Fire mages are
ablaze with joy over today's
patch 3.3 PTR build, frost mages are a little iffy, and arcane is... pretty much completely untouched! Let's skip over any additional preamble and dig right in. Do note, however, that some of this is so far unconfirmed and comes from datamining. Considering these changes come from the PTR, any of it could change before patch 3.3 goes live.
Fire
- Improved Scorch: The debuff from this talent no longer stacks, and instead can apply the full effect from a single cast of Scorch.
- Glyph of Improved Scorch now increases the damage of your Scorch spell by 20%.
This is going to make a lot of raiding mages very happy. It essentially normalizes the debuff to match equivalent debuffs, like Improved Shadow Bolt. Streamlining an unnecessarily complicated debuff is a great thing. It'll lift a needless burden from mage DPS. And yes, there are mages
getting drunk in celebration this evening. It's somewhat disturbing, really.
Frost
- Frozen Core now also causes your Ice Lance criticals to reduce the cast time of your next Frostbolt or Frostfire Bolt by 0.4/0.7/1 sec.
- Glyph of Eternal Water - Your Summon Water Elemental now lasts indefinitely, but your Water Elemental can no longer cast Freeze.
Oh ho! What is this? Could it be an attempt at making frost raid viable? It's a pretty good move, too. The increased damage comes from having your pet with you nuking away at all times, rather than straight increasing the power of the mage's own nukes. The concern was always that if you pump up the frost mage, you make them even more dangerous in PvP, which is hardly something they need. PvP frost mages wouldn't want to lose
the Water Elemental's root, so you won't need to worry about this in the arena. It should work out pretty well. Assuming, of course, the Water Elemental and the frost mage get all the tools necessary to keep the thing alive in a raid.
Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of
Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to the Arthas.
WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
Tags: arcane, fire, frost, frozen-core, glyph-of-eternal-water, glyph-of-improved-scorch, glyph-of-scorch, improved-scorch, mage, mages, patch-3.3, patch-3.3-changes, patch-3.3-wow, scorch, summon-water-elemental, water-elemental, world-of-warcraft-patch-3.3, wow-3.3-changes, wow-new-patch, wow-patch, wow-patch-3.3, wow-patch-news
Filed under: Mage, Patches, Analysis / Opinion
Oct 13th 2009 at 8:15PM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Vogie Oct 13th 2009 8:24PM
Next on the pet list: Priests and Shamans
Iano Oct 13th 2009 10:16PM
But, but, the only reason I picked warlock to begin with was the persistent pet and magic-oriented damage! Gah!!!
Feed on my tears for now, mages. Surely, Darkness will have its day. Won't it?
QQ.
Andy Oct 14th 2009 1:19AM
Much needed change to improved scorch, frozen core is actually worth looking at now. Like the water elemental glyph, though I think they should double the cooldown on freeze as appose to removing, imo.
Knyle2 Oct 14th 2009 7:00AM
priests have a kickass pet, that shadowfiend is rigged!
Daibakuha Oct 13th 2009 8:25PM
finally a permanent water elemental! and no more stacking scorch debuffs!
Xisa Ravencrest Oct 13th 2009 8:30PM
Way to show class favoriteism blizz, Mages are OP and now you go and make them even more OP. Its Bull crap that frost mages have amazing CC, Damage output and Surviablilty. On top of that, arcane mages are critting 17k on my furious geared DK partner so arcane mages need to lay off the QQ, BTW its not just ONE arcane mage its ALL arcane mages /troll off
Malkavos Oct 13th 2009 8:36PM
I didn't see any arcane mage QQ. None of these changes will affect arcane at all. The only person I see who needs to lay off the QQ is the one directly north of this post.
A Nonny Mouse Oct 13th 2009 8:40PM
Stop being a knee-jerk jerk. These were real issues with the class. Other classes are getting some of their real issues fixed too.
Also, what do these changes have to do with Arcane mages? Sure, some raid-specced Arcane mages take Imp-Scorch, but you appear to be entirely PvP whining, which none of this has anything to do with.
Primalscream Ravencrest Oct 13th 2009 8:51PM
I agree Xisa, i know mages are gonna tell us "QQ MOAR N00bZ" But they are OP, The last thing Frost needs is a buff, all mages cept for fire need a BC Beast Mastery nerf. Tired of Frost mages QQing about needing more surviability, QQing about more damgae, QQing about not beign God, the list goes on
Noscy Oct 13th 2009 8:55PM
Then you must be one of those moronic players that lets an arcane stackup his/hers damage buff to 4, that is close 8+ seconds off unimpeded casting followed missile barrage. Expect to die from that, I'm guessing that very mage Counterspelled the healer whilst doing that?
Nothing annoys me more than a half wit with tunnel vision that does little research, doesn't learn but counters in a comment/forum post. /Golf Clap
Noscy Oct 13th 2009 8:58PM
Primalscream Ravencrest agreeing with Xisa Ravencrest wow, just wow. Duel Personality much?
I'm guessing Widowmaker will agree with you to?
Wolftech Oct 13th 2009 9:32PM
When will the PVPers learn its not all about them? For PVE (which is what the game is... PVP is an afterthought) this is great news for my first love, frost spec. Of course, it could have come BEFORE the advent of dual spec, but we cant have everything. And the improved scorch might make me go back to a fire spec as my primary raiding spec (just love those huge AB crits, though)
Charlie Oct 13th 2009 11:54PM
" PvE (which is what the game is... PVP is an afterthought)"
I HATE this reasoning. PvP was not an 'afterthought'. It was planned from the begging but didn't make launch. Just like MC was the only raid available at launch.
And lets say it was. So what? This game is just as much PvP now as it is PvE. One is not more important than the other. It just happens that PvP balancing is much harder than PvE balancing.
Bronwyn Oct 14th 2009 12:53AM
"I HATE this reasoning. PvP was not an 'afterthought'. It was planned from the begging but didn't make launch. Just like MC was the only raid available at launch.
And lets say it was. So what? This game is just as much PvP now as it is PvE. One is not more important than the other. It just happens that PvP balancing is much harder than PvE balancing."
Except that they spend so much time balancing for PvP that PvE suffers. Yeah, pardon me if I'm not sympathetic to the "plight" of people who think these changes are a problem in PvP. And you'd do well to remember that everyone thinks all the other classes are OP- except for their own. ESPECIALLY in PvP.
Fnord Oct 14th 2009 1:01AM
Well put, Wolftech. Bottom line: if it's not PvE-viable, it's not WoW-viable. PvP is a cute diversion, but if it's your reason for playing the game, you'd be better served buying a console. The Frost tree has been cordoned off-limits & reserved for trivialities long enough; it's way past time to bring it back for raiding, and 3.3 looks like a decent start.
Edmunt Oct 13th 2009 8:36PM
i can't stop smiling :D
krizzlybear Oct 13th 2009 8:36PM
As a die-hard frost mage, I've stuck to my spec in PvE through all the ups and downs. In PvE, we've been ridiculed for being absolutely terrible with DPS. These changes serve to boost our damage and become more respectable, at least in line with the hybrids.
To say that I'm excited would be a severely gross understatement.
http://frostisthenewblack.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/3-3-proposed-frost-changes/
krizzlybear Oct 13th 2009 9:18PM
RE: myself
didn't necessarily mean that the buffs WILL bring them up to hybrid dps levels, but the intention from the devs seem to be the case.
jam Oct 13th 2009 10:52PM
I feel sorry for those people who have to raid with someone who purposefully sucks with a bad (PVE) spec, when there are better available.
No serious raiding could would ever allow it, and it's not exactly recommendable in PUGs either, unless you just outgear the instance to the point where it doesn't matter. It's not just fair towards the people you raid with.
I guess it's okay if you play casually with your friends, but otherwise it's just... no.
thebitterfig Oct 13th 2009 11:48PM
RE: Jam: something is only unfair to your raidmates if your performance is below some level relative to the raid encounter, not w/r/t the other specs of the class. If someone isn't bringing what they need to, then that is a problem. If you do what you need to or above it, that's it. Done. Win. Collect Loot.