My Two Point Four Diary

I'm a bit late to the party to discuss the recently (reasonably) released wave of class changes, but I have a few thoughts to sound out, and fuck it, it's my website and I'll blog if I want to. I use "wave" of class changes as I'd bet my left testicle that these are only the beginning of what's to come as 2.4 PTR evolves.

The changes are in line with the rumored list of potential class changes leaked a few weeks back, and very briefly, here are my thoughts on some of the more interesting points.

Slow/Blink/Spellsteal mana cost reduction. (448/470/448 respectively)

Obviously the Blink and Spellsteal reductions are huge and are basically the main gripe most top players have had with the class. It's no elixir to the general problem of poor sustainability, but it's going to extend how long we can go pre-evocate (which basically takes us out of the fight even if we can get it off) and let us actually occasional use Spellsteal. Rumors of further changes to Blink abound. (New Imp Blink in later PTR build?)

PI changed to 20% haste.

Retarded change that pretty much means PI is going to be solely used for mana burn. It's so bad that I can see BR priests coming back in the smaller brackets. Increasing the haste of your warlock or mage is borderline useless in 3s, and quite marginal in 5s considering you've got IV, bloodlust and PI now all as nonstacking cast speed buffs. The real change should just be to weaken the buff and really lower the CD.

Lifebloom nerf.

A-fucking-men.

IV nerf.

Thank god. Playing mage in 5s has become: get zerged, get free, get PI-Lust-IV, spam and hope to win. This change should help slow down the game a lot, which coupled with all the other changes should probably improve 5s gameplay somewhat.

EM and NS nerf.

Finally? I mean combustion and PoM shared a cooldown for a year even when there was really no similar threat. It's not an elegant solution, and one can certainly argue that AP+PoM is the same thing, but considering the nature of the respective classes, the shaman "IWIN" button was really pretty stupid. This change along with the nerf to the Elemental 4-piece bonus should reduce by a decent amount the damage that shamans can put out under pressure. Removing unmitigatable damage from the game is a good thing. ^^ And yeah unmitigatable isn't word, but it sounds sweet.

Pally fear change.

My favorite change in the whole patch. I think this will be great for 2s and 3s. Between fear and HoJ on the pet, pallies can actually get some decent windows to heal plus they can set up kills on the pet or perhaps bait pet despawns. Sounds hot. ^^


General Thoughts:

As much as changes are interesting independent of one another, the total impact of the how this stuff will change arena dynamics is non-obvious and considerably more interesting. It's pretty easy to figure out how these changes are going to change your dueling odds, but in arenas?


In 2s:

Pre 2.4:

I think AP/Fire + ShS or Muti rogue is a TOP team. It will not beat top warlock/healer teams with any consistency but that's fine, it can beat every other strong team and it wins these with probably higher frequency than a WE mage will. That being said, I think WE + muti rogue is also strong, strong enough for people to not be emo about 2s balance so much to not play the bracket. I like AP/Fire because, by keeping fights short, the class's mana issues are really not very significant.

Post 2.4

Ranged molten armor will be mostly a non-issue. Is impact stunning a warlock as he dots me up going to change much? Might help AP/mage + rogue vs WE mage + rogue a bit, but that's a fight I've never lost as is. WE mage should be forced to block first, after which pom pyro rushdown should be a gauranteed kill -- the extra stuns might help. (Yes the WE team can play a non-aggressive strat where they try to hardcore CC mage and kill rogue -- I've never seen it done well) Otherwise, it's not obvious to me where this is going to really help. (And no, I don't think it will help much against hunter/druid or hunter/priest)

The reduced mana costs on Blink and Spellsteal are going to help WE+muti rogue a lot as will the bufs to Muti. Muti rogue + Ap mage I've still yet to try, it sounds pretty potent, but depending on how things work out, I can see some neat potential with perhaps using Spellsteal to deny HoTs and stall for time.

I don't imagine MA + WE specs being popular in 2s just because of Imp CS's relative potency in the 2s bracket. That's just me though.

Slow still accomplishes very little in this bracket. I don't think it significantly helps a 33/28 mage against the few teams where it is marginally effective enough to compensate for losing both Blastwave and Blazing speed which help a ton against every 2dps team. The extra burst you gain from MM really doesn't make up for losing the extra instant during a rushdown anyways.

WE Mage + lock should improve moderately. They gain better lasting power and there's really no lock nerfs in place yet. I think this is a top team that just isn't played much and is perhaps the strongest mage 2s comp. Their CC protects each other well and eventually sets up a kill.

Mage+Ret Pally? Who knows, seems like it could be strong.

Mage+Healer - Still not viable with these changes.

Overall, some nice changes to the class in particular, coupled with indirect buffs to one of our best teammates (muti rogue) and some mild nerfs to our trouble classes (druid lifebloom change, chastise nerf, PI nerf etc), mages should improve enough to be somewhat more competitive.

In 3s:

Obviously, a lot of people are thinking Molten Shields + WE. It has solid potential and really helps address the 2.3 mage weakness of being unable to kite Shadowstep rogues for shit. I don't think the muti change will be enough to bring back muti rogues in RMP and that coupled with the PI and chastise nerfs are going to really hurt RMP burst. The other changes do not seem to compensate, and the current style RMP is definitely eating a pretty solid nerf -- I think RMP will generally still be fine, but playing it hyper-aggressive doesn't seem like it will be as effective. (Which is fine as mages are much better equipped than they were a few patches ago at lasting in longer games)

I don't think this will have much impact on mage matrices -- Hunter/Mage/Priest, Rogue/Mage/Priest, War/Druid/Mage, and Warlock/Druid/Mage are still going to be the best options. RMP improves the least of the four with the latest wave of changes. (I think...)

In 5s:

The changes amount to a big nerf to 2345. Mages are starting to see representation in other comps now (3dps+rogue), but the sacrifices do seem to outweigh what's been picked up. Without the potential for retarded PI+Heroism+IV spam, I'm just not sure what the class brings to 5s anymore. I still believe that mages and locks work fantastically well together in 5s, and there's still a lot of potential for the 4CC type teams. I don't really feel the class is handicapped terribly going forward in 5s, but the game has been gradually shifting in a direction where the class feels increasingly marginalized. Pushback reduction is a bandaid solution and as play evolves, it's becoming more difficult for casters to make use of their outs.

I'd ramble on more but I'm messing with shit on PTR. <3

XOXO