Beta Patch – The Pyromaniac’s Impact

Posted on by Gazimoff

Spoiler Alert: Discussion of Mage changes in patch 12759. In this article, I’ll also be focusing on Impact, Pyromaniac and AoE talents and how they’ll work together in a solo, dungeon and raid environment.

A whole slew of mage changes came out in the most recent patch. The main ones were around armour specialisations and talent masteries. Wearing our normal gear (complete cloth armour) nets a handy 5% increase in Intellect. For fire mages, Mastery now gives us a tasty bonus to the DoT component of our spells. Both the specialisation and mastery appear in our spellbook once we’ve learned them from the trainer.

The new teleport bar that I mentioned after the previous patch has now been fleshed out with all teleport spells. The only snag is that only the Dalaran and Shattrath spells work now, meaning that for most mages it’s now a two-hop trip to wherever we want to go. Even so, it’s still better than catching a boat everywhere.

Apparently there are new teleport and portal spells available to the new Tol Barad PVP zone, although I haven’t had a chance to test these yet. There are currently no teleports or portals to Vash’jir, Deepholm or Uldum, although there are static portals at Stormwind and Orgrimmar.

The other big change is that creature damage has been heavily ramped up from level 65 onwards. Level 82 outdoor creatures now do four times as much damage as they used to, which is horrendous news for cloth classes with little to no damage mitigation.

Currently, solo questing involves constant use of mana shield, counterspell and frost nova. And that’s for every single pull, just to stay alive. Going toe to toe with mobs in Deepholm is an excruciating experience – you have to work hard to take down a single mob. If you have anything add to the fight, you’re toast. Don’t forget that Polymorph won’t help you there as almost everything you fight is an elemental of some description.

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The Quest Converyer Belt

Posted on by Gazimoff

Spoiler Alert: Discussion of the phasing technology used in Cataclysm, it’s history, application and the problems surrounding it. Some allusion to in-game events/quests, although no specific details.

Back in Vanilla, Warcraft was mainly a scattering of quest hubs, each with their localised set of quests. Sure there may have been prerequisites such as a minimum level, but by and large you could quest where you liked. In Cataclysm the experience is streamlined into quest tunnels that guide you through a zone from one end to the other. To help with this, phasing is the toy of choice in the quest designer’s toolbox.

Phasing as a technology started out with a single quest in Burning Crusade. “Intercepting the Mana Cells” was added in patch 2.4.0 as part of the daily quests for the Shattered Sun Offensive. These quests were part of the overall Sunwell Plateau content update, adding the final dungeons and raid instances before the release of Wrath. In the quest, the player used a device to move “out of phase” and be able to interact with the items they needed to complete the quest.

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Under The Sea

Posted on by Gazimoff

Spoiler Alert: Pictures of fish! With funny names! And funny faces! And nothing at all to do with anything else really, apart from the funny fishes! It’s not even mage-y!

As you probably know already, Cataclysm ushers in a whole range of changes. New places to explore, new creatures to see. For the seasoned adventurer it’s like being a kid in a toystore – you want to look at everything all at once, and your determined to try growing a bazillion eyes in order to do it.

Since I’ve been spending a lot of time gawking at these strange creatures instead of actually doing any beta testing, I thought I’d share some pictures of them. Be warned, there are pictures of fish ahead.

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Entering Beta: The 80 Fire Mage

Posted on by Gazimoff

Spoiler Alert: Discussion of the latest changes to fire mages in build 12694. Also covering a few general and mage related UI changes and some speculation around what they indicate.

The latest beta realm patch was recently released, bringing with it a range of changes to the Mage fire tree (full notes in the forums). I’d been holding off doing any serious work on my level 80 transfer because these changes were inbound, and it’s definitely been worth the wait. The subtle playstyle changes have livened up the spec, both for PvE and PvP fans alike.

First up, let’s look at the baseline. Comparing my mage to his Wrath counterpart, his health pool has crept up almost 10k hp while his mana pool has remained flat at around 25k. Spellpower, haste, hit and crit percentages are also broadly in line with those in the current live game (although Spellpower is slightly higher in beta). Making the transition should be fairly smooth. The biggest issue will be the wasted spirit statpoints on non-set or filler gear – reforging or replacing may be the best way to deal with these items.

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New Mage Experience: Pt 1

Posted on by Gazimoff

Spoiler Warning: Discussion of the early Mage class experience, including when spells become available and how they impact gameplay. No lore, story or plot spoilers.

After firing up the Cataclysm beta on Friday evening, I’ve since tried a handful of characters. My level 80 mage has now been copied over, mainly so that I can have a look at the fleshed out talent trees. Because there’s a whole batch of changes to the Fire tree due to land in the next beta build, I’ve instead focused on the experience of rolling a new mage.

I initially started off by rolling a Gnome but there are currently a handful of bugs for both Gnomes and Trolls at character selection. As a result I decided to try a Worgen so that I could get a feel for the new starting area at the same time. Don’t worry though, I’ll be keeping this all Mage-centric.

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The Beta Mage

Posted on by Gazimoff

With a bit of luck, coupled with the generosity of those fine people at Curse and World of Raids, I’ve managed to get into the Cataclysm beta!

If you’re interested to know what I’ll be covering then please take a look at my Cataclysm Rules of Engagement. This basically means that I won’t be posting spoilers on quest X or Y, but instead will stick to coverage of class mechanics, spells and talents.

Current plans are to document the mage leveling experience, both for new races and existing ones. I’ll also be looking to talk about the level 80 experience when faced with a completely new talent tree. More on that soon.

If there’s something you’d like to know more of then please ask and I’ll add it to the stack of things I’m going to cover. I’m also going to try and record some videos and put them on Youtube (complete with British Accent commentary)! If there’s something you’d particularly like to see, please let me know.

A Good Beta Tester?

Posted on by Gazimoff

I started writing this topic in response to a blue post from Ghostcrawler. It seems that while the beta programme is proceeding at pace, the quality of feedback they’re getting is dropping. Rather than trying to paraphrase the Crab himself, I’ll let you read his words directly.

I hate to go all forum moderator on you guys, but we’ve seen a recent downward spiral in the quality of some of these threads and posts here on the beta forum.

Story time: I started posting heavily in the Lich King beta forums. It was a great experience and lot of players enjoyed the opportunity to be able to have intelligent conversations directly with the developers. I’ve heard over and over ever since then what a positive experience that was for a lot of players. It’s for that reason that I am going to be fiercely protective of the quality of posts here in the Class Discussion forum.

If you see a locked thread, chances are we thought it crossed the line. If you keep making the kinds of threads that get locked, then you’ll be removed from the beta and we will replace you with someone who can provide intelligent feedback. Sorry to sound like a jerk — I hate making these kinds of posts. But we want participating in the beta to be a positive experience.

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Mage Community Forums Now Live

Posted on by Gazimoff

You asked for it, so here it is. After an overwhelming response from the community, both in the original blogpost and elsewhere on the web (see here, here and here) I’ve gone and put together a set of forums for mages to discuss, share and plot against warlocks.

Feel free to head on over to the fourms and join up. Registration is quick and easy, and you can dive right in and start posting as soon as it’s done. You don’t need to be some mage guru to join either – both newcomers and old hands are welcome to join.

There’s also a couple of spots on the forums for you to talk about the blog, The Obscurecast podcast and anything else that may take your fancy.

Let’s hope that this place grows into a flourishing new home for mages.

Calling All Mages!

Posted on by Gazimoff

There’s been an idea that I’ve seen kicked around Twitter a couple of times, but I’ve not seen anything come of it. It bubbled up again in the middle of the RealID Forum fiasco, but went quiet after Blizzard changed their plans. As a result, I’m not sure if it’s needed or wanted, or if anyone else is planning anything.

Basically, do mages want or need their own spot on the web?

There’s a handful of reasons why I think it’d be a good thing, plus I think it’ll sit alongside places like The Warlock’s Den, Tankspot, Shadowpriest.com, Shadowpanther and so on. Even the Shaman are getting in on the act with Operation Totemspot.

So please, PLEASE, leave your comments on this. Do you think it’s a good idea? Would you use it? What would you expect it to do? Would you be interested in getting involved? Anything else you can think of?

That’s it for now – I have a podcast to prepare for!

UPDATE: Following the enormous response, I’ve opened up a new set of forums! You can find them here or by clicking the “Forums” link above. Please go there, register and join in!

Games Within Games Within Games

Posted on by Gazimoff

I used to exclusively play single-player games, drifting from title to title from month to month. After I’d finished eating through the content that the developers had created, the game was finished for me. Achievements or multiplayer modes didn’t exist nearly as much back then, so there wasn’t really anything else left to play for.

Singe I started playing Warcraft, I’ve bought what, maybe a handful of games? All of them titles that I’ve wanted to try out, that have looked cool, that have felt right.

Know how many I’ve completed? Zip. Nada. Zilch.

I must suck as a gamer or something.

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