Your frostbolt criticals make your fireball instant cast and do X% more damage.
Solved.
They always told me I would miss my family... but I never miss from close range.
Or you know the fact that they just had Blizzcon and talked about this very thing.
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What was sloved here? And why would this make any sense at all?
So you toss out frostbolts to get instant fireballs to get instant pyroes?
a fire spell in frost spec just breaks the immersion and aesthetic of the spec.
I want 36 classes, not 12 classes. Give me diversity and unique spec aesthetics, don't want a boring specless blob that we had in MoP with tons of dead buttons
Usefulness of the extra spells.What was sloved here?
Beacuse mages are the masters of elements.And why would this make any sense at all?
Why not? Sounds cool. You're not even new, you should already know that Blizzard always goes for the cool, so what's wrong?So you toss out frostbolts to get instant fireballs to get instant pyroes?
They always told me I would miss my family... but I never miss from close range.
Well, that's a bigger problem in itself. technically the whole point of having these skills back is to also have the old kind of talent tree back so we can improve these skills too. So far in shadowlands the talents are the same, basically destroying the idea of synergy between specs.
Frostbolt can still be used for leveling or solo'ing stuff, throw a frostbolt first for the slow with dmg and the travelling time while casting your next spec instead of aggro'ing with Slow and being stuck in global cooldown. It's not much, but it's still there. You won't be using that in dungeons and raids of course and assuming the world content stays as unchallenging as it is now you'll reach a point where 2 arcane blasts just explode your target so frostbolt will become useless again I suppose.
Either way, we need to tell blizzard to change the entire talent system, they have 1 year basically, otherwise a big part of this is for nothing.
I don't quite understand why people are completely ignoring the fact that have different schools of abilities could actually be useful? If you're so against it you really don't have to bother with the ability. You complain for the sake of complaining.
Frostbolt for a fire mage might not be the most exciting/useful for everyone. But the utility of a slow on fire in pvp for example is useful, or a second school to cast if you're locked out of fire is also nice as it lets you still do something in that time rather than feel useless. It's more a 'niche ability' I suppose for fire, but it's nice to have regardless.
As for hype, I feel it's more the idea that change (and potentially good change) is happening to classes.
If Blizzard thinks Mages are the masters of elements I can't wait to see their Shaman changes.
Actually its good news.
Arcane has no ranged AOE, so having Blizzard and Flamestrike can be useful as some fights you have to stay in the ranged group, far from the boss. Using frostbolt to slow a mob during leveling is also nice.
Arcane explosion to reveal stealthers for frost or fire in pvp can be handy.
instead of going with this bullshit "unpruning" thing because "imma useless because im spell locked Q.Q" they should have give new spells that increase the flavor of each spec
Arcane explosion for Arcane, Glacial Explosion for frost, Fire Nova for fire, all doing the same shit as AE, but with the "right" element to it.
There, now you have the "moar buttons" without running away from the "spec fantasy" to please the "muh class fantasy Q.Q"
Don't get me wrong, I actually agree with you that at as an end result if it ends up pointless like it more than likely will that is absolutely the solution. At the same time I can be completely disappointed that they felt this was worth a big key note and regarded as a feature in the expansion. Because its, you know, almost like its not going to be there at all.
Also note though that I completely understand why Hybrids are excited. Them doubling down on specs crippled hybrid fantasies beyond belief. But as a Mage? Genuinely don't care. Literally no reason to feel hyped about gaining buttons back I won't use. Especially since this likely is going to be an excuse to not add anything new besides the one covenant ability-- an ability that, coincidentally, lines up with their 'old' I mean 'new' I mean 'old or new' philosophy of focusing on class again where it isn't even tailored to specs anymore but your 'core class'. Even though right now with essences these 'class abilities' can wildly sway in different directions based on spec, but whatever.
If they do happen to add new abilities besides a single covenant ability and old shit that I won't use then I'll be pleasantly surprised. But considering how dead 100-120 has been with artifact filling the gap one expansion and BFA filling... nothing until .2, they're the ones who've set the standard of expecting nothing new class wise.
BTW, this statement bothers me alot...
if mages are master of the elements then what are shamans?
There has been absolutely no word or leaks or data mining on what class changes beyond the already-announced de-pruning will be yet. Where are you getting this “everything is completely unchanged” drivel from? That’s literally impossible; we’re getting a level squish!
Cheerful lack of self-preservation
Might be in the minority here but I actually enjoyed a Frost mage being almost entirely distinct from Fire/Arcane etc. Because of that I leveled, geared and played all 3 specs of mages - I felt like I had 3 distinct different toons offering 3 distinct gameplay experiences.
I understand that they went too far with pruning and spec fantasy or whatever they're calling it, but I don't want 9.0 to replace my 3 distinct mages with 3 jack of all trade casters either.
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There can be more than one master of a thing, you know.
Appreciate your time with friends and family while they're here. Don't wait until they're gone to tell them what they mean to you.