Hey Illone

Europe is boring so I thought I'd make an account here and toss a shoutout to some of the other SC mages while I wait for the west coast to wake up and leak the 1.11 patch notes. Got any guesses?

[IllOne]

Well, word is, of course, that Evocation and IAE will be trainable.

Apart from that, I figure they'll make iceblock an 11 point talent instead of 21 points, and it'll come with a minor aggro dump of some sort. AP is pretty much worthless now (I've been iceblock/coldsnap for like a month and a half now), so I figure they'll either take it out or continue to nerf it (Re: 20% damage, no mana consumption, just like priest PI) but either way it'll still be useless.

Some mages on the crybaby (Read: Mage forums) forums want to see PoM as a trainable talent, but I don't really think that's viable. Tseric said some crap about "heretofore unseen mechanics" in regards to what we'd be getting, so really, it's all up in the air.

I await 12pm EST with bated breath.

Thanks for stopping by :D

Interesting, my thoughts are along similar lines. I really see the Arcane tree getting more of an overhaul than anything else. Here's my prognostication:

General
-Spell Tooltips will FINALLY display crit chance! (it will take 4 patches to display CORRECT crit chance, but here's hoping..)
-Retarded damage penalty for snare effects removed (pretty please?)

Arcane
- IAE reduced to a 3 point talent (from 5), or made instant from the get go.
- Evoc trainable at 20
- Arcane Subtelty made a 5 point talent (from 3) BUT it effects all schools
- Silence on CS made standard, ICS 2/2 talent that decreases cooldown
- Minor Shuffling of Arcane Tree that moves Arcane med to tier 2 and kills wand spec. replace wand spec with something new in tier 3(possible resist debuff visavis impact functionality?)

Fire
-Imp Fire blast changed to a 3 point talent (from 5)
-Burning Soul changed to a 2 point 100% talent (from 3/75%) wishful
- Imp Fire ward changed to a 2/2 talent that makes fireward add .5 resist/level per point spent on top of the normal damage absorbtion while the shield lasts. Example: level 60 mage with 2/2 IFW would recieve 60FR while fireward was active. (Shot in the dark, but would be fun no?)
-Unlink pyro from Imp Fireball (maybe)

Frost
-Frostbite changed to 3 point talent (from 5)
-Iceblock/Cold Snap swapped.
-Imp Frost ward changed in the same fashion described for Imp Fire Ward

Frost really isn't my strong suit, but that's what springs to mind.

[IllOne]

wtb working WoW forums

http://pc.ign.com/articles/704/704665p1.html

I'm not 100%, but I didn't do too badly!

Isn't the Arc Subtelty change a PvE nerf though?

[IllOne]

It can go either way, really.

The 50% threat reduction to critical spells isn't bad if you've got a lot of crit gear, but I think it's a far cry from what mages need to be effective.

I like a few of the changes in the frost tree, and arcane is almost completely worthless now. Fire seems to have some nice things in it, but I haven't really taken a big huge look at it. It seems they're trying to address survivability with that int-to-armor talent on the arcane tree and with the frost warding talent. Guess we'll see.

I'll probably keep relatively the same build, and use the extra points for the mana/mana regen stuff in arcane. Putting 5 points in Imp AE for 5% to crit makes me cringe, though. Other than that, I'd hope some of these changes aren't finite. Who knows though.

So here's my thoughts after having some time to digest:

-Arcane Tree got hosed. Tier 3 is basically empty now, and there's no reasn to waste 5 points there just to work up to ICS and Arc Med. AR is stupid, new IAE needs parity with it's other school AE brethern. No one wants to waste 5 points on a 2.5% damage increase on 1 spell, even a 0 cooldown instant. AS probably won't work with ignite (design blind spot) but otherwise it's ok although it's an overall nerf until there's enough crit in the game to make it really awesome, All this ends up leaving the arcane tree like an oreo someone stole the filling from.

- Fire got tightened up, so you can blaze through the tastiness in the tree and have room left over for some sequins and rhinestones for your robe.

- Frost is INSANE now, there isn't a single deadweight talent in the tree. I can honestly say I'm considering a 4/0/47 builds with very little hesitation. I like everything. If arcane is an oreo that had it's filling stolen, that same filling got added to this one to make it a Double Stuff.

Overall, I like the new talents, I like the freebies we got. I feel we got buffed, hooray, but what I wanted more than a buff was some parity between the trees, a reason to spec heavily in any tree, without needing to rely on 1. In my mind, the arcane tree is no longer healthy enough to attract healthy investment, BUT it could be with some very small tweaks to the tier 3 talents. Change AR to something decent, how bout 25% boost to mana gem, and IAE to somethign with a little more bite, and bam you've got 3 trees that will make mages happy for a long long time.

Blizz forums are worthless, and my account's inactive anyway, so I'll talk theorycraft here if you don't mind =P

[IllOne]

I'll wait to see the official talent trees until I decide how I'm gonna spec. Right now, it's looking like an elementalist hybrid. Shatter for all spells is stupid overpowered and will probably get nerfed, but it'll be fun while it lasts.

Probably. I'd trade old shatter for some love to tier 3 in the arcane tree really. Also tseric said pyro is now a prereq for blastwave not Imp flamestrike? I can't say I like the synergy there, but pyro sans Imp Fireball is intriguing. We'll see though.

the new site design isn't bad, but I'd suggest ditching the wow logo (unless it's temp till you get a Rage one up), and I'm getting a bit of a sizing issue in firefox. Meh, happens with phpbb though.

[IllOne]

It's a temp logo. Haven't really had the time to do up a new one and/or hook the forums up with the site I'm working on.

Far as this other stuff goes, Master of the Elements is gimper than previously thought. Mages had been theorizing that you could actually generate mana by critting with AoE and Tseric killed that blissful thought today with a post on the forums.

I'm probably going to stick to as close to my spec now as possible, I suppose. 28arc/23frost and just lose imp nova. Oh well.

New poly animals! Hooray for the patch!

4/0/47, come to the frosty side!

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/threa ... 918906&P=1 (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?FN=wow-mage&T=918906&P=1)

there's only one smiley appropriate for this :shock: awweesssommeeeeee

[IllOne]

Oh wow. The new changes are somewhat of a step in the right direction.

[Eyeless]

Frost Channeling - Ranks 3 - Requires 15 points in Frost Talents - Reduces the mana cost of your frost spells by 5/10/15% and reduces threat caused by Frost spells by 10/20/30%. edit added aggro reduction


# Ice Barrier - Ranks 1 - Requires 30 points in Frost Talents and 1 point in Ice Block 305 mana/instant/30 sec cooldown - Instantly shields you, absorbing 454 damage. Lasts 1 min. While the shield holds, spells will not be interrupted. Now stacks with PW: Shield and gains 10% of +Frost dmg gear. Absorb effects now prioritized over Mana Shield. edit added functionality

30% aggro reduction for mages ftw (also same thing with burning soul talent in the fire tree for fire spells, just too lazy to c/p)

and ice barrier looks semi-useful now that it will stack with other things, and get additional benefit from your +dmg. seams really useful for fights like c'thun, where you know you'll take some kind of damage durring the fight.

[IllOne]

Gonna be a lot of frost mages come patch.