Mage Season 2 Dragonflight Tier Set Bonuses Reviewed - Guide Writer First Impressions

PTR Posted 2023/03/19 at 7:15 PM by Jaydaa

Dragonflight Season 2 Tier Set bonuses

We've datamined Dragonflight Tier Set bonuses for all 38 specializations in the Patch 10.1 PTR. Check out all the bonuses and armor models below.

Dragonflight Season 2 Tier Set Bonuses & Models for All Classes & Specializations

Our Guide Writers have provided initial first impressions on the Dragonflight Season 2 Tier Set bonuses. Check out all of our released opinion articles below.
First Impressions of the Dragonflight Season 2 Tier Set Bonuses

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Demon Hunter Tier Set First Impressions
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Evoker Tier Set First Impressions
Hunter Tier Set First Impressions

Mage Tier Set First Impressions
Monk Tier Set First Impressions

Paladin Tier Set First Impressions

Warlock Tier Set First Impressions
Warrior Tier Set First Impressions

First Impressions of the Dragonflight Season 2 Tier Set BonusesArcane Mage Season 2 Tier Set First Impression

2-Set - Mage Arcane 10.1 Class Set 2pc - Arcane Surge increases Spell Damage by an additional 5% and its duration is increased by (s3 / 1000) sec.

4-Set - Mage Arcane 10.1 Class Set 4pc - For every 20000 mana spent during Arcane Surge, your Spell Damage is increased by 1% for 12 seconds after Arcane Surge fades, stacking up to 30 times.

Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible Tier Set Bonuses for Arcane Mage

For Arcane Mages in Aberrus, our tier set bonus revolves around Arcane Surge and the window of time following Surge’s expiration.

Underlight Conjurer’s Brilliance

2-Set - Mage Arcane 10.1 Class Set 2pc – Arcane Surge increases spell damage by an additional 5% and its duration is increased by 3 seconds.
4-Set - Mage Arcane 10.1 Class Set 4pc – For every 20,000 mana spent during Arcane Surge, your spell damage is increased by 1% for 12 seconds after Arcane Surge fades, stacking up to 30 times.

30 second Siphon Storm buff from Evocation

12 second Rune of Power buff

5 spell cast Radiant Spark debuff

10 second Touch of the Magi debuff

18 second Arcane Surge buff (which drops a 12 second Rune of Power as well)

12 second Mage Arcane 10.1 Class Set 4pc buff that happens post-Surge

Shifting PowerShifting PowerRune of PowerSiphon StormRadiant SparkFire Mage Season 2 Tier Set First Impression

2-Set - Mage Fire 10.1 Class Set 2pc - Phoenix Flames applies Charring Embers to all enemies it damages, increasing their damage taken from you by 6% for 10 sec.

4-Set - Mage Fire 10.1 Class Set 4pc - When your direct damage spells hit an enemy affected by Charring Embers 30 times, gain Hyperthermia for 6 sec.

Underlight Conjurer's Brilliance

Mage Fire 10.1 Class Set 2pc (2) Set Bonus: Phoenix Flames applies Charring Embers to all enemies it damages, increasing their damage taken from you by 6% for 10 seconds.
Mage Fire 10.1 Class Set 4pc (4) Set Bonus: When your direct damage spells hit an enemy affected by Charring Embers 30 times, gain Hyperthermia for 6 seconds.

Phoenix FlamesHyperthermiaMastery: IgnitePhoenix FlamesCombustionFrom the AshesPhoenix FlamesPhoenix FlamesPhoenix FlamesFirestarterPhoenix FlamesFrom the AshesShifting PowerHyperthermiaFirestarterHyperthermiaCombustionSun King's BlessingHyperthermiaSun King's BlessingHyperthermiaSun King's BlessingPhoenix FlamesPhoenix FlamesScorchPhoenix Flames

It isn't guaranteed to crit unless you take a dead talent (Alexstrasza's Fury).

In most cases, the incentive to not press it is higher than the incentive to press it due to From the Ashes.

Phoenix FlamesFrom the AshesFrost Mage Season 2 Tier Set First Impression

2-Set - Mage Frost 10.1 Class Set 2pc - Flurry and Frostbolt damage increased by 20%. Flurry causes an explosion on impact, dealing 50% of its damage to nearby enemies, damage reduced beyond 5 targets.

4-Set - Mage Frost 10.1 Class Set 4pc - Casting Ice Lance on a frozen target has a 8% chance to trigger Brain Freeze.

The Frost Mage Season 2 tier set bonuses largely reinforce the talents and playstyles that are already the best and most popular by amplifying the spells that these playstyles most rely on. Particularly, there is a strong variant of Frost that focuses on talents like Deep Shatter to amplify Frostbolt damage that almost entirely ignores casting Ice Lance, including entirely ignoring it when Fingers of Frost is available but Winter's Chill is not active. With this "no Fingers of Frost" variant, Ice Lance is only needed to launch Icicles into Winter's Chill and most time is spent casting Frostbolt and Flurry. The 2 piece bonus of this new set only increases the damage of Frostbolt and Flurry, which further incentivizes playing the "no Fingers of Frost" variant. The 4 piece bonus does help to offset this a little, but it is not strong enough to make the variant worse than more conventional playstyles and it is only available once you get 4 set pieces. This means the variant is far stronger when only the 2 pieces have been collected early on in the season.

In single target situations, early simulations show that the 2-piece bonus can be expected to increase damage by around 5% for the standard Frost playstyle and around 7% for the "no Fingers of Frost" variant. The 4-piece bonus can be expected to increase damage for the two playstyles by a further 2.7% and 1.1%, respectively. In total, this is around 8% damage for the standard Frost playstyle and 8.5% for the "no Fingers of Frost" variant. This is generally comparable to the value gained from the Season 1 set. Unfortunately, this is not the case in AoE. Against five targets, the Season 2 bonuses increase damage by only around 4.6% (2 piece) and 2.9% (4 piece) compared to 5.5% (2 piece) and 7.5% (4 piece) for the Season 1 set. In total, this is an increase of 7.7% for the Season 2 set compared to 13.4% for the Season 1 set. This gap is significant enough that at least early on, some players may opt to use the Season 1 set in Mythic+ and on AoE raid encounters instead of the Season 2 set.

Overall, this new set bonus appears to be a step down from the Season 1 tier set bonus thanks to three major issues that can hopefully be addressed before the release of 10.1.

The 2-piece bonus incentivizes dropping Ice Lance from the rotation.
The 4-piece bonus is weak in general due to its low proc chance and can mostly be ignored.
Both bonuses are relatively weak in AoE situations.

Lastly, once again this bonus further incentivizes not playing the already weak Glacial Spike talent. This talent is weak in part because any time spent casting Glacial Spike is spent not casting Frostbolt, Flurry, and Ice Lance; and these three spells are all further amplified by this set bonus.

Comment by sarahcortWhen I saw the notification i've thought blizzard made SOME statement about mages, but it's just wowhead echoing our voices.

I hope they listen at least the biggest wow platform, 'cause the players we already know they don'tComment by burningsuni cant wait for blizzard to change absolutely nothing about mage and make us hate rune of power until the very end of time !Comment by EyeeArcane can be complicated and punishing. For this, it should at least hit hard to reward those who are willing to master it. But it doesn't.Comment by FitzbanGreat feedback on the Arcane set bonusComment by WeiskaArcane can be complicated and punishing. For this, it should at least hit hard to reward those who are willing to master it. But it doesn't.Comment by KerboPreheat is being nice, but Blizzard, we can definitely make the tier more interesting by looking to solve some pain-points that fire currently faces. Upcoming tier set is introducing more annoyances and things to keep track of and anti-patterns that don’t synergize well with the current spec. Let’s fix that.

Consider the following:
2-set: Pyroclasm now also applies to Flamestrike. Additionally, Pyroclasm and Sun King’s Blessing reduces the cast time of the initial Pyroblast or Flamestrike by 30%.

4-set: After 15 Hot Streaks, gain Hyperthermia for (6 - tuning variable) seconds. Hyperthermia now additionally works to trigger Pyroclasm and Sun King’s Blessing. (consider adding this to the Hyperthermia talent instead)

This works to help the extreme time fire currently spends hard casting 3.5+ second Pyroblasts and allows us to make Hyperthermia a more synergistic spell with the current two must-have talents Pyroclasm and SKB. It makes fire mage a much nicer place to be, and adds interesting dynamics and possible new builds to the talent section. This could work to make an interesting Hyperthermia-flamestrike build in m+ aswell, for example, and open up new talents to the current cookie-cutter fire tree.Comment by EisleybandUnless they want to make Arcane Surge move positions with Arcane Orb, this set is bad. A tier set should not force you to pick a talent that you can--for any reason you choose--avoid.

I think this will become a problem with tier being the best option because there is no benefit to not wearing it. There aren't different sets to use instead and now there will be talent restrictions.

If tier is going to require a specific talent, it should work on more than 1 talent (obviously no overlap) so that players have options.Comment by Psychsxi cant wait for blizzard to change absolutely nothing about mage and make us hate rune of power until the very end of time !Comment by DraekenUnless they want to make Arcane Surge move positions with Arcane Orb, this set is bad. A tier set should not force you to pick a talent that you can--for any reason you choose--avoid.

I think this will become a problem with tier being the best option because there is no benefit to not wearing it. There aren't different sets to use instead and now there will be talent restrictions.

If tier is going to require a specific talent, it should work on more than 1 talent (obviously no overlap) so that players have options.A tier set should not force you to pick a talent that you can--for any reason you choose--avoid.
Comment by geostukgiven up on mage after 15 years, its now the most convoluted dumpster dps class in the game.
super long and punishing ramp times are not fun, hard casting pyroblast is not fun, doing no damage in keys lower than 20 and relying on pi is not funComment by Draekengiven up on mage after 15 years, its now the most convoluted dumpster dps class in the game.
super long and punishing ramp times are not fun, hard casting pyroblast is not fun, doing no damage in keys lower than 20 and relying on pi is not funComment by svitaklSeriously... what were they on, when they were designing the fire set bonuses? I have never seen so much anti-synergy.

Oh, your playstyle revolves around hardcasting pyroblasts? Let me give you a bonus that makes your pyroblasts instant and makes you unable to trigger your other talents.

Oh, your playstyle revolves around keeping PF off cooldown? Let me give you a bonus that forces you to use PF and lose a benefit of one of the talents...

The 4p Fire bonus just reeks of having a mandatory cancelaura macro, i hate this game more and moreComment by LagoshaoI hope they change these mediocre effects, I also quite miss glacial spike being meta!Comment by artharonixSeriously... what were they on, when they were designing the fire set bonuses? I have never seen so much anti-synergy.

Oh, your playstyle revolves around hardcasting pyroblasts? Let me give you a bonus that makes your pyroblasts instant and makes you unable to trigger your other talents.

Oh, your playstyle revolves around keeping PF off cooldown? Let me give you a bonus that forces you to use PF and lose a benefit of one of the talents...

The 4p Fire bonus just reeks of having a mandatory cancelaura macro, i hate this game more and moreComment by ottoflopblizzard mage sucks gameplay wise right now. Lets not wait two patches like paladins pleaseComment by Mimch269given up on mage after 15 years, its now the most convoluted dumpster dps class in the game.
super long and punishing ramp times are not fun, hard casting pyroblast is not fun, doing no damage in keys lower than 20 and relying on pi is not funComment by SynapsikusWell i think its time to leave:-(Comment by LawgikalFrost mage is already bottom of the barrel in aoe, this set is going to make m+ a nightmare in season 2. Either our 3-8 target aoe needs to be buffed or this tier set needs to be reworked. Matter of fact, mage needs to be reworked. We are waaayyy past due.Comment by Lawgikalgiven up on mage after 15 years, its now the most convoluted dumpster dps class in the game.
super long and punishing ramp times are not fun, hard casting pyroblast is not fun, doing no damage in keys lower than 20 and relying on pi is not funComment by Lawgikalgiven up on mage after 15 years, its now the most convoluted dumpster dps class in the game.
super long and punishing ramp times are not fun, hard casting pyroblast is not fun, doing no damage in keys lower than 20 and relying on pi is not fun