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2.3 Mage Forecast: Looks Cloudy with Possible Sunny-breaks
November 7th, 2007 by Lipstick ·
Harro, this is Lipstick!
Yes it is I, the notorious Mage named after a make-up product from Vengeance Battlegroup (BG6). My real name is Tim, I’m 20 and reside in the frigid cold reaches of the north, Northren– I mean.. Ontario, Canada. I’ve server bounced quite a bit in my time, I played on Eredar originally in the legendary PVP guild ROAR, bounced to Agammagan where I battled it out against the Angrycarebears for PVP domination over the server in it’s glory days, after that I headed over to Balnazzar to play my first Mage in the infamous guild : “We Brought Snacks”. I fell in love with Mage at this point. When the dust settled I ended up rolling a priest on Darrowmere, just before TBC hit and shortly after dropped the Priest to play a Paladin for Season 1 of Arena. Co-leading the #1 Whirlwind Battlegroup 5’s team came to an abrupt halt just one month before the Season One finished where upon, I decided to play an Undead Mage alongside my Warlock friend Mascara, on Mug’thol, the server famous for hosting “The Fighting Mongooses”. During Season 2, I’ve maintained Standing 1 in 3’s for most of it’s duration, and also held Standing 1 in 5’s, making me the highest rated Mage in the battlegroup. You can armory my current spec, gear, standings at here.
I’ll get straight to the goods, Patch 2.3 PVP-oriented effects on the Mage class.
Ritual of Refreshment will allow players to pick up their own stacks of food and water:
You’re probably thinking, why would he cover that for PVP? A couple reasons actually! The first reason, will lighten your wallets Mages with the reagent cost! Instead of your 3v3 and 5v5 team, having to constantly buy arena vendor water, they will no longer be needed to carry stacks of 100 water for those possible endlessly long games! With the spammable amount of Enriched Mana Biscuits you can pick up the from the Ritual of Refreshment, you no longer need to waste time preparing those extra stacks of food for your teammates they can use while they’re getting a few key sips off, or for them to purchase their own water, it’s just like Season 1 all over again!
Damage coefficient reduction removed from Improved Fireball and Improved Frostbolt:
This is a sweet, sweet, change for the Mage class. I interpret this change as basically receiving free spell-damage. On the PTR, my Frostbolts were hitting for roughly 1600-1700ish and critting for 2.6-2.7k on max resilience targets in full Season 2 gear. This change brings about our biggest boost in damage for Season 3, meaning - stacking spell damage next season won’t be as big of a deal. I’m almost sort of glad to announce, Dreadweave for Mages is dead come Season 3.
Evocation changed to restore 15% of your total mana every 2 seconds:
This is a really huge deal for Mage combat mana-regeneration. Intellect was nerfed pretty hard on Mage Season 3 gear, in trade we received armor stats to deal with all the armor penetration on melee gear (where’s my spell penetration so I can actually snare Fel Hunters?!). With a nerfed mana pool, most Season 3 Mages will be sitting around 9k mana making Evocation return around 1350 mana per tick. Currently in full Season 2 PVP gear in Patch 2.2, Evocation returns around 700 mana per tick. Pretty nice change indeed.
Arcane Meditation increased to 10/20/30% mana regeneration:
Nobody cares.
Ice Barrior gains additional benefit from spell damage bonuses:
Roughly absorbs around 100 more damage with high-end Arena gear, a nerf to the newcomers just beginning to gear up.
Fire Ward and Frost Ward now gain additional benefit from spell damage bonuses:
See above.
Detect Magic removed, all players will see their target’s beneficial effects at all times:
If you haven’t already started to adapt your play-style to this change by stacking mana-effecient Rank 1 Frostbolt Winter’s Chill stacks on your target, you’re going to have to pick this up quickly since 2.3 is hitting next week. This change is BIG. Mages use Detect Magic as a dispel buffer for their Crowd Control, Polymorph and Frostnova. The removal of this spell simplifies what Mages must do for next patch… put talent points into Winter’s Chill. If you haven’t done it Mages, do it now. It’s not even up for debate. I’m telling you, do it now! Aside from that change, It’s actually going to be quite nice in Arena to see your opponent’s buffs (Hey, one is stealth! Rogue or Druid?! Well now you will always know!). Being able to see your opponent’s buffs will be huge for the baddies on your arena team that aren’t on par with your skill level as they will finally be able to realize exactly how that Druid is regenerating his mana so quickly while still casting (Druid Innervated!) or if your shaman lied to you that he fully Purged your burst target, hooray!
Silk vs. Dreadweave Season 3:
If mages are wondering whether to go Silk or Dreadweave Season 3. Go Silk. The reason behind this is while the stats from Dreadweave are very nice, the opportunities provided from Crit far out-weigh it. There has been games where lucky Frostbolt crits have won games for me, most intelligent top-end mages will agree with me on that one.
Season 3 Weapon:
This is up for debate. I still haven’t decided whether or not I will go Staff or Dagger/OH for next season. 2% crit as well as more intellect from the Staff, or more resilience and spell damage from the Dagger/OH? This one is up to your own personal preferences! I’m thinking I’ll go for the spell damage though under the simple logic that expensive things are usually better quality. Staff = 3750 points / Dagger = 3100 + OH = 1000 points = 4100ish.
Mystical Skyfire Diamond Nerfed to 45s hidden Cooldown:
There’s been some debate amongst the Mage forums about whether or not to continue using Mystical SKyire Diamond meta-gems(5% chance on spellcast to reduce cast-time by 1/2), or to switch to the brand new 2.3 caster meta:
Chaotic Skyfire Diamond(14 spell crit rating + 3% increased critital strike damage)
With some extensive testing done on the PTR with the CSD, the actual crit damage with resilience was only working out to around to an extra 150 damage on frostbolt crits, Which is very nice, but the missing utility of the MSD is really noticeable. The proc-rate on MSD has tremendously gone up to around what seems 30%. It honestly almost always procs off a cast whenever the 45s hidden cooldown is up. So while you’re no able longer to chain focus procs together with spells, this gem still shines as the best caster pvp gem, for mages at least. In a series of duels and arena fights, I often found the MSD to be reliable to proc at key moments that would have significant outcomes on the fights, whereas CSD was very lack luster and the damage hardly noticed in the out-come of the fights. Blizzard has stated that the changes to the gem are a definite intended nerf, so we will have to deal with it. Now if only they made it “On Use”…
Season 3 Talent Specs:
Ever wondered how exactly to spec? 17/0/44 or 0/5/56 ? This question has been in debate for sometime among the top Mages. The added survivability with 5/56 is very nice against melee… in duels, Permafrost can just bring so much to the kiting table it’s definitely nothing to scoff at. I’ll settle this by telling you all, 17/0/44 is the premier spec to be. I’ll tell you why, with comparable reasoning as why to definitely get silk next season. The utility Imp cs brings to the table can make or break fights depending on how you use it. A 4 second lockout can prevent a clutch-NS heal from saving your burst target, or interrupt an opposing caster when they make their burst call if you can react quickly enough. As for Fire in arena.. well, I tested it’s viability once again on PTR as the powerhouse “Lockdown” 17/44/0 spec. Imp CS and Dragons Breathe. You can set up some serious combos, I even managed to destroy resto druids. The play style is very fast-paced with scorch as your main nuke, using focus procs to cast DB-fireball combos, following with imp cs and scorches to stunlock and buy you more time to nuke down your opponents. While I wish this spec was viable, it just doesn’t bring the consistent burst + survivability that frost can bring to the table. I recall playing a few arena matches on PTR and Hunters could very easily annihilate me. As a result, Frost will once again reign as the true PVP build for Mages come next season.
For me next season, I don’t care if I’m conforming. Silk + Imp CS for life baby - they really can change the tide of battles.
Ziss: Just want to give a quick link to a new PvP Rogue video from our server Mug’thol,
Spex: Get Raped.
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November 7th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
a nonrogue… unfathomable!
Great article
November 7th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Good article coming from a good player.
I hope to see more content about mages from you - no matter what it may concern.
November 7th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Been 17/0/44 + Silk for a while now, and I’m super excited for season 3
Nice article!
November 7th, 2007 at 3:49 pm
Hey I’m from agamaggan, man you said it glory days over:/ O well nice to see something from mage perspective hope to see more posts
November 7th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Just a reminder guys, especially when we pick up new writers, we will not tolerate personal bashings on them.
Criticism or debate is different then flat out calling the writer a bad player or what not out of spite. Please keep comments clean, and enjoy the shared knowledge.
Thank you!
November 7th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
i do not agree with what you said about your 3v3 ratings
November 7th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
I’ve number one with Priest/Mage/Rogue, Druid/Lock/Mage, and 2 different Priest/Mage/Warrior teams.
I help put the current #1 3v3 team in the battlegroup there.
November 7th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Very nicely written. Summed pretty much all the questions most Mages will have about Arena / Season 3 gear. Two thumbs up!
November 7th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
any chance you know a lock can write some good stuff as you did above.
great article
= D
November 7th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
Specing 0-5-56 do you get impact and wear molten armor? Or what? Which frost talents do you NOT get?
Also, have you tried/do you get improved Cone of Cold? I’ve found it to be very nice damage and since you’re already specing heavy into frost, if you’re not I’d recommend tryin it. Frostbite + snare + 900dmg on 2-3 targets can be very nice, and it’s so hard to hit with in the first place you’ll have no trouble avoiding CCed targets. It is a little pricy mana wise (but not really all that much more than firebalst), and I know alot of people like to use rank 1 for snares, but I often use max rank for damage, especially in 2s and 3s, or 5s vs a team with weak heals.
Kinda wondering what other mages think aoubt it.
-The Kaligon
PS armory link for the curious: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Cho‘gall&n=Kaligon
Most of the time I’m some kind of pvp spec and I don’t have rez sickness, today just isn’t “most of the time” lol
As I post this, I’m logged out with rez sickness speced arcane lol
November 7th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
“where’s my spell penetration so I can actually snare Fel Hunters?!”
I believe you’re getting about 70-80 spell penetration on S3 gear, which will be (more than) enough
Ziss: fel hunter only gets spell resist when you’re demo huh
Gumbot: they have like the standard 100 i think
Gumbot: but as demo
Gumbot: you get 70 for yourself
Gumbot: and 70 for yourpet
Gumbot: and the 70 for yourself
Gumbot: gives 35 to your pet
Ziss: ……….
Ziss: -.-
November 7th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Mages recieve an additional 14 from the S3 ring, that’s about it which gives 17/0/44 mages 54 at best unless they want to pick up the staff that has spell penetration instead of hit which is just plain silly.
November 7th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
I can’t say enough about 0/5/56. That being said, I completely understand why people spec 17/0/44. You really should encourage people to play the spec themselves, as it comes down to personal choice.
Ironically, I find myself missing some of the non-CS arcane talents. Clearcasting is of course huge, but so is 50% better dampen magic for my rogue/mage 2’s team. I currently have >1% miss chance on polymorph, and every resist I blame on a lack of arcane focus.
November 7th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
I honestly used to think 0/5/56 was superior, through and through. Stopping instant heals is such a game breaker though when attempting to finish off a low target. I can’t count how many games Imp Cs has won them for me. I’m starting to think, i’m either going to put the points from dampen magic into arcane focus, as the spell damage difference I don’t really care too much for.
November 8th, 2007 at 12:56 am
Pretty sure Lipstick has his finger crazy glued to his sheep button.
November 8th, 2007 at 2:33 am
It was fun playing your guys’ 5’s team last week (Lipstick and Breaky’s)
There were actually a lot of teams que’ing that night (Schmitette’s team, Dread’s team, WINNARS
November 8th, 2007 at 2:34 am
Post cut off for some reason. I hope we battle it out at the top of the ladder at the start of next season.
November 8th, 2007 at 2:34 am
^
November 8th, 2007 at 3:42 am
what about iceblock soonish becoming a core ability and viability of fire spec in 5’s ? http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=2765962725&postId=28557790894&sid=1#33
November 8th, 2007 at 8:38 am
What a about the gem, if u go full silk.
November 8th, 2007 at 9:53 am
Awesome article, I came to this site that my friend sent me and from listening to the podcast the first thing I asked my friend:
“Is pvpsource only rogues?”
I got the response no but no evidence to back it up.
Now I have evidence, I was previously a rogue until I rerolled on Dethecus server from Cho’gall, 54 Mage right now need to grind to 70 quick for s3, I’m pumped about it. Keep up the articles
November 8th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Woo great to see a good mage blogger, after Radikal quit there wasn’t really anyone else, and Gameriot is full of rogues!
Especially glad that it’s lipstick, because he’s got a really cool 5s make up (no pun intended!) and i’m interested to hear how that’s going/how it works!
Good article, shame about the timing! Some in-depth analysis of how exactly the proposed IB change would affect mages in pvp would be lovely!
November 8th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Oh, perhaps I should’ve check Lipstick’s armory first, his old 5v5 team was really cool, it was Disc Priest, Resto Druid, Ele sham, Frost Mage and Lock (not sure what spec), correct me if i’m wrong.
That was a really cool make up, what happened to it?
November 8th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
It was definitely an interesting make-up to play. We did achieve standing 1 in 5s with it. It was terribly weak against the mana-drain teams that began to surface, especially against druids which now seem to play 5s as well.
November 8th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Hey Lipstick, great post. I run Warr/Mage/Pr as well around 1800 so this is wonderful.
A quick question, you said:
” It’s actually going to be quite nice in Arena to see your opponent’s buffs (Hey, one is stealth! Rogue or Druid?! Well now you will always know!). ”
Could you elaborate?
Thanks
November 8th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
I believe he is talking about seeing a Mark of the Wild buff or Thorns buff on opposing players will give a good hint that its a stealth druid!
November 8th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
Ahhhhh gotcha. Thanks.
December 27th, 2007 at 10:24 am
I’m looking for more info on why silk > dreadweave
from all I can tell you get 3% crit or so, which as far as I can figure from the wowdigger profile I set up would give me right ~ 17% crit for everything but frostbolt, which would get ~ 22 (0/5/56)
resilience at the higher tiers would almost completely negate the amount of crit you have for a 454 resilience target you’d have ~ 6% non frostbolt and ~11% for frostbolt, I’m thinking the extra hp/resil from dreadweave would be better unless you’re not being focused.
any light you could shed would be nice.
July 11th, 2011 at 10:37 am
Thanks for the information provided! I was finding for this article for a long time, but I wasn’t able to see a dependable source.