Correct. The permanent water elemental was added in Cataclysm. TBC and Wrath it was a CD pet.
5 Likes
Monks, and shamans have temporary pets, so why does only one specialization of mages need to have a permanent pet ?
Some people liked having it, I guess. As I said earlier in the thread I didnât care for it and actually found it only there to give me Fingers of Frost on demand. I always go Lonely Winter on my Mage.
The thing is, it could kill stuff sometimes while questing so I didnât have to think too much and only cast light spells to get through, it made the leveling experience more enjoyable, why would I want to cast four frost novas when my water elemental can take care of things while I just click ice lance a few times,
I donât want my leveling experience to be too tedious.
3 Likes
Awesome, thanks for that. I read up on most of the changes but I guess I missed this one in particular.
Now that I actually see the change, I have to agree with you that itâs a pretty silly one.
I see a few issues with this.
- Theyâre removing a part of the class fantasy that was there from the start (That you mentioned).
- The 2385328746398241 shades of blue Water Elemental Glyphs they made are now, essentially, useless. This seems to be a trend with their changes these days, and theyâve essentially left the Glyph system in the dust.
Iâm torn. On one hand, it was useless. On the other hand, it definitely did add to class fantasy.
From what I read (And again, I could be wrong), they didnât put anything in there to replace it as a choice node with Lonely Winter. Unless they chose âColdest Snapâ and placed it there (Since it doesnât mention where that one went).
One can hope they decide to go back on it, but who knows.
Still, Iâm one that always fights for the side of more options.
Less options makes the game less fun for everybody.
5 Likes
This is my main concern with rolling the elemental into Icy Veins. Will all these glyphs be deleted along with the Warlockâs Observer? Or will they update the glyphs to now apply to Icy Veins?
Blizzard was doing so well this expansion with all these new character customizations⌠and then they do this. Itâs just⌠a bizarre change for Mages and Warlocks.
9 Likes
Iâm actually gonna add this to the OP. I completely forgot that quoting the PTR notes was a possibility. Been a long time since I talked on these forums
I dont remember the last time I ever saw a frost mage use their water elemental.
2 Likes
They donât. Itâs a terrible pet, super weak and shares a node with much stronger talent.
Making it a baseline permanent pet wouldnât fix it. Itâs still terrible and deals less damage than warlock Imp. Basically a cosmetic for RPers.
I havenât done frost PvP in a while, but the 2nd freeze was amazing at one point. Not sure about these days.
It just irritates me when people make these threads and say things like âItâs iconicâ. No, it wasnât, and a lot of us still remember well the days when mages didnât have any pet.
In fact, there were forum threads about why shaman could summon elementals, but fire/frost mages couldnâtâŚ
People that think the way you do are such a cancer on RPGâs.
Please, go play math quiz games or some other spreadsheet bullcrap.
1 Like
Well I also remember a time before it was a permanent pet, and I remember hating when it became so. I never rolled a mage to play a pet class. So I was thrilled when lonely winter was introduced. Although I did always miss having the ele as a cooldown. It was very iconic for the fantasy given its place in WC3.
That said, while I am happy to see it as a cooldown again I do feel for the people who love it as a permanent pet. Itâs been around for long enough now that it more than deserves to stay. My preference would be to still introduce it as a temporary summon with icy veins. But keep the earlier choice of the pet or lonely winter. People who choose the permanent pet, maybe icy veins empowers it or summons a second one.
2 Likes
Weird. They donât have to do this. I think the idea is reducing screen clutter though.
1 Like
They do. Itâs vital for landing Glacial Spike and soloing/PvPing effectively. Also helps on Comet Storm burst if you donât have Ice Nova up (which is also used to land Glacial Spikes).
It also helps on threat with Mirror Images/Ice Block, improving solo viability a little bit.
For everything other than M+ and raid parsing, itâs still amazing.
Finally, we already had this thread ongoing:
3 Likes
Itâs 2023. Mists of Pandaria came out in 2012 and was my first expansion. Thatâs over a ten year gap.
If you go back and say that you started in Vanilla, thatâs 2004. Mists of Pandaria was 8 years later.
But the change was actually made (from what I understand) in Cataclysm. That expansion came out in 2010 - 6 years after Vanillaâs launch. The gap of time from Cataclysm to Dragonflight is 13 years.
Frost mages have had a permanent water elemental for a span of 13 years, whereas it was only temporary for 6 years. So how long does something have to be in play before Iâm allowed to say that it is âiconicâ to the way a class is viewed? Itâs been that way for as long as Iâve played and itâs been that way for double the time that it was not.
4 Likes
Considering most builds take Lonely Winter (and have for years) the âremovalâ of the elemental will actually cause it to see more usage than live.
Honestly the biggest whiff I have with the frost changes (besides pushing Spike) is Coldest Snap making a defensive/utility cooldown into a throughput increase. Itâs the same issue I have with Ele and the totem CD reset. Iâd love to use it to reset Cap Totem or hell even Poison Cleansing, but it is a damage loss to do so over Liquid Magma.
1 Like
Could be partially that, in light of the warlock Observer changes. Iâll be glad if they make a shift back to pets being for pet classes.
I did in fact acknowledge this. And I would like to see mages get more justification to use their elemental. HoweverâŚ
Warlock have permanent pet same with hunters
i did an achievement last week which i wouldnât have been able to do without the elemental.
told it to go stand in a corner and hold agro while i killed the thing which needed to be kept away from what it was tanking.
i donât want to have to switch to my hunter for solo achievement farming 
5 Likes