Spells Adhering to the Mage's School

[Speaknoevil]

In my opinion Mage spells should stay within the Mage's primary school.

Thus as an Arcane, Fire, or Frost Mage.. you only cast spells of that type.

Understand that I am not implying that you miss out on spells you need, but rather they become something else with each tree.

Some non-combat spells like Time Warp, and Evocation are fine as is.

Arcane

Arcane Explosion:

[Winding Ice]
Causes an explosion of ice shards around the caster, causing frost damage to all targets within 10 yards.

[Billowing Fire]
Causes an blast of flame around the caster, causing fire damage to all targets within 10 yards.

Fire

Fire Blast:

[Ice Whip]
Whips the enemy for frost damage, and slows them by 30% for 2 seconds. (30yd range, 8s cooldown)

[Arcane Lash]
Blasts the enemy for arcane damage, and pulls the target towards the caster 5 yards. (45yd range, 8s cooldown)

Scorch:

[Arcane Salvo]
Blast the enemy arcane damage. Being locked out of Arcane does not cause you to be unable to cast Arcane Salvo. (40yd range, 1.5s cast)

[Ice Shard]
Embeds a shard of Ice in the target dealing frost damage over time with no initial damage, being locked out of Frost does not cause you to be unable to cast Ice Shard. (40yd range, 1.5s cast)

Flamestrike:

[Snowfall]
Deals frost damage in an 8y radius over 8s, no initial damage, any enemy in the snowfall is slowed while inside the area, only one snowfall may be active at a time (2s Cast, 35y range)

[Spatial Rift]
Blasts an 8yd radius with arcane damage, deals arcane damage every second to enemies in the area of effect for 5 seconds, enemies that remain in the rift have their chance to hit reduced by 5% while inside the rift. (2s Cast, 30y range)

Flame Orb:

[Arcane Spheres]
Launches a series of 3 Arcane Spheres forward from the Mage's position, the spheres will cast Arcane Explosion every 2 seconds until they reach their destination causing Arcane Barrage initial blast damage to the target. (40yd range, 1 minute cooldown)


Frost

Cone of Cold:

[Volcanic Surge]
Targets in a cone in front of the caster are slowed by 60% for 8 sec. (10s cooldown)

[Arcane Ripple]
Targets in a cone in front of the caster take arcane damage and are slowed by 60% for 8 sec. (10s cooldown)

Frost Nova:

[Flame Wave]
Blasts enemies near the caster for Fire damage and melts them in place for up to 8 sec. Damage caused may interrupt the effect. (25 second cooldown, 15yd radius)

[Arcane Burst]
Sends out a pulse of Arcane energy dealing damage and immobilizing them for 5 sec. (25 second cooldown, 20yd radius)

Ice Block:

[Shield of Cinders]
You wall yourself behind seething flame, protecting you from all physical attacks and spells for 10 sec, but during that time you cannot attack, move or cast spells. (Instant Cast, 5 minute cooldown, Blast Wave is triggered if an enemy attacks you while under the effects of Shield of Cinders {radiating outwards from you, but limited to 5yd radius})

[Fold Reality]
You fold time and space around your body, protecting you from all physical attacks and spells for 10 sec, but during that time you cannot attack, move or cast spells. (Instant Cast, 5 minute cooldown, all unfriendly spells cast on you will be reflected, however healing taken in this state is reduced by 25%)

Ice Lance:

[Ashen Spear]
Deals Fire damage and applies a stacking debuff to the target. Each application slows the target by 10%, stacks up to 3 times. (25yd Range, Instant Cast)

[Arcane Javelin]
Deals Arcane damage and knocks the target back 10 yards. (40yd range, consumes a proc of Arcane Missles to cast, 20s cooldown)

Blizzard:

[Blazing Embers]
Burns the ground every 1 second for 8 seconds in an 8 yard radius. (Channeled, 40yd range)

[Arcane Void]
Deals Arcane damage every 1 second for 8 seconds in a 10 yard radius (Channeled, 40yd range) (if cast for full channel time applies a field of arcane energy to the target area lasting 8 seconds, any target that enters this field has Slow applied to them)

Ring of Frost:

[Binding Flames]
Ignites the ground, taking 3 sec to form. Enemies entering the area will be immobilized in a vortex of fire for 10 sec. Lasts 12 sec. 10 yd radius. (All existing Fire damage over time spells persist through this effect, additional damage taken will cancel it)

[Stop Time]
Stops the progression of events in it's area of effect, taking 3 sec to form. Enemies entering the zone will have events cease for 10 sec. Lasts 12 sec. 10 yd radius. (All DoTs, HoTs, incoming healing spells and damage cease until this effect ends)

[Felshen]

That's actually a really, really cool idea. It would definitely add a lot of flavor.

[PlatedPriest]

it must have been fun thinking of all the spell names

[Swizzle]

No thanks. I like having something to cast when I fuck up and get locked out of 1 school.

[Speaknoevil]

So you didn't read the post.

Scorch:

[Arcane Salvo]
Blast the enemy arcane damage. Being locked out of Arcane does not cause you to be unable to cast Arcane Salvo. (40yd range, 1.5s cast)

[Ice Shard]
Embeds a shard of Ice in the target dealing frost damage over time with no initial damage, being locked out of Frost does not cause you to be unable to cast Ice Shard. (40yd range, 1.5s cast)

[Chulda]

You sir are my hero. I wanted to make a thread like this looong ago, but I knew I'd get trolled by people saying "omg, noob! go l2p, imma go and fireblast everything in mah arcane spec lulz".

It's... just... My eyes are now full of tears because I know that something like that will never be implemented... but it would be the best thing ever... EVER.

Yeah... right now I'm torn between arcane and frost. Arcane is just MY spec... the idea of pure magic and warping time, space etc. is just SO BLOODY AWESOME.
On the other hand... when it comes to gameplay, frost is sooooooo much better in any possible way (not counting pure burst damage, but who the hell cares).
Arghhh... your idea is bloody awesome, sorry for repeating myself ;P

[Bearfist]

I think it's an interesting idea. I don't play mage much but my main is a moonkin and we now have something similar with moonfire/sunfire (from the transformation of the spell aspect alone).

Perhaps not every spell but one or two with that effect would be a really nice way to add more flavor to the class. But as someone else said, go post on the official forums, you might get some momentum going!

[grenalden]

I just made a mage this week.. He's already level 31, that's how much I'm loving the class thus far.. I know my mage-ness is no where near the rest of you guys, but by god, does this sound awesome.. +10 internets for you, sir.

[Swizzle]

So you didn't read the post.

Scorch:

[Arcane Salvo]
Blast the enemy arcane damage. Being locked out of Arcane does not cause you to be unable to cast Arcane Salvo. (40yd range, 1.5s cast)

[Ice Shard]
Embeds a shard of Ice in the target dealing frost damage over time with no initial damage, being locked out of Frost does not cause you to be unable to cast Ice Shard. (40yd range, 1.5s cast)

I did read it, but I form a working idea of a post form a majority of its contents, not a small percentage. Two spells out of twenty-one isn't exactly overwhelming now is it?

[gunner_recall]

Some of these are...no. Like scorch, fire blast, the AoE spells...

but flame orb and ice block changing on spec...that'd be cool. It'd be cool to see it with the armors, as well. Like from level 1-10 we just have mage armor which only gives us the crit and then arcane gets mana regen, frost gets a slow and fire gets a stacking ignite effect except on every spell.

Or something. Still, pretty cool post and nifty names.

[nabla2]

So you didn't read the post.

Scorch:

[Arcane Salvo]
Blast the enemy arcane damage. Being locked out of Arcane does not cause you to be unable to cast Arcane Salvo. (40yd range, 1.5s cast)

[Ice Shard]
Embeds a shard of Ice in the target dealing frost damage over time with no initial damage, being locked out of Frost does not cause you to be unable to cast Ice Shard. (40yd range, 1.5s cast)

This new mechanic ("being locked out does not cause you...") is neither interesting nor fun, completely destroy the point of having magic schools, and make the game more complicated, for no gain in term of fun/skillcap/whatever. No thanks.

[Crisco]

Um. No. Mages utilize all magic, being frost/fire/arcane is just further specializing yourself into that field, giving you greater knowledge of it allowing you to cast more powerful spells, why would you limit your abilities by not using other classes of magic? I'm so glad people that post on these forums don't work for Blizzard, or any game developer.

[Speaknoevil]

I did read it, but I form a working idea of a post form a majority of its contents, not a small percentage. Two spells out of twenty-one isn't exactly overwhelming now is it?

Well you shouldn't be getting kicked to begin with, regardless, when the situation arises you still have spells to cast.

It's my personal taste.

I would enjoy using only a single school of magic.

Not too dissimilar from a Shadow Priest, regardless of dropping shadow form to heal.

The concept that the mage could use almost identical spells but retain devotion to a single type of magic is appealing to me.

[Orumis]

Eh, I don't know. It would look cool, but I like each school having a certain... flair. Frost spells usually slow, fire is more dots, and arcane packs a punch. They'd all kind of be the same, and I don't know if I'd like that. My personal opinion.

[Swizzle]

Well you shouldn't be getting kicked to begin with, regardless, when the situation arises you still have spells to cast.

That's not really an argument, more of a back pedaling when there isn't an actual retort to be made. Anyway, I'm fundamentally against this idea for several reasons. For one, there have been boss fights in the past that have placed school lock outs on players (Lord Jaraxxus comes to mind), and a work around to this is to clear it by casting out-of-school spells with low mana costs. Your change is not only annoying in a programming sense, it also makes these mechanics superbly butt munchingly broken that it could equate to Unstable Magic chaining on Sindy. It makes off-school CS/SL bating impossible in PvP, and it devalues the difference between the schools and specs to a point where I'm not comfortable with the game.

[Speaknoevil]

That's not really an argument, more of a back pedaling when there isn't an actual retort to be made. Anyway, I'm fundamentally against this idea for several reasons. For one, there have been boss fights in the past that have placed school lock outs on players (Lord Jaraxxus comes to mind), and a work around to this is to clear it by casting out-of-school spells with low mana costs. Your change is not only annoying in a programming sense, it also makes these mechanics superbly butt munchingly broken that it could equate to Unstable Magic chaining on Sindy. It makes off-school CS/SL bating impossible in PvP, and it devalues the difference between the schools and specs to a point where I'm not comfortable with the game.

I disagree completely, there are several spells that i have omitted from my list of changes.

And they are still an option to use in all of the scenarios you mentioned.

Ex. Frostbolt.

Edit: you could also bait in PvP with the scorch replacements.

[Swizzle]

Now let's say you're in a rated BG going tit-for-tat against an opposing player. Out from the side, a gnome hiding behind a rock CSs you while casting fireball. In your world...you couldn't Ice Block now leaving you defenseless. It's not a BAD idea what you proposed, it just isn't very good either. It's like raping someone and going, "Well, at least I didn't KILL her".

[Millawhat]

it sounds like you just want to make a frost fire and arcane version of current spells, so besides the visual effect i mean they arent too different? idk though i am tired so maybe i read it wrong

[Speaknoevil]

I see your point.

However it's as simple as making the exchange for Ice Block follow behind the original school in lockout mechanics.

Once again, when I was thinking about this I had no intention for it to cause any significant differences to game play.

Only minor ones, with a change in the feel of the character.

[Whisperawr]

What benefit does this give Mages? Just +[insert spell type here]damage from your talent trees?

From what I understand, fake casting would no longer be necessary as well. Just cast the non-interruptable spell through their counterspell/spell lock/silencing shot/kick/etc. ?