Ok, let's try to look at the Mage changes posted here in an objective way. They seem very realistic, and I won't be surprised at all if they are true.
Patchnotes said:
- Evocation trainable at lvl 20.
Excellent change.
Patchnotes said:
- Arcane explosion instant without talents, talent removed.
Another excellent change. Will make Fire/Frost builds much more usable. Almost all PvE heavy mages have at least 15 points in Arcane now, to get the instant Arcane Explosion.
Patchnotes said:
- Mana shield redesigned, now reduces damage taken by the mage, but has a 30 charge limit. While mana shield is up, mage is not affected by mana burn or mana drain, but those attacks will destroy mana shield very fast.
Interesting change. How good it is really depends on how much each attack that hits you is reduced.
Patchnotes said:
- Frost chills will now suffer from the 15 second diminishing effects.
Ouch. Whether you call this a bugfix or a nerf, it's obviously bad for mages. No more chain Frostbolting to kite level 61 elites with 40k health.
Patchnotes said:
- Frost spells will now correctly receive damage bonus from curse of elements.
Oh, they fixed this again? :?
Patchnotes said:
- Lower ranks of polymorph will not affect higher level targets.
Sounds like a bugfix to me. Not really relevant.
Patchnotes said:
- Counterspell cooldown lowered.
By how much? It's 30 seconds now. Anyway, good for Mages, obviously.
Patchnotes said:
- Flamestrike direct damage increased, DoT lowered, total damage remains the same.
A small improvement, I guess. I'd rather have seen a reduction in casting time combined with the addition of a cooldown on this spell.
Patchnotes said:
- Arcane power now creates a cooldown equal to its duration, preventing it from being used together with trinkets like ToEP and
ZHC.
Another bugfix/nerf. Obviously bad for Mages. This change makes my cry :cry: I was having so much fun, 2-Maging Scholo, but this change will make that much, much harder.
Patchnotes said:
- Dampen Magic and Amplify magic now will decrease or increase magic and healing effects by percentage.
Good! Depending on the percentage, this might actually make an almost completely useless spell somewhat useful.
On the other hand, the fixed amount of reduction was pretty nice on for example Chromaggus, where it reduced the damage of each tick to 1. DM won't be as effective there anymore.
Patchnotes said:
- Detect magic duration increased.
"Yay" :| From 60 seconds to 90 seconds or something?
Patchnotes said:
- Ice armor wow reduces all physical damage taken, increases frost resistance, and reduces damage taken from frost spells. While ice armor is in effect, chill effects on the mage is reduced, all melee
attacks against the mage will cause the attacker's attack and movement
speed to be reduced.
A nice buff to Ice Armor. Wonder if the physical damage reduction is better or worse than the current armor increase.
Patchnotes said:
- Mage armor now reduces all spell damage received, increases all magic resistances. While mage armor is up, all hostile spells have a chance to be reflected. Mage armor can't be dispelled or purged.
This sounds even better than the current mana regeneration, which doesn't really fit mages anyway. Especially with Evocation being a non-talent spell, this is a nice buff.
Patchnotes said:
- Fire ward will now absorb a higher amount of fire damage. While fire ward is up, mage will not be affected by impact or blastwave slowing effect.
Small buff.
Patchnotes said:
- Frost ward will now absorb a higher amount of damage. While frost ward is up, mage will not be affected by frost nova or frostbite, and will be immune to freeze traps.
Nice buff, mostly for PvP.
Patchnotes said:
- Frostbolt's chill effect will now slow less, but will last longer.
Eh, no idea whether this is good or bad.
Patchnotes said:
- Lower rank spells have a lower chance to proc frostbite, ice armor will no longer proc frostbite.
Bugfix/nerf. Sounds reasonable to me, but it's worse than what it is now.
Patchnotes said:
- New spell: Steal magic. When activated, next non-AoE spell cast on the mage can be stolen, and its effects canceled, but if the spell is resisted, it can't be stolen. If the spell is stolen, the mage can cast that spell once, damage will be equal to damage received by the mage, not affected by damage gear or effects, but can be affected by arcane power. Holy spells can't be stolen.
Interesting new spell. Really wonder if this is true.
It seems to be a bit like the Shaman's Grounding Totem. This will probably be an instant spell, which gives you a buff that lasts some seconds, and the first spell that hits you while you have the buff is "stolen". Then, casting the stolen spell, hmmm, instant? Or using the casting time of the spell itself? Do you -have- to cast it?
Sounds fun, and would make Mage vs Mage/Lock fights more fun
Patchnotes said:
- Clearcasting can no longer be dispelled or purged. Fixed bug where clearcasting would not be used up.
Bugfix.
So, all in all it seems to be more positive than negative changes. The Diminishing Returns on chill, combined with the reduction of burst damage through Arcane Power, gives Mages less survivability than they have now. I wonder if this will be compensated somehow, and if so, how exactly.
Not sure if I'm happy with these changes, but we'll see.
