Hi all,
I post it here, as I have not access to the Beta Forum. I want to start a post, to make fire mages interesting to play again on PVP ( interesting is different than op! ) , so I will put my thoughts on Talents, Spells, and General Gameplay, focusing on the aspects I would change. As Arcane got some love, I hope fire gets too!
Consider that, with the removal of all borrowed powers, Fire Mages feel not smooth to play, as we lose our tools to be dangerous and make “smart” decisions.
Talents:
LVL 15: It seems ok, as you can choose to enhance one of our tree iconic spells (Fireball, Pyroblast, Scorch).
LVL 25: The only viable choice here is Shimmer, so I suggest:
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Add as a talent here Blazing Speed: Suppresses movement slowing effects and increases your movement speed by 150% for 1.50 sec. 25 sec cooldown. It was an iconic Fire Mage Spell, and can compete on the mobility tier with Shimmer, to add other playstyles.
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Make Blast Wave baseline. That was an iconic fire mage spell that no one uses nowadays, and we can get back with the unpruning. I would make it a bit longer knockback with a 50% slow only.
LVL 30: It seems ok.
LVL 35: Flame On outperforms everything else. Instead of “From the Ashes” I would suggest, as possible options:
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Tinder talent: If you have not cast Fireball for 8 sec, your next Fireball will deal 30% increased damage with a 50% reduced cast time. I would add too “that fireball will always crit too”.
By doing this, you get a guaranteed crit each 8 seconds if you do not cast Fireball, and 3 doable crits when start a combat, the same as with flame on.
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Memory of Lucid Dreams kind of talent: Your spells and abilities have a chance to refund 50% of the charges of Fireblast / reduce 50% CD of fireblast for 10 seconds.
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Other: Your critical Pyroblast have a 50% chance to refund one Fireblast and Phoenix Flames charge.
LVL 40: Ring of Frost outperforms everything else. I would suggest:
- Ice Ward: Now your Frost Nova does not break on damage (but only one charge).
- Frenetic Speed: Replace it for something like “Ignite now snare your target 30%”
With that, this row of talents brings some kind of cc / utility cc related, and we could choose and not always pick RoF.
LVL 45: Three options are just bad at PVP, as we do not want anything spread and break CCs. So, I would suggest here:
- Living Bomb: *The target becomes a Living Bomb, taking (X) Fire damage over 12sec. After 12sec or when the spell is dispelled, the target explodes dealing (Y) Fire damage to all enemies within 10 yards. Final explosion can be crit and contribute to Hot Streak, but no longer spread to enemies. *
Reasoning on that is simple, old Wotlk Living bomb. We can play with final explosion to fish Hot Streak procs (not a guaranteed one!), it can crit on multiple enemies so it can charge 2 procs if you are lucky enough but if you use it on a non CCed target, he can run to your poly target and break it, for example. Useful too as dispel protect of ignite. Maybe to not affect PVE, it could be spread on PVE with Phoenix Flames too.
- Conflagration: Remove the chance to deal damage on nearby enemies. Maybe to compensate, it could reduce a bit the Fireball cast.
LVL 50: It is ok taking in account the other changes proposed.
PVP talents:
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I think that can be a bit controversial but… Remove Greater Pyroblast. It affects the whole gameplay as fire, and while its available it is a nightmare to balance the rest of the mage kit. We do not need a 35% hit spell if other spells/options are balanced correctly. And, as an opinion, it is no fun in use a 4 sec spell. Put it on 15 sec CD solves nothing, as you can balance correctly other spells like Fireball and Scorch if we have GPyro.
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Controlled Burn: It have no sense with Ignite spread changes.
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New talent: Make Phoenix Flames does not spread ignite, nor hit nearby enemies. It’s necessary to have control over CC.
Baseline abilities:
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Make Fireball and Scorch deal some damage. On BFA scorch hits for 2k, with 500k hp pool. I should cast fireball to do real damage (not GPyro!! And not 30% hp ofc), and Scorch when I need to damage while moving and can’t / shouldn’t use my instants.
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Make Blast Wave baseline. That was an iconic fire mage spell that no one uses nowadays, and we can get back with the unpruning. I would make it a bit longer knockback with a 50% slow only.
TL;DR: Make fire fun again. With my suggestions, we could get enough sources to fish Hot Streak procs, and not depend on borrowed powers for that, nor only on Fire Blast and Combustion, while balance all our damage, and be able to make “smart” moves to be creative playing.
I would appreciate any kind of feedback, and more ideas from the mage community to put fire in a good spot. Balanced and fun!
PS. English is not my native language. If you notice a big grammatical mistake, let me know and I will edit the text.
