Mages in Cataclysm: beta

[Rayvyn]

Hello all!

For those of you interested in the changes Blizzard is making to mages in Cataclysm, this thread is for you!

This will be a work in progress as I only just got into the beta this morning. I will be trying to transfer some of my 80's over so that I can give you more end game changes but for now we started with a worgen fire mage.

As you may have already read, Blizzard has changed the talent system. 41 total talent points, 31 of which must be placed into one 'specialty' before you can use any in another tree. As you can probably imagine this brings signifigant changes to the talents themselves.

I don't have much information to give yet as I've only just reached level 18. What I can tell you is the first change I have noticed...

Arcane Missiles. Arcane Missiles now has a 30% chance to proc after casting any damage spell. The only time you can cast this spell now is when it procs. Either it is a bug or it was meant literally, this 30% chance is calculated immediately after casting, which means that even if the spell you cast misses arcane missiles may still have proc'd. There is a message that pops up on the screen alerting you to the spells availability. So far I have mixed feelings on this new mechanic..

Since arcane missiles is still a channeled spell and since the damage output of the spell is still dependant on the duration of the cast it is beneficial to cast this spell at targets that are still far away from you. This can sometimes be impossible to accomplish if your spell has not proc'd with your first spell cast. If you are receiving damage from an enemy this spell becomes practically useless as each hit reduces the duration of your spell, unless the mob attacking you has less than one missile hit of health remaining as that is likely all you'll be able to get out of the spell.

In the fire tree, one of the first talents you have access to does reduce the pushback you suffer from damage while casting and it may be that if you have all the talents placed the pushback may be reduced 100% but I cannot confirm that yet. Talents are awarded approximately every 2 levels so accumulating them takes a bit longer. I will have to let you know how it turns out. I would also add that there may be talents in the arcane and frost trees that also help resolve this conundrum.

All that said I like the new arcane missiles.. it seems to have undergone a cosmetic upgrade. It sounds and looks nice when cast and having it available randomly brings some diversity to your rotation. But in the early going it's difficult to get great use out of it. On the plus side, once the spell has proc'd it remains available for about 3 minutes or so... (I forget exactly, the point is it sticks around for a while) so if you're attacking mobs in succession it's easy to use against the next enemy.

OK, that's it for today. I'll continue to post to this thread with more changes as I encounter them. I will be creating 2 other mages, frost and arcane, so that I can see how those talent trees have changed as well, as well as trying to copy some of my 80 mages in to see what the end game experience is like. If there is anything specific you would like to hear about or anything you'd like me to try please feel free to let me know. You can post the request here or pm me. I'll do my best to answer any questions you have.

See you soon!

[Rayvyn]

So today turned out to be a frustrating day in the beta. Every trainer in Darnassus is bugged and I was unable to train anything.

Leveling was difficult because mobs have been packed in tight and respawn rates are sometimes, well.. instant! The only CC ability I have right now is Frost Nova and I have no AOE ability. Arcane Explosion becomes available at lvl 12, Polymorph at 16, and Cone of Cold at 18 (there is another spell in there at 14.. don't remember which it is) but I can't get any of them because of the trainer issue. Which leaves me with arcane missiles (sorta), frostbolt, firebolt, fireblast, counterspell, pyroblast, and frost nova to handle multiple adds. I'm hoping the trainers, at least class trainers, are teaching tomorrow!

The end result of the previously mentioned fire talent that reduces pushback is 75%. Does allow for atleast 2 missile executions while taking damage, but this is really an "oh #%@!" manuever if you're casting this while being hit anyway! Which I promise, in the early going will happen to you... more than a couple times!

That's all I've got for now. Hoping to have something more for you soon.

Oh! Side note, was unable to transfer any toons into the beta today.. apparently another bug they are working on.

Have fun, see you soon!

[Rayvyn]

Hello again. It's been a while since I posted anything so I thought I'd throw in a quick update. Truth is I haven't been in the Beta much. It's been a bit frustrating lately due to the world server's frequent resets. Found myself more motivated to work on Loremaster than deal with logging in and then getting booted 15 minutes later!

Anyway.. changes are frequent in the Beta so anything you read here will more than likely change, if it hasn't before I finish typing this. If you've read my previous posts you probably noticed that I mentioned Pyroblast being in my inventory of spells (think I got it around level 10), but not anymore! In fact, I can't find the spell anywhere! It's not even listed as a spell to learn at a future level. Nor is it listed in the talent tree. This is probably a glitch at the moment and the frequent statements from other classes in the Beta about their 'best' abilities missing seems to confirm this.

Professions are still not operable. That is to say, you can't have a profession and still train new abilities at your class trainer. While I did try out enchanting early on, I found that I could still make wizard oil which oddly provides the same spellpower increase. Surely Blizz will be correcting that oversight as spellpower is no longer a viable stat in Cata. I noticed no difference in my dps with the oil applied so my guess is that the SP stat boasted by the oil was pure vanity.

It does seem that Blizz has increased the amount of "green" drops, particularly early on. Stats of +INT, +STAM, +HIT, +CRIT and +SPIR have been relatively frequent. On my next post I intend to give you the level of my current character along with all of his relative stats.

That's all for now. Hope to have some useful info for you next post. Should be in the next couple days.

Have fun!