Do the devs acknowledge the real issues with the Mage class atm? Heavy RNG/Crit scaling on Fire and poor scaling on Frost.

We're happy with the way crit works for Fire. We understand not every player is tolerant of RNG, but Fire's DPS is competitive. (Source)

Frost is as popular as any time I can recall lately esp. in 10s. Any scaling problems it has don't seem to be holding it back. (Source)

Recall, our guidelines for scaling concerns. We only care if gear scaling causes a 5-10% dps loss within a single tier. (Source)

Do you agree with the devs? Are the specs balanced enough?

[Vladamyr 169]

No! Blizzard dev's might be the least foresighted people on earth (when it comes to class balance). Higher gear rating will only inflate the disparity between fire/arcane and frost

The reason frost is popular is that it's the best spec for low ilvl (80% of the playerbase). It just can't keep up on the high end of gear. Also no fixes for our T6 talents?? Still broke as ever. We are just about the only class that's playstyle is defined by a talent and forced into cookie cutter builds Come on Blizz!!! Fix stuff!

[Oltier 471]

On the other hand, knowing that Blizz thinks fire is fine as it is, we will destroy everything in 5.4 with combustions or arcane blasts, if the fights will be somewhat stationary.

So, any mage reading this, I would strongly recommend that you start practising with either fire or arcane if you want to stay competitive in 5.4.

I can recall a blue, where they said they would not change T6 in this expansion, because it would be a too big change. Maybe next expansion. I personally find the T6 talents very boring...

Rune of Power is only good for Arcane, and in fact it is the only viable for that spec. OR, if there's no movement it is fine for Fire as well, but not for frost...

Invocation is the only viable choice for fire and frost due to frosts's high haste and the mobility it gives. On the other hand it is bugged as hell nowadays and sometimes we don't get the buff after finishing the channel...

Incanter's ward... bullshit since 5.3. I can't imagine any fights apart from PvP with it. MAYBE!! Garalon and Will of the emperor... But those hardly as well...

[Grimsheeper 1]

Someone posted the following (paraphrased) in the WoW Mage forums regarding the t16 four piece bonus for fire, which I found intriguing if even remotely true. IB not only upgrades your Heating Up to a Pyro, but also spreads your dots to 4 targets (if glyphed). With being able to spam IB, on a fight with a huge number of adds we should (Theoretically) be able to spread our ignite and combust to unlimited number of adds. I am not sure if both Dots CAN be spread beyond 4 (and this would only help in the event of a fight with a huge number of adds (Tortos and Horridon, etc.) so it would be a gimmick 'esque perk), but it is an interesting wrinkle to ponder until proven impossible. Overall though, if this makes it live for fire, our four piece will be mediocre at best especially for a last tier of an Xpac. I think they can do much better for fire, especially given the likelihood that we will see Critical Mass nerfed hard once again given current crit levels.

Edited June 18, 2013 by Grimsheeper

[Oltier 471]

• Frost Bomb: Places a Frost Bomb on the target. After 4 sec, the bomb explodes, dealing 4600 [+ 344.68% of SpellPower] Frost damage to the primary target, and 2301 [+ 172.5% of SpellPower] Frost damage to all other targets within 10 yds. All affected targets are slowed by 70% for 2 sec. Frost Bomb's countdown and cooldown are reduced by haste. This spell is strongest when it can hit 5 or more targets with the explosion.
• Living Bomb: The target becomes a Living Bomb, taking 4288 [+ 321.44% of SpellPower] Fire damage over 12 sec. When this effect ends, or the target dies, it explodes to deal an additional [0.10000000000000001 * 4288 ( + 321.44% of SpellPower)] Fire damage to the target and all other enemies within 10 yards. Limit 3 targets. This spell is strongest when applied to 1 or 2 targets. This spell has a 1.0 sec global cooldown.
• Nether Tempest: Places a Nether Tempest on the target which deals 3900 [+ 292.32% of SpellPower] Arcane damage over 12 sec. Each time Nether Tempest deals damage, an additional 50% of that damage is also dealt to a random target within 10 yards.This spell is strongest when applied to 3 or 4 targets.

  ​- Tooltip changes.

• Temporal Shield: Envelops you in a temporal shield for 4 sec, reducing all damage taken by 15%. 100% of the damage taken while shielded will be healed back over 6 sec. This spell is usable while stunned, frozen, incapacitated, feared or asleep, and is not on the global cooldown.

  - Woot defensive buff!

• Mastery: Frostburn: All your spells deal 2% increased damage against Frozen targets Fingers of Frost now increases the damage of Ice Lance by an additional 16%, and Brain Freeze increases the damage of the instant Frostfire Bolt by 2%. Increases the damage done by your Water Elemental by 2%.

  - Seems like a PvP nerf. And a PvE nerf on trashpacks. No more huge shatter combo.

[Grimsheeper 1]

Huge nerf for Frost PVP. Silence for days straight (I mean, its not like they could address any other classes until every Warlock is satisfied first right? What a joke this KJC debacle has become), then we get tool tip fixes (so much for the design plan that each bomb is competitive with each other, they've pretty much abandoned that idea by writing right in the spell descriptions that X is good for ___ targets)...and oh yeah, a huge nerf for Frost pretty much making Mastery a useless stat.

[Oltier 471]

Huge nerf for Frost PVP. Silence for days straight (I mean, its not like they could address any other classes until every Warlock is satisfied first right? What a joke this KJC debacle has become), then we get tool tip fixes (so much for the design plan that each bomb is competitive with each other, they've pretty much abandoned that idea by writing right in the spell descriptions that X is good for ___ targets)...and oh yeah, a huge nerf for Frost pretty much making Mastery a useless stat.

It won't be useless in Pve, because it's exactly the same as before. However, as you said huge pvp nerf... It's time to reforge into haste pvpers... :3

[Oltier 471]

• Frost Bomb now deals 70% damage to players (up from 60%).
• Living Bomb now deals 85% damage to players (up from 70%).
• Nether Tempest now deals 85% damage to players (up from 70%).

[Akomagus 8]

Changed again....

• Mage: Mastery: Frostburn has been redesigned. Fingers of Frost now increases the damage of Ice Lance by an additional 2%, Brain Freeze increases the damage of the instant cast Frostfire Bolt by 2%, and damage done by the Mage's Water Elemental is increased by 2%.

[Oltier 471]

It's technically the same.

[Oltier 471]

Kids These Days 3 hours ago

"Get this, we're gonna take t13, put spikes on the shoulders, and PUT THE GOGGLES DOWN"

"Have a promotion"

- Youtube comment, which I totally agree with.

[Oltier 471]

The Set bonuses changed at 2013. 06. 28.

• Item - Mage T16 2P Bonus: Arcane Missiles causes your next Arcane Blast within 10 sec to cost 25% less mana, stacking up to 4 times. Consuming Brain Freezegrants 1 charge of Fingers of Frost increases the damage of your next Frost spell by $2%. Consuming Pyroblast! increases your haste by 750 for 4 sec, stacking up to 5 times.
• Item - Mage T16 4P Bonus: Arcane Missiles has a 20%15% chance to not consume Arcane Missiles!. Consuming Brain Freeze has a 75%30% chance to drop an icy boulder on your target. Fireball and Pyroblast have a 10% chance to cause Inferno Blast to have no cooldown for 6 sec.Inferno Blast also causes your next Pyroblast to be a critical strike.

Opinion on Set bonuses:

• The Frost 2p Change might yield in a DPS increase, finally...
• Frost 4p must be something hitting hard, if they nerfed it this much.
• Yaay finally, some better 4p fire. Better Ignites!

[Oltier 471]

The PTR Frostburn change makes casting even less appealing in PvP - there is huge objection to this. Why go this direction?

You don't think the amazing synergy of doing more burst damage while someone was CC'd was getting to be a problem? (Source)

give mages some unique raid utility. Locks have tons.Mana gems for healers aka lock cookies? not on the same cooldown?

Do healers want another mana source to manage? (Source)

please find a way to adjust Mage knobs without changing frost mastery

The synergy among the high damage, instant attacks and CC is really hard (impossible?) to balance. (Source)

[RunicLovePotion 9]

Ohh, I didn't know that.

But I remember that, in dragon soul, the mage tier had some kind of buff. I recall its name was "Stolen Time" and if you had 10 stacks when you used combustion, it's CD had been halved. I kinda liked that bonus, seriously It required planning on when to use combustion et cetera.

Those were the times! But nowadays I don't really think a mere CD reduction for combustion is enough since for me Combustion is about quality not quantity.

[Akomagus 8]

On the other hand, knowing that Blizz thinks fire is fine as it is, we will destroy everything in 5.4 with combustions or arcane blasts, if the fights will be somewhat stationary.

So, any mage reading this, I would strongly recommend that you start practising with either fire or arcane if you want to stay competitive in 5.4.

I can recall a blue, where they said they would not change T6 in this expansion, because it would be a too big change. Maybe next expansion. I personally find the T6 talents very boring...

Rune of Power is only good for Arcane, and in fact it is the only viable for that spec. OR, if there's no movement it is fine for Fire as well, but not for frost...

Invocation is the only viable choice for fire and frost due to frosts's high haste and the mobility it gives. On the other hand it is bugged as hell nowadays and sometimes we don't get the buff after finishing the channel...

Incanter's ward... bullshit since 5.3. I can't imagine any fights apart from PvP with it. MAYBE!! Garalon and Will of the emperor... But those hardly as well...

Tried it...was like running up to the boss with Zippo at 518. I would suggest any mage reading this DON'T try it until you are higher than 80% of the player base (Vlad's words).