Mage changes in patch 3.0.3
by Eliah Hecht 
Nov 4th 2008 at 5:00PM
Mages, don't worry, you weren't left out of the love light this patch. Not at all. The number of bug fixes in your section of the patch notes does outweigh the number of substantive changes, but one of the substantive changes is very significant. Let's start with a bang:- Reduced the mana cost of Fireball, Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt, Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles, and Arcane Explosion.
Living Bomb, which has been something of a controversial talent, has also been polished a bit:
- Living Bomb: Mana cost reduced to be the same as Arcane Explosion; no longer causes the caster to stand up when the final explosion occurs, and it is now possible for each mage to have a Living Bomb active on a target.
- Brain Freeze: Now only works on Frost spells with a chilling effect (was all Frost spells)
- Cold as Ice: No longer reduces the cooldown for Deep Freeze
- Deep Freeze: Now consumes a Fingers of Frost charge when used
And finally, the bug fixes. They may not be glamorous, they may not be exciting, but these rank-and-file patch notes keep the game running smoothly.
- Arcane Potency: crit bonus is now consumed immediately on cast of a spell with travel time, so you can't get double benefits from combos like Fireball + Fireblast.
- Blast Wave no longer gets double the intended crit bonus from Combustion
- Burnout now consumes extra mana as intended when Living Bomb crits
- Focus Magic now works properly when mages use the ability on each other (kinky)
- Frostfire Bolt (rank 2): periodic damage now benefits from spell power gains
- Master of Elements now works with Living Bomb
- Molten Fury no longer prevents Ice Lance ranks 2 and 3 from dealing triple damage against frozen targets
- Torment of the Weak now works correctly when the mage also has Molten Fury
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Kerith Nov 4th 2008 5:06PM
Haha Deep Freeze has basically turned into a near worthless spell. My frost mage will not waste a talent point to stun targets. If they bring the damage back we'll be in business, but a straight stun for a 51-point talent? C'mon!
Tuhljin Nov 4th 2008 8:46PM
I don't know what's so bad about Frostbite proc/Frost Nova -> Frostbolt -> Deep Freeze -> Frostbolt -> Ice Lance. In a way, it turns one shatter combo into one-and-a-half's worth.
Adesworth Nov 5th 2008 9:51AM
@Tuhljin
Deep Freeze doesn't break on damage, so you can actually do Frostbite proc/Frost Nova -> Frostbolt -> Deep Freeze -> Ice Lance x3 for a tad more damage.
But...
Was 6 seconds off an already situational tool (that required a frozen target) so overpowered?
Book Nov 5th 2008 10:55AM
@adesworth
in pvp, yeah it was.
adam83 Nov 4th 2008 5:13PM
The brain freeze change makes sense (instant free fireballs procced off ice lance would be kinda cheap). The other changes seem arbitrary, but not deal breaking. Overall, bug fixes are nice. I am still waiting for the issue with blink (that causes you to not teleport on some terrain) to be fixed cause it sucks when that happens during a retreat. Better mana efficiency on the nukes is nice.
Eleison Nov 4th 2008 5:38PM
Blink has had problems since release ; ) Though it's more of a problem because of buggy terrain or a change in terrain rather than the spell itself.
Jay in Oregon Nov 4th 2008 6:02PM
The brain freeze change makes sense (instant free fireballs procced off ice lance would be kinda cheap).
I just hit 70 right before the 3.0.2 patch, and have been enjoying the Ice Lance/insta-Fireball punch greatly.
I'll miss it, but it's not a gamebreaker for me.
BCS Nov 4th 2008 6:19PM
I hate the fact I can't blink through a lamp-post, a fence, a barrel, or something I can jump over or move 5 inches to the right and go around.
Be reasonable, Blizzard! I'm not trying to Blink through a wall or an impenetrable barrier!
And don't get me started on hills.
Harmeister Nov 4th 2008 6:41PM
I thought it was just me and lag that was causing blink weirdness. About 50% of my blinks don't work.
Enialis Nov 4th 2008 7:52PM
Blink fails on "flat" terrain for the same reason you can't blink off a cliff, the spell stops you at the edge of a terain piece. The positive is this keeps you from appearing in mid-air if you use the spell near a real cliff.
The downside is that areas like the infamous tunnel in WSG, while appearing flat, are actually built as two different pieces of the world (the tunnel entrance, and midfield). When you try to blink into the tunnel, the blink spell thinks you are attempting to blink off a "cliff," and stops you at the invisible edge. Combined with lag, this gives the appearance of blinking nowhere or backwards.
I highly doubt the problem will ever be fixed at this point, as they'd have to rework the world architecture and/or pathing models of the entire game. Best bet is jump before blinking (this helps prevent getting stuck on the small rocks), and experience will tell you when to wait a additional second or two before casting the spell.
kermittheorc Nov 4th 2008 5:19PM
My 70 mage is all frost and I still didn't spend the single point for Deep Freeze. If Blizz is going to do anything with frost, how about adding a totem-like timer so I know how long I have until my water elemental flushes itself?
Mutak Nov 5th 2008 8:47AM
Same here: 61 Frost, 0 Deep Freeze. Unlesss you're heavily into PvP, it's just pointless. If you are heavily into PvP you should really be deep Arcane right now.
Turtlehead Nov 5th 2008 11:51AM
There are eight million mods that will do that. Some do *only* that, some track all spell timers. Curse.com or any of the other sites will give you plenty of options. Or I suppose you could count. "One Mississippi, two..."
Drager Nov 4th 2008 5:14PM
Sweet, looks like they left the Crusade card alone. If you've got Glyph of Imp. Scorch, each Scorch cast applies 4 stacks of the Crusade card (5 if it crits I think). So, you get the full 80 dmg out of the trinket in 2 casts instead of 10.
SeanOr101 Nov 4th 2008 5:56PM
Shhhh!
They're listening...
Kakistocracy Nov 4th 2008 5:21PM
"Arcane Potency: crit bonus is now consumed immediately on cast of a spell with travel time,"
I wish someone had told me we had time travel spells, I'll be using that to replay the first day and get to 80 in no time. :P
Inureck Nov 4th 2008 5:43PM
Ahh, damn't Blizzard. First off, the consensus is right. Deep Freeze is a Deep Farce. We kite well enough as it is, we don't need a 5 second stun that a Rogue will just weasel out of and then continue on his quest to rape us. We didn't need to be nerfed in the slightest. I mean, this makes Brain Freeze essentially useless for end game encounters against bosses. Since they are immune to all movement impairing effects, this will never fire off. I really enjoy the extra 2000 damage every 6th or 7th spell. Bah humbug! But please, by all means, up Warlocks damage by another 10 percent. Jerks.
MazokuRanma Nov 4th 2008 5:52PM
This doesn't make Brain Freeze useless for end game at all. It only procs off spells that CAN chill, they don't HAVE to chill. It was only inserted to remove free Fireballs from Ice Lances.
Also, I don't consider Deep Freeze consuming a charge of Fingers of Frost to be a nerf, I think it's a bug fix. Why wouldn't a frost spell that requires the target to be frozen not consume a charge of an ability that acts as if the target is frozen? Considering you can fire off Deep Freeze when Fingers of Frost is up and the target isn't actually frozen makes it seem even more like a bug fix.
Also, if you don't pvp, you don't take this talent. It's that simple. And if you do pvp, you'd realize by now that this is a very nice talent. It sucks that it's not viable for both, but if you truly only pve why are you in the frost tree anyway?
ChanceC Nov 4th 2008 6:18PM
The reason it shouldn't cost a charge of FoF is because Deep Freeze does no damage. FoF was basically put in the game so that you didn't have to root a target (like a 5-man boss or raid boss that is immune) to get your crit bonus ALL of the time. In PVP when my FoF pops, I don't have time to cast a frostbolt and I'm running around kiting like a glass cannon should, I have two 3x damage Ice Lances with a VERY good chance to crit. This isn't a huge nerf, but very much (as Eliah puts it) a "nerfling."
Star Nov 4th 2008 5:46PM
I don't think its that big a nerf. i don't pvp, i didn't pick up Deep Freeze cause a stun without damage sucks, and i don't spam ice lances in raids except for the occasional frostbolt/icelance combo when FOF procs for fun.
Without unspecced fireball Brain Freeze is more a fun ability to use when on the run from a boss or a handy instant cast (ie against the first boss in Auch Crypts) when it procs. At my gear level the extra GCD time it takes up to throw out that fireball isn't worth the time i could be frostbolting to get a FOF proc for 4k hits.
I don't feel this "nerf" has affected me, but then again, you could nerf mages to the ground and i'd still play my mage :D