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| Don't mess with the 'Dar! |
Merinna has almost always been my main, but if I had a "main alt" (and I have many alts), it would be Eridar the draenei mage.
I'm still sticking to my guns about not letting myself discover too much about the new content between 80 and 85, but I want to learn more about the talent and ability changes for more of the classes I like to play. And besides, I can copy several chars to the beta server, so why not!
There has also been a problem in that all of my low-level beta chars, like Naralie and Winklestein, have disappeared into "crash" zones. Which is to say that I log onto them, they stand there for a few seconds, and then the entire client crashes.
So Eridar is here. My first impressions of the high level mage?
ZOMG! FIRE SPECC IS SO MUCH HONKING FUN!!
How has this wonderfulness come to pass?
Exhibit One: Scorch
By itself, it does the same old stuff it ever did. But add in the new talent Firestarter, and now you're cooking with gas! The ability to move and cast at the same time... pure brilliance! It makes the whole world seem different.
Exhibit Two: Blast Wave
I was initially put out by finding Blast Wave nestled in the middle of the fire tree with an arrow making it an essential talent for the fire mage. On live, Blast Wave is usually skipped over by raiding mages and its knockback makes it hated by ... pretty well everybody. The new blast wave is targetted at range, replaces the knockback with a slow effect, and then when you add the talent Improved Flamestrike, and you have a pretty full on AoE.
As a side note: Fire needs a good AoE. Specc changes and new co-efficients make it so that if you're not a frost mage, then your Blizzard is more like a hard flurry than anything really dangerous. This new application of Blast Wave and Flamestrike will do nicely.
Exhibit Three: Pyroblast
Some aspects of this spell are confusing me somewhat. You'll notice no Wowhead link. At this time, Wowhead does not have a listing for Pyroblast in Cataclysm. Nevertheless, it's there in my skill book and on my bar with a reduced cast time. Primarily, it goes with the talent Hot Streak, and you'll use it against bosses the same way you always did. But at half the casting time, you can afford to open with it on most any fight if you feel like it. The fun part was that it's earlier iteration made it procc off >everything<. Eri sat down to eat some mana strudel, and that procced a hot streak. They fixed that, however.
Otherwise, there are some new fiery sound effects, and a pyroblast looks more like a fiery meteor than ever. I'm still not thrilled about Dragon's Breath being a required talent, but hey, it still burns things and that is good.
What are the other trees like? I dunno, I'm having too much fun running up and back in front of a training dummy, "You like dese moves? Scorch for you! Look! I move left! Scorch! I move right! Scorch! That's right, you just try and keep up with me now!"
Oh wow. Hayna, the Human torch can hardly wait, especially for the Scorch. I rarely use it now. I always think about the WOW start-up video. It shows an, I think, Undead Mage, walking with a staff, who casually flames a bunch of baddies behind him. This sounds really awesome
ReplyDeleteHeheh. Most hardcore raiders only use Scorch every 30 seconds just to keep up a damage debuff that is good for the raid. But I think it'll be nice to have something to do when you have to move and don't like waiting around for your Flameblast CD.
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