Current RoP (as arcane) - you lose up to half your normal DPS without RoP (due to no mana regen) - you need to cast it to MAINTAIN your baseline damage.
New RoP (as arcane) - you lose NOTHING off your normal DPS without RoP - you do NOT need it to MAINTAIN your baseline damage.
Simple fact - new RoP is no longer a maintenance buff, just a DPS buff.
Eh, having read through, my initial thoughts are as follows (bearing in mind I've got a huge headache right now and am pretty tired and annoyed in general):
- Evanesce looks decent, could be very interesting as a replacement for Block if we can cheese mechanics in a similar way.
- Sad to see TS go as the make-way for AT, but new AT I guess gives people what they want. Disagreed with this from the beginning so was always going to be a little sour.
- CS is a joke for burst for PoM and Arcane. Will be used as DPS CD assuming survivability isn't a major issue. Bad change considering what they did with Alter Time. Unconvinced for Fire.
- Bomb changes are decent.
- Unstable Magic looks interesting, will need further numbers and scalings to have a proper opinion
- Final Level 75 talent (Supernova/Blastwave/Ice Nova) welcome change for varied AoE patterns.
- MI change is "OK"; SP buff is nice but ultimately just another button to hit.
- RoP change is beyond stupid. Duration of the Ring was never the issue and by changing it the way they have (outside of untying it from Mana regen) it pretty much shows how little they seem to understand the underlying issues with it. Was much happier with the player-thought concept of a 1m CD lasting 10s or so with similar effects to current RoP. This is just..meh.
- Incanter's Flows is meh, boring.
- Level 100 talents; boring. Crystal is cool in concept but not practical in raiding situations or hell, even PvP. Lack of understanding of this shows lack of foresight by Blizzard. Overpowered selection (Kindling etc as well) is beyond boring and lacks so much creativity. Extended burst periods doesn't reward good or bad play, plays too much into the hands of RNG with procs and is generally poor design. Final set (Orbs) is OK if they can fix the pathing issues that Orbs have had in the past and in MoP with Frozen Orb.
- Provided other specs lose mobility am generally OK with the lack of Mobility of Arcane and reduced mobility of Frost, but giving Fire extra mobility when it's already an incredibly mobile spec is pretty dumb IMO.
The addressing of underlying scaling issues on Frost's side is nice; the fact Arcane apparently had scaling "issues" is puzzling somewhat and the changes are (IMO) silly, but oh well. Lack of addressing of Fire's inherent scaling issues is dumb.
TL;DR. Generally, outside of certain changes here and there, pretty disappointed with the changes. They haven't really been listening to the Mage community (so it would seem) outside of replacing Invocation and removing multi-dotting and giving us an alternative to bombs. Kinda frustrating, but earliest set of patch notes I guess. Hopefully will see further changes because if they stay like this, I might well not be playing Mage come WoD.
All right, blizz agrees with you there. I'll leave arcane for ppl who enjoyed arcane in its later wotlk-whole cata version: a stupid spam of ab netting huge dps for no sensible reason.
At least Fire is getting the old (wotlk) version of Living Bomb, with emphasis on the explosion. Plus Flamestrike and (talent) Blastwave. Let's see it how it rolls.
How can you say that??? They changed NOTHING except tripling the duration! (and the mana part, but that was an arcane-only aspect anyways). It's still "stand in me to do damage equal to everyone else"! That's called MAINTENANCE.
... What?
Am I reading a different Rune of Power than everyone else? The way I'm reading it is:
Rune of Power
Place a rune on the ground. Standing in it increases your damage by X%. Lasts 3m
Don't quite get how this makes it any more fun.
Infinitely? I know IB only puts it on two targets...
TBH I'm curious about that new Nether Tempest. One target and it ticks on EVERYONE for 100%? Sounds nice. Sucks it's Arcane only now that it's good >_>;
Still wondering why I play this game.
I'm a Rogue and I also made a spreadsheet for the Order Hall that is updated for BfA.
I am happy without multidotting. It was fun, it gave us Missiles procs, but it was also a hassle. Now we'll have amazing AoE talents at level 75, coupled with some fun shiny graphics even for single target. We also have the two AoE level 100 talents that will imho also be totally fun to see and sometimes fun to use. I really have no objections to these notes.
Sorry Polar hahaha, that post was about Alter Time
My magic will tear you apart.
I assume that one may math out higher to a degree, but I think, comparing Invocation to RoP, for example, we get the same buff but Invo is easier to maintain, especially on heavy movement fights (only looking at the DPS portion), so, in theory, if MI provides, during their uptime, at least a viable option to RoP, most people will take MI, especially if macroing it behind AP+trinket increases burst.
I thought they meant the BF proc would make FFB a crit with no mana cost, but with a cast time.
"Can't you see this is the last act of a desperate man?"
"We don't care if it's the first act of Henry the Fifth, we're leaving!"
I'd like a source for this information, because you're now ASSUMING what it does.
Here's what they posted. Please tell me where it gives us more damage than we can manage. Please tell me where it says you don't have to constantly stand in it.Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Still wondering why I play this game.
I'm a Rogue and I also made a spreadsheet for the Order Hall that is updated for BfA.
To optimizie your damage, you have to maximize your RoP uptime and the annoying fact remains for all specs - you have to stand in this f**** rune the whole time.
Then I feel like the entire tier is pointless. They should just buff our baseline damage or give us something fun to use. Since the new IW is purely passive, if it's weaker than the other two, YET AGAIN, they make a worthless talent that makes literally no sense to pick up. Why would they make the same mistake twice?
I'm honestly not sure. They said nothing about what BF actually does, just how it procs now.
Still wondering why I play this game.
I'm a Rogue and I also made a spreadsheet for the Order Hall that is updated for BfA.
Pretty much that. Align it correctly with your trinkets/procs/cds was really fun, especially while on fire spec and required some kind of dedication/practice but the "reward" was also huge in the end..
Anyways, besides AT, Fireball change is a joke if they believe it should bring Fire in line with early game gear..
The 90 row talent at least looks decent on a first note.
The mage ability pruning seem to be pruning for pruning's sake. Does fire/arcane really need to lose deep freeze? I realize deep freeze was originally a frost-only spell to begin with, but what, is "tradition" really a good enough reason to make it spec only again?
With the removal of Temporal Shield, I'm way more pissed that its gone than that they changed AT and replaced it with it. Replace flameglow with AT D:
Pretty meh changes overall. Pick the right talents and you can mash your way to victory. I'd say the only thing from the notes that I thought was cool was Evanesce.
Rune of Power is no longer interesting in any way. With those changes you'd pick it for stand-still patchwerk fights or never pick it at all.
Incanter's Flow is kinda interesting. Pretty much a Wush/BBOY in a talent.
But with the changes to the level 90 talent, why even keep the mana bar for mages? Its literally there for aesthetics, for the "spirit of the class" I'm sure blizz would say. Just give Arcane mages an energy bar from 1 to 100, and remove mana for frost/fire.
Still wondering why I play this game.
I'm a Rogue and I also made a spreadsheet for the Order Hall that is updated for BfA.
I'll quote again: "... outside of replacing Invocation and removing multi-dotting and giving us an alternative to bombs."
Also, they removed the mana part from level 90 talenst. So, your opinion is that outside of the 3-4 most important problems, they totally haven't solved any of the other less important problems.
If this is an early glimpse at the future, then they've already done a hell of a job if you ask me.
My magic will tear you apart.
Looking at the entire notes it seems that all classes are getting dumbed down. It's not a mage-exclusivity.
Rotations will be easier. Errors will be less punished.
They're removing anything remotely complex.
I wonder when they'll remove Combustion or make it trivial to use.
Pretty much how I feel overall as well. TS being removed by a weaker AT is so hurtful. TS was the best, and now I also lose AT on top of it because IB will probably be my choice. Totally agree FG should gtfo for AT.
RoP is stupid and dumb and stupid. Scrap it and be done with it.
Mana is even more pointless for Fire/Frost. Shouldn't even exist at this point.
Still wondering why I play this game.
I'm a Rogue and I also made a spreadsheet for the Order Hall that is updated for BfA.
I see it the same way actually-I can only assume Arc mages would have used Invocation over RoP if mana was not a concern, so I can't see them opting for a "pita" DPS booster here; it almost feels like the talents are geared to player skill (real or assumed)...and if that is the case, then the DPS gain from MI should be lower to give more skilled mages the opportunity to shine. So your initial assessment might be correct
"Can't you see this is the last act of a desperate man?"
"We don't care if it's the first act of Henry the Fifth, we're leaving!"