Focus Magic: Cataclysm Talents - Part 3: Fire
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Welcome to the 7th edition of Focus Magic, your weekly WoW Mage Blog, right here on crusaderscoliseum.com! As the release dates for the crusaderscoliseum articles have been confirmed with the staff, I have the wonderful news that Focus Magic will be released on a Monday! Perhaps the worst day of the week, but hopefully Focus Magic will give you something to look forward to every Monday. Screw a healthy breakfast to start off your week, how about a rather unhealthy over-sized portion of Focus Magic! Now we’re talking…
So as you can see from the image above, this week is all about the Fire aspect of Mages, come Cataclysm. We’ll be analysing the current beta build shown on wowhead, and seeing if things in Cataclysm will burn any better than the current roster of Icy enemies scattered around Northrend. The benefits you receive from choosing Fire are;
Pyroblast - Hurls an immense fiery boulder that causes X Fire damage and an additional 756 Fire damage over 12 sec. – Yay! Having Pyroblast available at level 10, while only being 10 levels earlier than the usual Fire Mage could pick it up, is still pretty awesome. And the fact that the Cataclysm version of Pyroblast has a 3.5 sec cast time. That’s faaaaaaaast. This will inevitably be a much more useful levelling tool than the current Pyroblast, due to the reduced cast time, as you’ll probably be able to cast 2 on the target before they even reach you. But they should be dead by then.
Fire Specialization – Increases the damage of your fire spells by 25%. Doesn’t take a genius to work out this is awesome. Frost and Arcane have copied versions of this, just respective to their own tree, and an extra 25% damage is a brilliant tool, from whichever perspective you look at it from.
As we delve into the actual Fire talents, it’s obvious to see a lot is subject to change from the lovely 51-point trees we’re used to in WotLK. The small, concise talent trees of 31-points will certainly get rid of most filler, useless talents we see so much in WotLK. So let’s see what we get from the new Fire talent tree… (Note: The number in brackets next to the name of the talent, is the amount of maximum talent points you can spend in that talent.)
Tier 1
Master of Elements (2) - Your spell criticals will refund 15/30% of their base mana cost. – Good to see this talent being moved up a few tiers, making it much more accessible for other talent specs to include it in their raid spec. This will also help solve an issue that Fire constantly battles with whilst levelling; mana management.
Burning Soul (3) – Reduces the casting time lost from taking damaging attacks by 23/46/70%. – Urgh, why does this talent continue to hang around?! Seriously, this talent annoys me quite a lot, as every other class has baseline protection from lost casting time when hit. But Mages still have to spend 3 talent points on it?! Pfft. Sort it out, Blizzard.
Improved Fire Blast (2) - Increases the critical strike chance of your Fire Blast spell by 4/8% and increases its range by 5/10 yards. – Always a nice talent for those who love the Instant awesomeness of Fire Blast, whether it be to add extra damage at the end of a boss fight, to finish off that mob on a slither of health, or just to add extra impact to your enemies in PvP. And increasing the range on Fire Blast will make this spell much more accessible and will be useful in many more situations.
Tier 2
Ignite (3) – Your critical strikes from Fire damage spells cause the target to burn for an additional 13/26/40% of your spell's damage over 4 sec. – Good ol’ Ignite. Great to see it practically unchanged from the current talent, as this contributes greatly to a Fire Mage’s DPS. You know the brilliance of this talent already, and if you don’t… well, familiarize yourself with it. You’ll love it!
Fire Power (3) – Increases the damage of your Fire spells by 1/2/3% and gives your Flame Orb a 33/66/100% chance to explode at the end of its duration. – A straight damage increase on your Fire Spells is neat, and the ability to have your Flame Orbs explode at the end of their duration instead of harmlessly dispersing is neater. More ways to deal damage, for the win
Blazing Speed (2) – Gives you a 5/10% chance when hit by a melee or ranged attack to increase your movement speed by 50% and dispel all movement impairing effects. This effect lasts 8 sec. – Quite a situational talent, especially for PvP, and even for levelling. Always fun to see your Mage zooming around the area at crazy speeds, but this talent can be quite useful for getting out of sticky situations.
Impact (2) – Gives your damaging spells a 5/10% chance to cause the next Fire Blast you cast to stun the target for 2 sec and spread any Fire damage over time effects to nearby enemy targets within 12 yards. – Oooh, this has been updated from the current Impact talent and I do love the update. A talent which seems good all round, whether it be spreading your DoT’s around to more enemies, or just for the extra stun from Fire Blast, this will be a great talent to use if you tend to AoE a lot. And Fire Mages already rock at AoE. Woo!
Tier 3
Blast Wave (1) – [15 sec cooldown] - A wave of flame radiates outward from the target location, damaging all enemies caught within the blast for X Fire damage and are slowed by 70% for 3 sec. – Seems relatively unchanged, Blast Wave is always nice for PvP and levelling with it’s knockback and daze effect. And a 15 second cooldown making this talent more efficient for when the situation calls.
Cauterize (2) – You have a 50/100% chance that an attack which would otherwise kill you will instead bring you to 40% of your maximum health. However, you will burn for 12% of your maximum health every 1.5 sec for the next 6 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once per minute. – WHAAAAAAT. So, Fire Mages effectively have a Cheat Death ability now?! Notice that 6/1.5 = 4, and 4*12 = 48. Which is more than 40. So, effectively the DoT would kill you. However, there are many ways this can be countered…an absorption effect, Health potion, bandage, Ice Block, maybe just a good old fashioned heal. Awesome talent.
Molten Shields (1) – Reduces the global cooldown of your Mage Ward spell by 1 sec and your Mage Ward triggers the Blazing Speed effect when it dissipates from absorbing damage. – A nice talent again, for helping survivability as a Fire Mage. Mostly in Levelling and PvP, this talent will grant great access for the Fire Mage to be able to get out of those uncomfortable situations. But fret not, if you should ‘die’, Cauterize will take care of that.
Improved Scorch (2) – Reduces the mana cost of your Scorch spell by 50/100%. – Earlier in the article, I opened my description on a talent by saying: “WHAAAAAAT.” And I stand by that. WHAAAAAAT. So, now Fire Mages have the ability to cast Scorch for no mana at all?! Looks like the mana issue of Fire Mages has been solved. Obvious uses for PvP and Levelling, and even for PvE, just spamming Scorch when you’re out of mana until you wait for your Mana Gem/Potion/Evocation to cooldown can help keep your DPS steady.
Tier 4
Pyromaniac (2) – Increases spell haste by 5/10% if 3 or more targets are taking Fire damage over time from your spells. – Looking at this from a PvE Point of view, having your spell haste increased (by quite a sizeable amount) whilst AoE’ing is always nice. For Levelling and PvP, this talent could give you the boost you need to fire off that destructive Pyroblast in time to kill your target.
Combustion (1) – [Requires Blast Wave, 2 min cooldown] - When activated, this spell increases the critical strike chance on your next non-periodic Fire damage spell by 100%. In addition, when that critical strike lands, all of your existing Fire periodic damage effects will be merged into the Combustion effect, burning at the same rate but over 10 sec. – Great to finally see this talent undergoing a much needed change, and it looks very nice indeed. Apart from the familiar guaranteed crit on your next direct damage Fire spell, the merging of all your DoT’s seems like it will be a great increase to your DPS. Whichever aspect you look at it, this talent will be widely used by all Fire Mages.
Hot Streak (3) – Your spells no longer trigger Arcane Missiles. Instead, any time you score 2 non-periodic critical strikes in a row with your Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Scorch, or Fire Blast spells, you have a 33/66/100% chance the next Pyroblast spell cast within 10 sec will be instant cast and cost no mana. – Nice to see this talent pretty much unchanged, instant Pyroblast’s are a great part of any Fire Mage, and to see them still being existent in Cataclysm is lovely.
Firestarter (1) – Your Molten Armor allows you to cast the Scorch spell while moving instead of reducing the chance you are critically hit. – Remember earlier, the whole WHAAAAAAT fiasco? Guess WHAAAAAAT. WHAAAAAAT. This talent is too ridiculously awesome. So, apart from having our Scorch spell costing NO MANA, we can now cast it while moving?! Jeeeez. Pretty much resolving the small issue of Fire Mages lower DPS on movement heavy PvE encounters, and giving Fire Mages the ability to deal out some extra damage while dancing around in PvP. From a Levelling point of view, this looks awesome for helping Fire Mages being able to chain kill and reduce downtime.
Tier 5
Improved Flamestrike (2) – Reduces the casting time of your Flamestrike spell by 50/100% and gives you a 50/100% chance that your Blast Wave spell will also automatically Flamestrike the same location if two or more targets are affected by the Blast Wave. – Seems this is coming up a lot recently. By ‘this’ I mean “WHAAAAAAT”. So, an automated Flamestrike, and an Instant Flamestrike?! I’m not sure if it’s the way this talent is worded, or if it just applies to Blast Wave, but does this mean Flamestrike is always an Instant Cast now? Why don’t Blizzard just make Fireball an Instant Cast. That’d be sweeeeeet.
Dragon’s Breath (1) – [7% of base mana, 20 sec cooldown] Targets in a cone in front of the caster take X Fire damage and are Disoriented for 5 sec. Any direct damaging attack will revive targets. – Seemingly unchanged, good old Dragon’s Breath has become a great friend of any Fire Mage (who decides to use it). But note it says any DIRECT damage will revive targets. Does that mean you can disorient that target and still have your DoT’s ticking away? I sure hope so.
Molten Fury (3) – Increases damage of all spells against targets with less than 35% health by 4/8/12%. – Again, seemingly unchanged, a great talent Fire mages will know and love, increasing the damage nuke when the boss falls below 35% health. Yay for more damage!
Tier 6
Critical Mass (3) – Your Pyroblast and Scorch spells have a 33/66/100% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to spell damage, increasing spell critical strike chance against that target by 5% and lasts 30 sec. – Pretty much a 5% critical strike increase on the target, which is really good, especially for PvE. And it has a nice duration aswell. This should be up all the time on a raid boss, unless exceptional circumstances interfere, if you go 30 seconds without having a Scorch or Pyroblast crit, see a doctor.
Tier 7
So we’ve reached the end of this wonderful, improved Fire Talent Tree, and to top it all off, there can only really be one talent to fill this prized slot in the Talent Tree. It can only be…
Living Bomb (1) – [Requires Dragon’s Breath, 22% of base mana] - The target becomes a Living Bomb, taking X Fire damage over 12 sec. After 12 sec or when the spell is dispelled, the target explodes dealing X Fire damage to all enemies within 10 yards. – The icing on the cake, Living Bomb may be one of the best things to happen to Fire Mages since…well…not a lot really, Fire Mages are packed with awesomeness. If you’re not familiar with this talent, this gives Fire Mages the ability to place a DoT on the target and have them explode at the end of the duration. And it can be placed on more than one target. Combine this with other Fire Cataclysm Mage talents and the numbers will certainly be in abundance.
So, overall, the Fire Mage’s Cataclysm tree looks very interesting indeed (Not to mention ridiculous). I cannot wait to try this one out, especially all the new levelling talents and helps on offer. Looks like I will be very busy indeed when Cataclysm is released, as I want to try out each spec for levelling! As stated in previous articles, I don’t have any access to the Cataclysm Beta, as I’m trying to avoid as many spoilers as I can, but I feel looking ahead at the talent trees is a great way to get a headstart on those other Mages. So if you have any first hand experience from inside the Beta, please feel free to share your views to us via comments or the Kuurg Contact Page!
Before we end, check out this video by the wonderful TotalHalibut as he discusses the Fire Cataclysm Talents, further. If you’re more of a visual learner, this will be of great help to you. WARNING: This video may contain spoilers, so if you’re like me, and wish to keep Cataclysm as a surprise, just skip it!
I hope you enjoyed this week’s edition of Focus Magic, and if you have any comments or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to drop them by via the comment box below! Next week, I’ll have to rack my brain to think of an interesting topic that’s worthy enough for Focus Magic and it’s readers. Perhaps something on the basis of levelling, farming, professions…. Who knows! Until next Monday…
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Last Updated on Thursday, 02 September 2010 20:53 Written by Kuurg Monday, 30 August 2010 22:36