So there is all this information oozing out all over the internets about the patch, and since the other classes aren't really my priority, we'll look at the really important stuff. First off, let's look a little at what information is different from what we originally knew about the patch and how it related to mages. We knew we had a new spell coming, that the damage coefficient was being "obliterated" as Drysc said, and that we would see changes to Arcane Meditation and Ice Barrier. This is what we know now:
- Arcane Intellect and Arcane Brilliance mana costs reduced.
- Arcane Meditation (Arcane) increased to 10/20/30% mana regeneration.
- Detect Magic removed. All players may now see their target's beneficial effects at all times.
- Evocation now regenerates 15% of total mana every 2 seconds rather than increase Spirit based regeneration.
- Fire Ward and Frost Ward now gain additional benefit from spell damage bonuses. Base absorb values of ranks 5 and 6 have been reduced.
- Hypothermia duration increased to 45 sec.
- Ice Barrier now gains additional benefit from spell damage bonuses. Base absorb values of ranks 5 and 6 have been reduced.
- Improved Fireball: The reduction in damage coefficient caused by this talent has been removed.
- Improved Frostbolt: The reduction in damage coefficient caused by this talent has been removed.
- Polymorph: It is no longer possible to polymorph a player and have that player remain mounted. In addition, it will now always be removed correctly if multiple Mages overwrite each other's Polymorph.
- Portal Spells: Portal spells to capital cities can no longer be cast in battlegrounds.
- Remove Curse range increased to 40 yards.
- (NEW SPELL) Ritual of Refreshment available on trainers at level 70.
First let's look at what we're losing. Detect Magic is going the way of the dodo and 8-tracks, and instead all players will be able to see the buffs on a target. This particular news has left me pretty cold since I haven't used that spell since Molten Core, but I did like the pretty graphic on my bar. Maybe I will use it for a macro in the future. We are losing some mana cost as well, specifically on Arcane Intellect and Arcane Brilliance, meaning a mage might be able to cast AB on three groups in a raid before having to drink instead of two. I'm going to keep my eye on this one, because as nice as a cheaper spell is, I'm not sure exactly what "reduced" entails.
We will also be losing our damage tax, finally, from the Improved Frostbolt and Fireball talents. I cannot overemphasize how huge this is. We are no longer going to be punished for taking these talents. The next thing on the list that caught my eye is the loss of portals in battlegrounds. No longer will you be able to port the group out to Orgrimmar after the battle concludes. In addition you will no longer be able to Polymorph a player and have a pig riding a kodo. This is saddening to me, mostly because I never saw it happen. I guess I have a couple weeks to get in my sheeping of mounted players before it goes bye-bye.
Now let's take a look at what we are gaining. It's the biggest news, so let's start with the Ritual of Refreshment. Mages are receiving a trainable spell at level 70 that will allow you to summon an adorable little feast table from which players in your party can grab what is known as a Conjured Manna Biscuit. It's not exactly from heaven, but it does restore 7500 health and 7200 mana when eaten. I still haven't seen anything that tells us if there will be a reagent required for this (simple flour perhaps?), and if you have let us know.
We are gaining spell damage bonuses with Fire and Frost ward. These handy little armor spells will now help mages with the two preferred schools of magic. Evocation, which recently got a graphic upgrade, will now restore 15% of your total mana every 2 seconds rather than being based on your Spirit statistic. This means no longer will you need to Outfitter a special mana conjuring outfit just to get the most punch out of the spell.
Honestly I see this as mixed news. After all, we are promised changes to the spirit stat in the future. If they add a spell damage component to Spirit there is a slight possibility of it being a viable stat for mages, in which case those who have stacked on huge amounts of the stuff in the future would receive no additional bonus to their Evocation. Seeing as how we don't know exactly where Spirit will end up, I suppose having the spell based upon a stat that is easily identifiable makes a certain amount of sense. I guess I just wonder if changing this spell isn't jumping the gun a bit, or if it is a sign that even the new Spirit attribute will be of little benefit to mages.
I am happy to see that Arcane Meditation is getting some more power. Perhaps this will keep me POM Pyro longer. We shall have to see on that one. I still have a bone to pick with the developers on the obvious bias toward the other two trees. Where is the Elixir of Greater Arcane Power for instance, or the Arcane Ward no less? No soapbox here, I just wonder why they insist that Arcane is intended as a viable spec without supporting it with the itemization necessary to do so?
I notice that mages are still too dominant in PvP, so Frost Mages will now gain 15 more seconds of Hypothermia before they can recast their Ice Block. I find it odd, this news, when you couple it with the buff that Ice Barrier is receiving. Does this mean that mages are destined to be glass cannons no matter which spec they choose? Or maybe it's just coincidence that both defensive spells are being modified.
When I look back on it, there are more changes to the class than I expected. There are a few I don't agree with, a few that look more like bug fixes than anything else, and a few that make me leap for joy. Which is your favorite change in Patch 2.3, and more importantly, what do you think mages are still missing?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-15-2007 @ 5:18PM
Mike Hunt said...
All the fixes to druids to solve our pvp problems and feral range bug, those fixes really fixed our main sore point...
Wait...
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10-15-2007 @ 5:20PM
Jarrg said...
the reagent is a rune of portals.
Reply
10-15-2007 @ 5:24PM
Justin said...
Girl Meets Wow (http://girlmeetswow.blogspot.com/2007/10/ritual-of-refreshment-details.html)has confirmed that it is one Rune of Portals.
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10-15-2007 @ 5:24PM
lukian said...
Learn to read comments:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=34062#comments
Direct link to spell: http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=43987
Summary: "The Ritual of Refreshment requires a Rune of Portals".
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10-15-2007 @ 5:26PM
Seperioth said...
The Iceblock thing i was never worried about when I read it.. if you ice block once.. and you have to iceblock again within 45 seconds.. chances are your dead once oyur out of iceblock :p
So if its any higher then 45 seconds then we iwll probably be yelling.. but its fine as is right now IMO.
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10-15-2007 @ 5:27PM
Paul said...
Damage tax gone FTW.
// QQ on..
Dropping flag in battle ground gives 3 second debuff? FTL
Oh how I loved Ice Blocking, Removing it and picking back up the flag! A little risky but kinda fun! It made us somewhat viable flag runners! I guess not so much anymore. Why does it seem this debuff punishes the people that were SEMI-GOOD for flag running. What's the point in that?
Hunter's dead zone being removed (not sure if this patch)? FTL
I rem having to deal with big red pets chewing me up on low level battlegrounds. What skill that must have taken to hit 1 button for an easy kill. The only saving grace was landing a frost nova on hunter and non bw'ed pet and get some shots off in dead zone. I'm kinda meh on this one.
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10-15-2007 @ 5:28PM
lukian said...
Arcane Brilliance:
Reduced from 4160 mana to 1800 mana.
Means you should be able to easily buff 5 groups (for 25 man raids).
Link: http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=27127#comments:id=168770
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10-15-2007 @ 5:50PM
Matthew Rossi said...
Personally, if you're going to be doing more damage than ever, you can live with hunters having no dead zone. No more mages standing there casting spells at a frozen in place hunter who can't shoot back sounds fair to me.
No, I don't play hunters ever.
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10-15-2007 @ 6:12PM
Fizzl said...
Does anyone know what the new formula for frostbolt/fireball will be?
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10-15-2007 @ 6:18PM
bakatrinh said...
Reason why they remove detect magic is because mages apply it to pvp targets right after they poly them. Paladins would have to cleanse twice to remove the poly.
This is basically another nerf to mages, though not a big one because priest can dispel two magic per cast.
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10-15-2007 @ 6:19PM
Quixote said...
I can no longer hold my tongue, because this is just getting absolutely ridiculous.
Does it happen to bother anyone else with the ENDLESS number of posts recently that are poorly researched. It's repetitive, mindless drivel mashed together, incompletely at that, from other sources with no real added benefit. It's all sourced elsewhere and hard facts are CONSTANTLY missing even though the answers are readily available with even minimal effort. Why?
Why is everything reported on as, "We sure don't know this. And boy I wonder what that will do?" How about if you just go and use the factual resources out there or god forbid actually USE the PTR and test client and actually deliver the answers rather than questions that many can answer in mere seconds.
Wowinsider and it's pay-per-post flooding of uninformative articles FT(huge)L. RSS feed unsubscribe. How low is it to post about leaving a blog? I'm sure much worse than posting about leaving the game of which the blog is about.
I will expect to pay my penance soon.
/rant off
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10-15-2007 @ 6:40PM
Samus said...
The change to portals in BGs was because Mages would open one up during prep time, pretend it's a Soulwell and say "click, plz." Dopey players that do click thinking they'll get a Healthstone out of the deal get booted from the BG into whatever city, and hit with the "Deserter" debuff.
Other than that, is it just me or are Mages getting far less substantial changes than other classes in 2.3? I don't see anything here that would make you change the way you play with any spec of Mage.
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10-15-2007 @ 6:44PM
dagburnit said...
Quixote:
I agree I came here to more or less say the same thing only maybe a touch nicer. I don't see the point in this "article" other than to wake up a few mages that are hiding under a rock or possibly get the community to answer the questions and create dialogue.
And just a side note it was mentioned in this article they don't have an "Elixir of Greater Arcane Power" however a flask called "Flask of Blinding Light" which gives +80 arcane damage and the mats are very cheap if you consider it stays with you through death for 2 hours. I prefer the "Flask of Pure Death" myself being a fire mage, but thought I would make sure folks are aware of them both. These were both added in 2.2 replacing other less useful flasks.
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10-15-2007 @ 6:44PM
Diaz said...
@6. QQ elsewhere. Hunter deadzone removal is a 'maybe' and isn't even this patch IF it ever happens.
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10-15-2007 @ 6:59PM
Melenor said...
@11/13: Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. I learned nothing from this article except that the writer has a decent ability to BS what they're talking about by summarizing the patch notes in long-winded paragraphs filled with fluff. I learned more from the comments linking to WoWhead spell information than from the article itself.
For example: "I'm not exactly sure what 'reduced' entails." Well why not? It's on WoWhead, as well as other resource sites, so why haven't you even bothered? You could have at least done a test character transfer once you heard 2.3 hit the realms. Or do you still have no plans to do so, and report by mere hearsay?
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10-15-2007 @ 7:09PM
Angry Joe said...
You are missing 2 important changes:
- a change to /stopcasting
- a change to some loved meta gem. Sorry arcane fellows.
" Evocation, which recently got a graphic upgrade, will now restore 15% of your total mana every 2 seconds rather than being based on your Spirit statistic. This means no longer will you need to Outfitter a special mana conjuring outfit just to get the most punch out of the spell."
Not true, you'll just switch to intellect instead of spirit.
"I notice that mages are still too dominant in PvP"
Hmmmm, no. Pretty much the opposite.
All in all, a very late and uninformative article.
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10-15-2007 @ 7:53PM
Anonym said...
agree with 11 & 13. PLEASE replace the writer of "Arcane Brilliance" his game knowledge is trivial at best.
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10-15-2007 @ 8:02PM
Rudi said...
This article needs to be done by someone who does more than read the patch notes. Can't you find somebody who can spend an hour a week reading the Elitist Jerks mage threads and churn out a summary of what they read there? That would be vastly more informative than this rehash of the patch notes.
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10-15-2007 @ 8:58PM
scrantinax said...
I have to agree with the comments about the lacking author of this article. Most of the missing information about the spells and abilities were already posted in links previously on this site, most notably the links to worldofraids and mmo-champion. It would take at most 10 minutes to read the front page of those two sites and get all the information you would need for this article. Or even a quick glance through wowhead yields this information.
Wowinsider does have a purpose for those who do not hunt all the wow sites for every scrap of information and like it presented in a nice easy blog/rss format, but the people who write the articles should atleast do basic research.
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10-15-2007 @ 8:58PM
simplehiker said...
Get someone to write that knows what the heck they are talking about. This is crap, and this isn't the first time what WOWI needs is an EDITOR who actually does their job.
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