why are they still retaining cross spec themed talents

[Segus1992]

So basically being lazy as all hell, then?

You're not serious with this stupidity, right? Gameplay, and especially the accessibility of it, is paramount for WoW as frequently displayed by Blizzard (systematic generalization of classes/specs & pruing of abilities), and you're suggesting a purely visual change that will drastically affect the accessibility of the gameplay, just because you want to feel like a Pyromancer (which Fire Mages aren't)?

[Northem]

Should? Common sense? Why is that?

I already know that you are strangers to that concept, but do not worry, I can understand it.

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Personally I'd rather see spec options to wield all three schools of magic in different ways. A fire skin of frost mage is not class design.

Exactly, reskinned spells are not the solution obviously...

Infracted.

[Dizzeeyooo]

you had to spec into arcane explosion. it had a cast time too

no you had arcane explosion baseline, 5 talent points just removed the 1.5 second cast time and made the spell instant

For instance, as an Arcane Mage, I could use [Flamestrike] and [Blizzard] in order to do AoE damage, however, Blizzard considered that an Arcane Mage should not use these fire and frost spells, forcing us to use a melee spell like [Arcane Explosion] to do AoE damage.

At the same way, recently Blizzard has removed the [Frostfire Bolt] spell, admitting that a Frost Mage should not use fire spells and vice versa, or even has removed [Cone of Cold] from Arcane Mages too...

multiple aoe spells and frostfire bolt were not removed from different specs because Blizzard has some fundemental belief that x spec mages should not be using non x spec spells ... please don't confuse ability pruning with anything else

[Orrin]

I already know that you are strangers to that concept, but do not worry, I can understand it.

Of course I'm a stranger to this concept, I don't have this weird Elemetalist headcanon because Mages in books and in game are shown to use multiple schools of magic at once and not being Shaman apprentices some people want them to be.

[Chemii]

Fire is destructive. You don't protect with it, defensively - it is always offensive protection.

Frost or Ice magic tends to be a lot more controlled, not to mention it's hard in a physical sense so can provide protection/shields.

Cross polination of spells is expected. A mage would know various simple spells before choosing a specialisation in later life. You wouldn't be born with an exclusive skill in fire wielding magic, but it is something you would train. It doesn't mean a fire mage couldn't ever learn frost or arcane magic, otherwise you wouldn't have blink.

I suppose a good trade off would be having a blast wave like replacement of frost nova, where a defensive spell becomes much more offensive.

Gameplay has to match fantasy/lore.

[dreaderus]

Bump for this scenario coming to fruition after a nonsensical time period where fire mages and arcane mages shielded themselves in a frost barrier.

WOOT