wow Class Tuning Coming with Maintenance - July 16th

[Starym 3,800]

 

Blizzard has announced a relatively big pass for class tuning, focusing on PvP, especially essences- Arcane Mages got buffs for PvE and Resto Druids got nerfed in PvP as well.

Class Tuning July 16 (source)

We’re working on several pieces of targeted class tuning that we intend to make to the game with maintenance in each region:

Classes

• Mage
  • Arcane
    • Damage for all spells and abilities increased by 6%.

Player versus Player

• Enchant Weapon - Oceanic Restoration ’s (weapon enchant) mana granted is reduced by 50% in PvP situations.
  • Developers’ notes: At the start of BFA Season 2, we made changes to mana regeneration in PvP to increase the impact mana management has on long engagements. Similarly, Rise of Azshara introduced new methods of mana regeneration in the forms of a weapon enchant and Essences (below) that need to be reduced in the same fashion.
• Druid
  • Restoration
    • Healing reduced by 10% in PvP situations.
      • Developers’ notes: Throughout Season 2, Restoration Druid’s raw healing throughput paired very well with their crowd control, defensive abilities, and ability to sneak away and regain mana through drinking. This is intended to bring their healing throughput more in line with other healer specializations in PvP.
• Items
  • Trident of Deep Ocean absorb effect is now reduced by 80% in PvP (was 75%).
  • Mindthief's Eldritch Clasp healing and self-damage effect is now reduced by 60% in PvP (was 50%).
  • Void Stone effect is reduced in PvP by 45% for healers (was 30%) and 70% for non-healers (was 60%)
    • Developers’ notes: Due to the scaling increase that some trinkets received with the release Rise of Azshara, the PvP-specific reductions put in place for Season 3 did not have the impact we were going for. These are items that we previously noted were intended to be scaled out this season.
  • Heart of Azeroth
    • Lucid Dreams (Essence) now refunds 50% less mana in PvP situations, now heals for 50% less in PvP situations when it refunds resources, and now provides 50% less Leech when activated in PvP situations. The Mana generation rate provided by activating its Major Power is unchanged.
    • Vision of Perfection (Essence) heals for 50% less in PvP situations.
    • Purification Protocol (Essence) heals for 50% less in PvP situations.
    • The Ever-Rising Tide (Essence) grants 50% less mana in PvP situations.
      • Developers’ notes: These Essences provide additional passive self-healing that we feel should be reduced to the same degree as tier 3 Azerite traits.

As always, these are not necessarily final numbers until we’ve completed our testing of the changes, and if we add any more tweaks or adjust the numbers further, I’ll update this thread. Ultimately, you’ll see these adjustments in our regularly-updated hotfixes blog post tomorrow.

[Huntatsukage 4]

I wouldn't of said that Arcane Mage needs a buff in PvE situations...from my experience (personal and observed) they do plenty of damage, if anything there should be some (longer) cooldown period (or procs) on Arcane Missles and Arcane Explosion to prevent so many players just spamming the heck out of them in dungeons, as if they have no other spells available to properly "learn" the class.

Though of course, that is just my own personal opinion.

[Tigersharrk 4]

7 hours ago, Huntatsukage said:

"There should be some (longer) cooldown period (or procs) on Arcane Missiles and Arcane Explosion to prevent so many players just spamming the heck out of them in dungeons, as if they have no other spells available to properly "learn" the class."

I disagree and your Elitist attitude is quite appalling, I don't know if you play Arcane but spamming is what we do, duh!

BfA Arcane mage single target is nothing but spamming AB and Missiles (on proc) and AE, Missiles (on proc) and ABarr is quite literally the AoE/trash mob rotation for Arcane!

Arcane could be better, diverse and we had other spells that did so like when we had a crystal which distributes damage around it after we attack it or a castable mark that does a considerable damage to a target and its surrounding adds, but not anymore. Consider the fact they nerfed the unique damage abilities of talents making them completely worthless except for maybe situational crowd control (Supernova) or to generate charges quickly (Arcane Orb). There are talents (Arcane Orb, Nether Tempest, Arcane Familiar, Rune of Power) which should be made base line by now or put into the spell its enhancing (Chrono Shift, Reverberate, Resonance, Slipstream, Over Powered) to make way for more interesting and rotation changing talents (or they can make these changes via Azurite Armor traits); I should also mention the completely worthless and old talents (Mirror Images, Ring of Frost, Mana Shield, Ice Ward, Rune of Power ) they just leave in every expac cause the dev doesn't care enough to put intelligent thought into reworking these talents or getting rid of them and putting something new in its place to make Arcane a great spec. 

Spamming has been this way since I became an Arcane mage back when they made Arcane a DPS spec (in BC). Arcane are at the bottom of the DPS charts for AEP so yeah PvE wise a damage boost, because reworking the whole spec to actually have something interesting to cast other than spamming AB, Missiles and AE, is all they will do till next expac... if they change anything then... not holding my breath.

"Though of course, that is just my own personal opinion." ?

[Badadada 184]

I somewhat agree with both commenters. Played all 3 mage specs for a while and Arcane seems a bit behind in gameplay experience currently. Of course, if someone explores how to use Displacement correctly and how to time mana-usage to maximize Evocation efficency there's clearly more depth to it, but in general it doesn't feels unique at all. It feels like a generic caster class without any added flavor - I did not switch it off because of the poor damage, but because it felt boring. I'm sure they could improve class fantasy by some new spells that modify the rotation.

[Huntatsukage 4]

"Elitist attitude"?...I'm anything but an Elitist myself lol, I play casually for fun and enjoying it.

However perhaps I should of better explained my opinion on the AM and AE "spamming". When you cast them on proc, within the rota etc, I have absolutely no issue with it as it's how I play Arcane, I meant it towards players who literally do nothing but AM and AE spam...with the odd ABarr here and there.

Everything else you have mentioned about Arcane diversity and such I agree with.

[Tigersharrk 4]

Hunt,

Let me clarify what I mean by Elitist attitude; an Elitist attitude doesn't revolve around time spent but the ability to comprehend the spec and criticizes any attempt to help those who don't. When someone diminishes any attempt to help those who do not have the same level of comprehension but instead looks down on others who are trying to figure out their class/spec (of course are failing at it) and  just tell them to L2P (Learn to play) instead of helping out via adding commentary to the class community or whispering a guildie/player who's struggling, w/e. Blizzard isn't going to do this but when blizzard steps in to tweak the spec in anyway (in this case very moderately) to help with the spec's numbers for PvE and someone's comment is Pshhh, Arcane doesn't need a damage boost people just need to L2P (which is the way I understood you comment)! That to me is an Elitist attitude cause they are expecting everyone who plays the spec to be on the same comprehension level as they are, which does not help. So i'm sorry if that is not you but that is how you came off to me because I am one of the ones who is suffering from low numbers and will gladly take whatever Blizzard is going to do to help with that, since they have done nothing so far and don't really see anything revolutionary in the future.

Now to the topic of Arcane AoE, it is stated in IV's guide by Dutch "There are 2 main spells that are the reason Arcane Mages can do good AoE damage, namely Arcane Explosion and Arcane Barrage. The idea is to cast Arcane Explosion from 0 to 4 Arcane Charges, doing significant damage, and then following it up with a very hard hitting Arcane Barrage, especially with Resonance. It is important to realize, that this is not Mana neutral, so you will eventually run out of Mana when keeping this rotation up for prolonged periods of time. So make sure you keep an eye on your Mana bar, to ensure you keep enough Mana for the rest of the fight." This to me is literally spamming, there's nothing else to it, spam AE then ABarr at 4 charges and repeat. Dutch does go into using RoT (Rule of Three) for AoE but that is something I feel is for elite player min/maxing purposes which not everyone can babysit when in a hectic add/cleave/AoE situation. 

Now Dutch doesn't mention AM for in the single target rotation part of the guide "It is important to use Arcane Missiles instantly when you get Clearcasting, since it does not stack, and Clearcasting indirectly equals a lot of free Mana, since it allows you to regenerate Mana while channeling Arcane Missiles." So why wouldnt you use AM while using AE instead of ABarr if its free mana and extends the AE spam, especially if it procs often during the rotation and why is it bad to have it proc often?

Slowing AM proc time or cutting AM procs (cause you can't do that to AE as its instacast until you are OOM) as suggested doesn't help the rotation but honestly makes it even more boring than it is; AE to 4 charges then ABarr and repeat or AE till three throw a PoM AB or a AB then ABarr and repeat...little more complicated but still boring as you are replacing AM's with AB's if the proc was changed. Plus throwing AM in on proc doesn't boost DPS because AM and AE do not benefit from charges like in Legion so AM is just extra mana which is needed in the AoE spam.

So from what it looks like, I don't see the issue with spamming AM and AE in AoE situation as that is what is the dev's intended design is supposed to be.

Edited July 17, 2019 by Tigersharrk

[Huntatsukage 4]

Alright, fair enough. I apologise if it's condescending.

Though my point still seems somewhat missed. I agree that in AoE situations then yeah, Blink/Shimmer into the mobs, set off a few AE, Displace/Shimmer back, hit with AM (if Procs) or ABarr (if Clearcast doesn't proc). It's again, how I play and well, as you mentioned, it's all Arcane has for decent AoE. I mean for players, regardless of present AoE opportunities or such, who just use AM or AE exclusively (mainly AM), without procs (and usually completely burn through their mana, therefore using up possible "important" Evoc casts).

That's what bugs me. Running Dungeons for example, you have a group with an Arcane Mage, most of them (though by no means all) simply don't generally use anything else, even if there is only a single mob present or something.

[Tigersharrk 4]

I don't exactly do what you do, I stay in the frey (because I have too) and use RoP to boost the damage for AE, AM procs and ABarr, shielding and run around the group till everything is dead; well at least in raid. I also use slipstream over shimmer because I like to move around with missiles and evo.  I do slip up from time to time with AM a fire one off out of proc just because I am still used to Legion play with having 3 stack of AM that I used to launch in chain fire. I kind of wish APummeling was a better trait than Epq but it is what it is and hopefully next expac they will do SOMETHING with our class.

I'll have to give your method a shot as I never liked how Arcane has to stand in melee as a mage while fire and frost have range AoE; before anyone mentions NT...I HATE NT, i'm a mage not an affliction lock save the DoTs for them please. ? 

[Huntatsukage 4]

In response to the way you do things, I haven't actually thought about RoP to boost AE, though I have done so with AM procs and ABarr. I tend to pick Shimmer over Slipstream, moving while casting AM or Evo would certainly help in situations although I usually raid as Fire, unless I need some stronger single target boost then I find Arcane helps me more, I prefer a little extra mobility to move out of mechanics a bit quicker or to generally avoid stuff. Also yes, I've done that now and then with AM, firing off without procs, I miss the stacks. Granted I have been able to pull off 2 or 3 clearcast AM, if RNG is kind enough.

Likewise, I'd have to try out your method too, with the RoP and AE with groups.

[Tigersharrk 4]

Right on,

Let me know how it goes...