PTR 2.4.3

# Curse of Shadows: This spell has been removed.
# Curse of Elements: This spell now applies to Arcane and Shadow damage, as well as Frost and Fire.

World of Raids | PTR 2.4.3 - Patch Notes

Hell yes!

Patch 2.4.3 note:
"Equipping an item will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress."

Unfortunately it seems this kill the aforementioned tactic of s4 dagger of alacrity + evocation (227 haste). It will reduce the channeling time of a 9.5 Evocation by 1.2. That's around the gcd. So pretty much there's zero gain. Shame really, I was too eager to try that.

(For Arcane users who use an int weapon while Evocating it's of course a nerf as well.)

Edit- An unconstructive QQ, but while merging sounded nice for the Xpack, but currently it just adds another CoDing lock I ll never beat. It's still a very welcomed buff though, Malediction giving 3% to mages might make Affliction viable in Sunwell.

Also in the 2.4.3 patch notes... Swapping weapons cancels any spell that's being cast. So no more swapping evocation weapons right after casting Evocate. You can still swap them after casting an instant, like Fireblast right before and after an evocate, but that's harder to handle, and a DPS loss maybe.

You can still fireblast or use drums then swap weapons while on gcd.

Well we'll have to see if they change the mechanic of weapon swapping altogether. Lets hope not.

A blast seems OK, but that makes us the new shadow priests. Being at scorch range is enough of annoyance already , to me at least. So its 1.2 seconds of more DPS vs being in Fblast range. Unnecessary husle.

Did anyone hear anything about drums nerf?I heard something about drums giving you a 2minutes debuff that makes you "unable to hear any drums".If so tailoring/enchanting becomes top prof's again ! ;-)

This is supposed to happen in WotLK, not in the upcoming patch. Same thing will happen to bloodlust, to prevent chain-lusting.

Kinda happy to hear about the Bloodlust chain.. But aren't totems and chain-heal alone enough to have a shaman in ever group?

Tank group:
Shaman buffs tanks' threat
Melee group:
enh shaman buffs melee dps via totem twisting
Hunter group:
Resto shaman provides agi totem and mana tide for group
Caster group:
100 more spell damage and mana tide
healer group:
100 more spell damage on mana tide

With VT being nerfed and priests getting a CD on CoH it makes shamans of the resto variety that much more useful. An enh shammie is sort of the backbone of a melee group. The only group you could possibly not use a shaman in is the tank group but again your tanks get threat/mitigation from the agi totem and unless they seriously reduce the amount of raid damage in WotLK you will really want 3+ resto shamans per raid.

I tested this on the PTR; I am assuming the current code on the PTR has this effect.

I started Evocate, switched my int weapon in, finished Evocate about 6 seconds later, and swapped my weapon out. No difference that I could see. I also did this same process in combat to see if that made a difference; it did not.

I did not use Outfitter and its automatic switching to achieve this, so there is more to test. Similarly, I didn't check the actual amount of mana returned by Evocate.

IOW, swapping weapons does not cancel Evocate.

It is possible the mechanic hasn't been coded correctly yet to include channeled spells. Try it with a normal cast one, like pyro. The main onus, as I understand, is to stop paladins libram-switching to get multiple benefits.

Though I can't say I'm sad we'll lose the bullshit-o-matic weapon-swap mechanic that stunk of bad design and mechanics abuse from a million miles away.

It's actually not that bad number-wise, but it has some issues:
1) CSD is still more raw DPS.
2) The proc used to be bugged to only last 4 seconds instead of 6 (still 4s in wowhead, not sure what is correct, EU PTR is not up).
3) CSD is static, while MSD is a haste proc that may ore may not mess up your rotations.*

4) "Requires more blue than yellow gems." That means you can't socket hit in early gear levels, can't socket int when going T5Arcane, can't socket haste in later gear levels.

If 2 was fixed, 4 was scrapped and I had 0 blue sockets in my gear (where I get the bonus from socketing 2 green/purple gems for the MSD requirement), then MSD and CSD should be around on par for fire spec in my BT/SP gear mix.
And personally, I'd still chose CSD beecause of 3, unless MSD becomes more than just a sidegrade to the other meta(s).


P.S.: I changed MSD in the proc/cooldown thread a while ago. Re-edited to confirm today.

Edit: 3)* True, rotations have been dead for a while, I was thinking of the "old days". It may still mess with your rhythm of casting if you don't G15/AHK or may make you delay a scorch until the proc has expired (if your GCD is capped already).
It's just that I'd prefer a static mechanic or anything really over a haste proc.

While I agree that CSD is the better pve choice I'm not really sure what your talking about with "rotations". Fire and frost are just spamming and arcane is ramp up then AB spam uptime maximization none of which is hurt in any way by having MSD proc. Maybe you meant c/d rotations in which case it's never really bad, just either mediocre or occasionally excellent if it coincides nicely with your other c/d stacking, personally though I'd rather leave the RNG out of as many buffs as I can if given a choice.

I think ultimately there is a much bigger problem for MSD. The more haste you stack, the more it sucks. Maybe if spell haste affected internal cooldowns then I could consider it a viable choice.

You say this as though "AB maximization" is not a feedback-controlled cycle. Often you'll want to drop your AB and a proc then will (1) cost you more mana when you want to economize (2) not be optimal, because you're not spamming your best output spell (3) induce more casts until you drop AB.

It's inconvenient all-round and annoying. As arcane, there is little reason to ever use MSD, even assuming the soecket req wasn't shit and the proc wasn't bugged.

I too, copied my mage to the PTR and did a test using evocation. I wanted to see the impact of this change on my macro for evocation. The macro I use at the moment is thus:

/cast Evocation
/equip Amani Divining Staff
/equip Carved Witch Doctor's Stick
/equip Wub's Cursed Hexblade
/equip Chronicle of Dark Secrets
/equip The Black Stalk

As it is on the live realms, I hit my macro once and it starts to channel evocation. While the GCD is still going on it also equips my large intellect weapons. The staff and the badge wand are gemmed with 10 int gems and a +30 int enchant on the staff. The game acknowledges the larger mana pool and as such I can pull off 85-95% mana back vs the 75% T6 bonus with no weapon swap gives. While in mid channel I can hit the macro again and it won't interrupt my Evo but, will requip my DPS weapons.

As it is on the PTR since I copied and re-made my macro, it still works the exact same way. As Pintofbrew said though, channeled spells may still not be encoded into it yet.

Edit: In the middle of writing this, I logged back in to do some more testing also using Polymorph and Arcane Missles. First I retested my Evocation macro and also manually swapped weapons mid channel. Evocation was not interrupted. I then specced for 5/5 Improved Arcane Missles and declared war on Cenarion Circle to use the representative in Orgrimmar as a practice dummy. Once again while casting a channeled spell, swapping my weapons did not interrupt the cast. I then polyed the NPC. While he was running about my feet as a sheep I started to cast another poly and swapped my weapon. I did this 3 more times and every time I did it interrupted my cast. So I can confirm this new mechanic is in the game on the PTR and that at this time it DOES NOT apply to channeled spells.

On this note are there any specific weapons I should use for evocation swapping?

I use [Rod of the Blazing Light] with 3x[Brilliant Dawnstone] and Major Intellect for a total of 86 intellect.

Here is a list of other weapons that would provide more intellect. (two from the second ZA chest, one from DLK, two from Sunwell)

This weapon can also be close to the best innervate weapon in the game (I think Kil'jaeden has better: [Golden Staff of the Sin'dorei]) if gemmed/enchanted for spirit instead. (I'll do that with the next one I get - though this change, even if channeled spells are not included in it, will make innervate swapping pretty difficult too)

I have been using [Staff of Infinite Mysteries] with Major Intellect as mine, 6 int less, but I think more than a few mages might have this lying around in their bank somewhere. I know mine was languishing in the bank until I put together my Evocation Macro.

You want to maximise Intellect for Evocation, but I guess you kind of knew that.
The other stats (spi/mp5) have a very minor effect, less than 1/10 of intellect.

What to use? Use some database and order by intellect. Like this:
Weapons - Items - World of Warcraft

[Amani Divining Staff] seems to be a standard choice for BT/SW raiders. Drops on bear runs and isn't much wanted by other classes. The healing staff is the same, so you have 2 chances in one chest.

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Yep, I used to use that staff too. It's also handy for tanking Krosh. Though these days badge weapon + badge off hand has more stamina (& I use them anyway), and the Mr. T staff has a touch more int (& looks more different/interesting.. I was staring at Infinite Mysteries for /so/ long before I got a good MH weapon that I was more than happy to DE it given the chance).

Ah that's good to hear. I have the amani staff sitting in the bank currently. I'll work on gemming that up. Thanks for the replies.