So, ever since I started maining Mage for the first time there’s been a nagging thorn in my side: Shifting Power. On paper it seems like a neat talent, but it has had a very annoying side effect: de-syncing my cooldowns from my trinkets. I’m certainly not against the talent existing - I think it’s good for Fire and Frost who have multiple short cooldowns that benefit greatly from Shifting Power. But as Arcane I really want to get my hands on a good 90 second CD trinket to pair with Surge, and Shifting Power is just… ugh, it ruins it.
I think it would be nice if the talent spot was a choice node instead, so those of us that don’t want Shifting Power can pick something else instead.
One possibility would be Inspired Intellect, since it’s not being used anyway as Time Anomaly is overwhelmingly preferred.
Another possibility is bring back Radiant Spark. While more mechanically intense than just a flat buff, I do know Radiant Spark with popular with a lot of mages back in Shadowlands (especially Arcane mages).
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There would be nothing that would be better than an ability that brings you closer to your damage CDs again. Nothing.
???
I literally just said Radiant Spark was popular with a lot of mages over Shifting Power. The other two covenant abilities also saw play (perhaps least so Venthyr’s).
Hard disagree, especially if it throws off your cooldown lineups with trinkets and external.
Notable case in this patch is the mechagon staff, which lines ip perfectly with touch of the magi, except it doesn’t because of shifting power.
Another notable example is how ele runs 3 min ascendance instead of 2 min, because it makes the 3 minute give 20% more haste, and applies that bonus to DRE procs.
The best example by dar is incarn for bears, which used to make them completely immortal back in shadowlands. Then they strapped cdr to it and now it is a significantly weaker cooldown.
The game isn’t always “shorter cd = better”. Shorter cdr means it needs to be weaker, which I am against.
What I do care about, however, is lineup of cds with trinks and externals, which is currently not doing with Shifting power in play. I care about this because gameplay wise it feels absolutely asful to not have your cooldowns line up. It is a gameplay feeling bad problem, similar to how radiant spark felt just a little bad because it was 30 sec cd instead of 45 (even though it was used every 45 second). It just feels bad to not have good lineup
You could simply add a talent there that adds 5-8% damage as a choice node to shifting power (weaker for fire but a number that is better for arcane) and i would be satisfied tbh. Better still, you could make shifting power a choice node with time anomaly, and put fire mage’s cheat death where time anomaly is (and remove that arcane int choice node) and fix multiple problems at once.
3 Likes
Definitely a lot of options Blizzard could do. I just want some kind of choice for those of us that utilize an on-cooldown item and want cooldowns to line up.
You can disagree. But again anything that brings you closer to your major damage CDs will always be better.
Your not wrong, anytime they have choice nodes with power gains one is a dead talent. I don’t love shifting power, even more so after they removed the native movement it once had, but it’s the devil we know.
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I’ve been saying for YEARS to remove shifting power from the game. Its just awful.
Blizzard did fix it and make it arcane based from a lore stand point. They also changed the animation. But pressing it feels bad.
A couple changes that might help it as they dont seem to want to remove it from the game.
- Shifting power is now castable while moving. So if we have to dodge a mech we dont waste it.
- Shifting power AOE damage is increased by X, so it doesnt feel soo weak pressing it.
I’d prefer just shorter CDs and have it go away completely LOL.
3 Likes
Arcane worked just fine when Arcane Power was on a 1:30 cd. Then Blizz for whatever reason decided “Hey, let’s arbitrarily make AP 2:00, but put in an annoying ability to reduce the cd by 12 seconds. Oh, and to make it even more fun, let’s make it a long, channeled cast that reduces its own effectiveness. And hey, let’s have you completely rooted to the spot while channeling it!”
2 Likes
Shifting Power, just like everything else that came out of SL is an abomination (and I don’t mean the adorable undead kind, lol).
As an AoE ability is it awful because it roots you in place and you need to be in melee range to make use of it.
Then there is the incredibly ridiculous notion of having a cooldown that reduces your other cooldowns. While clunky in any circumstance, it’s manageable for Frost and Fire but incredibly problematic for Arcane which has to line up half a dozen cooldowns and stack them together. Using Shifting Power even a few seconds late because something caused you to have to delay it throws everything off. Canceling it early because of forced movement also negates its effect and actually ends up being a DPS loss because of the wasted GCD. Even if used optimally the CDR it provides is significantly offset by the time you waste channeling it which is time you could have been doing something else that does actual damage. And then no matter what you do it will always desync your ability cooldowns from your on-use trinket cooldowns.
Any way you cut it, it’s a horribly designed ability, particularly when you factor in that every Mage spec is designed and balanced around its optimal use which is not an easy thing to do for the average or even advanced player.
P.S. The only people that like Shifting Power and defend it are hardcore Fire Mages who only care about one thing, reducing the cooldown on Combustion, to the exclusion of everything else… even commonsense.
3 Likes
I dunno, man. I’m pretty sure I’d take “increases all damage by 100% at all times” over “channeled spell that reduces cooldowns by 12 seconds”.
Given the balance (or lack thereof, depending on how you see it) of the talents in our trees, it’s almost certain that Shifting Power is among the strongest for DPS. But it doesn’t need to be. Most of the mages I’ve seen talk online tend to only like shifting power because “I get more cooldowns and therefore more damage”. But a lot of them have been just as frustrated by the cast time / range / damage / lack of movement / desyncs that are caused by the spell.
If there was a choice node with Shifting Power that was even remotely comparable to the level of damage and utility that it provides, I would consider it. The problem is that Shifting Power reduces all of our mage cooldowns, not just our DPS ones. It would be almost impossible to make a talent that could come anywhere close to competing with it.
Blizzard would be better off adding a supplementary talent (perhaps in place of Mass Polymorph) that reads:
Shifting Power can now be cast while moving and also reduces the cooldowns of equipped items
It’s by no means a perfect solution, but I’m pretty sure it’d eliminate a good portion of player complaints. Aside from that, the only real alternative I see is to go the way of Rune of Power and remove it because “it is difficult to balance and therefore unhealthy for the class as a whole.”
4 Likes
Covenant abilities are why I don’t consider playing mage anymore. Any time I see something that makes me think it could be fun to try it again I remember that Shifting Power (and previously Radiant Spark) is still there, so I don’t.
In my experience, the only spec that Shifting Power feels good as is Fire. Both Frost and Arcane could definitely do without it.
I’d rather go the opposite route and remove the damage component from Shifting Power entirely. It already does no damage, so we don’t need to stand on melee to make it effective, so it only being a CDR tool is for the best. I’d HATE to cast Shifting Power during Combustion or Arcane Surge just for the damage.
I kind of just hate that it’s something you just have to hit on cooldown vs. something that feels particularly integrated into the spec/rotation. There isn’t much strategy around it, other than not hitting it right before combust and not using if when you have a hot streak. I dunno, I kind of just wish this node gave each spec a cool nuke/ability to use outside of cooldowns, instead of just a cooldown reducer.
Good point about your trinkets desyncing with your cooldowns. Though, I actually have grown to like Shifting Power. Having control over making a handful of CDs come back on your own accord feels pretty good actually. It took playing Subtlety Rogue to realize I like Shifting Power. You get CDR on Sub Rogue for Shadow Dance and Secret Technique when you use finishers, but those in between moments before combat happens again make me wish I could lower their CDs to be ready for the next fight.
Think of holy pally’s too. They have to play blessing of summer LOL. Can you imagine how they feel if you really asked them? I know how i feel when I have this talent on my hpal.
Shadow Lands is the expansion that we wished time forgot.
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But is it really “on your own accord” or is it just part of a rotation?
If it were a 3 or 5 minute cooldown where we need to choose when to use it, I’d say it’s a unique feature. But at a 1 minute cooldown, it just becomes part of a rotation that expects it to be used either on cooldown or at a specific point.
Overall, the problem with covenant powers / shadowlands legendaries is that they tried to keep too many of them without adjusting our kits to compensate. The big example is Radiant Spark and Arcane Harmony. There was synergy between the two where you’d build up harmony to get one great big barrage.
But as the spec grew and changed, those abilities didn’t fit the mold anymore. So spark was removed (it was by far the more egregious of the two). We’re left with Harmony, which isn’t bad on its own, but without spark it simply isn’t interesting anymore.
Likewise, Shifting Power just isn’t interesting. It could easily be replaced by a passive “reduces all cooldowns by X seconds” talent.
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Fr fr, Chromie needs to get on it, ASAP! SL does not belong on the sacred timeline! 
I mean you’re not wrong. The spell just honestly doesn’t bother me that much to use at all.
Shifting Power could easily be solved by adding a talent that would make it passive, reducing all mage cooldowns by a certain percentage.
Augmentation Evoker has a talent that works in this way, Interwoven Threads, making the Time Skip talent a passive that reduces the cooldown of his abilities by 10%.