You are probably tired of reading all the changes in the Mage Talents for each Beta changes, knowing that they will most likely be changed again. Still I would like to keep posting changes because I like discussing how they affect us. Plus there is always a chance that some of these changes will be finalize, and it never hurts to know ahead of time.

According to MMO-Champion.com the WotLK Beta has be changed again to a new build on August 1st, and the main changes are Mages and Shamans. As always, here are our Mage changes:

Mage Talent Changes:

• Arcane Fortitude moved to tier 2, increased to 3 ranks, now increases armor equal to 50/100/150% of Intellect.
• Arcane Subtlety now reduces the chance your spells will be dispelled by 15/35%, and no longer reduces the resistance of targets.
• Arctic Reach now also affects Deep Freeze.
• Blast Wave now knocks all affected targets back.
• Elemental Precision moved to tier 2.
• Empowered Fireball reduced to 3 ranks, now increases damage by 5/10/15% of spell power.
• Empowered Frostbolt reduced to 2 ranks, increases damage by 5/10% of spell power and increases critical hit chance by 2/4%.
• Flame Throwing moved to tier 3.
• Frost Channeling now reduces mana cost of all spells by 4/7/10%.
• Frost Warding now increases armor and resistances of Frost/Ice Armor by 25/50%, now gives Frost Ward and Fire Ward a 15/30/5 chance to negate damage caused and restore mana equal to damage caused by the warded spell.
• Ice Floes renamed Cold as Ice, now reduces cooldown of Cold Snap, Ice Barrier, Summon Water Elemental, and Deep Freeze by 10/20%.
• Improved Counterspell now always silences the target for 2/4 seconds.
• Improved Fire Blast moved to tier 1, reduced to 2 ranks, reduces the cooldown by 1/2 seconds.
• Improved Flamestrike moved to tier 2, renamed World in Flames, now increases the critical hit chance of Flamestrike, Blast Wave, Dragon’s Breath, Living Bomb, Blizzard, and Arcane Explosion by 2/4/6%.
• Improved Frost Nova renamed Ice Floes, moved to tier 1, increased to 3 ranks, now reduces cooldown of Frost Nova, Cone of Cold, Ice Block, and Icy Veins by 7/14/20%.
• Magic Absorption reduced to 2 ranks, increases resistances by .5/1 point per level, and restores 1/3% of total mana on a resist.
• Master of Elements now affects all spell criticals.
• Mind Mastery reduced to 3/6/9/12/15%.
• Molten Shields now gives Fire Ward and Frost Ward spells a 15/30% chance to reflect the warded spell.
• Prismatic Cloak (Arcane)increased to 3 ranks for 1/2/3% and now also reduces the fade time of Invisibility by 1/2/3 seconds.
• Pyroblast cast time has been reduced to 5 seconds.
• Shatter no longer has a prerequisite.
• Winter’s Chill now gives 33/66/100% chance to increase the critical strike chance to Frost, Fire and Arcane spells by 2%. Lasts 15 seconds, and stacks 5 times.

Thoughts:

For PvPing as a Mage, the new Arcane Subtlety now reduces the chance your spells to be dispelled by 15/35%. Making it harder for your opponents to dispel your Sheeps and Nova’s will be a great buff for PvP Mages. Plus it makes it harder to dispel Winter’s Chill and Frostbolt chill debuffs which served as your Sheep protection before, making it a whole lot harder to dispel Sheep.

Improved Counterspell now gives you 100% chance to silence your opponent for 2/4 seconds. No real big change here. If you point two talent points here before, you’ll still do it again.

Mind Master gets nerfed down to 3/6/9/12/15%, down from 5/10/15/20/25% of your Intellect converted to Spell Damage.

For Fire Mages, 2 less talent points needed for Empowered Fireball for the same affect is nice. Some of the other talents gets moved around on the tree, making it easier to access some talents earlier. Molten Shields gets a buff, making it even better for PvP.

There were many changes to the Frost talents. Ice Floes and Cold as Ice, together will give the following spells these reduced cooldowns:

• Cold Snap – 6 minutes 24 seconds
• Ice Block – 4 minutes
• Ice Barrier – 24 seconds
• Summon Water Elemental – 2 minutes 24 seconds
• Frost Nova – 20 seconds
• Cone of Cold – 8 seconds
• Icy Veins – 2 minutes 24 seconds
• Deep Freeze – 24 seconds

The reduced cooldowns on pet and Icy Veins now makes it possible to be in used in conjunction with your damage trinkets (2 minute cooldowns) at all times, if you can wait 24 seconds longer to use trinkets.

Arctic Reach affecting Deep Freeze now gives it a 36 yard range. Another nice buff for Deep Freeze.

Frost Channeling gets a nerf, down to 10% reduced mana cost of Frost Spells. Empowered Frostbolt is reduced to 2 talents points, but we lose 1% spell critical strike rating from this change.

New changes to Winter’s Chill is a huge buff to all raiding Mages. With the new Improved Scorch, Magic Focus and Winter’s Chill, you would now WANT to bring on of each Mage.

Related Posts:

• WotLK: Build 8770 – Instant Cast Deep Freeze
• WotLK: New Beta Talent Build
• WotLK: Arcane Talents Changed
• Frost Specs with the WotLK Beta Talents
• WotLK: Alpha Mage Spells