WoW Legion Mage class preview

The Legion class preview for Mages is now live and is a bit different than the earlier Priest and Hunter previews. While those classes needed more separation and focus among their specs, Mages already have that so the devs are focusing more and adding to what’s already there than to revamp core mechanics. Read on for more details.

Arcane

Arcane Mage mechanics are centered around Arcane Charges. Your bread and butter damage spells will hit for more damage if you have Arcane Charges available. Evocation will refill your mana bar and Mastery: Savant increases your mana regen and maximum mana as you gain Mastery points as well as increases the damage boost from Arcane Charges. Draw too much aggro from all this damage? Displacement will allow to cast Blink with no cooldown for 4 seconds. A sample new Talent will allow you stack haste from casting Arcane Missile and Arcane Blast.

Fire

Fire Mages are getting some of their more complex systems simplified. The idea of igniting a target for additional HoT damage is being taken out of Infernal Blast and is now baked into the new Mastery. The new Mastery will also take on the role of spreading Ignite to other targets. Hot Streak will now proc upon two critical strikes in a row and a new Hot Streak can’t be activated into the current one is used. Finally, the new slimmed down Inferno Blast will be taken off the global cooldown to give mages more flexibility.

Frost

Frost Mages aren’t getting too many changes either. Frostfire Bolt is kinda useless and is being replaced wit Frozen Orb which slows everything in a line. The new Mastery: Icicles is interesting. Every time the mage damages an enemy with Frostbolt, up to 45% of the damage is stored within the mage as an icicle for 30 seconds for a maximum of 5 icicles.. When the mage casts Ice Lance, the icicles launch with it for extra damage.  There is also a Talent listed as Glacial Spike which requires 5 icicles to cast and merges those icicles into, well a giant glacial spike, which does massive damage and freezes the target for 4 seconds.

You can read the full Mage class preview on the WoW official site. You can also read previous class preview blogs here on Blizzard Watch. Next up is the Paladin at 5pm PT.