They put Greater Invis in the class tree. They could easily put Cauterize and Cold Snap in there as the capstones on either side to give us a real choice. They might have to tweak the way they work a bit, but I’m still salty that Arcane gave up its defensive but didn’t get the defensives from Frost or Fire.
Utility in the class tree is great, but the utility also has to be good enough to warrant taking. As it was pointed out, most of the talents on the left side are useless in a lot of content.
Personally, I can see where in some fights Ice Cold would be a better option than Ice Block (anything that does ticking damage that isn’t from a dot that we can drop with Ice Block), but we’d have to completely waste 3 talent points to even get to Ice Cold. That’s a pretty big bar for entry, and I can’t imagine people will want to give up that much to even try it.
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That’s called getting stuck in the Comet Storm zone. They buffed Comet Storm at least twice not counting the aura buffs and wonder why it sits at 0% usage when it is locked behind Glacial Assault and Deep Shatter. Even if Glacial Assault did more damage than tickling the enemy with our staves there’s simply not enough points.
I don’t play frost, so I haven’t been aware of this, but I understand the pain. It seems like the company named Blizzard is just having a really hard time with frost-themed talents and trees…
But we’ve had this issue in the general tree since we went live. Shifting Power is a big throughput spell that sits behind 3 effectively worthless talent points. They finally heard us and decided to fix the issue by moving Shifting Power. I’m not opposed to that at all. But then they’re gonna stick a new talent in its place that, even if it cost 0 points, wouldn’t always be a good talent to have, and then wonder why people won’t take it. Exactly like what you’re saying about comet storm.
Cauterize going in the class tree should have been the first thing they put in when starting the rework. I don’t understand how that wasn’t a top priority, especially when it’s been one of the biggest asks for years now. Right up there with removing RoP and making Dragon Breath available to all specs.
As for Ice Cold, like most people, I’d much rather see the return of Evanesce as a capstone. And I will probably catch some flack for this but also Truine Ward, it’s the one (1) thing I liked to come out of SL.
I remember the original Evanesce, not the fixed version. So I gotta say, if they stick Evanesce in our talent tree, I wouldn’t touch it with a 10 foot pole. It never worked. I couldn’t trust it.
Personally, I think that a hefty damage reduction that doesn’t stop us from doing damage AND can grant us healing through talents sounds like a decent idea. I think it just needs maybe a reduced cooldown and some better talents leading to it. Plus, thematically, we really don’t need more arcane spells in the general tree.
When it comes to Cauterize, I think part of the problem is that it’s too strong. It’s a death passive. It’s a speed boost. The damage you get after the fact isn’t enough to kill you on its own. If they put it in the general tree, it would ALWAYS be taken because it’s just too good. The only way to balance it would be to either nerf it, or buff the other defensives to compensate. I don’t see them buffing Ice Block or Greater Invis any time soon, so the only option left is to nerf it.
And I’m pretty sure the fire community would burn down the main office at this point if they nerfed cauterize. I can’t speak for them, granted, but I don’t think they’d be happy.
A lot of people liked Triune Ward. I was indifferent to it, personally. But, as a defensive, I think maybe putting it on a choice node with Alter Time would be good. Alter Time is arguably more powerful (assuming they keep Triune Ward nerfed) but a lot of mages complain that they don’t know how to use it correctly. Giving up that choice for an easier option might be the play.
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My biggest problem with Alter Time is simply that I forget to use it. Is that a “skill issue?” Sure, I guess. But Cauterize is a zero skill ability. A purely passive cheat death mechanic that will always be far superior to any of the other survivability tools we have for the simple reason that it is automatic and not reactionary. It’s all you want from a “oh snap” button and the best part is that there isn’t even a button to press. Which is precisely the point because when 
hits the fan most players don’t have quick enough reflexes to save themselves.
Also, aside from the obvious flavor reason (the act to cauterization being tangentially related to fire) there is no real reason why only Fire should have access to it. It’s not like Fire is somehow inherently more vulnerable than the other two Mage specs. If anything Arcane is a far better candidate for an ability like that because we have to be in melee range to AoE and thus in far greater danger.
Back to Alter Time. It’s got other problems too. First of all the way it is activated and deactivated. The double click can very easily be accidentally triggered in the heat of the moment (which is every time you would use it) effectively wasting the cooldown. And then there is the fact that it snaps you back to you original location when it ends. Now that can have benefits but it can also get you into trouble. One of the only times I died in the Rasz fight was when I used Alter Time to nullify the damage I saw coming from a bomb that wasn’t taken out far enough and I knew I couldn’t outrun only to be snapped back right in the way of her breath attack. Needless to say it became an instant core memory, lol.
P.S. I only have fond memories of Evanesce. Of course my memory could be playing tricks on me but I recall it being quite potent and reliable.
I think it was garbage tier in Highmaul, but fixed for the next raid. I played a lot during Highmaul and not a lot afterword… So that’s why I remember it being trash, but I know it was fixed later.
And Alter Time is a complicated spell to manage. Taking it without Master of Time (for the blink reset) is bad. That way if you wind up back in danger, you can blink back out. Also, I’ve got a cancelaura macro set up to remove my AT without teleporting in case I use it at the wrong time. Which happens fairly often…
But that’s also why I think that putting Triune Ward as a choice on it could be good. Players that know how to use Alter Time effectively should be able to get more out of it, but it still incentivizes players who aren’t good at it to click that node (just for a different talent). It would just need to be balanced such that Triune ward wasn’t ridiculously strong, and it probably should affect the new Mass Barrier.
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[Triune Ward] was actually awesome and I’m surprised it hasn’t returned in some form so far. It’s actually the perfect spell that encompasses the fantasy the devs stated they were going for when they first released the Mage trees where all specs could use powerful spells of all 3 mage elements.
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Update: No longer dispellable
Did somebody test whether it is mass dispellable? Its “invulnerable” mechanic tag in detailed description is suspicious.