Infraction for Doroteasenjk: 4. Whining in any form is forbidden.

• Chicken · 04/13/10, 5:47 AM

Post: Cataclysm Mage Changes
User: Doroteasenjk
Infraction: 4. Whining in any form is forbidden.
Points: 1

Administrative Note:

Message to User:

I'm sure this will shock and disgust you further.

Original Post:

I have recovered from some of my initial shock and disgust -- mages become more like warlocks as warlocks become more like mages, to their mutual distaste.

Flame Orb has to be high damage/long CD to be worth including in any rotation. I couldn't see it being used in anything other than a fire rotation, although Deathfrost might encourage its use.

Time Warp Again -- Assuming that Blizzard actually made a typo about the passive Haste effect, and that the raid gets a 30% boost to melee, ranged and spell cast speed, then its nice to have this tool in the shamage's arsenal. If it's a 30% movement speed buff for the mage, it tends to say something about the kinds of fights in Cataclysm. I know that my DPS drops disproportionately when I have to move, so I may not have as much to contribute for DPS to my guild in the future.

Mana Adept -- I cannot grasp how this will work. 10% more damage with a full tank? 3%? 1.4%? Note that Evocation reduces our damage per second by 2-3% on a stand and nuke fight. This combined with the movement speed thing suggests that fights in Cataclysm will be bursty, fight for a few seconds followed by running, regen when you can affairs. Again, I don't hold out much hope of me surviving the cut in Cataclysm.

Arcane Focus -- this is a goofy change, for several reasons, better articulated elsewhere.

PvP focus: more spells and talents for PvP. yay. I tend to dislike PvP with a passion, doing it only when required for certain achievements -- it feels like cleaning out the P-trap in the bathroom, something necessary but distasteful. Playing With Fire is only useful for Fire specs that have Blast Wave and you get hit by melee -- since this does not happen in raids, at least where the mage survives ...

Pyromaniac -- hmm. You have 8 casts of LB before you have to start reapplying it. After the 3rd one, or perhaps the 4th, you get some haste, allowing you to apply 8.2 casts before you have to start reapplying it. Again, primarily for PvP and clearing trash.

Wall of Fog -- personally, I see lots of dead mages trying to use this in instance and raid encounters. Maybe it would work on murlocs ...

The good: mage food-water scales and isn't introduced until it makes a difference. It makes more sense than today's confused mangle of refreshments. Similarly, no spell ranks. However, these are quality-of-life things that aren't specific to the mage.

While I am no longer shocked and disgusted, I can say, sincerely, that I am underwhelmed and saddened.