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I just wanted to let you all know that I got into the beta, and after I get through the goblin starting area I'll copy over my mage so I can see how the mage changes are. I'll keep you guys updated as best I can. 
Awesome. Let us know whatever ya can.
Not too much to report yet, honestly. The talent trees on Wowhead pretty much speak for themselves, and as we all know, they're going to get scrapped eventually anyways. My only real comment thus far is that I really hope they fix Arcane Intellect.
Right now they have it changed from an intellect buff to a straight 600 mana buff at level 80. I put in a suggestion for them to change it back, because once they get rid off SP (it's still on all the old gear and even some of the new quest items) Int will directly affect our damage. An extra 600 mana is just lame. A pretty nifty change to the spell (and to all buffs) is that there is no different spell for the group buff. You cast Arcane Intellect, and it casts on you and anyone else in your party or raid, which is pretty nice. There is a downside to this though, players get the class defining buffs much later than previously. My priest didn't get her Fort buff until level 14, which really annoyed me.
Something else that I think is kind of odd is that in the frost tree we still have the 3% hit talent, but the one over in the arcane tree for just arcane spells is gone. I dual specced in a frost heavy elemental tree and the arcane tree so I could play with both of the trees. So far I've just stuck with the frost tree, and I have to say that the few quests I've done thus far in Mount Hyjal have been pretty easy. Fun and interesting, but easy. They'd probably offer some challenge for an 80 in greens and blues though.
Right now they have it changed from an intellect buff to a straight 600 mana buff at level 80. I put in a suggestion for them to change it back, because once they get rid off SP (it's still on all the old gear and even some of the new quest items) Int will directly affect our damage. An extra 600 mana is just lame. A pretty nifty change to the spell (and to all buffs) is that there is no different spell for the group buff. You cast Arcane Intellect, and it casts on you and anyone else in your party or raid, which is pretty nice. There is a downside to this though, players get the class defining buffs much later than previously. My priest didn't get her Fort buff until level 14, which really annoyed me.
Something else that I think is kind of odd is that in the frost tree we still have the 3% hit talent, but the one over in the arcane tree for just arcane spells is gone. I dual specced in a frost heavy elemental tree and the arcane tree so I could play with both of the trees. So far I've just stuck with the frost tree, and I have to say that the few quests I've done thus far in Mount Hyjal have been pretty easy. Fun and interesting, but easy. They'd probably offer some challenge for an 80 in greens and blues though.
Not really paying much attention to most of the changes, because I know a lot will change, but I am wondering about Wall, er, Curtain. I don't pvp often, but the Wall of Fog, I mean, Curtain of Frost (hahaha!) seems interesting. Is it available to use yet, and if so, have you used it? Is it fun?
Jay would be a better person to ask honestly. I've barely touched my mage, and I detest pvp. 
Curtain is a level 85 ability, and we can't QUITE get to it yet.
I just got into Beta as well (DLing now). I'll investigate everything I'm nervous about and report back.
IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people
lolgaxe wrote:
Never underestimate the healing power of a massive dong.
How do you get notified if you get into the beta? Do you have to check your battle.net account on battle.net or do you get an email to your account email?
They sent me an email (which, naturally, I thought was a phishing attempt at first so I didn't even open it). But gmail's pretty good about moving those straight to spam. So I went to battle.net/login and it was in my games list. Clicking it brings you straight to a page you can download the client from.
IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people
lolgaxe wrote:
Never underestimate the healing power of a massive dong.
I got in too. Will be focusing mostly on priests and rogues, but I've rolled a lowbie Orc mage and am leveling as we speak. Findings so far:
-The Durotar starting zone is revamped. There's farms around there now, the quests are streamlined and it feels more lively.
-Level 1 to 2 as a mage is definitely the fastest of all classes :lol:. I stood on a hill and chaincasted Fireball on 8 different mobs, and dinged. Took me literally about 25 seconds.
-For those who didn't know yet, Arcane Missiles is now a proc. Every offensive spell you have gives you a 40% chance of allowing you to use Arcane Missiles. It's similar to Overpower for warriors, I guess. While this improves low level play, it does have the quirk that the arcane spec has right now - you launch one Fireball and then can't queue up another one since you won't know if Arcane Missiles will proc once you launch the Fireball.
-Something slightly worrying; Arcane Missiles seem to no longer fire when your target moves out of range. I just cast them on a mob that was at the edge of my reach, and the mob moved out of range as I was casting. I got an 'out of range' error message and my spell kept casting but just didn't fire off any more projectiles.
-This is new...
Edit: Fire Blast's range is now 30 yards, untalented. Wasn't it 20?
Edited, Aug 11th 2010 5:44pm by Mozared
Edited, Aug 11th 2010 5:51pm by Mozared
-The Durotar starting zone is revamped. There's farms around there now, the quests are streamlined and it feels more lively.
-Level 1 to 2 as a mage is definitely the fastest of all classes :lol:. I stood on a hill and chaincasted Fireball on 8 different mobs, and dinged. Took me literally about 25 seconds.
-For those who didn't know yet, Arcane Missiles is now a proc. Every offensive spell you have gives you a 40% chance of allowing you to use Arcane Missiles. It's similar to Overpower for warriors, I guess. While this improves low level play, it does have the quirk that the arcane spec has right now - you launch one Fireball and then can't queue up another one since you won't know if Arcane Missiles will proc once you launch the Fireball.
-Something slightly worrying; Arcane Missiles seem to no longer fire when your target moves out of range. I just cast them on a mob that was at the edge of my reach, and the mob moved out of range as I was casting. I got an 'out of range' error message and my spell kept casting but just didn't fire off any more projectiles.
-This is new...
Edit: Fire Blast's range is now 30 yards, untalented. Wasn't it 20?
Edited, Aug 11th 2010 5:44pm by Mozared
Edited, Aug 11th 2010 5:51pm by Mozared
Nice findings!
Umm, I think it has always been about 30 yards, but not positive.
The Sarkoth quest itself isn't new, but I do love the preview window to give an idea of what you will be going after!
So how long does the AM proc last before it is wasted? Also, I assume the cast isn't free for AM?
Edited, Aug 11th 2010 12:18pm by Anobix
Umm, I think it has always been about 30 yards, but not positive.
The Sarkoth quest itself isn't new, but I do love the preview window to give an idea of what you will be going after!
So how long does the AM proc last before it is wasted? Also, I assume the cast isn't free for AM?
Edited, Aug 11th 2010 12:18pm by Anobix
The AM proc lasts 20 seconds, so should be plenty of time to do your thing. As of right now, there is actually no mana cost for the spell.
In that case I would just chain-cast fireball/frostbolt and queue up the AM for after the next one. I wouldn't worry about not using it immediately.
Obviously this is technically low level we're talking about, but... using that technique would mean you miss out on a couple of AMs and cast fireball/frostbolt instead. Which would effectively be a DPS (or efficiency) loss.
It's not horrible, but it's one thing I dislike about (arcane) mages - you kind of get punished really easily for missing an ability. It's less of a straightforward gamble with other classes.
It's not horrible, but it's one thing I dislike about (arcane) mages - you kind of get punished really easily for missing an ability. It's less of a straightforward gamble with other classes.
It's the same with all proc-based abilities (like Hot Streak) as well.
It is, but the proc chance for Hot Streak tends to be a lot lower. If you queue up another Fireball before launching the instant Pyro, the chance that you've missed another instant pyro in those two seconds is fairly small. With the new Arcane Missiles, it's 40% at all times.
Which points back to what I said in my previous post - it's less of a huge gamble with other classes. With most DPS classes, when they get a proc, they'll have enough time to use it because the chance is smaller that they're wasting another proc while waiting. Mages, or in this case Arcane mages, don't have that luxury. If you don't use the proc, there's a big chance you're wasting another proc.
Which points back to what I said in my previous post - it's less of a huge gamble with other classes. With most DPS classes, when they get a proc, they'll have enough time to use it because the chance is smaller that they're wasting another proc while waiting. Mages, or in this case Arcane mages, don't have that luxury. If you don't use the proc, there's a big chance you're wasting another proc.
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