Blizzard On Arcane Mage Changes in Shadowlands - Changes to Address Talents and GCD Concerns

Shadowlands Posted 2020/08/11 at 6:02 PM by perculia

Build 35522 Datamining

Class & Spell Changes

Pre-Patch

Blizzard

Hello Mages. In this week's build, we've made many changes to Arcane as well as a few updates to the other specs to address recent concerns about talents and GCD usage.General Mage Changes

Mirror Image damage greatly reduced, Frostbolt added to all Mirror Image, and while your images are active, damage taken is reduced by 20%. Mirror Image direct damage will cause one of your images to dissipate.

Developers' notes: The goal is to push Mirror Image away from a DPS cooldown and give it a defensive component. Now, only taking direct damage will cause an image to dissipate and there is an ICD of 2 seconds to ensure at least a 6 second uptime when taking damage.

Rune of Power has been reworked to cast at your location when you use one of either Combustion, Arcane Power, or Icy Veins, depending on your spec.

Developers' notes: This change is aimed to help with the cast time and GCD utilization at the beginning of an encounter, while remaining viable in your opener as a high burst window.

ArcaneThe following Arcane changes are focused on reducing ramp up time, as well as opening up more talent options based on the content you're running.

Arcane Power cooldown reduced to 2 minutes (was 3 minutes).
Touch of the Magi now generates 4 Arcane Charges on cast.
New Talent: Master of Time – Reduces the cooldown of Alter Time by 30 seconds. Alter Time resets the cooldown of Blink when you return to your original location.
Alter Time has been moved to Level 24 for Arcane mages.
Resonance damage per target hit with Arcing Cleave increased to 15% (was 10%).
Charged Up removed.

Developers' notes: Touch of the Magi will now generate 4 charges baseline. This opens up the Level 35 tier for more viable options that focus heavily on dealing AoE damage.

New Level 35 Talent: Arcane Echo – Direct damage you deal to enemies affected by Touch of the Magi, causes an explosion that deals Arcane damage to 8 nearby enemies.
Time Anomaly now grants Time Warp for 6 seconds.

Developers' notes: A simple change, but this should make Time Anomaly feel more satisfying as a talent since gaining Time Warp is always a good thing, but gaining Arcane Charges isn't something you'd always necessarily want.

FireFire updates are centered around the change that saw Phoenix Flames baseline as the Ignite spread.

Phoenix Flames damage increased and recharge time reduced, but no longer guarantees critical hits.

Developers' notes: Phoenix Flames still interacts with Hot Streak, so it can benefit within the Combustion window, but outside of that, it will primarily function as a way to spread your Ignite.

Alexstrasza's Fury – Dragon's Breath now also gains a 50% increased critical strike damage bonus.
New talent: From the Ashes – Increases Mastery by 2% for each charge of Phoenix Flames off cooldown, and your direct-damage critical strikes reduce its cooldown by 1 second.

Class Tools

Arcane

Talents

Fire

Talents

Frost

Talents

NEW Alters the fabric of time, returning you to your current location and health when cast a second time, or after 10 seconds. Effect negated by long distance or death.

Arcane Power For 10 sec, you deal 30% more spell damage and your spells cost 30% less mana.
Cooldown changed from 3 min cooldown to 2 min cooldown

Touch of the Magi Applies Touch of the Magi to your current target, accumulating 25% of the damage you deal to the target for 8 sec, and then exploding for that amount of Arcane damage to the target and reduced damage to all nearby enemies.
Generates 4 Arcane Charges.

NEW Direct damage you deal to enemies affected by Touch of the Magi, causes an explosion that deals (12% of Spell power) Arcane damage to 8 nearby enemies.
Tier 4 Talent, in place of Charged Up

Charged Up Immediately grants 4 Arcane Charges.
Removed
Category changed from Talents to Uncategorized

Mana Shield Prismatic Barrier has no cooldown, but your mana is drained by 35% of the damage it absorbs.
Category changed from Talents to Specialization

NEW Reduces the cooldown of Alter Time by 30 sec.
Alter Time resets the cooldown of Blink when you return to your original location.
Tier 2 Talent, in place of Mana Shield

Nether Tempest Places a Nether Tempest on the target which deals (17.061% of Spell power) Arcane damage over 12 sec to the target and nearby enemies within 10 yards. Limit 1 target. Deals reduced damage to secondary targets.
Damage increased by 60% per Arcane Charge.
Arcane: Now requires Level 35, down from 45
Tier 4 Talent, in place of Supernova

Resonance Arcane Barrage deals 10%15% increased damage per target it hits.

Reverberate If Arcane Explosion hits at least 3 targets, it has a 40%50% chance to generate an extra Arcane Charge.

Supernova Pulses arcane energy around the target enemy or ally, dealing (30% of Spell power) Arcane damage to all enemies within 8 yards, and knocking them upward. A primary enemy target will take 100% increased damage.
Arcane: Now requires Level 45, up from 35
Tier 6 Talent, in place of Nether Tempest

Time Anomaly At any moment, you have a chance to gain Arcane Power for 8 sec, gain Evocation for 1 sec, or gain 4 Arcane Charges.Time Warp for 6 sec.

Combustion Engulfs you in flames for 10 sec, increasing your spells' critical strike chance by 100% and granting you Mastery equal to 50% your Critical Strike stat. Castable while casting other spells.

Phoenix Flames Hurls a Phoenix that deals (75%90% of Spell power) Fire damage to the target and reduced damage to other nearby enemies.Always deals a critical strike.
Cooldown changed from 30 sec recharge to 25 sec recharge

Alexstrasza's Fury Dragon's Breath always critically strikes for 50% increased critical strike damage and contributes to Hot Streak. Additionally
Additionally, damage done by your next Pyroblast or Flamestrike is increased by 35%.

Coming Soon This talent is currently dead but will rise again soon!
Removed
Category changed from Talents to Uncategorized

NEW Increases Mastery by 2% for each charge of Phoenix Flames off cooldown and your direct-damage critical strikes reduce its cooldown by 1 sec.
Tier 4 Talent, in place of Coming Soon

Phoenix's Flames Hurls a Phoenix that causes (97.35% of Spell power) Fire damage to the target and splashes (32.45% of Spell power) Fire damage to other nearby enemies. This damage is always a critical strike.
Cooldown changed from 30 sec recharge to 25 sec recharge

Icy Veins Accelerates your spellcasting for 20 sec, granting 30% haste and preventing damage from delaying your spellcasts.

Alter Time Alters the fabric of time, returning you to your current location and health when cast a second time, or after 10 seconds. Effect negated by long distance or death.
Now a Fire/Frost spell
Category changed from Abilities to Specialization

Invisibility Turns you invisible over 3 sec, reducing threat each second. While invisible, you are untargetable by enemies. Lasts 20 sec. Taking any action cancels the effect.

Mirror Image Creates 3 copies of you nearby for 40 sec, which cast spells and attack your enemies.
While your images are active damage taken is reduced by 20%, taking damage will cause one of your images to dissipate.

NEW
Arcane:
Casting Arcane Power creates a Rune of Power on the ground for 15 sec which increases your spell damage by 40% while you stand within 8 yds.
Fire:
Casting Combustion creates a Rune of Power on the ground for 15 sec which increases your spell damage by 40% while you stand within 8 yds.
Frost, Initial:
Casting Icy Veins creates a Rune of Power on the ground for 15 sec which increases your spell damage by 40% while you stand within 8 yds.

Rune of Power Places a Rune of Power on the ground for 10 sec which increases your spell damage by 40% while you stand within 8 yds.
Removed
Category changed from Talents to Uncategorized

NEW Conjure 3 mirrors to torment the enemy for 20 sec. Whenever the target casts a spell or ability, a mirror is consumed to inflict (75% of Spell power) Shadow damage and their movement and cast speed are slowed by 15%.
The final mirror will instead inflict (198% of Spell power) Shadow damage to the enemy, Rooting and Silencing them for 4 sec.

REMOVED Your next 10 healing spells send forth helpful sprites, buffing your target depending on your chosen spell.

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Comment by DaugenYou better believe it boysComment by GwumpypantsARCANE DREAM IS BACK THE LAW BABYYYComment by Baer95This is sounding really goodComment by JimbrooksarcasmComment by taiyarop change is horrible and kills any builds that use rop outside of cooldowns, like frozen orb builds.Comment by TeslahAwesome. Three passive talents in one row. Very creative Blizzard.

/s

Might as well get rid of meteor as well. RoP change will make that talent choice very mediocre. I would have rather dealt with the GCD and ramp up over this.Comment by PerothviusR.I.P. Boredom Arcane... i guess i'll reroll to warlockComment by KolettiThe rune of power change is horrible, they're trying horribly to force bad gcds to work. ANYTHING to not revert the GCD changes, It's honestly hard to watch.Comment by CozzeneMake MI baseline. Gut the hell out of it. GG.Comment by SilmafarionThe Rune of Power change in particular makes me very happy!Comment by TeslahThe Rune of Power change in particular makes me very happy!Comment by Phobos17yes! this arcane feels amazing! <3Comment by jakedp1RIP ROPComment by AxeraThese Arcane changes look/sound ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! I've struggled with the spec all of BfA and these answer a lot of questions I was asking. Love it! Super excited to try it out.Comment by Perothviusyes! this arcane feels amazing! <3Comment by ZeionsThe rune of power change is horrible, they're trying horribly to force bad gcds to work. ANYTHING to not revert the GCD changes, It's honestly hard to watch.Comment by ZelionIf you think these RoP changes are a good thing you are a bot

This makes pyroclasm and firestarter even worse talents.

mage may overtake DH/BM on easiest spec in gameComment by ZelionThe Rune of Power change in particular makes me very happy!Comment by SeanaThank you for dumbing down arcane mage even more.Comment by thugnificent2 min arcane power is going to cause a lot of de-sync issues, at 3 min was nice cause you could basically use stuff outside arcane power and it would still line up when it came off CD or just put it back to 90 secs, other then that everything else arcane got here is pretty awesome

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