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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsCataclysm: Stat and system changes for mages
by Christian Belt 
Mar 1st 2010 at 5:30PM
Here's the short list of specific things we need to be aware of:
- Stamina - Like all clothies, we'll be seeing a bunch more of it on our gear. The aim is to have our max health be similar to that of plate-wearing classes.
- Spirit - We won't need it anymore. It'll be a healer-only stat, and we'll be getting our mana regen some other way. In other news, there is a God.
- Intellect - Now grants spellpower, but will provide less mana than it does now. I assume this is to balance out our mana pools with all that extra intellect we'll be seeing on all our gear.
- Spellpower - Gone from most gear, the only place we'll now be seing straight-up spellpower that isn't tied directly to intellect will be on weapons, and only to distinguish caster weapons from melee weapons.
- Haste - Still around.
- Critical Strike Rating - Still around.
- MP5 - Gone.
- Spell Ranks - Gone. Every spell will now have only one rank and will scale with level. The levels at which we learn many of them will change, to fill in the gaps.
- Mastery - New stat that will be tied directly to your talents. Supposedly, no matter your spec or class, getting more of this will always, always make you better at whatever it is that you're best at. For me, this means getting more mastery will make my mage incrementally better at making fun of warlocks.
- Existing gear - All of it will change to reflect this new statistical system, but we're being assured that the gear we have now will still be good for us. I have concerns about this, though.
Ok.
Deep breath.
So here's what I'm seeing here. Stat-wise, everything should end up being a whole lot simpler. The only stats we'll need to really balance between will be hit rating (I'm assuming it'll remain basically unchanged, though it isn't specifically mentioned), intellect, crit, and haste. I anticipate the following:
- All of our gear will have intellect and stamina on it.
- Thus, our likely gemming/reforging/enchanting decisions will be between haste, hit, and crit.
- I'm assuming that hit caps will work similarly to the way they do now.
- I'm not at all worried about the loss of spirit, and you shouldn't be either. When they say we won't miss it, I believe them. Hell, I don't miss it already, and it's still here. If you're concerned about any specific talents or abilities that currently make use of spirit, remember that all of those talents will be completely reworked prior to us losing this stat.
- How much value will mastery have? If it's going to be such a no-brainer, always helpful, all of the time sort of stat, will we find it on all of our gear? Or will it end up being something that makes your eyes light up with greed anytime something drops with mastery on it? I absolutely cannot wait top find out more about this stat.
- How will we get our mana regen? Or will we even need it? Will combat be balanced around mana conservation? Evocation-style mana return mechanics? Massive mana pools? Lower overall spell costs? Mana potions? No spirit and no MP5...will mana regen be tied to some other stat, like intellect or mastery? The only thing we've been told is that mana regen for non-healing casters will come via "other systems." This intrigues the crap out of me.
- With the removal of spell ranks, will spells now improve every level? Every other level? How will the scaling work, exactly? This strikes me as a very positive change, overall, and if done right, should simplify the leveling process a great deal.
- We're really going to have to wait and see how the new intellect balances out our mana pool sizes with our spellpower. Is the aim to keep things about the same as they are now, or will the scale tip one way or the other? Larger mana pools to make mana regen less of an issue? More spellpower through intellect, or about the same?
- Will more stamina dull the edges of the whole "glass-cannon" distinction? Or not enough to change things much?
- When existing gear changes, the main thing I'm worried about is the whole "spirit-for-healers-only" change. I don't know about you, but I have a lot of cloth gear with spirit on it. I'm assuming some of that cloth gear will almost have to stay healer-centric to accommodate priests. How will they pick what gear goes healer, and what gear goes DPS, especially when the last expansion homogenized that very same gear so completely?
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.Filed under: Mage, Analysis / Opinion, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
Outoforder Mar 1st 2010 6:16PM
Two simple solutions to mage water/food:
1. Make conjured water/food downrank itself automatically when traded to a low level character, or
2. Make conjured water/food only 1 rank and let it scale with mana/health pool (much like the holiday items do). As in "Drinking this will give 80% of total mana over 30 sec" instead of "Drinking this will give 35000 mana over 30sec".
I wouldnt worry too much about stuff like this
Utakata Mar 1st 2010 9:30PM
Ghostcrawler replied:
"There won't be a way or need to cast the lower level spells. If you're just worried about losing the flavor of croissants vs. strudel, we're keeping that. At some point you'll just start making the better breads."
Source: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=23425636414&sid=1&pageNo=34#675
...I'm not sure he answered the way I would like it. But it does appear that our ranked food spells will still be around. The other spells will not be ranked and scale to level. I presume this also true for our Mana Gems.
Jafari Mar 2nd 2010 12:38PM
my guess (with absolutely nothing to back it up) is that the mage food/water will work like halloween candy, with different ranks giving a maximum amount of hp/mana.
Tooltip e.g.:
Mage Food (level 80). Restores 3% mana and health per second over 30 seconds, up to 22000 mana and 19500 health.
Mage Food (level 2). Restores 3% mana and health per second over 30 seconds, up to 700 mana and 400 health.
or something like that. Doesn't arcane intellect already do this automatically when you cast it on lowbies?
Martin Mar 2nd 2010 4:22PM
It does, but it's also not a conjured item, but a spell. I'm sure they'll figure something out, it just stuck out to me for some reason.
ToyChristopher Mar 1st 2010 6:04PM
Please make a new mage graphic. I'm tired of seeing that one. Thank you!
Matthew Mar 1st 2010 6:30PM
I lol'd in real life
ryang Mar 1st 2010 6:12PM
I *REALLY* don't understand why they are leaving spell power on caster weapons.... Something was mentioned about the separation between melee and caster weapons, but I'd imagine the oodles of intellect would be the real give-away.
Why can't they just pile on the intellect a lot more on weapons?? Makes sense in my mind.
Outoforder Mar 1st 2010 6:22PM
I'm guessing they give us plain spellpower on weapons to avoid weapons from providing a huge mana pool boost in each tier of gear.
tulipblossom Mar 1st 2010 6:26PM
I understand what you mean. At first, when I heard that they were leaving SP on caster weapons, I was a little confused. I figured, why not just up the INT on weapons? But, then I read this line: "This allows us to make weapons proportionately more powerful for casters in the same way they are for melee classes." I think I get where they're coming from now. This is a way of not only distinguishing caster weapons from melee, but also making them that much more powerful. I can get behind this idea, now.
Pex-Corrh Mar 1st 2010 6:31PM
Think of the spell power on weapons the same way the DPS of the weapon is used. For example, a warrior will get both the AP (in the form of strength) and the innate damage of the weapon to improve his output. A caster weapon in our new theoretical 4.0 case has SP (in the form of intellect) and SP from it being a weapon to improve.
It seems a little kludgey, but I can see it.
ryang Mar 1st 2010 8:37PM
Hmm.. I suppose the weapon DPS stats is where I was missing the idea. All I could imagine was melee = str, caster = int. But yes, the weapons DPS would definitely need to be compensated for, otherwise casters would feel left out.
That being said, the idea of leaving spell power on *ONE* slot, does seem a bit awkward.
Ian Mar 1st 2010 10:21PM
Not a hard concept to follow:
Know how druids see attack power in form on the weapons tooltip? The AP is derived by the DPS that the mace/staff/polearm offers. It could be a bunch of agility, but its not. Agility does other things than raise raw damage.
It improves their raw damage and nothing else, just like the DPS value on a weapon affects a different melee class by increasing raw damage.
Caster weapons will have it the same way, but with spell power. In fact, it's already like that. It could be a bunch of intellect, but its not. Intellect does/will do other things than raise raw damage.
Spell power raises raw damage and nothing else, just like all other weapons do for all other classes.
Pex has the idea.
Jeff Mar 1st 2010 6:17PM
I have to say I wonder how they will keep things interesting. Essentially all gear will have Int, Stamina, Crit and Haste, and some will have some hit. That's it? Every single piece of gear you get will be exactly the same just with +5 more of all stats. I realize that is not that different from the way it is now, but still seems like it's getting more boring instead of more interesting. Very little fun in scouting out your gear, all you want is anything at a higher item level because it has the exact same stats just +5 of them...doesn't sound like fun to me.
tulipblossom Mar 1st 2010 6:33PM
I know what you're saying. But, for some reason, I feel relatively calm about this. I feel like there's more to it and we just don't have all the pieces to the puzzle, quite yet. Plus, keep in mind that there will be reforging, when CC hits, too. And, that will allow people to adjust the stats of their gear, individually. And, although we don't know a ton about reforging yet, it seems like it'll be a new way to make gear more unique and interesting.
Turtell Mar 1st 2010 7:12PM
I was hoping they'd have more things like on pvp-set gloves. For mages it reduces pushback of polymorph by 50%, like minor set bonuses but on specific pieces of gear.
Mike Mar 1st 2010 6:25PM
My theory is that Mastery will be found on all major pieces of gear, and you won't ever really make a choice between Mastery and, say, Hit/Crit/Haste. I think this will allow Blizz to much more easily scale a character's power with item level.
Outoforder Mar 1st 2010 6:40PM
interesting thought. And it will make sure that an item with higher ilvl is always an upgrade if the mastery stat always increases.
On the other hand, just the thought of
"LFM Uldum 10man, link achievement and mastery"
is annoying me already
Outoforder Mar 1st 2010 6:32PM
I dont think this is correct. Every gear will likely have Int and Stamina, then probably 2 out of the 3 Crit/Hit/Haste.
Very similar to how it is now, with Int, Stamina and Spellpower on gear, plus 2 out of the 4 Crit/Hit/Haste/Spirit. Essentially the only difference is Int and Sp will be one stat, and you dont have to worry about spirit anymore.
The "more interesting" part might be how reforging/mastery plays in
Outoforder Mar 1st 2010 6:33PM
was meant as a reply to Jeff
Tsaavik Mar 1st 2010 6:38PM
Of all the stats to get rid of, WHY oh WHY did they not get rid of spell hit?!?!