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
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Oct 13th 2009 at 8:15PM 
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 5)
volrathy Oct 14th 2009 1:09AM
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#of0fck0cZZVscckfu0fzgfsx:Rm
raiding frost mage spec - post 3.3 ? the 3rd glyph is the new one ?
Fyril Oct 14th 2009 1:32AM
Why did Alex make this post?
I reckon Christian was so stunned his heart stopepd and he was rushed to hospital. Im looking forward to the next Arcane Brilliance assuming he pulls through =)
Christian Belt Oct 14th 2009 8:19PM
Er...or I was at my day job, unable to post. Not quite as dramatic, but just as painful.
faux-69 Oct 14th 2009 2:14AM
On an unrelated note,
How come Blizz can't test out some of the best suggestions people post up on the forums for the PTR?
MechaKingGhidra Oct 14th 2009 3:21AM
I am extremely pleased with the Scorch changes. I have been constantly torn to choose from 4 major glyphs and now with the Scorch one gone and integrated into the basic build, I can now get everything I wanted!
As for the Water Elemental glyph, I may have reason to change my fun/grinding spec of fire to frost for grinding/raiding. I really see no reason why I have to have TWO fire specs if I wanted to have things like Blast Wave and other solo-friendly but group-annoying for personal use but switch to a *different* fire spec for raiding so that everything was useful all the time instead of having situational stuff that in all likelyhood was a complete waste to spec for.
I'll miss the specced melee-dependant spells to get what I want done but an infinite-lasting elemental servant sure as heck seems like it would be more efficient in the long run.
MechaKingGhidra Oct 14th 2009 3:33AM
Correction: I say 'gone' but I meant to mean that as an effective 'gone from logical choices for a raiding spec'. Like many, I curse the lacking of an edit button. Oh well.
Hinalover Oct 14th 2009 4:56AM
The problem right now the Elitist Jerks are talking about is that now that raiding frost mages do not have to spec into Imp Water Elemental, then the next bit talent to pick is Frozen Core. But in ToC gear where your looking at 20% haste from gear, your going to be looking at Frost mages hitting the GCD with their Frost bolts.
BlackTiger™ Oct 14th 2009 6:13AM
I hear word "simplified" waaaay too often last several weeks. I don't like it.
There is a wall between "simple" and "stupid". And that wall is made out of sheet of rice paper.
"The World of Minesweeper" is still rising?
Sl0th Oct 14th 2009 9:04AM
In this case, there's a big difference between the of 'simplified' you're talking about - dumbing down - and the simplification that's being put in place - changing a convoluted talent that should have been changed the same day another class got the exact same buff without having to stand around stacking it five times.
Dude Oct 14th 2009 5:01AM
Permanent mage pet, even if needing a glyph? Nurse!!!
Er, yes, excited.
Zenith Oct 14th 2009 5:41AM
To every Warlock complaining about the permanent elemental, remember that locks and hunters are still the only real pet classes, so's have to spec for it and mages have to spec AND glyph for one pet
That said, bring on the permanent treants, mirror images and ghost wolves!
Zenith Oct 14th 2009 5:48AM
Dk's instead of so's even
Meegaal Oct 14th 2009 7:11AM
I'm curious to see whether or not the frozen core change will actually make it live. I'm not against buffs for my class but I'm a little skeptical about a PvP buff making it live at this point. DIBS if it does though! We mages have been gettin quite a bit of love the past few patches! Keep it up!
Excelis Oct 14th 2009 8:16AM
For PvE Frost I hope this means they will be removing the Enduring Winter talent and folding the Replenishment effect into the regular Summon Water Elemental talent. This allow us three points to actually spec into Frozen Core. Nice changes all if they occur. I might actually start casting some Ice Lances.
Endario Oct 14th 2009 8:54AM
I broke vent last night squealing over the frost changes. Even though these won't be enough to make up the 25% gap we're feeling, the fact that they're at least trying makes me giggle uncontrollably.
A couple of concerns:
- Squirtle's mana.
- Not sure if the reduced cast time from crit Ice Lance via Icy Core is going to be all that useful. I don't see 3.3 getting Frost mages away from stacking haste (it's all we do right now), and at 900+ haste (not difficult at all in the current level of gear) the full points in Icy Core would mean the cast time would go under the global cooldown. This isn't terrible in the normal "rotation": you're only hitting the soft cap.
When things like Icy Veins and Heroism/Bloodlust are called though, Frostbolt will already be at a near 1 second cast. You're already at the GCD, so reducing cast time further via a crit Ice Lance isn't going to do anything for you. Best thing here is just to spam FrB. Not like we're strangers to that though.
Soooo excited!
Thundrcrackr Oct 14th 2009 10:46AM
When do the fire and arcane trees get their matching fire/arcane elementals? XD
Rictus Oct 14th 2009 6:02PM
Shaman Headquarters just called. We're not willing to share our remaining fire elementals. You can have those arcane thingies, though.
Shizzle Oct 14th 2009 11:39AM
Alex,
You should have put a priopism disclaimer on your article. I'm just glad I've seen enough viagra commercials to know what to do with this erection that I've had for over 8 hours.
Stuckinhouston Oct 14th 2009 1:40PM
I never considered duel spec'ing my mage....now I may change my mind. I was just wondering how many people actually duel spec a mage and if this is one of the things blizzard was after when they made some of these changes.
Matt Oct 14th 2009 2:49PM
I've dual-spec'ed from day one. I enjoy having my raiding build (Fire/TTW) and then being able to jump into doing dailies / questing on what I would consider a more fun / solo build (tweaked FFB).
Is it necessary on a mage that doesn't really PvP & PvE? Probably not. Can it - if you can afford DS without putting other things off (i.e. epic flyer) - increase the fun of your mage? I certainly think so.
As for the article at large, my current "fun / solo build" may just be undergoing a radical change into frost if these changes carry through!