Some GC tweets on mages

[Vynestra]

So I was tweeting him last night...AND he responded, finally for once he responded. And I ended up with 5 total tweets with him replying xD. Interesting info for sure though. He says he thinks fire will be in line with the other specs, because their scaling will stop --- But then goes on to say if their damage is too high there is plans they will still nerf their damage. So they aren't nerfing scaling, but they may be nerfing damage.

"@Ghostcrawler So fire mages scaling is still going to be kept in check during the damage pass right? fire ptr notes have been quiet.." Me

"@etnies445 We're not convinced Fire is going to scale out of control. Beyond say 50% crit or so, the value starts to decrease." GC

"@etnies445 And of course we'd certainly prefer not to nerf undergeared mages just to keep those in heroic gear balanced." GC

"@Ghostcrawler With that being said then, how is arcane looking to fair against fire? I love the new RoP change, and what about frost?" Me

"@etnies445 Arcane is great for some fights, and perhaps surprisingly is much more popular in China than in NA / EU." GC

"@Alarinth @etnies445 Fire's DPS is a little high in ToT. We were worried they were going to scale much higher in SoO, but it may not happen." GC

"@Alarinth @etnies445 So we can adjust their damage without say crushing Critical Mass or the like, which mostly hurts less geared majority." GC

[Species]

I wonder why arcane is more popular in Asia. It also sounds like fire won't see a massive nerf, still expecting one though.

[Deleted]

did you see that he haven't reply about Frost ...

arcane is good because of separate lock-out give them better gear and Arcane should scale very good.

[Species]

did you see that he haven't reply about Frost ...

arcane is good because of separate lock-out give them better gear and Arcane should scale very good.

Arcane scales very well with gear and I think their BiS is like 8 ilvls over EU/US. Still you would think fire would be the preferred spec since it also scales very well and it has way better mobility.

[Deleted]

Yes, very strange that he not responded to frost and fire will definitely be not in line with other specs/classes. If they don´t nerf anything its okay, but if they overnerf it, I´m getting angry for every fire mage

[Vynestra]

Arcane scales very well with gear and I think their BiS is like 8 ilvls over EU/US. Still you would think fire would be the preferred spec since it also scales very well and it has way better mobility.

But if you take what he says, after 50% crit, crit scaling slows down....Which means if all fire has is mastery, it isn't going to scale ungodly well like we had expected, where as arcane WILL continue to scale consistently well. I think fire may see a backlash into siege/heroic siege gear that people didn't see coming. And arcane will take this time to pull ahead with it's consistent scaling.

[zomgDPS]

"@etnies445 Arcane is great for some fights, and perhaps surprisingly is much more popular in China than in NA / EU." GC

I dunno why they are 'surprised' by this. China has extended raid lockouts and higher tiered gear wrt NA / EU. Meaning China's Arcane mages can be even better at the multi-dotting nonsense the spec has become.


/facepalm

Sometimes I honestly think whether Blizz even puts in a modicum of thought into their interpretation of the current state of the mage class. Just the fact that they think Arcane is "working" due to hotfix buffs to the bomb spells which turn Arcane (a nuker spec) into a DoT spec, really goes to show that they have no clue, do they?

[Vynestra]

I dunno why they are 'surprised' by this. China has extended raid lockouts and higher tiered gear wrt NA / EU. Meaning China's Arcane mages can be even better at the multi-dotting nonsense the spec has become.


/facepalm

Sometimes I honestly think whether Blizz even puts in a modicum of thought into their interpretation of the current state of the mage class. Just the fact that they think Arcane is "working" due to hotfix buffs to the bomb spells which turn Arcane (a nuker spec) into a DoT spec, really goes to show that they have no clue, do they?

Another reason I think arcane will do fine in 5.4, but people say fire will be end all be all dps progression spec for mages. I'm not buying it.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I dunno why they are 'surprised' by this. China has extended raid lockouts and higher tiered gear wrt NA / EU. Meaning China's Arcane mages can be even better at the multi-dotting nonsense the spec has become.


/facepalm

Sometimes I honestly think whether Blizz even puts in a modicum of thought into their interpretation of the current state of the mage class. Just the fact that they think Arcane is "working" due to hotfix buffs to the bomb spells which turn Arcane (a nuker spec) into a DoT spec, really goes to show that they have no clue, do they?

Well, maybe if we're not very anal about things all the damn time we could get things going.

[zomgDPS]

Another reason I think arcane will do fine in 5.4, but people say fire will be end all be all dps progression spec for mages. I'm not buying it.

Fire is absurdly strong on PTR right now. So much so in fact that I fear the upcoming nerf may be too harsh. And yes, I do feel a nerf is imminent.

After all, let us not forget what happened in 5.2. All through the PTR there was absolutely no sign or mention of a fire nerf, then 1 week after the patch went live, the hot'fixes' started rolling out, which basically borderline neutered the spec, specifically for lower geared firemages.



But even all that does not detract from the simple fact that Fire is still absurdly strong on the PTR right now. Don't believe me? Seriously, go try it out. I saw what Nabal (our firemage) was doing on the PTR a few nights ago and it was outright scary from a throughput standpoint. And with the new set bonus for fire? Its gg.

What is also important to note, is that the added mobility edge of Fire is going to shine very brightly with the new raid fights. They are so painfully harsh on movement right now that I'm not quite sure how it is even being justified internally. It is no doubt the real cause behind the rather brutish "extended range RoP" bandaid that was dropped into the Arcane mage lap not so long ago.


Make no mistake, raw throughput is not the only thing that will push Fire's dominance in 5.4. The entire spec just plays better in a vast majority of the fights compared to either of the other specs, at least for the fights we have seen so far.

Well, maybe if we're not very anal about things all the damn time we could get things going.

It is my job to be anal. If I wont, who will?
If you keep re-focusing the task towards "making the devs jobs easier", we really wont get anywhere.


"Making their jerbs easy" was the rallying cry behind so many justifications for homogenization in the past. Not just for the mage class, but game-wide.


So much flavor and zest was sacrificed in the name of "making things easier to balance". And what did that get you mages, hmm?

"spam nuke, proc, use proc. Rinse repeat". Frost is still your only really working PvP spec. The mage "rollercoaster" of balance throughout MoP is now bordering on the legendary (akin to another legendary moment in WoW mage history, i.e. "The Sunwell"). If things were sacrificed to make life easier to balance, why do mages still get MASSIVE hotfix patches and nerfs there and random buffs to their bombs there.


No, there is a problem with the system. To root out the true cause of the problem, one must be vigilant.

Vigilant.. or as you call it, anal.

So no thanks, I'm fine as is.

[Deleted]

This Ghostcrawler guy really knows his game:

http://de.twitch.tv/citizenpete/c/2675519

This video was recorded a few minutes ago on PTR

[Blur4stuff]

arcane is by far the easiest mage spec to automate

that might have something to do with it

[unholyness]

This Ghostcrawler guy really knows his game:

http://de.twitch.tv/citizenpete/c/2675519

Why would you be frost lol? I had bad rng on Jin and still would have ranked in the top for Frost. They are buffing arcane mobility a but, and Fire will be the other spec with Frost again the Pvp spec every class needs. You arent going to see arcane or fire in Pvp so what spec is left? It isnt hard to see,

[Mastamage]

Why would you be frost lol? I had bad rng on Jin and still would have ranked in the top for Frost. They are buffing arcane mobility a but, and Fire will be the other spec with Frost again the Pvp spec every class needs. You arent going to see arcane or fire in Pvp so what spec is left? It isnt hard to see,

Doesn't matter what he plays as long as he gets results.

[Erolian]

This Ghostcrawler guy really knows his game:

http://de.twitch.tv/citizenpete/c/2675519

This video was recorded a few minutes ago on PTR

Not to say that isn't insane but I'm not sure bringing up a huge cleave off pull moment will be seen as anything other than cherry picking by devs/people who matter because if you leave any holes/gaps in anything you bring to them they'll shoot it down without giving it the most minor of thoughts. Look at the troll tweets by GC sometimes

[Deleted]

Na cmon, there are plenty of council style and add fights. This pull was one of the weakest (he did over 2.2+ million in another try). I´m not saying "fire is op nerf it to the ground", I want to say two things:

1. GC, your are out of touch with your own game

and

2. Please look at this spec prudent and timely and do not nerf it 1 or 2 weeks after release of the patch (like they did in 5.2)

[Deleted]

This Ghostcrawler guy really knows his game:

http://de.twitch.tv/citizenpete/c/2675519

This video was recorded a few minutes ago on PTR

I reached 1.5 mil burst as arcane and had better sustain than that of fire once the dogs died.

[Deleted]

This Ghostcrawler guy really knows his game:

http://de.twitch.tv/citizenpete/c/2675519

This video was recorded a few minutes ago on PTR

I was playing Arcane for testing and was getting ~1.3M peaks as well (RPPM change fucked over A&O badly), with more sustain as after 20s I'm still doing 100% of my "potential" damage. While I agree that Fire needs nerfs; taking a Combustion-spread fight (where Fire is always going to be strong) isn't really the best example.
Sure, GC still needs to pay attention to what he's saying because clearly the devs haven't worked out how to hit Pyro properly if they think Fire will be weak(er), but I'm just saying your example is technically skewed.

[Deleted]

but I'm just saying your example is technically skewed.

^

you also had 2 skull banners pete.

[Deleted]

Guys, I know my short video is a little bit populist. Even me was able to reach a 1.1 million peak with frost (remember, our fire mage was able to reach over 2.2 million peak) , but just go through all the bosses, check streams and logs from other fire mages. They are way ahead in nearly every fights where adds are included and combustion can be spreaded (fights where combustion do 40% overall damage). If fire get not touched by proper hands, they will just get nerfed to the ground in the first or second week the patch hits live. Thats what I want to avoid, because I will be one of them who will playing fire if its the strongest spec.