seriously? now Icelance got a 29% damage buff? AND a frostbomb buff in previous build? seriously this is going too far!
seriously? now Icelance got a 29% damage buff? AND a frostbomb buff in previous build? seriously this is going too far!
Last PTR they changed Mage shatter mastery to a mastery that buffed Icelance. They have since removed that Mastery - thus meaning icelance/frostbolt/frostbombs damage into shatters was heavily undertuned, so they buffed icelance and frostbomb back up to meaningful numbers.
Here are the original changes (massive nerf to shatter damage):
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
And new, additional, changes (buff to icelance, nerf to frostbolt and a new mastery):
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Overall, Mage frostbolts no longer stack the debuff to increase frostbolt damage (15% nerf to Frostbolt). Frost bomb got a 10% damage buff and Ice Lance got a 29% damage buff. But, Mages damage into shatters has been reduced by 30-40% - which is a massive nerf to their burst. Imagine a Mage playing without frost nova or deep on his bars, that's what the PTR is like right now (their spells will still crit though).
Last edited by Snuggli; 2013-07-18 at 06:24 PM.
Have they started fine tuning individual class abilities yet? They usually don't until shortly before patch drop. i wouldn't get my panties in a bunch just yet.
“What was God doing before the divine creation? Was he preparing
hell for people who asked such questions?” - Stephen Hawking
in addition to what snuggli postet i would add, that you have to CAST fb while fishing for ffb proccs or just running around letting your elemental stack icicles to properly burst with frost in 5.4. no ice lance spaming now. resulting in many fingers of frost proccs that could go unused while setting up the burst combo.
or you keep playing the current style, ignoring the icicles, and be content with the lower dmg while bursting with 1-2 icicles.
overall i kind of like this change. how big of a nerf/buff it really is ... idk. seems like a burst nerf / dps buff for pvp. frost is nice for raids as far as i heard (don't do pve) so i don't expect much overall dps changes there.
5.4 in its current form changes the pvp playstyle quite a bit if it goes live with that mastery.
but all this is not simply a buff on top of the 5.3 mage. we sacrifice quite a bit for the change.
EDIT: what i forgot - the icicles scale with the damage of the spell which generated the icicle. so running around letting your elemental stack the proccs instead of using frostbolt will result in an even smaller burst.
in addition to that they seem to double clip on resilience (once on the generating spell and once when the icicles are lauched) so the final damage is smaller again. but this could change in the future, as in that the generating damage of the icicles is based on the unmitigated damage of the spell and resilience is only accounted when launched.
EDIT2: and the icicles can't crit (atm it seems). they gain their dmg from the original cast so the original cast has to crit to get a "stored critical icicle". so on top of all this if you store icicles with uncrit spells (quite likely on non frozen targets) the the burst damage is LOWER AGAIN.
i think complaining looks rather vain now when i go through all of that ...
Last edited by Sharde; 2013-07-18 at 07:10 PM.
op pls l2read
The new mastery is shifting the gameplay from the uber shatter comboes into more sustained (even on too much instant cast) damage
everyone already beat me to this :[.
i played with it on ptr today.. it's a nerf. basically made mages into their own dot and nerfed blow up burst.
you should thank them.. it will be noticable.
It should be interesting. I imagine people that don't know any better will run around letting the water ele stack icicles and doing less damage. Meanwhile a smarter mage will turn off the water ele's autocast . Overall it does seem to favour casting a bit more which is nice. It's definitely an interesting mastery compared to most other classes.
it's actually pretty bad all around. lol.. smarter mages will just fire if it goes as is.
at least it's less of this..
[stolen from the AJ post i was b*tching about this in as well because lets face it.. its a funny vid ^^]
but mind you.. fire can still global you without casting on ptr.. so meh.
sorry I've misinterpreted the mastery. It said ADITIONAL 2% so I thought the mastery has been buffed by a flat 2%.
Sorry my bad.
When 5.4 hits mages will be better than in 5.3 as u all have seen before. They nerfed MD only cause of fast dispels on Ice Block.
So...what happens when fingers of frost procs? GG?
They moved their burst away from deep freeze and buffed their sustained damage through ice lance. Still won't make a difference against hunters and ferals facerolling them.
How is fire looking for 5.4?
They're buffing instants and nerfing spells that require casting... i see where this is going <(O.O<)
this is why i stop playing WoW...blizz dont care..and mages been op for ages
They usually don't until shortly before patch drop.
lol you guys think this will actually nerf mages in 5.4. Burst is still going to be out of control, so will crit strike damage.
i love how whenever mages get a nerf blizz feels the utter need to compensate in some other way. ridiculous. theres clear class favoritism here.
Should have just named this thread "ANOTHER mage QQ thread"
On topic, though, if anybody is actually having major problems with mages at high levels of play, I seriously don't believe it. Heck, I'm playing an hpally in 3s right now at about 2200 MMR, and mages are A) few and far between(rarely seen) and B) incredibly easy to train into the ground. I'm playing THE class that mages just demolish, and not having problems with them. If you could explain to me what problems you are having with mages, I'll do my best to give you advice on how to counter the situations.