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Cata Fire is mechanically the most enjoyable spec of any caster I've played in basically any game, ever. Numerically it's broken as all fuck by the time you get into Dragon Soul but mechanically it just flows like melted butter.
@@Stuff59042 MoP is the same just even more mechanically broken in a good way, although they "only" have S-tier tuning in MoP, while Warlocks are S+ on all 3 specs.
This, it was the litteral reason (and running with scorch) to switch from warrior to mage back when cata pre patch was launched. Mained mage since then, almost 14 years later i still love fire mage, and this specific version of combustion was hands down the most fun ever!
I’ve thought about making some very long form content regarding this topic specifically. Cataclsyn is my personal favorite class and pve experience till t13 kinda nose dive’s encounters- but cata class design is aces all around. People that love wrath and hate cata that are focused on end game content always confused me. It’s everything wrath had, with more utility, more class flavor, more challenging content, better structured point system, etc. I’ve been eagerly waiting for cata classic since wrath was released and I’m ready to eat as a shaman. Was a mage, shaman, hunter, and priest during cata originally
@@johanbengtsson4679it is 40 sec buff. But yes, I overall agree with the "keep up the buff" playstyle sucks in general. Like, slice n dice and savage roar type of a deal. Why not just give the class more damage rather than a shit buff? BUT ret is fun nonetheless. And it is a great melee dps in cata. From start to finish.
Fire mage was really fun in pvp. If i remember correctly you would fish for the hot streak proc until you have one free pyro that you don't immediately use but instead try to get another hot streak (the one where you need another crit to get an instant pyro) and then you would use time warp. I don't exactly remember the sequencing but you would be able to get like 5 free pyroblasts in a row. A macro was used as well to maje it work smoothly. Makes for some great fun. Edit: nvm i guess this worked in mop
Frost is absolutely viable for PvE because of deep freeze. It does massive damage to bosses. Also the rotation is easy A.F. Frost Bolt until taget is chilled then instant cast ice lance, use Deep Freeze when not on cooldown. Blizzard during AoE pulls
I remember loving Cataclysm Fire spec leveling as one instead of Frost. Combustion was in its most fun form. I never really enjoyed the spec as much after they made Combustion a cooldown window again.
I liked Arcane in BGs too. I never tries RBGs in Cata, but I did play some battlegrounds. Arcane is fun, if people forget you are there, tou can start deleting fools left right and center. it is incredibly squishy thou. that I will freely admit.
One thing I think you didn't mention is how Mage Armor changes. It now gives you 3% mana in regular 5-second ticks at all times, which makes it very powerful and the obvious choice for Arcane. Arcane gameplay has changed quite significantly as well - where WotLK Arcane basically just casts 4 Arcane Blasts into Arcane Missiles for the entire fight (and maybe spams some Blasts if there's mana to waste), Cata Arcane now has two phases: a burn phase and a conserve phase. Burn phase is easy, you stack your Arcane Blast to 4, pop your cooldowns, and keep spamming Arcane Blast until you're at ~30% mana. Then you use Evocation and enter conserve phase, where you use Arcane Blast and Missiles to stay as close to 100% mana as possible but never capping from a Mage Armor tick. You can enter burn phase again when your evocation will come off CD at the right time to use it again, which depends on your gear. I just copied my WotLK mage to the Cata beta and with my current gear (6.3k GS) I can stay in burn phase for about 35 seconds, which is a very long time. So I have to enter burn phase about 35 seconds before Evo comes off CD. Haven't found a usable damage meter yet so I can't really talk about dps, but it feels pretty strong. Might even be competitive for prepatch, but I think Fire will still be better in singletarget, and has an obvious advantage when it comes to AoE.
Ive been shredding the dps charts since prepatch. A huge lead against any other dps. Itll balance out once we start leveling but wow its been fun. ICC 25 some aoe pulls ill run over 200k dps and 30-35k sustained on ST boss fights.
Imagine if Arcane Mages in Cata had their talents in Season of Discovery expanded to improve their healing abilities. You could see some major changes done right quick if the speed of Professional gamers has anything to do with how a class gets nerfed later in the expansion.
I want to play mage again so bad but I already got too many toons. 3s was a blast as fire spec. Ring of frost and smoke bomb into a big combustion fire blast proc was nearly impossible to survive without popping an big invuln cd.
as a hardcore mage player in cata, use mage was absolute blast in cata. i didnt really like frost, but fire and arcane dominated the top dps charts through the entire expantion.
At least in beta, haste is not improving Combustion in any way, what do you think about this, it's now the time when cata firemages run crit/mastery instead of crit/haste?
".. and it looks like someone at Blizz really liked their mage" lol yes Ghostcrawler the lead dev played a mage so they were always on top back in the day. Just a funny thought
Arcane Blast getting that slowing talent isn't exaxtly what makes Arcane Mage a viable leveling spec in Cata. It's them finally, FINALLY getting Arcane Blast before they reach Zangarmarsh. The level Arcane Blast is learned is reduced all the way down from 60+ to the *extremely* early Level 20. Wrath did the same with Shaman's Water Shield, Warrior's Victory Rush, and Hunter's Vioer Aspect.
mana does not give spellpower, int gives spell power along with giving more mana and spell crit. all more mana lets you do is cast more often before going oom, it does not effect the str of your spells.
They bothered me until I made one and then I realised I really like them...especially as Arcane Mages. When the Well of Eternity Dungeon released, I tried to make mine look as close to Queen Azshara as possible
@@Mg95a Yeah it's an old school mentality for sure lol, it didn't help that I stopped seriously playing the game after the end of wrath so I never got used to it
Would be fun if there was a money betting system on how hard Cata will flop. WOTLK has been barren for months on end the moment people cleared ICC once. They should have stopped the Classic trend, but it seems that they haven't learned their lesson yet.
no it sucked. At lv 80 do some raids... get all the way to the DS raid and you will be doing less at 85 in full bis... Classic wow 2 means classic LFR which came out in cata.
@@neilbecker1140Because it’s generally seen as a bad featute and the community don’t want it in Cataclysm Classic? WotLK was notorious for LFD but it wasn’t released until halfway through
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Man, paid add-ons suck. Is a shame that you are promoting this stuff.
Thanks for the videos regardless.
2:11 Int gives spellpower in Cata. Mana does not.
True was just thinking along the lines of more blue bar = more spellpower
there is a reason the company is called "Blizzard" and not "Charge". Mages will never be bad
bfa first 2 seasons
@@nowhale Maybe but I would argue that at least one mage spec has always been at least A tier in PVE at every point in WoW.
i mean it’s one of few pure dps specs, it’s a good bet that at least 1 of the 3 specs is gonna be top tier
that would be warlock@@Crayzyy
I'm gonna play frost/arcane, not like fire 😅
Thank you for the video!
I remember fire Mage mobility was crazy due to being able to scorch while moving 😅
Can't wait to play new (old?) Combustion. Was my fav iteration of Fire ever.
Cata Fire is mechanically the most enjoyable spec of any caster I've played in basically any game, ever. Numerically it's broken as all fuck by the time you get into Dragon Soul but mechanically it just flows like melted butter.
SAME and I’ve been saying this for years lol
@@Stuff59042 MoP is the same just even more mechanically broken in a good way, although they "only" have S-tier tuning in MoP, while Warlocks are S+ on all 3 specs.
This, it was the litteral reason (and running with scorch) to switch from warrior to mage back when cata pre patch was launched. Mained mage since then, almost 14 years later i still love fire mage, and this specific version of combustion was hands down the most fun ever!
@@Melodeath00did you ever play scorch weaving mage in MoP? Was pretty godmode tbh
If memory serves me right, Cata was the xpac that made me switch from frost to fire as main spec. I'm looking forward to it.
cata had the best versions of almost every class.
Cata and MoP were when Blizzard really cooked with the classes.
I’ve thought about making some very long form content regarding this topic specifically. Cataclsyn is my personal favorite class and pve experience till t13 kinda nose dive’s encounters- but cata class design is aces all around. People that love wrath and hate cata that are focused on end game content always confused me. It’s everything wrath had, with more utility, more class flavor, more challenging content, better structured point system, etc. I’ve been eagerly waiting for cata classic since wrath was released and I’m ready to eat as a shaman. Was a mage, shaman, hunter, and priest during cata originally
Not paladin. The damn short dmg buff for ret sucked
@@johanbengtsson4679 who cares about retardins lol
@@johanbengtsson4679it is 40 sec buff. But yes, I overall agree with the "keep up the buff" playstyle sucks in general. Like, slice n dice and savage roar type of a deal. Why not just give the class more damage rather than a shit buff?
BUT ret is fun nonetheless. And it is a great melee dps in cata. From start to finish.
Fire mage was really fun in pvp. If i remember correctly you would fish for the hot streak proc until you have one free pyro that you don't immediately use but instead try to get another hot streak (the one where you need another crit to get an instant pyro) and then you would use time warp. I don't exactly remember the sequencing but you would be able to get like 5 free pyroblasts in a row. A macro was used as well to maje it work smoothly. Makes for some great fun.
Edit: nvm i guess this worked in mop
why did you highlight the spine of deathwing stacking INT trinket when talking about the haste buff from the tier?
Arcane Blast stacks no longer increase the damage of Arcane Barrage or Arcane Missiles. A weird change I didn't remember.
Did you know how much crit for 1%critchance ?
Frost is absolutely viable for PvE because of deep freeze. It does massive damage to bosses. Also the rotation is easy A.F. Frost Bolt until taget is chilled then instant cast ice lance, use Deep Freeze when not on cooldown. Blizzard during AoE pulls
I remember loving Cataclysm Fire spec leveling as one instead of Frost. Combustion was in its most fun form. I never really enjoyed the spec as much after they made Combustion a cooldown window again.
I liked Arcane in BGs too. I never tries RBGs in Cata, but I did play some battlegrounds.
Arcane is fun, if people forget you are there, tou can start deleting fools left right and center.
it is incredibly squishy thou. that I will freely admit.
Fav glass cannon
Lvling mine on wrath as we speak for cata
Fireball have lower casttime anf 40yard range buff or not?
One thing I think you didn't mention is how Mage Armor changes. It now gives you 3% mana in regular 5-second ticks at all times, which makes it very powerful and the obvious choice for Arcane.
Arcane gameplay has changed quite significantly as well - where WotLK Arcane basically just casts 4 Arcane Blasts into Arcane Missiles for the entire fight (and maybe spams some Blasts if there's mana to waste), Cata Arcane now has two phases: a burn phase and a conserve phase. Burn phase is easy, you stack your Arcane Blast to 4, pop your cooldowns, and keep spamming Arcane Blast until you're at ~30% mana. Then you use Evocation and enter conserve phase, where you use Arcane Blast and Missiles to stay as close to 100% mana as possible but never capping from a Mage Armor tick. You can enter burn phase again when your evocation will come off CD at the right time to use it again, which depends on your gear.
I just copied my WotLK mage to the Cata beta and with my current gear (6.3k GS) I can stay in burn phase for about 35 seconds, which is a very long time. So I have to enter burn phase about 35 seconds before Evo comes off CD.
Haven't found a usable damage meter yet so I can't really talk about dps, but it feels pretty strong. Might even be competitive for prepatch, but I think Fire will still be better in singletarget, and has an obvious advantage when it comes to AoE.
Very insightful comment 👍 for a functional damage meter, you can use wotlk/retail version of Skada, you'll have to download it manually tho
i remember arcane being the most insane dps on my server
SO HYPE FOR THESE VIDEOS! LETS GO!!!! I look forward to these more than the actual expansion, they help sooo much thank you @WillE
we need a legendary spec tier list!
Ive been shredding the dps charts since prepatch. A huge lead against any other dps. Itll balance out once we start leveling but wow its been fun. ICC 25 some aoe pulls ill run over 200k dps and 30-35k sustained on ST boss fights.
17:46 Mins and Seconds just to say yes. Mage always the best :D
Mages have recently become my new favorite class.. I enjoy being a pet less hunter.
@Wille 🎉great video. I wish we have them more often
Should i choose mage which i have heirlooms for or hunter in cata
That's a super hard choice because both are good AF and so fun to play. I'll personally have both to 85.
Mage for sur
Both are great
@afscrew123 only 1 bro I'm playing a shaman and ditching my 80 druid
hunter will delete most mages in pvp fwiw
Anyone remember the add on bar that told you when / what to cast for arcane 😅
if i recall correctly fireblast always spreads combustion dots. it had nothing to do with rng.
So we play fire or arcane in the first tier.? Fire feels strange on the beta at the moment
How much crit is 1% cc?
Can't wait for you to cover the rogue guide 😁 keep up the good work
Imagine if Arcane Mages in Cata had their talents in Season of Discovery expanded to improve their healing abilities. You could see some major changes done right quick if the speed of Professional gamers has anything to do with how a class gets nerfed later in the expansion.
I want to play mage again so bad but I already got too many toons. 3s was a blast as fire spec. Ring of frost and smoke bomb into a big combustion fire blast proc was nearly impossible to survive without popping an big invuln cd.
when will the paladin video coming?
as a hardcore mage player in cata, use mage was absolute blast in cata. i didnt really like frost, but fire and arcane dominated the top dps charts through the entire expantion.
to be more clear if you use arcane explosion you still lose the buff after 4 seconds or whatever , it does not refresh it
At least in beta, haste is not improving Combustion in any way, what do you think about this, it's now the time when cata firemages run crit/mastery instead of crit/haste?
Doesnt make sense, if u remove haste u cast too slow, no hot streaks, no ignites, mastery is shit
Just got my beta invite let’s go!
World of Magecraft! 🧙♂️🕳️
".. and it looks like someone at Blizz really liked their mage" lol yes Ghostcrawler the lead dev played a mage so they were always on top back in the day. Just a funny thought
I'll be Arcane Mage at the start and then I'll be in my off-spec of Fire by early mid.
Pre Raid frost mage is actually the best mage in pve imho
Arcane Blast getting that slowing talent isn't exaxtly what makes Arcane Mage a viable leveling spec in Cata. It's them finally, FINALLY getting Arcane Blast before they reach Zangarmarsh. The level Arcane Blast is learned is reduced all the way down from 60+ to the *extremely* early Level 20. Wrath did the same with Shaman's Water Shield, Warrior's Victory Rush, and Hunter's Vioer Aspect.
mana does not give spellpower, int gives spell power along with giving more mana and spell crit. all more mana lets you do is cast more often before going oom, it does not effect the str of your spells.
I played a raiding frost mage in cata and you are sleeping on it
I'm a shimmy lover but dann.😊
Okay but fire mage in cata makes perfect sense..
Please do warlock next
Worgen mage here I come ❤
goofy-ass casting animation let's goooooo
1 word, Combustion
I seem to recall frost being viable in pve
Day 17 waiting for Paladin. We will get there soon boys
frost pve where?
I dont know why - maybe because it's rooted in lore or it just looks off but night elf mages always bothered me lol
They bothered me until I made one and then I realised I really like them...especially as Arcane Mages. When the Well of Eternity Dungeon released, I tried to make mine look as close to Queen Azshara as possible
@@Mg95a Yeah it's an old school mentality for sure lol, it didn't help that I stopped seriously playing the game after the end of wrath so I never got used to it
Still waiting for warrior and DK :D
warrior all day
*speaks about pvp in cata classic* good joke :''D all the fuckers are in all their mega servers. Match making should be cross server.
Mage
Yes
It was so good... Some call it fap material?
If mages can heal in cata I’ll play it 100%
Why would they heal?
Lol what a dumb comment
@@LittleLoz Season of Discovery has healer mages, but of course they're not going to add that to existing expansions
honestly ready for cata to drop and the playerbase not care at all because sod is carrying the IP
why not talk about arcane in pvp? I am an arcane mage and destroy most people in pvp
550g for a guild sig today.... i really hope they ban GDKP for Cata..... pls Blizzard listen to this!!! Or just do a server reset for gold.
GDKP all day
Do you realize GDKP is not a problem, but bots who make the gold?
Gdkp's are a cancer
Blizz, please ban anyone who doesn’t play the way I want them to.
I dunno why, but “Worgen Mage” just doesn’t seem right to me 🤷♂️
Mages (and hunters) are already played by the biggest mouth breathers, them being even better has me worried
It's just a game.
Stop taking wow so seriously 😂
Would be fun if there was a money betting system on how hard Cata will flop.
WOTLK has been barren for months on end the moment people cleared ICC once.
They should have stopped the Classic trend, but it seems that they haven't learned their lesson yet.
You are aware SOD exists?
@@LittleLoz Yeah, and I'm talking about Cata. Not SOD
Wouldn't suprise me if Cata had more staying power due to the sped up pacing.
no it sucked. At lv 80 do some raids... get all the way to the DS raid and you will be doing less at 85 in full bis... Classic wow 2 means classic LFR which came out in cata.
Who cares when you are in a raiding guild you will see all content before the even put lfr in and you don't even know if they will bring it back.
Yeah, that's false. You'll be doing more dps in cata.
@@fxr.markus why would they not bring it bac? Its what wow 2 was known for
@@neilbecker1140Because it’s generally seen as a bad featute and the community don’t want it in Cataclysm Classic? WotLK was notorious for LFD but it wasn’t released until halfway through
@@Pyrro5 cata as a whole was a bad feature. I see your point. They should not do cata classic by your reasoning
It's a shame they're horrendously boring to play
The problem is Cata was not good so the rest is a moot point.
Mage isn't viable in t11 in 10m. Everything else, it is fine.