[Healer Spec Suggestion] Time Mage

[schwarzkopf]

That's actually pretty neat, but would have a VERY long cooldown of 10m or so. Also, can you Cut and enemy and Paste that onto an ally? (and if so, what happens to an ally's mana if the enemy you Cut had 0?)

In addition, what's to stop you from Cutting someone with 100% HP/MP, then casting it on yourself like 30-40s later for a free full heal and mana restore?

I was thinking a cooldown similar to Alter Time, however the cooldown ticks from the beginning of Cut to the Paste.
Nothing is to stop you doing that, however you would have lost 60-80% of your mana in addition to any other spells you had cast.
No - this is a player only ability, otherwise people would just cut the 2% tank onto the boss

[Polarthief]

I like this idea. It can even be explained in the lore like this:
<lore snip>

That does actually fit pretty well, and part of it is fact. We also got Time Warp in Cataclysm, and T13 WAS the Time Lord's set.

People often forget that Slow is also a time-based spell, that Mages have had since WC3 (in WoW's terms, since Vanilla), so slowly over the years, we've been given more Time Magic spells.

Also, because why not, let's make a list of all the Time-based spells Mages.
Currently on Live:
- Slow (Arcane spec)
- Time Warp (Baseline)
- Alter Time (Baseline)
- Temporal Shield (L30 Talent)

Actually... thinking about it, couldn't Teleport and Portal spells be considered Time-based too? Probably not, but... well, location in space and time are pretty connected...

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I was thinking a cooldown similar to Alter Time, however the cooldown ticks from the beginning of Cut to the Paste.
Nothing is to stop you doing that, however you would have lost 60-80% of your mana in addition to any other spells you had cast.
No - this is a player only ability, otherwise people would just cut the 2% tank onto the boss

The only cooldown part you mentioned is that Cut can't be cast until you Paste, meaning you can just spam them both .-.
But who cares if you lose 60-80% mana if you just get it all right back from Pasting onto yourself.
I figured Paste is only on allies; that's be too OP otherwise XD

[schwarzkopf]

Actually... thinking about it, couldn't Teleport and Portal spells be considered Time-based too? Probably not, but... well, location in space and time are pretty connected...

No - but Teleport [Future] could be awesome.

Teleports you 'n' seconds into the future. Imagine how useful that could be in so many situations.

[Polarthief]

No - but Teleport [Future] could be awesome.

Teleports you 'n' seconds into the future. Imagine how useful that could be in so many situations.

That would work for an interesting cooldown and would require a huge skillcap to pull off right. I never really though of using Time Magic to teleport FORWARD as, well, it'd work weird when you think about it. In fact, how exactly WOULD it work? o_O

[schwarzkopf]

The only cooldown part you mentioned is that Cut can't be cast until you Paste, meaning you can just spam them both .-.
But who cares if you lose 60-80% mana if you just get it all right back from Pasting onto yourself.
I figured Paste is only on allies; that's be too OP otherwise XD

1. Yeah - I'd only been thinking about it. because it is a matched pair of spells, Cut's cooldown is already 'until' paste has been cast. The question is if it should be longer than that.
2. 30-40seconds of doing nothing much at all (with bugger all mana)? Not too sure how useful that would be.
3. Yeah, but in multiboss situations, you could too easily take full health/full secondary onto a player frequently.

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In fact, how exactly WOULD it work? o_O

A nice loading screen for 15 seconds, you vanish from everyone else's view. It really is no more than a fancy 15 second ice block in some sense

[Polarthief]

1. Yeah - I'd only been thinking about it. because it is a matched pair of spells, Cut's cooldown is already 'until' paste has been cast. The question is if it should be longer than that.
2. 30-40seconds of doing nothing much at all (with bugger all mana)? Not too sure how useful that would be.
3. Yeah, but in multiboss situations, you could too easily take full health/full secondary onto a player frequently.

Definitely needs to be longer. I'd say Cut should have a 12-15m cooldown, but affected by Attuned to Time (Time Mages are closely attuned to time, allowing Haste to increase the rate that their cooldowns refresh. Temporary Haste effects will also benefit your cooldowns) and Time Alignment (You align yourself to the present time, undoing recent time traveling around you. Over the next 10 seconds, you gain 2% mana and refresh all cooldowns (that have a base cooldown greater than 60 seconds) by 2 seconds, per second channeled. Upon finishing or canceling the channel, your next single target heal has its potency increased by 10% and its mana cost reduced by 10% per second channeled)

I didn't say doing nothing, I meant you Cut someone at 100% HP/MP, keep casting spells til you run OoM, then Paste yourself for a free heal and all your mana back. Just seems a bit too OP (hence the super-long cooldown I gave it above; hell, limit it to once per fight if you have to).

Hence the long cooldown

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A nice loading screen for 15 seconds, you vanish from everyone else's view. It really is no more than a fancy 15 second ice block in some sense

Which seems more like a 15s death than a 15s Ice Block. Imagine if you will, a Spirit of Redemption that cannot cast spells, but magically gets revived after SoR expires.

I was thinking more like this:

Time Jump
X% Mana
Instant Cast
X minute cooldown

You jump through time, going 10 seconds into the future, and pausing time around you momentarily. Nothing and no one can see, help, nor harm you (both friendly and hostile targets alike) until their time catches up to you. You can continue to move and cast spells but all damage, healing, and all other effects (such as damage reduction or mana regeneration cooldowns) will be reduced by 50%.

- Essentially, Divine Shield meets Invisibility
- The 50% penalty is to prevent it from being the most OP spell in the game
- The "pausing time around you" means that while you're 10s in the future for now, your time is frozen until 10s expire and the 'present' is caught up to you. You can still move and take actions though
- NOTHING will hurt you as it's incapable to do so since they're in the past. Not even fire placed at your feet. It will hurt you if you continue to stand in it once the present catches up though. Also, any time-based enemies WILL be able to pierce through this cooldown (though there aren't many...)
- You CAN still contribute to mechanics, such as catching Bouncing Bolts on Lei Shen, or right clicking certain field objects, like Gara'jal's Spirit Totems

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I'd prefer to stick to 3 specs, and just have the cool things in Illusionist be split among the other 3. Then we can stop this thematic crap and have specs determined by function rather than spell color.

I'd actually like to quote this again, just to say, LOL AKRAEN, YOU AND EVERY OTHER FUCKING MAGE HUNTER AND ROGUE WISH THAT COULD HAPPEN!

Sadly, GC (and others apparently) are 'happy' with the current design of Pures, yet Warlocks are the only pure that actually works how we all want them to: Function over color.
DoTs, Demons, and Burst.

Taking a look at Mages, we have...
Burst, Heavy DoTs with Burst, and Burst.

Oh, well, close enough, right?

[Raelbo]

[B][I]With that in mind, I thought that all the Pures could probably get a Healer or Tank role because, what the fuck is the whole "Pure" niche nowadays anyway? I couldn't think of a single way to justify a healing Warlock, Hunter, or Rogue, so I thought "they'd all probably get tank, while Mages could easily fit in a 4th spec for healing... Time Magic!".

Honestly, I don't see the point. WoW, at it's core, is an RPG. You pick a role and you go with it. It really doesn't require that every character can perform every role.

[schwarzkopf]

Which seems more like a 15s death than a 15s Ice Block. Imagine if you will, a Spirit of Redemption that cannot cast spells, but magically gets revived after SoR expires.

You would need to emulate not knowing what was going to happen in 15seconds, you wouldn't be anywhere for those 15s - not like you could die for those 15 seconds.

[Polarthief]

Honestly, I don't see the point. WoW, at it's core, is an RPG. You pick a role and you go with it. It really doesn't require that every character can perform every role.

I never asked for every role, I simply asked for another because Blizzard thinks Pure just = having 3 similar DPS specs with different colored abilities... At least for Hunter, Rogue, and Mage. Warlock remains to be the only "actual" pure, having multiple DPS specs that aren't similar.

You would need to emulate not knowing what was going to happen in 15seconds, you wouldn't be anywhere for those 15s - not like you could die for those 15 seconds.

Which would be ridiculous and a huge burden more than a benefit.

[Deleted]

For the forward thing:
It would be enough when u see which people get the random debuff in 10 seconds.
But that would be on the other side to overpowered.
For the Cut and Paste: No one want this ever. It would be the trollspell number one. Lifegrip is normal troll. This would be insane. Imagine Elegon. Dont try to troll a tank with lifegrip. Just stay safe outside of the plattform and let the magic happen.
All in all: Never ever an 4th spec for mages and in no way a healerspec. Nightmares come into mind.

[Vouxility]

Temporal Shield wich working as a Raid Shield - yeah this would be great

[Polarthief]

Temporal Shield wich working as a Raid Shield - yeah this would be great

Dat Hourglass, yo.

[Lyreth]

I never thought of time mage, but I would love to see a Blood Mage. Convert damage to build a resource that you turn to use bigger heals. Your initial damage does healing as well, but less effective than resource heals. Hardest part is figuring out how to make mana matter, but high damage/high resource generating abilities cost more many. Just random passing thoughts.

[Vouxility]

...or just give back better healing for the invocation glyph ...something...just a little thing

[Nightfall]

Teleport forward in time is pretty fun! 10 sec might be too much, maybe it should be 6. When you cast Teleport:Future you disappear from the current timeline, appear 6 sec later and the time stops for you (no one can see or interact with you, even allies, and you aren't affected by AOE) until it catches on. Meanwhile you see everyone a little blurry, like during invisibility and can cast whatever you want, uninterrupted, and move around. When the time catches up on you, you become visible and all the spells you have cast are applied simultaneously. You can silence one target, sheep another and cast a couple of damage spells for burst - everything will be applied at once. 3 min cd.

Erm, that turned out more like a new lv97 mage spell... =)


PS Ooh, I'm "patient" now.. "High overlord" was so much better! /cast Teleport:Past

[Elegiac]

Yeah....no. I don't want to be a hybrid.

[Akraen]

Yeah....no. I don't want to be a hybrid.

It took me 7 years to break free from being a hybrid as constant pressures from my guild constantly made me play roles I didn't want to play "in the name of progression."

Now I've finally broken away in MoP and I've loved having a mage be my main. If I lose this protection from having to change roles to "fill a need" - I would be incredibly upset.

Do whatever you want to the mage class, nerf it, break it, but do not make it possible for me to have to tank or heal.

[Vouxility]

Do whatever you want to the mage class, nerf it, break it, but do not make it possible for me to have to tank or heal.

Oh, Tank would be uuuuuuggglllyyy, always have to stand near to bosses..no pls dont even think about it^^

[Hasted]

Logistically spells that either freeze time or fast-forward it are hard ti implement. Freezing time for you would also mean freezing everyone else's characters (unless Blizzard has mastered time traveling), and being any of the other players affected by the spell would be a poor experience at best. Fast-forward is a bit more manageable, however with something like that basically every mechanic would have to be designed with it in mind. In the case of you disappearing from time and reappearing, the practical applications are primarily limited to avoiding mechanics. Logically anything currently affecting you would still be affecting you, so it would have to be something used proactively. The issue is that in a PvE scenario the mob would essentially have to jump 6 seconds into the future for the duration of combat for this ability to make the least bit of sense. Even if they did things the easy way and just had everything within the next X seconds happen instantly, it seems odd to think that you would watch the mob use a mechanic and have it only affect everyone else. In the case of PvP there is no way to predict what someone would do in the next 6 seconds, so essentially nothing would happen when the ability is used. For the other variant, in which the Mage does not disappear and the time passes instantly, this seemingly only progresses the duration on buffs and debuffs as well as the time on cooldoowns by X seconds.

A few general suggestions though:

Time Lock - Locks the current durration and status of buffs and debuffs on target for X seconds.

The ability would last something like 5-10 seconds with a 1-2min CD. This has a lot of applications, both offensively and defensively. Absorption effects would still be consumed, because effective damage immunity would be broken. You could use something like this on your DPS when they have a good string of procs going to extend them, or you could use them on an enemy to prolong certain effects. Hard CC would likely have to have a reduced effectiveness.

Refresh - Reduces the cooldown of the casters spells by X seconds.

The actual reduction and cooldown are up in the air, dependent on how they fit in with the feel of the spec. Would possibly need limitations on the spells affected; if its too short spells like Blink would become absurdly broken. The general idea is that something like this would let the spec be a little more cooldown dependent in an effort to make it a little more reliant on interesting cooldowns, rather than essentially avoiding damage with time mechanics.


Something like a delayed Guardian Spirit would be interesting too. If the target 'dies' with the effect on them, they get phased out and come back later.


And I'm sorry if any of this has already been suggested, haven't had much of a chance to read everything over.