5.3 Mage Changes

[Me222]

I have no idea what blizzard is trying to do with Living Bomb. If they really want it to be a viable option... ever, it needs to fill a niche of some sort. In general, FB is best for adds and NT is best for single target or at very least I assume that is what they intend. LB is currently mediocre in both so its never chosen. So why are they trying to remedy this by turning it into a less frequently ticking NT with a light pat on the face at the end? I just don't understand. It doesn't need its damage shifted; it needs new mechanics. Maybe it spreads on explosion so everyone can use it like fire did in 5.1. Maybe the explosion is buffed to something respectable that is still under FB and the explosion damage doesn't affect the debuffed target. Honestly, I don't know how to fix it but I don't think this change is going to make it more appealing to anyone.

On another note, I'm glad they are finally attempting to address our AoE.

[Methusula]

They need to just buff Nether Tempest slightly and make it 1 target only. Give Living Bomb the 3 target cleave cap back, and keep Frost Bomb as the flat aoe option. The Glyph of Inferno Blast needs to be reverted to Fire Blast. Have the glyph allow Nether Tempest to be refreshed by Fire Blast and have a chance to grant FoF and Arcane Missiles, giving the spell some use in Arcane and Frost. Give the 3 target cleave spread back to Living Bomb, and have the glyph make Frost Bomb's cooldown and explosion timer equal.

[arizonapriest93]

I don't understand why they can't manage to make the explosion part also scale with haste, which is the main problem as we all know (besides niche issues). Make the explosion scale off how many ticks are done/damage done by the ticks so it scales better. Just my two cents.

[gallamann]

Well I suspect these buffs to AoE will eliminate 95% of NT multi-dotting, which is very good after all we are mages not warlocks. It will stick around for a few encounters like Council howver Blizzard is probably fine with situational NT DoT usage.

[Keiyra]

I don't understand why they can't manage to make the explosion part also scale with haste, which is the main problem as we all know (besides niche issues). Make the explosion scale off how many ticks are done/damage done by the ticks so it scales better. Just my two cents.

They already have, read the notes from the 4/11/13 ptr on the main page:

Living Bomb periodic damage has been increased by 121%. Its explosion damage has been reduced by 78%, but now scales with additional periodic ticks added by haste, and hits all nearby targets (up from 3).

[arizonapriest93]

They already have, read the notes from the 4/11/13 ptr on the main page:

Took them long enough, I suspected that's what that meant but wasn't sure, because you know its Blizz.

[Jaylol]

I have no idea what blizzard is trying to do with Living Bomb. If they really want it to be a viable option... ever, it needs to fill a niche of some sort. In general, FB is best for adds and NT is best for single target or at very least I assume that is what they intend. LB is currently mediocre in both so its never chosen. So why are they trying to remedy this by turning it into a less frequently ticking NT with a light pat on the face at the end? I just don't understand. It doesn't need its damage shifted; it needs new mechanics. Maybe it spreads on explosion so everyone can use it like fire did in 5.1. Maybe the explosion is buffed to something respectable that is still under FB and the explosion damage doesn't affect the debuffed target. Honestly, I don't know how to fix it but I don't think this change is going to make it more appealing to anyone.

On another note, I'm glad they are finally attempting to address our AoE.

Their goal at the introduction of bombs was to make NT for 1-2 targets, LB for 3-5, and FB for 5+. NT was however, too good for multidotting/cleaving and LB not so much. So the easiest fix was to make LB mainly for 1-2 targets, and NT for 3-5. At least that's what I think they're trying to do. LB is now better for single target, and NT is better for cleaving than it was before. It's on overall pretty decent buff for both single and multi target fights.

[Zavri]

This is what I would like to have done.

NT = Single target only, damage buffed by 40% to compensate, DoT duration refreshed by pyroblast, arcane missles, and frostfire bolt procs ( for frost only )

Living Bomb = Spreadable with inferno blast again, Reduce explosion damage by 20%, Have explosion damage all nearby enemies within 15 yards.

Frost bomb = Instant cast, Base cooldown increased to 10 seconds ( reduced by haste ), If 4 or more enemies are within 15 yards of the detonation, the explosion will always crit.

Fire AoE: Bring back blastwave! Blastwave no longer snares enemies or deals damage by itself, instead blastwave will automatically cast flamestrike and debuff affected enemies to allow combustion to spread to all affected targets. Blastwave would have a 3min cooldown to compensate.

Arcane AoE: Give arcane explosion a guarenteed chance to give 1 arcane charge per cast, if the explosion hits 3 or more targets. Buff arcane explosion damage by 30%.

Frost AoE: Change frozen orb so if the orb hits 3 or more targets it reduces the cooldown of the spell by 1 second per target hit. Frozen orb will also place a debuff on enemies hit by it, that will increase damage taken by Blizzard by 50% ( Debuff lasts 30 seconds ). Change blizzard so that if it hits 4 or more targets, it will haste your next blizzard cast by 50%.

[Bemlikanz]

News:
Our talent's mage bombs had a tooltip fix.

Fire
Critical mass buff to 1,3, up from 1.2
Pyroblast sp scaling and damage reduced by 10%.

Critical mass buff!! Finnally! But it still low, I guess.
Pyro dmg reduced again. Chills?

[Icyflamez]

News:
Fire
Critical mass buff to 1,3, up from 1.2
Pyroblast sp scaling and damage reduced by 10%.

Critical mass buff!! Finnally! But it still low, I guess.
Pyro dmg reduced again. Chills?

Critical Mass is already 1.3 on live, this is just a tooltip fix. Pyroblast had a 10% nerf going into patch 5.2 and I'd be willing to bet this is also a tooltip fix to reflect that nerf.

[Tene]

News:
Our talent's mage bombs had a tooltip fix.

Fire
Critical mass buff to 1,3, up from 1.2
Pyroblast sp scaling and damage reduced by 10%.

Critical mass buff!! Finnally! But it still low, I guess.
Pyro dmg reduced again. Chills?

i am not sure if the pyro is tooltip fix,it suppose t be 10% reduced for direct damage,sp scaling wasnt mentioned in 5.2
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/8896363/#class_mage
CM is a tooltip fix.

[Icyflamez]

i am not sure if the pyro is tooltip fix,it suppose t be 10% reduced for direct damage,sp scaling wasnt mentioned in 5.2
CM is a tooltip fix.

The pyroblast nerf was a last minute change mentioned by Ghostcrawler on the 5.2 Feedback thread a week before the patch went live. It for some reason never made the patch notes but it was indeed implemented. I can't post links yet but if you search the Blue Tracker for "PTR class and set bonus issues part iii" then you'll see Ghostcrawler's post.

[Argussonn]

hey, it's just the same value that in live ...

Nope, live is 166.1%.

[Shangalar]

Both of those changes are already on live without the tooltip fixes. The patch was finished about 5 days before patch day and these changes were implemented server side 2-3 days before patch day so what you see in-game in the spell tooltips doesn't reflect what the server is doing.

All's well, no changes.

[Tene]

Both of those changes are already on live without the tooltip fixes. The patch was finished about 5 days before patch day and these changes were implemented server side 2-3 days before patch day so what you see in-game in the spell tooltips doesn't reflect what the server is doing.

All's well, no changes.

can you link any info related to the 10% sp scaling nerf?i tried and searched and all i found is the 10% nerf to direct damage.

[MihaiKrieger]

I would SOOO love to see those changes applied.

[Shangalar]

Look. Pyroblast does direct damage and leaves a periodic effect. Both of these have separate damage done + spell power scaling.

If you look here: www.wowdb.com/spells/11366-pyroblast you will notice that at level 90 it does 2250 damage + 220% spell power. Now imagine if only the first number was changed in 5.2, that would reduce the damage by 225. Do you think 225 is a meaningful nerf? No, it isn't. Of course the spell power scalinh was also nerfed for 5.2. and again, these are just tooltip fixes.

[Tene]

sound logic,tnx.

[Deleted]

If we compare Cata and MoP, combustion was miles more potent in 4.1/4.3 than it is now (save for the short period after 5.1 went live and combo was 100% of ignite)... It was the thing that easily separated good and bad fire mages,

No in cata good combustion separate lucky from unlucky fire mages. I still have nightmares about black phase on HC Yor'sahj the Unsleeping without getting a single crit.

[Kuni Zyrekai]

No in cata good combustion separate lucky from unlucky fire mages. I still have nightmares about black phase on HC Yor'sahj the Unsleeping without getting a single crit.

Urgh, don't remind me. My trial for MS went from 40k Ultrax to 52k on two different weeks. I'll give them that combustion isn't nearly as powerful anymore, nor is it seemingly as fun? But it was entirely bloody luck if you did well or not; it wasn't a good spell design.