OK so perhaps I have been lacking in Magieness in my blog but I wanted to present these most recent changes to you, my beloved readers. Spicytunas has a great post up on all the most recent changes to Mages and I suggest you go check it out. But today I wanted to post about a recent change to Arcane Blast.
Arcane Blast effect duration reduced to 3 seconds, now increases damage by 15/30/45% instead of reducing cast time.
Previously Arcane Blast shortened your cast time each time while upping the mana cost. The effect was nice dps but something that couldn’t be sustained for long periods. This led to Arcane Blast rotations where you would mix blasts with frostbolts or fireballs so that you could reset the 8 second debuff on and start the rotation over again at the Damage per mana (DPM) efficient first blast.
So I may be reading this entirely wrong but I’m going to assume that the effect duration was changed to 3 seconds to stop the need for alternating to another spell. Now you might only need a slight pause to reset. Now the comment doesn’t say anything about changes to the mana and how each successive blast will cause that to rise as well. I can’t imagine that would change because you’ll still have to pay some higher cost for the increase in damage right? But now we get to the point of this post and ask if this is a buff or some sort of nerf. I decided to take a crack at theory crafting some numbers here to see what may have changed.
Obviously everyone cautions their readers this way and I’m going to do the same. I am not a numbers min/max theory crafter. I will do what I can to squeeze out dps but usually I just go with the flow on what’s a popular build and spell rotation and trust I’m doing near top damage possible for my current gear. That being said, I’m going to use nice rounded numbers so that I can grasp what’s going on and hopefully you guys will be kind to me in the onslaught of corrections that are sure to follow.
The Original Arcane Blast would reduce the cast time. Started at 2.5 seconds and by the third blast reached 1.5. Let’s say in the Magical World of Azeroth you do exactly 1000 damage every time you cast Arcane Blast (see…nice round numbers). DPS = Cast time/Damage. So you should be cranking out the following DPS:
- (1000/2.50s) = 400 DPS
- (1000/2.17s) = 460 DPS
- (1000/1.83s) = 546 DPS
- (1000/1.50s) = 666 DPS
OK great. Now instead of reducing time, the new version of the spell will increase damage. So that formula should be DPS= Cast time/Damage + increased damage.
- (1000/2.5s)+(400DPS*0.00) = 400 DPS
- (1000/2.5s)+(400DPS*0.15) = 460 DPS
- (1000/2.5s)+(400DPS*0.30) = 520 DPS
- (1000/2.5s)+(400DPS*0.45) = 580 DPS
…Does that look right? Is my math wrong? You’d have to buff the spell by 15/36/67% to reach numbers like that with the time reduction. Ignoring all talents and possible gear influences on the spell, it looks like we’re not getting the “raw, unadulterated damage” that was promised at the Mage Class panel at World Wide Invitational this year. Yes I know that was geared at AoE but still, I hardly think the nerfing of Arcane Blast is on the same path.
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My heart goes out to all of the sad pandas in the mage world. Let’s just hope everything rebalances itself out when Rich King comes out. I myself am still sad at the rebalancing of Winter’s Grasp and the Imp. WElemental health/mana reduction.
Fear not, it is just a big joke by Bliz. Come release day we will have talent trees and spells never seen before. Our spells will increase in damage as they decrease in threat and mana consumption. Our blink will, well… blink..
Mmmm sorry, was I snoring… better wake up now….
gnomeaggedons last blog post..Ducking and Weaving – Fire #3
Something is wrong with your blog. I can’t see any posts before “I’m a Maaaaaaaaad Panda”.
Incidental Purposes last blog post..Isla – our 8 week old
@Incidental Purpose: Well that’s no good at all… What browser are you using? You’re saying that you can only read 3 posts? Do they show up empty or just not at all?
They seem to be working for me atm… Anyone else having trouble?
The changes to Arcane Blast still increases mana cost of each consecutive cast. The mana cost goes up 75% each time and stacks up to 3 times (225% mana cost). You can take a look here: Arcane Blast (Rank 4)
About the problem Incidental is having, I opened your site on IE and had the same problem. No problems with Firefox though.
Tunas last blog post..Mage Traveling Tips
@Krizzlybear and @gnomeaggedon, yeah this change is something I think was more or less uncalled for. I really haven’t heard many complaints about AB and don’t see the real need to change it. When is the last time someone called AB overpowered? It’s power is kept in check pretty well by adding the extreme mana cost. Its still beta so things might change before launch and the post did take a very “horse blinders” approach to dissecting the spell. There my be some talent that will make this change own. I guess we’ll wait and see.
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