Battle For Azeroth: Mage Megathread (Alpha/Beta)

[Ladyoftheforest]

I sincerely hope Glacial Spike will be perfectly viable to use in high end raiding.

[Swizzle]

Well Ion confirmed they don't like adding new baseline abilities and that moving forward everything will be through a new expansion UI. Also they're against making artifact abilities baseline and they don't think any of them are mandatory and that no one will remember them in a while. Hooray!!!

[Tyze]

I sincerely hope Glacial Spike will be perfectly viable to use in high end raiding.

I'm fairly sure it was good in high end raiding in tomb, no?

[Ambereldus]

Its still good. Not great, but good.
I enjoy the playstyle, and its such a minimal loss for me that I run GS constantly.

I'm becoming increasingly optimistic about mages BfA.

[hambone2626]

Is fire going to be able to use staves again?

[kheath812]

It's called skill cap. Knowing when you can pop ray and not is for better mages who make better decisions.

no, its called slow paced, boring, and predictable.

[Ladyoftheforest]

I'm fairly sure it was good in high end raiding in tomb, no?

From a min-max perspective. I also dont like how some people look down on Glacial Spike

[kheath812]

Fire can use staves right now.

you know what he means.

[Swizzle]

The new talent tree seems interesting for Frost, but ultimately looks boring depending on numbers. Ray of Frost not competing with Lonely Winter seems fun, but I think the problem is how long it asks you to stand still to be optimal. Would love it if Haste was able to lower the channel duration so it's not a flat 10 seconds always, but have to wait for numbers tuning to make any sense of these things.

[davesignal]

Ten seconds does make it line up nicely with the duration of Rune of Power.

[Orwell7]

Ten seconds does make it line up nicely with the duration of Rune of Power.

It would be even better if RoF would get the full benefit of RoP if you cast it at the last possible moment :P

[nickseng]

The new talent tree seems interesting for Frost, but ultimately looks boring depending on numbers. Ray of Frost not competing with Lonely Winter seems fun, but I think the problem is how long it asks you to stand still to be optimal. Would love it if Haste was able to lower the channel duration so it's not a flat 10 seconds always, but have to wait for numbers tuning to make any sense of these things.

It's currently 6 second channel, and haste does reduce it.

[kheath812]

ebonbolt being a talent just doesnt fit anywhere at all. it doesnt make sense in any tier. it deserves to be baseline.

also, having to choose between splitting ice and freezing rain? seriously? it basically just means we dont have freezing rain anymore because no one in their right mind would choose it over splitting ice, even in heavy aoe situations.

these talent trees are really depressing and goes to show how little blizzard understands what makes frost work as a spec and what needs to be changed.

[Swizzle]

It's currently 6 second channel, and haste does reduce it.

Re-read and saw you're right about the duration. Any sign of haste reducing the channel time though? Just looking at the basenumbers right now, RoF deals 42.33 DPS (510 x 0.083) and locks you out of moving and casting other spells. I think the numbers have to be bumped up on that to make it worthwhile compared to TV and even GS.

ebonbolt being a talent just doesnt fit anywhere at all. it doesnt make sense in any tier. it deserves to be baseline.

also, having to choose between splitting ice and freezing rain? seriously? it basically just means we dont have freezing rain anymore because no one in their right mind would choose it over splitting ice, even in heavy aoe situations.

these talent trees are really depressing and goes to show how little blizzard understands what makes frost work as a spec and what needs to be changed.

Yeah I can see they want Ebonbolt to compete with other resource generators, so I'm assuming that "coming soon" talent is going to be some way to generate FoF charges (Frozen Touch generates both FoF and BF passively, Ebonbolt generates BF, so all that's left is a pure FoF generator). Given that Frozen touch gives more FoF and BF though, it's going to be a hard sell to NOT take it, unless the numbers are just too good on Ebonbolt's side.

[arcuro]

with the increased recharge of Shimmer i would like to see Ice Floes to effect Ray of Frost.
And add a new Effect to RoF, maybe: Chance to generate FF with every Tick and let you use Ice Lance while channeling
Could work with a Build like
* Bone Chilling (since Lonely Winter doesnt effect RoF)
* Ice Floes
* Rune of Power
* Frozen Touch
* splitting Ice,
* Ray of Frost

With this, you would get a nice burst Window every Rune of Power without beeing to locked on place , more FF procs and the ability to further increase thes Burst by using Ice Lance while channaling.
Could be nice Single Target competition for Glacial Spike/Ebonbolt Builds or even TV builds. And you got to use other Talants

But how big are those chances that would happen.. sadly

[Deleted]

Evonbolt is deleted in Bfa??i hope not...its the most fun for me of frost.

[Swizzle]

Evonbolt is deleted in Bfa??i hope not...its the most fun for me of frost.

It's been put back in as a talent in the Frozen Touch row.

[davesignal]

And now it benefits from Splitting Ice in BFA, apparently.

[Swizzle]

And now it benefits from Splitting Ice in BFA, apparently.

Yeah, are they bringing inscription back to where it was before? Splitting Ice being a glyph that affects Ice Lance, Ebonbolt, and GS is huge.

[Ladyoftheforest]

Glacial Spike was buffed to 400% of Spell Power (after it was nerfed in alpha). Happy about that.