Pig & Whistle Tales - A World of Warcraft Podcast

Transform Your Gameplay: Mage and Monk Class Updates in World of Warcraft

• Gabriel • Season 4 • Episode 82

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Exploring the latest class changes in World of Warcraft, this episode dives deep into how mages and monks are evolving, focusing on the significant adjustments that will impact gameplay. With insights into the new patch's effects, listeners gain valuable knowledge to enhance their in-game strategies and performance.

• Overview of the latest class changes
• Mage adjustments across Frost, Fire, and Arcane trees
• Notable quality-of-life improvements for mages
• Enhancements to Mistweaver monks and their healing abilities
• Insights into the balance of PvP and PvE gameplay dynamics
• Future implications for gameplay strategies and class viability

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Speaker 1:

The do. Hello and welcome to the Pig and Whistle Tales from Azeroth. As always here at the Pig and Whistle Inn in Stormwind, I go for a variety of subjects with regards to World of Warcraft, so grab a bottle or a pint, sit back and enjoy this episode. We'll be carrying on the development notes and since last episode was all about hunters and the entirety of the rework to them, um, we're going to be going on to other classes now, such as mage we're going to be looking at, uh, uh, well, there's actually a lot of mage changes, but monk as well, and possibly paladins. There is a lot to get through in this episode. So we will start off with the weekly news. As always, orta the Broken Mountain is your world boss for the week. He can be located within. Oh my God, how have I forgotten the zone Azkahet? That's the one. Oh my God, how have I forgotten the zone Azkahet? That's the one.

Speaker 1:

You have pet battles, warlords of drain or time walking and battlegrounds as your bonus event. So quite a few bonus events this week. Pet battles usually are paired up with something, but not usually with two other bits and pieces. So you know, take use of all of this while it is active. Deep Six is your brawl for the week. This is essentially a 6v6 mode in deepwing gorge and it's very simple 6v6 um, no, not in deepwing gorge, sorry, it's a 6v6 in multiple battlegrounds, such as wars on gulch, temple of kotmogu, stuff like that. Um, therefore, your actions mean more because you are part of a smaller team and you have oblivion and fortitude as your mythic affixes these this week. Oblivion the orbs essentially move in from the around the mobs and you just simply soak before they get to the mobs. Or boss. And fortified, the non-boss enemies have increased health and damage. So bring a talent build that can accommodate for that.

Speaker 1:

So let's start off with mage. So firstly, uh, as a overall maze change, you have mass barrier mana cost reduced to eight percent was 12. Not really sure this was needed. I don't really think any sort of mages were going home, but you know it is what it is. Polymorph health regeneration reduced by 50. I don't think this is going to change because I think polymorph will still heal targets to full. Um, I'm not sure if this is what you're wanting to do for pvp basis, but I don't think it's going to help. Polymorph now breaks based on a small damage threshold instead of any damage. This is huge. Okay, this small amount of damage threshold is going to be so significant in everything. This includes hunter traps, fears, anything along them lines that used to break instantly. It depends on the amount of threshold, so it might be 50k damage, 100k damage, anything like that. It's still going to be massive, though, because that way you don't graze them with a melee attack and break it accidentally. So this is really strong for mages, especially Hero talents.

Speaker 1:

Frostfire, excess fire now triggers when you cast Meteor or meteor or comet storm. It was when you reach max stacks of fire mastery okay. Frost by frost fire burst damage is increased by 70. That's crazy. Excess frost now triggers when you consume excess fire uh, was reached max stacks of frost mastery. Uh, and you may stack up to twice excess frost. It now casts ice nova at 200. Effectiveness was 150. Again, just a boost of damage.

Speaker 1:

The talent locations of excess frost, excess fire in isothermic core imbued warding and meltdown have changed. Okay, frost fire bolt is now approximately consumed overflowing energy when it critically strikes. Frost fire empowerment is now tracked on a personal resource display. This is really cool, um, I like that. They're doing this with other things as well, so for the hunters, they were giving them a personal resource for something, and this was for the. What was it called? I forget the name of it, but it's in the new marksmanship like rework, essentially, if you are unable to do something. It was the lunar storm. That was it. Um, when lunar storm is on cooldown, it will give you a visual that it is on cooldown via debuffs or on your ui, and I like that. They're doing this. They're putting more things into the ui, which is really, really good and should be doing, or they should be doing, a lot more.

Speaker 1:

So, going into the future, because they want to combat these weak auras and these um add ons that are constantly telling us, oh, you don't. Constantly telling us, oh, you don't have this, you do have that, you don't have that, etc. Etc. They want to build it all into the UI so that it is more user-friendly and actually new player-friendly as well. So I think this is really good. These small changes are going to go unnoticed, but they are very, very good for the game as a whole. For Sunfury, you only have the one change Consuming Glorious Incandescence while at or around max range will now appropriately summon meteors. Okay.

Speaker 1:

For Arcane, you're getting a couple changes. So Enlightened has been updated. Arcane damage dealt is increased, based on your current mana, up to 6% of full mana. Regen is increased, based on your current mana, up to 20% when out of mana. Very simple, it's just a slight tweak to the talent, nothing too crazy. Arcane Surge is now tracked on the personal resource display, so I think this is really good.

Speaker 1:

So what they have as a UI element is your personal resource. What this is is essentially, it puts your health and mana in the middle of your screen underneath your character very slightly underneath your character, and a lot of people don't use this. Okay. Now what people do use is we core is okay, and these we cores that you can download, and it will essentially put all of your like mage cooldowns slapping in the middle of the screen with your health and mana. So this is what they're trying to replicate, I think, and this is really good. Now, what I don't understand is why they can't change the options in the game to allow you to track what and where you want, because with the current ui or the edit mode that we have, you should be able to do this. I genuinely think you should be able to do this and I think you can with enough like um, moving about of the elements of the ui that you are able to. I think you are able to do this, but I think people just like it a bit more with the weak horror. So I think that's what they're trying to get the feel of with these UI changes, which is really good.

Speaker 1:

Firstly, for fire now fire has been underperforming in PvP PvE. I think it's quite good, I believe, but let's see what they're changing here. So, firstly, heat simmer has been updated. No longer makes scorch instant cast. It increases scorch's damage by 10% instead. That is a huge nerf. That is a huge nerf. That is a huge nerf. That's crazy. Yeah, that's insane.

Speaker 1:

Pyrotechnics has been updated. Critical strike or critical chance increased to 20% was 10. Massive buff Controlled destruction has now been updated. Now, triggers from fireball Okay, very good. Master of flame has been updated. Now increases ignite and fireballs damage by 15% while combust is not active. This is really good because ignite is such a good damaging ability right now for fire mages. It's one of their primary sources of damage. Actually damaging ability right now for fire mages, it's one of their primary sources of damage actually, and with combustion not being up all the time having 15 increased damage on this sort of thing like it's very good in the long run. Um.

Speaker 1:

Call of the sun king has been updated, no longer grants an additional charge of phoenix flames and now grants 15 increased phoenix flames damage. In my opinion, probably a bit better. Um, my opinion, probably a bit better. Genuinely it might be a bit better, but it very much depends on how quickly you're going to run out of your instant cast spells to get Pyroblast damage, etc. Fireblast cooldown increased to 14 seconds was 12. This is a massive nerf because Fireblast is obviously used off the GCD to guarantee a crit. Hypothermia duration reduced to five seconds was six Hypothermia. Okay, for some reason Hypothermia is just that debuff in my brain that allows mages to ice block. But I guess, yeah, I guess that isn't what they're talking about here. Pyroblast damage increased by 10%. Stride buff really good. Flamestrike damage increased by 10% as well. Okay, flamestrike mana cost reduced. Sun King's blessing damage bonus increased to 280% was 260. This is a good buff. Phoenix Reborn now refunds one phoenix flame charge. Uh, on use was two phoenix. Uh, phoenix reborns phoenix flames damage increased to 200 was 100. Massive buff there. Um. Phoenix reborns description, auras and tooltips have been updated to better communicate their effects. Very simple Fixed an issue that caused Pyromaniac to grant hypothermia more often than it should, which is pretty good that they fixed that bug, because it just means more damage for fire mages.

Speaker 1:

You can no longer trigger hypothermia when you already have it. This makes a lot of sense. It's always been that way, for, you know, mages hypothermia you can't trigger it again. I know it's not for the same spell, but it makes sense in hindsight that you know it would prevent them from getting hypothermia again. Um, yeah, even if it's just like a smaller talent. Um, for Sunfury, your glorious incandescence fire blast cooldown reduction is increased to two seconds. When a meteor strikes was one. So there's a buff there, and Memory of Alar will now extend an existing hypothermia instead of replacing it. Very simple.

Speaker 1:

For Frost, you're getting a little bit of an update, to say the least. Freezing Winds has been redesigned. Now causes Frozen Orbital 15% more damage to units affected by a Blizzard Blizzard damage increased by 100%. That's crazy. That is crazy, crazy. Blizzard increased to a 12-yard radius. Radius was eight. That is even wilder. That is 50 bigger than what it already is and, let's face it, the radius of blizzard is big enough at the moment, so to have it increased to 12 yards is the monumental. Uh. The duration has also been increased to 12 seconds. That's insane. That is absolutely insane. Um, I don't know how to feel about that. I think that's a little bit over the top, genuinely over the top.

Speaker 1:

Um, ice lance empowered by fingers of frost no longer consumes winter's chill. This is a very underrated buff, because winter's chill you obviously put up on the target so that tasks such as frost bolt, glacial spike, anything like that, will crit, and with ice lance, fingers of frost procs, you will automatically crit no matter what, even if there is no winter's chill. So if you're using a winter's chill when you already have a guaranteed critical strike on the target via your fingers of frost, ice lance damage, it's just useless. You wasted one of the charges of the Winter's Chill on the target and it's not fun. I'm really not going to lie. It's not fun. So it makes sense for this to change. Glacial Assault Description has been updated to better communicate its effects. Permafrost lance uh icon has been updated to match the aura icon.

Speaker 1:

Very simple or spell flinger. Consuming fingers of frost or winter's chill now generates a splinter. Was winter's chill. This is very good. This is going to mean that spell slinger does a lot more damage for frost mages. Splintering orbs now generate five splinters, for mages was six small enough. Frost splinter damage reduced by 10. Splinter storm damage reduced by 10. And embedded frost splinter damage reduced by 10. This makes sense because you're going to be getting a lot more splinters, so offsetting the damage a bit is going to sort of balance it out, so it makes sense. That's all the mage changes Overall.

Speaker 1:

I'm yet to see if Frost is any good. I don't think it will be for PvP purposes anyway. Frost mage is genuinely looking scary. Okay, mainly because they fix stuff like the F of frost and the winter's chill, and even the blizzard duration and like size is crazy in PvE and PvP, but I think frost is going to rule the day. To be honest, like looking at this, I think frost is going to be crazy in PvP, but we have yet to see we really, really do. I think Frost is going to be crazy in PvP, but we have yet to see we really, really do, and I think that that's really going to be the one that people will sleep on.

Speaker 1:

Mage is always good, but it's always going to be. You know, will it pop off this season? Will it just be dominant or will it not be? And over the past couple of seasons it really hasn't been. It's been on the cusp, it has really been on the cusp and it just needs something to push it over. So we'll see. Or monk now. Paralysis now breaks based on a small damage threshold. This is again a change meant to be aimed at pvp players. So very, very good, in my honest opinion.

Speaker 1:

Mist weaver we're up. We're making several updates to Mistweaver focused on smoothing out their healing output, on varying target sizes and shifting rotational damage priority to a more intuitive space when players should optimally use each offensive spell should be more obvious. So, new talent, emperor's favor, shayloon's gift healing is increased by 150 percent and its cast time is reduced by a hundred percent, but it only heals a single ally. I tested this on the ptr. This is bonkers. How good it is, okay. So, to put this into context, I have about seven point and let's say, just 7.8 mil health. Okay, we'll go eight. We'll round it up and go eight. Even though I'm pretty sure no one's got eight mil health, we'll go eight. So I tested this out. I got 10 stacks of shayloons, gift all right, 10 of the mist things and I used it with my enveloping mist, which increased healing by 40 from the monk, and then gusser mist which increased it by a further 50. Okay, it hit for 15.4 million healing. Okay, I have eight mil health. It is essentially a lay on hands without a cooldown, apart from, obviously you know you have to build up the charges of it, but that takes around 40 seconds. That would take 40 seconds to charge. It's crazy how good this is. This is going to get nerfed before the patch goes live. In my honest opinion, if it doesn't, pvp monks, I think, will be having a field day with it, genuinely.

Speaker 1:

Dance of the Wind has been redesigned Now reduces physical damage taken by 10%. An additional 10% every four seconds until you receive a physical attack. This is a bit shit, I'm not gonna lie. It is a bit awful, but I suppose if you're gonna get trained, it's 10 every four seconds. It takes off, but yeah, it's not great.

Speaker 1:

Jade empowerment has been redesigned. Increases crackling jade lightning's damage by 2000 to its primary target. Includes four additional enemies at 25 effectiveness. So they reduced the cleave damage but they upped the single target damage. What this means is your Crackling Jade Lightning I tested this as well is doing about 650k damage. A tick on PvP target dummies and I even got like a 950 crit in there. You have kill potential as a monk. Genuinely. You can kill someone from 40% to zero in one crackling jade lightning if you're lucky with crits and stuff. It's crazy. It's going to be amazing. I love it. Please don't change this blizzard.

Speaker 1:

Crackling jade lightning has been so bad for so long. It needed this. It needed something. Um, also, it gives them a casted dps option. It really does. Um, eulon's whisper healing increased by 100. That's crazy. Blackout kick damage increased by 75. That's kind of nuts, I'm not gonna lie. Spinning crane kick damage increased by 30.

Speaker 1:

Jadefire awakening now causes blackout kick to cleave two additional enemies at 20%. Effectiveness was 70%, so this is a massive nerf for their cleave. But I think this is why they are moving towards the like Crackling Shade Lightning and the Spitting Crane Kick damage, because that will offset some of this nerf to that change. Invoke Chi-Chi the Red Crane now causes three gusts of mist per target, was one, but only activates it once per blackout kick. And rushing wing kick cast. Okay, very simple. Shaloon's gift talent location has been moved up to the final talent gate and now connects with Focus T. Okay, very easy. So, all in all, mr weaver I think in this current iteration is going to be crazy next season.

Speaker 1:

Okay, if nothing changes from here on out, mr weaver is the go-to healer, genuinely. It has so much good cleave healing, damage, big cooldowns it has everything. This will be the healer to go to um for windwalker. You knew, have a new talent slicing winds. For those of you that do not know, slicing winds is from plunder storm. So envelop yourself in razor sharp winds, then lunge forward, dealing nature damage to enemies in your path. Damage reduced beyond five target enemies. Increase the lunge's distance. This replaces Flying Serpent Kick Okay. So in my honest opinion, this probably doesn't suit Windwalkers and you probably will not take this genuinely. It will need to do a lot of damage in order to warrant taking it, and I just don't think it will need to do a lot of damage in order to warrant taking it, and I just don't think it will. Um. Mastery combo strikes effectiveness increased by 35 percent um. So they're increasing the value of mastery combo strikes for wind walkers with a goal of pushing it as a stat. So mastery just isn't taken by wind walkers, so they want it to be a optional stat that they really want to push on people so that people can go mastery or sort of haste, which is good, which is good. It's how it should be.

Speaker 1:

Dance of the wind has been redesigned. We've already gone through this one. It reduces the physical damage taken every four seconds, you know all damage done. Reduced by 2%, that's a flat out 2%. Nerf Interesting. Spinning crane kick damage increased by 80%. That's probably why they get a flat damage reduction. Courageous impulse now increased the damage of blackout kick by 350% was 200. Nearly double. That's mad. That's maddening. Um, shadow boxing threat or treads now increase the damage of blackout kick by 10 was 20. Okay, the following talents have been removed darting hurricane mark of the crane under at the celestials. Heart of the jade serpent no longer reduce the cooldown of rising sun kick. And heart of the Jade Serpent now reduces the cooldown of Flying Serpent Kick. So they give you more mobility for that damage. Okay Now I think Monks are a huge winner in this patch as well.

Speaker 1:

I think Monks maybe, along with Hunters. Well, mages as well. Actually, mages are very good. Hunters are going to be on the fence because we don't know about Marksman yet, but I think Monks are going to be up there with some of the. This is the best patch that Monk has ever been. This could honestly be the best patch Mr Weaver Monk has ever been seen in Genuinely from its release. This could be its best ever patch and I am so excited for it. I really want to see monk do well it, because it's such an awkward class to like combo with everything it doesn't really go well with, uh, like a caster cleave, a melee cleave. There it's still, it's decent, don't get me wrong, but but it's very awkward, it just is, and I don't know how else to express that. That's the thing.

Speaker 1:

I think that I love the amount of changes that they're doing. I think that they are needed to be honest with you, they are needed to be a lot of changes for healers and, honestly, some classes in general, like hunters. They needed a little bit of a rework. Same with monks. Um, honestly, they needed a little bit of like just help, because you don't see a lot of high-end mr weaver monks. Uh, even to the point where you don't see windwalker monks. Actually, you don't see a lot of them anyway. So, uh, hopefully this will increase their sort of playability in the higher ranks of pvp. I know that not many of them are seen in pve as well besides, obviously, like trill or something in echo or liquid, sorry. So I think that these are very good and I can't wait to see them actually in action.

Speaker 1:

Um, what I'll do is I'll end it there, because I think I just want to double check what class is next. I'm going to be yeah, okay, yeah, it makes sense to stop here, because we can get the paladins, the P classes paladin and priest out of the way, and then we have a giant Patch for shamans. Honestly, I love how rogue gets like nothing, but we'll be coming over rogue soon. But, yeah, this is where we'll end it for this episode, bit shorter than the last, but the last one was a bit longer, so kind of evens it all out. I guess when we get to shaman it will be another long episode. I'm pretty sure of that. But thank shaman, it will be another long episode, I'm pretty sure of that.

Speaker 1:

But thank you all very much for listening. Do check out all of the socials down below constant stuff happening over there as well as check out the etsy shop constant stuff happening, uh, every week on that shop, more stuff going up every single day, every single week, as much as I can do. Um, there are stuff like frostemorn up there. There's the ashbringer that's been put up there. We have multiple things for D&D, wow related, even something like a small sort of bear form, anything like that. We have the Dark Portal multiple things, all ranging from really big to small items. So please do check out. It'd be really appreciated. But thank you all very much once again and go with Val, a friend. Goodbye all, thank you.