My experience as a mage: Currently leveling a gnome mage as part of my guild’s “Classy Gnomes” achievement. I mained a mage in the first part of Shadowlands, but otherwise don’t play it much. My feedback here is to be taken more from a “new player’s perspective” as I examine talents I do or do not care about in comparison to what I see with other classes as well as what makes sense in the fantasy setting of the game.
Suggestions
- Reduce all 2-point talents down to 1-point, adjust bonuses if needed.
- Improve pathing so that new active abilities aren’t blocking so much.
- Replace minor performance “tax” talents because they become required and nullified through balance updates anyway.
- Consider implementing more talents, either as choice nodes or new nodes. Examples:
-
Time Regression - Passive – Choice node with “Master of Time”?
Taking fatal damage during Alter Time causes it to trigger immediately, saving you from death. This effect cannot occur more often than once every 6 minutes. -
Diverted Energy - Passive – Update to existing talent
Barriers heal you for 20% of the damage absorbed. Additionally, whenever a barrier is refreshed or expires, you heal for 50% of the remaining amount. -
Broken Mirror - Passive – Choice node with “Mirror Image”?
Falling below 35% health turns you invisible, resets the cooldown of Blink, and creates 3 copies which flee for 6 seconds. This does not drop you from combat, and your invisibility immediately breaks once all of your copies expire. These copies can cast all of non-damaging spells aside from Ice Block. Broken Mirror can only occur once every 3 minutes. -
Spell Counter - Passive
If possible, Counterspell will cast the interrupted offensive spell against the caster or the interrupted beneficial spell onto yourself. -
Return Portal - Passive
When allies use your portals, a return portal appears for them at their destination which lasts for up to 10 minutes, allowing them to return to their previous location when used. Return Portals are not created when portals are used in close proximity to their destination. -
Quantum Junction - Passive
Whenever you or your allies attempt to use any of your portals, they instead have a choice of which location they’d like to portal to, out of any of the locations you know how to create portals to. -
Conjuration - Passive
Items conjured through Conjured Refreshment no longer have a charge limit, are unique, and restore health and mana twice as quickly. -
Arcane Dialect - Passive
Arcane Linguist makes you immune to Curse of Tongues and other effects that slow your casting speed. You also gain the ability to communicate in any language. -
Intelligent Barrier - Passive
Barrier is no longer affected by the global cooldown and casts automatically whenever it is available, but its effectiveness is reduced by 10%. -
Event Horizon - Passive
Alter Time can now be cast on allies and no longer has a range limit for triggering its secondary effect.