Legion Class Preview Series: Mage

[Deleted]

Combustion now create a burst instead of having you to burst to build it up and unleash - sounds like it just got easyer to pvp as fire, but at the same time killed a bit of the fun for pve.

[Jasper Kazai]

I'm sad they are removing Frostfire Bolt. Back when it was introduced in Wrath, I used the glyph for it that made it identical (stat-wise) to Fireball so I could use it as the filler spell in place of Fireball because I thought it looked so cool. Maybe that will hang around as a visual glyph... though I doubt it, since they're all about "spec identity" now. Honestly, the idea of combining two specs in a spell like that is cool to me, but they seem to really be against that now.
My initial reaction to the Combustion change was negative, because it was satisfying when you lined everything up and got a good one. But I though about it more, and it's probably for the best. It really sucked when you messed up Combustion.
Everything else hasn't changed much, so not much to say. Sounds good to me. Although it sounds like Frost Mage cleave may be gone? Since it was not mentioned in these spells and major glyphs aren't going to exist anymore. Could be in the talents, though.

[Deleted]

Frost mage cleave was always the glyph so yes it will probably be there in either glyphs or talents.

[Blandertos]

Of course Arcane is still shit for PvP... GET RID OF ARCANE CHARGES!! Bring back the old Arcane Barrage!

Arcane was used at blizzcon by one of the top teams, just sayin'.

[Spacewalrus2010]

It's funny how opinions differ. On my list of classes that need more spec identity mage would have ranked 2nd right after rogue. On blizzards list they seem to be well done and need only marginal changes.

Odd. What makes you think this? (not looking for argument, just curious).

[Deleted]

How dare you remove my Frostfire Bolt?! I was just saying the other day how much I like it because it really feels rewarding when you get to cast it. Also, if there's no setup required for combustion anymore and you can't stack heating up procs, and not even having any control over spreading your dots, what the hell is the goal of the rotation? Just casting fireballs, waiting for a crit and pressing pyroblast as soon as it comes available doesn't feel particularly interesting to me.

[Zephre]

Doesn't frozen orb do mediocre ST damage? How does removing FFB help?

[Visor]

t4, t11hc, t13lfr
also nothing really new in spells :/

[Alayea]

Developer Comment:

• You may not start a new streak (aka, gain Heating Up), while a Hot Streak is already active
• It was never our intention for players to sit with a Hot Streak active, then keep fishing for another Heating Up before throwing instant Pyro out—in general, we don’t like the game telling you to press a button when you shouldn’t

I've only dabbled in the Fire spec on my mage alt, due to the Cataclysm system changes to Arcane. Don't really care for Fire, so I'm pretty much Frost full-time. Having stated all that: The nerf to the Heating Up mechanic is utter BS.

Any Fire mage worth their salt would not sit on a Hot Streak when it becomes available, given general circumstances. Sometimes a situation does arise wherein the player finds that it is better to hold off, but that doesn't occur often.

No, the real reason here is not about players being mislead by the game system -- Blizzard just doesn't want Fire mages chaining Pyroblasts.

Edit: This all rather reminds me of Ghostcrawler's famously idiotic and clueless statement on druids using nothing but Rejuvenation in the heroic Lich King encounter, and using that as a reason in greatly increasing that ability's mana cost in Cataclysm.

[Faldric]

Odd. What makes you think this? (not looking for argument, just curious).

For me all 3 speccs always were far too similar. Thats why the class never appealed to me, it felt more like I am choosing the color of the bolts I am firing and not like I am actually choosing a different specc.

Compared to other pure dps classes, they always felt pretty generic.
* Hunter has survival/marksmanship which are quite similar but has a tree purely focused on the pet to make up for it.
* Warlock has either direct dmg, dots or demons.

While mage also has this differences like water elemental or fire dots, I always felt they were more gimmicks instead of core mechanics.

[Mazaxist]

Why the hell would they destroy Combustion? They've completely turned Fire to shit.

You must be new to mage... They are just making it similar the way it was in vanilla/BC and wotlk(?) - this is a nice PVP change, not sure about pve. combustion in PVP was the weakest spell in game IMO.

not sure how i feel about random spread... what about CC?

[arcaneshot]

Combustion now create a burst instead of having you to burst to build it up and unleash - sounds like it just got easyer to pvp as fire, but at the same time killed a bit of the fun for pve.

You mean the "fun" to be had when you flub your Combustion through no fault of your own.

People complaining about the change don't seem to want to remember that Combustion can screw you over no matter how meticulous you try to build up a big one.

[Sw1tch]

I am not sure how I feel about the change to FFB/Frozen Orb. Towards the end of the expansion of WoD (and even midway), FFB was a reliable source of damage...and now it's being replaced by a 10% chance to reset frozen orb. Over the long term, I'm sure the numbers will equal. But in short duration fights the propensity for RNG to kick you in the butt seems large. With that being said, The Glacial Spikke ability looks awesome! Reminds me of deep freeze and definitely a mechanic that PvE Frost Mages miss seeing those massive numbers.

[Deleted]

Can someone explain me, what's the point of increasing the mana pool of arcane mages, if arcane blast still cost % of mana?

i mean, it doesn't matter if your mana pool is 100 or 100000000 if your skills cost 5% of that value. Useless change?

[Monketron]

Fire needed changing. The Inferno Blast change is a god-send. Fire became so much more fun when you got the set bonus and could have 2 charges. I was hoping they'd make that baseline in Legion, but they've gone even further which I didn't expect but it's more than welcome.

I'm also happy they removed the old Combustion too. Through very little skill but mostly pure RNG, your dps would vary far too much purely based on timings of crits (or lack of, mostly). Anything that takes that frustration away is only a good thing. The only issue now is fire seems a bit too simple. Probably needs something added to raise the skill-cap (maybe a secondary resource to manage, that seems like Blizzards answer to most things, no matter how annoying it makes the class become).

All in all, pretty happy with the changes. Still early days so I'm sure things will change.

[Moyga]

To those concerned about the lack of new spells and so on, keep in mind that the artifact weapons talent trees give new active spells as well as passives that significantly alter gameplay. Blizzard has also stated that the talent system has been completely revamped with two thirds of your talents for each spec being spec-specific, so I imagine your gameplay will have a lot of new quirks.

[Deleted]

Can someone explain me, what's the point of increasing the mana pool of arcane mages, if arcane blast still cost % of mana?

i mean, it doesn't matter if your mana pool is 100 or 100000000 if your skills cost 5% of that value. Useless change?

It's 5% base, not total mana.

[shaak]

Can someone explain me, what's the point of increasing the mana pool of arcane mages, if arcane blast still cost % of mana?

i mean, it doesn't matter if your mana pool is 100 or 100000000 if your skills cost 5% of that value. Useless change?

5% Base mana (aka before the mastery increase)


Also, everyone stop complaining that they've "broken x spec because of y change".
This is the literally the first news we've heard about class changes, there are still going to be heaps of other stuff and spell changes to come.

Just adapt to the changes they make to our class, or reroll if you don't like them. Nobodies stopping you from changing classes.

[Stormgnoef]

If that combustion make it to live iam rerolling fire again.Loved fire in vanilla and this is the right direction.

[Fayolynn]

5% Base mana (aka before the mastery increase)


Also, everyone stop complaining that they've "broken x spec because of y change".
This is the literally the first news we've heard about class changes, there are still going to be heaps of other stuff and spell changes to come.

Just adapt to the changes they make to our class, or reroll if you don't like them. Nobodies stopping you from changing classes.

Every expansion people say "this is just a first look, there will be more changes.", but each time mages get number tweeks and nothing else. History tells me this is what we are going to get.