6.1 Mage changes

[Slykz]

Alter Time now has a 1-minute cooldown (down from 1.5 minutes).
Mirror Image copies of Frost Mages now deals 15% less damage with Frostbolt.

Any thoughts?

[Frost1129]

Doesn't do anything for Alter Time. The spell isn't used (outside of very rare niche situations) because it's just useless and you get healed anyways during it, not because it's a 1.5min CD. There are some niche cases where AT is nice (cheesing butcher

MI nerf will just make MI a bit less ubiquitous for Frost mages. If this is the right way to do that, ./shrug.

[Slykz]

Doesn't do anything for Alter Time. The spell isn't used (outside of very rare niche situations) because it's just useless and you get healed anyways during it, not because it's a 1.5min CD. There are some niche cases where AT is nice (cheesing butcher

MI nerf will just make MI a bit less ubiquitous for Frost mages. If this is the right way to do that, ./shrug.

Yeah i wasn't really looking at the Alter time change. As its not even a nerf, i just decided to write all the changes instead of just one.

[Deleted]

Quite a few more changes to mages but I am raging about this change:

• the Mirror Image copies of Frost Mages now deals 15% less damage with Frostbolt.

Not because of the frost nerf but because what it does to the balance of that tier. I really like how rop is balanced in that tier for frost. But it feels like this nerf will put that talent tree in the same position as it's already is in Fire and Arcane.

However this is numbers change and not mechanic change so I would really like to hear from simcrafters how this changes the balance of this tree.

[SLSAMG]

Looks like we're being forced into RoP now. Cool, that's just what I wanted...

[Deleted]

I am surprised that of all the talents that Blizz looked on in Frost was MI x)

Let's totally ignore the fact that Comet Storm is plainly bad and useless comparing to TV and PC. I am also a bit astonished that frost is the only spec that has been looked on so far and it wasn't looked on positively but it got nerfed, right before BRF too where everyone is speculating frost to drop off anyway, like whats the point?

Meanwhile the eldest child of Blizzard that is hunter gets everything tuned up They treat hunters like babies that need to be spoon-fed constantly.

[Deleted]

Reducing the CD of Alter Time could make it a more reliable defense rather than the occasional gimmick, but as sucky as they are, Ice Barrier and even Flameglow offer more consistent protection. Still, AT is far more usable with a shorter CD and on some encounters you could get a lot of mileage out of it (hopefully). However, we have enough ways to avoid a big damage mechanics through Ice Block and Greater Invis, we don't really need another spell that serves the same purpose, but with more downsides.

The change to Mirror Images seems unwarranted. Since Frost's has enough cooldowns to stack right now with PC, Frozen Orb, IV, and the Nova Charges, it might make it more worthwhile to use Incanter's Flow.

Other lackluster talents like Comet Storm are unchanged. The pointless split damage mechanic will remain until the next expansion I guess. Passive talents like Kindling and Unstable Magic could get another pass but I don't think they'd be picked often anyway.

[Polarthief]

So is MI now useless 100% across the board, time to go Rune of Shit/Boring Floes? Lame.

[hasublade]

Another trash patch for mages. Why the fuk warlocks have so much love and mages do not. They tweak like every fuking talent for warlock. Fuk this.

[Recom]

Honestly, isn't MI for frost just too good right now ? RoP should be far ahead for stand still single target fight, not by 0.5% (according to Frost's sims).

Although 15% may be too much as it might make IF better than MI entirely..

[durrtygoodz]

So is MI now useless 100% across the board, time to go Rune of Shit/Boring Floes? Lame.

Why is IF boring compared to MI? 1 button every 2 minutes vs 0 buttons ever. All the talents are shit.

[Imnick]

I'm pretty surprised by the complete absence of any comet storm changes too.

[gallamann]

Complete horse hockey they nerf MI for Frost, if your concerned RoP isn't keepin pace, then buff that pile of steaming kaka so people who hate it aren't forced to use it.

Meanwhile not a damn thing done for CS.

[Torian kel]

"You'll be surprised as to what is comming, we actually did work this time around"

> Starting to get excited as fuck
> Maybe talent updates? Spell changes?
> Maybe an actual Tier 2P/4P that isn't abolutly laughable?
> Get two changes, one for a talent that is never picked, and the other a nerf.
> Stunned silence, overshadowed by the thought of taking RoP
> Rerolls warlock, the only class Blizzard gives a shit about

[darkwarrior42]

Complete horse hockey they nerf MI for Frost, if your concerned RoP isn't keepin pace, then buff that pile of steaming kaka so people who hate it aren't forced to use it.

Meanwhile not a damn thing done for CS.

Not how I would choose to phrase it perhaps, but this still nevertheless sums up my opinion on the matter perfectly.

- - - Updated - - -

Why is IF boring compared to MI? 1 button every 2 minutes vs 0 buttons ever. All the talents are shit.

At least MI can be synchronized with other abilities, and offers some interaction with Thermal Void (if you run TV and choose to keep it up the full duration of MI).

IF the only thing you can ever do is wait to use one of your IN charges at 5 stacks

[SLSAMG]

Gotta love blizzards logic. I guess we should be expecting RoP nerfs prior to 6.2.

/facedesk

[Deleted]

Why are mages the only class to get nerfed? every other class got buffed even the healers got their dmg buffed. Mage class is so broken nowadays ...

[Dezx]

Why are mages the only class to get nerfed? every other class got buffed even the healers got their dmg buffed. Mage class is so broken nowadays ...

What are you talking about be glad arcane was not touched, and Fire is going to be up there in BRF.

[Deleted]

Plot twist - Blizzard is sick of "frost mages dat, frost mage dis, yada yada, whine buff comet storm cuz whine, whine deep freeze shit cuz whine, do dat for frost mages, do dis for frost mages, yada yada, whine you love warlocks more", so they decided to nerf them even more so people can reroll arcane and fire (plot twist twist - or reroll warlock again... :X )... They went even further with reducing the MS itemization in BRF to minimum, so people can again focus on playing the intended PvE specs

P.S. they even gave Fire some love last build with some buffs and now they give even more hate to Frost :}

[Loveletters]

Plot twist - Blizzard is sick of "frost mages dat, frost mage dis, yada yada, whine buff comet storm cuz whine, whine deep freeze shit cuz whine, do dat for frost mages, do dis for frost mages, yada yada, whine you love warlocks more", so they decided to nerf them even more so people can reroll arcane and fire (plot twist twist - or reroll warlock again... :X )... They went even further with reducing the MS itemization in BRF to minimum, so people can again focus on playing the intended PvE specs

P.S. they even gave Fire some love last build with some buffs and now they give even more hate to Frost :}

ummm, ok..