I'm sorry, but I just can't get excited about this, and the more I think about it/read people's attempts to make it sound better the deeper this creeping sense of dread becomes. The problem with this mastery in its proposed form is nothing that can be alleviated with numbers and/or talents we don't know about yet. The problem with it is *PERCEPTION*. Even if they get everything right, this feels extremely counterintuitive, and feels like being punished for casting spells, something that is antithetical to the idea of a mage. It doesn't matter how the numbers turn out.

The lack of a burn rotation is also extremely troubling to me. As it stands, when Bloodlust is called, I can pop my "Arcane Veins" macro, toss up my mirror images and go to town. THAT IS FUN. What is not fun is the prospect of being the only person in the raid that can't actually burn the boss down because I'll do less damage. Again: perception. That's what's going to kill this mastery in practice.

And regardless of what they end up doing, this seems exactly the kind of idea that looks interesting on paper but turns out to be a nightmare to balance and gets subject to a nerf/buff rollercoaster over the cycle of an expansion. I can easily see it causing more headaches than it's worth--just look at the problems with gear scaling that cropped up as Wrath dragged on, with various specs across a variety of classes.

I dearly hope they can manage it and that I'm wrong, but I just don't see it.

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