WoD 6.0 Alpha patch notes

[Oltier 471]

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/13423478/warlords-of-draenor%E2%84%A2-alpha-patch-notes-4-3-2014

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please keep in mind that these are ALPHA PATCH NOTES. These talents and abilities will most likely be changed during beta testing and right before the new expansion.

 

Table of Contents:

• Smaller number of abilities
• Crowd Control, Diminishing Returns
• Class design changes
• Frost specific changes
• Level 100 talents
• 91-100 Perks
• Glyphs

 

Reduce in the number of abilities/Making abilities spec specific

• Mage
  • Arcane Barrage now replaces Fire Blast for Arcane Mages.
  • Arcane Blast now replaces Frostfire Bolt for Arcane Mages.
  • Arcane Explosion is now available only to Arcane Mages.
  • Blizzard is now available only to Frost Mages.
  • Combustion now replaces Deep Freeze for Fire Mages.
  • Deep Freeze is now available only to Frost Mages.
  • Dragon’s Breath now replaces Cone of Cold for Fire Mages.
  • Evocation is now available only to Arcane Mages.
  • Flamestrike is now available only to Fire Mages.
  • Pyromaniac has been removed.
  • Frost Armor is now available only to Frost Mages and is now a passive effect.
  • Ice Lance now replaces Fire Blast and is only available to Frost Mages.
  • Mage Armor is now available only to Arcane Mages and is now a passive effect.
  • Mana Gem has been removed.
  • Molten Armor is now available only to Fire Mages and is now a passive effect.
  • Shatter is now available only to Frost Mages.

Diminishing returns/CC changes/Casting speed changes

• Mage
  • Dragon’s Breath’s Disoriented effect now shares Diminishing Returns with all other Mesmerize effects.
  • Ice Ward’s Frozen effect now shares Diminishing Returns with all other Root effects.
  • Improved Counterspell has been removed.
  • Presence of Mind can no longer turn Polymorph into an instant-cast spell.

 

The Cast Speed Slow was a debuff type that mattered almost exclusively to PvP, and made combat much less fun for casters in addition to encouraging the use of instant-cast spells. We decided that it was best to remove casting speed debuffs.  

• Cast Speed Slows
  • The following abilities no longer slow the target’s casting speed by 50%.
    • Death Knight: Necrotic Strike
    • Mage (Arcane): Slow
    • Additionally, Slow can now affect more than one target at a time.
  • The following abilities have been removed.
    • Hunter Pets, Core Hound: Lava Breath; Fox: Tailspin; Goat: Trample; Sporebat: Spore Cloud
    • Rogue: Mind-numbing Poison
    • Warlock: Curse of Enfeeblement

 

 

 

Mage class-design changes

 

 

Mage

The Mage class has good specialization distinction when it comes to their single-target rotations, but utility and area-of-effect spells were heavily shared between specializations. Commonly, these spells were redundant as well. We made many of their spells specialization-specific (as described in Ability Pruning above). And probably most significant, we made changes to several existing Talents.

Presence of Mind was extremely strong for instant CC, which we wanted to curtail. Rather than completely remove Presence of Mind or make it not affect CC abilities, we made it a base Arcane spell, where we don't expect that it will be a problem, since Arcane has less CC than the other Mage specs already. In its place, we've added a new talent, Evanesce.

• Presence of Mind is no longer a Talent, and is instead learned by Arcane Mages.
• Evanesce is a new Talent available at level 15.
  • Evanesce: Fade into the nether, avoiding all attacks against you for 3 seconds. This spell may be cast while a cast-time spell is in progress and is not on the global cooldown. Replaces Ice Block. 45-second cooldown.

Going along with our goals to reduce cooldown stacking across all of the classes, we decided to remove Alter Time's DPS contribution. Alter Time has a number of clever movement and utility uses, but in practice it was mostly being used for additional uptime of offensive cooldowns. Mages also had many redundant forms of survival utility, so we moved a utility-only version of Alter Time into the Talent tree, replacing Temporal Shield.

• Temporal Shield has been removed.
• Alter Time is now a level-30 Talent, replacing Temporal Shield.
  • Alter Time now lasts for 15 seconds (up from 6 seconds), has a 90 second cooldown (down from 3 minutes), and no longer affects the casting Mage’s mana, buffs, or debuffs.

A few of the abilities reset by Cold Snap were made spec-specific, or could be overridden with Talents, so we expanded what it can affect to compensate.

• Cold Snap now also resets the cooldown of Presence of Mind, Dragon's Breath, and Evanesce.

The Mage Bomb level-75 Talent row, the Bomb row, was also problematic. We chose to add the Bombs to all Mages' rotations in order to spice them up a bit, to provide rotational variety. That succeeded, and we're overall happy with how they interact with your rotation in a single-target situation, but they also came with the prospect of multi-dotting (applying your damage-over-time spell to many enemies, individually), which we don't feel is an appropriate fit for Mages. Additionally, in order to make all 3 Bombs useful to all specializations, we had to lose some of their spec-specific perks. And, even more importantly, many Mages did not like DoT gameplay at all.

In order to solve all of these problems, we decided to merge the 3 current Bomb Talents into one that changes based on spec. That allows us to reintroduce spec-specific perks to each Bomb, and makes room for some non-DoT alternatives.

• Nether Tempest, Living Bomb, and Frost Bomb are now available to their corresponding specialization only, and share the left Talent slot.
  • Nether Tempest can now only be on 1 target at a time (down from unlimited), but its secondary damage now hits all targets in range (up from only 1), and deals 100% of the primary damage (up from 50%).
  • Living Bomb can once again be applied to multiple targets, can be spread by Inferno Blast, and has a normal 1.5 second cooldown. More of its damage has been moved into its explosion.
  • Frost Bomb has been redesigned. It now lasts 12 seconds, has no cooldown, and explodes every time the target is critically hit by the Mage's Ice Lance. The damage per explosion has been reduced by 75% to compensate.
• Unstable Magic is a new Talent available at level 75, in the middle Talent slot.
  • Unstable Magic: Arcane Blast, Fireball, and Frostbolt have a 25% chance to explode on impact, dealing an additional 50% damage to the target, and all other enemies within 8 yards.
• The right level-75 Talent slot is now filled by a new Talent that varies by specialization.
  • Supernova: Cause a pulse of Arcane energy around the target enemy or ally, dealing Arcane damage to all enemies within 8 yards, and knocking them up. If the primary target is an enemy, they take 100% increased damage. Replaces Frost Nova. 25-second cooldown. Instant cast.
  • Blast Wave: Cause an explosion of fiery force around the target enemy or ally, dealing Fire damage to all enemies within 8 yards, and dazing them, reducing their movement speed by 70% for 4 seconds. If the primary target is an enemy, they take 100% increased damage. Replaces Frost Nova. 25-second cooldown. Instant cast.
  • Ice Nova: Cause a whirl of icy wind around the target enemy or ally, dealing Frost damage to all enemies within 8 yards, and freezing them for 4 sec. If the primary target is an enemy, they take 100% increased damage. Replaces Frost Nova. 20-second cooldown. Instant cast.
     

One of the most problematic Talent rows in the game has been the Mage level-90 row. The primary theme of the row was mana, which only Arcane Mages actually cared about. Bonus damage was added in, making it functional for all Mages, but muddled in its goals. Additionally, some of them just weren't fun to play with. We've revised the row to be purely about damage, and made them have less maintenance cost. Arcane Mages will have enough mana regeneration without these Talents to perform well.

• Invocation has been removed.
• Mirror Image is now a level-90 Talent, replacing Invocation.
  • Mirror Images now inherit 50% of the Mage’s Spell Power (up from 5%).
• Rune of Power no longer replaces Evocation, no longer increases mana regeneration, and now lasts 3 minutes (up from 1 minute).
• Incanter's Ward has been removed.
• Incanter's Flow is a new level-90 Talent, replacing Incanter's Ward.
  • Incanter's Flow: Magical energy flows through you, increasing all spell damage done by 5% per stack. While in combat, the magical energy builds up to 5 stacks over 5 seconds and then diminishes down to 1 stack over 5 seconds. This cycle repeats every 10 seconds.
     

Frost Mages enjoyed newfound PvE viability in Mists of Pandaria, and we intend to continue that into the future. However, we do want to clean up some rough spots, especially around their valuing of secondary stats, and the amount of instant-cast spells in their rotation. The Frost Armor and Shatter changes increase the amount of Haste/Critical chance that they can acquire on gear before they start hitting soft caps. The Shatter change also lowers the value of Critical Strike for a bit. The changes to the level-75 Talent row meant that having a Bomb spell is no longer guaranteed, so we changed the way that Brain Freeze is triggered. We also changed Brain Freeze's effect, in order to give Frost mages another cast-time spell in their rotation.

• Frost Armor now grants 15% chance to Multistrike instead of 7% Haste.
• Glyph of Icy Veins now causes Icy Veins to provide 75% chance to Multistrike, instead of 20% Haste.
• Shatter now multiplies Critical Strike chance by 1.5 (down from 2).
• The Brain Freeze effect no longer makes Frostfire Bolt instant, but it can now stack to 2. It also no longer triggers from the Bomb Talents, and instead has a 10% chance to trigger from Frostbolt casts. Each Multistrike of Frostbolt increases that cast's chance by an additional 45%. (Total of 100% on double-Multistrikes).
   

In order to make room for more Haste effects to apply to Arcane Blast, we raised its cast time and damage slightly. We also made Arcane Charges last longer, to aid in questing and encounters.

• Arcane Blast's cast time has been increased to 2.25 seconds (up from 2 seconds), and its damage has been increased by 12.5% to compensate.
• Arcane Charges now last 15 seconds (up from 10 seconds).

 

Level100 talents

 

• Left
  • Overpowered (Arcane) - Casting Arcane Missiles extends Arcane Power by 2sec.
  • Kindling (Fire) - Your Fireball, Pyroblast, and Inferno Blast critical strikes reduce the cooldown remaining on Combustion by 1 sec.
  • Thermal Void (Frost) - Casting Ice Lance extends your Icy Veins by 2 sec.
• Middle
  • Prismatic Crystal - Conjures a prismatic crystal at the target location, which is attackable by only the Mage, and takes 30% additional damage. When the crystal takes damage, it instantly releases a burst of energy dealing that damage, split evenly between all enemies within 8 yards. 40 yd range, Instant, 1 min cooldown
• Right
  • Arcane Orb (Arcane) - Launches an Arcane Orb forward from the Mage's position, traveling up to 40 yards, dealing XXXX Arcane damage to enemies it passes through. Grants the Mage an Arcane Charge every time it deals damage. 1,600 Mana, 40 yd range, Instant, 15 sec cooldown
  • Meteor (Fire) - Calls down a meteor which lands at the target location after 3 sec, dealing XXXX Fire damage, split evenly between all targets within 8 yards. Also burns the ground, dealing an additional XXXX Fire damage every 1 sec for 8 sec to enemies in the area. 1,600 Mana, 40 yd range, Instant, 45 sec cooldown
  • Comet Storm (Frost) - Calls down a series of 7 icy comets on and around the target, each of which does XXXX Frost damage, split between all enemies within 4 yards of its impact point. 1,600 Mana, 40 yd range, Instant, 30 sec cooldown

 

New Perks from level 90-100 from Blackd. Thanks

 

 

Draenor Perks are a new type of leveling reward in WoD. When leveling from 91-100, you'll be randomly assigned one Draenor Perk each level that's appropriate to your class/spec, and when you hit 100 you'll have learned all of them. 

 

-> frost

• Enhanced Frostbolt: Frostbolt's cast time is reduced by 0.5 sec. This effect is disabled for 15 sec after you benefit from it.
• Enhanced Ice Lance: Fingers of Frost can stack 1 additional time.
• Improved Frost Nova: After casting Frost Nova, you will instantly teleport 10 yards behind you.
• Improved Icy Veins: Increases the amount of Haste gained from Icy Veins by 10.
• Improved Frostbolt: Increases the damage of Frostbolt by 20%.
• Improved Ice Lance: Increases the damage of Ice Lance by 20%.
• Improved Blizzard: Each time Blizzard deals damage, it reduces the cooldown of Frozen Orb by 1 sec.
• Improved Water Elemental: "Your summoned Water Elemental now also knows the Water Jet spell.
  
  Water Jet
  Channels a jet of icy water at the target, dealing XXXX Frost damage to the target over 4 sec.
  
  The Mage's Frostbolts that hit the target while it is being blasted with icy water will grant a charge of Fingers of Frost."
• Improved Frostfire Bolt: Increases the damage of Frostfire Bolt by 20%.

 

-> fire

 

• Improved Flamestrike: Flamestrike no longer has a cooldown.
• Enhanced Inferno Blast: Reduces the cooldown of Inferno Blast by 1 sec.
• Improved Pyroblast: Increases the critical strike chance of Pyroblast by 15%.
• Improved Inferno Blast: Inferno Blast now spreads the damage over time effects of Pyroblast, Ignite, and Combustion to 2 additional targets.
• Improved Combustion: Increases the duration of Combustion by 20%.
• Improved Scorch: After casting Scorch, your movement speed is increased by 30% for 3 sec.
• Improved Fireball and Frostfire Bolt: Increases the damage of Fireball and Frostfire Bolt by 20%.
• Improved Dragon's Breath: Increases damage of Dragon's Breath by 50%.
• Enhanced Fireball: "When your Fireball fails to critically strike a target, you gain a 5% increased chance for Fireball to be a critical strike for 15 sec.
  
  This effect ends when Fireball successfully critically strikes a target."

-> arcane

 

• Improved Arcane Barrage: Increases the damage dealt to secondary targets of Arcane Barrage from 50% to 100%.
• Enhanced Arcane Blast: Each stack of Arcane Charge now reduces the cast time of Arcane Blast by 5%.
• Enhanced Arcane Missiles: Increases the maximum stacks of Arcane Missiles by 1.
• Improved Arcane Power: Arcane Power now reduces the cost of your spells by 10% instead of increasing the cost by 10%.
• Improved Blink: Your movement speed is increased by 60% for 2 sec after using Blink.
• Improved Evocation: Reduces the cooldown of Evocation by 30 sec.
• Improved Arcane Blast: Increases the damage of Arcane Blast by 20%.
• Improved Arcane Missiles: Increases the damage of Arcane Missiles by 20%.
• Improved Arcane Explosion: Increases the damage of Arcane Explosion by 20%

New glyphs

• Glyph of Interruption - When you successfully Counterspell a target, the remaining cooldown on Counterspell is reduced by 4 sec.
• Glyph of Dragon's Breath - Increases the damage done by Dragon's Breath by 100%.
• Glyph of Regenerative Ice - You regenerate 4% of your maximum health every 1 sec for the duration of Ice Block.

[Oltier 471]

My thoughts:

 

• RIP Alter Time. No one will use you ever again unless very specific encounter occurs.
• RIP Temporal Shield, the best defensive talent I knew for a long time.
• COLD Snap DRAGON's breath? Wut?
• Soo what is going to be our multitarget rotation as frost mages?  If stacked up enemies:
  • Apply Frost Bomb.... Do single target rotation.
  • OR Use Ice Nova on CD... Do single target rotation... Too much challenge, it overwhelmes me.
  • What if the two targets are spread up? Well... go fire, sorry.
• Yaaay new lvl90 talents!! A little weird though that they kept RoP... Like no one ever used it, apart from arcane mages, and they only used it, because it regenerated mana... To the garbage. Give me Alter Time back instead.
• Incanter's Flow: mmmmhhhh.
• What soft cap on haste, right Akraen? oO
• Crit still garbage after certain %.
• Multistriiikkkeeeeehhhhh. Cast time added to FFB as well-->Time to roll Ice Flows.

They seem to be confused about what glyph of icy-veins does... Well, the current glyph would be great with the new lvl100 talent Thermal Void (if it happens count hits)

[mushroomhermit 0]

Been a reader for some time. First time poster.

 

Regarding alter time, I think it will still have a place in progression fights.  To give a current example, with the 15 sec duration it could bypass all of the damage of a whirling corruption without a dps loss.  I think it will still be a valuable ability in serious progression encounters without being a mandatory dps cooldown.  It is kind of a let down to see one of the trickiest aspects of mage dps being removed but I think it will still be important to groups that are really pushing their progression.

 

Losing Temporal shield sucks.  No argument here.  I really liked the damage reduction talents.

 

They have months left to rename cold snap to something more fitting a general CD reset.  I suspect Cold Snap is a placeholder at the moment.

 

I'm actually really happy with the lvl 90 talent changes.  I think the choice between RoP, buffed mirrors or basically a passive buff will reward players that can plan ahead well.  This is assuming that RoP provides the best Patchwerk-style dps buff.

 

I like that the brain freeze procs are heavily influenced by multistrike.  Haste has been dominant for too long.  I think they really missed an opportunity to make crit valuable though.

 

I think Evanesce is an awesome addition.  The PvP vs PvE choice was too obvious here and I think this levels the playing field quite a bit.

 

I think that the lvl 75 talents will unfairly favor fire for single target when choosing the bomb talent.  It seems like everything else is aoe oriented while living bomb is still a strong single target spell.

[Kver 65]

Seems that Akraen will have fun with Frost stats soon; seems like it'll be brilliant. I really like how Frost is looking, I mean we knew multidotting would be gone, and we seem to have gained strong AoE for it in return. Keep in mind that removal of multidotting across the board will mean less multidotting encounters, too.

 

What I don't understand is why there's hardly any mention of Fire, thought they were going to introduce a new mechanic to fix their scaling issue, oh well. 

[TLTeo 29]

I'm kind of worried about Fire's stats weights, it sounds like you only want crit anyway. Multistrike might be interesting depending on how it interacts with crits and hot streak i guess...it would be nice if your hot streak "counter" went up if either the main spell or the multistrike proc crit, without getting reset if they both don't.

 

The mechanic fixing the scaling issue is hidden in the 91-99 Draenor perks:

Empowered Fireball - "When your Fireball fails to critically hit a target, you gain 5% increased chance for Fireball to be a critical strike for 15 sec. This effect ends when Fireball succesfully critically hits a target".

No idea wether that will be enough, but if it doesn't stack (which it sounds like it doesn't), 5% sounds pretty low to me. Those perks in general just look like a bandaid to give whiners something that makes them feel "more powerful" as they level, in a pretty arbitrary way.

 

Regarding talents: i think we will pick Alter Time simply because it's off the gcd, and it can effectively be used to avoid predictable fight mechanics, especially considering there will be way less 1-shot mechanics in the future. Honestly, Temporal Shield felt pretty OP so i'm ok with it being gone.

 

I dislike Unstable Magic because it's a boring passive, but i get the feeling we will be swapping between nova and bomb for single target/aoe encounters, so no big deal.

 

For t6 i think we'll always go Mirror Images because cooldown stacking is always important, and Rune of Power remains a bit annoying. Incanter's Flow sounds interesting for reacting to our various procs, but i think it might vary too quickly.

Edited April 4, 2014 by TLTeo

[Akraen 230]

I'm going to set up divided discussion threads and share some insights about each spec. Remember that a lot of information has yet to be posted.

[Blackd 8]

also i would add this, couldnt see it on apha patch notes, instead on wowhead page:

 

EDIT: These are Draenor perks:

 

Draenor Perks are a new type of leveling reward in WoD. When leveling from 91-100, you'll be randomly assigned one Draenor Perk each level that's appropriate to your class/spec, and when you hit 100 you'll have learned all of them. 

 

-> frost

 

• Enhanced Frostbolt: Frostbolt's cast time is reduced by 0.5 sec. This effect is disabled for 15 sec after you benefit from it.
• Enhanced Ice Lance: Fingers of Frost can stack 1 additional time.
• Improved Frost Nova: After casting Frost Nova, you will instantly teleport 10 yards behind you.
• Improved Icy Veins: Increases the amount of Haste gained from Icy Veins by 10.
• Improved Frostbolt: Increases the damage of Frostbolt by 20%.
• Improved Ice Lance: Increases the damage of Ice Lance by 20%.
• Improved Blizzard: Each time Blizzard deals damage, it reduces the cooldown of Frozen Orb by 1 sec.
• Improved Water Elemental: "Your summoned Water Elemental now also knows the Water Jet spell.
  
  Water Jet
  Channels a jet of icy water at the target, dealing XXXX Frost damage to the target over 4 sec.
  
  The Mage's Frostbolts that hit the target while it is being blasted with icy water will grant a charge of Fingers of Frost."
• Improved Frostfire Bolt: Increases the damage of Frostfire Bolt by 20%.

 

-> fire

 

• Improved Flamestrike: Flamestrike no longer has a cooldown.
• Enhanced Inferno Blast: Reduces the cooldown of Inferno Blast by 1 sec.
• Improved Pyroblast: Increases the critical strike chance of Pyroblast by 15%.
• Improved Inferno Blast: Inferno Blast now spreads the damage over time effects of Pyroblast, Ignite, and Combustion to 2 additional targets.
• Improved Combustion: Increases the duration of Combustion by 20%.
• Improved Scorch: After casting Scorch, your movement speed is increased by 30% for 3 sec.
• Improved Fireball and Frostfire Bolt: Increases the damage of Fireball and Frostfire Bolt by 20%.
• Improved Dragon's Breath: Increases damage of Dragon's Breath by 50%.
• Enhanced Fireball: "When your Fireball fails to critically strike a target, you gain a 5% increased chance for Fireball to be a critical strike for 15 sec.
  
  This effect ends when Fireball successfully critically strikes a target."

-> arcane

 

• Improved Arcane Barrage: Increases the damage dealt to secondary targets of Arcane Barrage from 50% to 100%.
• Enhanced Arcane Blast: Each stack of Arcane Charge now reduces the cast time of Arcane Blast by 5%.
• Enhanced Arcane Missiles: Increases the maximum stacks of Arcane Missiles by 1.
• Improved Arcane Power: Arcane Power now reduces the cost of your spells by 10% instead of increasing the cost by 10%.
• Improved Blink: Your movement speed is increased by 60% for 2 sec after using Blink.
• Improved Evocation: Reduces the cooldown of Evocation by 30 sec.
• Improved Arcane Blast: Increases the damage of Arcane Blast by 20%.
• Improved Arcane Missiles: Increases the damage of Arcane Missiles by 20%.
• Improved Arcane Explosion: Increases the damage of Arcane Explosion by 20%

Edited April 4, 2014 by Blackd

[TLTeo 29]

Improved Frost Nova sounds annoying as hell. It's probably useful while questing, but in any other setting i'd like the ability to toggle it at the very least...i can already picture myself frost novaing myself into an Ashen wall while freezing the blobs on Shamans for instance.

I could avoid stuff like that through better play, but i'd just really like to be able to freeze those adds without complications.

Edited April 4, 2014 by TLTeo

[Sikkz 27]

The frost nova teleport does sound like it could be potentially annoying in boss fights.  However, I guarantee you that they know this, and will probably put something in to combat it for those that want to (For example, a minor glyph that removes the teleport portion of the spell maybe?).

[Chill 5]

Some of my initial thoughts:

 

The new alter time is an incredible talent if used defensively. The movement reset is of course situational. But pop it at full health just prior to some kind of big sustained AoE phase and then be able to reset your health back to full at any point over the next 15 seconds? How is anyone not excited about that? We've always had amazing defensive talents for dealing with large BURSTS of damage we can see coming, but have lacked something for more moderate sustained damage. Hell, if you miss temporal shield, just take Alter Time and reset it at four seconds every time you use it and pretend the patch notes said "We are buffing temporal shield to heal back damage instantly instead of over six seconds. Also, renaming it Alter Time and making it occasionally get you hilariously killed with a movement reset."

 

On Rune of Power being left in, nobody likes it now, but if encounters in WoD are less movement based it suddenly gets a lot better. Not sure I'll personally take it, but just throwing that out there.

 

For the rest of the talents I think I'd need numbers before I could really comment, but at least there is some variety.

[Akraen 230]

Improved Frost Nova sounds annoying as hell. It's probably useful while questing, but in any other setting i'd like the ability to toggle it at the very least...i can already picture myself frost novaing myself into an Ashen wall while freezing the blobs on Shamans for instance.

I could avoid stuff like that through better play, but i'd just really like to be able to freeze those adds without complications.

 

Yeah feedback has already been given to the correct contact to make the teleport be toggle-able.

[Galatea 2]

As a frost mage, here are my preliminary thoughts:

 

- RIP Alter time.  It's now useless in PvE.  The fact it no longer restores buffs means it's no longer a dps increase, and the increase to 15 seconds means you're almost guaranteed that where ever you teleport back to has a high chance of being a void zone when that happens.

 

- RIP Iceblock.  The replacement spell lasting 7 seconds less than iceblock, and perhaps not even eliminating DoTs and debuffs just plain sucks.  Our survivability is going way down in the cases something goes wrong.

 

- RIP Evocation.  As our only real heal, it will be greatly missed during solo play especially.  This is especially the case since mob damage and health is increasing.

 

- RIP blazing speed.  Since Evanesce will be pretty much required for raiding, this will be a definite quality of life decrease.  When going downhill for example, slowfall, blazing speed and running jump were awesome for long run backs.

 

- RIP multi-dotting.  Dots and dot uptimes were one of the best ways to determine the quality of players.  The most complicated part of the rotation is being eliminated because basically:  "it's too hard players don't like it" (When the heck has that ever stopped you, Blizzard?  Can you say CRZ /wrt the time lost proto drake?!?).  Mutli-dotting can be solved by updating the default UI so that you do not need addons, non standard UIs, and mouse over macros to have any hope of doing it right.

 

So what cool features are we getting for our loses?  None.

We get to scratch our heads and wonder how to integrate the new talents into our DPS rotations without any talent being in any way cool or doing something we can't do already.  I'd much prefer utility spells - like breathing underwater, conjure glider, or a spell which attracts you to your target or something (like death grip or leap of faith in reverse) to what we're getting.  Mages are bringing to raids less utility than ever now.  All the level 100 talents are basically AOE talents - yay, we get to kill trash packs faster - woohoo!

 

Very disappointing.

 

[Blackd 8]

@Well ppl talking about alter time that its gonna suck and so

I found it kinda usefull and actualy dps increase. Imagine fight like on Sha of pride 25 man, and ur assigned to do the far prisons, u just do alter time before u start running there and u get free tp back or if u have to close distant rifts. It's really depresing running and just living bomb the boss or ice lance him whatever, HUGE dps loss. we will found out how its gonna be in practice

Edited April 4, 2014 by Blackd

[durrtygoodz 60]

As a frost mage, here are my preliminary thoughts:

 

- RIP Alter time.  It's now useless in PvE.  The fact it no longer restores buffs means it's no longer a dps increase, and the increase to 15 seconds means you're almost guaranteed that where ever you teleport back to has a high chance of being a void zone when that happens.

It's not useless. I can think of boss fights this tier where new AT is useful:

 

Sha, pop AT at the stack spot, run for a rift or to free prison then AT back

Seigecrafter, AT then blink away with Sawblade/Lazer, you can AT back

IJ you can AT before the knockback and retain your position and take 0 dmg

It's a shame we have to lose Temporal Shield for it but it's far from a useless ability now.

 

 

- RIP Evocation.  As our only real heal, it will be greatly missed during solo play especially.  This is especially the case since mob damage and health is increasing.

 

Who cares

 

 

 

- RIP blazing speed.  Since Evanesce will be pretty much required for raiding, this will be a definite quality of life decrease.  When going downhill for example, slowfall, blazing speed and running jump were awesome for long run backs.

 

Evanesce will be about as mandatory in WoD as Blazing Speed is right now. (Read: not mandatory at all)

 

 

 

- RIP multi-dotting.  Dots and dot uptimes were one of the best ways to determine the quality of players.  The most complicated part of the rotation is being eliminated because basically:  "it's too hard players don't like it" (When the heck has that ever stopped you, Blizzard?  Can you say CRZ /wrt the time lost proto drake?!?).  Mutli-dotting can be solved by updating the default UI so that you do not need addons, non standard UIs, and mouse over macros to have any hope of doing it right.

I agree that losing multi dotting sucks. But we are getting other AoE spells to choose from which compensate some what. And I imagine raiding being less multi-dot focused, definitely not as much as it is now.

Edited April 4, 2014 by Oltier
Obscene word

[Galatea 2]

So does this mean that you think it will take you 15 seconds now to get the person out of prison instead of the previous 6 seconds which you now seem to find sufficient?  Don't wish to remain stacked for those 9 seconds in case you get the Norushen buff?  Too many things can change in 15 seconds that were unlikely to change in 6 seconds for Alter Time to be useful for this purpose any longer.

 

Really though, blazing speed and double blink are more than enough to reach prisons currently, and Alter Time is better used to snapshot buffs for a dps increase.  Worst comes to worst, accumulate some FoF and brain freeze charges and shoot off ice lances and the FFB as you run.  That kind of short run should not hinder your dps much.

[Kver 65]

I agree with Durrty.

 

What I don't get is why people look at it from such a negative perspective. First of all, a rather large amount of these changes were actually requested, so I don't know why the same people who complained about us multidotting(being warlock-like), the l90 talents, AT, yada yada are now complaining that our class will be in a bad shape. Why? That's just silly.

 

I also don't get why people think anything in the alpha patch notes says anything about what it will be in 6.0. I mean, you don't even know what the encounters will look like. Nothing they have presented us really tells us anything at all. We try to simulate in our minds how it would play in SoO, which is about as useful as comparing a bike to a telephone.

[Chill 5]

You've always been able to end Alter Time early. If you don't need 15 seconds, then don't take the full 15 seconds.

 

And I still think the ability to pop alter time at full health sometime before mechanic x happens and then being able to return yourself to full health at any time in the next 15 seconds probably has some PvE applications -.-

 

If you are worried about a void zone being there when you get back then move as soon as you pop it. Bosses typically don't stick void zones where nobody is standing. And tbh I regard the fact that you need to remove your head from your ass and take into account the mechanics of the encounter you are on before you pop it to be an interesting aspect of the talent.

 

I'm going to miss multi dotting though. No way to put a positive spin on that.

Edited April 4, 2014 by Oltier
Multi-post

[durrtygoodz 60]

So does this mean that you think it will take you 15 seconds now to get the person out of prison instead of the previous 6 seconds which you now seem to find sufficient?  Don't wish to remain stacked for those 9 seconds in case you get the Norushen buff?  Too many things can change in 15 seconds that were unlikely to change in 6 seconds for Alter Time to be useful for this purpose any longer.

 

Uh.. Wot? I don't know how to reply to this nonsense.

Really though, blazing speed and double blink are more than enough to reach prisons currently, and Alter Time is better used to snapshot buffs for a dps increase.  Worst comes to worst, accumulate some FoF and brain freeze charges and shoot off ice lances and the FFB as you run.  That kind of short run should not hinder your dps much.

 

Our damage is obviously going to be balanced around the loss of AT as a dps CD. Just wait for the balance patch that will happen like 2-3 weeks before release.

[Blackd 8]

So does this mean that you think it will take you 15 seconds now to get the person out of prison instead of the previous 6 seconds which you now seem to find sufficient?  Don't wish to remain stacked for those 9 seconds in case you get the Norushen buff?  Too many things can change in 15 seconds that were unlikely to change in 6 seconds for Alter Time to be useful for this purpose any longer.

 

Really though, blazing speed and double blink are more than enough to reach prisons currently, and Alter Time is better used to snapshot buffs for a dps increase.  Worst comes to worst, accumulate some FoF and brain freeze charges and shoot off ice lances and the FFB as you run.  That kind of short run should not hinder your dps much.

Dont you know you can stop alter time? You dont have to wait 15 seconds...

And about using blink at sha of pride. I dont know for you but im getting stucked when i blink. My hero just dont move forward and he stays at same place. I dont know if its just me or. Im sticking with my previous point.

[Galatea 2]

Dont you know you can stop alter time? You dont have to wait 15 seconds...

And about using blink at sha of pride. I dont know for you but im getting stucked when i blink. My hero just dont move forward and he stays at same place. I dont know if its just me or. Im sticking with my previous point.

 

Stopping Alter Time early cancels the translocation and health effects.  So if you cancel it, there was no point in casting it.

The increase from 6 seconds to 15 is awesome for PVP, but it's too long for PVE.  Too much can happen in the span of 15 seconds.

 

As for the blink, there are some sections of floor in that room which stop blink.  You have to be pretty careful to aim around them.  Just blink when you're half way back I think works.  In reality though, in 10 man, the only ones who should be worrying about prisons in the back are the tanks though - you shouldn't need to be anywhere near those (so this only really applies to LFR).

 

Uh.. Wot? I don't know how to reply to this nonsense.

 

Thank you for your polite well-reasoned response to my "nonsense".

I politely suggest that if you don't understand that the increase of the delay from 6 seconds to 15 seconds presents real problems to raiding, then the fault is with you, good sir.  There are now an extra 9 seconds in which each boss can convince you that warping to where you were would be a very bad idea.

Edited April 5, 2014 by Oltier
No taunting each other. You are mage. Do deeps.

[Chill 5]

Stopping Alter Time early doesn't cancel the effect. It never has. It actually says that right in the tooltip.


Alter the fabric of time, causing the caster to return to their current location, health, mana, buffs, and debuffs, when cast a second time, or after 6 sec.

Effect negated if the caster dies within the 6 sec before the effect occurs or moves too far away.

They removed the mana, buffs, and debuffs portion of the spell. But that is it.

Edited April 4, 2014 by Oltier
Merged posts - Multiple posts

[Blackd 8]

Stopping Alter Time early cancels the translocation and health effects.  So if you cancel it, there was no point in casting it.

The increase from 6 seconds to 15 is awesome for PVP, but it's too long for PVE.  Too much can happen in the span of 15 seconds.

 

As for the blink, there are some sections of floor in that room which stop blink.  You have to be pretty careful to aim around them.  Just blink when you're half way back I think works.  In reality though, in 10 man, the only ones who should be worrying about prisons in the back are the tanks though - you shouldn't need to be anywhere near those (so this only really applies to LFR).

 

 

Thank you for your polite well-reasoned response to my "nonsense".

I politely suggest that if you don't understand that the increase of the delay from 6 seconds to 15 seconds presents real problems to raiding, then the fault is with you, good sir.  There are now an extra 9 seconds in which each boss can convince you that warping to where you were would be a very bad idea.

 

Dude what ur telling is pure nonsense. No offence. And btw im raiding 25 man 

Edited April 5, 2014 by Oltier
Obscene word

[Galatea 2]

Please read the new tool tip for WoD, not the current one:

http://wowhead.com/talent-wod#my\h0

 

Alter Time

"Alter the fabric of time. causing the caster to return to their current location and health when cast a second time, or after 15 seconds.

Effect negated if the caster dies within the 15 seconds before the effect occurs or moves too far away".

 

So, yes I missed the the "cast again" bit (I only use it for the buff snapshotting and either let it run it's course or cancel the buff [in which case you don't go back]), but the time did go up to 15 seconds.

So looks like you end up wasting 2 GCDs the same as double blink (and you still have to run one way).  I still have a hard time finding a good use for this new version of the spell.  There are much better mobility spells to use than this one.

Edited April 4, 2014 by Galatea

[durrtygoodz 60]

 

 

Thank you for your polite well-reasoned response to my "nonsense".

I politely suggest that if you don't understand that the increase of the delay from 6 seconds to 15 seconds presents real problems to raiding, then the fault is with you, good sir.  There are now an extra 9 seconds in which each boss can convince you that warping to where you were would be a very bad idea.

 

If you uhm.. gotz.. like... furthaz questionz, feel freez to asks demz.

 

 

You can end it early.

[Sikkz 27]

I find it funny how many people hate alter time and begged for its removal.  Blizzard puts a spell in that requires planning ahead and thinking on our end, and most of the population instantly resent it because its not a simple spell that you can just spam brainlessly on cooldown.  I also LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how people complain about it killing them.  I was talking to this mage yesterday while I was doing Garrosh who claimed "Alter Time teleported me back into the desecrate and killed me!  God I hate this fucking spell!".  No. YOU KNEW desecrate was coming and you decided to pop alter time right before it went out, that's on you, not the spell.  There are some occasions in which this is completely unavoidable, but not many.  

 

I, personally, am upset the most about temporal shield being removed.  Such an amazing defensive cooldown that rewarded players who used it correctly.

 

QUESTION....about this whole "Incanter's Flow" thing.  I'm reading the tooltip, and by the way it's worded....it sounds like it's going to be passive.  Can anyone confirm/deny this?  It sounds pretty cool, but passive?  Wut.