(I've edited the original post to remove the inaccuracies around the attack speed - this indeed did not adjust melee attack speed even though it does fool around with animations a little)

So as a test in the old "nobody likes it, so I'll try it to see if they're all just missing out" school of thought, I switched my spec from trusty 0/54/7 to 41/17/3. Slow, regardless of what you may read from the thottbot description, has the following effects:

627 mana cost with Arcane Mind
15 second duration, instant cast, only on one target at a time
Reduces ranged attack speed , cast speed, and movement speed by 50%.

It is applied last, so it ends up being a double multiplier. If a target has Curse of Tongues on it and you Slow them, they are doubly slowed and take around four times as long to cast. If a creature isn't immune to Arcane Magic for the most part, it is vulnerable to Slow. This includes Raid Bosses and Horrible Trash. So far I've slowed Doomwalker, random trash in Serpentshrine, everything in some Heroics from start to finish, and Instructor Razuvious ('cause there was a raid ongoing to jump into for some odd reason on Sunday). I only just switched the spec around yesterday, but it is amazing to see that everything is vulnerable to it - it is ruthlessly effective (which somewhat justifies the large cost).

Tonight, my guild will be doing Magtheridon and maybe some Serpentshrine afterwards, so I'll be testing this out aggressively, but on Magtheridon at least, you can immediately see the use in Phase 1 (which is really the hardest part of the fight; once you're in the latter parts you're all set assuming nobody who is clicking disconnects) - slowing the cast time and attack speed of the Channelers; this buys a longer window for countering and mitigates half the melee damage (or more accurately, delays it). With current raid gear, I can keep this up for quite a while:
http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/#c...efiend&n=Groat
I'll post back with results I find from this, but so far, Slow seems to be amazing (unlike what I was expecting).

Is there anyone out there who has actually tried it in a current raid setting?

It is applied after Thunderclap - i.e. if something can be slowed by Thunderfury or Thunderclap (everything) it can be slowed by Slow further.

Like Cel said, have you confirmed Slow and Tongues stack by using it on a player and a mob? Does it really slow melee attack speed after Thunderclap?


Arcane Mind (I believe that is the more int talent), should not affect slow's mana cost since it says it isbased on base int.

I've seen it put on the blood elf dragony things (the big ones that mana burn/charge) in TK, and it had no (visible) effects. We watched it's attack speed without it on, and then we watched it with it on. Didn't seem to do a damned thing.

I believe that, as Cel said, it doesn't do anything but take up a debuff slot on non-casting mobs, and will slow their cast if vulnerable (very useful on things like Mag trash if it does work, possibly doesn't stack with CoT/Mind Numbing).

And yes, arcane mind will do nothing to the cost, it's based on base manapool like decurse/poison/dispel/shapeshifting.

I looked up the actual spell data that thottbot data mined: http://www.thottbot.com/s31589

If I understand it correctly, it only affects movement speed, casting speed, and ranged attack speed. It doesn't affect melee attack speed. Still, 3 out of 4 isn't bad. Seems great on any boss that casts spells.

Arcane Mind adjusts your base mana pool for how it is calculated (if you have it, your cost for Blink, Slow, Spellsteal, and your buffs increase as they are pegged to it) - and yes, we stacked both CoT and Slow onto players and the casters in Heroic Blood Furnace (slowest Summon attempt / shadowbolt / fireballs ever). Melee is slowed - they get a 50% slower animation, so it ends up looking silly watching them swing - and yes, I tried that on Razuvious in addition to every single creature in Heroic Blood Furnace, and a bunch of people in PVP.

You know the horrible pulls right at the end of the Blood Furnace before the boss? With slow, you could kite the demons to death and again, their swing timer was halved by slow. It is brutally effective.

(All right, again, I was basing this off the animation for the attack speed - it adjusts the swing animation in some cases, but that wasn't adjusting the actual attack speed for melee attacks - that was inaccurate)

From http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=1953 ->

I have never seen any ability that is a % of base mana that increases with a talent increasing int.

All mage buffs are also direct mana cost, not linked to base mana pool.

Sorry to say it, but you're digging yourself into a hole here.

I love it in Heroics, I'd probably like in PvP if I did that more often. Kinda kicking myself for never busting it out on Magtheridon, though. Certainly it would be a great help during phase 1.

I use it during the Aran encounter, but just on a Water Elemental. I could not keep it up the entire time, that's for sure. I can't see it being too beneficial for Prince. I've not yet been subjected to SSC or TK trash, I can't comment there.

I would really like to see a parse that shows the melee attack speed being reduced. If I recall correctly, Slow did in fact, use to decrease melee attack speed, but it was changed to not affect it before the end of TBC Beta.

Not trying to start a fight or anything, but I already explicitly stated that I understand what is listed on the Thottbot Entry - I've been testing it in game myself, not trying to "dig myself into a hole"; also, the mana cost for Blink, Spellsteal, Slow, Arcane Brilliance (and self buff) all increased as a result of taking the talent. Bug? Possibly - but that's how the game functions right now. Yes, Dampen and Amplify are Static - those other spells are modified. It is a side issue and doesn't matter though - that wasn't even part of the discussion - if you want, I can be completely wrong about mana costs - doesn't matter to me too much - the discussion is on Slow.

Regardless, I'll post back with results of this in actual raiding tonight.

Dukes - it doesn't matter - that isn't the subject in the first place; this is talking about Slow. Great, the mana costs don't change after all for blink. Super great. That's a side issue and doesn't matter with regards to the effectiveness of Slow in a Raid Environment. As I said before, I'll observe how effectively it actually works in practice on several raids.