Arcane Mage: Evocation Suggested Changes

Classes Mage
1

TL;DR:

  • Suggested change: Evocation: Increase your mana regeneration by 750% for 6 seconds. Channeled (6 sec cast). Cooldown: 90 seconds. Cooldown is reduced by haste (same interaction as with Fireblast)
    • Current version: Evocation: Increase your mana regeneration by 750% for 6 seconds. Channeled (6 sec cast). Cooldown: 90 seconds.

Hey guys! I’ve been thinking about a small change to Evocation that could make a world of difference for Arcane.

Currently, haste is viewed as bad for Arcane because while it does make you cast faster, it also drains your mana faster. My suggestion is simple, and has a lot of cool interactions, including with the Siphon Storm legendary which rarely sees any play:

  • Suggested change: Evocation: Increase your mana regeneration by 750% for 6 seconds. Channeled (6 sec cast). Cooldown: 90 seconds. Cooldown is reduced by haste (same interaction as with Fireblast)
    • Current version: Evocation: Increase your mana regeneration by 750% for 6 seconds. Channeled (6 sec cast). Cooldown: 90 seconds.

This has a couple of interesting implications. First of all, for those who don’t know, the way cooldown is calculated when scaling with haste is with the following equation:

  • Actual cooldown = Base cooldown * (1 - (Haste / (Haste + 100))

To give some examples of haste values and how that would result in terms of cooldown for this change:

  • 0% haste = 90 seconds cooldown
  • 10% haste = 81.8 seconds cooldown
  • 20% haste = 75 seconds cooldown
  • 30% haste = 69.2 seconds cooldown
  • 40% haste = 64.3 seconds cooldown
  • 50% haste = 60 seconds cooldown
  • 100% haste = 45 seconds cooldown (only with Lust + PI)
  • 150% haste = 36 seconds cooldown (unobtainable)
  • 200% haste = 30 seconds cooldown (unobtainable)

Now, an interesting interaction that this would have is with the Shifting Power covenant ability for Night Fae, as this would further reduce the cooldown of Evocation to the following:

  • 0% haste = 70 seconds cooldown
  • 10% haste = 61.8 seconds cooldown
  • 20% haste = 55 seconds cooldown
  • 30% haste = 49.2 seconds cooldown
  • 40% haste = 44.3 seconds cooldown
  • 50% haste = 40 seconds cooldown
  • 100% haste = 25 seconds cooldown (only with Lust + PI)
  • 150% haste = 16 seconds cooldown (unobtainable)
  • 200% haste = 10 seconds cooldown (unobtainable)

Obviously, this has a huge interaction with the Siphon Storm legendary, whose effect is listed below:

  • Siphon Storm: Evocation grants 1 Arcane Charge, and while channeling Evocation, your Intellect is increased by 2% every 1 second (max 12% after 6 seconds of channel). Lasts 30 seconds.

Considering this and the fact that Siphon Storm lasts 30 seconds, there could be an argument for building a Haste-build Arcane mage that doesn’t run out of mana instantly, and has plenty of power to show for it in the form of Siphon Storm (which already sees almost no use). Furthermore, if this change ends up being OP because of Siphon Storm’s duration, then a simple fix for this would be to reduce the duration of Siphon Storm from 30 seconds to 20 seconds, for example, meaning Blizzard wouldn’t be creating a monster like they did in BfA with Fire mages and the Mechagon Bracers. Very easy change to apply and very easily nerfable with a ton of diverse builds that can stem from this.

Summary:

Currently, most if not all of Arcane mages play as Mastery + Crit / Vers, because Haste results in massive mana deficits, which cripples your damage (and Mastery does the opposite by increasing your Mana and Mana regen, as well as damage). Applying this change to Evocation is indeed a buff to Arcane, but not a buff to the currently most played Arcane mage builds, as most if not all of the top Arcane mages in the world run a near-0% haste build, which this change does nothing for.

This change would allow Arcane mages to get a benefit out of haste without crippling their mana pool, while at the same time bringing about the possibility for a full-haste build with the Siphon Storm legendary as bonus damage.

Thoughts?

2 Likes
2

An interesting take on the whole idea. I’d like to see it would be pretty cool and a great way to make a legendary more appealing.

1 Like
3

Maybe, but you’d end up de-syncing Evo with AP/TotM which would possibly be a damage loss.
That said, I’m all for anything that makes Haste not a trash stat for Arcane (especially because it makes it so hard to swap between Arc and Frost which favours all the haste and no mastery).

2 Likes
4

Interesting idea, for sure.

I think Arcane would benefit so much from having Slipstream baseline, and I don’t think making the talent baseline would in any way impact the spec in terms of balance either. However, given how they’ve not touched Frost/Arcane in the PTR (outside of the cov legos, which isn’t spec-specific), I doubt they’re keen on changing up these specs.

2 Likes
5

Wouldn’t it be more sensible for Haste to simply increase mana regeneration?

6

That’s what Mastery does? Mastery is like old Intellect/Spirit and Spell Damage all in one stat.

7

Changing evocation is better for several reasons:

  1. if haste gives increased mana regen along with mastery, you risk a scenario where you create too much mana regen since that mana regen would apply multiplicatively
  2. changing the cooldown of evocation is more interesting mechanically because it makes siphon storm stronger and thus more viable, which simply adding mana regen haste does not
  3. it is easier from a coding perspective to change a cooldown mechanic to something already present on other spells like fireblast than to add a new mechanic that would need to be bugtested extensively to prevent exploits
  4. in the setting of buffs like PI and lust, adding mana regen to haste would increase it linearly rather than assymptotically, meaning you could endlessly stack haste and not have diminishing returns. To demonstrate this, if you start with 30% haste and lust, you now have 69% haste. Because this change works asymptotically, Lusting would only provide a 15% cooldown reduction on evocation. By comparison, if you lust and haste gives you mana, you would add 39% mana regen, making haste far stronger than intended for mana purposes