Arcane Brilliance: The future of Fire
by Christian Belt 
Jul 26th 2008 at 4:00PM
Each week Arcane Brilliance brings you a healthy dose of Mage opinion and analysis. Most of the opinion is extremely biased and borderline libelous, and the analysis tends toward hyperbole and slander, especially when the topic of Warlocks comes up. In fact, here at Arcane Brilliance, we feel that you can never have too much Warlock slander. Especially against Gnome Warlocks.
Leave it to Blizzard to change the Arcane tree substantially the week after Arcane Brilliance's detailed look at that very same tree. I'm sure they did it to spite me, because yes, I do firmly believe everything is totally about me. Anyway, here are the notable changes, before we get to the giant unequivocal "meh" that defines our analysis of the Fire tree in Wrath.
Arcane Impact has been changed into Spell Impact, and now increases the critical strike chance of not just Arcane Explosion and Arcane Blast but also Blast Wave, Fire Blast, Ice Lance, and Cone of Cold. This makes it a much more versatile and beneficial talent, affecting spells from every school of magic.
Student of the Mind has been moved to tier 3 and now increases your total spirit by up to 12% over 3 ranks, while Potent Spirit (which gave increased chance to crit based on your total spirit) has been removed altogether. It looked for awhile there as if Blizzard intended to really increase spirit's usefulness to Mages, but I guess we should have called "no take-backs" on that one, huh?
More Arcane changes after the break, as well as a few long sighs and downcast looks as we discuss the future of the Fire tree.
Netherwind Presence has been changed to make it more useful, and has been moved up the tree one tier. It now increases your spell haste by 2/4/6% instead of giving you a fairly insignificant chance to get an occasional instant cast spell. A flat 6% spell haste buff is a far more consistent across the board DPS boost, which makes the talent an absolute must-have for all Mages everywhere. This is a clear buff, and very welcome if it makes it to the live servers in its current incarnation.
Taking its place on tier 10 is a talent called Missile Barrage. This spell is geared toward the Arcane Mage who likes to use Arcane Missiles a lot. With this talent, every time you cast Arcane Barrage, Fireball, Frostbolt, or Frostfire Bolt, you have a 15% chance to halve the channeled time of your next Arcane Missiles spell to 1.5 seconds, making the spell release a missile every .3 seconds. This effectively makes Arcane Missiles a very quick burst damage spell and if it procs once every 7 times (give or take) you cast your primary nuke of choice, it's a substantial burst DPS ability. Imagine You're chasing a Druid around a pillar in Nagrand Arena. You pump out an Arcane Barrage at the Druid and proc this talent. Now imagine you've talented into Improved and Empowered Arcane Missiles, have Arcane Power up, and proc Clearcasting ( and have Arcane Potency) when you trigger your Arcane Missiles spell just as the Druid goes out of line-of-sight. Over the next 1.5 seconds, you'll be unleashing 5 missiles that will almost all be critting for ridiculous amounts of damage and be unaffected by LoS, and even that Druids preposterously overpowered instant cast HoTs won't be able to save him. I know that seems like an awful lot of variables, but the potential to have all of those buffs working together at once is actually better than you think. I have to say, I use Arcane Missiles a lot in Arena and though I'm not sure this talent is quite worth it's spot on the 10th tier of the Arcane tree, I have to admit I'm excited at the potential benefits.
The change I'm most excited about takes place far earlier in the tree. There is apparently a new talent on tier 8 called Arcane Floes. For 1 talent point, this talent grants a reduction of 30 seconds from the cooldowns of three of our most useful Arcane spells: Arcane Power, Presence of Mind, and Invisibility. Very, very nice. Being able to use Arcane Power and PoM every two-and-a-half minutes is going to be fun, and I'm not even going to try to mask my enthusiasm for it. The Arcane tree is looking better and better the further into the beta we go.
This is the point at which my enthusiasm dies, though. That's right, it's time to talk about the Fire tree.
Let me preface this by saying that I love the Fire tree. It is my favorite of the three trees and has been since I first hit level 10 and sat around Brill trying to decide where to put my first talent point. I was a Fire Mage from then on, well into level 70, and still think fondly on the tree even now, after speccing deep Arcane for PvP purposes. Impact and Ignite and Combustion, how I bless thy hallowed names.
Cough.
Now, I don't know what goal Blizzard has in mind for the Fire tree, but if it isn't "make it suck" they are failing. Let's pray there is a "polishing" in the works for this tree along the lines of the newly shiny Arcane tree, or else fond memories will be all I have left of this tree come level 80. What follows is a look at each forthcoming change in turn, and a marked lack of anything even remotely resembling excitement. Imagine, if you can, that I am typing this in a Ben Stein-style monotone.
Fiery Payback
Continuing Blizzard's tradition of making Fire Mages do damage to attackers but not have any actual protection from them whatsoever, this spell (at max rank) buffs the damage caused by Molten Armor by 20% and reflect 50% of any instant damage a spell would have caused back to the caster whenever you fully resist one. Ok. So I'll do slightly more damage as I die. This still gives no actual survivability, and doesn't do much for a PvE Mage any way you look at it. For a tree that is incredibly weak in PvP and geared toward PvE, this helps neither aspect.
World in Flames
Ok, I can see what you're doing here, Blizzard. Mages should be the kings of AoE, blah blah blah. This talent certainly does help with that, potentially. At max rank, it gives a flat 15% increase to any damage done to 3 targets or more with any Fire spell you cast. It will affect Flamestrike, Blast wave, and Dragon's Breath. Very nice. For those of us who are just frothing at the mouth over the idea of being AoE kings, this is a godsend. I'm sure some of us are. Positive.
Hot Streak
This pile of crap does the following: when you chance to score 3 crits in a row your next spell within 10 seconds will have a 33/66/100% chance to crit as well. Whooo! Four crits in a row! I don't know about you, but I get 3 crits in a row all the time! In case my sarcasm isn't apparent enough, let me just emphasize that I'm being totally sarcastic. My sarcasm, in fact, knows no bounds. If my sarcasm were tangible, you could see it from space. Unless your crit rate is somewhere around 50% (which is pretty preposterous) this talent simply won't proc enough to matter. With Combustion, the chances go up quite a bit, I suppose, but the benefits of this talent will still be felt far too rarely for it to be a viable DPS boost of any sort.
Burnout
This steaming turd gives your Fire spells' crit damage bonus a 25% buff at max rank at the unfathomable cost of 1% of your total mana EVERY TIME YOU CRIT. Yes, my fellow Mages, you will do siginificantly more damage when you crit with this talent. You will also run out of mana with a speed impossible to track with the naked eye. I'm sitting here trying to think of a worse talent. Here's what I've come up with:
Summon Felhunter
Rank 1/1
Requires 45 points in Fire Talents
Instant cast, 30 second cooldown, costs 75% of total mana
Instantly summons a felhunter which will then chew on your face, silence you repeatedly, and eat all your buffs for 1 minute. Once summoned, felhunter will also take a giant dump on your feet, rooting you in place for the duration of the spell. Nondispellable. Also, we at Blizzard hate you.
Left Click to Learn
Living Bomb
Nobody seems to know for sure what this spell will actually do, so I'll try to reserve judgment on it for now, and instead focus on its potential. Here's what it currently offers at max trainable rank: The caster becomes a living bomb, causing 130 Fire damage to all enemies within 10 yards every 2 seconds. After 1 second, a fiery explosion occurs causing an additional 520 Fire damage to all enemies within 10 yards.
There are just so many things we don't know here. What's the damage coefficient on the various parts of this spell? This alone could determine whether this spell is useful or crap. The rumors from the beta suggest that this spell is off the global cooldown--in fact has no cooldown, meaning it can be spammed--and has a knockback effect attached to the final explosion. If those two things are true, this could be a very powerful PvP ability, very nearly the game-changer we've been waiting for. Imagine how often Impact would proc on a melee attacker with both Molten Armor and this spell active for the duration of the fight.
The problem, of course, is that the Fire tree offers so little otherwise in the way of PvP viability that very few PvP Mages will ever go this far into it. It's possible that a few PvP-viable builds will find a way to incorporate going deep Fire for this spell, but I'm very skeptical. Until we get some actual data on how much damage it does and how exactly it works, this spell remains an enormous unknown. It could be good, it could be fairly useless.
So there you have it. That's the future shape of the Fire tree, in all its glory. I'm not thrilled. I'm holding out for this tree to receive some "polishing." The Fire tree has long been designed for high single target DPS, but I see nothing in the new talents that will reliably improve that aspect of our class. Instead, Blizzard seems to be focusing on improving AoE DPS with this tree, and ignoring the single-target variety. Without some drastic changes, Fire will likely be replaced by Arcane as the PvE spec of choice for Mages. If that ends up being the case, all of Blizzards lofty plans for Mages to become the new AoE DPS kings will be in vain, as there simply won't be enough Fire Mages left to make it happen.
Every week Arcane Brilliance teleports you inside the wonderful world of Mages and then hurls a Fireball in your face. Check out our recent look at the potential of the new Frostfire Bolt spell, or our recent look at 10 things Mages should know before entering the Arena. If you're sick and tired of all this Mage-talk, there's a veritable treasure trove of guides and tips related to all of the other aspects of WoW over in the WoW Insider Directory. Until next week, keep the Mage-train a-rollin'.Filed under: Mage, Analysis / Opinion, Expansions, Classes, Talents, (Mage) Arcane Brilliance, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
jurandr Jul 26th 2008 4:12PM
If living bomb stacks, then I think mages just might quit complaining about it. Fire is already an up-close-and-personal spec, with blastwave and fireblast being shortranged abilities. I do think, however, that the range on living bomb could be improved upon. If mages get their 'jaw dropping dps' like blizzard promised time and time again, the lack of survivability in fire just might be worth it.
Karmakin Jul 26th 2008 4:18PM
Re:Living Bomb
Replace Caster with Target, and the skill becomes much better. It would become a PBAoE version of the Resto Pally's 51-point talent. It'll be a way to generate aggro on a tank, especially for AoE type pulls.
Dodgy Jul 26th 2008 4:43PM
Correct me if I'm wrong but Molten Armor will reduce the chance you are critically hit with 5%. Which makes it rather useful in PvP no?
Warcloud Jul 27th 2008 2:54PM
It already does that.
Corrine Jul 26th 2008 4:39PM
My impressions:
Hot Streak: If this procs, you have a very high chance of getting another crit. I was under the impression that if your 4th spell also crits, it will re-proc Hot Streak since you technically got 3 crits in a row with the second, third, and 4th spell crits in a row. However, I've seen nothing confirming this, so I have no idea if this is true.
Burnout: I was under the impression that a 25% increase in crit damage more than made up for the loss of efficiency with the -1% mana on crit, especially since it would increase the damage from Ignite as well.
Zep Jul 26th 2008 4:51PM
@3 that would mean that after 3 crits you would crit every spell, as long as you don't go 10 seconds w/o casting.
Lol no.
Corrine Jul 26th 2008 4:53PM
Well, there's also the unmitigatable 1% miss chance, but yes, that would be too powerful. Admittedly, after first reading it, I also interpreted it as a doubled crit chance instead of a guaranteed crit chance.
Which, I think, would be interesting. After 3 crits in a row, your crit chance doubles, and that buff keeps getting applied until you don't crit.
Sherp Jul 26th 2008 5:06PM
But if that were the case...then once you got 3 crits in a row, every Fire spell you cast would be guaranteed to crit for the rest of the fight. (Right?) That can't be correct.
Mcg Jul 26th 2008 4:40PM
I have to admit, I'm really disappointed that fire looks to become the "what exactly were you trying to do there?" talent tree. Deep fire is my favorite spec to play as, and to know that all that we have to look forward in the fire tree is a grab bag of gimmick talents is pretty sad.
Aigarius Jul 26th 2008 6:24PM
Deep fire is now officially the AoE tree. That is it, nothing more. I would have love to have all those AoE goodies in Mount Hyjal trash waves.
For single target DPS look to arcane and frost.
When looking at Frost DPS in a raid setting do not forget all the Frost-boosting abilities of the new Death Knights.
Really, all this fire QQ is just that - QQ.
Charlie Jul 26th 2008 4:43PM
In short, Burnout and Hotstreak are better than you say, and the others are worse than you say.
Burnout is offset by Master of Elements. IF you have 10k mana 1% is 100 mana. If you crit you get back ~130 mana from MoE on a fireball currently. Its much more of a balancing issue. I have minor mana problems currently, but on long boss fights id ont mind using a mana pot or two. (we're still far away from the point where we have to chug them like most healing classes do). Also, with spirit being to Wrath as Stamina was to BC, i see mages mana regen going through the roof.
Hot Streak is only good with Burnout. You say 50% crit is impossible, but i currently have 23%, low for a fire mage, and with 25% in burnout, thats 48%, its likely to see numbers around 50-60%. Pop combustion on that and getting 3 crits in arow is very possible (also, you can use fireblast on for your third crit to help out, if mana isnt an issue).
World if flames is horrible. You know why? Because there is still a AoE damage cap. I can see this being romoved in the future (like the damage tax on fireball), but as of now its shitty because of the AoE Cap.
Living Bomb could be sweet, but it sucks right now. According to Beta reports it does far far far to little damage. It's meant to be a suppliment to your other AoEs, as it is a buff not an actually spell, and that maybe why its so low, but right now it doesnt do enouhg damage to validate taking it. Also there is no animation for the ending 'boom', which is lame as hell.
If they want deep fire to be uber AoE kings, they need to remove the damage tax, up the damage on living bomb, (give it a animation for the end!), and give us a threat reducing ability on fire AoEs. Possibly put it in there with World of Flames. Because as of right now, i can still pull with Arcane Explosion (talented) if im not careful, and thats way less threat than any fire aoe spell.
Of course i doubt deep fire will be taken often. I do it for leveling, but for raiding ill probobly go 0/28/33 w/ frostfire bolt.
Corrine Jul 26th 2008 4:47PM
>>Hot Streak is only good with Burnout. You say 50% crit is impossible, but i currently have 23%, low for a fire mage, and with 25% in burnout, thats 48%, its likely to see numbers around 50-60%. Pop combustion on that and getting 3 crits in arow is very possible (also, you can use fireblast on for your third crit to help out, if mana isnt an issue).
Hot streak gives a 25% bonus to crit damage, not crit chance.
Nizari Jul 26th 2008 7:32PM
Concerning Burnout: if Burnout is basically canceling out MoE, I'd rather they just remove MoE and make Burnout just the 25% additional crit damage, so I can spend more points on helpful talents, instead of spending 3 points to get back to square one.
Charlie Jul 27th 2008 3:18AM
Thats the problem. Essentially your spending 8 points for 25% increase crit damage, which isnt worth it at all.
Mukan Jul 27th 2008 4:36AM
I dunno which healer class you play but on my druid it's nearly impossible to get into the state where I have to use a pot at all to refill my mana, while on my mage I'm constantly throwing everything in my mouth that gives some mana. The same applies for holy/discipline priests. Unless the healers are not total idiots or the pull goes horribly wrong I cannot see how any of those 2 classes can ever run out of mana before a mage does.
Asgaroth Jul 26th 2008 4:54PM
Oh boy,
QQ more in this article. Let them finish balancing things before you complain about the changes to them.
Reinard Jul 26th 2008 5:36PM
If nobody complained, nothing would get changed.
Asgaroth Jul 26th 2008 5:41PM
I agree with you to a point. Its apparent that they are now improving the balance of their "talent" introductions. First see how they make adjustments before complaining about them.
MazjinYrael Jul 26th 2008 5:04PM
Agreed. Fire talents seem a great big "meh." to me atm, with the possible exception of living bomb, which nothing is known about yet. As a diehard fire mage, I'm not sure I like where the tree is going atm.
hiphophomies Jul 26th 2008 5:02PM
Belt, I'm an avid reader of your AB, but I have to disagree with you on the power of hot streak. It's true that crits rarely come 3 times in a row (maybe not that rarely with combustion and boomkin aura), but the way I understand it, if you DO crit 3 times, then you're gonna crit the 4th time, and if you crit the 4th time.... then you've again crit 3 times in a row?
To me that sounds like permacrit.
Awesome talent.
However, the way I read it, 100% increased chance sounds like double chance to crit, ie if you're crit chance is 20%, then it becomes 40%. This would make the talent not so awesome, but not so awesome for a different reason.
If it IS permacrit though, I'd argue it's one of the best mage talents ever.