#0 - Feb. 19, 2010, 10:54 p.m.
Q u o t e:
Frostbolt: Spell power scaling on this spell has been increased by approximately 5%.
Does this simply mean that the coefficient penalty has been removed? That would mean an increase from about 81.43% to about 85.71%.
Q u o t e:
Arcane Empowerment: This effect is now passive instead of being a proc off of critical strikes. The self damage buff remains unchanged.
Presumably this means the mere presence of an Arcane Mage provides the damage buff aura. Interesting.
Q u o t e:
Incanter's Absorption: This talent now only grants additional spell power when damage is absorbed by Mana Shield, Frost Ward, Fire Ward, or Ice Barrier. The limit of 5% of the mage's health on the spell power buff has been removed.
That should moderate the talent quite a bit.
Q u o t e:
Burning Soul: Threat reduction is now 10/20%, up from 5/10%.
A useful change, putting Fire's threat reduction pretty much on par with Frost and all three Warlock specs. If Fire Mages find themselves to be threat-capped frequently, this could goose them up the meters a bit, but I'm not sure that's their problem on most encounters these days. Fire guys/gals will have to speak up on this one.
Q u o t e:
Brain Freeze: This talent now allows your next Fireball or Frostfire Bolt to be instant and cost no mana. There is a small internal cooldown to keep the Frostfire Bolt from immediately triggering Brain Freeze again.
That seems a very elegant solution. The DPS increase will be subtle, which is appropriate, and spacing out the procs a wee bit will not be at all problematic for us.
Very much looking forward to testing this out.
ETA:
Q u o t e:
Glyph of Fireball: No longer increases critical strike chance of Fireball. Instead, it now reduces the cast time of Fireball by 0.15 seconds.
That's a ~5.26% casting speed increase for Fireball. I think in a stand-up stationary fight, that's going to be pretty much a DPS-neutral change, but it may improve Fire's ability to handle most encounters.