Expansion brings out the Fire Mages like a Mage Battle never could…
So I battled away on behalf of all Fire Mages across Azeroth, fighting arguabley a losing battle.
End result:
- Arcane mages love Arcane
- Frost Mages love Frost
- Fire Mages love Fire.
Then the strangest thing happens… Blizzard throws us poor old Fire Mages a rope, while dumping Arcane Mages in a bottomless pit.
So Larisa has come back to the fold.
Velinath has come back to the fold.
How many more Mages have now seen the blazing light and returned to Fire?
Of special note are those loyal to the flame… come on down Pew Pew!
Finally, a new Blogging Flame has been sparked.. check out the latest Fire Mage blog to hit the scene, with the apt URL of http://pyroblast.wordpress.com/ we have Ten Days in Azeroth: Ramblings of a Fire Mage
Gnomer and Out!
My impression so far is that Arcane may be useful for PvP. But I still carry a little hope that they’ll change things in upcoming patches. And who knows how things will be at level 80?
But yes, for the time being I’ve joined your ranks again and I feel pretty much at home. Business as usual, with Hot streak as a new fun addition, getting me out of the sometimes pretty monotonous – keep up scorch – spam 8 fire ballls rotation.
I haven’t yet pulled my thoughts together to write a public post about my respeccing. I guess I should do that some day.
Arcane is the new one-trick pony in PvP, especially against other casters. It’s rediculous how even blue equipped arcane mages perform when /facerolling Arcane Barrage, and the other classes are crying for nerf for a good reason.
Fire is now hands down the best single-target DPS spec since the patch, even without icy veins. Frost can no longer compete here, its mana efficiency is pointless now at lvl70, as the fight duration is heavily decreased due to the -30% mob HP nerf and higher overall raid DPS.
I’m still raiding deep frost however, I just need the increased utility and survivabilty for the encounters we’re learning now (halfway through SW), and frost excells at doing AE damage now that Blizzard can crit, it really makes fun.
Single-target wise frost hasn’t really improved apart from FoF which increases the crit chance a litte. The WE does the same DPS as ever (still gains no +hit), and Brain Freeze only increases DPM but has almost no effect on DPS. Deep Freeze is just plain useless in PvE. I can understand that lots of frost mages are now disappointed, especially Lhivera, but I won’t lose hope until seeing how fire/frost/arcane perform at lvl 80.
/cheers to my firy brethren
(and /fail to the arcane barrage kiddies)
My mage is now Fire from frost because i like my dps to have nig numbers hehehe.
Seriously the crits are mental im 2 hitting most things just now.
Thanks, Gnome! It’s worth mentioning that I’ve been fire since birth. Well, since Devv’s birth. You know what I mean!
Oddly enough, I went back from fire to arcane after the patch. I think arcane is going to be the best all-around spec for leveling — really good instancing spec, and also good for solo questing and such.
When I get back into end-game at 80, we’ll see what happens. Fire was a stop-gap to increase my raid DPS in TBC, but arcane’s always been my favorite spec — it just defines what being a mage means to me.
How’s the mana management on mages these days? I haven’t touched my low level mage since the patch and was wondering what to do with it.
I’d like to try arcane but I think it’s viability at lvl 40 is probably somewhat lacking unless they fixeth some of the mana issues.
Bit off topic… but I am a warlock so I didn’t have much going for me here anyway hehe
I am probably not the best to comment, as I have been avoiding everything serious in game.
That said, Kara and ZA were done with only rare use of gems or pots (and usually only because we were stuffing around and not killing the bosses, or pushing on for the next trash kill).
I have noticed occasionally (HHM a case in point), where one fight I don’t have a scrap of mana left… but the next 20 similar encounters I am drowning in mana.
I must be throwing specials around like they are going out of style, panicking and settling down.
The biggest issue I am having at the moment is getting more than 1 or 2 fireballs off before the mob goes down under the weight over overpowered “Wrath toons” playing in Burning Crusade
I stayed Fire post 3.0.2. I really wanted to go Arcane but my mage is specced for Raids and right now “Arcane iz 4 Peevy Pee”
@6: As fire, mana longevity is not a problem even on long fights (well, as long as there are post-nerf)–in my BT runs, if I find myself with a mana problem, I’ll pop a couple ticks of Evocate, throw on Mage Armor, and my MP5 will keep my mana up enough that I can sustain DPS. However, this even is rarely needed. Usually Molten Armor will be fine, and mana longevity will still not be an issue, unless you get an unholy amount of Hot Streak procs, which I’ve found despite the % mana back for crits will drain your mana.
Increased mana pool at 80 will probably mean that Fire will continue to be THE spec for raiding, with virtually unbeatable sustainability.
Arcane of course is still mana intensive (IMO) although I have seen some arcane mages raiding.
Also, Gnomeaggedon, it’s good to be back. =)