"That said, again, we do want Fire to be a strong single target DPS spec along with Frost and Arcane. Frost is not intended to be the Mages "PvP spec" and Fire isn't intended to be the "PvE spec," they only turned out that way because of unintended factors. We're trying to make Frost more viable in raiding by allowing you to effectively freeze the target without having to nova it, allowing you to throw in some "shatter combos" in your rotation. Arcane, Frost, and Fire (and a mix thereof) should all more or less be viable in as many aspects of the game as possible. Where they should be different is in playstyle and gameplay differences (stacking Scorch vs. freezing and shatter etc.)."
Italics are my emphasis.
Now... the first italicized section makes it seem to me that mages who wish to spec frost aren't supposed to bepigeonholed into doing pvp only, and that mages who wish to spec fire shouldn't be relegated to pve only.
The second italicized section goes on to explain how frost is being changed to be more pve viable, by allowing a huge part of frost's damage output, shatter combo stuff, to be applicable in pve.
But where, oh where, is the part about making fire viable for pvp? The post DOES say that each tree/spec should be viable in most every aspect of the game... but, big surprise, frost is getting the tweaks and there is silence with regards to fire.
I mean, seriously. Frost all ready had better on demand, burst DPS than fire did, for PvP, thanks to the way shatter mechanics virtually bypass resilience. And now frost gets another way to shatter targets, without relying on them staying novad?
Right now, fire has AE, and a big sign that says "I'm an easy HK, you can probably kill me before my GCD resets so I can iceblock." These tweaks they are talking about for fire need to be pretty sweeping to live up to the claim that they want fire to be at least reasonably viable in pvp.
I had to re-read it again just to make sure i read it right the first time. I was under the assumption they were attempting to pigeon-hole us into tree's for ease of balancing Arena PvP and then raiders by forcing us into common specs for each activity. After seeing the early preview of Wotlk talents it seemed to reinforce that idea from looking at the frost tree. I cannot pin point the comments i read a long time ago from Kalgan or another Dev that mentioned something along the lines of Frost being our PvP tree. However i'm very happy they aren't doing that, and giving us real choices between tree's regardless of activity. I just really hope they deliver on what they're saying.
This is what i've always wanted them to do other than balancing classes less on synergy but more on 1:1 relative balance. I'll take 1 out of the 2, especially when i thought it was but a foregone conclusion we would all be forced into frost for Arena viability. Hard to think of fire being up to par with frost for Arena without major changes, but i'll wait and see what they are doing to fire.
Just amazing they are doing this. There is hope for WoW to be fun again, instead of e-sport seriousness. Woot!
MMO-Champion
Reply With Quote
