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Arcane Brilliance: I hope for an icy apocalypse
It's time again for Arcane Brilliance, the weekly mage column that has, for well over two years now, been your one-stop source for mage-love and warlock-hate. Which, of course, made it pretty much inevitable that you all would vote that I roll a warlock by such a hilariously high percentage in Friday's Choose My Adventure poll. Jerks. Just know: it may not be all that fun to watch me repeatedly drown myself or run naked into crowds of high-level mobs. Or ... maybe it will be. So, I don't know if you saw this, but I found it a little depressing. It's a collection of DPS data from the current endgame of WoW, Icecrown Citadel 25-man. And while fire and arcane mages appear to be right up there in the mix, frost is not. Instead, they're relegated to the same marginal, fringe PvE status that other under-represented specs enjoy, like subtlety rogues, or beastmaster hunters. It seems that not only were the few frost mages whose data made its way into those World of Logs parses doing some pretty woeful DPS, but so few of them were actually going into Icecrown that the data we do have is rendered completely unreliable. Maybe they weren't all that bad? It's tough to tell when there were sometimes less than 50 frost mage results. Even low-representation specs like arms warriors had thousands. This, my friends, is unacceptable. Frost mages, while kings of the PvP hill, have long been the redheaded stepchildren of mage specs when it comes to PvE content. Still, they've seen multiple recent changes to their spec that have promised to narrow the gap, and to a large extent, those changes have made something of a difference. Frost isn't by any means up to the same same level as arcane and fire yet, but in terms of raw DPS output, the gulf is narrowing. Sadly, it seems nobody has noticed. Now, I'm not blaming frost mages. I expect that a large and unsavory part of the problem is not frost mages failing to go to Icecrown or failing to perform well when they do go, but is instead a failure of Icecrown groups to allow frost mages to go. The stigma against frost is ancient, its taint deep. I have all but given up on this changing during this expansion.
Cataclysm Class Changes: Mage Analysis
Man, you go out of town for a few days and look what happens: Mages get Bloodlust and a warlock adulterates the mage column. Remind me never to do that again. We'll look at the Cataclysm class preview in more detail in the coming weeks in warlock-free (I promise) verisons of Arcane Brilliance, but for now, let me unload some of my initial reactions on you. New spells Three spells were announced, and only one is a mechanic we're really familiar with. Time Warp, which enters our arsenal at level 83, appears to be akin to what is arguably the single best raid buff in the game: Bloodlust/Heroism. One key difference exists, though, and that is that Time Warp will also turn mages, briefly, into rogues. Rogues in silly dresses. I really, really hope that this speed increase: is significant enough to make mages into truly mobile casters, both in PvP and PvE. I don't want a rehash of Blazing Speed, which was a fun mechanic that simply wasn't powerful enough, doesn't share a cooldown with Icy Veins (or whatever that talent's Cataclysm equivalent ends up being), or better yet, stacks with it, so as not to render that beloved spell redundant, and lasts long enough that it's worth blowing the cooldown either during the burndown phase of a fight (if somebody else isn't already using Heroism/Bloodlust) or during a high-mobility phase of a fight, simply for the haste bonus. I'm incredibly excited about this spell, because of the three new ones, it's the only one we can safely say (with what we know now) will actually be awesome. We already know this spell's core mechanic works, and if the movement speed increase is worthwhile, this could truly be the defining spell of the expansion for mages.
Breakfast Topic: How are you spending the last few days of the Midsummer Fire Festival?
The Midsummer Fire Festival officially ends on July 5th, just a few scant days away. That means no more Lord Ahune, no more chances to get the Deathfrost enchant, no more desecration, no more turning into a crab, no more Torch Tossing... Yeah, I'm a little bummed too. Still, we have a couple days left to make the best of it. Of course, the question is -- what exactly do we do with it? Myself, I'm torn. My enchanter still needs the Deathfrost enchant, so I may want to get a group together and go slay Ahune a few more times. Then again, I still haven't gotten some of the Midsummer loot on a couple of my 70s, so maybe I want to make a push to get the last few blossoms for those. But I'm also thinking that it would be nice to get my shaman to level 30 before Patch 2.4.3, and thus I'm tempted to just go out and slog through the last few levels with her, bolstered by the all the various Fire Festival buffs and the Ribbon Dance buff. I'll have to think about it some more, but in the meantime, do you have a plan for these last few days of the Midsummer Fire Festival? %Gallery-25803% The Midsummer Fire Festival is upon us! Check out WoW Insider's complete quest guide to collect those Burning Blossoms as well as our guide on how to spend them. Also, don't forget to eyeball our screenshot gallery of Midsummer events. Finally, find out how to kill Lord Ahune, and check out our break down of his loot table.
Lord Ahune's loot table
Like Halloween's Headless Horseman, the Midsummer Fire Festival's summonable boss Lord Ahune offers a nice selection of epic loot, as well as some really fun vanity/joke loot to keep the mood light. Most of the epic drops from the Frost Lord are duplicates of old Badge of Justice loot to help save you a fair amount of badges, but there are also a few new, completely unique drops.From completely awesome scythes to the Frost Lord's personal booze, we have a full listing of Lord Ahune's known drops. Even if you're geared to the teeth from Sunwell Plateau, Ahune has something for you, though it might come in a form a little sillier than traditional equipment. Take a look behind the cut below to see it all!
Insider Trader: Rounding up 2.4 professions changes, part 2
Last week, we rounded up all of the professions-related changes coming with patch 2.4 for various reagents, mining, blacksmithing, engineering and fishing. If you were feeling left out, have no fear; the rest of the professions are here! From new enchants and gems, to new recipes and craftable gear, every profession is getting a bit of a boost this patch. Once again, keep in mind that because this is information from the Public Test Realms, the specifics may be changed. If you see a Wowhead tooltip, and I have provided alternate materials next to it, that is because websites like MMO-Champion have since discovered updated information.Jump through the break to see what's in store for jewelcrafters, enchanters, alchemists, herbalists, cooks, leatherworkers and tailors!As always, for the details on anything and everything patch 2.4-related, check out our Complete Guide.
Sunwell Plateau's magical menagerie
We have some more info straight from World of Raids regarding patch 2.4. This time, we're digging into the spell tables. As a warning, some of these might be spoilers for the Sunwell Plateau raid zone, so read at your own risk. Also, when you come across any funky numbers and symbols in these, keep in mind that you don't often get to see the values for these things until you run into them in-game. You'll get the gist of what they do from their descriptions, though.First, we have a duo of spells referencing Anveena: Sacrifice of Anveena - Anveena sacrifices herself, causing Kil'jaeden to take $s1% increased Holy damage. Anveena's Prison - A field of Arcane power traps Anveena. So it seems that during the last battle of the Sunwell Plateau, we will have an NPC on our side, similar to the Illidan encounter.Next up we have a few that point to the oh-so-pretty Kalecgos:
