A little more patch 2.4 love for casters
by Alex Ziebart 
Feb 1st 2008 at 4:30PM
Continuing the deluge of patch 2.4 news, Eyonix and Bornakk, the brave souls they are, took to the class forums to bring us some joy! So far, they're relatively minor, but every little bit helps.My personal favorite, the priests. Bornakk drops in to let us know that Fear Ward is now able to be cast in Shadowform. This is small potatoes for the folks that don't play a shadow priest, but I can say that this is a pretty big deal. It'll be a great boon in PvP, and gone are the days of blowing my entire mana pool dropping in and out of Shadowform on Nightbane and Archimonde just for a Fear Ward.
Up next, mages! Blizzard stops the pain caused by battleground gluttons, by limiting the amount of manna biscuits you can carry from a snackwell to 80. As was pointed out by a mage friend of mine, this means you can't summon a table and carry extras around to hand out later, but I think this is the lesser of two evils.
Finally, warlocks will be able to summon party members into instances. No more standing around waiting for your buddy to get to the Black Temple from Goldshire, just summon away!
Filed under: Mage, Priest, Warlock, Patches, News items, PvP, Raiding, Forums, Battlegrounds
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Arabelli Feb 1st 2008 4:38PM
And we all know what he was doing in Goldshire, amirite?
Kidding!
Seriously though, the instance thing is long overdue. Running in and out, risking trash spawns...
Fel Feb 3rd 2008 6:31PM
What was he doing in Goldshire? o_O
Alchemistmerlin Feb 1st 2008 4:39PM
It is pretty amazing that they followed up the announcement of "2.4 isn't ready yet" with "Here's tons of 2.4 news!"
jr Feb 1st 2008 4:55PM
"Up next, mages! Blizzard stops the pain caused by battleground gluttons, by limiting the amount of manna biscuits you can carry from a snackwell to 80. As was pointed out by a mage friend of mine, this means you can't summon a table and carry extras around to hand out later, but I think this is the lesser of two evils."
I disagree, as a mage I want to be able to take all I can when I raid and for heroics so I can distribute to late comers and whatnot. I mean its our table foor Pete's sake.
I never had the problem in BG as I never summoned them in there to begin with and doubt I will when this goes live. Wanna stop people from taking too much in BG, make the cost free and make the food disappear after the player leaves the BG (applicable in BGs only). Problem solved without nerfing the legit pve purpose of the table and you do not have to choose a lesser of two evils.
Cap Feb 1st 2008 5:06PM
I like your solution, jr... sounds much better to me.
My solution always is, "Sorry, I just used up my last two Arcane Powder in the last BG...sorry!" >:-)
Gessilea Feb 1st 2008 5:37PM
I don't think it's that bad though. As a druid, I rarely use more than a stack of biscuits, but will take two or three extra stacks to pass out later if people need. This change will just mean more people will have to be considerate rather than one person carrying 10 stacks or something.
Juliah Feb 6th 2008 3:50PM
I agree with jr: I don't like the change to Ritual of Refreshment. I'm all the time making sure that all the food gets taken from the table so that the arcane powder I just spent doesn't go to waste. Usually, I take the remnants, and hand them out as needed.
Naix Feb 1st 2008 4:55PM
Let's see some more! I want all my Rogue, Priest, and Warlock buffs applied and nerfs reduced!
No wammy!
Tuberon Feb 1st 2008 6:19PM
"no nerfs no nerfs no nerfs big money STOP"
"Aww, we're sorry, you're ritual of summoning will now cost twice as much as before... but we will give you this consolation prize of a previously digested manna biscut."
Saido Feb 1st 2008 5:21PM
"gone are the days of blowing my entire mana pool dropping in and out of Shadowform on Nightbane and Archimonde just for a Fear Ward..."
I realize that it was a rhetorical flourish, but seriously, spending 770 mana (cost of going into Shadowform) every 3 minutes (cooldown on casting Fear Ward) depletes the mana pool of a BT raiding SP? :P ~ Not that it's not a nice change - to be able to re-cast in the midst of a battle without the need to remember (or the lost time/DPS) of having to pop back into SForm. And 770 mana is 770 mana.
Alex Ziebart Feb 1st 2008 6:03PM
Yeah, definitely a lot of rhetorical flourish on that, but it does add up over fights like that. You could cast it anywhere from 2-5 times a fight, and it starts to wear on your manapool. Not as dramatic as I made it sound, but still a pain.
Swiss Feb 1st 2008 5:39PM
Wait... Warlocks can summon people who are outside the instance to them inside the instance? What about Tempest Keep instances? As it is now, warlocks cannot summon anyone in Netherstorm outside of using the TK summoning stone...
Alex Ziebart Feb 1st 2008 6:00PM
Yes, you can summon people from outside an instance into an instance. However, I doubt this applies to Tempest Keep, but I can't say for sure.
A Man In Black Feb 2nd 2008 5:50AM
Tigole posted on EJ; the Netherstorm summoning restrictions are being removed entirely.
Jagoex Feb 1st 2008 6:48PM
Anyone besides me think this Warlock "buff" is actually more convenient for those actually being summoned and not Warlocks themselves?
I'd hardly call this "love." It's more like a slap in the face, especially when Mage DPS is getting the huge buff it's being given, via the Spell Haste tweak.
http://jagoex.blogspot.com
A Man In Black Feb 2nd 2008 5:51AM
Psst. You realize fire mages get basically nothing out of the haste tweak, whereas aff locks are one of the class/specs getting the big benefits, right?
Before you complain about buffs, think long and hard about who they effect.
Steve Feb 1st 2008 7:04PM
So will the shaman forums ever see a blue post anything other than "sorry your class needs nurfing, yet again bend over"
Why is that time and time again its always the main classes that get any feedback, yet the shaman forum is devoid of any real attention.
Alex Ziebart Feb 1st 2008 7:06PM
The shaman forums got a love letter today, too. Adam posted about it over here: http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/02/01/other-patch-2-4-reveals-fishing-quests-pally-gear-and-spellst/
bulgur Feb 1st 2008 7:18PM
"II'd hardly call this "love." It's more like a slap in the face, especially when Mage DPS is getting the huge buff it's being given, via the Spell Haste tweak."
Excuse me!?
You have got it all wrong sir.
mages are not the main ones benefiting from spell haste starting to affect GC - Warlocks more so, at least in PvE, where mages rely on spells (fireball and frostbolt) that already benefited from haste, as the spells are longer than 1.5 seconds, and as you may be aware, mages hardly cast any instant spell, as opposed to warlocks.
Thus this is a great buff for classes with quick and instant spells, but not so much for classes, such as mages, with slow spells.
In fact, this change will just reinforce the current in
mbalance in favour of debuffing/insta-casting classes that benefit from the constantly-on-the-move nature of most high-end raid encounters.
Jagoex Feb 1st 2008 10:16PM
I'll clarify: A popular spec for Mages is Arcane-based (after 2-piece T5), in which they make regular use of Arcane Blast and Arcane Missiles. Both would benefit hugely from this buff, being that Arcane Blast is a 1.5s spell when stacked, and Arcane Missiles being a channeled spell.
As for Warlocks, top raiding spec is 0/21/40, which relies on very minimal DoT use. I don't think this change to Haste will change that as the raiding standard. At least not with the current gear available.