The New Spells so far (Mages)

[Frost]

Is it just me, or does Blizzard like dumping on mages via "Here's an awesome spell, but you know mages AREN'T supposed to have cool spells, those are for the warlocks".

Originally the spells were

Time Warp
Wall of Fog
A Fire Orb

Now it's

Bloodlust (no more speed increase...)
Curtain of Frost (WTF? a little line on the floor compared to what should be a 30 yard wall from end to end, who's going to stand on that?)
A fire orb...

You can see where I'm getting at. Any thoughts?

Also, I know every is subject to change, but Blizzard isn't going to change anything if people do not spring up with ideas.

[FriedNublet]

Now I understand why people say mages QQ so much. Apparently we do =/.

Personally, I felt the sprint attached to Time Warp was kinda awkward. You wouldn't be able to pop the sprint at a useful time because you can't waste Bloodlust. The only benefit of it I saw was if we had to move during it we'd be able to get back to dpsing faster. Curtain of Frost has some potential right now, but I'm hoping they will make some more changes. I mean, if it was targetable, it would be infinitely more useful. Dropping it behind you in wsg tunnel? In the middle of a sota wall. And I think flame orb is pretty dang cool. It looks like it does decent enough damage and it's another thing we get to blow up.

I see a lot of people upset about mages current state but I'm still pretty excited.

[Ambivalent]

curtain of frost is the only legitimate QQ. they really seem to be nerfing that to near uselessness. all the beta folks seem to hate it. time warp and flame orb are fine.

[wickedbastard]

I was really enthuastic )spelling) about Fire Orb. But after what ive seen, i dont.. Little orby thing, that moves THROUGH mobs so after a few sec it has no use..

[lukeshep]

I am really looking forward to flame orb. I loved Frozen Orb in Diablo 2.

[Agroculture]

Don't worry too much about curtain of frost.By the end of the beta it will be usefull in some way.As for Time Warp,there's no reason it should be different from Bloodlust in any way.Just be happy mages are the ones who are getting this amazing spell (god knows warriors needed it just as much if not more).Not to mention the sprint portion was rather meh for us,given the other tools we have for mobility.

[Phoenix_AND1]

I really want to see what will they do with the Curtain of Frost, I really hope they will fix it as soon as possible.

[Deleted]

It's pretty obvious the contempt with which Blizzard treats the mages. Blizzard must have a trauma with Gandalf, Merlin or Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander. Let's review what they have done to the mages in this expansion:

• They give us three new powers (there are classes who have more) two of which are becoming more stupid and useless every day (Flame Orb and Curtain of Frost) and the other is a simple copy of a spell of another class (Time Warp).
• They take away some of our powers (Amplify Magic, Dampen Magic, Conjure food and water at low levels, Arcane Missiles, etc ...)
• They have not improved qualitatively any of our existing powers or mechanics, such as Mana Shield or Invisibility which still suck. However they have improved some abilities and mechanics of other classes…
• Our "new talents" are useless and mostly boring by just applying effects or powers that can be activated individually by us, such as Nether Vortex or Reactive Barrier.
• They gave some of our spells to other classes (such an improved Focus magic for the warlocks or an improved polymorph for the shamans).
• Some of our talents have such limited use that they are not profitable: they seem Tier bonus instead (Invocation, Improved Mana Gem, etc).
• ETC...

I am sure that I could develop spells and talents consistent for mages much more original, interesting and practical than the Blizzard ones.
Sometimes I wonder if there are people who still keep playing with a mage, and the answer is yes, how and why?, because we are conformists and we accept without question everything that Blizzard wants to do with mages ...

[Archimand]

sorry i wasnt aware that hex is improved polymorph with 45sec cd and 10sec ? duration in pvp
plus target able to move by himself

[Pab]

Im really looking forward to flame orb and curtain of frost, its gonna open a 'dont stand in the fire' aspect to pvp

[Phoenix_AND1]

Im really looking forward to flame orb and curtain of frost, its gonna open a 'dont stand in the fire' aspect to pvp

Are you serious? Flame orb will be useless, and Curtain of Frost will be useless even more.

Only blind person would stand into tiny tiny frost lane, 30y away.
And flame orb?Ye run away from flame ball which moves like fatass in a row, with so low dps, it will be rly "great".

[Swizzle]

It's pretty obvious the contempt with which Blizzard treats the mages. Blizzard must have a trauma with Gandalf, Merlin or Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander. Let's review what they have done to the mages in this expansion:

• They give us three new powers (there are classes who have more) two of which are becoming more stupid and useless every day (Flame Orb and Curtain of Frost) and the other is a simple copy of a spell of another class (Time Warp).
• They take away some of our powers (Amplify Magic, Dampen Magic, Conjure food and water at low levels, Arcane Missiles, etc ...)
• They have not improved qualitatively any of our existing powers or mechanics, such as Mana Shield or Invisibility which still suck. However they have improved some abilities and mechanics of other classes…
• Our "new talents" are useless and mostly boring by just applying effects or powers that can be activated individually by us, such as Nether Vortex or Reactive Barrier.
• They gave some of our spells to other classes (such an improved Focus magic for the warlocks or an improved polymorph for the shamans).
• Some of our talents have such limited use that they are not profitable: they seem Tier bonus instead (Invocation, Improved Mana Gem, etc).
• ETC...

I am sure that I could develop spells and talents consistent for mages much more original, interesting and practical than the Blizzard ones.
Sometimes I wonder if there are people who still keep playing with a mage, and the answer is yes, how and why?, because we are conformists and we accept without question everything that Blizzard wants to do with mages ...

i wish i could link the "sweet clyde, laugh derisively at them" video from futurama just to point out how hilarious this is. also i will be playing my mage and out performing whatever class it is you choose to play. at this point, i would love if you would roll a DK so you can go to their forums seeing as its the one class i don't plan on ever playing.

[Koumaru]

Change Curtain of Frost to a Grease spell that has a chance to knock down anyone who enters and can be ignited by fire spells cast into its radius. Ta da! Something useful.

Looking forward to Flame Orb and Time Warp. The current version of Curtain of Frost, however, just reassures me that I'll have some room on my bar again for Dragon's Breath and Blastwave.

[Knegoff]

Now I understand why people say mages QQ so much. Apparently we do =/.

This might be offtopic, but we dont QQ very much I think. On the other hand, Shamans QQ A LOT.

[Beno113]

How is no-one seeing the usefulness of the Iron Kurtain of Frost in pvp!

Think of the tunnels in WSG, All entrances to buildings / tripwires heading to the points in AB,

it will be useful in most chokepoints, and even more so for kiting mobs

[Frost]

It's pretty obvious the contempt with which Blizzard treats the mages. Blizzard must have a trauma with Gandalf, Merlin or Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander. Let's review what they have done to the mages in this expansion:

• They give us three new powers (there are classes who have more) two of which are becoming more stupid and useless every day (Flame Orb and Curtain of Frost) and the other is a simple copy of a spell of another class (Time Warp).
• They take away some of our powers (Amplify Magic, Dampen Magic, Conjure food and water at low levels, Arcane Missiles, etc ...)
• They have not improved qualitatively any of our existing powers or mechanics, such as Mana Shield or Invisibility which still suck. However they have improved some abilities and mechanics of other classes…
• Our "new talents" are useless and mostly boring by just applying effects or powers that can be activated individually by us, such as Nether Vortex or Reactive Barrier.
• They gave some of our spells to other classes (such an improved Focus magic for the warlocks or an improved polymorph for the shamans).
• Some of our talents have such limited use that they are not profitable: they seem Tier bonus instead (Invocation, Improved Mana Gem, etc).
• ETC...

I am sure that I could develop spells and talents consistent for mages much more original, interesting and practical than the Blizzard ones.
Sometimes I wonder if there are people who still keep playing with a mage, and the answer is yes, how and why?, because we are conformists and we accept without question everything that Blizzard wants to do with mages ...

I totally agree and this is what I was getting at. Warlocks and priests have bubbles which, in my opinion should be mage only, mages hardly have any unique spells other than portals and conjure food. I would like something real mage-like. Hence why I'm so mad over Wall of Fog.

[Deleted]

we had our time on the QQ wagon a long time ago. good times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXp_jFvlfMA

I don't dislike particularly the job done on the mage till now.

[FriedNublet]

It's pretty obvious the contempt with which Blizzard treats the mages. Blizzard must have a trauma with Gandalf, Merlin or Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander. Let's review what they have done to the mages in this expansion:

• They give us three new powers (there are classes who have more) two of which are becoming more stupid and useless every day (Flame Orb and Curtain of Frost) and the other is a simple copy of a spell of another class (Time Warp).
• They take away some of our powers (Amplify Magic, Dampen Magic, Conjure food and water at low levels, Arcane Missiles, etc ...)
• They have not improved qualitatively any of our existing powers or mechanics, such as Mana Shield or Invisibility which still suck. However they have improved some abilities and mechanics of other classes…
• Our "new talents" are useless and mostly boring by just applying effects or powers that can be activated individually by us, such as Nether Vortex or Reactive Barrier.
• They gave some of our spells to other classes (such an improved Focus magic for the warlocks or an improved polymorph for the shamans).
• Some of our talents have such limited use that they are not profitable: they seem Tier bonus instead (Invocation, Improved Mana Gem, etc).
• ETC...

I am sure that I could develop spells and talents consistent for mages much more original, interesting and practical than the Blizzard ones.
Sometimes I wonder if there are people who still keep playing with a mage, and the answer is yes, how and why?, because we are conformists and we accept without question everything that Blizzard wants to do with mages ...

Flame Orb is not useless. It's another flashy AoE spell for all specs and usable for single target as fire. While maybe not necessary, it's a fun spell that nobody else has anything similar to. Curtain of frost has already improved greatly since it's first implementation, if you think this is it's final state, then you obviously don't understand what a beta is. And we are getting Bloodlust/Heroism! How can you complain about that?

Amplify Magic and Dampen Magic were annoying. 1 mage on H 25 man Deathbringer Saurfang=not fun. We are losing conjure spells at low levels because blizzard said we won't need them. Arcane Missiles isn't going away, they are just changing the mechanics of it....

Mana shield has in fact been improved. 1 mana per damage baseline seems like a nice buff to me. And Invis works fine. I have no idea what you think it is supposed to do, but it's a very useful spell. They've also improved Icelance imo by increasing the base damage whether or not your target is frozen.

Nether Vortex is a extremely useful talent for arcane pvp while Reactive Barrier I admit, will probably need to be tested some more before it's usefulness is determined. You seem to be forgetting about a bunch of our other new talents however. Cauterize, Improved Blink, Improved Polymorph, The new Molten Shields, the pushback on mana shield when it is broken, no mana scorches while running.

Personally I don't like focus magic. I'm glad fire won't have to deal with it anymore. I'm sick of people bugging me for it. Single target buffs aren't a good idea because they don't balance the class around people trading them, and if they did, you'd be shit outta luck if you were the only mage in a group. Hex is a different spell than polymorph, neither is better because both just have different uses.

Invocation is going to be helpful for any pvp mage, extra burst to finish off that healer that you just interrupted? What's there to complain about? And once again, improved mana gem gives you more on demand burst as minor as it may be.

TL;DR You QQ too much

[kyoharu]

I personally am rather disappointed with the new mage abilities.

Time Warp is just a recycled Blood Lust/Heroism

Flame Orb (If I read it right), is just a recycle of the ability the mobs in OS have. (Doesn't seem too useful in raid content though I could be wrong.)

Curtain of Frost seems to be getting nerfed quite a bit and it's uses seem limited (Doesn't seem to be too useful in raid content.)

I feel like they could have come up with better abilities than these for mages honestly.

---------- Post added 2010-08-05 at 04:51 PM ----------

How is no-one seeing the usefulness of the Iron Kurtain of Frost in pvp!

Think of the tunnels in WSG, All entrances to buildings / tripwires heading to the points in AB,

it will be useful in most chokepoints, and even more so for kiting mobs

The problem with this is it seems it's usefullness only ocmes in PvP and not PVE when they are stating they want to try and make all 3 mage specs viable for PVE, and not have one used purely for PVP. This doesn't help Frosts's PVE.

•Curtain of Frost now lasts 15 sec, up from 10 sec. Cooldown increased from 30 sec to 2 min. Now slows the movement speed for 4 sec, down from 8 sec.

The new cooldown time also doesn't help with kiting now =/

[Phoenix_AND1]

How is no-one seeing the usefulness of the Iron Kurtain of Frost in pvp!

Think of the tunnels in WSG, All entrances to buildings / tripwires heading to the points in AB,

it will be useful in most chokepoints, and even more so for kiting mobs

Because, there is no option to avoid so biiiiiiiig lane, right?