Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Another Change to Gems

Mages' mana gems are receiving another change in the next patch. The range of the mana returned will be narrowed, giving us a more consistent boost. On live realms, the best gem gives 1136-1364 mana. The PTR previously showed a change: it was increased 1800-3000. Now it has been changed again to 2340-2460.

I think this is a buff. Consistency is almost always a good thing in general. Right now, when raiding, we mages (and other mana-using classes) will wait until our mana pool is 3000 away from the maximum before using a [Super Mana Potion]. That way, even if the pot gives its maximum return of 3000 mana, we receive the full benefit.

With the upcoming changes, we can use these gems when we are 2500 (2460 to be exact) away from maximum mana. Couple that with the other mana gem change (each gem having three charges), we will be potting earlier in boss fights, but I think we'll be potting about the same number of times.

Overall, I think we are only getting consistency, which will serve to make us better raiders.

Friday, December 7, 2007

How to Begin PVP

Over on WowInsider, David Bowers presents an interesting conundrum. The gist of the article is that characters who hit 70 usually have greens and blues. If they want to PVP, it can take a very long time before they stand a chance against other characters who have been PVPing for a long time because these veterans generally have multiple epics. He goes on to ask, "How would you advise a new level 70 to get into PvP?"

I think there are a few solid ways that fresh level-70 characters can jump into the PVP game.

1. Do battlegrounds. The team in a battleground is much bigger than an arena team, so the fact that you are personally undergeared doesn't have as large an effect. Also, be sure to do the daily battleground quest for additional honor.

2. Craft your own epics. Choose professions according to your class, and craft away.

3. Do arenas anyway. They don't care arena gear "welfare epics" for nothing. Get in the ring and battle with the big dogs. The points will come slowly at first, but they will add up. Your feelings might get hurt by how badly you'll do, but you definitely will not regret it.

4. Socket your gear with Stamina gems and Resilience gems. I highly recommend [Steady Talasite]. They sell for 20g+ on the Auction House though, so if you can't afford those, I suggest [Solid Azure Moonstone].

Other than that, you're on your own! Good luck, and don't give up!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Trainable Ice Block

For the longest time, we mages have been pigeon-holed into one spec depending on whether we wanted to excel at PVE or at PVP.

If we wanted to PVE, we needed to spec fire. Reason? Arcane had terrible mana efficiency and Frost had poor DPS.

If we wanted to PVP, we needed to spec frost. Reason? Frost had Ice Block, which gives us survivability so we can last longer than 3 seconds in an arena.

This will all change in a couple weeks when the 2.3.2 patch hits.

Eyonix writes:
There are a few nice improvements we're making to the mage class in patch 2.3.2 (a small patch that will be on the public test realms soon) and we wanted to share them with you. First, we'll start out with two changes affecting all mages. Ice block will become a core ability, trainable by all mages at level 30. Additionally, conjure mana (rank 6) will restore 1800-3000 mana and will now have three charges, meaning you can use it three times before having to create a new one.

To be sure we're clear here, yes, the same cooldown will still apply between usages. :P

Cold snap will be moved to Ice block's position in the talent tree and its cooldown will be reduced. As a side note, it will no longer reset the cooldown on fire ward. Moving in to Cold snap's spot will be a brand new ability called Icy Veins. This new ability will decrease casting time for all spells by 20% and increases the chance that chilling effects freeze the target by 25%. It's an active ability, lasting 20 seconds and has a 3 minute cooldown.
The 2.3.2 patch notes are up, further clarifying these imminent changes.

That's right. Trainable Ice Block. Pretty soon, fire will be a viable choice for arena PVP. This will be a HUGE change for non-frost mages everywhere.

And how about Icy Veins? The cast time bonus will give a much-needed boost to frost DPS for PVE. The freeze chance bonus will be amazing for PVP.

I have more on the mana gem improvements here.

What do you think about these mage changes?

Mana Gem Improvements

We mages can create mana gems. Our first gem is craftable at level 28, and it restores 375-425 mana. Our latest gem is craftable at level 68, and it restores 1136-1364 mana. And there are several gems in between.

The catch is, we can only carry one gem of each type at any given time. In other words, we can't conjure up 5 of our best gem. Many of us have resorted to conjuring our highest ranked gem and our next-highest. We do this so we can use two gems in a single boss fight, if necessary.


It's almost pointless to create a third or fourth down-ranked gem though, because the amount of mana restored decreases with each lower rank.

The latest gem improvement, announced here, will change all that. The improvement is two-fold:
1. The highest ranked gem will restore 1800-3000 mana (the same as the highest mana potion, [Super Mana Potion]).
2. The gem will have 3 charges, so we can use it three times before having to create a new one.

What does all this mean? First, it means that you won't need to buy as many mana potions. You'll only need to burn a potion when you've first burned through all 3 of the ones you can conjure.

Secondly, it means that you won't need to conjure up lower-ranked gems in order to have multiple gems on hand at once. Essentially, we will be able to carry three of the highest ranked mana gems at once.

Thanks Blizzard. :-)

Hi, My Name is Expopp

Greetings! Welcome to Magenomics. My name is Expopp and I'll be your host. This blog will be about my adventures in World of Warcraft, as a mage. I will also discuss World of Warcraft issues, especially ones that affect mages.

This is me sitting on the Stormwind Bank steps in the moonlight.


So if you see me around, give me a holler. I am on the Spirestone realm. I hope to meet you some day. :-)