Tier 2 (Level 30)
Shimmer is a very powerful replacement to Blink. While it removes the ability to Blink out of stuns, the mage can now be highly mobile without having to stop casting. It feels amazing to use, it doubles the mage's "burst" mobility, and it is, in all but the most Patchwerk of fights, a DPS boost. The issue I have with Shimmer is that it's just too good. Compared to all of the other talents Shimmer competes against across all three mage specs, the only one that stands a chance is Arcane's ability to walk during Arcane Missiles and Evocation, and that comes down to personal preference. However, is this because Shimmer is too good, or is it because the rest of the talents are too bad? A full analysis would be too long for this post, but I would venture to say that Shimmer is the outlier here, but the other talents are somewhat to blame, especially for Fire. Shimmer needs to be toned down, and a good possible fix would be to remove its charge system. The ability to Blink mid-cast is much more interesting and impactful than having two charges. Plus, two charges is especially powerful with the shield-from-Blink legendary and the heal-on-blink trait for Fire. I can soak mechanics with Cauterize, and I just need to Shimmer twice (staggered out) to live quite easily without help from a healer. I did this on H KJ progression towards the end, and I feel the large amount of survivability I had as a Mage was out of character.
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Introduction
The Fire Mage is a class that plays on the control of RNG. Its main mechanic is Hot Streak, where two subsequent critical strikes will allow the mage to cast a Pyroblast or Flamestrike, two powerful spells with long cast times, to be instantly cast. To aid with this, the mage has two spells that are guaranteed to be critical strikes: Fire Blast and Phoenix Flames. Fire Blast is off the GCD and can be cast during other spells, while Phoenix Flames is on the GCD but does AoE damage. The main rotation is chain casting Fireballs, reacting to Heating Up! procs with Fire Blast, and casting Pyroblasts at every opportunity. Since Pyroblast itself can crit, it allows for a satisfying chain of spells where the mage simply repeats Fireball -> Pyroblast if they both crit, or if one crits and Fire Blast is used. Ultimately, the Fire Mage is about chain casting instant spells that are generated from controlling the RNG aspects to the best of the mage's ability. |
Nicholas PorterMMO-Focused Archives
November 2018
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