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Blood Sport: Patch 3.3, part II

C. Christian Moore — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Patches, Items, Analysis / Opinion, News items, PvP, Features, Wrath of the Lich King, (Arena PvP) Blood Sport, Battlegrounds, Arena

Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women? Blood Sport investigates the entirety of all-things arena for gladiators and challengers alike. C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in WoW.com's arena column.

David Byrne and The Talking Heads are a personal favorite. Miles Fisher seems to love them as well. His cover of This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) is homage to one of the most beautiful, striking melodies I've ever heard, and as such, it will be your listening music for the day. (NSFW Warning: The video is a parody/reenactment of American Psycho, so view carefully.)

Last time, we went over the Will of the Forsaken nerf, 100% pet resilience, death knights, and druids. The patch looks to be a very interesting bag of surprises for arena enthusiasts, we're getting major changes to the way some races work, as well as nearly every class is getting a pretty substantial change or two which will probably help them in PvP. We don't normally see patches where most classes are buffed, but this could be one of them.

Read on to find out what's up with hunters, mages, and paladins in Patch 3.3!

Continue reading Blood Sport: Patch 3.3, part II

Blood Sport: Patch 3.3, part II originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Arcane Brilliance: Mage leveling guide, 21-30

Christian Belt — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Mage, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Features, Leveling, Classes, (Mage) Arcane Brilliance

Welcome to another edition of Arcane Brilliance, the weekly mage column that won't give up, will never back down, won't retreat and won't surrender. Arcane Brilliance has the heart of a champion, the eye of the tiger, the soul of a lion, the reflexes of a mongoose, and the gall bladder of an emu. Now, if you'll excuse Arcane Brilliance, it needs to go indulge in an 80's movie training montage to get ready for this column. And yes, in case you were wondering, Stan Bush and Vince Dicola will feature prominently.

After a rather extended hiatus from the leveling grind, we here at Arcane Brilliance (and when I say "we," I pretty much mean "me," and when I say "pretty much," I mean "absolutely." I fact, I'm not sure why I even said "we" in the first place. Just forget I said anything. Let's move on, shall we?) are finally ready to continue with our series of overly wordy leveling guides this week. Here's what we've covered thus far (and, yes, I'm aware that I continue to use the first-person plural when referring to myself. I'm a very confused individual.):

Part 1: Getting started

Part 2: Levels 1-10

Part 3: Levels 11-20

We begin today's installment at the grand old level of 21. Your mage is freshly bemounted (That word doesn't actually exist, but I think it should) and ready to take on the world. Chances are you're preparing to move into your third major zone. From this point on, you have a great deal of freedom in choosing where you want to quest. I'd recommend an add-on like Cartographer, or a website like mapwow (just check the box that says "Show names for zones") to see a map that tells you the appropriate levels of the zones around you, so you can pick a place to make your home for the next 5-10 levels. Once you've selected a destination, mount up and head that way. Stick to the road if you decide to travel through any higher-level zones in-between, and be sure to pick up any flight paths you pass during the trip.

Continue reading Arcane Brilliance: Mage leveling guide, 21-30

Arcane Brilliance: Mage leveling guide, 21-30 originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ghostcrawler and the "hybrid tax"

Mike Schramm — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Raiding, Classes, Death Knight

Ghostcrawler has put a significant sticky up on the forums about what he calls the "hybrid tax" in terms of PvE play -- there's been some back and forth lately on the forums about hybrid classes and what they should and shouldn't be able to do, and GC wants to put any confusion about what Blizzard intends "hybrids" to be to rest. Very basically, he says that there are three roles in the game (tanking, healing, and DPS), and if a class can respec to perform a different role, it's considered a hybrid class. Otherwise, it's a "pure" class. This means a few things: pure classes, he says, should have slightly higher DPS ("all things being equal," and when does that ever happen?), because they don't have the option to switch out. There's no rule as to how much better that is, but as a tradeoff of rerolling being the only way for "pures" to switch, they get to be a little better. That's the "hybrid tax," and mages, hunters, rogues, and warlocks don't have to pay it.

Hybrids, however, do, and that means that paladins, druids, priests, shamans, and to a certain extent, warriors and death knights, will in Blizzard's view never be able to equal "pure" classes in terms of DPS output, with everything else being equal. You may love your ret pally, and he may be in uber gear, but he should never be able to pour out as much damage as an equally specced and geared hunter, because you can switch to healing, and the hunter can't.

Continue reading Ghostcrawler and the "hybrid tax"

Ghostcrawler and the "hybrid tax" originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Arcane Brilliance: The changing face of Frost

Christian Belt — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Mage, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Features, Classes, (Mage) Arcane Brilliance

Welcome to this week's Arcane Brilliance, the weekly mage column that insists that tragic teleportation accident that left you with a polearm instead of an actual arm does not entitle you to a refund.

Yeah, I should have known better than to start a multi-part leveling guide during a PTR cycle.

Barring more huge news, we'll come back to the leveling guide next week, but this week we need to discuss the fact that Deep Freeze is awesome. Don't believe me? Stop reading this right now. Download the PTR client. Transfer your mage over. Spec Frost. Go find a training dummy. Use Deep Freeze on it. Giggle. Then come back here, because holy crap.

Here's how the spell works currently on the PTR:

Deep Freeze: This spell now deals a large amount of damage to targets permanently immune to stuns.

The base damage is 1469 to 1741. The spellpower coefficient appears to be rock solid, something in the neighborhood of 2-2.5. It doesn't currently benefit from Ice Shards or get an increased crit chance from Shatter, but I expect both of those things to change before this goes live. When it hits the PTR, it'll be the single most powerful damage-dealing spell Frost mages have.

It'll be like a Pyroblast made of ice. Only better.

For those of you with a short attention span, here's the tl;dr version:

After patch 3.3 hits, in a raiding spell rotation, you will use Deep Freeze every time it's off cooldown, and you will see a substantial DPS increase because of it. Read on for the longer, more text-intensive version.

Continue reading Arcane Brilliance: The changing face of Frost

Arcane Brilliance: The changing face of Frost originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Phat Loot Phriday: Blade of Tarasque

Mike Schramm — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Mage, Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Humor, Phat Loot Phriday, Lore, Bosses, Galleries

Been a while, I think, since we've done a dagger. Plus, this one will show off a little of my D&D lore knowledge, and I don't get to do that as much as I like.

Name: Blade of Tarasque (Wowhead, Thottbot, Armory)
Type: Epic Main hand Dagger
Damage/Speed: 108 - 343 / 1.80 (125.1 DPS)
Attributes:

+48 Stamina, +65 Intellect. Used to be that Stamina on a caster item meant warlock, but I think this is just an endgame item -- any caster who needs it could use it just fine.
Plus, there's a blue gem socket on it, so you can put whatever you want in there, with a socket bonus of +5 spellpower. Just because it came up on the site earlier this week, I'll use this opportunity to remind you that any gem can go in any socket -- you just won't get the socket bonus. Yes, really.

Gallery: Phat Loot Phriday

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Phat Loot Phriday: Blade of Tarasque originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Arcane Brilliance: Patch 3.3 PTR mage change analysis

Christian Belt — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Mage, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Features, Classes, Talents, (Mage) Arcane Brilliance

Welcome to Arcane Brilliance, the weekly mage column that champions the causes of wizards everywhere, be they fiery, frosty, or arcane...y. The top issue facing the mage community right now? Warlocks: how to get the stink out of your robes after setting one on fire? Fear not, Arcane Brilliance has the solution: when killing warlocks, always stand upwind.

Since last we convened as a body of mages, no fewer than two new builds have descended upon the PTR, heralding a slew of upcoming changes for our class. Alex wrote an excellent post covering the first few of these, but a few more nuggets of newness have surfaced since then that need to be addressed. And since I'm a diagnosed (and unrepentant) completionist, we're going to go ahead and double back to analyze those earlier changes as well. The next installment of our mage leveling guide will come next week.

So without further preamble, let's look at the changes, shall we?

Continue reading Arcane Brilliance: Patch 3.3 PTR mage change analysis

Arcane Brilliance: Patch 3.3 PTR mage change analysis originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Patch 3.3 PTR: Mages get simplified Scorch, Frost changes

Alex Ziebart — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:15:00 EST

Filed under: Mage, Patches, Analysis / Opinion

Fire mages are ablaze with joy over today's patch 3.3 PTR build, frost mages are a little iffy, and arcane is... pretty much completely untouched! Let's skip over any additional preamble and dig right in. Do note, however, that some of this is so far unconfirmed and comes from datamining. Considering these changes come from the PTR, any of it could change before patch 3.3 goes live.

Fire

Improved Scorch: The debuff from this talent no longer stacks, and instead can apply the full effect from a single cast of Scorch.
Glyph of Improved Scorch now increases the damage of your Scorch spell by 20%.

This is going to make a lot of raiding mages very happy. It essentially normalizes the debuff to match equivalent debuffs, like Improved Shadow Bolt. Streamlining an unnecessarily complicated debuff is a great thing. It'll lift a needless burden from mage DPS. And yes, there are mages getting drunk in celebration this evening. It's somewhat disturbing, really.

Continue reading Patch 3.3 PTR: Mages get simplified Scorch, Frost changes

Patch 3.3 PTR: Mages get simplified Scorch, Frost changes originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Arcane Brilliance: Mage leveling guide, 11-20

Christian Belt — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Mage, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, PvP, Quests, Features, Leveling, Guides, Classes, Talents, Alts, (Mage) Arcane Brilliance, Battlegrounds

Welcome to another installment of Arcane Brilliance, the weekly mage column that dares to ask the question: how much mage is too much? Then Arcane Brilliance slaps itself in the face, because that's a stupid question. You can never have too much mage.

So, your mage is leveling nicely. You've wandered out of the starting area and into the wider zone beyond, done a bunch of quests, learned a rudimentary spell rotation (Frostbolt-->Fireball-->Fireball-->Fireball-->Conjure Water-->Drink) and now you've gone and hit level 10. This is a milestone for a number of reasons:

The mage staff quest we talked about two weeks ago.
You can now begin doing PvP in an actual battleground against players in your level bracket (as opposed to doing PvP against bored 12-year-olds who think it's fun to run around the starting areas with their level 80 death knights ganking lowbies).
Your first talent point!

Let's discuss the second two of these three things before we move forward.

Continue reading Arcane Brilliance: Mage leveling guide, 11-20

Arcane Brilliance: Mage leveling guide, 11-20 originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The two steps of ability development

Mike Schramm — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Mage, Tips, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Expansions

After someone asks a question on the forums about the new Mage Tier 10 bonus and the numbers behind it, Ghostcrawler brings up a little interesting insight into the way Blizzard puts these abilities and attributes together. He says that there are two steps to implementing a new ability: mechanics first, and then numbers later. That may seem common sense (and to a certain extent, it definitely is), but it's interesting to note that it's always what the ability does first, and then numbers later. Blizzard is much less likely (relatively speaking of course, and there are plenty of exceptions to this rule) to put a new ability into the game than just tweak current numbers.

It makes sense, and if there's a new ability you've been waiting to see in the game, maybe the reason Blizzard hasn't tackled it yet is that they're working on tweaking numbers to try and fix it without starting up a new mechanic. Ghostcrawler also says that this is the PTR we're dealing with, and so of course those Tier 10 bonuses aren't set in stone yet, just like everything else being tested. They don't call it the PTR for nothing.

The two steps of ability development originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Blood Sport: Patch 3.2.2, the times they are a-changin, Part II and a half

C. Christian Moore — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Druid, Hunter, Mage, Analysis / Opinion, News items, PvP, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King, (Arena PvP) Blood Sport, Arena

I don't care for a lot of music that was made in the last decade. The Killers are something of a breather for me. They're one of those bands I'm glad exist. When I'm forced to listen to a terrible radio station, and hear change your mind sandwiched in between auto-tuned, unoriginal dross -- I'm satisfied there is still music being made that can intrigue. (Brandon Flowers has some epic bard tier 10 shoulders there too)

This is part two of part two of a three part article. Confusing? Join the fun! Surprising Patch 3.3 timing, i.e. wrenches in cogs, is a blast!

In our first installment, we covered pillars changing shape in great detail, and also mentioned a few other tweaks. Our second article dealt with five classes -- paladin, priest, rogue, shaman, and warrior. Warlocks were left out of the 3.2.2 patch notes. This article is going to talk about the other four classes - death knight, druid, hunter, and mage.

Being "TheArenaGuy" here at WoW.com lends to forcing myself to a very balanced perspective on classes. It makes me feel guilty if I understand armor penetration less than spell penetration. Well, actually, it doesn't because ArP is confusing. The main thing I'm trying to say here is that I don't want to write anything that is opinionated without being grounded in something. I don't want to make any mistakes when it comes to reporting to our viewers what changes will impact arena games (and how).

I'm satisfied to critique changes instead of having the responsibility to make them. The developers have very difficult decisions to make with regard to arena balance and we should applaud them for making decisions in the name of equity, even if some of them might be unpopular.

With that, let's get into the juicy, juicy 3.2.2 patch notes.

Continue reading Blood Sport: Patch 3.2.2, the times they are a-changin, Part II and a half

Blood Sport: Patch 3.2.2, the times they are a-changin, Part II and a half originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Patch 3.3 PTR: Area-of-effect damage cap change

Dominic Hobbs — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Guides, Death Knight

The area-of-effect damage cap is something that doesn't get talked about a whole lot. The first time I noticed it having a real effect on gameplay was in Mount Hyjal ("Hey, warlock! Wake up and throw us another Seed of Corruption!"). So what is it and what is patch 3.3 doing with it?

When you hit a single mob or player with a spell, or some kind of crude inertia-based impact utensil, the game will work out how much damage that target takes. This is based on the various offensive properties of you and the spell or utensil, as well as the defensive properties of your target. The same is true for area-of-effect (or AoE) abilities, though these tend to do less damage to a single target. Add in some more targets and, while it's still fun to do lots of damage to one of them (with the casting and the poking with sticks), you may have a chance to do damage to all of them at once. Let's say that you can do 2500 damage to a single target with one spell or stab, but can only do 1000 damage to a single target with your AoE ability. If you have five targets that you can hit with your AoE, then that will do a total of 5000 damage. Already we're having more fun than just beating on the one target.

Continue reading Patch 3.3 PTR: Area-of-effect damage cap change

Patch 3.3 PTR: Area-of-effect damage cap change originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Breakfast Topic: Which class am I again?

Matthew Rossi — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast topics, Death Knight

Tonight, after Trials of the Grand Crusader (four down, bug to go) we decided to hop onto some alts, which led to back to back TotC 10 on my DK and Shaman. Then back to back Ony 10, also on the DK and Shaman. And because I'd spent hours in TotGC 25 on my warrior before that, by the end of the night, I had no idea what class abilities I had anymore. Between popping Army of the Dead when they called for Heroism (it's bound to the same key) to trying desperately to use Chains of Ice when asked to Frost Shock the Ret Pally, I was in rare form. And it wasn't just me, either: the druid healer is usually a mage, the warlock raids as a priest, and the holy paladin healing the second Ony attempt has something like 10 alts at 80. I'm surprised he even knows where he is. We got it all done, mind you, but you can really tell the difference in smoothness between our mains and our alts, even as well geared as the alts often are.

So now I put it to you, gentle readers. Do you ever suffer from class bleedover? Are you ever on your druid finding yourself mashing the Consecration button, or on your Mage trying to use Hymn of Hope? Or do you find it easy to keep it all straight?

Breakfast Topic: Which class am I again? originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New official Jaina and Sylvanas character bios

Mike Schramm — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Hunter, Mage, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Quests, Raiding, Lore, NPCs, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King

Blizzard continues to leak out the official information about Icecrown (the raid, as you know, coming in patch 3.3), this time updating their Under Development site with official bios for Jaina Proudmoore and Sylvanas Windrunner, two ladies (one living, one not-so-much) that will likely have a large role in the fight against Arthas Menethil, better known as The Lich King.

Sylvanas, you'll remember, featured in the Lament of the Highborne video early on in BC, where the story of her death and resurrection at Arthas' hands made it clear she's got unfinished business with the onetime-paladin turned Lord of the Scourge. And Jaina... well, Jaina's had a front row seat to Arthas' undoing -- they were childhood friends who looked like they were headed towards being more than friends, until Arthas found a big bad sword that turned him into a big baddie. It's going to be awesome seeing all of these storylines start meeting up together in The Frozen Halls and the raid beyond -- we can't wait.

New official Jaina and Sylvanas character bios originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Patch 3.3 PTR: Tier 10 set bonuses

Alex Ziebart — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:30:00 EST

Filed under: Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, Death Knight

As you've probably heard, the latest build just hit the Patch 3.3 PTR. With it comes a ton of great stuff, including the Tier 10 set bonuses! The usual warning accompanies them, they might change, they're not necessarily final, they could be place holders, et cetera. They look pretty flipping good right now, though. Chase Christian seemed quite shocked at the staggering upgrade the Rogue bonus is from what they had previously.

All set bonuses are listed below, classes arranged in alphabetical order.

Death Knight

Death Knight T10 Tank 2P Bonus - Increases the damage done by your Death and Decay ability by 20%.
Death Knight T10 Tank 4P Bonus - When you activate Blood Tap, you gain 12% damage reduction from all attacks for 10 sec.
Death Knight T10 Melee 2P Bonus - Your Obliterate, Scourge Strike, and Death Strike abilities deal 10% increased damage.
Death Knight T10 Melee 4P Bonus - Whenever all your runes are on cooldown, you gain 3% increased damage done with weapons, spells, and abilities for the next 15 sec.

Continue reading Patch 3.3 PTR: Tier 10 set bonuses

Patch 3.3 PTR: Tier 10 set bonuses originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Holy crap, Blink has sort of been fixed

Christian Belt — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Mage, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Bugs, Classes

Before you ask:

No, it still doesn't work going into or out of the flag rooms in Warsong Gulch.

Places it does work:

Going into and out of most other doorways. Up stairs. Through a great many smaller objects. Over unusual terrain, far more frequently than it used to. Overall: it works a lot more often than it doesn't work.

See, in case you missed it (as I did until helpful tipster James pointed it out to me this morning), Ghostcrawler dropped by a thread on the Damage Dealing forums (ironically titled "Blink Will Never Be Fixed") to drop this bombshell on us:

"There was a fix to Blink crossing terrain (such as indoor to outdoor) in 3.2.2."

I don't know about you, but I've been vigorously combing the book of Revelation for other signs of the coming apocalypse to be on the lookout for, just so I'm ready. Details after the break.

Continue reading Holy crap, Blink has sort of been fixed

Holy crap, Blink has sort of been fixed originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Arcane Brilliance: Patch 3.3 PTR changes for mages

Christian Belt — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Mage, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Features, Classes, Talents, Buffs, (Mage) Arcane Brilliance

It's the weekend, and that means it's time for another edition of Arcane Brilliance, the weekly mage column where the boys are boys, the girls are girls, and the warlocks are smoking husks that only vaguely resemble the humanoid shapes they once assumed.

We're taking a small break this week from our ongoing leveling guide parade. There are some things we need to discuss, you and me. We need to have a talk. Don't worry! It's nothing bad! We're getting a pretty sweet buff, actually. Well, arcane mages are, anyway. We just wanted to discuss it with you, that's all. Oh, we're sorry! Did you think Arcane Brilliance was breaking up with you or something? No, we'd never do that! Arcane Brilliance still thinks you're sexy.

See, it's this whole patch 3.3 thing that's happening right now. It's got Arcane Brilliance all hot and bothered. The other columns are too busy to talk to Arcane Brilliance about it. Totem Talk is all excited about "new totems" or some other such nonsense, Lichborne is too busy being overpowered, and Bood Pact... well, you didn't hear it from me but Blood Pact is written by a warlock. I know! Right here at this otherwise reputable website! Also, Blood Pact smells funny. I think it's a gland problem. It's very embarrassing. I shouldn't be telling you this. And Blood Pact drinks its own pee. Okay. That's enough. I'm done now. I've said too much. Keep this to yourself, all right? Loose lips sink ships and all that.

Jump on past the break and we'll discuss the patch 3.3 changes for mages.

Continue reading Arcane Brilliance: Patch 3.3 PTR changes for mages

Arcane Brilliance: Patch 3.3 PTR changes for mages originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 03 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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[1.Local]: How?

Lisa Poisso — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Mage, Warlock, Analysis / Opinion, Features, Lore, [1.Local]

Reader comments -- ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.

No summons, no buffs, we're not even going to clear the trash. [1.Local]'s going hardcore and pulling the reader e-mail of the week right away.

Name: [redacted]
URL:
Subject:

how

Related URL: http://

You can practically smell the desperation on [redacted]'s breath as he pecks out an agonized cry for help, painfully tapped out with three searing characters. But never fear, there's a new warlock in town. Currying favor as the new kid on the block, Dominic Hobbs lets it be known that he's up to the task by dropping this DoT on the WoW.com team list:

I'll look into this one.

You have fun with that, Dom.

After the break, the WoW.com staff points out some of the week's more remarkable reader comments.

Continue reading [1.Local]: How?

[1.Local]: How? originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Arcane Brilliance: Mage leveling guide: 1-10

Christian Belt — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Mage, Analysis / Opinion, Features, Leveling, Guides, Classes, Alts, (Mage) Arcane Brilliance

Welcome to another installment of Arcane Brilliance, the weekly mage column that thinks nothing goes better with strudel than a warm ball of fire.

Ok, so last week, we all clicked the "Create Character" button and selected a mage. We picked a race for that mage, gave him or her facial features, a skin tone, a hairstyle, possibly even a lower jaw, and chose a non-stupid name for our fledgling master of the arcane arts. This week, we're backing our new mage out of the garage and taking him for a spin. Interesting fact: mages actually appreciate in value the more mileage you put on them!

The first few levels can be a trying time for a new mage. A couple things you'll notice:

You're wearing a skirt and wielding a stick.
You're a huge wuss.

This can be quite vexing, especially if you're used to another class, possibly one that wears actual armor into battle, doesn't get a nosebleed from standing up too quickly, and isn't the dungeon master for the chess club's Dragonlance campaign. Well get used to it. You may have been on the football team before, sacking the quarterback and dating the head cheerleader, but that was before, when you were a paladin or a warrior or whatever. Now you're Bill Haverchuck. Intelligent and frail, mages are the geeks of the World of Warcraft. We might as well embrace it. We're the nerds, warriors are the jocks, and warlocks are the emo kids. The good news? Someday, they'll all be pumping our gas. At least that's what my guidance counselor always told me. Someday means soon, right?

Anyway, the fact remains that mages are wimps at low levels. Rest easy, though. It gets better.

Continue reading Arcane Brilliance: Mage leveling guide: 1-10

Arcane Brilliance: Mage leveling guide: 1-10 originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WoW patch 3.2.2 changes for Mages

Christian Belt — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Mage, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Classes, Talents

Since I have some extra time while I wait for my Mage to finish his looting animation, I thought I'd post a quick primer on the Mage changes patch 3.2.2 has brought us. There are only three (well, three and a half, I guess), but all three are of significant import. I posted about them in an Arcane Brilliance column way back when this patch first hit the PTR, but a lot has changed since then. Let's look at each change in turn.

Arcane

Arcane Blast: The buff from using this ability now stacks up to 4 times instead of 3, and each application increases mana cost by 175% instead of 200%. In addition, the duration of the buff has been reduced to 6 seconds.

Though not nearly as drastic a change as it was at the start of the PTR, this is still very nice. That fourth stack means whatever spell you throw out to consume the buff will do a whopping 60% more damage, and the mana cost increase isn't nearly the killer it used to be, even with four stacks. Plus, none of that matters anyway, since you won't actually be using any mana on the spell you consume your Arcane Blast buff with, because that spell will be free. "Why," you ask? Because that spell will be Arcane Missiles. "But Arcane Missiles costs a buttload of mana," you say? You're right. But you're also so, so very wrong:

Missile Barrage: The effect from triggering this talent now removes the mana cost of Arcane Missiles. In addition, the chance for Arcane Blast to trigger this talent is now 8/16/24/32/40%. All other listed spells continue to have a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to trigger it. This talent no longer has a chance to be triggered when spells miss.

See? Two things here:

The proc chance is much greater for this when you cast Arcane Blast than it will be with other spells. By the time you stack four Arcane Blasts, you're almost guaranteed to get a Missile Barrage proc.
When you cast a gatling-gun Arcane Missiles with this, not only will it be super speedy and awesome-looking, it will also be free. As in, no mana cost. As in yay.

So what does this mean?

Continue reading WoW patch 3.2.2 changes for Mages

WoW patch 3.2.2 changes for Mages originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Patch 3.2.2 lives. It lives!

Matthew Rossi — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:20:00 EST

Filed under: Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior, Patches, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Instances, Raiding, Classes, Death Knight

The day is here. Patch 3.2.2 is now downloaded and can at last be played. From changes to classes to the return of Onyxia (I'm not sure if the Broodmother of the Black Dragonflight will be actually raidable tonight, but boy howdy do I hope so) it's going to be, as a certain robot who I'm sure would play WoW if it wasn't a thousand years out of date in his time would say, fun on a bun. New pets, a new mount, and lots of new loot with an old time aesthetic, it's the patch that I, at least, have been waiting for. Shark head helmet ahoy!

Are there patch notes, you say? Indeed, and after the jump ye shall find them! Sorry, my dreams of shark head helmet are kind of running my brain.

Continue reading Patch 3.2.2 lives. It lives!

Patch 3.2.2 lives. It lives! originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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