Cool! I hope they suceed in turning AB into something we would use in our rotations with arcane barrage. Then arcane would be complete. It would be able to use AB, arcane barrage, and then AM on a proc. If so, we would finally reach a stage where all of the arcane spells are actively used instead of relying on just spamming one spell (be it AM or AB)!

And with the use of 3 spells, plus the power up arcane power, POM, etc. Arcane would be one of the most complex and fun specs to play in a raid.

it's going to be very mana efficient though. most likely something that will be important with the increases in spell cost, and something to back up aBar, AM w/ procs.

It's not such a nerf. Trading 66.7% dps for 45% dps + 45% dpm on a spell that is usually mana limited - sounds pretty reasonable.

As far as ramp-up goes it is a mixed blessing. It has the effect of "fixing" the stacking bug so you don't have to choose between losing a cast and ramping up in a rotation. On the other hand the actual AB casting time in the ramp is longer.

I'm skeptical about the 3 sec duration - that would actually make it impossible to stack without haste if you had any lag at all.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/talent/?mage

focus magic -- 11 point in arcane
1000 mana, instant cast
puts 50 charges on the target, +150 magic damage taken. lasts 1 min.

Actually, theres soo many changes I invite everyone to reread the talents.

Sounds like they read your mind, Alvira.

Can have a brief summaryof the changes please? My browser isn't able to show the talents on mmo champion. :X Can't wait! Focus magic is nice! Does that mean that other people also benefit from the charges since its put on the target rather than a buff to the mage?

It would get used up quite quickly in a raid situation. But then again, would make us more useful.

Arcane Subtlety - Now gives 30% dispel resistance on our spells rather than spell penetration. Threat reduction unchanged.

Arcane Fortitude - tier 2 talent, 3 ranks, 50% Int -> Armor per point

Magic Absorption - now only two points, only 2% mana return on resist

Spell Impact - Now increases damage of AB, AE, BW, Fire Blast, IL, and CoC by 6%.

Imp. Mana Shield now Arcane Shielding, also increases resistances from Mage Armor by 50%.

Imp. Blink reduces cost of Blink by 50% as well as 30% reduction to hit.

Prismatic CLoak 3 ranks, 6% less damage, 3s less Invisbility lead time

Arcane Potency - 2 ranks, now also gets crit bonus while PoM is active.

Empowered AM now Arcane Empowerment - Lose the mana increase on AM, and increases AB by 9% (looks like coefficient)

Arcane Flows affects ProM, Invisbility, and AP, 2 ranks, 60s.

Missile Barrage - AB can now proc it, halves time of AM (2.5s, 0.5s/cast).

And that's just the Arcane tree.

Brief highlights-

* Improved Scorch stacks 5 times for 10% increased damage for Frost, Fire, and Arcane.
* Focus Magic (as posted by Manly) +150 magic damage onto a target
* Empowered Arcane Missiles replaced by Arcane Empowerment -- no more mana increase on Arcane Missiles and 9% increased spell power on Arcane Blast
* Fire picks up some PvP stuff (reduced damage at low health, a 100% immunity to Silence/Interrupt at Tier 2!)
* Winter's Grasp is now Fingers of Frost -- 2/2 for 10% chance that the next spell you cast on the target is treated as if they were frozen
* Brain Freeze is now 3/3 for a 15% chance of instant cast Fireballs after a frost spell
* Improved Water Elemental is 3/3 for +15 seconds and healing the raid for 3% of their health every 5 seconds
* Deep Freeze now has an additional 1Kish damage, in addition to the stun

But you really gotta look at the total changes - there's a ton there, plus the reported changes to Arcane Blast.

Thanks! wow, I love the changes.

It actually gives you 1.5 second pyroblasts, pyros base cast time is down to 5 seconds on the calculator.

A couple pages back, but I do hope someone in the beta is relaying this feedback via the approved channels. Blizzard may pop in here from time to time, but nothing beats actually raising the issue via either an in-game bug report or a thread on the official beta forums.

I'll cover the fire tree:


First tier:

2/2 Improved Fire Blast: Reduces Fire Blast cooldown by 2 seconds.
3/3 Incineration: 6% more crit on Scorch, Fire Blast, Arcane Blast, and Cone of Cold.
5/5 Improved Fireball: Unchanged.

Second tier:

5/5 Ignite: Unchanged.
2/2 Burning Determination: When interrupted or silenced, immunity to both effects for next ten seconds.
3/3 World in Flames: 6% more crit on all AoE spells, except Frost Nova.

Third tier:

2/2 Flame Throwing: Unchanged
5/5 Impact: Unchanged
1/1 Pyroblast: 5 second cast now.
2/2 Burning Soul: Unchanged

Fourth tier:

3/3 Improved Scorch: 10% damage instead of 15%, but Arcane, Frost, and Fire damage.
2/2 Molten Shields: Unchanged.
3/3 Master of Elements: Includes Arcane spells now.

Fifth tier:

3/3 Playing with Fire: Unchanged.
3/3 Critical Mass: Unchanged.
1/1 Blast Wave: Now has knockback.

Sixth tier: Unchanged.

Seventh tier: Unchanged

Eighth tier:

2/2 Fiery Payback: When under 35% health, you take 20% less physical and fire damage, and Pyroblast cast time is reduced 3.5 seconds.
3/3 Empowered Fireball: Different amount of points, unchanged end effect.

Ninth tier:

3/3 Firestarter: 45% chance after using Blast Wave or Dragon's Breath for the next Flamestrike within 10 seconds to be instant cast. Needs Dragon's Breath as prerequisite.
1/1 Dragon's Breath: Upped to 5-second disorient.
3/3 Hot Streak: 3 crits in a row with any school means next spellcast (of any school) within 10 seconds will be crit.

Tenth tier:

5/5 Burnout: 25% more crit damage by fire spells, but critically striking means the spell costs an addition 5%. I don't know if they mean that only the Fire crits will cost 5% more mana or if any-school crits cost 5% more mana, even though they don't benefit from Burnout.

Eleventh tier:

1/1 Living Bomb: The highest rank reads "130 damage per 2 seconds to everyone in 10 yards, after 6 seconds, a fiery explosion occurs causing 520 fire damage to all enemies in 10 yards and burning 260 mana, dealing damage equal to the amount drained.




Edit: Missed MoE change.

I would contend that, with Scorch now buffing Arcane damage by 10% and the T1 fire talent giving Arcane Blast a +6% crit chance, the best spec would be Arc/Fire like this?

The latest mage talents are a complete and tremendous departure from anything we've seen yet. Arcane missiles now offers excellent DPM with high spell power values, Arcane Blast now gets a total of +6% crit, a 1.166x multiple to total damage dealt (with imp Scorch up), up to 1.6907x with a triple buff stacked, and an 80.43% coefficient. I believe it is now viable as a primary nuke, while retaining its 'mana juggling' property.

I envisage arcane rotations along the following lines :

Mana Conservation : 'Scorch x5', 'then ABarr -> AB -> ABarr -> AM -> repeat'

Replace one AM with 'Scorch -> Fireblast' once the Scorch buff is low. Missile Barrage would automatically weave into your rotation, simply replacing the AM cast without leaving you with downtime on ABarr.

Max DPS : 'Scorch x5', 'then ABarr -> AB -> repeat'

Replace one AM with 'Scorch -> Fireblast' once the Scorch buff is low. Replace ABarr with AM when Missile Barrage procs. (Thought about replacing an AB, but since the buff is only 3s long now, the buff would drop off before you could AB again.

Small quibble on Master of Elements. It now gives back 30% mana on all spell crits (including Arcane).

This might have some implications for Arcane mages, as AM has only a 16.8% chance of not proccing this, assuming a 30% crit rate.

Also, if this 30% refund is on the inflated cost of AB, this might point to a way to create a sustainable AB spam.

Edit: Fortris, did you mean a build like this? I think you linked to the build I posted.

New Finger of Frost sucks. Only one spell..no synergy with Death Knights, no Ice Lance...so Frost raiding is just FB, FB, forever.

I hope they continue to look at this.

Seriously, I am somewhat amazed by the sheer amount of mage changes. Unfortunately burnout is STILL half of what spell power does, which really leaves much to be desired.

2/2 Fiery Payback: When under 35% health, you take 20% less physical and fire damage, and Pyroblast cast time is reduced 3.5 seconds.
Best talent ever. Start the fight at 34% HP, never heal manly, enjoy 1.5s pyroblast spam.

"Sometimes in Raids there is Fire. You must not be in it.*

*Unless you are a mage with Fiery Payback, in which case go for it.

Alright, time to item restore my [Skull of Impending Doom].
Also, need to find a good way to lose an extra 5% hp.

--- edit: actually thats easy, remove some piece of gear, and put your gear back on.

Frost:

Tier 1: Unchanged
Tier 2: Unchanged
Tier 3: Unchanged
Tier 4: Unchanged
Tier 5: Unchanged
Tier 6: Unchanged

Tier 7: Added Shattered Barrier

* Shattered Barrier - 2/2 - Gives a 100% chance to cast a Frost Nova when Ice Barrier is destroyed (Prereq of Ice Barrier)

Tier 8: Winter's Grasp has been replaced by Fingers of Frost

* Fingers of Frost - 2/2 - Gives your Frost damage spells a 10% chance to apply the Fingers of Frost effect, which treats your next Frost spell cast on the target as if the target were Frozen.

Tier 9:

* Brain Freeze - 3/3 - Your frost damage spells have a 15% chance to cause your next Fireball spell to be instant cast and cost no mana.

* Improved Water Elemental - 3/3 Increases duration of your Summon Water Elemental by 15 seconds and your Water Elemental heals all raid members by 3% of their total health every 5 seconds.

Tier 10:

Chilled to the Bone - 5/5 - Also increases Frostfire Bolt's damage by 5%.

Tier 11:

* Deep Freeze - 1/1 - Rank 4 Causes 1319-1531 damage and stuns the target for 5 seconds. Only usable on frozen targets.

--------------------------

Improved Water Elemental is here to ruin your plans manly.

That i did, my apologies, not particularly familiar with the MMO Champion talent calc. Original post corrected.

The only difference between the (updated) one i suggest and the one you propose above, is i take the 3 points out of Pyroblast and Burning Soul, and put them into World In Flames. 6% +crit on Arcane Explosion seems to me like a greater investment for raid use, than getting Pyro so you can PoM it once per 3 minutes, and taking Burning Soul so that the one Scorch you cast every ~30s cant get pushback.

Fortris: Oh, that's certainly viable. I guess I'm still in the case of immediately seeing 'threat reducer' and take it... and for one talent point, Pyroblast is probably the best other investment.

I'm sort of bummed that this build still can't get Magic Absorption. That seems like such a fun talent, and yet there never seems to be room in the build for it.

Edit: A request when it's possible. I'd like to know whether or not each AM pulse eats a charge of Focus Magic.

Edit2: Very true. It's rather annoying that there's very little in the Frost tree for Arcane mages now, apart from Icy Veins. We have 6 points in Fire that directly contribute to Arcane damage in Incineration and World in Flames.

It seems very likely that Icy Veins is more or less 11 points just for that. (Elemental Precision is ironically 'better' for Fire/Arcane since it buffs a spell they'll actually cast rather often--Scorch.)

It'd be nice to see some tier1 or 2 benefits for arcane in the frost tree.

Imp Scorch affects everyone attacking the target, so in a raid situation with multiple mages, only one need take it, meaning that the other Arcane mages could take a build much like this, leaving you 10 remaining talent points to put wheresoever you desire.

In fact, i would suggest that the above would be the defacto Arcane base build, 53/8/0+10, so long as at least one of the mages involved spends the +10 on getting Imp Scorch.