Tag: mage

Where Did The Obscurecast Go?

Posted on by Gazimoff

It’s been a quiet week on the pages of Mana Obscura. There’s normally an update here at least twice a week, but the last post was nearly ten days ago. Ten days. That’s over a week, in case you’re counting.

So what’s been happening to keep me away from blogging for the last ten days? Well, a number of projects have been in the works which have been eating up my time. The first (and possibly the biggest) one is that The Obscurecast has moved to a new home. Feel free to check it out at it’s new location, subscribe to the feed and share your thoughts. All the original episodes will still be on both sites to preserve links, but all new episodes will only be on the new site. If you haven’t checked it out, there’s two more waiting for you to download!

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The Impending Release

Posted on by Gazimoff

There’s currently a lot of theorycrafting about the upcoming release of Cataclysm. Almost all commentators are agreed that it’s going to be out soon, but none of us quite agree on when exactly it’ll happen. Add to it the amount of work that still needs to be finished in the current beta, and you begin to wonder if it’ll be released this year at all.

The gauntlet has been thrown down by MMO-Champion, who are now predicting a November 2 release date. It’s a fair prediction as well: patch 4.0 has just hit the PTR servers, bringing with it the new spells and talent trees that are a core part of the Cataclysm changes. Never mind the new levelling content and dungeons – the PTR should give players an immediate feel for the mechanics of their class.

One of the pre-expansion events has also made it onto the live servers. Operation Gnomeregan and the Echo Isles quests are now active, being a clear mark that the expansion is approaching. It’s new content, but only of a sort – the events take only half an hour to complete, making them more of a light snack rather than a feast of new stuff for players.

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Cataclysm UI: Mage Auras

Posted on by Gazimoff

I’m a big fan of the Power Auras addon. Ever since I got to grips with it, it’s been a huge boon to my play, purely because it displays high priority information in an easy-to-digest manner. Since it arrived on the scene, it’s been a must-have for anyone looking to customise their UI.

It’s no surprise then that Blizzard have decided to incorporate a large chunk of the Power Auras capability into the Cataclysm beta. With last week’s build (number 12857) this capability has been switched on by default. But what do they look like for mages? Hopefully this handy video will explain all

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Entering The Youtubes

Posted on by Gazimoff

Spoiler Warning: Video of new mage Cataclysm spells and Fire mage rotations. Filmed in Ironforge, so no location-based spoilers in this one. There’s more to come, so subscribe to the Youtube channel!

One thing I promised to do as part of my beta coverage was produce some videos of the mage changes in Cataclysm. They say that a picture tells a thousand words, and sometimes it’s more helpful to produce a video showing something than a blogpost describing something.

This is the first video, covering an intro to the new spells and effects and a quick look at rotations. I’m hoping to put subsequent videos together to go into further detail on particular aspects.

Apologies for the low quality. Although I’ve bought a copy of FRAPS, I’m going to have to wait a few weeks before I can get a copy of Sony Vegas. After that, things should definitely improve.

If there’s anything that you’d like to see in a video, feel free to ask and I’ll do what I can. No promises though!

Thanks for watching!

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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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.

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!